Fitness for Enhancing your physical and mental strength

PHYSICAL Fitness

Physical fitness is a general term we come across quite often and use it to describe an individual's ability to carry out a variety of physical tasks without feeling fatigued. It enables us to perform up to our potential and capabilities.

According to W.H.O. (1994) 

"Fitness is the ability to perform muscular work satisfactorily".

According to Davis, Bull, Roscoe, and Roscoe (1994), Physical fitness is "the ability to carry out our daily tasks without undue fatigue".

Lamb (1984) defines "Physical fitness is the capacity to meet successfully the present and potential physical challenges of life".

Rusby (2001) also states that physical fitness is "the ability to meet physical demands placed upon us, either generally in the terms of everyday life or the specific demands of a sport or physical activity".

It can be summarised as: 

physical fitness is the attainment or maintenance of physical capacities, to perform daily activities, and to confront expected and unexpected physical challenges successfully. 

It is the ability to endure, bear up, withstand stress, and carry on in circumstances where an unfit person cannot continue. 

Physical fitness involves the performance of the heart, lungs, and muscles of the body. 

Physical efforts also influence the mind, fitness affects qualities such as mental alertness and emotional stability. To put it briefly, physical fitness is a major basis for doing different tasks as well as enjoying life to its fullest.

Fitness varies from a person to person. It is influenced by age, gender, heredity, personal habits, exercise, and eating preferences. The first three factors cannot be controlled.
However, the latter three, viz: habits, exercise, and diet are within one's control to improve.

Fitness plays a vital role in any field of human endeavour and influences the efficiency of a person. For this reason, fitness consciousness has become a phenomenon all over the world. 

People from all walks of life feel that fitness is necessary for health, appearance, and job performance.

There are certain measurable parameters of fitness.

Parameters of Fitness:
Five basic components of physical fitness involve the heart, lungs, strength, endurance, and flexibility. To improve the overall fitness, an individual has to participate in specific programs to develop each one of these basic components.
There is a general impression that parameters of fitness are necessary only for athletes and individuals who hold jobs that require heavy muscular work or great appearance. However, all the components of physical fitness are important for everyone. Shopping, catching the bus, all household chores at peak hours, long working hours in the office, socializing, childbearing and rearing; fitness matters everywhere irrespective of gender and age.

There are five measurable components to ensure fitness. 

i) Cardiovascular endurance: Cardiovascular endurance, in fact, is an individual's aerobic capacity or aerobic power, which is the ability to supply oxygen to the working muscles during physical activity.

ii) Muscular strength: A person can exert force for a brief period. Upper-body strength, for example, can be measured by various weight-lifting exercises. Strength is crucial for daily activities such as sitting, walking, running, lifting and carrying objects, doing household work, etc. When you increase your strength, you are also increasing the size of muscles, as well as, strengthening connective tissues.
This, in turn, helps to avoid injuries and you are stronger and healthier. Strength is also of great value in improving personal appearance and self-image.

iii) Muscular endurance: Muscular endurance depends to a large extent on cardiovascular endurance. Weak muscles cannot repeat an action several times, nor sustain it for a prolonged period.

iv) Flexibility: This means how flexible are your joints.

v) Body composition: It refers primarily to the distribution of muscle, fat, bone, and other tissues in the body and its measurement is often considered as a component of fitness.

The above parameters of fitness are related to athletes as well as non-athletes and people of all age-groups, and are of prime importance for the health and wellness of everyone. There are a few more motor skill-related aspects of fitness which are of greater significance in sports. These include balance, coordination, reaction time, and speed. While these components are important in achieving success, in particular, in athletics, they also add up to the personality of an individual.

Mental Health

So far as mental health is concerned, it can be defined as: 

Mental health is a level of psychological well-being or an absence of mental illness. It is the "psychological state of someone who is functioning at a satisfactory level of emotional and behavioural adjustment". 

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), mental health includes "subjective well-being, perceived self-efficacy, autonomy, competence, intergenerational dependence, and self-actualization of one's intellectual and emotional potential, among others." 

