Tag: sleep

Post : Stillness 👤

by drjurisharma, posted in healing, health, mental health, Science, wellness

Hello Everyone ! Happy Friday 🌼 and have a great weekend ahead 🙋🏻

Every day, in this hustle-bustle of life, there is too much noise to ever be in silence. The cacophony of sounds distract us all the time and our mind is filled with too many overcrowded thoughts. By the end of the day, you are too exhausted physically and mentally with this craziness. But then, can this drama of the outer world ever pause? The answer is yes, unless, we allow ourselves to be paused and listen to the silence.

Yes, the essence of being silent in stillness even for a short time can be a source of great strength, highly rejuvenating not just mentally but physically too. It gives you the much-needed fuel before you step into a new day. We feel stillness is difficult behind all the distractions. Everything gets in our way. It’s only when we become aware and learn to listen to the stillness, we get time to truly rest.

The best day to practise stillness is right from today. Each morning or evening or summer or winter has its kind of stillness. Sitting or lying down, after breathing deeply with eyes closed, away from noises and trying to follow up your natural breaths for some time will let your life simply, drawn into this darkness where there is no limitations or constraints. Though it may sound simple, it isn’t that easy. But then, this is a practice. Initially, you are so caught up with thoughts that the mind slips for tomorrow’s meeting, the emails that you have to check, you have to meet up a friend, your next meal to be prepared come all your way. I know my friends, this is a little difficult, as you are trying to focus on nothing and there isn’t any goal to reach.

You start forming a habit when you are doing every day for a couple of minutes. Some days are difficult with too much clutter of thoughts while some days are easy to focus. That’s all ok, my dear friends. As the days pass by, you will learn to enjoy this silence, the peace. The darkness within this stillness has much more to say than anything else. I have tried myself and am still learning and enjoying the process. You will experience inner peace and wisdom, your spiritual growth. This is what people call as meditation or the sacred stillness is all about.

I have already talked about the science point of view ( in some of my previous posts) what meditation, stillness bring about changes in the brain and also in the physical wellbeing (reduces inflammation).
Practising stillness also helps in a better quality of sleep. So, the benefits are plenty. I am not exactly using the term “meditation” as there are several methods of guided thought meditations. Here, I am simply talking about the stillness, listening to the silence which helps to nourish us both physically and mentally. It gives us a deeper sense of connectedness, perhaps with the Divine.

Whether or not, to practise stillness or meditation is entirely our choice to make. We can start listening to silence and practise stillness or continue to hide from it.

Thanks for reading.

Blessings and much love to all 💐

Post : Emotions affects physical health 🙇🏻‍♀️ 4 ways to better handle your emotional wellbeing.

by drjurisharma, posted in body, health, lifestyle, dietary, exercise, herbs, water, liver, stroke, cancer, hepatitis, cognitive health, Diwali, fear, pain, emotions, healing, health, mental health, spiritual, wellness

Hello Everyone ! Have a great day 🙋🏻

Your body is not a single entity. It is a community of 50 trillion cells which behaves the way you think, feel and act. When you are in good emotional health, your healthy mental state influence every cell of your body to grow, function healthily and die in normal cyclical order. Again, new cells born and the cycle goes on. But, then this is an ideal situation.

Today, life is full of stressful and unwanted changes. Some of these events like a job change, job stress, death of loved one, divorced or any such situations create a stronger sense of anxiety, sadness, pain which can completely disrupt your emotional health. With emotions running high, your physical health gets affected causing you to develop high blood pressure, hormonal imbalances, stomach ulcers, weight issues etc. Not only this, your immune system gets affected greatly. You are more prone to disease and illness. So, how do we deal with this?

Controlling our external environment, or the circumstances and events in life is not within our control. There is nothing we can do about it. The only thing we have control is on our emotions, thoughts which do influence our physical health.

4 ways to handle better your emotional state:

1.Resilience: Always keep having a positive view of self. Love yourself and understand your self-worth. This helps in creating a security blanket around yourself. Having strong social support, being close to your loved ones, friends do matter. Learning to accept change in the environment, and keeping everything in proper perspective is important. Not everything in life will happen as per your will. All these mindsets help in building resilience to deal with any situations healthily.

