Month: July 2019

Posted on

Positive Ways to Start the Day

“Morning shows the day” they say. They say it right. But do you feel like every day is just the same? Are your mornings dull and boring? And don’t you spend the whole day with the same kind of lazy lousy feeling? Well maybe you aren’t waking up the right way

Here are the 5 best ways to begin your day.

1. WAKE UP WITH POSITIVE THOUGHTS

Life is so full of difficulties, isn’t it? You have deadlines to meet, bills to pay, house chores to complete and to top it all, you have had a row with your partner. As you open your eyes, these thoughts creep into your mind. Nightmares seem to have escaped from imagination to reality. You feel a slight headache. You feel like going back to sleep again. Don’t do it though.

Drive these thoughts a little away. Tell them to queue up and come later in the day. Tell yourself – this is the beginning of another day, a brand new chance to fix things and explore your life. This little bout of positive thoughts is a proven way of turning your day much better.

2.TALK TO YOURSELF

Wondering how you are going to get the ‘burst’ of positive energy in the morning. What you are looking for is in you. Talk to yourself. As Vivekananda said, when you don’t talk to yourself, you miss a conversation with the most amazing person. You are amazing. No one is going to know you better than yourself.

So when you wake up next morning, wish yourself a chirpy good morning. Tell yourself how amazing you are, how everything is going to turn up just fine, and in time. Tell yourself “we can do it! let’s dive into the day!” and see how you roll.

3. KEEP THE SMARTPHONE ASIDE

Most of us these days, start our day on screen. Oh! how irresistible smartphones are. We begin with putting the alarm off but then see the notifications and start scrolling through them. somehow the first 30 minutes of the day get consumed in thinking about worldly affairs. This small habit has made us so lost in the outer world, that we fail to connect with ourselves, with our own soul. It is undoubtedly true that we need smartphones in this smart age. But not at the cost of losing our peace of mind.

So when you put your alarm off tomorrow morning, do not look at the notifications bar. Your emails and texts can wait. Keep your phone aside till you finish your breakfast.

4.FAITH IS THE ANSWER

Have faith in the divine and practice it. Follow your duties towards your belief. A healthy life is only possible when you are spiritually satisfied.

Belief is a state of mind. The thoughts in your mind create the results. All your experiences, all your actions and all the events and circumstances of your life are but the reflections and reactions of your own thought. So most importantly, have faith in yourself.

5. BREATHE

Sit down. Straighten your back. Close your eyes. Breathe. Let the fresh morning air fill your lungs. Let the positivity it brings with itself reach your mind.  Try to make your mind oblivious to anything going around you or inside you. Create a void in your mind. Now, breathe deeper. Continue deep breathing for at least 5 and at best 15 minutes every morning. On some days, do some simple stretching exercises. You may go to the gym or work out at some other time of the day, but this little session is equally important

Now that you have read the 5 mantras to begin a day, I am sure you are excited about tomorrow morning. Follow each mantra step by step. Wake up, cheer yourself. Talk to yourself. Do your exercise. Remember, every day is an opportunity. Every day is important. So, beginning every day in the right way is very important.

 

 

 

Posted on

Error 404 – Sleep not found

It is 11 in the morning. I wander around the dining hall thinking of nothing specific when I stumble upon the broom. I put the broom in its place and stand there for an extra second. Mum comes out of the kitchen, “you know what, you’re still awake, better attend the bed. Have you ever done something better than sleeping?” That’s when it strikes me, “why can we sleep at all?”. So I do what I do best, I sit down by my desktop and search.
We spend one-third of our lives sleeping.

Scientists still don’t know what exactly sleep is, they only describe the method. They call it tired nature’s sweet energy restorer. Yes! Time spent sleeping is not time wasted. It is used effectively in rejuvenating the body.
What happens when we sleep? To start with the brain wave ripples, broaden, they relax. The muscles relax as a consequence. The temperature of the body, vital sign, and heartbeat decrease. The senses fade. Consciousness is lost.

Why do we sleep at night? Behavioural scientists and psychologists have found out that our ancestors hunted in the light of the day. they used night time to sleep and restore their energy for the next day’s work and play. We evolved this practice as our biological time i.e. the day and night cycle. As a result, now our brain has adapted to this practice as a function. No matter what work we do, we will feel drowsy at night
Why then do we go against this innate characteristic of the body? It is a prevalent trend in our city these days. We move around, hanging out with friends, eating street food, attending lavish weddings till the wee hours of the morning.

