Hey Folks!...Imagine a moving contraption – say a toy car - which has multiple engines. Different ones for different body parts. Each engine, engineered to keep up with each other….leading to a nice smooth ride.
Well at least smooth, when the going is good….lets bring in a small new variable to this hunky dory scenario. Normal wear & tear and minor variations of stress load on different parts can lead to the change in the performance levels of different parts. [Like the same way different cars of the same make end up giving different mileage depending upon driver, route, maintenance etc]. What would this really mean in practical terms?
The toy driver and the co-passengers – would need to jostle and we would see a good deal of hustle and bustle. There will be small whirlpool of energies and eddies trying to ruffle the imbalance of different engines. Quite amusing really! Especially, when we are talking about an inanimate contraption.
Now lets bring in one more variable. Let the toy car be us. Yeah! We, our ownselves. And the toy driver and passengers, be our different organs. Dizzy with a tizzy? Yeah, that’s the way – our body parts normally live. Spinning around with local eddies and whirlpools. Joints and different organs jostling around with each other – trying that extra bit retain the innate natural balance. However, one fine day the natural balance is disturbed by the man-made depredation.
Depending upon our congenital and contextual conditionings, different parts of our body – left to themselves – build up different parts of load bearing, endurance and stretch / flexibility capabilities. The organs, cover each other up willingly [like the captain in a cricket field always tries to balance the fleet and the flat footed; the safe and the slippery hands]. But there is a limit, as in the cricket field. Too much [or many] mis-matches in ability or fitness of parts would sooner or later start disturbing the smooth routine [as it would create mayhem in a create field; we all know what Dhoni has been telling last few or more weeks]. And that causes – what we all know as ‘Lifestyle Diseases’. When in one not so fine day – maybe in our mid 30s or 40s – the nothing can happen to us, the superhuman sense of physical assurance is busted. And then dietary controls, pills, restricted movements et al take over.
Hey! Sorry for the scare. No am not an insurance agent This reminds me of the beauty of old Doordarshan of mid/late 80’s - allow me one digression please. In one such programs [Katha Upanishad or something – not quite sure], quality work of fiction from Indian languages was serialized to produce some telling serials. One such serialization was of an Assamese short story, in which the protagonist scares to death an executive, how easily one can catch a deadly disease – only to present an LIC policy [those were the days of true monopoly of LIC. Twas the only life insurance policy available]
Back to our moot point. While am not an insurance agent; but do we crack the puzzle still. The answer is very simple actually. Too obvious. Send the human contraption to the garage for preventive maintenance periodically. In this case, every 24 hours. More importantly get to know the correct regimen to get all body parts equally activated [I can tell with a fair measure of confidence that Surya Namaskar – done diligently and with élan – is the best antidote. Running, cycling are a great experience in themselves, but do not oil all parts equally. Gyming can lead to the same problem in a more aggravated way actually unless the regimen is very very carefully selected. Swimming, however maybe more holistic. Yoga is such a brilliantly conceived technique. One just marvels at the subtle understand of the human anatomy of its practioners [Ram Dev baba included – ofcourse Ranka Nath Martha – trainer, urs truly] and more so its creator. This guy Patanjali must have been a true genius. He has handed down the human race the most soothing gift. A bow to you, dear saint.
Some people, have the gift of the natural intrinsic ability to be highly perceptive of their inner body and they sub-consciously keep moulding their routine to correct quickly any seeds of imbalance that are sown in our bodies. These people can continue for decades and happily go beyond the best-by date without any ado. But they are exceptions and most of us do not have such god’s gift. In today’s world in trying to keep with the extant external and self created pressures, we push ourselves often [every day actually]. Unfortunately, in an imbalanced manner. Mostly, it is our head which urges to push us ‘forward’; while our slothful bodies do not cope up with the resultant chemical imbalance leading to break-down maintenance. Or physical if you choose to say. Here lies an inherent physical / chemical equivalence !!!
Yah, I believe ‘lifestyle disease’ is only ‘mind over matter’. When we try to push ourselves only from the mind and do not take our bodies along with it. I guess health is all about balance and self knowledge. All of us will have to consciously try [without or without a congenital knowledge] to gain self perception / knowledge and build regimen to give us balanced exercise to different parts [nerve cells!!! and ends] in the body. Of course go down to calmer states of mental energy that will gift us the state to assimilate a new discipline to imbibe more variables in work and fitness. The best part is traditional oriental culture gives us rich options to pursue these. Mediation and Yoga are potent options to definitely delay the onset of Lifestyle Diseases and limit their adverse impact. Just 5 mins a day is enough to get the energising juices flowing. Though, more the merrier.
Food for thought and action. :). Way to go. Yo!
New Delhi
February 27, 2010
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