Imagine herbally healing your body with herb-treated fabrics!
It sounds kind of outlandish but it is happening today with Ayurveda or holistic healing making its way into the clothing industry.
The textiles are dyed in medicinal herb concoctions. This eco-friendly handloom fabric has many takers especially in Saudi Arabia with Ayur Burqas selling in a big way.
Wild basil in your clothes might just be the next step to healing all day long…..
Yesterday my guest blogger Marcia described what Awareness is. Today she discusses Joy and Choices-things we should know about before we get into holistic fitness.
JOY:
The entire process of building a healthy body goes from something impersonal to something very personal and meaningful to each of us as individuals. This process brings us closer to the spiritual aspect of how our body works. Let’s face it. We all have arms and legs, we all have thoughts and emotions; but something deeper within us drives us to do things that others wouldn’t even consider. This deep sense of individuality is our connection to the spiritual aspects of the self. When the physical body, mental body, emotional body and spiritual self are all in harmony, the chances for success are phenomenal.
The traditional fitness triangle of body-mind-emotion, now has a unifying aspect-the spirit that drives the individual to seek fulfillment, satisfaction and joy. Being “well” in the physical body isn’t enough for most of us. We need a deeper more personal motivation, to make the effort to find a fitness program and stick to it.
Traditional fitness is a program of regular exercise, “proper” diet/nutrition, and “proper” rest to allow for physical recovery. A traditional fitness program is built around attaining agility, balance, body composition, cardiovascular endurance, coordination, flexibility and joint range of motion, muscular strength and endurance and speed.
While this may all sound good, (more…)
Marcia R. Babcock is a Ph.D, MBA, Nia Black Belt Instructor, Tai Chi Instructor, and Reiki Master. She decided to do a guest blog for me and in this two part series she discusses the newest trends in fitness and explains why fitness can suddenly be more fun and successful for You.
In summary, the Principles of Holistic Fitness are:
Awareness of our complex nature of having physical, mental, emotional and
spiritual aspects
Deciding that you want to achieve these: Joy, Satisfaction, and Fullfillment
Making the right choices to attain these goals
Today Marcia elaborates on awareness. That is a difficult concept to understand and Marcia explains it so that we can understand.
AWARENESS:
The term holistic comes from the Greek word holos meaning all, entire, total. Thousands of years ago, Aristotle described this as “The whole is more than the sum of its parts”.
As human beings we are coming to admit to ourselves that we are more than just a body with a brain attached; we have emotions and beliefs and goals and aspirations that DO affect how we think, feel, sense, and live in the world and at the same time affect our health, fitness, sense of well being, satisfaction and joy.
If our goal is fitness, why should we ignore our basic complex nature? We can use the emerging concepts of holism to redesign the way we think about our physical bodies to achieve a state of vitality and sense of well being.
A holistic approach recognizes that each person is made up of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects. These aspects are interconnected and balanced. The health and wellness of any one aspect will directly affect the others. So now, the focus of fitness is the whole person, not just the physical body with an obedient(or not)mind attached.
The idea is to change the approach from just following a set number of reps and heart rate values to learning how choices, actions and attitudes affect our present condition, and also understanding how we can be active participants in the process of building a strong and vital body , allowing us to function with joy and ease in our lives.
Tomorrow Marcia elaborates on Joy and the Choices that Holistic Fitness involves. Please visit her website www.bodyenergetic.com
Last week I’ve been doing the health challenge and have definitely increased my intake of water. What about you?
This week I want to spend ten minutes a day on meditation. Although I do not advise you to meditate without a guide, what I would advise you to do is introspect, go within your thoughts for ten minutes everyday.
Sit in a comfortable quiet place and watch the thoughts fly by in your mind. If you feel upset or bored, don’t fret. Just watch your thinking for a while. It really helps to declutter your mind.
Fill me in on your experiences.
I’ve heard of face reading but a diet based on the tone, texture and shape of the face?
Well celebrity nutritionist Elizabeth Gibaud seems to know about that. Her book The Facial Analysis Diet explain diet plans that cater to your face type. Your face could reveal a lot of things about your eating habits. If you have open pores it means you have too much acidic intake. Lines on your forehead reveal that you are having too much rich food. What Gibaud prescribes is a limited spartan diet that substitutes the wrong food for the right kind.
