Category: Health

The thought that every passing day we are moving away from our friends and family prompted me to be as happy as possible. The thought that after some time I won’t be able to spend time with my loved ones urged me to cherish their company and spare them unnecessary hurts by me due to foolishness.

My young one was sick for the whole week. We all were tired after few days and tiredness is accompanied by boredom and monotony. But what to do when a child is sick and it has to be protected from too much activities and excitement? After a while, story books, coloring and cartoons lose their charm. I along with my kid needed change but in a protected environment.

We all know that camping is the best way of spending time with family and friends. Camping brings us closer to the nature and teaches kids many fun activities. Knowing or unknowingly we try to get closer to mother nature. I heard no one saying, This sky is so boring, This tree is so monotones, I am sick of looking at this pond/river/sea, I don’t like the feel of breeze on my face. Viewing sunrise or sunset is so uncool? I think no one has head such sentences in his/her entire life.

Why nature has the power to decrease our stress level? Probably we are a part of nature and not of concrete, girdles or mortar probably that’s why we want to connect with mother nature. Or a mother’s lap is always soothing and secure that’s why we want to revisit nature. Though experts offer some other explanation. Richard Louv, http://www.suite101.com/content/camping-with-children-a198904 author of Last Child In the Woods (Algonquin Books, 2005), says there is a connection between nature and rates of attention deficit disorder (ADD), obesity, and depression in children. The more time a child is outdoors the happier and healthier they can be. Young children and adolescents both benefit from spending time in nature frequently.

But what should I do? I am almost surrounded by concrete jungle. Should I wait for the kid’s vacation? Should I wait for the right, day, right time, right place, right vehicle, right tour and travel package? These options are very palatable but completely impractical at this time. I was fanatically thinking of new ideas. Then I remembered that my nephew had built a house in the terrace for his little sister. So what’s wrong with my balcony? NOTHING.

So I set up a camp right there with my young one. The whole process was so exciting and pleasant. I fished out some old unused bed sheets. Tied it at three places to make our “tent” and threw in lots of cushions and pillows to sprawl upon. We did take our pets along with us. They too should enjoy camping in the balcony. A nice breeze was blowing and sky was looking so blue and unspoiled.

If you want to do something why wait. Just go ahead and do it and be happy. 🙂

For the past two days, I am not happy at all. No one can be, if he/she is in my shoes. I am not even thinking about being happy at all. That is the least of my priorities. Some days are like that. You have to accept that you can’t be happy no matter what.
My young one is quite attached with me. I know she depends on me a lot and feels very uncomfortable if I am not around for a long time. But for the past two days she is sick and I am feeling terrible. First it was nothing serious but usual cold. Then she started coughing and has fever too. Still not a cause of concern. I gave her the usual medicines and she seemed OK.
Last night her fever started shooting up again and just for the heck of it I told her to open her mouth. And my worst nightmare came true. She is again having laryngitis. Last year the problem got so worst that she was hospitalized and was in hospital on her birthday. When she was discharged from the hospital she was OK but after a while developed worst side effect of antibiotics. If there is God somewhere, he took pity on us and decided to bless us with our young one’s company.
She is suffering from laryngitis again is enough to give us nightmares. We were out in the middle of the night with doctor’s prescription to buy the medicine. To our horror we visited almost all the existing 24 hour open chemists’ shop in the city and we couldn’t find the medicine.

We came back home feeling disgusted and in the midst of all this chaos my daughter was sleeping peacefully at the back of the car. She didn’t have any fever. To out utter relief she didn’t have fever in the morning that means she is not having infection. We don’t have to Give her antibiotics. The doctor prescribed the alternative medicine for her throat. Above all she is not suffering from laryngitis.
What gave us the breather was the homeopathic medicine suggested by my father which worked wonders for the kid. I have to write another blog post on my father who is the walking and talking encyclopedia. 🙂
Right now It so comforting to see the kid plying with her pets and her laughter is echoing in the whole house. Today she applied some Vaseline on the Guinea Pigs and got reprimanded suitably. Seems happy days are back again.

I don’t know what’s the matter with me today. Nothing worked today.

My first priority within few weeks will be to go to bed early. I sleep quite late in the night. And get up early in the morning. I want to change that. I want to feel well rested in the morning. I want to begin my day on a positive note. I want to get rid of that feeling, “10 or 15 minutes more in the quilt.”

Not getting enough sleep is destroying my health and happiness both. It affects my mood too. All the time I keep on fighting with tiredness and try to get some rest at odd times. But it won’t suffice for a normal healthy sleep. And when I was unable to take those odd naps at odd times it leaves me frustrated.

When I am irritable and half rested, it naturally leaves me in foul temper. I have to make an extra effort not to take it out on easy targets. It sometimes proves to be very tiring to keep your temper in check. When I do explode on someone do it give me relief? The answer is yes BUT for a while. Few minutes, hours, days or weeks later, I was attacked by guilt pangs and what not…. Not to forget, that I have to go extra mile to make up with the person who was the target of my wrath.

