Sunday, February 25, 2018

Go! Secure your mask on first!

Carefree-childhood & stressful-adulthood

How often do you dream about your favorite vacation spot?


When was the last time you envied your 'carefree' days as a child you used to lead?


Every day is not the same for adults. Sadly, most days have become stressful for most of us. Work, travel, family pressures, financial commitments; there are many of us busily chasing our dreams (or the dreams belonging to our bosses). On top of it, the digital addiction is haunting our lives by eating major chunks of the golden 24-hour pie each one is given to consume. For some, the time lost is in few minutes but for others, it's many hours. Should more work and stressful days relate to more money saved in the bank? Have you ever thought about the specialists, doctors, and hospitals who have reserved a bed for you to come and spend rest of your lives fighting 'something'?



Credit: https://www.psychologistworld.com/images/articles/a/575x360-v-as-124140358.jpg

What gets compromised most often?

Everyone sets aside time for fitness hoping to stay fit or indulge in a hobby. Unfortunately, the time is easily compromised by other priorities most often. This swiftly takes us closer to lifestyle diseases and other health-related complications or simply 'making us miss something that we love'. Taking care of oneself, thought the easiest, takes the least priority. I know many of my friends think about taking care of their health few years after solving their present life problems. Simply postponing the problems to a future date will only worsen the complications.

What do all these things result into?

Any day that ends up with at least one stressful incident will mess up the (7-8 hrs) quality sleep that we all deserve. It is a well-known fact that lack of rest and sleep causes a disruption in our own life the next day, the following days, the rest of the weeks and the rest of over lives. We are always trying to catch up with something and this vicious cycle goes on and on.

Should you really "Live every day as if it's your last."

Though this phrase is very meaningful, I would like to disagree with this.  I would love to treat every single day as if I'll live more and would go to bed with a hope that there will be a beautiful tomorrow.  In the end, hope is the only thing that keeps us alive.

Whatever good or bad happens in a day we all must end the day gracefully, bring in positive thoughts and sleep well. Every single day our body requires the best care and rest-for-recovery routine. Quality rest and sleep is important. Period.

Learning from others


I wanted to understand what most of us, at least the people known in my circle do to end their day. I asked this question.

How do you go to bed every single day (let's say most of the days, write your typical retirement routine, the activities that you generally do), let's keep the time as 2 hrs before the bed?


I instantly received inputs from at least 20 of them and quite interestingly, everyone seems to be following many positive routines and few others continue to have few modern-day challenges.
Out of all the responses, I had extracted, what I call them as "the wisdom" from their lives and summarized them under three categories.


Credit: http://healevate.com/steps-to-sleeping-like-a-baby/

Do this - no matter what, every single day

  • Get home early
    • Well most family members love to see you back home, remember the first year of your marriage when you hurridly got back home every single day or about the excitements that you had on the first day your daughter or son getting back from their school
  • Brush teeth
    • Hey, it's not only for kids :)
  • Spend time with family & children
    • this is the most important time... and most things happened during the day gets discussed, I learn a lot from my wife Meera - I love the way she engages with the kids and give ears to them every single day.  Young chilren usually have a lot to share (trouble starts the day when they say 'nothing' has happened :))
  • Early dinner with the family, keep it healthy and light, make it a complete one
  • Slowly retire and give the body the best rest
  • Offer prayers or meditate
  • Smile :) & thank, whoever it is, for giving you a great day!
Doften (Yes, not all days are the same, but one can make a genuine attempt at following them most of the days)
  • Spend time and talk or call your parents - they certainly remember you every single day
    • My Dad (he is no more) always wanted me to sit next to him and touch him... even if I was working. The 'touch' brought in confidence and turned him away from the loneliness.
  • Read books to the kids or tell them anecdotes...
    • My daughter always loves to know how I was when I was tiny and even at the age of 16, my son loves to know about things that amuse him and share his ideas
  • Read, write and listen
    • Write using pen and paper, scribble or draw
    • Read your favorite book - even if it's few pages every single day
    • Music can bring in the best relaxing mood, keep them light and soothing
  • Write, if possible, things that went great for the day, mentally prepare for the next day
  • 10-15 mins walk, take shower, foam roll & stretch
    • believe it or not, when properly done, this is equivalent to getting a whole body rejuvenating massage
  • Turn off WIFI - keep the phones on silent/Airplane mode... unless you expect emergency calls
Completely avoid
  • Watching television/ computer-based work
  • Reading anything on digital media Social media - reading or responding 
  • Stress building conversations 
  • Eating out late, heavy alcohol drinking, smoking
Final thoughts,

How many times you had listened to this in-flight safety announcement?

"If you are traveling with a child or someone who requires assistance, secure your mask on first, and then assist the other person. Keep your mask on until a uniformed crew member advises you to remove it."

"Secure your mask on first" as a metaphor, this can be very well used in our lives. Many times we miss our own aspirations and personal goals. We simply forget to be "selfish" and mostly worry a lot about taking care of others. This includes as simple as following a simple sleeping routine.

This list could have been longer, shorter, and completely having different elements.  We all must figure out what works the best for us to nurture our body and thoughts every single day.

I've shared the collective summary of inputs openly shared by my KaysFIT Academy members and few friends.

I with I could follow everything mined here.

Go secure your mask on first!!

Happy retiring every day! happy sleeping!

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