Quick Reads From Awakening Wholeness: a book that helps young leaders develop compassion for Myself, Others and The Earth.
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Dr. Pravin Chordia trained as a doctor. He did his MBBS and then his Masters in Surgery. He went on to become a brilliant surgeon, following the conventional trajectory of a good career in medicine. However, he slowly began to understand that there’s a deeper part to health. That it has more to do with the air, the sunlight, nutrition, and other things. And then he formed a movement called Medicine Free Life (MFL). It was a joy to spend time with him and his team at the MFL campus called the “Serene Eco Village”, located close to Velhe, overlooking the backwaters of the Gunjawani Dam.
It’s a beautiful five- and-a-half-hour drive from Pune, India. What you read in this chapter is largely inspired by Dr. Pravin Chordia’s work. He offers some basic tips for good health in the form of an acronym:
ANSWER — Air, Nutrition, Sunlight, Water, Exercise, and Rest. Let’s look at each one of these in more detail.
Exercise
Plan at least 150 minutes of moderate-paced exercise each week; that means breaking a sweat and getting your heart rate up. The benefits of exercise are numerous: stress relief, improved mood, protection against depression, stronger muscles and bones, a more robust immune system, a healthier weight, and better metabolism. Exercise keeps blood sugars in check and insulin working well, lowers blood pressure and cholesterol, and assists the body in getting rid of toxins.
Psychologists agree that physical exercise can improve mental health. According to an article by Sarah Gingell in Psychology Today, “Increasingly robust evidence suggests that exercise is not only necessary for the maintenance of good mental health, but it can be used to treat even a chronic mental illness.” The reason for this, scientists say, is that exercise helps your brain release chemicals called endorphins, which help trigger a sense of well-being.
“On the treatment side, exercise appears to be as good as existing pharmacological interventions across a range of conditions, such as mild to moderate depression, dementia, and anxiety,” Gingell concluded.
Something is always better than nothing; start small, with attainable goals, and work up from there as you get stronger. Don’t let an all- or-nothing mentality rob you of doing what you can manage each day or week, starting now.
Exercises like the Suryanamaskar (Sun Salutations) or the Tibetan Rites cover all parts of the body and can be done in a short span of time.