So an idea hit me, why not get rid of all this unhappiness and grouchy mood by going to bed early and waking up fresh in the morning? I am going to try this and see what happens.I have to rope in my family members and sell this idea to them also. We are all night owls. We all feel so productive and happy during the night. But we pay for this happiness in the morning!

Today for a change we got up early in the morning and what a great morning that was. We had enough time to sip tea leisurely and talk without feeling rushed or guilty. Early mornings are great times for family and normal talks. But it is good only when you have enough rest in the night.
Till now getting up early and retiring to bed early has proved the hardest thing to execute in life. So Now I want to wish all the best to myself. 🙂

Today I opened my eyes to immense pain in my back and legs. Again, flooding my mind with positive thoughts flew out of the window for a while. I have woken up brooding why I am having so much pain? Then I remembered that last evening I played a lot in the garden and then walked a lot. Nothing wrong in that. But I was giving a royal snub to my calcium supply (read milk). I don’t know why, but I have developed this love-hate relationship with milk for the past ten years. Earlier it was an absolute must for me, two times a day. Now its not even two times a month. And I want to remain active like Roger Federer! I am pretty sure Roger Federer doesn’t follow a diet like me.

Another thing I realized that if I want to be happy, health is the key to that door of happiness. In fact Health is Happiness. But I know, still I won’t drink milk. No matter what. My only hope is my sister. Only she has got the power in this whole world to make me drink milk. No matter in which corner of the earth my sister resides, just a phone call from her is sufficient. 🙂 Hope, I will say goodbye to physical pain soon.

I promised myself to be happy and do one thing that makes me happy. I promised to have fruits in our diet everyday. But how to make it a happy occasion so that my nursery going little one can enjoy that? I want my little one to develop a habit to have fruits and salads everyday just like she brushes her teeth everyday. But how to make fruit and salad eating a HAPPY experience?

For that I will be thankful to John Logie Baird, inventor of the television and Walt Walt Disney. I out on my little ones favorite cartoon and quietly slipped the fruit’s plate. I too sat with her. After a while we both were watching cartoon, Doremon, laughing, talking and eating our snack – F-R-U-I-T. 🙂 I really had a good time with her. And she too was unaware of my intentions. 🙂 I am doing it SUCCESSFULLY for the three days. I hope to continue doing it as long as possible. WHO says TV is bad for kids? Probably we don’t know how to use it to our advantage. 🙂

Meanwhile I also discovered that during if I want to introduce some new HEALTHY food, cartoon time is the best time. Now I am going to do away with that chips and popcorn. My little one hardly notices the difference during cartoon time. 🙂 We both were so happy.
Having fruits while watching TV, give us time for bonding too. I was not in my usual don’t do this, don’t do that mode. We were laughing, talking and eating at the same time. Thanks Walt Disney and John L Baird from the bottom of my heart.

I know I am supposed to write about my experiment with inculcating habit of having fruits and salad on daily basis. But I find stretching my boundaries immensely satisfying and happy experience. I want to pen it down first.

We often feel miserable when we limit ourselves by creating rigid boundaries. Sometimes we need to break free and surprise ourselves. Sometimes we have to exceed our limits set by no one but ourselves. We often feel fear that if we deviate from norms what will be in store for us?

Our family often talks about having a pet (a dog). But I resist it fiercely. It doesn’t mean I never had a pet when I was growing up. We always have. But they are mostly rabbits or stray dogs. Stray dogs used to come to our house and settle down whichever corner they fancy. We have huge open space and lawns around our house. But now I am living in on second floor of a metro town. So my concern was dogs need space. They shouldn’t be cooped up in a flat. They should be left in open whenever they fancy.
I often don’t like the idea of having a pet at all. I often felt fearful, what if I can’t take care of it ? What if they fall sick? What if they don’t like my place? How will I bathe them? How to keep them clean? From where to get their food? How to find time to look after pets? There were so many HOWS that were stopping me from experiencing happiness and joys of having a pet. My fears were stopping me.

But this Sunday, we went out for a movie. We enjoyed a lot. Coming out of movie hall we spotted a pet shop. Just for the heck of it we entered and bought two guinea pigs. They were delivered to us the next day. And WOW!

i HAVE NEVER REALIZED that having a pet can bring so much joy, happiness, laughter and contentment in one go. I have never seen the youngest member of my family laughing so much. For the first time I have not seen her running towards TV at regular intervals. In fact she didn’t watch TV at all the whole day nor seem to miss her cartoons.
I have never seen the youngest member of the family listen to elders so promptly. Whatever is good for the pets should be done. It was nice to see her sharing and caring for her pets and being concerned for their well being.
Having a pet brings a family closer. It better than watching TV together. AT least our gazes were not fixed at some box. Whenever we get time we huddle near our pets and share so much laughter at our pets antiques. We talk so much and share so many ideas. Our little one voices her opinion too regarding to keep out pet amused and well fed. I can never thank my pets enough for this joyous familial bonding.
I am glad that I stretched my boundaries that Sunday and bought happiness, joy, laughter, mirth, enjoyment and togetherness home,things a family is made up of, things for what a family should be known for.