A very important secret to overcome anxiety

“If you have nothing to lose in life, then everything is there to be gained”. I wrote this statement when I was thinking about or rather concerned about the outcome of many things in my life. A lot of times in our life, we fast forward certain events and try to predict their outcome, and in the process, our thoughts go through a vicious cycle of never ending imaginations. But, in reality, not an inch would have been moved. This is anxiety! Typically anxiety is characterized by the following thoughts

1. You feel highly insecure in life.
2.  You always think about the future and are worried about facing it. You think your way virtually to many years ahead of you, and try to live out that day at the present moment. This could comprise of imaginative thoughts comprising of your health, job security, financial needs and issues with relationships.
3.  You have two contradictory lines of thoughts about the outcome of a certain event – (a) Had I not done this, Life would be been wonderful.
   (b)Having done this (this is the compulsion phase of anxiety), my life is going to be a mess.

Now let me ask you this question, Would you be anxious if you know that tomorrow is going to be your last day on this earth to live and there is no way that you can extend it? I think most of us would not be anxious if we are in such a situation because we know we cannot do anything about it. We would make up our mind to face it, and try to remain in peace as far as possible. If we can make up our mind for something extreme like this, why are we not able to fight against anxiety wherein almost nothing that we ever imagine becomes a reality? A fair thought process, isn’t it?

This is because we try to live our life by our self. We think that we are in control of everything in our life and hence everything would happen as we think.  The motivational and self-help world try to promote this concept. This is only partially true. I want you to understand a secret, which is going to blow away your anxiety. We need to have a firm belief that everything that happens in our life is controlled by our Maker. He is the one who runs the show, and if we can believe this amazing fact, we could be very much at peace with our self. If we realize this and surrender our lives to Him and allow Him to direct our paths, all our anxieties would vanish. We would only live for today and for this moment, and leave the rest to God. Very simple huh! This is what is called faith, and this is the faith that God honors.

Today we may be tormented by so many anxieties in life. It may be due to recurrent thoughts of insecurity in the job, a fear of a breakup in a relationship, or about a terrible disease afflicting us or our loved ones. Anxious thoughts are just like our itches. We start scratching them and get a temporary relief, as it itches again, we scratch one more time, and this continues till the area of itch starts bleeding.

If somebody is to undergo a complicated bypass heart surgery tomorrow, is there something that he can do about it? Absolutely nothing. All he can do is to commit everything to God, believe that the doctors would do it properly, and be peaceful. This is what we need to do exactly to overcome anxiety. Never attempt to feed your anxious mind with the food that it likes, to grow itself into a beast that would destroy you in due course of time. Let us start to live for today, and never worry about tomorrow until tomorrow unveils itself.

Why working out in gym is a better option

1. You get variety of workouts like cardiovascular, strength training, flexibility exercises and high intensity workouts in a gym.
2. The variety of equipments in the gym would help you overcome the boredom and monotonous feel which is associated with a single activity like running or walking. A good gym would have an array of equipments including tread mills, elliptical, bikes, stretching and strength training equipments apart from facilities like steam bath, aerobics, yoga and Pilates.
3. There would be trainers to help you get started and guide you continuously. These trainers provide you with the much needed motivation.
4. When you exercise in a gym, you are inspired by rubbing shoulders with some very fit people who have a well toned body; thereby you are further pepped up.
5. Gyms provide you a weather proof environment as you don’t have to bother about sun or rain. You can work out at your convenient time.
6. Gyms provide you with the right environment for body building. As most of the gyms have dieticians and physios in-house, you get to consult with them and chart out a customized plan that is suitable for you.
7. The trainers and counsellors in the gym would periodically review your progress against your fitness goal. This serves as a good yardstick to measure your effort.
8. You get to work out in a cosy and nice environment with music and television which will help you to beat the boredom.
9. You can network with lot of people in a gym. You get to see people from various walks of life working out in the gym. You may spot a few celebrities too!
10. The feel good factor that you get while working out in a gym is a great one to have. You can keep talking about it with your friends and boost your image!

