Our Mind, Our Body, Our Remedy

We are our best companions and confidantes. We should know what is best for us, advises Nagesh Alai

At a recent celebratory family gathering, Uttara, the eldest of the siblings, who will be welcoming the seventy fifth year of her being in a month, came trudging in with a walking stick. Uttara has been combatting diabetes for quite some time now while simultaneously succumbing to the weakness of the palate for epicurean food, but managed to lead an otherwise active life between regular travels and active social life. Intuitively, out of a concern for her wellbeing, one of her siblings remarked that perhaps she may be better off discarding the walking stick for now and instead address her knee problems holistically and get her mobility gradually in control. Any crutch, unless absolutely essential, can never be a lasting solution nor curative, but may instead pose a danger of reducing the resolve of the mind and body to maintain independence of movement and over time perniciously lead to being wheel-chair bound. But then, a mind made-up will turn a deaf year to even practical suggestions. Not surprisingly, the walking stick has now become an inextricable part of Uttara. 

Purvesh, in his late sixties, has been cancer stricken for a few years, compounded by a long-standing ailment of the intestinal walls fusing/collapsing, leading to painful passage of food and digestion process. He has been regular in his oncological visits and medications and disciplined in his food intake. Besides , he follows a regimen of yoga and meditation. All of these have aided him in no small measure to  maintain some semblance of quality living. One has never seen him despondent, on the contrary he has been philosophical and cheerful in spite of the serious health concerns.

Venkatesh, a successful finance professional and an entrepreneur, suffered a heart attack when he was in his mid-fifties. He had to undergo a by-pass. While the health setback and scare forced him to sell his startup, he was undeterred and decided to get back to active life and not to call it quits. A deep-dive research and in-depth discussions with medical practitioners convinced him that by-pass patients can lead an active life devoid of constant fear of a questionable heart. With a missionary zeal, he started coaching and mentoring people with heart issues and infirmities, which over time gathered momentum and saw his mentees running half marathons several times over. Many of his mentees are hearteningly confident about running and leading healthy lives. For the record, Venkatesh himself has completed over 150 half marathons. His experience and success have seen many corporate entities and sponsors roping him in as a consultant and event manager to conduct marathons. In his retinue of runners, there are four octogenarians who are having a ball running marathons, giving a pump-up to the young-at-hearts. 

Ramesh, a practising chartered accountant, long passed to eternity, had made it a point to walk, sun or rain, every day of his life, no matter the odds. In fact, he made for a petty picture with his trousers trussed up to the knees and an umbrella in hand weathering the downpour and puddles and pot holes to cover a distance of at least six kilometres well till his penultimate day of his life in this world. He lived his life well, balanced and conscious of his health.

Veronica, a sexagenarian, believes in an auto-cure system of the body and avoids medicines as a norm, unless faced with some serious ailment. Luckily for her, she has had no major illness till date. She is not into any regimen of exercises or walking. She avoids taking taxis or app cars and prefers to walk down to the bus stops or railway stations and wait it out, slog it out. She sees it as an exercise of a different sort. She is unapologetic about junk food; she gobbles them alongside healthy food, while being moderate in consumption. She avoids wheat and rice for most parts and has a diet of leafy greens, vegetables and pulses. In her own words, it is all about the biology of belief.

Each of us are constitutionally different with our own physiology, psychology, philosophy and genetics, all of which influence and impact our responses and set in motion a circle of cause and effect. Whatever the individual backgrounds or situations, some pointers that may universally help to lead a better life are :

1. Acceptance and rejection are a part of life; don’t delve too much into either
2. Allocate a ‘me time’ for yourself each day; introspection and contemplation is a must for our general well-being 
3. Yoga and meditation are a potent combination and will have a salutary effect on your mind and body; practise them regularly
4. Work on your flexibility, a key for your mobility; one day of inactivity could lead to 4 days of stiffness. You can test it out
5. Do cardiovascular exercises every day; but don’t overdo it
6. Exercises can take different forms; do what you will enjoy. It could be swimming, running, walking, trekking, gyms, sports, rock climbing, games or anything else that will challenge you physically and mentally and excite you as well
7. All activities need not be physical; even games like bridge, chess, carrom, sudoku, crossword, puzzles, scrabble etc could be engaging and rewarding
8. Breath is the essence of our being. Do pranayama ( breathing exercises  ) every day; it could be anulom/vilom, bhastrika, kapalbhati, ujjayi, bhramari. sheetlai and the like. More your capacity to breath, more your capacity to promote your health and perform bodily functions effectively
9. Get enough sleep daily, ideally 8 hours of it

1. Discernment in addressing health issues is a must; you should neither ignore it nor get overwhelmed by it
2. Regular health check ups is a must; it will throw up medical findings and metrics that may help in timely treatment
3. Regular consultation with your doctors will help in timely intervention and cure
4. Pill popping at the slightest pretext is bad; nature has a way of curing most routine ailments in a few days’ time 
5. Stick to the advised doses and don’t miss out on the needed medicines; living in hope is good, but living in ignorance is bad
6. It may be worthwhile selectively joining social groups like book clubs, story telling sessions, spiritual groups, bhajan sessions, talk sessions, etc. These may uplift your sense of being and belonging while making you a better person
7. Read more, reduce screen time; you will notice it’s positive impact 
8. Eat right, drink right, eat healthy, drink healthy; be moderate
9. Limit all types of intoxicants; no intoxicated are known to be stable
10. Help others more than you will help yourself; you will be surprised by the positive cosmic responses it engenders in your life
11. Faith and self-belief are known to work wonders

Our birth is nature’s algorithm, our death is nature’s equilibrium, but our life in between is what we make of it and how we respond to it. We are our best companions and confidantes. We should know what is best for us. It is our mind, our body, our remedy. Go, get a life!