Your wellness and your illness, your joy and your misery, all come from within. If you want well being, it is time to turn inward – Sadhguru
WE hit an all-time low this past year in terms of my family’s health. From mid-August until December, I could count with my fingers the number of days my 11-year-old was well. One bout of wheezing, and a cycle of cold, cough, breathing issues, and sleepless nights played on loop with no end in sight.
What remedy were we not willing to try to get a respite from this. It broke our hearts to see the child suffer, wake up with a bad throat, not have an appetite, face stuffed with mucus, and a general lack of energy for everything due to low oxygen levels. To say there is a direct correlation between the increasing water table levels in Bangalore and his health would not be wrong.
This was a repeat of pattern we have seen for over 3-4 years now when the monsoon sets in, but this year was the mother of all of them. It placed great demands on our physical, emotional, and mental health.
You’re probably thinking I’m exaggerating and cannot fathom how cold could upset our lives. Ask a parent in Bangalore with a child who has frequent bouts of wheezing or allergic triggers to understand the gravity. The irony is he is healthy in any place other than Bangalore. We have been advised to move out of the city by many doctors over the years. There have been times when I have taken a short trip out of the city to break the cycle.
There is a silver lining to this. I will also remember 2017 as the year where we became more mindful of our lifestyle habits and eating choices.
To be more conscious of what we eat and how we eat; to understand the body and body type; to be aware of the seasons and what kinds of foods are best suited. There was already no junk in our food lexicon, and with these practices it felt like going back to how we lived three-four generations ago. We refrained from antibiotics for the most part and relied mostly on ayurvedic medicines.
It has been a huge learning curve; we’ve learned many things along the way.
This 4-part series on “In pursuit of wellness” is an attempt to chronicle them if you are on a similar boat and at wits end to see how you can cope with your child’s allergies every time the season changes. I bought this book sometime in November, and it cemented what we were already integrating as part of our everyday life. Highly recommended.
What you’ll see in this 4-part series:
- Diet: what foods to eat and what not to eat when you are nursing a cold, cough
- Some daily routines to stay healthy
- Are you allergic to something? How to identify what you are allergic to?
- The magic herbs in my kitchen. Yoga.
Are you able to relate to any of this? Being well and healthy has been one of my goals for myself and family. After all, the pursuit of happiness begins with wellness.
