Positive Living > Motivational Mondays

I LOVE Mondays!

After an invariably fun and busy weekend I look forward to Monday mornings. While everyone in my family gets back to their routine {work or school} it leaves me free for some nourishing detox and de-cluttering. Yes, it is one of the many advantages of working from home. This also means no #MondayBlues for me! 

Over the last six months or so I have found myself buoyant with happy energy on Mondays. Only recently I realised that I inadvertently follow some rituals to start the week on a positive note. Here are some of the activities that I enjoy indulging in, especially on Mondays:

•     Expressing Gratitude

I am blessed with a beautiful family and wonderful friends with whom we love hanging out. As a result my weekends turn out to be rather hectic between spending time with the kids, cooking fun meals, going out for meals with friends or family, a couple of late nights or maybe catch a movie.. you get the drift? My husband and I believe in maximizing funfilled moments, especially on weekends. And since I don't take anyone or anything for granted, when I switch on my laptop on Monday morning I invariably open my Gratitude journal and express thankfulness for all the wonderful people and happenings in my life.

•      Mental Cleansing

I don’t know whether you’ve noticed but we all have a non-stop internal dialogue going on within our heads. It is like a commentary about all that is happening around you {and may also drift off on different tangents of the present moment, the past or an imaginary future}. It is usually pressed into the back corners of the mind, but it does exist. I find it very helpful and immensely cleansing to pour these random thoughts on to paper. Well, I started this practice almost two decades ago when I used to write with a free hand on paper but now I just prefer to type non-stop, without conscious thought about all that’s going on in my head. This practice not only frees up space in my mind {much like deleting cache files on your computer} but it also brings to fore some desires and goals as well as some negative thoughts may be holding me down. I feel much lighter and energized after this practice. (If you choose to try it do share with me your experience.)

•      Physical Cleansing

As you may have noticed, “good food” forms an important part of my weekends (as with most other days). I thus enjoy a bit of physical detox on Monday mornings. I don’t stick to a particular practice for this but simply follow my gut {pun intended J} I choose between the yogic kunjal kriya, a hot towel scrub, or a sesame oil body massage followed by a cleansing scrub made with natural ingredients. The idea is to remove excess toxins either from the gut or through the skin, which is one of the largest detoxifying organs of our body. {You can read up more about these practices as well as others that I have written about under the “healthy practice” link of “follow your path” on this blog.}

•      Organising my Surroundings

Although the routine cleaning and dusting of my home is done even on weekends, Monday mornings see me putting most things back into their designated spaces and I do try to de-clutter and get rid of at least a few items that we no longer require. With two kids at home it is mind-blowing how fast stuff accumulates – school papers, party favours, the non-ending list of clothes and accessories according to the seasons and of course games and toys. So be it cleansing the refrigerator or kids’ cupboards or even the accumulated mail of the previous week – I like to declutter, even if it’s only a little.

•       Goal Setting

After all the cleansing and de-cluttering I am ready to focus on the tasks as hand, set my goals, and even outline my desires. I enjoy writing affirmations and feel that just being clear about exactly what I want makes it possible for me to achieve it! {Read more about Affirmations and how they work here: http://www.eatlivedoyoga.com/2016/01/live-your-greatest-life.html }

So, cheers to the beginning of a brand new week and remember: Today is the First day of the Rest of Your Life! Hope you make the best of it.

Healthy Practice > The Most Important Reason To Try Jal Neti

Many years ago I had a mild allergy that led me to bouts of sneezing, watery eyes, et al. After ruling out sinusitis and various other allergies, it seemed that I was "allergic" to stress and fatigue. Actually, the body's immunity falls drastically in conditions of stress and exhaustion, hence one is susceptible to allergic reactions. As a result, every time I was preparing for any exams in school or college my allergy would come up. And if I prepared for my exams over a couple of months the symptoms would remain over that many months. But I realised this correlation between stress and sneezing only much later. When I started working for a magazine, whenever the pages were being readied to be sent for printing my sneezing would return. A regular anti-allergy pill usually settled the condition.

Over the years, as I practiced yoga consistently and moved to freelancing (that reduced the stress of sending a magazine to press) I thought I had outgrown this condition. In the last few weeks however my day-long bouts of sneezing started again. Only now, I am wary of popping pills. I do like to experience the magic of yoga and our ancient techniques that actually help the body to cure itself rather than merely suppressing the symptoms by having a medicine.

I had, of course, heard of Jal Neti, but had never tried it (not even during my teacher's training course at the Sivananda Dhanwantari Ashram, Kerala). Like most people I just didn't like the idea of taking in water through one nostril and expelling it from the other, and alternating this procedure. I used to call these techniques "abusive", justifying the label by saying that it was "unnatural" to treat a body this way. But in reality these practices are a far more natural alternative to healing a body than ingesting chemical laden medicines.

