Lifestyle 6 - Social Responsibility

As members of society, we have a responsibility to make our surroundings a better place. We know that stress increases when we have a poor relationship with our neighbours.

There are two ways in which this can be done: by charity (dana) and by interdiction (ensuring social norms are followed by all). The latter is harder because, before we regulate the behaviour of others, we need to be close to perfection ourselves.

Dana (charity): giving to the less fortunate. There are various types of dana’s;

a. Anna Dana (Feeding people): Anna in Sanskrit means food. One should try to share one’s food with others. There are no rules and one could contribute to the extent of one’s capability. If you can afford it, feed others; if you cannot, participate in poor feeding through service.

b. Vastra Dana (Clothing others): Many poor people they live on old clothes. Hence, this dana is important. It is also a simple one to do. One could regularly prune ones wardrobe and remove clothes not in use and give them to the needy. It is important here that the clothes should have decent service life and not be unusable or very old.

c. Vidya Dana (Charity of education): We can support the education of others by teaching others, paying for their education or getting them education material.

d. Lakshmi Dana (Donating money): This is one of the most flexible of charities because the money can be used for any purpose. Generally, the best way to do this is to budget an amount and give it on a regular basis to causes that we hold dear.

Activism: Society also needs people to keep a check on observance of general etiquette without being intrusive. Unless we actively ensure that laws are obeyed and rules appropriate to the requirements, civil society will break down. It is hard to point out where one should draw the line, but participation is a must.

Environment: This aspect has been abused in our path to progress. Every individual is responsible for the upkeep and well-being of the environment he lives in, not just as plant and animals, but also by way of air and water pollution and cleanliness.

Share your opinion and experiences

• Do you participate in any charity work?

• How do you feel when you share?

• What kind to charity do you do?

• Do you interact with your neighbours?

• Do you participate in all functions in your neighbourhood?

• Do you canvass for the betterment of the environment in your neighbourhood?

• When you find people are not following accepted rules of society, do you try to rectify the situation?

Lifestyle 5 - Family

The family is our first-line stress shock absorber. We can unwind only where we are comfortable and home is where comfort starts. It has been proven that people from strong homes make better decisions. Invest in the home & relationships. Home can include siblings, parents, children & cousins, depending on one’s comfort level

Share your opinion and experiences

• How much time do you spend with your family?

• Do you regularly celebrate various events in the family?

• Do you have at least one meal together?

• Do you share your experiences with your family?

• Do you involve your family in all major decisions?

• Do you travel together as a family?

• Are you in touch with your relatives?

Lifestyle 4 - Sleep

Sleep deprivation is a confirmed source of stress. Sleep acts to blot out experiences, both good & bad. It rests the muscles and rejuvenates the body. The essential organs of the body - heart, kidneys, liver etc. - use this time to cleanse the system without interference. When sleep is deprived, fatigue impairs decision making, adding to stress. Try to get at least 6 hrs of unbroken sleep in a comfortable place. Wear comfortable clothes so that there is no strain on the body.

Share your opinion and experiences

• What is your sleep pattern?

• Do you get at least 6-8 hours of unbroken sleep?

• Do you meditate before sleeping?

• Do you wear loose & clean clothes before sleeping?

• Do you ensure that your last meal is light and you have given at least one hour after the meal before going to sleep?

• Do you avoid exercise before sleeping?

Lifestyle 3 - Diet

It is important to remember that we are what we eat. Food is a major source of nutrition. Nutrients that are absorbed by the body can only come from what we eat. Therefore, it is important that in order to preserve our health, we adopt not just the right foods but also the correct eating habits. Poor food habits lead to ill-heath and contribute to stress.

It is important to understand the process of digestion. Food is broken down into manageable pieces in the mouth and mixed with enzymes for digestion. This is why chewing of the food & mixing it with saliva is so important. The food is then swallowed and goes into the stomach.

As the food enters the stomach, signals are sent so that more enzymes are released into the stomach and additional blood is sent to the stomach muscles for complete mixing of the food & for separating the nutrients. Therefore, for proper digestion, we must ensure that we do not overload the stomach with food and that there is adequate water in the stomach for easy movement of the food within it.

The half-digested food then moves into the intestines where the nutrients are absorbed. Food with adequate roughage ensures that food does not stick to the walls of the intestines but moves forward for absorption and evacuation.

Expulsion of waste is a very important element of digestion and oftens determines the health of the person.

Some rules that should be followed are:

Eat in a pleasant atmosphere. Set time apart for eating, eat in a pleasant location and eat silently or in the company of people you are comfortable with.

