Today on Maui: The Rockstar of Wellness Talks Cancer, Happiness, Sleep & FOMO
Just like you never forget the first time you saw your favorite band or singer live in concert, I know I will never forget what it’s like sitting a few hundred feet from my favorite author/speaker (on just about everything) Deepak Chopra. Back in the day, listening to James Taylor tapes was fine but once I saw him live and in person, it all became so much more real.
I’ve been having a similar experience here on Maui this week with Deepak. The man mesmerizes me (and everyone else in the audience) as soon as he starts talking. Some of what he says — such as “ where do thoughts come from?”, and “are we aware?” — kind of goes over my head, but so much of it makes so much sense. Yesterday, one of the meditation teachers referred to Deepak as “The Mick Jagger of Wellness” and I thought, yeah, that’s pretty much spot on. I actually did get lucky enough to see Mick perform live at Syracuse U when I was in college, and that too was a memorable experience. You know you’ve evolved when you would choose to attend a Deepak Chopra speech over a Stones concert anyday now!
I really became a student and subsequently a devotee of Deepak’s two years ago. Prior to my mom dying in early 2014, I had heard of his books and knew about his work, but never paid it all much attention. I started reading his books (The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, The Path to Love, The Soul of Leadership, The Ultimate Happiness Prescription to name a few) and listening to his online meditations and slowly got hooked. When I saw that Deepak himself was leading a retreat at San Diego’s La Costa Resort over my birthday week last November, I opted to sign up. That decision was life changing on many levels, including spurring me to sign up for a second similar retreat with him, being held here now on Maui (my favorite place on the planet).
To say this week has already been life changing would be premature as it’s only Day 2 of the week-long retreat, but I know without a doubt it will be. There’s nothing like sitting through a meditation led by the guru himself in the same fashion that hearing James Taylor on the radio is nothing like being front and center at a live performance. I feel like it’s my mission to spread the “Deepak Chopra” gospel to anyone who will listen, and share what I am learning about life, love, joy, peace, health and mindfulness. When we meditate on the four questions (Who am I? What do I want? What is my purpose? What am I grateful for?), I am often drawn to believe that “inspiring others” is part of my bigger purpose. It’s way too soon to know exactly what I will do with all that I learn from Deepak but I can start right here by sharing a few gems of goodness with anyone reading my daily posts.
For starters, he blew me away with his theory on cancer and today’s treatment of patients with most forms of cancer. Having lost both of my parents to long battles way too young in their 60s, this topic struck a chord with me (and clearly many others in the room). A staunch believer in the use of Ayurvedic philosophies and holistic treatment methods, Deepak explained that cancer is the loss of the memory of wholeness (meaning the cancer cells lose their ability to be whole and thus destroy the body). He likened treating cancer cells with chemotherapy and radiation to throwing bombs at terrorists attending a wedding, in that the bad guys get killed but at the expense of the innocent good guys (in this case, healthy cells or other wedding attendees). He went on to say that as treatment continues, the cancer cells basically recruit the normal cells to join them, requiring even more treatment and most of the time, leading to the death of the entire system. I saw this happen front and center with both my mom and dad. Both underwent harsh treatment and while it worked for a while (meaning it extended their time here on earth), their quality of life declined to the point that their bodies eventually gave up and checked out. Deepak did make a point to say that targeted and selective doses of chemo can be effective for certain forms of cancer, and when given during a body’s calmest state (not when the body is stressed, tired, inflamed, or weak). As a medical doctor/scientist, he goes on record to say the body’s calmest state can be achieved through an Ayurvedic prescription of sleep, meditation, yoga/breathing, the proper nutrition and the elimination of toxins (both environmental and dietary). Since cancer cells don’t rest, it is up to the person with the cancer cells to calm the body down into a state that will better respond to targeted or holistic methods of treatment.
Deepak didn’t shy away from adding his true thoughts on why there are so few clinics going with a more holistic (and increasingly proven) approach. “The current system is filled with chemotherapists and oncologists who only get paid if they use chemotherapy, whether it works or not this is how they get paid and that’s very unfortunate. They can kill the terrorist (cancer) cells but they can’t kill off the ideology. We need to eliminate the soil for cancer cells which is inflammation and when we do that, we will be making progress towards eliminating cancer’s root cause.”
WOW, right? That’s a lot to take in on a Sunday afternoon. My mouth was wide open listening to all of this and thinking how I might have insisted we go the holistic route with one or both parent (doubtful since they likely would not have been open to it). What’s most interesting to me is hearing Deepak’s belief that “We are not our genes, we are how we use our genes.” He does believe that the longterm future scenario with cancer will be centered around lifestyle and prevention. I know that I live an extremely different (and healthier) lifestyle than my parents and that just because they had cancer it doesn’t indicate my fate. Everything I am learning from Deepak on the importance of sleep (eight hours), proper nutrition and the absolute need to shut your brain down and meditate (twice daily) gives me so much hope for a joy-filled and heathy future.
A woman in the audience asked Deepak how he can find the time to meditate for hours and also go to bed early (as he famously gets eight hours minimum sleep per night). She said she’s a victim of FOMO (fear of missing out) especially when traveling, making it hard for her to commit to such a wellness strategy like his. His answer had the audience in hysterics. He said, without skipping a beat: “I used to think it was okay to only get five hours of sleep per night as I meditated for a few hours each day and I felt great, but then I read so much about the benefits of getting eight hours of sleep that I thought ‘maybe I’m missing out on what sleep actually offers’! If I don’t get enough sleep, I’ll have FOMO on that!”
On a similar but different note, Deepak spent extra time on stage answering questions from the audience to fill the 90 minutes of time left open when “Happiness” expert/author/speaker Shawn Anchor had to cancel last minute due to an unexpected flight cancellation. He again had the audience in stitches when he said, “Well, now we are going to practice the ‘law of detachment’ since this outcome is out of our control and I know many of you were really looking forward to hearing Shawn. However, I can probably give a decent talk about happiness by now.”
Those of us who’ve read Deepak’s book The Ultimate Happiness Prescription know exactly what he’s talking about it as happiness is the ultimate goal. Not much else matters in life if you’re not enjoying yourself. If you’ve not yet read it, make it your next beach or airplane book (or download the audio version to listen to in the car!). One last Deepak-ism for the day: “You’ll feel happier if you hang out with happy people than miserable people.”
