RELAXATION

To be relaxed at work doesn’t mean you walk around like a wet noodle, but rather you work without tense shoulder muscles, a clenched jaw, or a hectic mind. Practicing deep relaxation quiets your organ systems, eliminates chronic tension, strengthens your immune system, and helps you stay calm and focused during daily activities.

Deep relaxation: Exercises Recommended by stress management professional.

The best time to practice relaxation is when no one will disturb you at for at least fifteen minutes. At the end of a workday go to a quite room and take 15 minutes to clear your mind and body of stress and tension, and all the pressures from work. At first, it may be difficult to take this time when your family wants attention. But if you persist, you will find that you feel more refreshed and calm, and your interactions with your family and friends will be much better.
Obviously, the more you practice, the more skillful you become. Start with fifteen minutes a day; as you gain skill, the time required shortens dramatically. After you have built your skill, never spend more than five minutes doing relaxation.
You will soon realize that the harder you try to relax, the tenser you become. Relaxation is like floating; simply lie back and allow it to happen.
People often tell me that their favorite relaxation technique is to listen to music. Obviously, certain kinds of music and sounds will help you to relax; but listening to music or whales communicating with each other does not teach you the skill of deep relaxation, nor will the relaxation be as complete or as deep. Also you won’t always have the opportunity to turn on your stereo or plug in your earphones. If you have the skill, you can relax any time, in any situation.

DIET

In our culture many of our eating habits can only be called abusive. Although we have become much more sophisticated about nutrition, our knowledge and practices are primitive and our attitudes are disrespectful. We forget that diet is the basis for physical health and has a profound impact on our emotional health.
Our special attention to our food should be in terms of freshness and quality. It should be simple yet nutritious. We don’t pay attention to the quality of food we eat, and we allow junk food to dominate. We don’t prepare or cook our food properly. We eat too fast. We eat when we are tense and under pressure. The stress that all this creates is evident in the high and increasing incidence of digestive diseases such as Crohn’s disease, ulcers and diverticulitis.
Our dietary problems are serious, but we can do a great deal to minimize them with a little understanding and a few simple practices. The digestive system involves two complementary processes – nourishing and cleansing. If we don’t build the proper habits, the body gradually builds up toxins, which lead to mental and physical diseases. To prevent dietary misery, we have basically three areas to manage: what we eat, how we eat, and when we eat.

THE QUALITY OF FOOD WE EAT

The foods most conducive to health are fresh, simple and nutritious. But amazingly enough, fully 60 to 70 percent of the average Indian diet of sub optimal nutritional value. This is because what we eat is of little or no value. Refined sugar, for instance, which contains absolutely no nutrients, makes up about 25 percent of our diets. Fats, which also contain no nutrients, make up about 45 percent. For many, this combination of fats and refined sugar constitutes as much as 70 percent of their food intake. However, to process refined sugar and fats, the body must utilize nutrients.
Besides increasing our nutrient debt, refined sugar leads to a number of other serious problems, such as obesity, a serious and prevalent problem in our society.

What happens when we take refined sugar in our body?

