By Sunil Sarpal

A healthy lifestyle is a must to lead a life cheerfully. 

In the morning before sun rise,  visit the close by park for walk/jogging/running as per demands of your age/body.  Most of the parks these days have in-built Gym.  One can do exercise of your choice.  Never miss out on this regimen so that you may start the day in a vibrant and healthy ways. 

Consume a coconut milk after the work out. 

After a shower,  the breakfast should consist of milk and some ‘dry fruits,  apart from what you prefer.  Avoid Paronthas and too much butter. 

Make it a habit not to eat between two meals. 

The lunch should always consist of Curd and Salad, apart from Roti, Sabji, Daal, Rice etc.  The food should not be spicy and oily. 

If because of the demand of your age, you feel like taking a nap, it is your choice. 

Tea in the evening accompanied by some biscuits. 

Avoid consuming food at dinner time and instead eat fruits, particularly seasonal ones.  and hot milk. 

Avoid food from outside. 

Always eat moderately and never indulge in over eating. 

Eat when you feel like and clean up your stomach once or twice in accordance with your routine. 

Dont eat non veg and drink liquor.  Stay away from the company those prefer such things. 

                 We meet people for reasons we don’t know.  We connect at so many levels…and yet we may not connect at all. Sometimes we see we’re wearing the same or similar colours, sometimes a friend may simply give us the most enormous bear-hug. How could they know we needed one? Often when I wish for something I get it. This be the power of yoga or meditation. or telepathy heightened by decades of yoga. We can dream of a car and often enough it materialises. Yes, these are also called manifestations or visualizations. 

Yes, these are solid tangible facts for some like me who have practised and successfully lived these blessings. It is another way to live to believe emote and exist. So many times, you remember someone only to see the same from them top. I have experienced knowing what a friend needs and for some reason being there and taking care of that need. so many times, when I have been in a low or desired help it has shown up. These are all connects inexplicable but there nevertheless. It is also my quest and desire to live and experience life at another level that has allowed me to experience this.  This connecting with another may happen over long distances.

In the coming years these practices will grow.  People living in remote areas and forests also practice calling n connecting. They have heightened telepathic skills. All humans have some way these capacities. It suffices to empower and give them life. This connect with a higher energy that may be called by any name begins with connecting with yourself first. The first love affair so to say. I learnt this just a few years back and my god it works. You keep reminding yourself though.

To spend time in silence or with nature or meditate or immerse yourself in a book or music is forms of connection. As also is healing giving loving and spending special moments with loved one’s friends, family, even strangers. I have often potent connects with strangers that Deja-vu feeling, or just some common chord strikes up. If you open yourself to and allow all this to happen – it will. If only people meditated or did some form of it – lives, health – mental or physical, would reach peaks unimaginable. Thus, the world would be happier calmer and perhaps become a utopia

These are the post pandemic times when wellness has become the most spoken, admired, coveted and desired word. Never has the quest for people to feel well, comforted, at ease within themselves, healthy, stress free and especially mentally calm been more flagrant. Years of living in so much unnecessary fear aggravated by an onslaught in the press and media of Covid related over-information have wreaked havoc. Erratic unstable work closures and lack of work, as well as changed work situations, have left millions financial depleted.

Spiritually this translates into accepting and realising that a new beginning, a new reality is taking shape. Our ways of life were no longer sustainable. This itself is a vast subject, but suffice to say that insane working hours and demands as well as many levels of unrealistic living, have suddenly become redundant. Many are questioning their lifestyles.

Recently statistics have shown waves of resignations in Europe and elsewhere and also scores wanting to go back to smaller cities or towns in nature seaside mountains, or living off the grid, or trading their cushy corporate jobs for countryside ones.

Irrespective people want to feel well as they did few years or decades back. They’re willing to make drastic changes in their professional and personal domains just to get there. What matters and what does not are shifting dramatically and many want a balanced harmonious and peaceful living – even if a little divorced from too much technology .

