Health

Pain Tolerance

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

How much pain can we tolerate? Literally. In both our mind and our body.

Having suffered a serious injury that led to leaving the armed forces, and having gone through other health issues, this is not just a figurative question. It is a personal one.

Every time something happens to me, my pain tolerance behaviour kicks in. At times I take things in stride and go on without worrying. But at times, it makes me avoid anything that could cause more discomfort.

It is interesting because my mind behaves randomly on the same topic. Strange too.

This Friday, as I took a flight back home and landed with not just a jet lag but a muscle spasm around my shoulder, my mind started to work. It told me to take things easy. So, I have been. Applying ointments and eating painkillers while avoiding any strenuous activity.

What if I had something urgent to attend to at home? I am sure, my mind would have told me to forget about all the pain and instead focus on the urgent matter. I may have still needed the ointments and painkillers but those would have been taken to continue.

Reflecting on this behaviour, I was wondering why is it so? Is it normal? Is it something only I go through? Or am I being unnecessarily paranoid over something not worth its while?

My reflections led me to my earlier experiences when I had either taken heed of my mind and succumbed to the inactivity or when I had pushed the discomfort aside to focus on other important things.

What I realised is that it is all dependent on the motive. Do I have something on my hands which I am so engaged in that nothing else matters? Am I so charged up that a niggle doesn’t bother me?

If I don’t have a strong reason, my mind tends to take things easy; almost as if it is telling me not to bother because there’s nothing more important than myself. Well, that isn’t completely untrue! But it also cannot be true every time because then I wouldn’t be able to grow.

Perhaps the balance is in allowing the mind to let the body slack a bit when needed. After all, the mind and the body know better than us. Interspersed with elongated periods of acute focus and activity when nothing else matters. Something that has worked for me in the recent past.

Again, not generally applicable, but maybe it is a good practice to check on where we are in life when such a signal comes. What do we do in those moments could very well define how much fuel power we have to persevere and continue running.

Because while life is short, it is long enough to play in the balance…

I cannot see clearly any more…

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

All these years, I prided myself on my good eyesight.

Even though I have worked on screens for a very long time, I have never worn specs. Even though I have continued to grow older, my eyes have remained healthy.

It was all clear! But not any more…

Last week, while getting a regular eye test done, I discovered that my eyes have developed a slight weakness. And hence, I need glasses to see things clearer.

When the doctor told me, it took me a while to process that my pride had been hit. He helped me understand that what I have is a very common condition, due to aging. But I didn’t take it very well.

I went with the flow and ordered the glasses but somewhere deep down I was still fighting with the reveal.

While I knew that I would some day have to wear them, I had always thought of wearing glasses as a distant thing, to happen sometime in the future. Which isn’t going to come sometime soon.

Until it came. And signaled to me that my thinking cannot remain the same for years together!

It has taken me some time to get used to wearing my glasses. I am still going through the learning phase, getting in sync with the idea of having to wear them.

It’s the same with a lot of new things that happen with us through our life. When they happen, we are not sure about them. Sometimes we are surprised, sometimes we take it in our stride.

Then, as we begin to adapt to the new change, we feel certain inhibitions. How would things change? What does this mean? Etc.

Finally, if we agree with the change, we become one with it and accept it. If not, we reject it and move on. Either way, having gone through the experience enriches us.

Not that it helps us avoid those feelings in another instance. Or decide to accept or reject it immediately.

But it does give us a perspective about ourselves. About how our thought process changes and how new things get embedded in our being.

Unfortunately, for me this time, there’s no option to reject. But then, maybe, there’s a hidden good in all of this. I do look more serious and matured with the glasses!!! 🙂

The Choices We Make.

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

Last two weeks were eventful!

I rounded up an India trip including a short visit to my home. I also spent late hours working in and off the office as well as landed up in a few parties with my colleagues.

The whirlwind speed with which this all transpired, didn’t let me breathe until I got back on the plane to SF. As I spent a few hours contemplating on the visit and going through the days in my mind, I reflected on some chats with a common thread.

