By Elizabeth Herman| Posted: May 23, 2019
Taking a look at your food habits may be one of the first ways you start to go inward once you start meditating and doing yoga. Paying attention to how each meal makes you feel, you’ll easily start to identify foods that make you lethargic and lazy, and foods that make you hyperactive and needlessly anxious. But one habit can help you move through any problems with your food, before you change your diet, and that’s the way you drink water.
Water, on its own, is the medium by which food helps or hurts our bodies and minds. If you only have it combined with sugar, caffeine and other flavorings and chemicals, it won’t work as efficiently to purify your system. “Water should run in and on this body – both inside and outside. You have to drink enough water and let it run through your system. Water is the greatest purifier for this physical body,” says Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
Drinking lukewarm water that has no ice in it and doesn’t come out of the fridge, and is warmed up to just at or above your body temperature, is one of the easiest and most effective and accessible bits of health advice that I’ve heard. See the following reasons why water at the right temperature is so important for becoming healthier.
Physical benefits of drinking warm water
1. Opens up sinuses and other passages
The warmth of the water will expand and relax your tissues, allowing better movement throughout the passages of the body. Any blockage will be more likely to dissolve, in tight places like the sinuses, capillaries, small intestines, and other areas within the major physiological systems in the body.
2. Helps with movement for circulation, digestion, and respiration
The systems of the body work hard and move constantly, on an involuntary basis. Your digestive system moves food and transforms it into useful nutrients and waste. Your respiratory system moves air and oxygen to help fuel your heart as it moves your blood. Blood cells themselves need hydration in order to circulate easily. What the organs don’t need to function must be expelled from the body. The kidneys, lungs, skin, and liver make this happen, but they can’t work without water. If the water is warm, it will easily go to the cells and tissues that need it.
3. Relieves symptoms like constipation and headache
In the middle of a busy, active life, some symptoms can develop readily when the body isn’t adequately hydrated. Headaches and constipation are two examples, both of which can slow down your progress toward your goals and your ability to enjoy a typical day.
If you notice constipation when you travel, for instance, you can remedy that easily by asking for a cup of hot water in the airport or on the plane, instead of a sugary, icy soda, an alcoholic beverage, or coffee. While these symptoms may seem to be so commonplace, and rarely serious, if they happen frequently, you’ll notice significant changes in your quality of life, and they may point towards more serious, chronic conditions that may need a physician’s attention.
4. Flushes out viruses that cause colds and harmful bacteria
We can’t shield ourselves from all germs that cause illness, and we really wouldn’t want to. Our immune system strength depends on being able to overpower viruses and bacteria that could impact our health, and if we lived in a plastic bubble from the moment we’re born, that immunity would never develop.
But plain, warm water will help our antibodies (white blood cells) get to the threatening microbes and pull them out of us. Do you remember when you had colds as a child, and someone encouraged you to drink plenty of liquids? This holds true for prevention of colds and infections as well, so don’t save this habit only for times when you’ve already gotten sick.
Consider making a change
When you think about how costly health care is, doesn’t it make sense to take natural, easy, positive, and free measures to keep yourself healthy? Especially once you start to meditate and practice yoga, you’ll begin to see the importance of your own well-being, mentally, emotionally, and physically. Habits like drinking plain, warm water should be high on your list for any self-improvement regimen you take up.
This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
By Elizabeth Herman - PhD in English, with concentrations in Rhetoric and Composition, and Literature, she offers writing support to clients, teaches locally, lives in Boone, NC, and volunteers for a better world.