Yoga, meditation, a zillion forms of healing are super fashionable and definitely the trends now. Massages, organic and natural beauty and healing products, Reiki, past life regression and also I know of people practicing Quigong, Taichi and Martial Arts to balance out . There will definitely be an enormous resurgence of all forms of healing in the coming years. It is the need of the hour and many more shall succumb to their magical mystical healing.

This is a first of what may be a set of posts around the same theme- recovery in mental health or recovery from mental health issues, regaining one’s sense of wellbeing after an emotional/psychological setback.

The past year has gone in a lot of work in this area (also among the reasons I could not write on this blog). So now is the time to talk about the work which has been done away from the public eye.

Let me begin with the book, which comes out later this year, I put to bed a few months ago. Currently the last phase of that is underway- on the production front.

As an aside, a somewhat disconcerting thought which has always been there at the back of my head is that when we say the word ‘recovery’ in the context of mental health it conjures a particular kind of image. Recovery is often mistaken to be the recognition of someone’s suffering as a diagnostic reality. (Oh, but this was not the disconcerting thought I had in mind- it was about my book and how academic it is!)

“Oh, now I know why I was feeling so bad. I have anxiety after all“.

“I got a diagnosis of PTSD and chronic depression. I was also wondering what is going wrong.”

This description of suffering and its reframing into a diagnostic “truth” is what happens all the time in the field of mental health, something that troubles me immensely. But I will not go into that trouble right now. I better share with you what is the problem for me to solve here- the problem of talking about recovery.

I recovered from bipolar disorder. It may sound like something un-relatable, for one is not supposed to. In other words I am an outlier by all standards. This sudden disclosure is not part of my identity politics and I do not use mental health as a means for attention-seeking for I am troubled by it. For me my positioning is an ethical stance which comes with an agenda, largely research driven.

My agenda

My agenda post my own recovery was twosome. First it became to map my own recovery- for how did I recover?

I had no clear cut ways to share with another. I am talking about the year 2011. That was the time I started on recovery research, and a number of articles followed in diverse journals across the globe- Psychological Studies, Canadian Journal of Music Therapy, World Cultural Psychiatry Research Review and others (you are welcome to check them from my linkedin profile, ResearchGate or Academia networks. Oh yes, there is one article which is just a click away in which you can both read my (less academic) writing and hear my (self composed) songs (ghazals to be more precise). A longer piece of writing about the ghazal and its role in my healing is there in the World Cultural Psychiatry Research Review (2015).

My second agenda is/was to see if one person can recover, why are others not able to. Or rather, what is it that does not allow more people to recover- which became my PhD research (2016-2020)

Three decades in the field and five decades of life behind me, I know there was none other than this which was my goal, at least for now- recovery research. So while the research was done as a PhD and barriers to recovery found the next and more befuddling (may I say unenviable) option is how to tell others they can recover as well?

This is what I am doing nowadays- creating those other resources to disseminate the findings from my work, advocacy about recovery from mental health issues and suchlike things.

I am not going to say further in this post except having introduced the context- of who I am, where I come from and why I talk about recovery so much. And yes the resources I am busy creating- resources for recovery, advocacy and helping others recover just as well as me.

The first put to bed was the book of course. I will talk about it closer to the time it publishes (later this year)

The second is DIALOGUES FOR RECOVERY with the support and handholding by Vidya Sagar, Chennai. Here is a sample of that work, though we are not yet adept with this sort of work. Whatever else is unfolding is still firming up and I will share about them in subsequent posts. But I invite you to read the writing I have shared, which are scores of articles about my recovery and where I stand today, or what ideas I propagate via diverse means. The video that follows is a sample. There are at least five others of its siblings you can check from the same link and you get to hear my other ideas too (not mine solely, of course for we all stand on the shoulders of giants after all) …

COVID-19 has changed our lives tremendously and in so many ways. On one hand, we can whine about how the pandemic made our world come to a standstill; but on the other hand, we cannot deny the fact that each of us has gained a lot from the year 2020. It felt like a break that we all needed but were too stuck up to avail it. Family time, clear blue skies, making time for hobbies, introspection – we all needed it; whether we accept it or not.
After being obese for almost all my life, 2020 gave me the courage to embark on a journey towards my healthier self. The two main factors that pushed me to take control of my health were the scare of coronavirus deaths and I was diagnosed to be a pre-diabetic. So, my main goal was to build strong immunity with a secondary goal of losing weight. This is why I chose only natural means to reach my health goals. Some simple lifestyle changes made all the difference. So, I am here to share it with you all.

1. Measure your weight and health
   Before beginning, your weight loss journey do measure your:
   -Bodyweight
   -BMI
   -Inches, especially around the problem areas
   -Get a blood test done to understand your health and be aware of the deficiencies
   How does it help?
   Eventually, when you start losing weight you can gauge your success by measuring the difference in your weight and inch loss. This will help keep you on the right track. You’ll feel happy and would have a sense of accomplishment.
2. Maintain a food diary
   Note down every meal that you consume mentioning the time, quantity, mood, location, and people you are with. Also, mention additional details like while you are snacking, are you consuming it with any sauces/butter, etc.
   How does it help?
   This helps understand eating habits and patterns. For e.g. one may be eating or drinking more around certain people, in a certain mood, or certain locations. It also helps stop mindless munching.
3. Say no to alcohol & junk food
   As mentioned in the food diary part – you may tend to eat or drink more around certain people. You can try and make them understand that you are trying to lead a healthier life and change your habits. I, personally, completely stopped drinking after 30th May 2020 until I reached my goal weight. I am an emotional person and maybe many of you can resonate with me that anything we do, we do it in extreme. So, I made a conscious decision to completely stop alcohol and junk food consumption; and never cheated on my diet plan.
   How does it help?
   You may find it difficult initially but eventually, you’ll learn self-control and will be able to modify your food habits in the long run.
4. Choose wisely who and what you follow on social media
   I am a food lover. So, naturally, I have been following a lot of food bloggers on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. When I decided to lose weight, I unfollowed the food channels and rather started following health, fitness, and nutrition-related pages and hashtags related to health and fitness.
   How does it help?
   Whether we admit it or not social media has a great influence on our lives. What we see or the kind of news we get through social media widely affects our moods and actions. By seeing fitness pages and weight transformations of other people you feel motivated to stay dedicated to your weight loss goal.
5. Find a Nutritionist and a Fitness Instructor
   First, let’s discuss why you need a nutritionist. Here’s why:

• To help you lose weight in a healthy & safe manner
• Nutritionist will plan the meals in a way that doesn’t cause any nutritional deficiency
• Nutritionist will plan meals by keeping in mind specific medical conditions like diabetes in my case.
  How does it help?
  It also works as an external motivational factor. The nutritionist tracks your food intake and when you are feeling low and feel like quitting, your nutritionist can support you in several ways like modifying your diet plan. They can keep your diet plans interesting enough by understanding your taste and providing healthier options accordingly. So, in your nutritionist, you can find a companion who can support you through your weight loss journey.

Secondly, how to choose a fitness instructor?

• Understand that someone who is a bodybuilder doesn’t necessarily become a good fitness trainer.
• Choose someone with experience in training people for weight loss
• Choose someone who understands different kinds of sports and exercises, so that eventually he can help you choose what kind of physical activity do you enjoy and guide you accordingly. E.g. my exercise routine started with HIIT, and now it is a combination of HIIT, yoga, breathing exercises, and weight lifting.
• Do check certifications. My fitness trainer is ACE-certified (American Council of Exercise)
• It would be great if he also understands pain/injury management or physiotherapy.
• Now, let’s talk about why you need a fitness instructor for weight loss?
• Helps understand where to start
• Helps you learn how to exercise on your own. Like in my case I have hardly ever followed an exercise routine before I decided to lose weight. So, it was really great to have someone to guide me.