Hyderabad has been the land of royal nizams and nawabs, charming traditions, language, attire, and cuisine. But extravagant weddings organized for social recognition that goes long into the night have paved the way to a lamenting problem.

It is our responsibility to feed our body with the right food at the right time and give it enough rest. We assume that the hours at night after office or after the kids are off to sleep is the only time we can spend with ourselves doing ‘our thing’. This belief is utterly wrong.
We have forgotten the golden hours of the morning. The chirping of birds, the rising sun, the cool air are the conduits of positive energy that we require daily. We can spend at least an hour with ourselves doing something that gives inner peace like reading a book or writing or singing or cooking, blocking all the news and notifications of the outer world in the morning. This will definitely increase our productivity for the day because the mind would have had its rest and rejuvenation.

I am sure within every week approximately this easy technique of paying your ‘me time’ within the morning will encourage you to sleep at the proper time, complete your sleep cycle and wake up early in the morning.

Posted on

My parents don’t listen to me!

Aging – Also called as second childhood, where the parents stop taking care of their health. A lot of time when we ask any young generation about doing a health routine check-up for their parents the only answer we get to hear from them is

‘’ THEY DON’T LISTEN TO US IN DOING A HEALTH CHECK UP ‘’

Ever wondered why maximum parents don’t want to go to hospitals or do a health check-up even if they know that there is something not right within their body.

There are 1000+ questions on social media and quora.com where kids are posting questions like ‘’how to deal with parents who don’t take care of their health.

The answer to this question lies in the first line of my article.

Aging- A second childhood

Your parents gave you time, love, and care when you cried like hell on the first day of your school.

If they have spent their time posting a question like my kids never listens to me ‘’then you wouldn’t be here reading this article.

Your parents never left you when you cried and never wanted that vaccination shot.

The only solution was their time love and care.

Posted on

What Is Stress?

The student comes home with a bag full of home assignments. The college-goer returns with a heavy heart. The businessman has ‘worry lines’ on his forehead. The housewife rushes throughout the day to prepare meals at the right time. In the hurried life of today, where time always seems to be walking two steps ahead of us, we are subjected to too many stresses.

What is stress?

It is a response. When our body is questioned physically or emotionally we answer through stress. Stress is good. It is a wave of energy. Stress is known to increase a person’s performance. During exam time tension to perform well keeps us motivated. A relationship becomes stronger when we make an extra effort. In all walks of life, a little worry does not
harm instead encourages us to do better But then what is this life full of care if, we have no time to stop and stare, as W.H Davies the famous poet has said. Lately, stress has become a bane more than a boon for us. It has opened ways to various problems.

Our body has three glands,

the pituitary in the brain and the adrenals that sit over the kidney, that monitor stress by releasing hormones. Hormones trigger different emotions for different amounts of stress. We feel challenged at first, anxious, and then fearful and insecure. When stress is increased our body starts ‘feeling’ sick without actually being sick. When stress is not controlled within these levels, our arteries start thickening and hardening and heart and kidneys get severely damaged. Diseases follow next.

However, there is a remarkable way of defeating stress. The cure lies within ourselves. In the words of the Roman emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius “Nowhere, either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble, does a man retire than into one’s soul. The cure to tension is relaxation. Whatever relaxes us, cures us of stress. Reading a
book, singing, dancing, a stroll in the park, a long ride, a movie, a game, a hobby, talking to your better half at the end of the day, or simply watching the sunset, our retreat can be in any form. All we should keep in mind is, whether we are disturbed or tranquil, depends on our response and not on any external stimuli. By making our thoughts cheerful and pleasant we can overcome any stress.

Posted on

Sitting is the new Smoking

Smoking is injurious to health. A cigarette is made from 4000 chemicals out of which 43 are carcinogenic i.e. cancer-causing. There are around 120 million smokers in India. 4 lakh deaths are due to smoking. This tobacco epidemic seems to have got a new competitor, the sedentary epidemic.

People with a sedentary lifestyle and smokers are now on the same boat. They both have the risk of dying ten years earlier than any other normal adult.

Some of us have jobs that require 6-10 hours of sitting in front of a desktop. Some of us can’t stop watching an engaging web series. We think merely sitting for so long won’t harm us. But we are doing a mistake in thinking so. Sitting for long durations, without any other physical activity can cause great harm to our body and mind. The dangers are the same as the dangers caused by smoking. Sitting has become the new smoking.

