Eat right, heal yourself

Imagine you’re at a hospital observing patients, faces pale and tired, some on life-support systems and others swathed in bandages. Imagine an intense light with healing power, pouring into the room. As their inflammations subside and pains vanish, the patients are sure to feel a new energy enter them. This is called natural healing and this can be done by preparing the body for a crisis.

Let’s do it by adopting universal practices that balance and harmonise our physical, mental and spiritual qualities.

Song of the sun: Say these words aloud every morning: ‘My body, mind and spirit are in harmony. My heart is filled with joy. All my afflictions will dissolve. My mind is calm, my body is relaxed, and my spirit is at ease with the world. Peace flows through my prana. Life circulates as a river of oxygen through my body — cleansing, healing and purifying. Let this be my healing light every day’.

Unpeel the fruit of immunity: Eat an orange daily to boost your immunity. Offer it to friends and family. There’s beauty and healing in sharing an orange. There’s comfort in sharing good health, good times and goodwill.

Go green: Eat plenty of greens — spinach, methi, etc. Greens contain chlorophyll that captures and stores sunlight in the body. Without chlorophyll, there would be no life.

Combine food products wisely: The body spends a large amount of energy digesting a meal. This is because we consume inappropriately-matched food items.
Here are some simple steps to ensure your body is always energised:

* Avoid fats
* Skip refined sugar. Choose nutrient-dense jaggery or honey
* Eat a fruit by itself, never as dessert
* Never combine proteins with carbohydrates. Meat, pulses, nuts or milk should not be combined with starchy carbohydrates such as potatoes or cereals. Proteins need acidic and alkaline juices to break them down. When acidic and alkaline juices are secreted together, they disrupt the process of digestion and the body either suffers from acidity, gas or painful inflammations that weaken immunity over a period of time.
*The protein-salad-vegetable combo or the cereal-salad-vegetable combo facilitates easy digestion, thus ensuring a more efficient, energetic and quick-to-recuperate body.

Exercise regularly. Breathe consciously so that the rehearsed rhythm brings peace and wellbeing. Set aside an hour in the morning or evening to exercise. This will help you welcome the healing light of ananda into yourself.

Meditate to acquire spiritual stability and mental toughness. This will keep illness from entering your system. Practise ‘nature meditation’. Walk barefoot on grass. Enjoy connecting with your surroundings.

The writers are authors of the book, ‘Fitness for Life’ and teachers of the ‘Fitness for Life’ programme.