(bright joyful music)
I now have the very distinct honor
of welcoming the world-renowned pioneer
in integrative medicine
and personal transformation, Deepak Chopra.
So for those of you who may not be familiar,
Dr. Chopra is the founder of The Chopra Foundation,
which is a nonprofit entity for research
on well-being and humanitarianism,
and Chopra Global, which is a modern day
health company that really sits at the intersection
of science and spirituality.
He is the author of, wait for it, 90 books,
including the New York Times bestseller
and his most recent book,
"Metahuman: Unleashing Your infinite Potential".
So Dr. Chopra, a long-time friend of the Ohana,
thank you so much for your time today.
The floor is yours.
Thank you everyone, the board of directors,
advisors, leadership teams, management teams.
It's a great privilege to be with you this morning,
and also get a glimpse into the Ohana,
the sangha, this community that Salesforce has become,
an enormous gigantic influencer in the world.
I've known Mark for 25 years at least,
and he's been a supporter,
he's been a guide, he's been a mentor,
and I've always admired him for his resilience,
his flexibility, his creativity, his insights,
and his imagination.
So I just want to thank you, Mark,
and also, thank you for your support
of some of the research that
we've done at The Chopra Foundation,
including the research on epigenetics,
on self-directed biological transformation,
on inflammation, and how we can
actually direct our biology through mental practices,
and what may be easily called mental hygiene.
So I want to take a few moments to share with you
some of the integrative approaches
that are being now giving a lot,
that are being given a lot of attention right now
in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It's obvious that social physical distancing is working.
And that wherever it's practiced diligently,
the transmission rates start to go down,
and ultimately, we hope to see a flattening
of the curve, but we have to take
the situation one day at a time.
There's a lot of computer modeling going on
that is predicting how this pandemic will evolve.
I have spoken to a lot of geneticists,
and people in the field, and right now,
actually, we don't really know
whether the virus could become more virulent,
it could become less virulent,
it could mutate to an indolent form,
or it could become part of our ecosystem.
So we have to just wait
and see how the evolution of
this COVID-19 pandemic occurs.
In the meanwhile, we know what to do
to stop the spread of transmission.
And basically, it boils down
to strict physical hygiene,
the physical social distancing,
and also, washing your hands,
and not touching your face, nose, et cetera.
We know all about that,
but what we are not really focusing
on right now is mental hygiene,
and how important that is right now for us
to maximize our immune capacity,
and also minimize systemic inflammation in the body.
So because I have a little time with you right now,
give me a little bit of indulgence
to share with you something that
is not being talked about enough.
So our brain has several components.
One of course is cortical brain,
which we're using right now to have this conversation,
and to exchange information, energy,
knowledge, possibly wisdom, and data.
That's our brain that we refer
to as the cortical brain.
But there are two other brains that we have.
One is called the emotional brain,
which is the limbic brain.
And this emotional brain,
if I show you my hand like this,
this would be the cortical brain.
If I open my hand, this would be the limbic brain.
The limbic brain is the emotional brain.
And then, there is something called the midbrain,
which is also referred to as the reptilian brain,
which would be in this modeling,
the base of my thumb.
So this is the cortical brain,
this is the emotional brain,
and this is the midbrain or reptilian brain.
Let me share with you why this is important.
Little bit of knowledge about how the brain,
the endocrine system, the hormones in our body,
the immune system, and our mind are all correlated.
So when you are experiencing fear,
which is happening right now in the world,
and we don't know how to deal with fear,
that leads to both chronic stress, and acute stress,
and that leads to what we called
the fight-flight response,
which leads to something in our body
called sympathetic overdrive.
So the sympathetic nervous system
is part of our involuntary nervous system.
It is also the autonomic nervous system,
and the sympathetic nervous system
is in charge of protecting us from acute threat.
So that is orchestrated through
what we called the fight or flight response.
But if that goes out of control
and stress overwhelms us,
then, that causes the secretion of hormones
like adrenaline and cortisol,
and many other inflammatory markers
go up in our system that compromise our immune system.
And so fear and stress, actually,
compromise the immune system and lead to panic,
which can be irrational behavior
like stocking up on toilet paper or whatever else.
