**Lifestyle diseases**
I hope this term is familiar to everyone nowadays. The medical industry has gone ahead to define certain discomforts/expressions of the body as a lifestyle disease. That means the lifestyle of people – how they live their lives is the cause for that disease or whatever discomfort is showing up in the body. So why do they give some tablets to address it instead of asking people to change their lifestyles??
What are these lifestyle diseases?
I am stating what I have understood.
When people change their way of life, way of living then there is a lifestyle change. Some examples:
– Working during night time and sleeping through the day
– Eating many times when awake without giving time for the food to digest
– Always trying to do something and pushing the body into Sympathetic mode without giving enough time for the body to digest and rest in para-sympathetic mode.
– Thinking that watching TV, watching the news, serials, movies, and social media engagement are all rest times for the body – it certainly is not! And sleeping is not enough rest too!
– Too much socializing – people who feel the weekend is wasted if not spent out
– Constant traveling as a requirement for the work
– When the body feels unwell and shows up in the form of inflammation/pain, popping a painkiller (I somehow don’t like that name)
– Sitting or standing in the same posture for long durations – hunching over laptops – constantly looking down at phone screens or to read/write
– Exercising to be a performer – over-exercising…
I think there will be many more that can be added to this list!
These are simple examples of changing our lifestyle from the POV of posture, movement, eating, and resting! Sometimes there is this need to perform in the job and we tend to let go of all our basic body requirements and needs and we push our body to do the task!
This lifestyle change is one of the main reasons for those lifestyle diseases or bodily discomforts!
What can we do about it?
Apart from popping those pills prescribed, we can start to change our lifestyle slowly. We can make some time every day to have moments of connection with the body, with the breath, and consciously being in para-sympathetic mode to facilitate “rest and digest”! Yes, we can do our work and activities that we are interested in or for earning a living but there should also be conscious moments of rest during the day.
We can learn to do things with awareness, joy, and intention! Before doing any task let us connect with our body and mind to make an intention – “I am doing this work for/because ____”. The moment our intention is clear we will make sure that we don’t push ourselves too much beyond that intention!
Are you going through such a phase in your life – discomfort because of lifestyle?
Are you ready to make a shift in your lifestyle?
UmaS Reflections 