The Technique
1. Buy a neti pot. They come in various materials including different types of metals or plastic. Since I wasn't sure how long I would practice jal neti, I avoided the metal one since it was more expensive and bought a plastic pot online. It is light and convenient. I even plan to carry it with me for my forthcoming vacation.
2. Pour lukewarm saline water into the pot.
3. Now tilt your head to one side and slightly back.
4. Insert the nozzle of the pot into the upper nostril; keep your mouth open and continue to breathe through your mouth. Insert the nozzle gently but thoroughly to ensure that water doesn't leak out from the same nostril.
5. The water will naturally flow out of the other nostril.
6. Now repeat with the other nostril.
7. Centre the head and look downward to let the excess water flow out.
8. Gently blow your nose to remove excess mucous.
9. I also like to rinse my mouth once I'm done.

The whole process doesn't take more than 2 minutes. I do it right after brushing my teeth in the morning.

The Benefits
1. It clears up the sinuses and removes mucous from the hard to reach areas.
2. Especially beneficial if you stay in a city with a high rate of air pollution.
3. It cools the eyes from within.
4. It helps deal with and prevent various respiratory conditions like asthma, bronchitis, etc.
5. Even if you don't have any breathing problems, you will realise that you're breathing much better.
6. And the most important benefit according to me, and one that inspired me to write this post is that having both the nostrils unobstructed have lots of positive effects on the entire body.
In the benefits of this practice, Swami Satyananda Saraswati has explained in the book Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha: "A balance is brought between the left and right nostrils and the corresponding left and right brain hemispheres." This leads to harmony between the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems of the body which is important to induce a state of balance throughout the body and the systems governing circulation as well as digestion.

So, there you go! I hope I have inspired you to give jal neti a shot because of its far reaching benefits on overall health and not merely a technique to clear the nose.

Healthy Practice > Hot Towel Scrub

With the temperature dropping to 6 degrees celsius (and expected to fall further), Delhi is freezing. The sudden onset of cold literally froze my yoga practice. Staying late in bed, eating heavy carbs that the body seemingly demands in the cold weather, and a subsequent feeling of stiffness in the body has kept me from getting onto the yoga mat for a few days now. The one thing that I look forward to, however, is the hot towel scrub.

I was introduced to this wonderful practice during an Ayurveda workshop that I attended a few months ago. The interesting thing about that workshop was that the lady who conducted it, Shonali Sabherwal, is a Macrobiotic Nutritionist and Chef. While giving us helpful tips on healthy eating the Ayurveda way, she drew many similarities between the Ayurvedic and the Macrobiotic approach to food (more on that in a subsequent post). Amongst the other nuggets of information that she shared, up came the hot towel scrub.

How To Do The Hot Towel Scrub
This simple practice is exactly what the name suggests. Dip a hand towel in a tub a of hot water and scrub yourself. Keep dipping the hand towel in the same tub of water. The steam from the hot towel helps to release the toxins trapped just below the skin. The scrubbing action with the towel helps to remove these toxins. Practicing the same repeatedly has a wonderful detoxifying effect and boosts the lymphatic system.

Although the practice is fairly simple, I feel that scrubbing in the direction that the lymph flows is especially beneficial. So start form the limbs inward, towards the heart. Feet upward and raise your arms and scrub downwards, starting from your finger tips. Then neck down to the collar bones, and the down the back of the neck and outward towards the shoulder joint. Scrub your chest area starting from the sternum upwards and then outwards toward your armpits. In the abdomen area it is recommended to move in a clockwise direction.

Since the neck, back of the knees and inside of the elbows have huge clusters of lymph nodes, I spend a little more time in these areas. The other two areas that I enjoy wrapping in the hot towel and scrubbing are the soles of the feet and the palms. The soles and palms have lots of nerve endings as well as acupressure points, hence I find it especially rejuvenating focusing on both.

Dipping the towel in the same water, even as it starts getting dirty, has a unique advantage, according to Shonali. Toxins have an affinity to attract and pull out more toxins! Much like using salted lukewarm water, instead of plain water, for gargling, I think.

Since the practice is slightly dehydrating, much like what you feel after spending 15 minutes in a steam too, do drink some water before and after. Also, slather on some moisturiser since hot water leaves the skin rather dry.

My Experience
I fell in love with this practice the very day I started it. It left me feeling refreshed and rejuvenated. One of the biggest benefits for me was that the PMS symptoms started receding naturally, without any medication. The skin was left glowing, shining even. And in this biting cold, a hot towel scrub feels heavenly.

When I googled the hot towel scrub, I learnt that it is an age-old practice followed as part of bathing rituals in Korean and Turkish households. I especially like this practice for its simplicity. The lack of any additional salts or essential oils makes it largely free of any side effects. The fact that you can spend as much or as little time as you like makes it even more easy to follow.