Be mindful of what we are taking in!
A few of those friends who read the blog “Love what you have, before life teaches you to love what you lost – a powerful statement in two aspects: Relations and Health – Contd… Health” (Refer to: https://pavaiarun.blogspot.com/2024/04/love-what-you-have-before-life-teaches_15.html ) asked me what I meant by intake and daily routine to upkeep our health.
In that blog I have shared, if we are healthy, then the programs to maintain our good health are: Intake and routine(Lifestyle), Labour and exercise, Posters and regulated breathing.
a foundation course in human values and professional ethics, by R R Gaur, R. Asthana, G P Bagaria, edition 3
Let me share in detail about intake in this blog.
Intake does not mean only the food. It includes food, water, air, sunlight and in fact all that we take in through our sensory organs like smell, sight of the things we see, the sounds we hear, etc.
Food: What is the purpose of taking food? Is it to nurture our body or harm our body? What do you think? Nurture our body, right.
Further it should be digestible and suitable for our body. The waste should be excretable by the body.(We see many people suffering from indigestion, gastric problems and constipation, right?)
Also, we should take the right food at the right time and the right quantity. Our ancestors have said that morning we have to eat like a king, a heavy breakfast. We need energy for all our activities throughout the day from our morning intake. Afternoon we can eat good food but at night we have to limit our intake as during night time the energy is needed for internal body organs to do their work, like liver activation for regeneration and repair, waste removal etc. It would be difficult for the organs in the body to perform their work if during that time our energy is diverted for digesting the food we have taken.
But, what do we see in reality? Many of us skip the morning breakfast irrespective of age and the job we are doing. I have seen students who faint in the morning as they have the habit of skipping breakfast. After seeing my blog on health, Lokesh(do you remember, he is the founder of Plant Green Inertia) called me and said he was also not taking responsibility for his body. He quoted this as a sample: The day before, as he was on his business discussion, he could not take his breakfast, had lunch at an odd time and after reaching home he was very much exhausted.
All are in a hurry during the mornings to go to college, office and those who are at home have much more work to do in preparing for the others to go for their work. I read an article on brain damaging habits, the first one was skipping breakfast!
Of course, in the afternoon we eat some food and many of us have a packed lunch. But, during the night, we do all the damage to our stomach! We fulfill all the hunger we develop during the day by eating heavy dinner. All the parties and celebrations are also during the night only. Eating heavy dinners that too late at night spoils our health, you might have experienced this, I need not tell you anything about that, right😊
Water: There are various facts(?) about water intake. One tells us to drink plenty of water, the other says to limit our water as the kidneys will get tired if you are drinking more water! We can listen to our body, the sensations in our body will rightly guide us on the water intake.
Next is air, the air quality is very much affected by all kinds of pollutants now. To the level possible we can be aware of this and try to breath the pure air. One important suggestion for those who are in the AC rooms throughout the day. You keep an alarm to remind you to go out of your room for some time!
Sunlight is another important intake for us. Are you also identified with Vitamin D deficiency? 😊 My daughter, my mother, and I, all three generations have vitamin D deficiency! This has become fashionable, saying I have this Vitamin D deficiency, right? Being in this country where we get more than the required sunlight we fall deficient in Vitamin D. We can get enough sunlight if we are mindful!
As said before, intake is not only food, water and air. It comprises all the sensations through our sense organs also. You might have experienced the uneasiness in the stomach when you hear some alarming sound or see some tragic scene, right?
Now we have the habit of eating our dinner while watching TV. The emotions that we see on TV will have its own effect on our bodies. I have seen young mothers feeding their children by playing some games on their mobile phones. When we fed our children we showed nature, the moon, and the trees and also shared the food with other animals like dogs and crows which naturally inculcated the affinity in the children towards nature and sharing habits in them. But, what attitude will the child develop if we show video games or something on the screen while feeding them?
So, the program for good health is intake – Mindful intake of food, water, air, sunlight and all the sensations from our sensory organs!
Let us be mindful of what we are taking in and the impact of that on our bodies!