6. Create a WhatsApp group with your nutritionist
   This way you can send pictures of every meal and drink that you consume throughout the day. Also, measure weight every morning and share so that your nutritionist can understand the impact of the diet he/she has given you.
   How does it help?
   It works as a self-check on your dietary habits and a daily audit which will motivate you to not cheat on your diet plan.
7. Find your favorite sport/ physical activity
   Different people may like different physical activities. Like some may enjoy working out in a gym, some may like to do swimming or other outdoor activities like cycling, etc., or dancing or yoga for flexibility and strength.
   It is also possible that you may get bored of a particular exercise form and may lose motivation to carry on. This usually happens when you are overambitious. Don’t drain yourself. That’s the way to go about it, to be able to sustain it in the long run. Also, feel free to switch and adapt to new forms of physical activities whenever needed.
8. Find a General Physician
   Many people make this mistake that in order to lose weight they sometimes unknowingly damage their own health. So, please stay away from fad diets or crash diets. These diet plans only end up making one feel drained due to nutritional deficiencies and starving. Consulting a GP before and during your weight loss journey can help you stay updated with your current health status.
   New diet plans even when you are taking help from a nutritionist can affect your health especially when you already have health conditions like high or low BP, diabetes, etc. A GP can easily diagnose these problems by understanding the symptoms you have been experiencing which can be as simple as fatigue and mood swings. You may sometimes feel that fatigue is because of the increased physical activity which can be true but by consulting a GP you can be doubly sure about your health and prevent any serious long-term damage.
   Also, when someone is a smoker or regular drinker and they stop these habits to achieve better health; they may experience sudden changes in their body like increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, low energy, disturbed sleep, and so on. A GP will be able to guide you on how you can control cravings and withdrawal symptoms.
9. Keep yourself motivated & find friends who are fitness lovers
   Find ways to announce and document your fitness journey. Like I started posting my diet food pictures and kept clicking and posting pictures of myself on social media. So, whenever I would open Facebook or Instagram, the notifications on my pictures were like a constant reminder and motivation for me. This was a self-assurance that excess weight will not be a problem in my life anymore because my goal now is to lead a healthy life and I am taking every little step every single day that is needed to achieve this goal.
   Also, I started sharing my weight loss goals and exercise routines with my friends who are into fitness. Their insights and experiences helped me understand what more could I do and what more options could I explore. It also helps build a healthy competition.
10. Seek support from family to achieve your weight loss goal
    Last but definitely not least, help your family understand your new diet plan and lifestyle changes. When you have been eating and living a certain way all your life, it may take some time for your family to accept a sudden change in eating habits when you embark on your weight loss journey.

Take control of your health. It’s never too late to start!

Please feel free to connect with me for any queries at [email protected]. I have also published videos related to my weight loss journey on YouTube. If you would like to watch please follow this link – http://bit.ly/3vbMRYj.

Life “is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” So said Shakespeare in Macbeth, a tragedy of epic proportion where the eponymous hero fell because of only one tragic flaw: “Vaulting ambition, which overleaps itself.”  Covid19 brought the “sound and fury, signifying nothing” part of Macbeth like a thunderbolt rolled onto an unsuspecting mankind. And Hamartia, or the tragic flaw, that Shakespeare’s tragic heroes had, has its echo in present times too. Covid19 lays bare our fault lines and exposes our flaws like never before. It has, in fact, come as a great teacher to mankind – perhaps because the ‘kind’ in “man” had shrunk to a miniscule level. It has given us a huge nudge to readjust our priorities that were slinking to abominable levels of putrid materialism.  Hmm…..looked closely, it also has been a period of wish-fulfillment, the collective wishes of entire mankind, or rather man-unkind, witnessing fruition of shared desires in a way unparalleled.

To further explain my points, let me take the first premise of collective wish fulfillment. Was the entire human race not clamoring for clearer skies, cleaner air and sparkling water? Millions of dollars were being spent on hosting international meets that often ended up revealing more dissensions than agreements. Each country blamed the other for being a greater polluter, never wanting to clean its own Augean stables. Year after year, there were foreboding studies that announced imminent doom of the planet if countries did not clean up the environmental mess. Countries met, they bickered and blamed each other, and dispersed.

