Care for Adults in the times of Corona

Adulthood is a stage of challenges and juggling many aspects of life in its full blast everyday. Work! Children! Children’s education! Finances! Household! Health! Entertainment! And Relationships are all together and all at once!How does one care for all of this mindfully and be healthy at the same time? How to break the cycle of stress and fear of disease? Especially during Covid-19 Pandemic affecting ‘us’.

Here is my proposal to you for a possible routine for better health and possible outlook of life to be concerned and yet fearless.Here are some proposals for a holistic outlook of life:

1. Every spiritual, behavioural, intellectual and occupational situation that affects us at social, familial, and personal level is indicator that we need to ‘think creatively’, relook priorities and cross our own ‘mental barriers’ of things we name as ‘ impossible or irrelevent’.
2. Its time to come out of ‘mental comfort’ and take ownership of ‘ones’ learnings’ that one needs to do at individual and family level.
3. Its time to accept ‘change’ as a natural law of Nature.
4. Pandemic is a result of ‘Janpaddhwans’ or Global disorder a result of ‘mankinds actions’. It is not to fear, but to introspect what we have done collectively, and what needs to be added.
5. Maybe ‘health and education’ of children and adults needs to be focussed at family level too. Ask yourself, how much do you really know about ‘being healthy’ and how much do you really implement? Is education of your child restricted to only school, or are we being conscious parents too? Ask yourself, how much do I ‘really’ know about myself and about my family members and friends?

If a shift happens in ones’ perspective, then this is how the diet and routine would look like-

1. Having a diet in accordance to being seasonal & regional not only supports human health and but also is insync with Nature ( as pollution and use of fertilisers for growing exotic veggies in distant places, reduce).
2. Having a lifestyle that values and includes physical labour-exercise-Yogaasan as a need of human body and mind. And along with it ‘Self-massage’, meditation, self-reflection, family discussions, cooking and eating together as antidote of ‘loneliness’ and medicine for ‘holistic living’.
3. If activities like cleaning, to spending time to ‘listen to each other’,becomes a ‘celebration’, a valuable act, then our society is bound to move towards ‘holistic living’.

Now lets talk about the specific phyiscal care adults need during Covid-19 Pandemic.Here are some proposals:

1. Hygiene!
2. Sleep cycle in sychrony with sunrise and sunset. If you are facing acidity, weakness, constipation, headache, and allergic rhinitis, then you might want to align yourself to Nature. Sleeping by 10pm and waking up in the morning with the sun balances the Pitta-Vata-Kaph!
   3a. Choose fresh-warm cooked food, over raw food! This is to avoid Vata imbalance and prevent parasitic infestions in the body.
   3b. Also avoid curd, paneer, eggs and red meat as it would aggravate Kaph-Pitta, and create an environment conducive for infections.
3. Nasya- applying 2-3 drops of sesame oil or any regional oil in the nasal passages helps to ensure balance of Kaph dosh, prevents allergic sneezes, and frequent colds too. You could do this, once after bath!
4. Chew Ginger to overcome distaste of mouth! But avoid this if you have Heat-issues or constipation.
5. Everyday have a glass full of Water having over-night soaked Coriander-Jeera seeds in it. This will help ‘aam-paachan’ and hence prevent acidity, loss of appetite.
6. Jal-Neti helps to clean the sinuses and the nasal passage too! Doing twice a week is beneficial to keep a ‘stuffy nose’ at bay! ( kindly learn Jal-Neti before doing it.)
7. Pranayam- Not the least, but most subtle of all! It motivates each cell to remove ‘unnecessary’ metabolites and improve the ‘prana’ or life-force in it. (Kindly do Pranayam only after learning).

Practicing these regularly supports the body multifold!