10 Reasons why you should have a well-toned body

1. You can fit yourself into some extremely stylish, trendy and cool clothing that is available in the market

2. You get that amazing feel good factor about yourself as you could flaunt your well-toned body.

3. Your body is very flexible and fitter, with great stamina to push yourself more than others in everything that you do.

4. Your prospects of getting a job are more, as fit and good looking people are easily absorbed by the corporates.

5. Your dream of becoming a pilot, a sports person, a model or anything that requires a well-toned body is within your reach. At least, you won’t be disqualified because of your physical stature.

6. You look and feel more charismatic in a social gathering.

7. You don’t have that awkward feeling of people looking at your protruding waist bulge.

8. You don’t have to keep adjusting your clothing to hide your “out of shape” areas.

9. Your confidence level increases and thereby you become smarter and sharper.

10. Last but not the least, your feeling of guilt that you look out of shape goes away.

Easy way to overcome stress and anxiety

I was speaking to a young man recently about the severe stress and anxiety that he is undergoing in his life, and he was very much concerned about the medications that he was taking as per the prescription of a psychiatrist. As we were conversing, I wanted to find out the reasons that led him to this state.He narrated that he had come to Chennai for his studies, and subsequently got a job and continued to live here.

He is married and has two kids, and altogether everything was going well for him except for his fight with anxiety and stress. As our conversation went a bit further, I came to know that he had very limited friends from his college days, and finds it very difficult to mingle with people. I also understood from him that he doesn’t have any hobbies, seldom goes out, and he does nothing to keep himself equipped and occupied.

He went on to continue that even at office, he doesn’t interact with many people, and is likes to get along with very select set of people who could match his interests. I just then realized that many of us are like this, grinding on with life without truly enjoying the colors and varieties that it offers.

We all take so many things into our mind everyday. This comprises of good, bad, positive, negative, sad and so many other unexplained inputs that clutter our mind. We know that if we eat so much, and leave our bodies without proper exercise for a long period of time, we start accumulating fat and become obese. Our bodies need to be exercised in order to burn the excess food so that we remain in perfect physical shape.

In the same way, we must work out our mind by following a good plan. Our mind is stretched when we give shape to our hobbies, passions, meeting up with our friends, striking new friendships and relationships, going out to enjoy the nature, helping others to overcome their struggles, volunteering to do community services, reading books, listening to our favorite music etc…

The bottom line is that excess mental food should be burnt off, and if we don’t indulge in activities to work the brain, stress, anxiety and depression would be looming large over us. Let us resolve today to kindle those childhood hobbies that we were so much interested during our younger days. If we don’t have much friends, let us go around and find some good friends who could help us to grow. Age doesn’t matter, as there are so many things on the offer for anybody to do, and keep themselves occupied. The world needs us and will we respond?

The importance of an early morning bath on off days

Weekends and holidays are a great time to have. We all plan to do so many things during this time, but most of the time we fail to accomplish those things, as we invariably wasted the best part of those days by dragging on our beds with stinking odor and a lazy mindset.

If we could do our work properly on a week day, then why is it that we are not able to do much during our off days? I thought about this, and found something which is very trivial, but hugely overlooked. Yes, I am speaking about an early bath, preferably in the morning. I have this habit of taking bath at 4 pm or 5 pm during the weekends and holidays, only to see that I had wasted the entire day without accomplishing anything.

Following are some of the benefits of an early morning bath during our off days

1. It freshens us up early in the day, and keeps us going

2. It gives us a feel good factor to go about with our plans

3. It brings lot of energy into us

4. It disciplines us

5. You don’t have that dirty feeling anymore

6. You would love to meet people as you are fresh and clean

I suggest all those who are reading to take a good bath during weekends and holidays, and dress up well before venturing into the scheduled activities. Trust me, it works wonders. Get away that stink off you! at the earliest,  and would would feel good and accomplish more.