You can also check out th Chinese method of how face reading can determine disease. What kind of face do you have:is it earth, fire or metal? Find out reading this web site.
One of my articles called The yoga way to fitness has been published in the Erickson Tribune.
Krishna Raman, a doctor of internal medicine, therapeutic yoga specialist, and author of the book A Matter of Health says, “Any kind of physical activity benefits people of all age groups. Older people who go to a fitness center or at least walk every day have better lean muscle-to-fat ratios and are more agile.” The physical activity of yoga is no different.
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“By doing the yoga poses (asanas) you improve your flexibility and circulation, which leads to healthier aging. A type of yoga called Iyengar yoga offers the use of props or assistive equipment, thereby helping older people do poses correctly,” says Raman. Props or assistive equipment provide support for certain areas of your body, and can help you balance.”
Click this link for more.
Right now no one has the time to keep fit and do exercise. So when you hear about people taking their pets out for a session of dog yoga, you are surprised and amused. What do pet lovers come up with these days?
Gentle stretching, dog massage and doggy props to ease those postures seem to calm the pups down. Think about you and your dog destressing in a yoga class. Instructors believe it’s partner yoga in that you spend more time with your pet and you bond. It’s also fun.
That’s what we think. Wonder about the dog:)
Cute article:
Man’s best friend does downward facing dog
I just can’t figure out how to eat with chopsticks. So this one is for me.How do you do it? It’s healthy and the most sensible way to have noodles.
I found a step-by-step instruction kit on the web:
-You pick up the first chopstick with the middle finger and thumb. Stiffen your hand for a firm grip. So the broad end of the chopstick lies on the part where your thumb and index finger connect. The narrow end of the chopstick is supposed to rest on the tip of your ring finger.
-Grip the second chopstick with your index finger. Place your thumb over the second chopstick. The idea is to have a comfortable grip. The narrow tips of the chopsticks should be even with each other to help prevent them from crossing or being unable to “pinch” the food.
-Hold it steady. You hold the first chopstick steady and move the second (top) chopstick by moving the tip of your index finger up and down while the thumb remains relatively steady.
-Practice opening and closing the chopsticks and don’t stab your food. Never pass food with chopsticks as this is considered bad manners.
Yesterday Brick O’Neil from EncouragingHealth told me that his fitness guru was Susan Powter. Remember her slogan”Stop the insanity”? Says Brick:
“She had a saying that has always stuck in my mind. She said that people have to do three things in order to be healthier, lose weight and generally feel better about themselves.
Those three words? Eat, Breathe, Move ”
What caught my attention was the importance given to breathing.I once went for Art of Living classes and there my teacher told me ” Neel,you’ve got your breathing all wrong.” And I sat in class thinking that we automatically inherited the knowledge of breathing.
For starters, our breathing is too shallow and fast. We are in a hurry and so we’re mostly oxygen starved and that’s where the fatigue comes from. We’re stressed out and indoors much more these days. All this changes the way we breathe.
Breathing through the nose..not through the mouth… is important. When we do deep breathing our entire body benfits. Blood circulation improves as does metabolism. It’s the best way to destress!
Read this detailed article Importance of Breathing for more breathing facts.
Many people I know equate meditation with a yogi(man with no desires) sitting on a hill top. That is not necessarily the case.Meditation is a big leap toward sanity. If you look at your mind now, it’s like a baby running toward everything in it’s grasp. You have no control over your thoughts. You can retain your composure and be dignifies in your exterior. But in your head, you are on the verge of exploding with a stream of thoughts that keep popping up.
Is that bad? Well thinking in an unfocused way can stress you out and stress is responsible for a long list of ailments and simultaneously reduces the quality of life.If you can bring yourself to sit down, relax and focus either on a beloved thing(image,concept.mantra) or on the little space between your forehead…if you can do that everyday you will see that your mind slows down, decision making becomes easier, you become more responsive to other people’s needs and your own and somehow you can steer clear of conflict.
Check out this wonderful article: What is meditation?
I came across a really interesting post by Praveen at his blog Tao of Simplicity. Check out his post on Present Moment Goal Setting. Now is the moment to change your lifestyle. I’m a zen freak myself and I’ve found the simplicity it advocates to be the most sensible and most difficult thing to do.According to Praveen, any ambition, including weight loss, begins now. If you postpone it, you are wasting time and falling deeper and deeper into trouble.