Eat at regular intervals. The body needs nourishment at regular intervals. Very often, trapped in the rush of deadlines, we either forget to eat or eat irregularly and at odd hours.

Always sit down and eat. Eating on the run may add nutrients, but is upsets the subtle psychosomatic balance of the body. This causes stress.

Eating right. People doing hard, physical labour should eat food that gives them the energy and strength to do the job. People with sedentary jobs must eat lighter food. Similarly, young people need more concentrated nutrition while older people need less.

Chew your food. Chewing reduces food into manageable portions and ensures proper mixing of saliva, a key element in digestion.

Never eat to a full stomach. Space in the stomach must include room for the movement and exhaustion of gas. The recommendation is that one must eat to 75% capacity of the stomach.

Never eat between meals. When food is ingested between meals, the stomach, unable to differentiate between old and new food will push both into the intestine, thereby defeating the purpose of eating… to provide nutrition.

From WHO-Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health

• For diet, recommendations for populations and individuals should include the following:

• Achieve energy balance and a healthy weight.

• Limit energy intake from total fats and shift fat consumption away from saturated fats to unsaturated fats and towards the elimination of trans-fatty acids.

• Increase consumption of fruits and vegetables, and legumes, whole grains & nuts.

• Limit the intake of free sugars.

• Limit salt (sodium) consumption from all sources and ensure that salt is iodized.

The water balance: 85% of the human body constitutes water. Water imbalance can cause a variety of illness like fatigue, kidney stones, constipation etc.

a. Drink at least 2 litres of water every day.

b. Sip warm water. It massages the stomach muscles and aids digestion.

Weight Control: It is healthy to be within your weight range as given above as at this weight, all functions of the body are performing to design for most people.

Height to Weight Range
	Men	Women
Height	Weight	Weight
(Feet and Metres)	(kgs)	(kgs)
5'-0" (1.523 m)	50.8 - 54.4	50.8 - 54.4
5'-1" (1.548 m)	51.7 - 55.3	51.7 - 55.3
5'-2" (1.574 m)	56.3 - 60.3	53.1 - 56.7
5'-3" (1.599 m)	57.6 - 61.7	54.4 - 58.1
5'-4" (1.624 m)	58.9 - 63.5	56.3 - 59.9
5'-5" (1.650 m)	60.8 - 65.3	57.6 - 61.2
5'-6" (1.675 m)	62.2 - 66.7	58.9 - 63.5
5'-7" (1.700 m)	64.0 - 68.5	60.8 - 65.3
5'-8" (1.726 m)	65.8 - 70.8	62.2 - 66.7
5'-9" (1.751 m)	67.6 - 72.6	64.0 - 68.5
5'-10" (1.777 m)	69.4 - 74.4	65.8 - 70.3
5'-11" (1.802 m)	71.2 - 76.2	67.1 - 71.7
6'-0" (1.827 m)	73.0 - 78.5	68.5 - 73.9
6'-1" (1.853 m)	73.3 - 80.7	73.3 - 80.7
6'-2" (1.878 m)	77.6 - 83.5	77.6 - 83.5
6'-3" (1.904 m)	79.8 - 85.9	79.8 - 85.9

Share your opinion and experiences

• What is your diet pattern?

• Do you eat healthily?

• Do you eat on time?

• Do you ensure inclusion of all important nutrients in your diet?

• Do you drink adequate water?

• Do you keep a check on your weight?

Lifestyle 2 - Exercise (Asana)

Stress is a state of increased arousal (fight or flight) that nature designed for us to defend ourselves in danger. Today’s pace results in arousals in quick succession with no time for stand-down or dissipation of the arousal. So, our bodies remain in a constant state of arousal. Unless dissipated, this leads to breakdown of the body. Exercise is the easiest way to dissipate this energy.

There are many ways of exercising, from the humble walk to complex aerobic workouts. What is important is that any exercise should contain the following elements: warm-up, work-out, cool-down and breathing techniques. It should be done regularly, have a component of stretching and aerobics and be done for a duration of atleast 20 minutes.

Share your opinion and experiences

• Do you have an exercise routine? Do you have a schedule?

• Does your exercise routine have elements of warm-up, work-out and cool-down?

• Does your exercise routine have exercises for every system of your body such as internal organs, muscles, circulatory system, nervous system etc?

• Do you ensure that your stomach is empty when you are working out?

• Do you experiment with various exercise routines?

• Do you constantly monitor your body’s vital parameters such as weight, BP etc when exercising?

• Do you stop exercising when you are tired or in pain?

Lifestyle 1 - Time Management

Get the most out of your day, live life fully.