This common thread was the choice of food. Unintentionally, in some or the other way, I spent quite a while talking about it with a friend, with a couple of cousins, and with a few colleagues.

Since the last few months, as I have started following a disciplined regimen of daily exercise and a calibrated nutritional diet, my body has had to adjust with this new routine. It had gotten used to eating a lot more junk and bigger portion sizes during the beginning of this year. Now, it suddenly had to expect less and make do with it.

My body adjusted to this reduction made by me just fine, and in turn rewarded me with burning through the fat deposits. As I wished for!

Maybe my mind has also fallen in line. It has made me control myself better. For whatever reason (I am still investigating), it stopped thinking about food every now and then and in fact, actively sends me signals to ensure I don’t again overload myself.

On this entire India trip, every time I overate, my body actively discouraged me from within. My mind has stopped sending me any hunger signals if it senses there’s still calories to be burned. And my own discipline meant I spent a fair number of days in the hotel gym. These all obviously helped me.

While talking about this with friends/family/colleagues, they also relayed the same experience. If they decided, their body and mind cooperated and helped them in their journey. The positive effects in turn helped them stay the course. And the body and mind tuned in more.

As I reflected on my way back, I realized that this is true not just in matters of the culinary kind but even in other aspects of life. I have experienced this at work, in business, and in relationships too.

What we choose and how it helps us – positively or negatively, is usually a function of our choice. If it is positive, we get reinforcements. If it is negative, we only see pitfalls.

What still surprises me though is how we fall of this curve at times and derail ourselves. Perhaps, it is because we don’t accept the choice wholeheartedly. Or maybe we take it to the other extreme, where things become boring and we miss simple pleasures of life and eventually get off the track.

Any which way, what I learnt is important is being conscious about making these choices and then sticking to them for as long as we can…

Weighty Issues

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

Most of us don’t recognize that our weight is important. Well, literally our body weight, not the other kinds that we tend to display in different environments!

And yet, when we aren’t doing well and our weight drops significantly or increases rapidly (more common use-case!), we feel awful. Most of us, I mean.

Not because it is a sign of we losing grip on our own life. That anyways is lost with all the mayhem around us on an everyday basis.

But because we start noticing how smaller things start becoming annoying. Like clothes that used to fit, don’t fit in well suddenly. Or we cannot walk or run for the same distances or at the same pace. Or we develop other side effects, be it in the form of some disease or temporary condition.

These are those weighty issues in life that tend to be ignored or not given due importance, until it isn’t possible to do so anymore.

And yet, we don’t really recognize when these weighty issues start. We believe these issues will never impact us as much as they impact others. Because, we believe we are in control of our weight always.

I discovered recently that it is not always the case. We lose control, at times totally randomly. I definitely lost.

I have always vouched for maintaining a healthy regime. Exercising regularly, although different kinds of activities as per my mood. Eating with adequate restraint, ensuring I don’t over indulge myself. And taking care of my health on a general basis by keeping a track record of how I am doing.

Then suddenly, we shifted countries six months back. The routine I had in India went for a toss and I had to adapt myself to a new routine.

Where I had the morning to myself, reserved for exercising, I now had to give way to calls with colleagues in other geographies. Where I was used to eating a balanced diet, I unknowingly gave way to eating more food, and a good amount of it with high calories. And where I was used to a temperate climate, I suddenly had the Bay Area winds and chill to contend with.

It wasn’t that I stopped exercising or eating right. I tried to do as much as I could. But I underestimated the impact of the shift. It played with my weight.

It also wasn’t that I hadn’t noticed these changes or ignored them. I knew the impact and half-heartedly tried to take matters in my hands. But it was already late. The couple of months of abuse had already taken a toll on my weight, which sprang up by almost 10%.

As I started noticing the weighty issues, I realized I had lost the game in the middle overs. My clothes suddenly became tighter, my running and walking pace dropped, and my vitals weren’t up to the mark in the latest medical report.

It struck me suddenly when I was talking to a few colleagues. I realized, I had myself to blame to let this pass by and had to act now. I made a resolve to myself to get cracking at the problem immediately.

