Deepak Chopra

"The most creative act you will ever undertake is the act of creating yourself."

— Deepak Chopra, M.D.

Indian Author, Speaker, Medical Doctor

1947 -

Commentary
The life we live is a work of art and we must continuously be creating and recreating it. The choices we make in life determine the person we become. And the person we become is reflected in the life we live.

Are you living the life you want to live? Have you become the person you dreamed of becoming. To create your life you want requires vision, hard work and persistence. If you think painting a picture or writing a novel is a challenge, creating your life is a bigger challenge.

Sometimes creative leaders become so caught up in their creative work that they lose sight of themselves and the person who they wanted to become. They lose sight of the people they love. We must learn to take care of ourselves — our physical, mental and emotional natures. If we let our work devour us, we can become addicted to drugs, alcohol or sex. We can become paranoid, fearful and anxious. We must learn to love ourselves and those nearest to us.

Biography

Deepak Chopra was born in New Delhi, India to Krishan Lai Chopra and Pushpa Chopra.  His name, Deepak, means lamp.  His father was a cardiologist and a department manager at a hospital for over 25 years.  His father and grandfather both served in the British army.  

Deepak graduated from medical school in India in 1969 and began his career practicing medicine in rural India.  Early in his career, Chopra became interested in finding the biological basis for the influence of thoughts and emotions over the lives of humans.

Chopra married his wife in 1970 and moved to the United States to take up a clinical internship in Plainfield, New Jersey.  In 1973, he earned his license to practice medicine in Massachusetts.  He taught at the medical schools of Tufts University, Boston University and Harvard University.

While traveling back home to India in 1981, Chopra began practicing transcendental meditation to help himself stop smoking and drinking black coffee.

Deepak Chopra has written more than 75 books and 21 of them have been New York Times bestsellers.  His books have been translated in to 35 languages.

Video

Here is Deepak Chopra talking about reinventing the body.

Mahatma Gandhi

"Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes."

— Mahatma Gandhi

Indian Lawyer/Political Activist

1869 - 1948

Are you free to make mistakes or do you hold yourself to such high standards of perfection that you are bound to fail?  Many of us have to learn that it is okay to make mistakes.  We need to throw off the cloak of perfection and warm ourselves at the fire of mistakes.  We  need to embrace the healing power of mistakes and enjoy what they have to teach us.  No human being is perfect, but for some strange reason we try to be.  Maybe our parents, preachers and teachers set very high standards.  Maybe we set high standards for ourselves.  Maybe we are people pleasers and try to live up to the expectations of others.  Learn to encourage and accept your mistakes.  Have you given yourself the freedom to make mistakes?

Hazrat Inayat Khan

"Love that ends is the shadow of love; true love is without beginning or end."

— Hazrat Inayat Khan

Indian Poet/Musician

1882 - 1927

Art is about love.  

     Love of self.  

          Love of others.  

               Love of nature.  

                    Love of God.  

Love inspires.  

     Love motivates.  

          Love transforms.  

               Love demands.  

                    Love commands.

Art is love.

     God is love.

          Love is art.

               Art is God.

                    Love is God.

Are you love?

     Are you art?

          Are you God?

               Is there a beginning?

                    Is there an end?

Remember love.

     Remember art.

          Remember God.

               Remember your name.

                    You are the beginning.

Mahatma Gandhi

"The weak can never forgive.  Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."

— Mahatma Gandhi

Indian Lawyer/Political Activist

1869 - 1948

Sometimes the private lives of writers, singers and artists don't live up to the high standards of their creative work.  Alcohol, drugs and sex have destroyed some of our most creative people.  Some have battled their demons and lost.  The demons may have fueled their creativity, but in the end the demons took control and destroyed them.  Creative leaders must learn to forgive those who have hurt them and to grow beyond the pain into better human beings.  

Learn to forgive the people in your life who have hurt you.  The anger does you no good.  It is very destructive and in the end you will be the one who suffers.  Make the  choice today to be a better person.  

Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie

"Language is courage: the ability to conceive a thought, to speak it, and by doing so to make it true."

— Salman Rushdie

Indian Novelist

1947 -

One of the things that makes us humans special is our ability to learn and understand verbal language.  We name things.  That is what writers do.  That takes courage.  We conceive a thought, write it down and share it with others.  And this also makes writing different than painting.

Eric Fischl

Eric Fischl, an American artist, says it this way:  "The difference between painting and other forms of creativity like writing or filmmaking is that painting is a preverbal experience."  The language of painting is the language of the eyes.  We communicate by seeing.  The language of the  spoken word is the language of the ears.  We understand by hearing.  Language was first spoken before it was written.  It takes courage to speak and to hear what is  spoken.

The ability to conceive a thought and then speak it is an amazing gift.  If you ever become depressed because you feel you don't have talent, stop and think about the many gifts you have been given — the ability to think, the ability to comprehend language, the ability to speak words and the ability to write and read.  Consciousness itself is an amazing gift.  If you don't think of it as a gift, imagine being dead and having no consciousness.

Painting by Eric Fischl

And because we can speak words, we are able to imagine that which is not.  We are able to conceive ideas and worlds that do not exist.  We are not limited to the world that we see, hear,  taste, smell and touch.  And writers have the power to help us see worlds that only exist in our minds.  Imagination is an amazing gift.  Celebrate your imagination.  Celebrate your ability to speak.  

Here is Salman Rushdie discussing his creative process.

Deepak Chopra

"The most creative act you will ever undertake is the act of creating yourself."

— Deepak Chopra, M.D.

Indian Author, Speaker

1946 -

The life we live is a work of art and we must continuously be creating and recreating it.  The choices we make in life determine the person we become.  And the person we become is reflected in the life we live.

Are you living the life you want to live?  Have you become the person you dreamed of becoming.  To create your life you want requires vision, hard work and persistence.  If you think painting a picture or writing a novel is a challenge, creating your life is a bigger challenge.  

Sometimes creative leaders become so caught up in their creative work that they lose sight of themselves and the person who they wanted to become.  They lose sight of the people they love.  We must learn to take care of ourselves — our physical, mental and emotional natures.  If we let our work devour us, we can become addicted to drugs, alcohol or sex.  We can become paranoid, fearful and anxious.  We must learn to love ourselves and those nearest to us.

Salman Rushdie

"Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, power to retell it, rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change, truly are powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts."

— Salman Rushdie

Indian Novelist

1947 - 

Are you revisiting the stories that you tell about your life?  Are you able to change the stories that you tell about your life?  Are you able to think new thoughts about your talents and your capabilities?

We all face challenges in life -- challenges that impact the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of our lives.  How we tell the story either gives us power over the events or makes us powerless.

In 2006 I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and had robotic surgery.  I chose not to be a cancer victim.  Within a month of the diagnosis, I decided that the cancer was a gift that would open up new worlds and give me opportunities to meet new people.  I do not see myself as a cancer survivor.  I am very lucky to have received such a gift for what it has taught me.  I am a life-long learner and the cancer was just another experience in my life.

What challenges in your life do you need to reframe -- to retell?  We are all here to learn lessons.  What lessons are you learning from the challenges you face.  How are you retelling your stories to give you more power over the challenges?