I came to know of Mayo Clinic in my third year of medical college and from that time on, I’ve always wanted to come and work here,” Dr Amit Sood, Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, says as he begins to talk about the trajectory of his life so far — from Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal to Mayo in Minnesota. He has recently authored The Mayo Clinic Handbook for Happiness: A Four-Step Plan for Resilient Living that teaches a four step, 10-week programme to decrease stress and enhance happiness. The roots of his engagement with stress and happiness become evident as he shares, “I was a first year medical student in 1984 when Bhopal experienced the worst industrial disaster of all time — the Union Carbide Gas tragedy. Over the next decade of training and practice, I saw a lot of suffering related to poverty, infections, malnutrition etc. And so, by the time I began to prepare myself to come to the US, I really thought I was coming to a version of Disneyland. I thought everyone here must be very happy!”
The shattering of that impression once he did come to the US gave way to some serious food for thought. “The reality that greeted me there surprised and shocked me. I saw almost the same amount of stress there as I had seen elsewhere, which was peculiar and therefore needed a deeper understanding. I immersed myself in studying the neuroscience of stress, evolutionary biology, psychology and philosophy. I had several realisations along the way too, including the fact that our brain is designed for survival and safety and not peace and happiness. Based on what I had learned, I started applying a few ideas to help patients in my own clinical practice. They responded well to it and I began to expand my research gradually until it became the primary focus of my career,” he explains.
Sood’s work straddles the realms of science as well as spirituality, incorporating elements from neurosciences, psychology and even philosophy. Ask him how and when he began to go about bringing the two realms together and he responds, “Science is systematic study of spirituality. It just doesn’t know it yet. I realised about a decade ago that science needs spiritual anchor to make it relevant, and spirituality needs scientific rigour to make it credible. The two realms can actually support each other in immeasurable ways. I also feel that the world of today is somewhere on a perennial quest for deeper meaning. Hence, for any stress-relieving programme to be successful, integration of science and spirituality is a must, which is what prompted me to bring them together.”
Given that the scientific and the spiritual are most often considered diametrically opposed to each other, working with both concepts as a medical practitioner could not have been an easy task. “I had to convince people of my good intentions, struggle for resources and attention, work on keeping the programme pure, unbiased and devoid of any faith based practices… there was no dearth of cynicism around me, but even that was trivial compared to what I felt was the biggest roadblock — my own ignorance,” he affirms and adds that a fair amount of effort also went into practicing what he preached. “I have worked very hard on myself to live by the principles and skills that I share in the programme. Keeping both fear and selfish interest aside, as well as remaining humble and largely ego-free has greatly helped,” he avers.
Has his family ever partaken of these principles and skills too? Sood reveals, “My family is completely engaged in my work. My wife Richa, who is a physician at Mayo Clinic, has taken the training and now teaches this programme as part of her clinical practice. Our two daughters, aged 10 and 4, have begun to speak this language too and have helped me generate some lovely videos to help others. My sister, Sandhya, has also completed the training and is hoping to bring this programme to India now. My mother, who is 80 years old now and is a yoga grandmaster, has incorporated these ideas in her training courses as well. All in all, I couldn’t be more pleased with how engaged my family is in this programme. Along with them, so many of my colleagues, friends and patients have trusted me enough to provide me with their time, resources and wisdom, and that has helped me overcome all adversities so far.”
