My Health and Wellness Tools

Posted on December 3, 2015 by Joseph Bismark

(Originally published in aspIRe magazine Issue 18)

Image: www.canastotacsd.org

Aside from being a strict vegetarian, I am a staunch advocate of holistic health and wellness. And I walk my talk! I work out, do my yoga asanas (poses), go cycling and I swim. I make it a point to do at least one physical activity every day and I want to share with you some of the tools that I use to maintain a sound mind and body.

Fitness Programme: The Rip 60
I like working out and I have been using the Rip 60 for a while now. It uses your bodyweight along with the Rip 60 equipment for a well-rounded workout covering flexibility, strength, stability and balance.

Weights: Kettlebells
I use kettlebells in my workout at least once a week. It is a cast-iron or cast steel weight that looks like a cannonball with a handle. In the 1700s it was a tool to weigh crops but now, it is used as equipment for exercises that combine cardiovascular, strength and flexibility training.

Application: MapMyRide
When I’m cycling, I use the MapMyRide mobile app. It uses the built-in GPS of your mobile device to track all your fitness activities. It’s got route tracking, social media sharing, site integration (stores all your historical workout data) and training log (records duration, distance, pace, speed, elevation and calories burned data for each workout).

Book: Anatomy of Yoga
Yoga is my way of life; it is the intrinsic and instinctive essence of my being. I live it and teach it. I’m now a yoga master at the Singapore School of Mediation and Yoga and for me to be an effective teacher, it’s essential that I continue learning. One of the books I’m reading is Anatomy of Yoga: An Instructor’s Inside Guide to Improving Your Poses by Dr Abigail Ellsworth. It helps me know more about the physiology of yoga asanas – the muscles that are engaged by specific poses, how to maximise the benefits of each pose and how to design a yoga routine to focus on problem areas.

Application: SoundCloud
Synonymous with prayer, meditation is actual practice of yoga. It connects the soul to the spiritual world, the realm of the Supreme Person. I upload mantras and bhajans chanting recordings of mine with friends and family on my SoundCloud page. To listen to some new tracks of meditative chanting, please visit www.soundcloud.com/japa16108.

Brain Training Programme: Lumosity
I use Lumosity to ensure that my brain remains sharp and healthy. It is scientifically designed and personalised and works out all aspects of the brain using fun scientific games that can be played on any device. It is backed by a team of research scientists with 40+ years of combined experience. I’m on it at least 15 minutes every day.
I believe in the importance of immersing ourselves in as many physical and mental activities as we can. Aside from the fact that activities keep us active and fit, they also help us conquer self-doubts and fears, to achieve the best version of ourselves.

The Road to Long Life

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Joseph Bismark

It is no secret that longevity is achieved through a healthy, happy lifestyle – better eating habits, more exercise, less intoxicants, less stress. This is a topic that has been widely covered and often brings us to the regions of Nagano and Okinawa in Japan, where people have the longest life expectancy in the world. A well-balanced diet, regular physical activity, and extended work years have helped these people not only live very long lives, but do so while remaining healthy and productive.

We can achieve this kind of life too if we change our mindset on how we live our daily life. How we spend our every day is how we spend our life. If we allow ourselves to always partake in the abusive excesses of modernisation, our health, which is supposed to be our wealth, suffers and eventually gets depleted. But if we engage in a paradigm shift and commit to taking care of all aspects of our health, we can enjoy a life similar to that of the Okinawans.

Your lifestyle is key to enjoying a long, fulfilling life with your loved ones. Ensure that all aspects of your health – physical, mental, spiritual – are taken care of at all times. It could be as simple as choosing organic over processed foods, meditating in the morning, communing with nature, dedicating a few minutes everyday to simple exercises, and complementing these little efforts with regular consumption of natural health supplements that you can consider as top-ups for your life. This is how you embrace a lifestyle that will help you cope with the stresses brought about by modern living.

Kenta is a delicious natural-formula beverage inspired by the aforementioned Okinawan Diet, which is famed for bringing longevity and youth. It contains extracts of some of the most nutritious ingredients, which modulate hormones and supply vital nutrients to the body to increase its cell production.

Kenta is also proudly vegan. Its formula contains no animal derivatives, and no animal testing has been done for this product. It contains no artificial flavours and colouring, and no preservatives, and no GMO ingredients.