The bulge of the waist and how to overcome it

There are a fortunate few who can eat a truck load of food, and still can avoid the dreaded bulge, and there are others who add pounds to their body even if they are conscious and eat with care. I don’t know to which category you belong, but I belong to the later category. There was a time in my life when I weighed a whopping 100 kgs, and found it very difficult to even walk a less distance.

Those were days when I never bothered about what I ate. I used to eat, not to satisfy my hunger but to satisfy my lusting appetite. They say that there is a “thin difference between need and splurge”. I used to splurge on food. I was very much fond of the street food, especially the roadside fried rice and chilly chicken. I used to devour two full portions all by myself. One day, a friend of mine, made me feel embarrassed, because of my weight. He said there is only one life, and “you should make sure you look neat and appealing to make the most out of it”.

These words really went into my heart. I started realizing the need of having a proper body structure to make sure I am healthy, and only then I could really be human, as there is a big difference in the way animals and humans eat (by the way I am speaking about weight gain due to poor and impulsive eating, and not related to hormonal or medical conditions). I wanted to become slim, and started exercising, which included joining some of the best gyms in Chennai, combined with regular walking, and paying moderate attention on the food intake.

Within a year, I could reduce my weight to 84 kgs, and I looked healthier. I was stuck at 84 kgs for another year, and found it very difficult to break through that plateau. I was determined to reduce it, and reduced my food intake further, and increased my exercise to 3 hours per day. This yielded great results and my weight dropped to 79 kgs. I felt very energetic, and was very happy.

I could not maintain this for a long time, as I am very poor in terms of discipline and planning. This increased the weight to 86 then to 90, and I am weighing close to 87 now. I was highly frustrated about it, and wanted to see why I am not able to maintain my weight consistently. I analysed it very seriously and found that though I had reduced my intake on the main course food (breakfast, lunch and dinner), I had increased my munching of snacks, especially in the night. I also found that I had gone down on exercising due to laziness and sheer negligence on weight control, thinking that it will not increase. I was thinking that I was looking perfectly in shape, until the weighing machine showed my pathetic state.

Here are a few things that I learnt along this journey.

1. Gyms won’t help much if you are not disciplined in eating. I have worked out for hours, and found that the weight never came down, as I used to compensate the workout by eating more, thinking that since I have exercised well, I can eat whatever I want.

2. Regular walking or moderate jogging (running if your body allows it) for at least 40 minutes per day works wonders

3. The 40 minutes can be divided even as 15 mins in the morning, 15 mins in the mid day, and 15 mins before bed

4. I used to walk inside my hall back and forth (This is a very good technique that I would suggest, as you could even watch TV, or listen to some inspiring songs or messages along the way), moreover, you could do this whenever you want. This could very well be an alternative to treadmill.

5. Walk as much as you can. Keep the body moving. If you are talking over mobile phone, keep walking and talk.

6. Eat your breakfast properly, followed by a good lunch. Have the dinner very light. There is a trick to have a light dinner. You can eat some light food around 6 or 7 pm, and thereby you wont be forced to eat a lot during the night.

7. Keep a check on what you eat, especially during family functions and festivals.

8. Try to have people who look slim around you, and they will motivate you to the core.

9. Have the urge to look slim, good and healthy

10. Sports is another helpful factor. You could play shuttle, volley ball, or go for a swim.

11. Those of you who have kids, spend time in physical activities with them

12. Drink plenty of water as it will control hunger

13. Indulge in pizza, ice cream, chocolates or briyani once in a week but take less portions, as too much restraint will lead to big craving and you know what happens after that 🙂

14. Take stairs whenever you have an option to take it

15. Go for a trek once in a while.

This is a long post, and thanks for the patient reading. It is very easy to put on weight, even without knowing it. Believe me, it is extremely tough to even lose 100 grams. To have a wonderful physical structure is a desire that each of should have, as it will help us to have good self esteem. Watch out on what you eat, step up the pedal with your exercise. You will see a fitter you, and you would love the sweat broken for it.