The WHO further states that the well-being of an individual is encompassed in the realisation of their abilities, coping with normal stresses of life, productive work and contribution to their community.

"Fitness for Enhancing your             mental and physical strength". 

Mental health or mental fitness is as much responsible for anyone as physical fitness. 

Mental health and physical fitness, both interactively influence each other. If one is not mentally sound then there is a chance of not having a sound physic too; and if due to whatever reason he/she starts taking drugs, and in due course of time becomes addicted, his/her health is bound to suffer. For enhancing one's physical and mental capability and efficiency, one has to have sound health of both i. e.  mind and body. In other words, holistic health is necessary for optimum performance. 

A nutritious diet for having good health is equally important. However, in addition to a nutritious diet, physical exercises as well as kinds of stuff such as Pranayam and Meditation, which are responsible for mental well being, are too of great importance. 

You can achieve holistic health by practicing yoga. 

Yogic practices such as asanas, pranayamas, and meditation if done in right combination can provide physical fitness, mental calmness, and emotional well being. 

Asanas would bring flexibility and balance to the body. 

Pranayamas would help into free-flowing of the life force energy, thus adding up to physical as well as mental health. 

Finally, the meditation will bring calmness to mind assuring the emotional well being. 

This way an individual will be holistically healthy and he/she would be able to give his/her 100 percent. There is no reason that a CEO or any organisational head would not be happy to have such healthy employees for his/her company/organisation.

God blessings!

Shashank Shekhar

Reiki

Hi Everybody,
You all would be aware of Reiki. Dr. Mikao Usui, a philosopher in Japan discovered Reiki in 1922. His disciple Dr. Chijiro Hayashi initiated by Dr. Mikao Usui in 1925 helped in spreading Reiki in Japan. Later Dr. Chijro Hayashi's disciple Hawayo Takata (1900 - 1980), a Hawaiian, on the instruction of Dr. Hayashi Spread Reiki in the west.

Reiki means UNIVERSAL LIFE FORCE ENERGY. Hence, it is a form of energy healing, which is very effective in Mental, Physical, and Emotional healing. It is an energy transferring method. The healer receives the cosmic energy and transfers it to the recipient. You can get hands-on healing, where a healer puts his / her hands on certain Reiki points on your body. You can also get distance healing or you can even get self-healing. Yes, self-healing! A healer who heels others can also heal himself/herself.

In fact, Reiki starts with attunement. Attunement is like opening the energy receiving centers in a person. A Reiki Master attunes the learner. After that, he/she teaches about the Reiki points in the body where energy is given for healing. Then 5 principles of Reiki is taught. After that one becomes a Reiki channel- 1. There are altogether 4 levels of Reiki. Reiki- 1 and Reiki- 2 are for general healing purposes. Reiki-3 and Reiki- 4 is for those who want to teach Reiki. After Reiki- 4 one becomes a Reiki Master and he /she can make Reiki channels.

A healer needs not to have intense knowledge of human body anatomy. Reiki has its own intelligence, hence it itself knows what to do and where to go in the body. A healer and healee do not need to worry about the right points in the body for giving and receiving Reiki for a specific physical condition as the cosmic energy itself better know the right place to go in the body for healing for that physical condition.

In my practice of nearly 12 years,  I have found it very effective in physical, mental, emotional, or psychological issues. It is immensely effective in stress, depression, fatigue, insomnia, body ache, etc...
It enhances your energy level. It is holistic. It nourishes the body and soothes the mind. It gives complete relaxation. Removes the negatives and enhances enthusiasm. It is energy and medicine as well.

Today, many seek even distant attunement. Surprisingly, many Masters claim to provide distant attunement. However, this a wrong practice. It is not a reliable way to get Reiki attunement. It does not work. Neither Dr. Usui nor Dr. Hayashi or Takata ever did distant attunement. Not even they advocated for this.

God blessings!

Shashank Shekhar

Yogic Therapy

Hello Everyone,
Here, I am going to introduce all of you to Yogic therapy. Yogic therapy consists of Asanas (postures), Pranayam (breathing techniques), Meditation, Yogic diet, and Counselling based on Yogic principles.