The great equality of life is that we have all been given 24 hours to achieve what we want with our lives. When we use time wisely, we get a feeling that we are maximizing all our opportunities. When we don’t use time well, we get loaded with work that we find we are unable to complete, and get stressed.

The key to good living starts with knowing what we want from life. Needless to say, it is not necessary that we will get what we want; but we would have got the satisfaction of deciding what we want and trying hard to get it.

When setting our goals, it is important that we consider our strengths, for it is easier to achieve goals that are naturally aligned to our birth, upbringing, social influences and education that constitute our dharma and svabhava.

The key to effective time management is addition of value. By action that adds value, we mean any action that takes us closer to our life goal.

For most of us, our goals are many, but our resources limited, so, we find that we have to balance our ambitions with our resources, which means sacrifice of either our life goal or sensible apportioning of our resource. One way is to allocate time and resources such that we get maximum value for the effort that we put in is by “Doing first things first; prioritizing”.

Share your opinion and experiences

• What is management of time?

• Why is it important?

• How do you manage time personally?

• Is there a simple way to manage time?

• Is ambition important? Why?

• How do we increase our effectiveness?

Lifestyle Balance

As we try to achieve our dreams, our life becomes a blur of events. Often, this chase of the big dream means us having to sacrifice many of our smaller dreams, which over time, results in our feeling a lack of fulfillment, giving rise to stress.

Generally, work becomes central to our life and achievement drives our sense of self worth. Success often comes from our ability to achieve results through resources, often inadequate or of lower ability. This results in sub-optimal solutions resulting in increased stress as we fall behind in our achievements.

When this is faced off against our ambitions, there is a tremendous sense of frustration and stress. This stress can be destructive and needs to be addressed.

Finally, as we age, we find that the duties that we neglected fill us with a feeling of inadequacy and lack of being in control with our lives. Also, the essential relationships that we neglected begin to make us feel guilty, or result in issues beyond our control, such as damage in relationships. While we try to catch up with people and relationships, we often find that the moment has been lost. We succeed sometimes, but often we are left with the dregs of what might have been a good relationship. Is there an alternative way of living? Can we balance our daily routine and live a stress free life?

We can achieve balance in life, but we must recognize that such balance requires sacrifice and compromise, and this is not easy, our ability to live a good life-and often our need to succeed-will have to be recalibrated.

Balance consists of balancing two elements - Our desires with our resources. When material resources are low, desires need to be adjusted to the resources available. But, when the resource is “us”, then the yardstick for effective utilization is time and activity.

Share your opinion and experiences

• What is the best way to balance our lives?

• How do you balance your life?

• What does one have to sacrifice in order to live a balanced life?

• Work-Life balance! What does this mean?

• How important is ambition to happiness and peace of mind?

Niyama 6 - Referencing

We do not have answers to all of life’s situations; hence it is important that we either have an anchor with whom we bounce our thoughts or friends in similar situation who can support us through the process. Books also help a lot and reading clears a lot of concepts.

Talking to people, checking backgrounds and getting multiple inputs is a normal process at work, but often, people neglect to do this in their personal lives. We bounce off an idea with a friend and then plunge into decision making. This can cause grief, because, as the saying goes, appearances can be deceptive.

Share your opinion and experiences

• How often do you reference?

• For which kinds of decision do you reference?

• What medium do you use for referencing?

• Do you have a basic referencing tool at home that you access regularly?

• When you reference with people, do you only reference with people you like or do you look for the person with best qualifications to advise you?

• Do you use the internet for referencing?

• What do you do when the advise given is counter to your natural inclination?

Niyama 5 - Accountability

How often do we see people saying one thing and doing something different or doing something and running away when something goes wrong or blaming others when things go wrong?

Any Karma (action) results in an impact on others. Our ability to accept and willingness to accept responsibility for our actions ensures that we are constantly striving to reduce the negative impact of our actions.

Impact should be gauged by the impact our Karma has on the the Dharma of those we are interacting. When there is alignment of our Dharma with others, there is a win-win solution. This results in Eustress.

When our Dharma does not match that of others, then our Karma should be full of sensitivity and rationality. This is done by separating the action from the personality through communication. This reduces perception of threat and consequently, stress!

What is important to note is that this review should be done for both animate and inanimate beings because our actions impact both, perhaps in varying degrees. It is often said that those who cannot protect themselves need to be managed with more sensitivity than others.

Share your opinion and experiences

• How do we recognize that others are getting uncomfortable with us?

• What is the role of accountability in our lives?

• How does accountability change as we age and with situation?

• What is the relationship between accountability and responsibility?

• What is the relationship between accountability and authority?

• What is the relationship between accountability and power?

• Does accountability have anything in common with capability?