Art of Well-Being: A Remarkable Way to Overcome Stress and Become More Effective at Work and at Home

By Ofie Djoleto M.D and Nalaka Hewamadduma

For more than a decade, Nalaka Hewamadduma has been sharing a stress relief formula with leading organizations including fortune 500 companies. Now for the first time, Nalaka makes his proven formula available to you. If physical, mental or emotional road blocks are preventing you from fully enjoying your life, it is time to read this book.

Art of Well-being will help you to:

Overcome stress and experience greater peace of mind.
Generate energy and vitality at any stage of life.
Alleviate insomnia and experience restful sleep.
Choose energizing foods and avoid energy draining foods.
Develop joyful thoughts and cultivate self-discipline.
Delay ageing and build a healthy and beautiful body.
Improve creativity, focus and concentration.
Build purposeful communication and high trust relationships.
Cope with everlasting demands at workplace.
Lead your feild while balancing your personal life.

Nalaka Hewamadduma is a gifted, practical writer to whom we are indebted for Art of Well-being it is a wonderful book which I strongly recommend to everyone.

Andrew A. Fyfe B.Sc P.Eng., CEO, Canadian Institute of Performance Development

Technique in this book set certain moral, cultural and spiritual guidelines for the humanity. Nalaka captures real life stories and encapsulate them in to little gems, so beautiful and polished.

A.T Ariyaratne D.Litt., Founder and president of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement.

Nalaka Hewamadduma is able to present a clear, precise, and immensely valuable account of how to achieve inner and outer harmony in a stressful and often confusing world. A persuasive and brilliant work, well worth reading.

Chelva Kanaganayakam, PhD, Professor/Department of English, University of Toronto.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Balboa Press
• Release date: Jan 14, 2013
• ISBN: 9781452566474

Ofie Djoleto M.D

Naalaka Hewamadduma, B.Sc. Eng., MBA is a Trainer, Consultant and a Writer in Peak Performance, Mind Body Wellness, Family Enrichment, Character Building nd Personal E?ectiveness. He is the founder of Nalaka H Consulting Inc., a training and coaching services ? rm that helps people in organizations to overcome stress and become more e? ective in their work and personal lives. Being a dynamic and entertaining speaker, he has conducted workshops attended by executives of dozens of leading companies including Unilever, Coca Cola, IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, Holcim, Aviva, Energizer, Ori? amme, Novartis and Mead Johnson.He is a much sought after Yoga and Meditation teacher, a specialist in oriental Mind-body medicine, a Reiki Master, NLP trainer and a black belter in Kyokushin kaikan Karate. Over 500,000 individuals have heard him as a key note speaker.A committed Rotarian and Philanthropist, Nalaka has volunteered his skills in training to over 100,000 school children and people in many counties. Nalaka, his wife Inoka, and their  children Abhee and Chami are Living in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

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Copyright © 2013 Nalaka Hewamadduma .

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The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-4525-6646-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-6647-4 (e)

ISBN: 978-1-4525-6648-1 (hc)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013900094

Balboa Press rev. date: 01/11/2012

Table of Contents

Dedication

Foreword

Preface

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Step # 1: Right Perception

Chapter 5

Step # 2: Right Relaxation

Chapter 6

Step #: 3 Right Eating

Chapter 7

Step # 4: Right Breathing

Chapter 8

Step # 5: Right Exercises

Chapter 9

Step # 6: Right Relationships

Chapter 10

Step # 7: Right Thoughts

Chapter 11

Bibliography

‘Art of Well-being’ – Resources:

About the Author

Dedication

To my dear wife, Inoka,

Without whose unstinting support I would never have been able to write this book.

This is my gift to her for our 20th wedding anniversary.

Foreword

Mr. Nalaka Hewamadduma has a long history of a deep interest in the study of stress and its effects on human performance and well-being. He has also been interested in the correlates between his Engineering environment and stresses in the human environment and its effects on the human body. In the book The Art of Well-being’, he has been able to present this in a unique, informal but very informative manner.

Starting with the coming to the realization that there is something lacking in one’s life, then on to the introduction of the proper way to let go and gradually come to accept the proper habits of eating , breathing, exercising, developing relationships and thoughts, and how all that goes to develop the nicely balanced wheel of Well-being. As a thoracic surgeon, similar to an athlete, perhaps less obvious but equally satisfying with an executive, I find my performance and inner peace with myself more in balance when I pay attention to these tenets of trying to reduce the stresses of life. Which I find very well presented in Nalaka’s ‘Art of Well -being.’ A way of life that is available to all.

Dr. Ofei Fleischer- Djoleto M.D. C.M.; F.R.C.S.(C)

Thoracic Surgeon -Trillium Health Centre.

Mississauga, Ontario, CANADA

Art of Well-Being – A Review

While reading ‘Art of Well –being’ by Nalaka Hewamadduma, I was virtually transported me to that landscape that is the natural habitat of the real savants like Socrates, Plato and their ilk. The book written in the tradition of the Plato’s dialogues is a novel, yet holistic approach, to make living a much better way to experience this life. The multi-facet human life is very aptly perceived as an organic whole and the reader is taught to assimilate the Ayurveda and Yogic principles in a manner that no longer seem daunting.

The book emerges as a treatise on how to overcome stress and the focus on happiness that results from inner peace of mind that is a consequence of higher and better performance.

This Mind-body Re-engineering does not seems to be an easy task, but the way Nalaka explains it does become not easily possible, but the whole a desirable goal that is easily attainable. The most complex and even the context of the old philosophies are explained in a natural manner that makes the obtuse matter crystal clear.

The reader is impressed by the way Nalaka weaves an intricate web of diverse ideas that are the result is an artistic presentation of the wholesome way of living. The dialogue manner of presentation helps avoid the matter from being superimposed and the whole book emerges as a treatise that is capable of being eminently readable and are easily comprehensible. The breaks that are provided by his wife Anu in the shape of invitations to food make the whole thing realistic.

The stylistic technique in no way hinders, rather it enhances, the impact of the book and it creates a vision of life that would just transcend this life of pain and misery; of stressful ill-health; of bad-temper and broken relationship to a life of noble thought, human and humane attitudes, empathy with the universe and wholesome inter-personal relationships. It helps shift life from agony to ecstasy. Verily a halcyon era of life that would make living not drudgery, but an exalting experience.

The author has opened a new vista of way to live- and revealed a brave new world that is possible provided we adopt the seven steps. These are the seven real steps to a new Life. One has to read, assimilate and try to adopt them and then see the results.

Dr. Bikram Lamba PhD,

Managing Director, Tormacon Limited, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

Preface

I was born in the ancient city of Anuradhapura, in North Central Sri Lanka where there is evidence of human settlement from 12,000 years ago and where unique world heritage archaeological sites date from the 5 th century BC. These sites indicate that the people of that part of the world possessed amazing wisdom and capabilities in the matter of creating sophisticated communities and public works despite the fact that building technology and related mechanical equipment did not begin to exist for another 2,000 years. Among the preserved World Heritage sites are man-made lakes, ventilated buildings, complex irrigation, water purification and drainage systems together with great monuments, some of which reached 300 feet above the ground from foundations which are 300 feet deep. Since some of the projects from 2,500 years ago would challenge today’s technology, how was it done? Evidence exists which demonstrates that personal and inter-personal mind-body capabilities were particularly well developed as was holistic well-being. In Mihintale, not far from Anuradhapura, the ruins of a wellness clinic dating from 2,300 years ago can be viewed. Attached to the clinic were boats which were used for any combination of therapeutic treatment and massage therapy – practices which recent research has demonstrated rejuvenating both the mind and the body. Contemporaneous with the operation of the clinic, ‘Vinaya Pitakaya’ a 1 st century book, not only advocates that all portable water be filtered, but also provides explicit plans and instructions to build a water filtration plant. The evidence is clear that 2,000 years ago the people of Anuradhapura individually and as a whole, possessed ‘something’ which has been lost from today’s society. While altruism played a part, the ‘something’ which enabled this advanced society to prosper was almost certainly the integrated confluence of greater physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being than at any time in human history, before or since.

