Good Evening, Namaste, suswagatam everyone! Welcome to first ever SheSpeaks online.
Hope you all agree with me that good health is not just physical. It requires an alignment of a healthy mind, body and spirit. This is what truly defines our happiness which in turn leads to healthy interpersonal relationships and eventually paves the path for a successful life.
Covid is a unique disaster for mankind in ways more than one. It caught the governments and people napping and completely unaware of what was coming or was to be expected.
This unprecedented experience caused due to extended lockdowns has led to many new dimensions and questions at individual, national and interpersonal level. Some families have experienced joys of togetherness like never before but for most women it was a horror story unfolding, what with a 60% increase in domestic violence and abuse reported from all parts of the world as many reports have suggested. The beast in us has again proven that it is the hapless, vulnerable women, children and the poor who have paid the highest price at the altar of national lockdowns in a bid to keep the Corona virus away.
It has prompted me to organise this discussion on health & Spirituality.
For I believe a healthy mind is a spiritual mind and would never resort to violence under any circumstances. As we all stagger to invent or acquire cures to do away with Corona from our lives, we may have to spend considerable amount of time holed up in our homes. How we are going to spend this time is a choice we have to make. As men will we vitiate this time by venting out our frustrations on women and children or will we shape this time as golden memories when we bonded well with our dear ones, by extending a helping hand in domestic chores. Maybe it’s a golden opportunity for men to learn cooking, washing and caring. Maybe it could be a time when many women will break glass ceilings with their innovativeness and when many men could break gender stereotypes and thus pave the way for a healthy home environment.
Time and again all the religions have laid stress on the role of a healthy mind, body and spirit in the pursuit of eternal happiness.
There are several treatise, articles and epics that have laid stress on their mutual interdependence. In non- dualism stream of Indian philosophy they are even seen as one.
In its first ever edition of SheSpeaks online, we invite you to a riveting and engaging discussion on Health and Spirituality.
The discussion is more relevant now than ever as we all struggle to chase Corona away from our lives.
Spirituality is an essential element of humanity. It encompasses individuals’ search for meaning and purpose; it includes connectedness to others, self, nature, and the significant or sacred; and it embraces secular and philosophical, as well as religious and cultural, beliefs and practices.1 Spirituality has been foundational in health care for centuries but became overshadowed by early 20th-century technological advances in diagnosis and treatment. Though these advances were dramatic and resulted in countless lives saved, the scientific focus moved the culture of medicine away from a holistic, service-oriented model to a technological, reductionist and profit optimization model.
We are honoured to have some extremely distinguished speakers amongst us.
We have 5 distinguished speakers with us today. And I shall introduce them to you as we proceed before handing over the mic to each of them. I have divided the session into 2 rounds. In round 1, As I introduce them, I will give them 5 mins each for their free-flowing thoughts. Round 2 is Q&A. I have a specific question for each one of them to be answered in 2 mins. Other participants can DM me their questions with the name of the guest they want the question addressed to.