There are a lot of irrational panic
recycling in the world right now,
and emotions like fear, like anger,
hostility, guilt, shame, depression,
are not only unhealthy in themselves,
but they lead to biological chaos,
or what we called inflammation in the body,
both acute inflammation and chronic inflammation.
And the data right now is showing
that those people who get acute morbidity,
and even mortality have something
called a cytokine storm in their body
before they actually get acutely sick.
Cytokines are inflammatory markers
in our system that are meant to protect us
but when they're released chaotically in huge amounts,
when the viral load is high,
then, that causes biological chaos,
and leads to immuno-compromisation.
That's what happens when the sympathetic
nervous system is on overdrive.
There is another part of our autonomic
nervous system called the parasympathetic nervous system.
And the parasympathetic nervous system
is dominated by a nerve in our body
called the vagus nerve.
Vagus is a Latin word for the English word,
you might say, is vagabond.
The vagus nerve goes from your brain,
influences your heart rate variability,
whether you're stressed or not,
the tone of your voice.
It pierces the diaphragm and goes to every organ
in our body including the microbiome,
and it has only one function.
The vagus nerve has only one function,
and that is to increase resilience,
to increase flexibility, to decrease inflammation,
to enhance immune capacity,
and enhance what we called homeostasis
and self-regulation.
And that part of our nervous system
is being ignored right now.
The sympathetic nervous system is dominating.
The cortical brain is understanding what's going on,
and in a sense also, participating in the stress
and panic that we are seeing in the world,
but the parasympathetic nervous system,
which is activated through resilience,
through creativity, through flexibility,
and through mindful awareness
of present moment experience is not being emphasized.
And that is what I want to emphasize today.
There are many things you can do,
right away, instantly.
For example, right now, as you're listening to me,
if you just, while you're listening to me,
if you focus on your breathing,
and you consciously slow it down,
in the beginning, by just counting
to the count of six on the inhale,
pausing to the count of two,
and exhaling to the count of six,
this is called vagal breathing.
It will slow your breathing down
to about eight per minute from 14,
and immediately, change your heart rate variability,
which means your ability to be resilient,
to also be flexible, and also to be centered,
and not be overwhelmed by the sympathetic overdrive.
So just a simple breathing technique.
And there are hundreds of breathing techniques
that are known as pranayama.
Prana is the vital energy in our body.
It's movement mentally, it's thoughts and emotions,
and physically, it's movement,
it's sensations and perceptions.
So just by regulating our breath,
one simple way that I just showed you,
you can influence everything
that's happening in your body,
your heart rate variability, your flexibility,
your resilience, including actually
sending messages to different parts of the body,
including the organs of the body,
the viscera of the body.
So if you want to actually learn more about this,
just Google something called the Polyvagal Theory,
and look it up on the internet
'cause all this information is there,
on how breaths, how vocalization,
how movements, how mind-body coordination,
how meditation, how mindful awareness
in the present moment,
how focused awareness of breath, and posture,
and sensations can actually begin
to transform your body in the direction
of self-regulation, and homeostasis,
and decrease inflammation.
Another thing we can do right now
is cultivate what wisdom traditions
have called divine emotions.
Divine emotions includes empathy,
which is feeling what another person feels.
Compassion, the desire to alleviate suffering.
Love, which is the ultimate healer,
because when we experience love,
and we bring it into action,
then that also induces self-regulation
and healing through a mechanism in the brain
called limbic resonance.
So remember, I told you about the emotional brain.
So shifting to what are called divine emotions,
empathy, compassion, love,
kindness, joy, equanimity.
Focusing on present moment experience,
raw experience without necessarily
interpreting the experience.
So that is what mindfulness is.
And incidentally, by the way,
I met Jewel at one of the Dreamforce conferences,
the last one in fact, that you had,
and Mark was very kind to introduce me to Jewel,
who was also at that function,
and together, we just executive produced a film
called "The Mindfulness Movement".
And this film is available now through the internet,
through Netflix and other outlets.
And I encourage you to watch this film
because it gives you all the research
on mindfulness, and meditation, and breathing,
and focused awareness, and healthy emotions,
and how service to others,
actually enhances our well-being.
