What an awesome title for a book! This is exactly what I'm looking for - perfect health. And I did find some tips on achieving my goal but was a little disappointed overall. I should've done a little more research as the basis of the book is the ancient Hindu system of preventative medicine and health called Ayurveda.
The basis of Ayurveda (as I understand it), is that our health is determined by balancing three different energy types in our bodies called doshas. Each person is unique but identifies closely with one or more of the doshas. Balance is achieved by following a consistent schedule, following specific dietary guidelines for our specific dosha, relieving stress through meditation and yoga and doing moderate exercise sizes (or more rigorous exercise if your a Kapha dosha like me).
The book goes into detail about how Ayurveda is based on how our bodies work on a quantum level and that our minds can control our bodies. This part seemed a little difficult for me to both accept and understand as I don't know how ancient people knew much about quantum physics over 3000 years ago. However, it was interesting that they brought up several cases of people being able to instantly change their bodies, specifically a case where a person with multiple personality disorder was able to change skin conditions based on which personality was present.
Regardless of whether you by into Ayurveda, the book did have some tips on obtaining better health. I don't think too many people will argue against Yoga and meditation, these certainly won't hurt you. The daily schedule presented in the book was pretty strict, rise between 6 and 8, warm water, massage with oil, bath, exercise, meditate all before breakfast. Then have lunch between 12 and 1 with a short walk afterward. Dinner is from 6 to 7 and again a short walk after. Finally bedtime around 10. While I think a consistent schedule is good for the body, I'm not sure how realistic this is in todays world. And call me a skeptic, but there's really no evidence that this type of schedule is optimum. The recommendations on what to eat depends on your specific dosha. Not clear on why my type is not supposed to have sweet potatoes, zucchini or avacados (some of my favorites).
Doing all the recommendations in this book would take a lot of time. However, none of it appears to be harmful and if you have poor health, it would be worth the effort to try. Things I'm going to try to work on from this book include meditating every day, oil massage a couple of days a week (not sure how much this impacts health but it feels good and my skin is so soft now!), and sun salutations daily.
An interesting book that's worth reading, let me know what you think of it.
Sunday, June 18, 2017
Searching for Optimum Health
There is so much health information out there today that it's hard to tell what's real and what's made up. We all know that one day a particular food is good for you and the next it's not. I'm creating this blog to help myself and others find optimum health.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)