When sugar is refined, the body does not need to process or digest it in order to absorb it in to bloodstream. The sugar is immediately absorbed, leading to a quick increase in blood sugar levels. If, for instance, you eat a chocolate on an empty stomach, this precipitous rise in blood sugar keys a high insulin release to break down the sucrose so the body can use the sugar. This large insulin output reaches the bloodstream just as the blood sugar is dropping; it causes the blood sugar level to plummet below normal levels; and we feel depressed and enervated. Since we don’t like to feel that way, we take another sugar hit, creating the same blood sugar spiking and over production of insulin as before.
The precipitous rise and decline in sugar often leads to a strain on the lives, which has to clear the insulin from the blood stream, as well as imbalances in insulin production. This in turn can lead to both hypoglycemia and diabetes. A more serious consequence is the danger posed to the nervous system- such as a diabetic coma. Low blood sugar can also intensify emotional problems, anxiety, and restlessness as well as tiredness and depression. Physical problems related to high sugar intake include kidney irregularity, fluctuations in blood pressure, and adrenal imbalances.
If instead we eat an apple, which has to be digested before the sugar is available, a very different process occurs. The sugar in an apple consists of both sucrose and fructose. You don’t need insulin to process fructose inside the body as you do with sucrose. Second you must take apple through a digestive process to get to the sucrose. Not only the level of sucrose lower, but the sucrose is released over a period of time as you digest the apple. This keys a much smaller production of insulin, creating less work for the liver. Unlike the chocolate with its refined sugar, an apple satisfies your nutritional needs without stressing your system. Blood sugar is a the major fuel for our cells, but we can usually get enough naturally occurring sugar in fresh fruits, vegetables and grains. When we need a break, a relaxation or breathing exercise would be far more helpful. These reduce stress, clear our minds and leave us feeling wonderfully refreshed.
Since independence the consumption of soft drinks has gone up by 80 percent, pastries by 70 percent and potato chips by 85 percent. On the other hand, the consumption of dairy products has decreased by 21 percent, vegetables by 23 percent and fruits by 25 percent.
How we eat is just as important as what we eat. Unfortunately, most of us are in too much of a hurry to take the time to really chew and taste our food.
After two, three or four quick chews, we swallow it, expecting the rest of our overworked system to break it down further. But contrary to popular belief, neither the stomach nor the liver has teeth. Neither can adequately break down pieces of foods that have been reduced in size just enough to be swallowed.
There are several important consequences of gulping down food. First, the digestive process is incomplete. Gulping food prevents the proper mixture of digestive enzymes with the food and interferes with the absorption of nutrients that is supposed to occur in the mouth. This creates stress within the entire digestive system. And when gulping food becomes a habit, the stress becomes chronic.
Further when we gulp our food, we don’t really get an opportunity to taste it. We only experience a few strong flavors- sweetness, saltiness, and sourness. The more subtle flavors (which require a more complete breakdown of the food as it mixes with the digestive juices) are not tasted. Thus, we don’t allow our taste buds to tell us what is good for us and what is not.
Most processed food and in particular snack or junk food is intentionally designed to appeal to the obvious tastes- sweet, salty and sour. These products contain either sugar or salt as a major ingredient, and eating quickly will leave this taste in the mouth. Their real appearance, odor and flavor are disguised by a variety of chemicals. The word enhanced or imitation on the label usually indicates the addition of chemicals.
While artificial coloring can fool the eyes, it is much more difficult to fool the nose – and even more difficult to fool the taste buds. Our taste habits are primarily conditioned by a few strong flavors and gulping food reinforces our dependence on them. But if our olfactory and taste capacities are given a chance to do their work, it is very difficult to hide or enhance the real flavor or smell of what we are putting in to our mouths.

Here is an experiment, which will give you an opportunity to discover your potential for tasting food. You will need two pieces of bread. One should be the fluffy white kind made from highly refined, enriched white flour, complete with all sorts of artificial additives. The other should be a piece of fresh whole grain bread made without any additives or preservatives. Rinse your mouth with water. Then take the white fluffy bread, hold it to your nose, and sniff several times to get a good smell. Put it in to your mouth and chew until it becomes liquid. Spit it out, rinse your mouth and repeat the same process with the whole grain bread. Do your senses of smell and taste tell you anything about which bread you should be eating?

Another reason to gulp food is that when we chew completely, we generally eat about a third less than if we wolf it down. Approximately one-third of digestion is supposed to take place in the mouth. When we bypass it by chewing only two or three times, we also bypass about a third of the nutritional value in our food. Consequently, we will eat about a third more than what we really need. When we thoroughly chew each bite, digestion takes place more efficiently, hunger is satisfied more quickly and thoroughly, and we require less intake. Compulsive eaters, or overeaters, rarely if ever chew their food. If this is a problem for you, taking the time to chew your food will be very helpful. If you are on a weight-loss diet, take particular care to chew thoroughly.

Eating when you are calm and quiet is also helpful. The emotional disturbances of anger, sadness, and fear create an impossible internal environment for the digestive process. Even the most perfect food creates serious digestive difficulties when eaten under these conditions. When you pause for a moment of silence before meals, it gives you time to clear your disturbing emotions – and thus calm your body – before you eat. In the growing pressure and hurry of our lives, we have lost track of this simple wisdom.

We can solve the problem created by poor diet if we pay attention to what we eat, how we eat, and when we eat. There is no one diet for everyone. We can discover what we need by paying attention to how food makes us feel not just immediately, but four hours later after we eat it. Again the key is relaxed awareness. The more sensitive we become, the better choices we make, and the fewer problems we create for ourselves.