So there are many ways, which we can use right now,
to enhance our immune capacity,
to regulate our endocrine and our immune system,
because your brain, your endocrine system,
your immune system, your microbiome,
inflammation, and what is happening
in your body is all correlated,
it's all one activity.
So holistic activity that happens
as a result of how we modulate
both mental experience and physical experience.
Mental experience means modulating,
and regulating our emotions, and our thoughts.
And physical experience includes everything
from good sleep, which is you, I heard,
Arianna was there talking about sleep.
Sleep is one of the best ways to regulate your body.
So not withstanding what's happening in the world,
make sure you get good sleep.
Make sure you meditate, you manage your stress.
Make sure you move, whether it's walking,
or just jogging in the park,
or around your house, or in nature,
or practicing mind-body coordination
through mind-body interventions like yoga asanas,
or tai chi, or qi gong.
There are so many ways.
Managing and regulating your breath,
engaging in helping others,
and making them feel secure
through attention, through affection,
through appreciation, through acceptance.
I know we are physically distancing ourselves
but we can become more intimate right now
through technology as we're doing right now.
Salesforce is in a unique position
because as I heard earlier, it's a virtual company.
And the virtual is now becoming the actual,
and the actual is now becoming the virtual.
So this is a great opportunity also
to reinvent our bodies, to resurrect our soul,
to actually enhance well-being for each other.
And I think we can start
a whole process through technology.
And that's why I say,
Salesforce is a very interesting, innovative,
creative company that is moving
in the direction of total well-being.
And by total well-being, I mean career well-being.
Career well-being also means purpose-driven well-being,
an organization like the Ohana that you have,
where people complement their strengths,
where they're appreciative of each other,
where they have a shared vision,
where they know how to bond emotionally and spiritually,
where they complement each other's strengths,
then, that leads to emergence.
So career well-being and purpose-driven well-being
is part of our total well-being,
as is social well-being,
as is community well-being,
the well-being of the Ohana.
But as is physical well-being,
and as is financial well-being,
they're all linked to each other.
Social justice, economic justice,
it was mentioned earlier,
sustainability, climate change,
and our physical, and emotional health
are all a unified process.
You can't separate them.
Mark mentioned earlier that the air feels fresher,
that the waters look bluer,
that the sky is clearer,
that you can watch stars at night.
I'm getting reports from India, from Bangalore,
that asthmatics are feeling better
because they can breathe fresher air.
That the fish are returning to lakes,
where there were no fish before that.
That you can hear the chirping of birds
in places like Hyderabad in the morning,
which you never did before.
So we are seeing a shift.
We are seeing a paradigm shift.
And this paradigm shift is linking everything
from our emotions, to our mind,
to our physical health, to the way we work,
to the way we support our communities,
to the way we do our business,
and to the way we actually achieve
financial success in the future.
This creativity and innovation
is already happening at Salesforce.
You are in a unique position.
So I would say to you, what has been said before.
Please take care of yourself.
If you can't take care of yourself,
you won't be able to take care of anybody else.
And taking care of yourself includes sleep
and stress management, and meditation,
and movement, and yoga, and breathing,
and healthy emotions.
And if you have access to nature
of course, that's wonderful,
and eating a healthy diet, and it came up.
Are we going to be more productive,
less productive, what's going to happen
to our families, schooling children?
This is an opportunity to rethink all of that.
So that we can actually understand
the deeper significance of this pandemic
and move in the direction of a critical mass of people
who know how to take care of themselves,
but also know how to nurture well-being
in their families, in their businesses,
in their communities, in their ecosystems,
and in service to the world.
This is an opportunity for us
to move in the direction of a more peaceful,
just, economically just, socially just,
sustainable, healthier, and joyful world.
When the pandemic is over, and it will be over,
we will hopefully collectively
reinvent our bodies, and resurrect our souls,
and help each other in the creation of a better world.
I'll close by saying that a lot of
what I've said is backed up by research
at The Chopra Foundation.
We've started a task force,
which includes geneticists
like Rudy Tanzi from Harvard,
Michelle Williams, who is the Dean of Harvard
School of Public Health, Paul Mills,
who is the Director for the Center of Excellence
and Public Health at UCSD.
