Do you feel that achieving both professional and personal excellence is like walking on the razor’s edge? When we are too driven to succeed at work, we tend to forget that we are humans and our body is not a machine – that it requires rest and love and has to be taken care of. When we are mentally and physically healthy, we are able to yield better results and achieve greater productivity at work. If that rings a bell somewhere, then here are a few simple tips to help you along the way:
1. Meditation
Aren't our body and mind like the two weighing plates of a physical balance? Striking a balance between these aspects demands skills, and meditation can be that skill. It is one of the most powerful tools for restoring balance between our mind and body. In meditation, you experience a state of restful awareness, in which your body is resting deeply while your mind gains greater awareness. Meditation is like the foundation of a building. “If you want to build higher, you have to dig deep. The deeper and stronger the foundation, the higher the building”, says Bhanumathi Narasimhan, senior Sahaj Samadhi Meditation teacher.
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You can also combine your meditation practice with a simple breathing technique called the Sudarshan Kriya. A 20-minute process, the Sudarshan Kriya releases stress from the body and mind, leaving you feeling relaxed and energized. You can learn the Sudarshan Kriya.
2. Healthy diet
Let’s say there is an employee working in an MNC who has a very hectic schedule. He has to leave for work early in the morning to reach on time. He is also angling for a promotion and casts food and drink to the winds regularly, reaching his workplace early, leaving late, working hard, just to impress his seniors. In all this, he often misses his breakfast and is unable to pay much attention to his health. He becomes impatient quite easily and ends up frustrated. What should he do?
For that, we’ll have to know what breakfast actually means. If you look at the word carefully, it is a combination of "break" and "fast", that is, to break the fast. The time gap between the previous day's dinner and the next day's breakfast is the longest between two meals for everyone, and so it is very essential to have breakfast.
Why not carry some fruits and energy drinks with you? Take planned breaks from work and have them with your colleagues and friends.
It gives us the energy to help kick-start our day with freshness and enthusiasm. It is healthy to take six meals a day at regular intervals: three large meals, comprising breakfast, lunch, and dinner; and three small meals, comprising fruits, energy drinks, and some healthy snacks. Food is fuel to our body and thus it is very essential to pay attention to our meals. Moreover, food is required to repair old tissues, produce blood, and do the hundred other things that are vital to our survival.
3. Daily exercise
Do you feel you should be looking young and bubbling with energy and enthusiasm when you are actually noticing signs of aging like dark circles, wrinkles, or dull skin? Never mind! Just adopt and adapt to daily and regular exercise and observe the change for yourself. Thirty minutes of daily and appropriate exercise can bestow you with energy, make you feel better, and help you relax and sleep better.
It can block negative thoughts and also change the levels of the "feel-good" hormones in your brain, such as serotonin, which swings your mood to the happier side. Exercise also removes inertia from the body and keeps you active throughout. Daily practice of 20 minutes of Surya Namaskar can be very beneficial.
Read more tips in the sequel to this piece
