Dr Asmita Sawe
In today’s busy life, anything and everything creates stress. Be it time management, travel to work, completing targets and achievement of set goals, taking care of family, finding time for friends and family or trying to find time to take care of self or exercise everything contributes to mental and physical stress. So today we are going to talk about simple lifestyle changes to reduce stress.
And mind you I am not going to tell you sleep by 10pm, eat your dinner by 8 pm and wake up by 5 am. These are healthy and ideal practices; will definitely help you live healthy life. But when you leave from office at 8 pm or 9 pm and reach home by 9 pm or 10 pm these habits will really be difficult to implement and then when you will still try and squeeze them in which will increase your stress levels.
Rather let’s talk about 5 simple changes considering busy modern lifestyle that we all live now a days.
1. Keeping our body hydrated is one of the most important change required. Keeping yourself hydrated improves body functioning and reduces mental and physical stress. Drinking minimum 3 liters of water every day is a must do. But remember do not drink more than 5-6 liters of water in a day. Overhydrating yourself can make your body flush important water soluble vitamins and minerals.
2. Make sure you walk or dance or swim or play some game or do some kind of physical activity for continuous 1 hour every day. And no mobile phones or chitchat during this 1 hour. Dedicate this time to yourself and your health. Do away with all the distractions. Maintain a regular pace and consistency while you walk or exercise. Remember morning walk is great but night walk is better than no walk at all. You can go for a walk even after your dinner, just make sure you keep half an hour gap between both. Walk with your own pace. As your body’s capacity increases your speed will slowly increase. Do not over strain yourself. Exercise really helps relieving mental and physical stress by secreting happy hormones like serotonin in our body.
3. This one is the most easy and most difficult at the same time. Do not lie down or sleep at least for 1 to 1 and half hour after eating. You can sit around, spend time with family and friends, walk around, watch tv, read books or get in to your work post meal but do not lie down. So even if you finish your dinner at 11 pm do not even look at bed till next 1 to 1 and half hour.
4. Make sure each meal is a complete meal. Every meal should include all the nutrients. Take veggies, salads, dal / soya/ non vegetarian dish, roti/ rice, curd/ buttermilk in every meal. For mid meals opt for as easy options like a fruit / 2-4 multigrain biscuits/ sandwich/ tender coconut water. Do not fall prey to fad diets and eliminate certain nutrients from your life. These create nutritional starvation and in turn increase mental and physical stress on our bodies. Opt for healthy eating habits to maintain healthy weight according to your height and age.
5. Meditate every day at least for 10 minutes in the morning whatever time you wake up and 10 minutes in the night just before going to bed. This helps remarkably to reduce stress. Simplest way to do it is just sit with eyes closed and concentrate on your own breathing.
Hopefully these easy 5 steps will help you reduce stress and attain healthier life. These are the habits which will dissolve and become part of your busy routine in no time so as of now let’s get in to these and improve our lives.