Asanas make the joints and muscles flexible. It helps in unblocking the energy channels in the body and thus allowing the life force energy to flow freely in the body. It is the lack or obstructed flow of the life force energy that causes any pain or illness. 

Blockage or obstruction of life force energy may be caused by injury to any part of the body or due to infection caused by weak immunity, which causes pain or improper functioning of the organs.

Apart from physical injury, another important factor for blockage or obstruction of the life force energy is Mental issues like stress, depression, anxiety, anger, ego........etc......... These mental illnesses hamper the functionality of the Chakras. 

The chakras are energy centers for different functions of the body and are located along with the spine from the bottom of it to the uppermost of the head. 

Asanas also help in unblocking the chakras, thus, enabling it to release energy properly for the proper functioning of the body organs and thus saving/recovering us from pains and illnesses.

Stress causes many physical illnesses. It lowers one's capability to perform and concentrate to the optimum level. It affects memory, recalling power, and causes insomnia and fatigue too. Insomnia (sleeping disorder) and fatigue (tiredness) is a big problem for many professionals. It affects their performance despite being competent,  badly.

Asanas, as it opens the energy channels, helps one in relieving stress.

Pranayam (breathing techniques) are done after doing asanas. When energy channels got opened, there needs to be a proper supply of energy to every cell and pranayama provides exactly that. 

Pranayam (prana i.e. life force Energy + Ayam i.e. expansion) means well distribution of prana shakti (life force energy). 

It rejuvenates the whole system of the body. It nourishes the internal organs. There are various types of pranayama, which are meant for the wellness of different mental and physical aspects. 

It is indeed very much important to do the right type of pranayama according to individual needs.

Meditation is an essential part of Yoga. It calms the mind. Mind regulates the body and a healthy mind is an essential thing for having a healthy body. Hypertension (high blood pressure), stress, depression, insomnia, fatigue, psychological disorders such as OCD, bipolar, anxiety, ADD, ADHD, are successfully treated by meditation techniques. 

There are, of course, various types of meditation techniques, which are applied according to individual needs.

Yogic diet 

Yogic diet is same as the Ayurvedic diet, however even more strict than that. 

One should take seasonal vegetables and fruits according to Ayurvedic and yogic diet.

Also, eating in moderation is recommended. Eating too much and too frequently is prohibited. One should not eat the things which are harmful to them as per Ayurveda. Tamsik foods such as onions and garlic are not allowed as per yogic principles.

 

Counselling based on yogic principles is very necessary for some people. It is applied in countering psychological problems and for motivation.

Yogic therapy if applied wisely can help in various mental, physical, and emotional issues. 

It helps professionals in enhancing their competence, memory/recalling power, enthusiasm as it relieves their stress thus save them from its various bad consequences. Besides, it is also applied in preventing / curing/managing various ailments such as hypertension, hypotension, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, constipation, indigestion, insomnia, backache, shoulder ache, eye problems, joint pains, etc.

God blessings!

Shashank Shekhar

Stress affects your productivity

Hi,
In this cut-throat competitive world, every CEO is concerned with the productivity of his / her employees. Every company hires the best of the skilled, competent, and capable persons available. 

The hired persons are best trained by the companies according to their requirements and work ethics. There are support teams of HRs, psychologists, and physical therapists/trainers in every reputed company. All these are there so that the workforce of the company could be utilised at the optimum level. 

However, in spite of all these, many are found wanting on the performance level. Companies keep firing and re-hiring their employees. It affects companies' reputation and productivity as well as the confidence of the employees. Thus, both the employer and the employees suffer.

What is the cause behind this? Certainly, as everyone is well aware of the fact, it is stress, which is hampering everyone's performance. Stress can have many sources from where it could keep coming up time and again.

Is it possible to be immune to stress? 

Yes it possible. 

Stress squizes life out of you. 

It drains out the energy. If you have energy restoring techniques incorporated in your life style then you can guard your self against the stress. 

Energy restoring and Chakra energising techniques can revive your energy level as well as enhance your spirit. 

God Blessings!

Shashank Shekhar