Wembley, London ( UK ): An “Emotional Wellbeing” event was organized by the Central and North West London NHS (National Health Service) Foundation Trust in collaboration with and hosted by Inner Space, Wembley. There were more than 75 present. It included powerpoint presentations from two NHS Talking Therapy CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) practitioners in Brent: Ozkan Gedik and Priya Rajendran, who explained their work and how this supports people with mental health issues. The evening also included some spiritual insights on the theme of how to achieve emotional wellbeing by European Director of the Brahma Kumaris, Sister Jayanti.
The panel discussion was facilitated by Ketan Sheth, Councillor for Tokyngton, Wembley Hill & Wembley Park in Brent, and Chair of Brent Council’s Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee.
BK Daxa Shah, Co-ordinator of Inner Space, Wembley, welcomed everyone to this High Road branch of the Brahma Kumaris, UK, a place that has been serving the local multicultural population for over 23 years by teaching Raj Yoga meditation as a way to experience inner peace and develop a positive approach to life.
BK Daxa welcomed The Mayor of Brent, Cllr Ernest Ezeakughi, and everyone present to an evening on this relevant aspect of our lives, emotional wellbeing.
The Mayor Cllr Ernest Ezeakughi mentioned that this subject is a dominating discussion in our media and amongst families as we live in this fast-paced and technological culture, in which there is little time to ‘stop and relax’. He proudly reminded everyone that Brent’s population is made up of over 335,000 people from many cultures, religions and ethnicities, with over 149 languages spoken in its schools. ‘Despite the diversity, as a councilor and Mayor what I see is unity’. Yet he also recognized we need to give ourselves time to think about our spiritual and emotional wellbeing.
A lawyer by profession, who also sits on a number of public bodies, including as Lead Governor of the CNWL NHS Foundation Trust, Ketan Sheth facilitated and introduced the panel. In his introduction he reminded everyone that next year, 2020, Brent will be the London Borough of Culture. He asked the question ….. are Brent’s people happy? He mentioned that the challenges of experiencing good emotional health are different at different stages of life and can be affected by what we do. In Brent ‘we are promoting what we can do to feel good at any stage of our life. Be active, take notice, keep learning and give …. These are simple steps but they can profoundly affect our wellbeing.’
Ozkan Gedik, senior high Intensity CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) Therapist, with great enthusiasm, led everyone through a presentation to understand the roots of anxiety and how, ‘although it can be a useful feeling, it can cause distress when excessive, and get in the way of normal everyday tasks, and prevent us from doing what we would like to do’. He explained the vicious cycle of anxiety and suggested some relaxation techniques, including: controlled breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, visualizing a peaceful scene or image, meditation, yoga or gentle exercise, calming music. For the vicious cycle of depression, which can also interfere with someone’s life significantly, his work supports by setting up activity schedules, even if the feeling to do is not there. He emphasized that this is the way to reverse the cycle, and to not let ‘low mood’ dictate what we do …. to do it anyway, and the motivation will follow. He also noted that ‘a balanced life requires the routines, the necessary, and the pleasurable’.
Priya Rajendran, CBT therapist, working in the community promoting Talking Therapies across Brent, then spoke about IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Programme) and mentioned that in the past year over one million people have accessed the IAPT services. She also noted how Brent Talking Therapies Service offer a range of support, some of which can be accessed online, over the phone for direct self referral or through a general practitioner. Priya gave an understanding of CBT… ‘what we think and do affects the way we feel’… and CBT (Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy) helps people to change their thoughts and behaviours to feel better. She mentioned that counselling is a talking therapy that is reflective and helps to adjust to life changes.
BK Sister Jayanti has over 50 years meditation experience and is an author and highly respected international speaker, touching the hearts of many around the world with her profound insights on spiritual solutions to everyday problems. She plays a lead role in the Brahma Kumaris Environmental Initiative and assists the overall co-ordination of BK activities in over 100 countries.
Below are some points from her sharing:
• 99% CBT fits in with our thinking of spirituality. The central point I took from these interesting presentations was how thoughts, feelings and emotions impact behaviour and the reverse.
• The focus at the Brahma Kumaris is to help people firstly see what is going on in their minds. It is not so easy to change habits and patterns of behaviour, yet these are all connected.
• We help people see where thoughts are coming from, from the recording of their inner being and where has that come from? From actions. So patterns have been created within the self and out of that comes thinking, feeling, etc.
• Another element Raj Yoga meditation looks at is the ‘buddhi’, the intellect, this capacity to direct the mind and has the capacity to hold information and ‘filter’ what is important and the ability to discern what is beneficial or damaging.
• Meditation helps us to be selective with the quality of thought we use and connects them to feeling. We recognize that the capacity to manage our thinking will determine the quality of our mood.
• In meditation we change the basis of identity away from the ‘external form’ to the ‘inner being,’ the being that ‘I am’.
• When we understand we have a separate identity to the physical identity, it makes a huge difference.
• We want to focus and concentrate, but we get distracted by the past and anxious regarding the future. The intellect acts as the ‘reins’ with which the ‘wild horse’ of the mind is tamed.
• To tame a horse it is done through loving attention, by whispering sweet things in their ears and then within a short space of time a horse will do what you are asking of it and become loyal and obedient. The same with the mind. We give it sweet thoughts to think about and it can become our best friend. My mind is part of me and I can choose how to direct and manage it, this is very empowering.
• We recognize that to look at what is going on in the mind is fundamental to wellbeing.
• Meditation also takes in aspects of positive psychology. We recognise that the more we generate and sustain positive thoughts then our experiences and feelings will also be positive. Physical health then improves with the ‘feel good’ factor and mental capacity is enhanced and relationships improve. When feeling good, our work efficiency is enhanced and concern for community increases and generally the world looks better!
• What happens in meditation to make this happen? Meditation tells me that the inner being has certain natural positive tendencies and if I can connect with the inner being I can experience these in a natural way. When I don’t, I lose touch with that resource within the self.
• To do this, we need moments and minutes of silence and stillness for the self. We need ‘me’ time to pause and connect.
• When we take the time to go inside, we feel the silence and peace which is within our own inner world. We realise there is a store of love within the inner being.
• When we access this beauty within the self, we can take charge of our behaviour, and as we begin to do this we begin to see solutions and not just problems.
• The conditions of the world today are very strange. But we can do something about the self, and then maybe our contribution to the world will be a positive one.