2.A balanced life: Always count on your Blessings and gratefulness. Focus on things in your life for which you are grateful. Try not to get obsessed with anything like job pressure, relationship issues, problems at work or at home. Because things do change with time. Let go of the things which are stressful to your life and make time for things which you can enjoy. Create a balance in your life which helps you, in your both, emotional and physical health.

3.Calm your mind: There is a strong mind-body connection. The more your mind is calmer, the more you are stressfree and enjoy a healthier body. Always, make time to engage yourself in mind activity like meditation, listening to calm music, deep breathing, stretching or Yoga.

4.Self-care: To take care of emotional health, try taking care of your physical health by following a healthy routine of eating healthy, sleep, exercise. Releasing pent up emotions by sharing with loved ones and friends is important too. Exercising also helps in letting out pent up emotions.

Thanks for reading.

Much love to all 💐

Post : Meditation minimizes Inflammation 🙌

by drjurisharma, posted in brain, cognitive health, emotional health, happy, happiness, wellness, seratonin, dopamine, sunlight, endorphins, healing, health, life, meditation, inflammation, disease, physical health, mental health, wellbeing, mental health, nature, Science, wellness

Hello everyone ! Hope everybody is doing great 🙍🏻

We know by now that chronic inflammation is the commonest cause of various disease state in the body. Inflammation is a natural attempt of our body ‘s immune system to fight against a certain state like infections, injury or toxins which can harm the body. It is a defence system.

When cell damages, your body releases chemicals in the form of antibodies and protein to combat the threat and increases the blood supply to the damaged area to fasten the healing. This usually lasts for a few days and is called acute inflammation. But when the response lingers for a long time can be harmful to the body. In the chronic inflammatory state, the body goes into a constant state of threat. This is the state responsible for many diseases ranging from cancers, asthma, heart diseases, stroke, diabetes and even Alzheimer’s disease.

Chronic inflammation is influenced mainly by chronic stress, anxiety, prolonged infection, injury, autoimmune diseases (like type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, Psoriasis and many more), long exposure to toxins and lifestyle factors like smoking, obesity, alcoholism.

Physically, maintaining the health of the body by eating an anti-inflammatory healthy diet (antioxidant-rich ), exercise, Yoga, sleep helps the body greatly to prevent and defend from the inflammatory state.
But then, this is not enough, our environment, our thoughts, feelings, emotions are equally important for healthy mental health, responsible to prevent and defend the body from the inflammatory state. So, how do we maintain a sound, calm mind in spite of all the day to day triggers of stress from our daily grind?

Several types of research have found that meditation-like mindful practises does reduce inflammation by impacting in the brain ‘s functional connectivity. Stress reduction mindfulness practices have shown a marked reduction in inflammatory biomarkers like C reactive proteins.

Learning and practising meditation isn’t rocket science. We don’t need a special session under an expert or Guru to learn to meditate. It is simply a state with the least distraction and freeing the mind from the clutter of thoughts. It is making an effort to put our mind in a relaxed, calm and “nothing” state. There are loads of books, reading materials and videos on Youtube and other channels of guiding and teaching you to meditate. But for me, self learning and adopting my method to relax my mind and meditate , works better. Just devote some time for yourself everyday, away from all distractions.

Mindfulness too greatly helps the mind to free from the thoughts clutter. Like meditation, you don’t need to go to a “no thought” state. Instead, you remain fully aware of your surrounding, yet not being reactive to it. It is a basic human ability to be fully present at the moment. Like being simply aware of your breaths, or simply focussing on whatever task you are performing at the moment.

To conclude, whether you may meditate or learn to practise mindfulness, the main purpose is to clear your mind from unnecessary thoughts clutter. This helps your mind greatly from going into chronic stress and overthinking. Maintaining a calm and relaxed mind not only prevent unnecessary inflammation but nurture the physical body and is also self healing.

Thanks for reading.

