About Dr Ramesh Manocha

Dr Ramesh Manocha, MBBS BSc PhD, is a practising medico and researcher at the School of Women's and Children's Health, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia. He has national prominence as an educator and promoter of women's and children's health, adolescent wellbeing, complementary and traditional medicine. He is actively involved in professional education and health promotion in both the public and private sectors. He lectures to public and professional audiences internationally on his research, its practical, individual and social ramifications.

Emotional Intelligence at Work: Your Performance Appraisal

You know the term "emotional intelligence" — using your emotions, feelings, moods and those of others — as a source of information that allows you to make better decisions and navigate through life more effectively. For the last few months, I have been helping individuals in many Fortune 500 companies develop and apply their emotional intelligence in the context of the corporate ritual, performance appraisal.

If ever time to apply your emotional intelligence, it’s when you have your performance appraisal. After all, when was the last time you said to a friend or your partner, "Gee, I can’t wait until tomorrow — I have my performance appraisal." For most, PA triggers all sorts of anxieties and often the process promotes defensiveness peppered with anger with results of disappointment, dejection, and even depression, not the best for inspiring improvement. You can turn it around by using three components of your emotional intelligence — mood management, interpersonal expertise, and self-motivation. I’ll walk you through each.

via Dr. Hendrie Weisinger: Emotional Intelligence at Work: Your Performance Appraisal.

The Problem With Neuroscience Narratives – Forbes

Scientists and journalists alike are frequently too quick to make sweeping generalizations about the behavior and structure of the brain, often forgetting that the brain is an incredibly complex, interrelated system. Which is only natural – humans are narrative creatues, and a direct relationship between a part of the brain and a particular behavior is exactly the kind of narrative we find attractive. But it’s often wrong.

via The Problem With Neuroscience Narratives – Forbes.

Ayrton Senna’s transcendant experience

He had transcended what was physically possible and was exploring limits that no-one had ever dared to reach: he was inhabiting places so far beyond normal human experience, that even the disbelievers were left flabbergasted as they looked at the time sheets.

"Suddenly, I realised that I was no longer driving consciously and I was kind of driving by instinct only, I was in a different dimension … I was so over the limit but still able to go even more … I realised that I was in a very different atmosphere … I was well beyond my conscious understanding."

via Manish Pandey: Ayrton Senna: The Faith of the Man Who Could Drive on Water.

Re-understanding the pursuit of happines

Behind all of the most popular modern approaches to happiness and success is the simple philosophy of focusing on things going right. But ever since the first philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome, a dissenting perspective has proposed the opposite: that it’s our relentless effort to feel happy, or to achieve certain goals, that is precisely what makes us miserable and sabotages our plans.

via Happiness is a glass half empty | Oliver Burkeman | Life and style | The Guardian.

Plague of dodgy prescriptions puts illicit drugs in the shade

As humans try to control an exponentially growing number of inputs with which they are confronted, ‘our attention becomes less flexible, our minds become more chattering and the next thing we know, we’re frantic’. Humans are ill-equipped to process or accommodate all these new signals.” The result? Perhaps ”people need a bridge – a pill – between what life doles out and what people can realistically handle”.

Our way of life sounds like it is sick and drug overuse and abuse might be a symptom of this illness – what happens when existential entrapment and chemical escapism intersect.

via Plague of dodgy prescriptions puts illicit drugs in the shade.

Yoga does promote good health – The Times of India

A new study led by an Indian-origin scientist has proved that meditation actually eases stress and promotes better health. Meditation triggers a change in electrical activity of the brain, improving the mind and body in measurable ways, revealed Dr Ramesh Manocha at Sydney University, lead researcher of the study on work stress.

via Yoga does promote good health – The Times of India.

Drug-free treatment for ADHD

Drug-free treatment for ADHDReporter: Sean Murphy

SEAN MURPHY: Meet Ryan and Jayden Hammond, two otherwise normal energetic boys with ADHD.Until recently, they couldn’t control their energy or focus their attention without a daily dose of Ritalin.Now, though, Ryan and Jayden are thriving on a drug-free treatment.KERRIE HAMMOND, MOTHER: Ryan’s not taking any and Jayden is taking half a dose, and they can still maintain their focus as if they were on medication.So that’s been the biggest difference.SEAN MURPHY: It must be a relief to you?KERRIE HAMMOND: A huge relief, because I was looking at any option to get them off medication.I just didn’t like the idea of them being on tablets long term.SEAN MURPHY: Ryan, Jayden and Kerrie Hammond have been part of a focus group trialling Sahaja meditation at Sydney’s Royal Hospital for Women.After just six weeks, 16 children with ADHD all showed a marked improvement, though only some reduced or stopped their medication.Were you a bit sceptical of the meditation at first?KERRIE HAMMOND: Yes, definitely.And even now I can see the results, but it seems that some things I don’t understand — I like to understand why and how things work, but it’s worked amazingly.

via 7.30 Report – 07/03/2002: Drug-free treatment for ADHD.

Good thinking

Until three years ago, Heidi Castro had suffered from “very, very intense” migraines that she’d put up with for about 10 years. She tried acupuncture and various pain-relief medications with mixed success, then she signed on to a migraine study at Sydney’s Royal Hospital for Women.

As part of the study, Castro attended a meditation workshop every Tuesday and Thursday for three months and meditated for five minutes twice a day.

“The first month the migraines and the number of migraines were reduced,” she says. “The following month they were reduced to about four in a month [10 was typical before the workshop], then after that I didn’t have any.”

She continued meditating for another two months and thought: “OK, I’m cured” and stopped. “I then started getting them back,” she says. “So I started meditating again. It has helped permanently.”

via Good thinking – smh.com.au.

Meditation and mental stillness – ABC New South Wales – Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

Ever wish you could turn off the constant chatter inside your head?

Perhaps you should try a moment of mental stillness.

Dr Ramesh Manocha at the University of Sydney has been studying meditation and the effects it has on the human brain.

He talked Adam through the concept of mental stillness and ways of quietening the mind.

via Meditation and mental stillness – ABC New South Wales – Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).