I’ll tell you why. If you can’t stop gorging on junk food and give up your sedentary lifestyle now, you are likely to start gaining weight. When you do, you are inviting high blood pressure,diabetes and joint pain. As you grow older, all that muscle mass weakens and you will be in more pain if you are obese. Then you won’t be able to have a happy old age and you will detest those moments with your family when the only language that talks to you is pain. Check this link for more:Lose weight now, move better later.
So now when you see all those foods stacked up in the supermarket you could stop yourself from impulse buying. You could start eating sensibly and exercising at least thrice a week NOW. It will improve the quality of your life.
diet, middle age, high blood pressure, old age, tao, zen, weight loss
Martial arts is a great way to get your kids into the fitness mode. The cardio and strength workouts prior to the disciplined ‘kathas’(sequence of movements) that entails karate help a child’s overall development and helps in boosting confidence levels. Self defense techniques are motivating and I personally feel that every child should learn how to defend himself or herself. That will improve overall health, fitness and confidence levels.
This article gives you a different take on karate and fitness. Don’t expect to be a Bruce Lee with karate sessions thrice a week. There’s a lot more to Bruce Lee’s chiseled body. He spent a large amount of time on heavy physical work outs. For him exercise was a way of life and martial arts a discipline that he worked on endlessly.
Read this to find out how karate is being used as method to instill discipline and fitness.
Acupuncture is becoming more and popular when it comes to weight reduction strategy. By using needles, acupuncturists try to restore vital energy levels. The idea behind acupuncture is that an imbalance in energy creates disharmony and subsequent discomfort in the body. By balancing the qi or energy, health can be restored. Needles and even herbs, electricity, magnets and lasers can help stimulate acupoints along the “meridians”( channels through which energy passes) in your body.
For obese patients, acupuncture helps control binge eating and has been used for patients who have been unable to control their appetite even after gastric bypass. Be aware of acupuncture treatment before you opt for it. Weight control ear staples are not sufficient; make sure you get an appointment with a good acupuncturist.
This page is a good guide.
Read the article Acupuncture for controlling diet
I’ve done the Art of Living Course a long time ago. This course that is now part of a wider spiritual movement in 140 countries is the effort of a single small-statured man called Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Apparently Sri Sri had an epiphany of sorts that led to the creation of the “sudarshana kriya”, a ten minute breathing method akin to hyperventilation.
I’ve been doing the very basic course for several years now and although I cannot pinpoint how exactly I have changed, I feel that courses such as these tap into the spirituality inherent in us all. Sri Sri teaches yoga and pranayama; he reveals India’s deep-rooted spirituality in a simple format and makes it accessible to people from all walks of life.
I love that time in the morning when I do my breathing exercises but The Art of Living foundation emphasizes on a great deal of service as well. Happiness cannot be had unless you go out there and see for yourself the deprivation that stares at you in the face. Many programs have been conducted for those affected by natural calamities and even those in prison.
Many people I have met dispute the overall claims of any guru(teacher). Some of them are disgruntled about the flowing attires of spiritual sages. Others are disgruntled by high-sounding speeches.But as far as I know, Sri Sri in his flowing attire and long beard tries to put a smile on your face. He teaches people of all cultural backgrounds and emphasizes on living in the present.
Check out some testimonials here.
If you are interested contact a center near you.
Art of Living Foundation, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, sudarshana kriya, pranayama, yoga, meditation, service
Nothing beats a good music work out and Punjabi music provides enough beats for a good dance. Sarina Jain’s Masala Bhangra Workout album on DVD mixes traditional Punjabi folk dances with fitness moves. What is Bhangra? Well it’s total fun in Indian Punjabi style. Having started off as a traditional dance celebrating the harvest, today Bhangra has spread its tentacles all over the world.
For more on Bhangra as an exercise mode, click here.
Do you want the heart beat of healthy living? Do you want daily updates on the health obsession? Welcome aboard people! Healthy B.P.M is a blog fattened by everything fat, fun and fitness. Not to mention the tragedy of eating disorders, the humor of unchanging weight scales, the luxury of spas and the never- ending pursuit for the ideal body and mind. Digestible language on diet do’s and don’ts. Read it.
Healthy B.P.M. Author(s)
» Sandra-Garth