The most severe effect sitting for prolonged hours has in the body is on the heart and its circulatory system. Our blood vessels and their master – the heart is made in such a way that they require the body to be upright for working properly. When we sit, our blood flow slows down. The fatty acids in the blood burn slowly. As a result, they start accumulating in the blood vessels. This paves the way for coronary heart diseases and cardiovascular disorders. There is an increased risk of a heart attack or even heart failure. Obesity is the second most obvious consequence of a sedentary lifestyle. Clinically, obesity results from taking more calories than required. Our body burns very little calories when we are sitting. It doesn’t require as many calories as we eat for our breakfast or lunch. These excess calories take the
shape of fat layers and get stored, unnecessarily in the body. These excess calories are a storehouse of diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart diseases, and high blood pressure. People with obesity are more likely to possess metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a group of symptoms and risk factors leading to multiple diseases together which include diabetes, heart diseases, high blood pressure, high triglyceride levels, low levels of good cholesterol, and high levels of bad cholesterol.

Not just our body and heart, sitting without interruption for long at our work desk has ill effects on our brain. It affects memory power. our brain’s ability to remember and its daily functioning is impaired. Gradually it leads to a condition called dementia. Dementia is a group of symptoms that affect at least two more brain functions. Although it is not a disease, it turns chronic over several years and can cause serious mental and social implications.

The hip and leg muscles are also affected. Sitting in the wrong posture, makes the gluteal muscles lengthen. Hip flexors become tight. As these muscles work unusually, the other muscles in the body have to work differently to compensate. This gives rise to frequent body aches and poor body alignment. Lastly, it is surprising yet true, according to recent research, that sitting for long can cause cancer. The answer to how it is possible is still not known.


Meanwhile, researchers have also found out that the cure to conditions arising from sitting more, is sitting less. If your work demands you to sit for many hours, you need to get up, walk for around 5 minutes, and then resume work. Small breaks in every 45 minutes is a very big step towards preventing harm to the body. By far, it is found to be the best method to tackle the complications of sedentary living. Physical activity is very important. An adult should exercise at least one hour every day. While making a choice out of many ways of spending our time, we ought to ensure that we chose a way that restores our lost energy
and cheers us up. A hobby or game can give us much needed physical and mental relaxation. Yoga can help reduce stress and anxiety. We should involve ourselves in something that keeps us alert, active, and youthful. Only then we will be able to live our life contently and without any fear of diseases.

 

Posted on

Welcome to Healthy Hyderabad

Remember back at school, “healthy” meant being physically, emotionally, and spiritually fit. We played football, hung out with friends, and had morning assemblies. Then life played with us, bound us with duties and responsibilities, and assembled us in front of desktops and piles of papers. Before we could know, we were leading ourselves into the web of unhealthy lifestyle practices. Web – Ours is the generation of webs. Ours is the generation of Netflix and Instagram, burger and fried chicken, unemployment, and overtime work.

One-fourth of Hyderabad’s population is in the adolescent age and more than one-fourth is in the working sector. We have a very young population. We have a literacy rate of 90%. But it is concerning how such young educated minds of the country lead an unhealthy lifestyle. We skip meals, don’t eat at the right time, and do not eat the right food. As a result, 21% of us are diabetic. Many face renal failure and other renal complications. To add fuel to the fire are improper sleep habits and mental trauma. Given our society that treats every mental illness as “madness”, we seldom talk about the mental problems we face on a daily basis. A fatigued body, an angry friend, a ranting boss, a tiny income, a gigantic hospital bill – how is anyone going to deal with it?

The question is – is a healthy lifestyle achievable? YES

Is today’s generation going to sit back – diseased and depressed? NO

It is actually quite simple to live a happy and healthy life. You have already turned into the direction by thinking about it. It’s time now to act.

The first thing to understand is there is no instant solution to this. To begin with, it is important to bring a radical change in your lifestyle. Physical activity, eating the right food, keeping emotions in check, enough amount of rest, maintaining a healthy schedule, etc. are all critical to your health. Love your body, however, it is and then works to improve it. Sleep at the right time. Leave your smartphone, go foolish for an hour every day. Spend time with yourself like you would with any loved one. Love yourself.  Make a relationship with yourself. Talk to yourself, don’t miss this amazing conversation with the most amazing person in the world – YOU.

If you are still wondering how do you do all this- here’s the ultimate solution. Healthy Hyderabad. We at Healthy Hyderabad make sure you take your first step into the journey of a healthy lifestyle and don’t go off track. So, join us on board right away!