MANDALA
Humera’s healing touch
While the world is still struggling to find a cure for Parkinson’s disease, alternative therapies have shown a lot of potential to mitigate its symptoms and ease the life of patients. Humera Siddiqua, a certified acupressure and magneto therapy expert from Bangalore, was able to bring relief to Mr Mohan Das, 68, a retired officer from HMT, who suffered from Parkinson’s. He was on allopathic treatment for nine years, but it could not help him. He and his wife Savitri were led to Humera by a common friend, and within a month of being treated by her, his incontinence improved. A few months later, he could take care of himself, something which was not possible earlier.
Humera Siddiqua’s journey with acupressure and magnets began when she was diagnosed with a slipped disc and a bone spur in her foot a few years back. Countless visits to different orthopaedists, and bouts of steroids later, her issues were no closer to being resolved. As a last resort, she was advised to undergo surgery, which would compel her to take complete bed rest for six months. Just before her surgery, someone suggested she give acupressure a try, to which she agreed. JP Agarwal and MK Khemka of Acupressure Shodh Prashikshan Evam Upchar Sansthan (ASPEUS), Allahabad, treated her and were able to rid her of the pain she had been suffering for years. Once she recovered, she decided to learn and educate herself about acupressure and magnets.
She acquired a diploma and a bachelor’s degree, followed by a postgraduate degree in acupressure from ASPEUS. She is involved in various research projects and has also written papers specialising in female reproductive health and infertility, diabetes, and mental health.
She has successfully treated thousands of patients over the last decade, conducted various awareness programmes to educate the masses about acupressure, and also offers pro-bono services to those in need. Her work has garnered her accolades from her alma mater and various other organisations.
She is also a certified yoga instructor in Therapeutic Yoga from Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (S-VYASA). This, along with her qualification as a therapeutic dietician and nutritionist, has enabled her to adopt a holistic approach to her patients’ ailments and illnesses. Her history as a patient with chronic pain and her educational pedigree, combined with her experience of over a decade, make her a humane and empathetic healer.
No time to take stress
Most people don’t see the connection between managing time and managing stress. But those who do, know the real freedom of doing things one wants to do stress-free, which happens once you learn to manage your time. Whether you are a college student, a housewife, or a corporate professional, we all have plenty of tasks on our to-do list but limited time to accomplish them. “We all are under constant stress and anxiety caused by limited time, where we have to squeeze in plenty of work,” says Ajay Prakash Mishra, who is a life coach and has developed techniques whereby he helps people deal with stress and anxiety with better time management.
He explains that most of our time mismanagement is just the by-product of our negative patterns or bad habits that we have developed over the years. So, the first thing he does is the tracking of stressors—things that cause stress. He uses a ‘failure pre-mortem technique’ wherein something might occur in the future but you evaluate it in the present. For this, he asks you to imagine the goal you want to accomplish in the next 30 days or five years, but in the end, you fail to achieve it. Now, you have to find out what could have gone wrong with the external and internal way of working. You keep finding the outer circumstances that were not in your control and things that were in your control. While working on this, you start to identify the problem areas to fix.
Once one identifies these patterns and circumstances, he gives them tools that can be used to fix the time-wasters or negative patterns. The first one is to reduce the exposure to the external stimuli that is causing the negative pattern to continue. The external situations, at times, also create one’s internal patterns that form the limiting habit. For example, you can reduce the tea or smoke break while working. Reducing the exposure will help reduce the intensity of the pattern dramatically.
The second method is that you see the pattern in action, see it coming, or feel it, but don’t get consumed by it. It needs determination to stay with it, but in the end, it frees you. Ajay explains, “In the movie Udata Punjab, when Alia Bhatt decides to come out of addiction, she bears the pain the whole night and never gives in to the urge, and by morning, she comes out a winner.”
Another method is to find out the parallel activity. Any bad habit or pattern or addiction gives a kick or pleasure, and so the person continues indulging in it over and over. To break this, one needs to find out another similar activity that might give the person a similar thrill. Ajay says, “For college students, watching porn is the biggest time-waster habit. Now, I can’t ask them to read books; that won’t count. Instead, I ask them to start watching some show on Netflix that will give them satisfaction, some adrenaline rush.”
Ajay concludes, “I realised that most people are not tapping into their potential. I decode their frame of mind and reprogram their mindset where they can live a fulfilling, purpose-driven life. 80 per cent of the people implementing the system have achieved their predefined goals in four weeks.”
Remembering a true saviour: COVID claims beloved doctor
We have lost a million lives in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This deadly virus has sucked the lives of many—from commoners to frontline workers—into its vicious black hole. One of them was a beautiful soul, Dr KK Aggarwal, an eminent cardiologist and a Padma Shree awardee, who succumbed to the virus on May 17, 2021, after battling it for several weeks at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
The 62-year-old, who was also the head of the Heart Care Foundation of India (HCFI) and the former president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), was a patient’s friend, more than a doctor, whose prime concern (till the very end) was the lives of his patients. Over the past year, Dr Aggarwal’s popularity grew as he frequently posted videos related to COVID-19 on social media platforms, educating millions on how to tackle the virus and held talks on various aspects of the disease and its management. “He wanted his life to be celebrated and not mourned,” the official statement on his Twitter handle said.
Dr KK Aggarwal was also associated with Life Positive as he had contributed towards the growth of the foundation in the early years of the magazine’s publication. His wisdom can be reflected in the following lines excerpted from an article, Colour Conscious, published in LP many years ago: “The so-called therapeutic effect of colours is largely psychological. It can’t be proven empirically. But then, perhaps, this system needs no proof.” Unconventional words indeed from a man of medicine. For, at the end of the day, some questions may not need a so-called rational answer.
Dr KK Aggarwal was truly a pure soul who saved countless lives during the pandemic and was loved by one and all. In one of his last educational videos about COVID, he remarked on Rajesh Khanna’s and Raj Kapoor’s famous lines from the movies Anand and Mera Naam Joker, respectively: “Picture abhi baaki hai, mere dost (The movie continues)” and “The show must go on,” thus emphasising the very essence of our existence and ending the show with dignity and love while touching a million lives. Life Positive bids him a teary farewell.