Blessings and much love to all 💐

Post: 7 basic advice 🙏 for gut health 🤗

by drjurisharma, posted in canned food, constipation, bowels, colon, bowel movements, bowel disease, dairy, curd, yogurt, deep fried food, Food, french fries, gut health, gut bacteria, hormones, Gastrointestinal, GI tract, healing, health, Science, wellness

Researches show Gut health accounts to almost 70% of the body’s immunity. It’s an ecosystem of about 40 trillion microorganisms, living inside your body plays a vital role in almost every biological functions in your body. Therefore, it goes to show, how important a role, gut health plays every day to keep you healthy and strong from any kinds of diseases and sickness.

Too many information, too many dietary advice floating on the internet, not only makes you confuse but sometimes even give wrong information or just misleading information.

7 basic science backed recommendations for gut health :

1.There is no such thing called “The healthy diet”. If one diet works for one person may not work for another person. Therefore, the only basic dietary advice can be you should eat enough of plant-based food. You should feed yourself with varieties of veggies and fruits, preferably fresh and locally available. Probiotic foods are also gut friendly. Remember, you have a huge colony of microbes in your gut. If some may prefer some kind of food, other microbes may like some other kind of food. This way, you can make them happy and they work together for your stronger health.

Sugar foods

2.Big “NO” to sugar: Just say, “NO” to sugar and all artificial sweeteners. The natural sweetness in fruits and veggies and also natural sweeteners like honey, maple syrup is not that harmful. Otherwise, sugar alters the composition and functions of natural gut microbes and becomes the feast for harmful bacteria and fungus-like Candida.

3. Say “NO” to processed food and food with preservatives. Harmful preservatives (Like polysorbate 80, carboxymethylcellulose ) alter the composition of gut microbes. Genetically Modified food (bioengineered food) are also very harmful to gut health because they use some kind of pesticides while growing them. Common GMO food is corn, soy, some veggies like zucchini, squash. So, organic, or naturally grown veggies and fruits are best.

3. Avoid popping up pills: Say no to antibiotics and NSAIDs (aspirin, Advil ) as far as possible. Both these drugs alter the composition and function of the gut microbiome. Use it only when necessary.

4.Please quit smoking: Studies have shown that smoking causes alteration in the composition of the gut microbiome. Therefore, another reason added to the list to quit smoking.

5 Get out in Nature: People living the sedentary city lives, hardly come across varieties of microbiomes. So, the only way to expose yourself to varieties of microbes, a wider ecosystem is going out in nature, spending as much time, going hiking, biking and lot more of physical activities.

6.Have a pet at home, that also helps to increase your microbiome diversity.

7. Routine advice: Get plenty of quality sleep of 7-8 hours, exercise and eat in scheduled time preferably. All of them contribute to your gut health.

Thanks for reading.

Much love to all 💐

Post: Consciousness😇: 4 interesting facts.

by drjurisharma, posted in healing, health, mental health, Science, wellness

Hello everyone ! Have a great Monday 🙋🏻

Not going by any standard definition, consciousness, actually is a continuous flow of thoughts that is running non-stop within the brain with regard to both objective and subjective experiences in the world. It is an ever-changing process, shifting from one thought to another moment by moment.

Your conscious thoughts are based on your experiences, emotions and feelings associated, sensation about this world. And it is continuously changing.

One moment you are sitting on your desk for work, another moment you are anxious about tomorrow’s meeting, the next moment you smile remembering a sweet memory from your recent holiday, then you focus on your work, but at the same time your thought shift about meeting your friend at lunchtime. It is a continuous flow of thoughts.

Consciousness has been a topic of research and discussions for many decades for scientists, psychologists and philosophers. Many studies are done on the state of consciousness during sleep, meditation, dreaming, hallucinations and so on. Different theories and different understandings have been expressed. Still tons of studies are going on. It is an ever-evolving field.

4 Interesting facts on Consciousness:

1.Awareness is the most important aspect of consciousness. It is your awareness that makes you conscious about the unique flow of thoughts that shift from one moment to another about your experiences, memories, feelings of both subjective and objective world. Your consciousness is so ingrained in you that it becomes a part of who you are. It is this consciousness of yours which makes you aware of what is right or wrong and help you make opinions, choices, decisions in any aspect of life.

