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Are you Breathing?

Einstein’s theory of relativity states that light travels in the same speed in vacuum and air. It is not affected by the speed at which the observer is travelling. Sun being a constant and the biggest source of light, we took our relative movement in comparison to the sun and invented TIME. Earth is revolving and rotating and doing its dance around the Sun and the sun stands and watches; it’s light spreading constantly in all directions. If I say I’m forty years old, relatively I have moved that many times around the Sun.

What if I did not want to measure my life based on earth’s orbital show. What if I wanted to measure my life based on other things, being completely oblivious to time? What is the one thing constant in our body? Sun is a source of energy and we have a source of energy inside us too. If sun is producing light which served as a constant and common measurement for the entire planet system, then breath is the common measurement for our body and its microorganisms; the source of life. How many breaths did you take in the last hour? I don’t think you noticed.

There are at least five or six times I catch myself not breathing, in the entire day. Mentally so occupied that my involuntary activities stop being involuntary. That’s one way my body tries to get attention— “Let’s stop breathing and see if she notices the work that goes in to keep her alive.” Does that happen to you? Or is it just me who is being played at?

There was a time when I was meditating regularly, now I’m just not doing it (No reasons attached). Back then, I had very few moments of thoughtlessness and it felt awesome. It’s like someone put me on standby. My breathing would flow effortlessly and it was just that. Existing for a few minutes, no judgement. 

What if we are born to do just that? Breathe and exist. We have all been trained to— “don’t just exist, live every second like it’s your last.” I see now why our dogs are not as stressed as we are. Hours of lounging around the living room, under the bed, under the dining table and at the door of the kitchen. We don’t do this kind of lounging. We are hustlers now, ruled by FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)

There is cost we pay to hustle which is not being promoted as much. There is something called the flight-or-fight response and we are subconsciously always on fight mode. We are so used to putting ourselves through stressful situations that our body forgets to turn it off. The body’s response to stress is releasing hormones that help you fight; which has a tumble down effect. Increased heartbeat and breathing, rise in blood pressure and more glucose goes into the blood to release energy which helps us fight the situation. Answer to diabetes may be. 

So is meditation the answer? To escape this ‘Fire-in-the-Mountain-Run-Run-Run’ attitude to life. Hatha Yoga has taught me so much and this too — being conscious in movement and to slow down; simple. Slow is the new fast, relax is the new hustle, letting go is the new FOMO. I still remember Dj’s(My Yoga teacher) words “Flow like honey”. A simple thing like brushing your teeth, you could bring your mind completely to it. The bristles dragging on the surface of your enamel and slow it down. Or chewing consciously every bite, feeling the samosa getting crushed and making its way inside. Just like how they talk your body into relaxing in Shavasana; you need to do that with smaller activities throughout the day, everyday.

Mindfulness is just that, to slow down life and let seconds blur out into minutes, minutes into hours. Going about your day mindfully will improve your concentration, save your brain from burning out, help you make better decisions and your reflexes will be better, you will also have more reaction time to any given situation.

While for the sages in mountains, who have given up worldly ways of living, days don’t even measure into hours. They are not dependant on the earth dancing around the sun. Their mind is focusing on the breath and its flow. In a world without ‘Time’ a recipe would instruct‘time-taken’as 79 breaths; the delivery will be done in 300 breaths and you have been using your phone for 154960 breaths. Would that make you more conscious of the way you want to use your breaths? Being unaware of our last breath, makes it even more important to salvage each one of them. We may not be ready to leave for the mountains yet, till then we should stop glorifying being busy and keep checking on ourselves ‘am I breathing?’ 

Sometimes you should just be:

Evdy Bawdy Chillax Maan

I’m not saying meditation can now be evaded. We may not be able to sit and do it everyday, as diligently, so instead of chasing perfection just slow down. I even came across an exercise (picture) you can do in between work. It’s very effective and it’s like a quick charging when your battery is about to die. 

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Heal-arious as can be

When I was in school I fell on the field, in the corridor, on the paved ground, stoned areas, in the class and even tripped over nothing. The skirt and pinafore didn’t help with the knees either. My knees and elbows always had scratches and wounds. The school nurse even asked me once while applying tincture “Why did you fall again?” in her loud angry voice. They all healed though; every one of them. The scar would stay for a bit but eventually new skin cells replaced the old ones and now no one can tell I was a reckless child. 

Just like a wound every other part of our body, made up of living cells, are meant to heal. The body heals on its own and how?

I would love to share a few healing tips that I’ve incorporated in my life. Skip the ones you feel are ‘extra’ for you, but try them all. 

