Shri Jagat Singh Bisht
(Master Teacher: Happiness & Well-Being, Laughter Yoga Master Trainer, Author, Blogger, Educator, and Speaker.)
Authored six books on happiness: Cultivating Happiness, Nirvana – The Highest Happiness, Meditate Like the Buddha, Mission Happiness, A Flourishing Life, and The Little Book of Happiness. He served in a bank for thirty-five years and has been propagating happiness and well-being among people for the past twenty years. He is on a mission – Mission Happiness!
☆Positive Education # 09: Positive Health ☆
“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
World Health Organization
Health is rightly said to be the greatest of all gifts. It is also the first requisite of happiness. Sound health brings good cheer and a positive outlook of life. Both physical and mental health are equally important for leading a balanced life.
Joseph Pilates, founder of pilates workout, aptly observes in his book, Return to Life,
“Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness. Our interpretation of physical fitness is the attainment and maintenance of a uniformly developed body with a sound mind fully capable of naturally, easily, and satisfactorily performing our many and varied daily tasks with spontaneous zest and pleasure.
“To achieve the highest accomplishments within the scope of our capabilities in all walks of life we must constantly strive to acquire strong, healthy bodies and develop our minds to the limit of our ability.”
Childhood is the best time to inculcate the habit of physical exercise and playing hard. Children should participate in a lot of physical activity – athletics, football, basketball, cricket, badminton, etc. It must be included in their daily routine. There should be no day that goes without play.
Play
Play is good for health and happiness. Physical exercise generates feel good hormones, known as endorphins. Going out and participating in sports and games also broadens and builds inter-personal skills and emotional intelligence.
Sachin Tendulkar, legendary cricketer, believes, “In our quest to make children academically strong, we must now also focus on their physical development. We must include sports as part of the curriculum. After all, it has been proven without doubt that both of these are closely linked and contribute together to shape individual personalities.”
According to Stuart Brown, “As children we play a great deal, but then we “mature” and stop having fun. Play, at any stage, contributes to our psychological and physical well-being: it makes us more resilient, strengthens our immune system, enhances our creativity, and improves our relationships.
“Remembering what play is all about and making it part of our daily lives is probably the most important factor in being a fulfilled human being.”
Along with sports and games, the practice of yoga, tai chi, and martial arts sharpens the mind and reflexes, and enhances concentration and patience. A balanced mix of exercise routines can do wonders for your child.
“Yoga is an ancient art based on an extremely subtle science, that of the body, mind, and soul. The prolonged practice of yoga will, in time, lead the student to a sense of peace and a feeling of being one with his or her environment.”
B K S Iyengar
Walk
Getting up early and going to a park in the neighbourhood could be a rewarding habit to develop. It gives you a whiff of fresh air and sunshine that makes you feel energetic the whole day. Once you add it to your routine, you will start looking forward to the morning, and it will become a rewarding hour of the day for you.
Start with a gentle walk and then walk briskly. Twenty to thirty minutes of walk every day can do wonders for you in the long run. It is good for your circulatory system and relaxes you a great deal.
Watching the trees and the flowers while walking gives a healing and soothing touch to your senses. It relaxes your eyes and is good for your eyesight too. Walking is not just an exercise, it reduces stress. You feel relaxed.
“Walking is the best possible exercise. Habituate yourself to walk very far.”
Thomas Jefferson
Exercise
Exercises are not only good for your body. They bring happiness and well-being. Whenever you feel low, get up and move out to the neighbourhood park.
Physically active people are happier. Also, they have better life-satisfaction, and higher self-esteem. Exercise reduces depression, anxiety, stress, and panic; it betters mental processing, creates longer life, improves sleep quality, and strengthens the immune system.
It is exercise itself that infuses us with happiness. Among various types of activities, exercise is the most reliable happiness boosting activity.
Walking, coupled with some freestyle exercises in a relaxed manner, brings multiple benefits. It stretches your skeletal structure, improves your blood circulation, and is good for your muscles. It is good for your heart and the respiratory track. This, in turn, activates your endocrine system.
Find a quiet corner for yourself and just stretch, bend, twist, turn, and whirl your body in a freestyle manner. Do not worry too much. Nothing is right or wrong. Do whatever you feel like doing.
Exercise freestyle. Do not stress, let it be fun. Stretch, bend, twist, turn, whirl, move, and jump.
Strenuous exercises may sometimes be harmful but light and freestyle exercises are always good. Go back to your childhood days, remember all the funny exercises you used to do, and try to re-create them. Gentle jogging, half jumps and stretching-bending exercises could be great fun, especially when done with children. The children would also be happy if you join them occasionally.
No equipment is needed, and you are not required to follow strict schedules. No membership fees and no registrations. Just have fun and get all the benefits. Include freestyle exercises in your routine. You will feel free and relaxed throughout the day.
“Positive mental health is a presence: the presence of positive emotion, the presence of engagement, the presence of meaning, the presence of good relationships, and the presence of accomplishment. Being in a state of mental health is not merely being disorder free; rather it is the presence of flourishing.”
Martin Seligman
Please click on the following links to read previously published posts “Positive Education” 👉
Master Teacher: Happiness & Well-Being, Laughter Yoga Master Trainer, Author, Blogger, Educator, and Speaker
Founder
A Pathway to Authentic Happiness, Well-Being & A Fulfilling Life! We teach skills to lead a healthy, happy and meaningful life.
The Science of Happiness (Positive Psychology), Meditation, Yoga, Spirituality and Laughter Yoga. We conduct talks, seminars, workshops, retreats and training.
≈ Editor – Shri Hemant Bawankar/Editor (English) – Captain Pravin Raghuvanshi, NM