2.Parts of the brain: Brain imaging studies have been successful to determine which parts of the brain are responsible for consciousness. It is a series of neuronal exchanges within the neural pathways in the brain which contribute to your state of consciousness. Since, there is an interplay of much neuronal exchange, so when a person has a localised brain damage, consciousness is not lost but can be changed or reoriented.

Cerebral Cortex: It is the most important part of consciousness. This part of the brain is responsible for understanding, analysing, perception, execution and control of voluntary actions. That is the reasons in case of very small children (up to 6-7 years of age), they remain in a hypnosis state of consciousness as their cortex is not fully developed. As they grow up, into adults, the cortex slowly develops and so is their understanding of this world grows.

Thalamus: This is a relay station where both sensory and motor signals are received from the body and relayed to different parts of the brain as required.
The reticular formation also plays an important role in wakefulness, alertness and sleep state.

3.Level of consciousness: Consciousness is not only when a person is fully aware, or awake in the environment, but also a state of sleep or relaxed state. Different brain and brain waves study revealed that the level of consciousness differs in different brain waves states. Brain waves are a pattern of waves occur due to impulses exchanged between the neurons within the brain.

Beta waves (14 to 30 Hz): Such waves are dominant during wakefulness, fully alert state. Decision making, analysing, mental activity and so on.

Gamma waves (30 to 42 Hz): This is high frequency, fastest brain waves when there is rapid processing of information but in a quiet brain state.

Alpha waves (9-13 Hz): Such waves flow when you are in a relaxed, calm state. It is a resting state or a meditative state. It is also a learning state, when new information can be absorbed and mind /body integration.

Theta waves (4 to 8hz): Dominant as low-frequency waves during sleep and deep relaxation. It is the state of dream, imagery, also hold fears or nightmares of the past. It can last for a very short span and can be access to information, learning, intuition.

Delta waves (below 4 Hz): Dominant as slow waves during deep dreamless sleep, unconscious state.

4.Vibration: Advance brain imaging study reveals that exchange of information, communications in between the neuron pathways within the brain originates with some kind of vibrations and resonance. Fundamentally, it is true because everything in this universe is moving, resonating vibrations with various frequencies. Therefore the activity of the brain also functions on the different frequency of vibration that originates within the brain as different brain waves pattern.

Albert Einstein has said it long before that ” Everything is in vibration”

Thanks for reading.

Blessings and much love to all 💐

Post: Detoxification: 4 realities.

by drjurisharma, posted in healing, health, wellness

Once we step out of our house, we are exposed to a host of environmental pollutants, allergens, hazardous chemicals, processed food, heavy metals, pesticides and so on. All of them have a hazardous effect on our body.

Medical experts do not really urge the need for detoxification as our body has a natural ability to eliminate toxins and waste. Skin, liver, kidneys, bowels and lungs naturally eliminate toxins.
But then, why do we keep hearing about detoxification methods which often catch our attention ?

4 realities ;

  1. Detoxification is quite necessary when your body’s natural mechanism is disturbed. Sedentary lifestyle, poor eating habits, overeating, too much of alcohol, smoking may contribute. Some occupational hazard (regular exposer to heavy metals like lead, arsenic) and people with digestive disorders may require to detoxify.

2. The concept of a detox diet may sound appealing but is quite a misconception. Detox diet which may include specific food with detoxifying properties, laxatives, liquids don’t really identify or remove specific toxins. There is no scientific evidence of any diet which can eliminate specific toxins.
The human body itself is equipped with an efficient detoxifying system. The detox diet can at best facilitate the natural system.

3. Change in lifestyle is an important tool to optimize our body’s natural ability of detoxification. Cutting down sugar, processed food, reduce intake of alcohol, reduce salt intake and maintaining an active life (to boost metabolism) are very essential. Having adequate sleep daily is helpful to remove toxic waste (beta-amyloid) from the brain. Sleeping about 6-7 hours of quality sleep ensures good health.