  1. Resting: This is most under-rated in the hustle hustle outlook of people today. Sadhguru on resting, “If your relaxation is not of good quality, your work will not be of good quality.” I had a back injury a while back and my physiotherapist recommended complete rest. It was 80 percent better within a day’s time. The best way to get off a cold and flu is ample amount of rest. Without popping a pill and just giving your body the rest it needs is what I see so many people sort to these days. 
  2. Fasting: Fasting is the resting of your digestive system. It is really like a system reboot in the body and it helps the in improving stomach health, healing other parts of the body and even keeps you alert. There’s intermittent fasting, Dry fasting, seasonal fasting and other types. Thanks to my mother I’ve been intermittent fasting all my life. I read about this concept only recently, and it works like magic. I recommend you go through what Luke Coutinho has to share about fasting, he explains it the best and he’s a certified nutritionist. 
  3. Breathing: Did you take a deep breath after reading that? I’ve caught my breathing taking casual pauses like its waiting for me to notice. I have heard a few people have cured hormonal imbalances by just following Yogic breathing techniques; Pranayama. I haven’t tried this in a disciplined way, but everytime I’ve done Anulom Vilom it has made me feel alert. Fresh air is essential to life and holding a good posture almost makes it natural to take deep breaths. Correcting posture can correct the breathing to be involuntarily smooth. To be a little extra: You could try the balloon technique in the following link: https://www.sonima.com/fitness/email-apnea/ .
  4. Meditating: I am more acquainted with this now, and written vastly about meditating in my previous articles. Meditating can heal your mind, body and emotional state magically. It takes discipline and consistency to reach there but its definitely something each human being was born to do. We have evolved to depend on different sources of energy outside; electricity, internet, wifi; but the real source of energy is life and when we meditate we focus on that. We are inbuilt with this “soul energy”, we just have to focus and tap into it. 
  5. Salt: Yes, Epsom salt baths is trendy if you haven’t tried it yet and the new thing is to buy Himalayan pink salt Lamps! I have been using hot salt potli’s to recover sore muscles and muscle cramps. (heat the salt in a pan, put it in a handkerchief and tie a knot so it doesn’t spill, ready!) This heals the fastest! “The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.”— Isak Dinesen. Learn about Salt healing from this article :http://www.asianage.com/health-fitness/healing-power-salt-101
  6. Copper: Copper bottles have been fashionable for a while now without the science behind it getting famous. Just like our other trends. Copper has anti-microbial properties and it helps in the absorption of iron. As per our Ancient Indian Ayurveda it is an element that helps in balancing our doshas. Again cautious use of this element can restore hormonal health and other imbalances can be corrected. 
  7. Tisané: Herbal teas were used as a medicine in so older civilizations. People thought it is witchcraft, but they were just our garden herbs. ‘Tisané over Chai‘ has a few herbal tea infusions you can read on the website. ‘More Tisané’ will be published very soon keep an eye out. Herbs are mother nature’s potpourri which we have at our disposal. 

TO BE Contd…

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Diwali Purging

I’m back to my annual cleaning for Diwali, donating things I don’t use, arranging things, organizing, changing the liners in my cupboards and making space for good things to come in. I got this crazy idea synonymously. This is just the external environment we refresh annually; a lot of people do it for Christmas. Physically our bodies do it with the help of our kidneys and liver, which detox naturally (I just have to relate things to health after all). What about the mind? The mind works more and we are always using it. How about removing thoughts we don’t need? Arranging the limited thoughts that are useful and organizing them mentally (jotting it down). Making space for new thoughts to come in.

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For all of us over-thinkers, I guess we’re just very materialistic in terms of the mind. Hoarding things is bad enough, we hoard thoughts, imagine how crammed our brains get. So the essential question here is “how” to de-clutter your mind and remove thoughts you don’t need?

I was at a point of time where a thought once held in my mind, it just got pasted there and won’t leave no matter what. It was like compulsive thinking. Feeling like a rat on a glue patch, I would go on attaching myself to it and all my idle time would drown me in it. Obsessive thought process is like a bald man buying too many combs and hair brushes. How did I come out of this?

When I was growing up I didn’t like yoga classes and I just couldn’t sit still. I can still remember the expression of Mrs.Dolly (my yoga teacher) every time I’d peek open my eyes in meditation. She had given up on me. It grew on me only recently, so much that I want to write about it.

I gradually moved into loving meditation since, one of the yoga sessions; we were told by our instructor, Deepti, to listen to different sounds lying in shav asana. The cycle bell went off, then I could hear a bus whizzing away till its sound faded in the distance. Someone was leaving, so the door opened and closed. It wasn’t like the usual relaxation but we were supposed to be actively focusing on things. It was annoying for someone who looks forward to the five minutes’ power nap. I realized only later that only my sense of hearing was active the whole time and the rest of the senses were on a holiday. Detaching the other senses made hearing smallest of sounds seem so natural.

Imagine detaching from all of your senses then. It doesn’t come naturally and takes years of meditation. There are Float therapies which put you in a sensory deprived state, yet to experience that one, for now I’m just incorporating meditating into my daily life.

I even had this weird idea that everywhere (at work, home, school or at the station) it would just be normal for people to stop whatever they were doing at a particular time of the day and meditate. Just like standardized time zones, living patterns, receiving newspapers, and many worldlier accepted habits, why not have a world over standard time for meditation.

I can only imagine how many people would still choose not to or not be able to, since it would be easier when everyone is doing it. It wouldn’t be something you need to teach anymore, since any child would see this from the day they are born and naturally want to imbibe it. Like how we can’t wait to start wearing watches and tell the time.

I picture my thoughts, like the yellow 3M post-its, knocking at my head. So meditating hasn’t stopped my thoughts or the knocking. Its just made it easier to hear the knocks and not answer the door. The knocking slows down and gets tired eventually. I now mostly let in (focus on) only the thoughts that help me live in a better way or become better at whatever I intend to do. Keeps my mental space roomy and airy enough to let the post its fly out when I’m done. This Diwali, or once in a while make sure you air out your mental space and use the right post-its to decorate your wall.


How to meditate has been answered by too many people but I’ve generally followed the Smile-and-sit technique for 10-15 min, also a few links bellow for whatever I’ve tried along the process.

Eat, Pray, Love- Elizabeth Gilbert 

Chanting Om-mani-padme-hum

Twin hearts meditation

Isha Kriya by Sadhguru

Disclaimer: The cover photo is not clicked by @mycoffeeweather Its available on the internet and its just got it edited as relevant to the article.