How to Overcome the Fear of Death–Two Possibilities

 

By Deepak Chopra, MD

 

Photo Mar 31, 5 16 33 PM

The fear of death always comes at or near the top of people’s worst fears. Some psychologists believe that this is such a potent fear, we push it down into the subconscious in order to avoid it. Yet from its hiding place the fear remains active, re-emerging in times like the death of a loved one, making grief even more painful and anxious. Avoiding the fear of death clearly isn’t the best tactic. One reason that Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’s famous five stages of dying became so popular is that she gave us a rational framework for handling a once-taboo subject.

 

Rationality is one of the two ways a person can overcome their own personal fear of death. The starting point for most rationalists, particularly scientists, is to assume in the absence of data from the afterlife that our consciousness is extinguished at the moment of death. In a short video on the subject of “What happens after we die?” physicist Brian Greene takes the position, when you’re gone, you’re gone.

 

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Your vote counts for the Aspen Award

Please support Jiyo by voting for  this project that will bring wellbeing to the Afghan community:

http://award.aspenideas.org/a/dtd/Transforming-Personal-Societal-Wellbeing-Healing-Afghanistan/118956-35325

60% of Afghans suffer from stress and mental heath disorders caused by witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event. There are only two psychiatrists treating ~30 million Afghans. I am proposing to deploy a wellbeing platform via the mobile phone to bring global experts to collaborate with Afghan community.

 

100% of the Award will be given to The Chopra  Foundation and  Amanuddin Foundation.

How to Be at Peace When the World Isn’t

By Deepak Chopra, MD

Peace Harmony love

We seem to be living out the Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.” The curse is probably mythical, but our interesting times contain much turbulence. The horrific refugee situation in Syria, the rise of the even more horrific ISIS movement, not to mention Ukraine and news of natural disasters that never ends–from media reports you might think the humanity is unraveling and the planet with it.

 

But in the face of chaos, some facts remain constant and stable:

 

To advance the cause of peace, you must be at peace.

The wars around the world reflect a war in human nature.

No dispute is ever settled unless both sides achieve a level of mutual satisfaction.

 

When politics comes down to rigidly opposing views, such as one side wanting armed intervention in the Middle East while the other side wants to stay out, all of these facts are being ignored. That’s why the Iraq War ended in chaos, because the issues were never resolved so that all sides achieved mutual satisfaction, and why grudges that simmered for centuries suddenly erupt today.

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Gratitude Journal May Enhance Health in Cardiac Patients: I Am Grateful for….

Published in the Huffington Post: Gratitude

 

“Effects of Gratitude Journaling on Heart Rate Variability and Inflammatory Biomarkers

in Asymptomatic Heart Failure Patients”

By Paul Mills, PhD, Kathleen Wilson MS, Meredith A. Pung PhD, Kelly Chinh BS, Brook Henry PhD, J. Christopher Wells BS, Alex Wood PhD, Shamini Jain PhD, Barry Greenberg MD, Alan Maisel MD, Ottar Lunde MD, Deepak Chopra MD, Laura Redwine PhD

Departments of Family Medicine and Public Health, Psychiatry, and Medicine, UC San Diego, La Jolla, CA

Department of Behavioral Science, University of Stirling, Stirling Scotland

o-POSTER-570

 

For the last decade or so, the field of behavioral cardiology has shifted its focus from being primarily on psychological traits such as hostility, stress, and depression to more positive psychological attributes such as gratitude, compassion, and empathy. In individuals with heart failure, gratitude has been identified as an important resource for alleviating the struggles associated with symptoms. In a recent cross-sectional study on over 180 asymptomatic heart failure patients, we reported that more gratitude was associated with less depression, better sleep, and less peripheral inflammation.  In this new study, to be presented at the University of California, San Diego Institute for Public Health’s Annual Public Health Research Day (to be held April 9, 2015), we report on the results of a randomized clinical trial where patients were randomized to either 8-weeks of gratitude journaling plus their usual care or 8-weeks usual care alone. Journaling was used as a way to cultivate gratitude. We found that patients who journaled about gratitude had increased heart rate variability (a measure of reduced cardiac risk) as well as reduced circulating levels of inflammatory biomarkers IL-6 and sTNFr1, which are associated with cardiovascular disease. Gratitude journaling is a low-cost and easily implementable intervention that may have significant beneficial effects to enhance health in cardiac patients. ​

Remember Me – Support Cure Alzheimer's Fund Research

“The Voice” and the Neuroscientist Team Up to Fight Alzheimer’s.  After meeting in a television studio this unlikely pair has teamed up with Cure Alzheimer’s Fund for a worthy cause: Campaign Remember Me.  Proceeds from sales of the song and direct donations will support innovative research into the causes of the disease and the development of effective therapies to stop it. Because Cure Alzheimer’s Fund’s Board of Directors funds all the organization’s expense, every penny of every contribution goes directly to research.

 

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