Mental health is an important aspect of our life and should never be neglected at any cost over other priorities in lifestyle.
It is quite unfortunate that a large section of members of our present day society is pushed towards anxiety and depression due to numerous factors; and is moving towards alcohol and drug abuse or suicide to over come their so called failures in life. Life is an opportunity to work through for positive changes and not for giving up.
Negative feelings such as frustration and depressions are worse than being sad as it damages the internal spirit of an individual and further traps us in a vicious cycle of abysmal darkness and perpetual hopelessness. It is therefore important to always look forward in life, try not to feel down or depressed, try and make every inch of our life useful, blissful, peaceful and rewarding to the best of our abilities.
We should not allow negative thoughts to rule or command our lives, have faith on our talents and inner strength, try to be positive and today and tomorrow life will submit to our challenges. Life is not a bed of roses; and there will be numerous critical and/or depression points pushing us towards the wall.
We should never live life like inhabiting an isolated island. We need to continuously feed our mind with positive thoughts and positive work; and keep our body active through regular exercise to fight any depression and frustration. Stronger we make our inner selves better we will be able to deal with our mental health.
Furthermore, it is important to have a balanced diet for a healthier and fulfilling life. It is not very difficult to achieve that and very simple and doable steps are needed. One of the approaches is to break the daily diet into 4 meals: 2 major (breakfast and dinner) and 2 minor meals.
Early breakfast (between 6-8 AM) and early dinner (between 6-9 pm) helps our digestive system to work efficiently; and two minor meals comprising of seasonal fresh fruits (like apple, peach, pineapple, guava, orange, water melon, banana, date, any kind of cherries or berries, cantaloupe, kiwi fruit, papaya, mango, litchi etc) and/or fresh vegetables (like cucumber, tomato, carrot, baby corn, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, green peas, beans, ball pepper sweet pepper, etc) or dry fruits/seeds (like almond, cashew, groundnut, walnut, Brazil nuts, hemp heart, flax, fenugreek etc) can be excellent fillers and highly nutritious.
One has to balance the intake of excess carbohydrates and include some animal protein (like meat, sea food, egg) and/or plant proteins (legumes like different pulses, beans, soybeans, sprouted seeds or seedlings etc) and healthy fat in the two major meals of the day. Low fat or no fat dairy products like milk, cheese, yogurt should be incorporated in the diet too.
Sipping water all through the day will keep the body hydrated and active and will help cut down excess gastric juice or acid to build up in the stomach, and keep the kidneys healthy and active. Better to avoid the addiction of using too much salt, sugar, fat and oil in cooking, avoid excess red meat and egg per week and keep limits on consumption of chips, chocolates, salted nuts, bacon, sausage and salami, cut down on alcohol, carbonated soft drinks, artificially sweetened and flavored synthetic fruit juices, ready made packet foods and tobacco.
If possible it will be better to totally avoid any of these addictions and opt for an active life style integrated with active cardio, stretch up and push ups, yoga and free hand exercises at home or a gum or brisk walking for 2-3 kilometers at least 3-4 times per week.
Late night eating or watching television is a recipe for bad health and needs to be changed by selecting a regular sleep time. Late night craving for food should be dealt with fiber rich fruits or vegetables that do not add to calories. When you feel hungry during the day you can have unsalted dry fruits, fresh fruit and/or vegetables to deal with sudden and uncontrolled hunger in between the two major meals.
If you intake sweet potato or potato than it is better to cut down on bread or rice. Chicken soup or vegetable soup with lots of fresh vegetables and spices could be a very good as a home made nutritious fast food. Cereal and milk in the breakfast is another good healthy option mixed with yogurt and fruit slices.
Including vegetables like garlic, ginger, onion, black pepper, chili and other common spices will add taste and flavor to the food and make them nutritionally rich. Modern diet research suggests including at least 4-5 different colors to your food daily for an example: carrot (orange), tomato (red), sweet pepper (green), beet (pink) and banana (yellow), coconut (white). Healthy food choices lies with us and with plenty alternatives to avoid monotony.
Most times we find numerous excuses to avoid leading an active life integrated with balanced and healthy diet and regular physical activity. The most common excuse that we all have is that we could not find time in exercising regularly. However, if we could form a habit of healthy eating and daily exercising it is just a matter of sticking to a regular habit and it is not expensive contrary to common belief.
Not everyday we will be equally successful in pushing us hard but every step taken today is a milestone for tomorrow as nothing is waste if we try to achieve something positive in life. One of the simple strategies is to try and integrate different exercise regimes throughout the week to avoid boredom and monotony including simple stretch ups and push ups, yoga and pranayam (breathing exercises), some cardio activities and simple long walks.
The weekends could be dedicated to long walks as our weekdays are often too tight to accommodate time and lo to avoid monotony of hard exercise regimes. Also weather too plays an important part and one has to plan accordingly. Another excellent strategy for accommodating some physical training (particularly for home makers) into our daily life cycle can be integrating house work into physical exercise regime.
The daily task of cooking, cleaning, wiping, vacuuming, brooming, washing, gardening can be integrated into regular physical activity in a rotational manner to avoid monotony. It is best to avoid elevators and climb the stairs instead, walk for smaller needs rather than driving and keep room for short walks and stretches in between desk work to keep our body in motion.
It is important to cut down on high curb, oil, fat and salt intake and move towards plant based fiber rich diet with some quality dairy products. Proteins could include chicken and different whole grain legumes and beans and better avoid too much consumption of red meat. This could be a good starting point for people who fail to do exercise regularly with 20-30 mins of physical activity every day.
It is important for parents to realize that as their kids grow up they need to treat them as equal friends and not as commanding parents. In our culture, parents often consider their children as their extended ego or mirror shadow and dump all their personal aspirations, frustrations and depression on them.
The level of expectations being too high they start suffering from depression with advancing age as their kids grow up and start having their own space in life and get engaged in their own circle.
Parents feel neglected making their kid’s career, attention and prosperous future as their only goal in life. If parents keep pushing their kids beyond the final threshold level it only creates a huge communication gap or distance between them increasing over time.
This pushes kids to move out of their close family circle and shift to their own personal orbit where parents have no roles to play anymore. Every individual on this planet needs a personal space and a minimal privacy and parents need to remember and respect that.
A healthy and friendly relationship between parents and their children always keeps a communication path open and enable both sides to reduce their difference through open and fair discussion and dialogue.