Depression
Print This Post
According to Osho, “laughter is spiritual and a prayer. In laughter, the noise of the mind stops for a few precious moments, allowing us to experience mindlessness or meditation, however, fleetingly. Laughter is the highest religious quality; and seriousness a sickening of the soul. Unburden yourself with laughter.”
A study has shown that a toddler, on average, laughs dozens of times a day as compared to a few times for adults. This is a shame because laughter has numerous physiological, psychological and therapeutic benefits. Positive emotions like laughter put a new life into body’s healing mechanism and make it stronger and resilient. When we laugh together, it can bind us closer together instead of pulling apart and thus connect socially: our work, marriage and families all need humour and light moments. So why not double or treble your laughs or even more a day! It does not cost anything.
DIET AND LIFESTYLE GUIDELINES FOR A HEALTHY & DISEASE-FREE LIFE
There is no “best” or “ideal” diet and no “good or “bad” foods so long as you stick to natural sources and adopt an active and healthy lifestyle. Moderation, variety and balance are the keys to healthy eating. Also, food is more than the nutrition it provides – it is also a part of the way we enjoy and celebrate life. The following Guidelines have been prepared accordingly:-
DIET GUIDELINES
(i) Cultivate Healthy Eating with Natural Foods – Discard unhealthy eating habits. Fortify your immune system by consuming Natural Foods and by doing regular physical exercise.
(ii) You are What You Eat – Don’t live to eat but eat to live a disease-free life as ordained by NATURE. Let food be thy medicine as ordained 3000 years ago by Hippocrates, father of modern medicine.
(iii) Look after Your Digestive System – Eat less in moderation and more often i.e. have 7-8 small nutritious meals and snacks (say every 2-2½ hours) instead of 2-3 large heavy meals a day. Don’t ever overeat and chew the food to a creamy state with digestive saliva containing enzymes before swallowing.
(iv) Eat More Fruits and Vegetables – Include a liberal quantity of fresh seasonal and regional fruits, raw or steamed vegetables and salads in your daily diet to fulfill 50-60% of your daily energy requirements.
(v) Eat More Sprouts and Fibre – Eat wholegrain cereals and pulses, preferably sprouted, for optimum fibre and nutrition as minerals and vitamins are attached to the bran and they increase manifold on sprouting.
(vi) Eat Nuts and Seeds – Consume a handful of nuts like almonds, wallnuts and seeds like pumpkin, flax and sesame regularly 5-6 times a week.
(vii) Eat Carminative and Digestive Herbs and Spices – Include ginger, garlic, onions, green chillies, cumin seeds (jeera), fennel (saunf), aesphotida (hing), black pepper, caraway seeds (ajwain), turmeric (haldi), cardamom (elaichi), basil (tulsi), mint (pudina), curry leaves (curhi patta) in your diet and cooking.
Cook Vegetables Conservatively – Do not cook vegetables in lots of oil. Freshly cut and prepared vegetables should be steamed, lightly sauted or slowly stewed or stir-fried or baked but not deep-fried and overcooked at all to preserve minerals, vitamins and enzymes. Vegetables should be washed before cutting into pieces. Washing cut vegetables will leach most of the water-soluble vitamins (B group and C) into water.