So, if you want to take the road to long life, drink Kenta!

Stop Hammering Your Thumb

Posted on October 6, 2015 by Joseph Bismark

An advice on taking care of your health
(Originally published in aspIRe magazine Issue 17)

Photo: theweeklysticky.com

A man pounded his thumb with a hammer and went to see a doctor to get it treated. The thumb became purple and swollen, and blood oozed out from the wound. The doctor, without even establishing a rapport with the man, cleaned his thumb, bandaged it, wrote him a prescription and sent him home. A few weeks later, the man came back to see the same doctor for the same reason. The nonchalant doctor gave him the same treatment and did not check why the same thing happened.

Many of us are like the man in this story. We take our health for granted and indulge in activities that take a toll on our well-being. When we get sick, we spend on medicine and therapy and when we get well, we do the very same things that make us sick over and over again – eating unhealthy food, not getting enough sleep, drinking alcohol, smoking and so on. We hammer our body with poison and subject it to continuous abuse.

How do you take care of your car? You make sure the engine is in top shape, put premium grade engine oil additives in it, and get it tuned up and washed regularly. Now think of your body as your car. Shouldn’t you be taking care of it the same way you’re taking care of your car if not better? The premium oil that you put in your car is like the food that you eat and the exercise that you do. The premium oil diminishes the friction in your car engine, improves its performance and prolongs its life. The food that you eat produces the same results in your body – well-performing organs and a well-functioning brain. Physical exercise gives you strong bones and muscles and increased stamina to get you through the rigours of everyday life.

If you find yourself getting sick often, you should address the problem by zeroing in on its roots. Spend time on quiet introspection. Make an honest self-assessment to find out what’s making you sick. Chances are you’ll find that what gives you a temporary feeling of goodness is what makes you sick. If you’re hanging out with people that influence you to binge drink or smoke, you have the option to either cut ties with them or influence them to commit to a lifestyle change. If your weight has come to a point where it’s giving you problems physically and emotionally, you have the option to either live with it like a walking time bomb or deal with it by losing weight by exercising, cutting down on food portions, and keeping oily, fatty foods and carbonated drinks at bay. If you have relationships that bring you mental and emotional abuse, you either allow them to continue hurting you or choose to say goodbye and live a happy, stress-free life. The decision to live a life of health and wellness really comes from no one but you. Your well-being is not served on a silver platter. You are responsible for your own health. You drive your own life.

Editor of naturalnews.com Mike Adams, in his article entitled ‘Good Health is no accident’, wrote “The person believes health is something that happens TO them rather than something that happens THROUGH them. And so, they remain stuck, floundering in a pattern of self-inflicted sickness and disease while hoping that some other organisation, government or health care plan will somehow save them.

“Those who seek answers for their health outside the realm of their own decisions are looking in the wrong place. Health is no accident. Lasting health can only appear as the result of a lifetime of informed, deliberate decisions aligned with nature’s principles of health, not the distorted version of health promoted by our backward system of mainstream medicine.”

Health is a mindset. How you value your life is directly correlated to how you take care of your health. So, for your sake, make the choice to stop beating up your body. Stop hammering your thumb!

READ ALSO: The Essence of Meditation

The Essence of Meditation

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Joseph Bismark

(Originally published in aspIRe Magazine Issue 16)

Why should meditation be part of our lives?

Each of us is a sponge of sensory enjoyment. Our common thoughts are centred on the animal propensities of eating, sleeping, mating and defense. But, what makes us fundamentally different from animals is a fifth faculty: intelligence.

We have the ability to ask questions about the truth of our existence. We ask questions like “Who am I?”, “What is my purpose in life?”, “Why am I suffering?” and “How can I get out of this suffering?”. This intelligence is what enables us to meditate – to contemplate on the needs of the soul. The soul is perfect by nature but we all live in a temporary body that is basically flawed and so we tend to look for perfection. And, we can achieve perfection through the practice of meditation.

Meditation is synonymous with prayer. It connects the soul to the spiritual world, the realm of the Supreme Person. Through this disciplined practice, we get to the point where we constantly think of the Supreme Person. We find ourselves perpetually immersed in that frame of consciousness.

Mantra comes from the Sanskrit word Mana (mind) and the suffix -tra (instrument of thought). