Deepak Chopras surprising take on COVID-19 vaccine amid Australia rollout -

One of the world’s foremost wellbeing experts believes Western countries are heading in an “extreme direction” when it comes to views on vaccination – and it could be “dangerous”.

Self-help guru Dr Deepak Chopra might not be one you’d typically expect to be first to get the COVID-19 vaccine, given his life’s mantra has been focused on mental, emotional, physical and spiritual wellbeing through nourishing your mind and body.

But behind all of the mindfulness and meditation practices he promotes, there’s now the science to back them up.

Dr Chopra, 74, started talking about the benefits of mindfulness and meditation almost 50 years ago when the science didn’t exist.

“The last two decades there’s been a huge revolution,” he told news.com.au.

He still believes the lifestyle measures those against the coronavirus vaccine say will protect them will “obviously decrease your risk”.

“That’s obvious,” he said.

“Having said that, I grew up in India where I saw millions of people die from polio, tuberculosis, malaria and smallpox.

“If they didn’t die, they were paralysed or scarred for life, so I’m biased. I believe the scientific method of vaccination is the most effective way right now to curb this pandemic and that’s because of my own personal experience growing up in India.”

Dr Chopra said the world needed the help of science.

“People in Australia, the US and England, they don’t have those memories so they have veered in the extreme, opposite direction and I believe that could be dangerous,” he said.

“Unless something is valid and scientifically verifiable, we should be careful and we should not condemn vaccines just because we haven’t seen the effectiveness of them in the big pandemics of all time.”

The world-renowned author, who’s worked with the likes of Oprah, believes science and technology will help us get through the pandemic and become the way of the future.

“I believe the future of wellbeing is going to be personalised, predictable, preventable, participatory, but a process, and it needs to engage you,” he said, promoting his new partnership with Fitbit which launched today.

“There’s no reason for us to shy away from technology just because ‘you’re spiritual’. That doesn’t make sense. If anything enhances your self-awareness, technology or otherwise.

“It’s a great time for technology to be able to help us get into our own self.”

‘STRESS IS THE NUMBER ONE EPIDEMIC OF OUR TIME’

Dr Chopra believes that stress has become the bigger issue over the pandemic, which he predicts will fizzle out in the next couple of months.

“The pandemic caused a lot of anxiety and stress,” he said. “Stress has become the big issue, also depression, loneliness and fear.

“Biologically that creates something called sympathetic overdrive which means your sympathetic system goes out-of-control, overactive, with what is called the fight/flight response.”

His new sessions on Fitbit are all meant to override your sympathetic overdrive and stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system or the “rest, reset and digest system”.

“In older people, the stress tipped them over because they already had low grade anxiety, depression and inflammation and if you have stress then it kind of tips the immune system and compromises it so you succumb more easily to any kind of infection,” he said.

“Now we know more than 95 per cent of chronic illness is associated with stress, anxiety, depression and inflammation.

“On the other hand, younger people are getting what is called COVID storms which are inflammatory storms, also related to stress.

“Right now, if we are honest, we should recognise that stress is the number one epidemic of our time. It is related to irrational behaviour, melodramatic relationships but also to chronic and acute illness.

“By knowing what's happening in our body, measuring it in real time, we can also intervene in real time.”

The Fitbit Sense has an electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor to help track your body’s response to stress and manage it with a daily stress management score, and the Fitbit Premium subscription service provides advanced analytics and guidance to help people reach their health and fitness goals.

‘BEGINNING TO SEE THE PANDEMIC’S DECLINE’

Dr Chopra said Australia was doing much better at handling the pandemic than the US but he’s hopeful worldwide there will be a shift.

“With the whole idea we can minimise mortality and morbidity with stress management and good nutrition, we are seeing already the curve shifting in the other direction,” he said.

“With the easy availability of the vaccine in the next two to three months, I’m making a good, logical, estimated guess, following the trends … we all feel right now that the pandemic is slowly plateauing and slowly also the damage it does is being mitigated.

“If we can prevent morbidity and mortality then there's a possibility the virus will spontaneously mutate and become less aggressive.

“All these possibilities are there. We are beginning to see the decline.”

‘ADAPT OR YOU BECOME EXTINCT’

As people focus on their health and wellbeing more, advocates for wearables say they’re benefits are endless.

Dr Chopra said we should think of them as “electroceuticals instead of pharmaceuticals”.

But does having a smartwatch on while meditating in a forest really help you switch off?

Dr Chopra knows the negative impact social media is having on the world, particularly if they have those accounts connected to their smart device.

“Social media is full of trolls and they are unhappy people who like to make other people unhappy as well, they want company,” he said.

“My rule first of all is ignore all the negativity. The more you ignore it, the better off you will be.

“Number two, schedule social media responsibly. Ask yourself, is it necessary? Is it going to be helpful and is it going to make a difference in people’s lives? I always ask myself will this social media post enhance someone’s experience of wellbeing or happiness or joy, then I’ll do it. If it doesn’t, what’s the point?”

He said technology and social media was part of our evolution.

“It’s unstoppable so we have to adapt,” he said.

“Either you adapt or you become extinct and technology is part of human evolution at the moment.”

But the good news is you can now use it to intervene.

“It’s been the best decade for mindfulness and technology because there’s no experience that’s not measurable and you can intervene to make you feel better instantly,” he said.

‘IMPOSSIBLE TASK’ WE ALL BELIEVE WORKS

Dr Chopra said the big thing was to use technology responsibly and mindfully.

“Technology should be scheduled and done mindfully, just like meal times are scheduled – I hope – and mindful,” he said.

“Relationship time is mindful. Sleep time is mindful.

“As long as you schedule it and do it mindfully it will enhance your wellbeing, but if you do it mindlessly, of course, it blows up your neural networks.

“In fact, it’s biologically impossible to do more than one thing at the same time.”

Dr Chopra said people thought they were multi-tasking but there was “no such thing”.

“Multi-tasking is the one thing that gets worse with practise,” he said.

“So practising mindfulness with technology will enhance your wellbeing if you’re doing it mindfully.

“It’s impossible because when people multi-task they are switching from one thing to another very fast and not doing anything effectively.”

THE MEANING OF LIFE

Dr Chopra’s main mantra is really quite simple, for anyone looking to adopt a more mindful life.

“The ultimate goal of mindfulness practises is to be in the present moment and to respond to it creatively,” he said.

“But that’s very difficult for a lot of people who have been hypnotised by society to always be dreaming about the future, regretting the past, having anticipation, resistance, regrets.

“So a healthy start is good sleep, meditation and stress management, exercise, mind/body co-ordination, healthy relationships, good diet, connection with nature, self reflection and using technology to monitor and influence that.

“I can guarantee anyone who meditates regularly that their life will transform in every aspect of life – physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.”

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7r7HWrGWcp51jrrZ7y6Kdnqukrrmme8eemKWsmGTEprjLm5yippdksaK6xp6pqK2jYrGqvsScq6KnnmKutr%2FTq5iloZFitrR5x56YnaGenHqir8KoqZ2hnpx6tbuMoqWtnaKjrrW1zqeYpWWdnrulstSlpZ6ro2K0tr7UaKWer6NiwLW70bJmmpllabJ1sMVram%2BcYmmveH3Bb5qaaGmYgHaBxJycb2w%3D