4.Drinking lots of water, staying hydrated throughout the day help remove toxins, waste through urine, sweat and also breathing. Antioxidant-rich diets composed of fresh fruits and vegetables help to eliminate the excess free radicals and fight the body’s oxidative process. Food rich in prebiotics like banana, tomatoes, garlic, oats, asparagus help in increasing the good bacteria in gut called probiotics. A healthy gut is necessary for effective body’s natural detoxification.

Leading a well-disciplined life is quite effective for the body’s natural mechanism of detoxification. Adopting methods like a detox diet, going to spas, sauna bath, sweating therapy, fasting methods can be individual choices.

Post: 10 tips of eating healthy🙌

by drjurisharma, posted in body, health, lifestyle, dietary, exercise, herbs, water, liver, stroke, cancer, hepatitis, healing, health, nature, New Year, wishes, health, healing, happiness, positivity, fitness, wellness

Eating healthy is easier and cheaper…

Local produce

Eating healthy isn’t complicated or fussy. In fact,it is the easiest option if we make it a way of life, a daily habit. 

Its time to erase all our myth about eating healthy.Common myths are eating healthy is expensive, being difficult due to non availability of resources and circumstances at work, travel and so on. But the truth is if we have a will to do so, we can make it easier always: The most common simple ways can be :

1. We should always eat the locally available produce in whichever part of the world we live. Whole grains, pulses, vegetables and fruits which are locally grown, which are in abundance in your region, fresh and not expensive.

2. The most important component in our body is water which comprises of 60 to 70%. So, it is very essential for our body’s wellbeing. Moreover, drinking water is easily and readily available resource in major parts of the world. And, we know drinking water is a healthy habit. The more we hydrate ourselves, the more healthy is our brain and body, not to forget the added benefit of glowing skin and complexion. But the problem today is we always opt for aerated water, soda, cola and alcoholic drinks. So in fact unhealthy drinking is expensive. If we carry our water bottle, it’s not just cheap but healthy too.

3. It is not only enough to eat healthy but also to keep a check on the portion of whatever we eat. Not only at home, but in work place or wherever we travel, it is important to eat in moderate portion. Eating in moderate portion is the most essential tip to keep a check on body weight. 

4. We have read enough, by now, that eating healthy is curbing sugar, excess fat and avoiding processed food. The simple logic behind this is healthy food are preferably raw, in natural form and which are not over cooked and their natural nutrients are restored. So the best option is to carry our home cooked food, fresh veggies, fruits wherever we go. If this is not possible, we need to choose from the best options available at that point of time.

5.The wisest way of shopping healthy is sticking to our grocery list (Buy items which are necessary ). Buy unprocessed , generic brands which are less expensive and healthy. Sometimes, seasonal fresh fruits ,veggies, sea food are expensive. So frozen fruits and veggies are cheaper option. Off course, sea food and meat should be fresh. Grains, pulses can be brought in bulk to save some amount of money. 

6. As mentioned earlier, choice of best option of food easily available is not only wise but at times cheaper. Instead of meat ,switching to beans, pulses are better choices. Instead of junk food, gorging some nuts or a fruit whenever hungry is way better. Instead of dining in a restaurant, celebrating at home with home cooked meal is not only cheap but a healthier option.

7.Left overs of food are great option to use our creative cooking skill for the next meal time. So the freezer is our great friend.

8. If you have a yard at home, growing your own veggies is a very wise option. If not, at least have some pots of herbs on your window balcony for ready use.

9.Above all, eating should never be associated with entertainment or pleasure. We eat to live, grow and nourish ourselves. Eating three proper meals a day is more than enough.This is actually the concept of intermittent eating (eating in specific timings).Gorging a fruits or a handful of nuts whenever hungry is just normal craving.

10.Only eating healthy is not enough. Physical activities, exercises, movement of our body are very ,very important to maintain a good health. Lastly, maintaining a calm mind, meditating, relaxing are very essential for holistic life. 

Thanks for reading.

Peace and love 🙏