Then, in one fell swoop all pollution abated….. people could not believe the blue of sky could actually be so inky blue and clear, and the air going into human lungs could be wholesome without causing the rasping cough and blocked sinuses. My family ate green leafy vegetables without fear of them being laced with industrial waste – the water hitherto being let out in the fields outside Delhi from where our produce comes.  How often have we wished for lesser congestion on roads. Traffic, everywhere had become a nightmare. Each time we were caught in serpentine traffic snarls, it was nostalgia time. “Oh, when I first came to Delhi more than 30 years ago this road was deserted, and it almost felt unsafe driving here late in the evening!” One lockdown, the beginning of a series of them, and you were transported back to the “good old days!” Maybe, the definition of “good” was no longer the same because now it was tinged with fear of the unknown, unseen, tiny virus that was keeping everyone indoors.

“Monday morning blues” was the litany of all working people. I remember beginning to feel the blues just when Sunday dawned. Why can’t weekends be longer, was the refrain echoed in all corners of the world – languages varied, refrain the same.  “Let all days be Sunday,” said the mighty voice. And we all huddled home every day, day after day. Beautiful day-planners lying on the desk were an investment most futile!!

Don’t blame any virus or any government for the pandemic…..all wishes are coming true. Is it self-fulfilling prophesy, or mere Ignis Fatuus!  Is it a passing phase, or the new world order is here to stay. Only time will tell.

One thing is for sure. The virus is not atemporal. It may either gradually die a natural death after peaking, or human intervention will see it rendered less menacing. Whatever it may be, but it surely will have taught us the much-needed and long-forgotten basic lessons before it exits.

First and foremost, Covid19 has added the fundamental “Pause” button to human race – race, both as noun and verb – the former defining the species, and the latter their feverish scurrying forth. I feel it has made us stop as the traffic light gradually turns red, so that we have time to reflect until it turns green and hence signal us to recalibrate our speed and direction.  We were all racing from morning until night, 24X7, in pursuit of something that was always outside our grasp.  Were we not all running away from life, looking for a meaning in a place it did not exist.  And now, staying within the confines of our homes we are learning to live with ourselves. Most friends and family I have spoken to have expressed how little we actually need in life and yet we carry the heaviest baggage. Our priorities had gone misplaced and it is time to set them right.  

What is of utmost importance is human life. This lesson, unfortunately, a deadly virus had to come and teach us. It has showed us that we need to value people and use things when we had been doing the reverse – Valuing things and using people. Time for some reverse-engineering. Time to smell the coffee!

People in lock-downs, living away from families learnt the value of a family, and those locked with their families are learning to share, care, and the biggest of all, to let-go. Sharing limited home space has strained many a family, for the virus leaves no option of quietly slipping away from home in case of any friction.  And therein lies the lesson of developing tolerance. “Love me when I deserve the least because that is when I need the most,” my friend’s recalcitrant teenager told his mother. Mighty lesson that is! Equally relevant for the youngster and his mother.

A huge take-away of Covid19, and, undeniably the most important to my mind, is that of empathy towards all living beings. We feel caged and suffocated inside homes. Our freedom is gone. But we are safe. Juxtapose that with slaughter houses and abattoirs where animals and birds are crammed and squished together. They are caged, and they know they will soon be slaughtered. They live with the constant ordeal of impending death. Try to feel what trauma we are subjecting them to. If we want to break free and breathe freely, do we have any right to encage other living beings and then butcher them. All this merely to satisfy our taste buds. Yes, time to rethink our values.

“It would seem resourceful, perhaps wise, to use suffering as a vehicle of transformation that allows us to open ourselves with compassion to those who suffer as we do, or even more than we do”, said Matthieu Ricard in his book Happiness. Roman philosopher Seneca once said that “Suffering may hurt, but it is not an evil.” Schopenhauer, the German philosopher may have had similar belief when he said that suffering is the purifying process through which alone, in most cases, a person is consecrated.  Sure enough, no one wants suffering and all human endeavor is towards forswearing it. However, it can be argued that while suffering by its very nature is abhorrent but when unable to avoid, we can use it to learn and to change.

