Thank you, that’d be very relaxing, wouldn’t it, which leads me into our next segment. It probably comes as no surprise to learn that 9 out of 10 Aussies are a little stressed out at work. Work as it is a main cause, a lifeline study has found the worst job for stress is driving public transport, police, ambulance offices and welfare workers aren’t far behind. It’s not good news for employees or employers. Workplace stress costs 15 billion dollars every year in lost productivity but according to research by Sydney Uni, meditation could be the answer. Doctor Ramesh Manocha has more. Good morning, nice to see you.
Dr Manocha: Good morning, likewise.
Interviewer: So, meditation being the answer, obviously, well obviously, it works if it’s found out. What’s your view on it?
Dr Manocha: We’ve conducted probably one of the most thoroughly designed scientific studies ever done on meditation and found that just six to eight weeks of a technique called Sahaja yoga is able to bring about substantial reductions in stress and improvements in mood, just with 10 maybe 20 minutes a day and cost nothing to learn, it’s highly effective.
Interviewer: Is it something that’s easy and accessible because if you’re talking some of these workers who are very stressed and very busy, I kind of assume they’re not the ones that are going to pack up and go to a yoga class and take an hour and a half out of their day, are they? Because they can do it at work?
Dr Manocha: Very true. We’ve tested it out in the workplace and also after work on Australian workers with very substantial effects.
Interviewer: Tell us how you do it. I’ve never meditated. Is it difficult?
Dr Manocha: It’s very easy. We can go through it now in just 90 seconds. So, we sit quietly with our hands on our lap, palm up. Just understanding that there’s an energy of meditation within us and we don’t have to do any meditation effort, we just have to allow the experience to occur. We put our right hand on our tummy on the left side, just below the ribs and here we direct these affirmations to that energy. We just say here a few times, “I am my own master” or “I am my own teacher”. Then we move our hand up to our heart. We just say here a few times, “I am the spirit”, and then we take a hand up to where the left shoulder meets the neck and here we just relieve that tension by saying, “I am not guilty” and then we take the right hand right across the forehead, grasping the temples and relieve the tension here by saying, “I forgive everyone and everything”. Then finally, center of the palm on that fontanel area which is a soft spot on the top of the head, just focusing our attention gently on the top of the head here and we ask that energy of meditation within us, “Please, give me the experience of mental stillness or mental silence”, and then we raise our right hand up five or six centimeters allowing our tension to gently flow up into that cool calm silent space above the head and here we just sit quietly for a little while, enjoy the silence of the present moment for a little while. You can follow that up and learn all of that free of charge on www.freemeditation.com.au
Interviewer: Is it something that comes naturally or do you have to practice over? Does it take time?
Dr Manocha: It’s very natural, it’s very easy. In fact, we’ve taught five-year-old children, we’ve taught sixty five-year-old grandmothers. It’s very simple to learn, each person takes a different amount of time but often, straightaway, some people a few weeks of practice.
Interviewer: Okay, fantastic, thank you. What we’ll do too is, I think we’ll put a link on our website in case anybody didn’t catch it all but we appreciate it. Nice to see you, Ramesh.
Dr Manocha: Pleasure, likewise.