Healthy Rituals for the Healthy Life

Supriya Sharma

Mother Teresa once said, “There are no great acts. There are only small acts done with great love”.We can do small acts during this critical phase of life to deepen the bonds between our mind, body and soul. Healthy body is considered as the most valuable treasure of human being. Wherever we go on this mother earth, one thing stays with us and that is our sound mind and body. Due to this reason good health is considered as the vital part of life. The healthy mind and body help us to work brilliantly and to fulfill all our dreams with assertiveness. The enthusiasm, zeal and happiness in our life is one of the gift of being healthy. The ripple effect of this positivity not only makes our life vibrant but also makes our environment positive. We have to follow the cycle of consciously created healthy rituals which are as under:
Getting up early: Getting up early is the best gift that we give to ourselves. From ages great leaders, saints, yogis, monks and even our ancestors used to get up early before the sun. There is a science behind it, the high amount of oxygen during early hours of day not only activate our body mechanism well but also our brain and help us to change even the old brain patterns and creating the newness. It is also believed that waking up early increases life expectancy. Another gift of morning hours is the presence of natural peace & silence, birds chirping and wonderment of calm, clean & clear nature which help us easily to create the same environment inside us and we get exclusive time to connect with the nature. Waking up early is so powerful that it can eradicate the stress and anxiety by balancing hormonal levels and nervous system.
Prayers and Meditation: The way we start our day determines the way we will live our day, and the way we spent our day will determine the life we want to live. The first hour after we wake up is the ‘Platinum hour’ and is the most valuable moment of the day and influence our whole day. Prayers and meditation are so powerful that they can even ‘move the mountains’. The few minutes spent in remembrance of almighty directly help us to connect with our inner self and will ignite the new wave of hope and possibilities. The more we connect with our inner-self the more we become humble, kind and compassionate towards every creature which will bloom all our relationships.
Exercise and Yoga: David Starr Jordan once said that “Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it and virtue is doing it.” We all know what we need to do in order to live happier and healthier. Consciously adding exercise and yoga directly opens the gateway to calm, peaceful and active life. Diseases and stress remain away from those who ritually do exercises and yoga. Some important steps for this critical phase are: Pranayama (Breathing exercise), head stand yoga, stretching yoga, aerobic exercises, squats, lunges, push-ups etc. and are very effective for being fit and healthy according to the researchers. So dedicating 30-60 minutes a day towards body will increase 100 fold efficiency and make us a dynamic and energetic being.
Gratitude practice: One word that is magical and is ‘Thank You’, yesThank you for this moment to be alive, Thank you for love I am feeling and loved ones and Thank you for everyone and everything around me. Big Thank you to almighty for this abundance and ambience around me. The more we stay in the state of Thank you the more we get tune up with the universal forces and the divinity. Forgiveness and forgetting of past suffering will become natural if we practice this technique. We can also do this practice by writing gratitude journal with ‘Thank you note’. Every scripture and spiritual literature contain one thing very common and that is to grateful for what we have blessed with and this divine attitude will shower us with what we want in our life. Then this complex life would become marvelous and miraculous. The thankful heart and enlighten soul are the very center of love and compassion for every creature and for whole cosmos.
Reading: As exercise is forbody and same is the reading for the mind. The amazing brain coach Jim Kwik believes memory improvement can be done by reading fast and by speeding up the reading. This will not only improve our memory but also make us work smarter and think better.
Walking: Alan Devoe shares his insights on how to get the best from the walk is to never take worry with you on the walk. Focuson the sight, sound, smell and touch of wind which will sharpen our five senses and increase our concentration by seeing the things as it is with newness, with full awakening. Researchers believe that 30 minutes brisk walking is necessary for all age group of people and it will tone our whole body.
Planning the day before and practice forgiveness: To master our day we need to plan in advance before going to sleep at night. This would not only save ourtime but also help us to distinguishing urgent works and important works and therefore help us to add up creativity things. Spending few minutes of night in planning the next day is the hidden ritual of the great visionary people. Practice forgiveness for a minute actually help us to become moreflexiblefrom inside. As we all know, those who forgive easily are the strongest on this earth.
In the end I would advise it to all the readers that -Live your life gracefully and Be Happy.
(The author of this article is a PhD. Research Scholar in the Department of Zoology, University of Jammu)