While we wait with bated breath for this Covid19 to pass, we can only forget the lessons it continues to teach us – both, at the physical level and at a deeper existential, philosophical level, at our own peril.  In the latter half of this century when it is well behind us, and human race has the wisdom of hindsight, Covid19 may seem to be the one game-changer humankind desperately needed for course correction.

I started writing this piece when we were, what is now known as the middle of Covid, or the first phas (It may be known differently sometime down the line) . As we are a cat’s whisker away from getting the vaccine, these disembodied times however seem  here to stay for a while. I’m quite inclined to close with Hafiz : “I wish I could show you, when you are lonely or in darkness, the astonishing light of your own being!” So instead of taking a world trip, go inside yourself and find the true essence. Nice things, beautiful scenic places, gourmet food and all the pompous pursuits of men are a happy place to be in, but the joy they provide is never ever-lasting. It is transitory. The value of things is only the value we ascribe to them. As Vivekananda said: “Things are dead in themselves. We breathe life into them, and then we either run after them or run away from them.”

Covid-19 has provided a big insight into what really matters in the race we call Life. The Pause-button ought to make us reflect on where we were headed, and which direction we need to take. Almost a year into the pandemic, the self-importance of man dissolves in laughter. Life will never be easy. It will always be hard, but we can choose our hard wisely. Look to the light within, for the more light you allow within you, the brighter the world you live in will be.

Yes you read it right. Everyone is waiting for a vaccine, but a truely time tested vaccine takes at least two to three years. Meanwhile there are many personal experiences being shared by people who have used holistic methods and recovered fully. These are brushed aside by people and agencies who believe in or have a vested interest in promoting only western medicines and drugs. Readers are also invited to watch demo videos prepared by Denanath Mangeshkar Hospital & Research Center, Pune, who protected their Covid Warriors from infection using these techniques

According to the report^​*​ published in msn.com:
As it stands, we’re several months into the pandemic, and a vaccine or cure could still be a long way off. This daunting fact has led researchers to explore other strategies for combating coronavirus, and mitigating its symptoms. Among those strategies is nasal irrigation, the practice of clearing the nasal passages, using a spray bottle or neti pot to introduce a therapeutic solution.One team of researchers recently studied the effects of nasal irrigation on COVID-19 and determined that this simple, at-home practice could very well help lessen a person’s viral load. “Nasal irrigations should be encouraged for patients and health care workers especially,” the study concludes.

Indian readers are quite aware of the procedure. The image above summarises it for readers who aren’t. Please read on. Also follow all the links if you want to know more.

While hardly a silver bullet solution for the disease, the study argues that nasal irrigation can help to “reduce viral severity and further transmission” of coronavirus early on after a patient becomes infected. The researchers explain that this is because, “similar to other viral upper respiratory infections, [coronavirus] infection occurs primarily in the nasal and nasopharyngeal mucosa with high viral loads early in disease.” This presents an opportunity to “wash COVID-19 away,” the study suggests.

An Important advice To make Neti practice safe use filtered or distilled lukewarm salted water as suggested by Yoga ancient texts of India. The temperature of the water should be around the temperature of the blood and after doing neti one should practice kapalbhati (i.e blowing air gently from the nose to expel residual water). And to be on a safer side if you are practicing neti for the first time, do it under the guidance of a practitioner.

The researchers noted that the general “benefit of topical nasal saline has been well established,” explaining that the nasal lining serves an important role in the immune system, acting as the primary defense against inhaled viruses and bacteria. Nasal rinses help remove this particulate matter, while also increasing hydration and reducing inflammation—all of which can lessen the effects of a respiratory infection.

So what exactly do you need in order to try it out? The study suggested choosing an over-the-counter hypertonic saline spray, which can be found in most pharmacies. Betadine and other iodine-derivative sprays also appear to support “substantial coronavirus reduction,” the researchers noted.

While there is no cure for coronavirus, this at-home treatment may help to limit the severity of your illness, and reduce your time spent sick—and that’s certainly a step in the right direction. And for more on this simple practice, check out 

Nasal Irrigation Is the Key to Reducing COVID-19 Progression, Doctor Says.