It has been two weeks since I re-started my healthy regime. Daily exercise, healthy eating with limited portions, and tracking everything rigorously. And some early results are encouraging, with my body weight already dropping by about 20% from its peak.

Let’s see how things go in the next few weeks, with more travel on the cards and a visit home. Hopefully, I will continue to stick to my healthier regime and get back to my normal weight…

How I am trying to reduce stress (and live better)

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

It was a bad month for me. I had constant episodes of acute headaches, which the doctor told me looked like migraine, which was worrying.

In a place like Bangalore, life’s fast and commutes too long. And with both of us working, there are endless things that take time to get knocked off the personal to-do list.

Now, for the last few years, I have been used to putting in 12 or more working hours every day and since last 3 years, have been spending close to 2-3 hours on the road during the peak hours. Leave aside the 6-7 odd hours of sleep, this was leaving only about a couple of hours for me to do all the other stuff on routine days.

These factors combined with the highly disordered traffic sense which often is irritating, the constant demands on all fronts which often is challenging, and own expectations which often are exacting, were pushing me and I was somewhere getting burdened and worked up. Which was leading to those headaches.

I had been eating well, exercising regularly, and had generally been healthy the past year. And I had taken steps in the workplace to ensure my workload could be delegated or distributed as much as possible. Therefore, when the doctor mentioned this might be due to stress building up in the system, I decided to take a long hard look at what I was doing wrong.

As I started figuring out things, 3 aspects stood out – I was spending too much time in traffic on weekdays that was leaving me with very little to do otherwise, I wasn’t doing anything for myself on weekends and they were being spent working or sitting idle, and I was rushing through life with family instead of savouring it slowly.

Naturally, I have taken some remedial steps to handle these aspects. First and foremost, I have started travelling to and fro from office early in the morning. That has helped me cut down my travel time by at least a third and given me time to spend at home or office to get things done.

Secondly, I have started writing this blog again. It has given me a tool to speak my mind and tell what I want to. It’s like giving wings to a person to let him fly. Shackles have been broken and creative juices have started flowing again.

And lastly, I have decided to take things slowly during weekends, with a lot of nudging from my wife. Apart from work commitments, which sometimes require my time, I try and spend as much time with my wife and daughter doing regular things like talking, having meals, going for a stroll in the park, enjoying a movie together, playing games, reading, and so on. Regular life stuff, which has helped me rejuvenate.

All of these have definitely helped in lowering the rush in my head. The headaches have gone away, no migraine as of now. And I am able to get more done on a daily basis, while building my relationship bonds stronger.

Sometimes, we just go off track in our life’s race and continue to run hard but in a direction that doesn’t have a very good end. Thankfully, I discovered the wrong direction I took pretty early and have been able to make corrections. Just hope to continue without going off-track again.

As for this blog, this has been a blessing in disguise…

External depends on Internal

~ Rishi ~ Leave a comment

Last week after hogging endlessly at my in-laws place, on my way back, I decided that I have to become healthy…

Its not that I am overly obese or have gross vital stats but somehow I am not feeling good inside with the extra kilos I have put on and want to do away with it. Hence the new resolution even before the new year kicked in. I just couldn’t  wait! (and I have already started with the daily regimen I set out).

And yet, I got drawn to something of an irony when I looked around me. Being  healthy is the most often heard wish or resolution people make for themselves and wish for others. Yet, when we look at the general trends and figure it out, health parameters across the board are falling. So what’s going wrong?

My guess is, people are just subscribing to being healthy as a fad, seeing others around them. It’s an endless chain hence, which does rope in a lot of people but doesn’t benefit many. Why? Simply because I will work towards my health only when I really feel about it. Otherwise, you be damned – I won’t heed your advice, or anything else which pushes me involuntarily towards it. 

Come to think of it, most things we do in our life are because we want to do them. Not because someone somewhere told us to. And definitely not until we are pushed from within to go ahead and do it.

External push rarely works!!! Unless accompanied by the internal clamouring… And my guess is for all things!