Enjoy your excercise

One of the definition that I like about excercise is ” To put in practice; to carry out in action”. We are living in a period of time where life has become mechanical and we consider each thing as a burden right from the work we do to the food we eat. This could lead to frustration and boredom on the longer run. Anything we do with compulsion and without our free will won’t settle in us for long.

Let me get to the point of excercising. If you ask someone who jogs on the road or works out in a gym about the reason for excercising, the answer mostly would be to lose weight, to build muscles, to reduce the stress etc…different people have different reasons to excercise. But how do we approach our excercise session?. Do we consider it as a “task” that has to be some how completed by putting our body to pain and exerting sweat out of it?. Well, for some, the amount of sweat generated  is the effectiveness of the work out session.

Let me share with you a few things that would help us doing excercises with fun. First of all, never consider excercise as a “task”. It is our necessity. I dont think nobody would grumble to have the best meal and spend the evening watching a movie. Likewise we should approach our excercise session without any preconceived thoughts like “I should lose this much weight” or “I should run 4 km” or “I should do 100 pushups”. This would cause disappointment. Instead even if are walking for 500 meters, do it with all your heart. Believe me, you would like to do it as the first thing the next morning.

If you do strength training with the minimum weight, dont worry. Tomorrow you can always increase it. It is always better to start with less weights than starting out with a bang and then losing interest in it. Listen to your body when you do the work outs. If there is any pain or discomfort, push no longer. Relax and take rest. The logic is simple, if your body doesn’t complain of anything, you will enjoy excercising. Make sure that you do it the right way.

To hit the gym or not

These days fitness has become an integral part of life. We all want to be in perfect shape and stamina. It is said that atleast 150 minutes of excercise is needed for our body each week. Another fact tells us that 10000 steps each day keeps us healthy. You count the minutes or the steps, the fact is that there has to be simply some activity that you need to be engaged in.

There are various ways to get these physical activities. The most popular way is hitting the gym. There are numerous gyms or fitness centers that have propped up all around us. Now the million dollar question is, Should I join a gym? or can I jog on the road and do pushups, lift dumb bells, do some core abs excercises at home?. I have gone through this dilemma many times and have done both. Yes, I have joined atleast 3 gyms and I have also excercised regularly at home for a considerable amount of time.

Let me share my thoughts based on my experiences. Gym is a good option if you are not a self motivated person. You will get motivated when you see others sweat it out at the gym. All it takes is the dedication to go to the gym daily!. You get various forms of excercises in the gym. Treadmills, ellipticals, excercise bikes, rowers are some of the cardio excercises. These gyms also have excellent strength training equipments that provide work outs to various parts of the body. In addition, if you want you can have a personal trainer and dietician who would help a great deal. Apart from these gyms also provide facilities for steam bath and aerobics. But all these come at a cost. The cost varies from gym to gym depending upon the locality and the quality of the equipments. The annual package in a good gym would be on an average 13k to 17 K rupees. One most important thing to keep in mind is that gyms are weather proof, you need not worry about rain or hot sunshine!

If you dont want to shell out that money, there is the option of running/walking in a park or a road followed by a routine of abs, dumb bells, pushups and squats at home. The advantage of this form is that you get to breathe the fresh air and that too early morning strolls are awesome. If you are disciplined and well planned you could mark the days for jogging and on alternate days do the strength training excercises at home. You need to select a good place to walk or jog. A road with less traffic, a park, beach are some of the places that you could choose and you can change the place quite often to prevent the boredom. Get a good pair of jogging shoes and tracks, and you are well set to start your day.

Well, you can choose either of the ways and in my opionion both are equal. But the key factor is discipline. If you are disciplined enough to allot a specific time of the day for excercising, then you will have a better body and mind.