Gift Yourself A New Life This Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us the meaning of staying healthy, forming meaningful relationships and contending with less.
It is time that we make a commitment to ourselves to keep us in a good state of health and mind. With most of us stuck at our homes and WFH being the norm, it is even more important now that we adopt a healthy lifestyle.
There is no better time than now to start living healthy
Meditate
While meditation at first sounds like mumbo jumbo to most of us. It is pretty awesome. There have been lots of studies and research into the effects of meditation on the human body and mind and it has all been very positive.
There are different types of meditation — mindfulness, transcendental, zen, spiritual — and the list goes on. So which one is the best? There’s no one size fits all and it is best to adopt what‘s right for you.
I’m personally a big fan of mindful meditation and my wife does transcendental meditation. It has helped us to
- Reduce sleep quota.
- Reduce anger.
- Have a clearer thought process.
- Gotten to know ourselves better.
Like I said above, you do you. But incorporating meditation into your lifestyle can be one of the most life changing decisions you make.
Eat Healthy
There’s a famous saying
You are what you eat.
What we ingest in our body gives shape not only to our physical self but also our thoughts and actions. While our lifespans have been steadily increasing over the course of years, our quality of life has not.
The proliferation of over processed foods laden with sugar and unhealthy fats has led to a rise in obesity which has risen to epidemic proportions.
Here’s how you can give your gut some relief:-
- Do yourself a favour and stick to traditional foods.
- Eat seasonal veggies and fruits.
- Don’t skip carbs or fats because they are not your enemy.
- Have lots of veggies and salads.
- Avoid snacking.
- Eat til you’re almost full and then stop.
With these changes in your diet you don’t have to go for any fad diets or miracle recipes to lose those inches.
Exercise
Most of us are at our homes, stuck to our chairs and staring endlessly at a computer screen. Ample studies have shown the side effects of sitting for long hours. Which is why now sitting is the new smoking.
On top of that healthcare cost have consistently risen over the years and are downright unaffordable in some circumstances. God forbid if you or your loved ones have to undergo a major surgery or treatment. That’s all the more reason for us to take care of us if we don’t want to end in financial ruin.
Now you don’t have to go out and subscribe to the most expensive fitness coach or join the swankiest new gym in town to get healthier. Here are some low cost ways to keep yourself healthy:-
- Go for walk (or walk inside your house in you’re in a lockdown).
- Do Yoga.
- Engage in some kind of physical exercise. YouTube is a fantastic medium where you get tons of free follow along workouts suited to your fitness level.
Mental Health
We’re bombarded with news all day. Worse if you’re in a place like India where the COVID situation is quite grim. All the naysayers want you to believe that doomsday is near.
The best thing thing to do in such a case is — Unplug.
Switch off your TV, disable notifications of your news app, stop discussing pessimistic stories with your friends and associates.
Although it’s important to stay home and stay safe, overthinking and pondering over the state of things won’t help. Now I’m not underplaying the pandemic, especially since a lot of us have been personally affected by it. But we need to take a step back.
How do I stay positive when the world around me is apparently falling apart?
- Take up a hobby. I took up writing blog posts like these to fill up my spare time and started practicing guitar which I’d left for some time
- Focus on what you have and be grateful.
- Be in touch with your family and friends.
- Help out those in need in whatever way you can.
Summing Up
- Meditate.
- Eat healthy.
- Take up some form of physical exercise.
- Stay positive and be grateful for what you have.