As a young schoolboy roaming the above ruins, I tried to imagine how it was possible for such an advanced society to exist two-and-a-half thousand years ago. Such thoughts led me to become interested in ancient wisdom arts like Yoga, Karate, Ayurveda and Buddha’s philosophy. As an elementary school student, I started Kyokushinkai Karate which was established by Grand Master Sosai Masatatsu Oyama. Initially I trained under Sensei Piyarathna Muthukumarana and subsequently Shihan Nanda Siriwardena. Shihan Nanda was my yoga Guru and the transformational catalyst of my life. Simultaneously with my immersion in yoga and karate practice, I completed my university studies and was awarded a degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Moratuwa, the highest rated engineering school in Sri Lanka. The subjects I learnt in the university were connected with machines. The key objective of mechanical engineering is to reduce stress and strain of machines and enhance their performance. During my university time I envisioned the human body as an organic machine. I came to believe that by applying engineering principles, the human body and mind could overcome stress and perform better. With this belief I wanted to be the guinea pig of my own thoughts. I started applying my knowledge and skills in engineering, together with yoga, karate and meditation, to create vigour, vitality and inner peace within me.

Since an early age, my life has been influenced by my father’s cousin who was a well recognized practitioner of Ayurveda-based traditional Sri Lankan medicine and with whom I had a unique relationship. He regarded me as his pupil and, in consequence, shared his vast medical knowledge and experience with me.

In 1998 my chance meeting with world leading inspirational speaker, Omar Khan, and Management Guru Prof. Gunapala Nanayakkara changed my life forever. Following their insight, which seemed to speak directly to me, I spent many weeks pondering how I should employ all the knowledge and experience relating to yoga, karate, meditation, engineering and oriental mind-body medicine which I possessed and the answer, which eventually came to me, was to dedicate my life more and more to human well-being and development.

Since that time I have studied the subject of human well-being and development from the time ‘modern’ man arrived on the scene, perhaps 30,000 years ago, until the present day. Another chance meeting, this time with renowned corporate trainer Gihan Thalgodapitiya, resulted in my serving as a personal development coach to Unilever Ltd and so it was, my passion became my profession. Thus I became a practitioner, researcher, teacher, speaker, writer and trainer in connection with personal effectiveness and body wellness. The processes used in the course titled ‘Art of Well-being’ were based more on engineering principles and so I named it ‘Mind-body Re-engineering’. Virtually everyone who attended the course reported relief from stress coupled with enhanced vigour, vitality and inner peace. Corporations reported not only increased effectiveness and reduced lost time due to sickness / absenteeism but also increased presenteeism in the case of employees whom they had sponsored to attend the course.

During the past decade, many thousands of people have participated in the course and I have received numerous requests to make the course available in book form. This book, which is in the form of a novel, is my response to these requests. In the book I am represented by ‘Nal’ and all the other characters in the book represent the people who have experienced, or who will experience the course as a workshop or retreat.

Before adopting any of this book’s recommendations, please take the time to read the content from cover- to-cover, at least twice. Thereafter if anything in the book puzzles you, please let me know of your difficulty by e-mail at [e-mail]. Once you are confident that you have understood the book as a whole you may start practicing the various stages to the degree which satisfies your desire. We wish you every success.

I am greatly indebted to Sheila and Alan Fyfe who have taken a personal and professional interest in shaping and editing this book. I express my profound gratitude to them. Further my grateful thanks goes to Dr. Ofei Djoleto who contributed the foreword to this edition and to Dr. A.T