The Hindu Business Line : Boost your positive self

Every now and then, check out the state of your immune system. Are you falling ill too often? Are you feeling stressed out? Does the thought of a busy day at the office make you groan? Do you feel tired in the evening? Is your skin sallow and patchy? Does the smallest inconvenience look like a major problem? If you are experiencing even one of these symptoms, it means that your immune system needs to be strengthened.

First, you need to lighten the burdens on the immune system. Have that dull nagging toothache attended to by a dentist. Clear infections that give discomfort, though they may not confine you to bed. Stomach infections, in particular, are an enormous drain as they keep the immune system busy producing antibodies 24x7. It is said that the intestinal lining if stretched and flattened out would be as large as a football field. So, you can imagine the immune system's enormous task in tending to this region.

Get your eyes checked and corrected with glasses or lens. Not being able to read clearly plays havoc with concentration. Molehills look like mountains, puddles like tidal waves. In this hazy confusion, you could mess up an important project or feel overwhelmed by its `enormity'.

Introduce your palate to fat-free, nutrient-rich meals. Up your fresh fruit and raw vegetable intake. To make it more interesting, try a new vegetable or fruit every week. Substitute red meat and shellfish with chicken and soya chunk curries. Eat loads of leafy sabzis like spinach and fenugreek leaves roasted with onion, ginger, garlic, green chillies and salt. Drink at least 10 glasses of water.

Ease off acidic foods. Munch sprouts instead of peanuts. Keep off capsicum if you have acidity. Have two trifala tablets a day. Tri-fal means three fruits. Cool your acidic stomach with pumpkin sabzi and cucumber raita or smoothie. If you have joint aches, have two teaspoons of flaxseeds a day.

Have yoghurt to encourage friendly bacteria in the stomach. That you feel lighter, more alert after your dietary changes indicates that your immune system is strengthening.

Get sufficient and restful sleep. A recent English study shows that if you are sleep-deprived for 72 hours, the stress hormone levels rise and the brain stops making new cells.

Also, switch off your mobile phone, iPod, and other electronic gizmos in the evening to allow your brain to filter out the buzz, relax, recharge and rejuvenate. Spend an hour gazing into an aquarium where the fish flit around peacefully. It's a great meditative activity.

Exercise, lose weight and maintain the weight-loss. A rhythmic activity like stationary cycling increases the body's vitality and stimulates a lazy immune system.

Here, follow your instincts, do whatever you spontaneously feel like doing. If a beautiful sunny morning beckons you to walk, then walk. A hot muggy day beckons you to cool out in the pool, then swim. A contemplative mood makes you want to stay indoors, stay and pedal. While exercising, listen to music or taped talks by spiritualists. A combination of muscle stretches and mental insights are powerful immunity tonics.

Make your workplace pleasant and friendly. Be amiable with your colleagues. Never speculate about a look that the boss has shot at you, and never try to read between the lines of your boss' instructions. This attitude raises stress levels. Instead, ask your boss to clarify anything that you feel you haven't understood. You are not there to second-guess his/her moods, but to do a job and do it well.

Make sure your work is not interrupted by e-mails, calls or SMS messages. Constant interruptions stress you out more than you realise. Continuous, uninterrupted concentration is meditation too. If, while working, your mind is without agitation, absorbed, and does not expect or anticipate, it is in the meditative state. Such stillness is a gift to your immune system.

Listen to serve. This may sound strange, but it isn't. When you listen with full attention with your entire body, without disagreeing or agreeing with the person who is speaking, you render a beautiful service. When you share another's sorrow (or joy), you serve. When you listen to serve, you ease another's suffering and lighten the world as well. When you lighten another's spirits, you infuse good vibes into his/her immune system as well as your own.

Don't brood because life-situations keep changing. Friends move, colleagues leave, and near ones die... Keep a grip on your unchanging life-positive practices — your exercising, working meditatively and so on.

From this firm foundation, introspect. Sometimes `negative' things happen to free your intellect from certain inhibitions or to liberate your memory from certain obsessions or to widen your ego to include all and not isolate some.

When you give everyone a special smile, your immune system too feels that love and gets all charged up.

(The writer is co-author of the book, Fitness for Life.)

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