Myself, I have an appointment
at UCSD Medical School as well,
and at Mass General as a consultant hospital,
but what we are doing with this task force
is bringing the literature on integrative modalities
that include all the things I mentioned,
and looking at the connection
between these integrative interventions,
inflammation, what are called inflammatory storms,
or cytokine storms, and how to mitigate
our risk for morbidity and mortality.
We are also offering a free 21-day meditation,
which is called hope in unpredictable times
or in uncertain times, which we are living in,
a 21-day meditation, free-of-charge to the global community.
And the meditation is in partnership
with Oprah Winfrey and myself,
and The Chopra Foundation,
and the Chopra Global organization.
Please take advantage of this.
You can download this meditation
by going to chopracentermeditation.com.
As I mentioned, it's a free service.
But as we move through these phases of this pandemic,
we hope to actually engage with communities globally,
including yourselves, if you wish,
in how we can integrate our lifestyles
in the direction of healing, self-regulation,
resilience, creativity, and innovation,
all of which you're already doing, in any case.
So congratulations to all of you.
Congratulations to this amazing leadership team,
to the board of advisors and directors,
and to my dear friend, Mark,
who are always, always being at the cutting edge
of innovation and creativity,
and using every adversity to actually
create a better world.
Thank you very much.
I'm happy to answer questions.
I'm also happy to lead you
through a short meditation to enhance
the activity of your parasympathetic
or healing nervous system.
I think we have just a few minutes left.
I think it would be wonderful, Deepak,
if you could lead us in a little
of a guided meditation just to kinda
take us up to that bottom of the hour,
that will be great.
Yeah, you don't have to close your eyes.
You can keep your eyes half open,
which is called soft eyes,
which is unfocused field awareness.
When you focus on something, that's focused awareness.
When you just allow your awareness
to be in the space that engulfs you,
that's called soft eyes.
So have soft eyes right now.
And actually, just observe your breath
as it goes in, and as it goes out.
Breath is the most fundamental primal sensation
that we can experience, our own breath.
It's the intersection of consciousness and biology.
Just observe your breath.
And now, just breathe, if you can, through your abdomen.
So focus on your abdomen on the inhale.
Let the navel go out,
the diaphragm moves in,
and your abdomen moves out,
on the in breath, slowly.
Pause, exhale, and as you exhale,
move the abdomen in, let the belly button go in.
So on the inhale, the belly button goes out.
On the exhale, the belly button goes in.
Just do this for a few seconds.
Now, bring your awareness to your heart,
and just bring the happiest
and most joyful moments of your life
into your awareness, right now, randomly.
Could be from your childhood,
or when you fell in love with your significant other,
or when you experience the birth of a newborn child,
or when you were overwhelmed by a magnificent scene.
Milky Way galaxy, the Grand Canyon,
anything that brings a moment of joy.
Okay now, let that go,
and mentally start to repeat a mantra,
and the mantra is a-hum.
It simply means I am.
A-hum, mentally, keep repeating that.
This is just to settle down a little bit, a-hum, a-hum.
And now, please close your eyes
and bring your awareness to your entire body
from the inside out, feel your body,
and the sensations in your body.
And just introduce the following
intention into your body.
Looking at your body as a field of awareness,
introduce this intention, joyful energetic body.
Repeat that mentally few times
as you feel your body, joyful energetic body.
Now, bring your awareness to your heart
and repeat another intention,
loving compassionate heart a few times.
Loving compassionate heart.
Now, bring your awareness to your third eye,
which is between your eyebrows.
And the intention, reflective alert mind,
reflective alert mind.
And now, let your awareness expand
outside the boundaries of your skin,
pervading all of space time.
And the intention, lightness of being
and healing to the world.
Lightness of being and healing to the world.
And now, just relax into your body.
And just be aware.
Being aware is the highest intelligence.
And now, just slowly open your eyes.
Just intention has organizing power.
If you begin with those four intentions,
joyful energetic body, loving compassionate heart,
reflective alert mind, lightness of being,
and healing to the world.
Start your day with that,
and then, let your behavior,
and your actions be guided by that.
Thank you very much.
Thank you so much.
We are so fortunate to be able to have your wisdom,
and to be able to go about our days
with this amazing gift you've given us.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
(bright joyful music)
