In the past week alone I’ve come across 3 people who’ve been down with fever. “There’s a virus going around”, “The weather is changing” and numerous other justifications are also floating around. While sometimes our systems can’t help but succumb to the onslaught of germs and disease on our bodies, I still believe that if we’re vigilant and just a bit more carefull, we can avoid falling prey to the seasonal germs. I read up on it and here are a few tips to tide you over the ‘illness’ season.
1. Have hot water + lemon + ginger every morning. Ginger is known for its anti-inflammatory ur properties. In addition to this, according to Ayurveda ginger creates warmth in the body which aids in fighting disease and keeping your immune system up and running.
2. Don’t add sugar/milk to tea to get the maximum anti-oxidants in the tea. The anti-oxidants that are being chased out of your tea by the milk you’re adding can contribute immensely to keeping you healthy (taking into consideration the amount of tea we drink on a daily basis!). Also, sugar causes inflammation and makes your skin sag prematurely.
3. Purple cabbages has anti-oxidants and help improve circulation. And available right here in our Conoor market!
4. Have turmeric. Eat it in your food or apply to your skin. If there is a wonderspice – this is it.
5. Have cinnamon. Anti-oxidants + anti inflammatory + anti bloating. So add to your tea instead of sugar!
6. If you have a cough – add thyme to your tea. If you want glowing skin – drink green or white tea. If you’re just looking to stay healthy – have green tea. And if you want to fight stress – drink some black tea.
7. Cut down on milk. Besides causing secretion of mucus in your throat and nasal passage it increases insulin production, causes oily skin and thereby pimples. Also, research has shown that it contains 59 active hormones. In addition to this it contains allergens, fat and cholestrol, herbicides, pesticides, antibiotics, blood, pus, feces, bacteria and viruses. Also, milk has a lot of calcium but for calcium to be absorbed by our bones we need magnesium. And milk does not contain magnesium. We’ve traditionally been brought up to believe that milk is essential to good health. Read up on this a bit more and then make your decision.
8. Don’t have coffee post noon. Caffeine takes about 5 hours to leave your system and you don’t want it interfering with your sleep.
9. Keep all electronic gadgets out of your bedroom. The waves produced by electronics suppress the production of melatonin in your system and melatonin is responsible for sleep.
10. And lastly – DO YOGA!!!!
A lot of the guidelines might sound extreme, such as not adding sugar and milk to your tea, but once you start to do this mindfully, you will start to appreciate that very little goes a long way in keeping you healthy. Also, a good way to start is to try something for a finite amount of time. So for instance, banish electronic gadgets from your bedroom for 10 days and see if you sleep better. If yes, then continue. Give 10 days to the first 9 points listed above and on the 10th day decide if you want to continue for another 10 days.
The 10th guideline is non-negotiable. You must practice every day. Without fail.
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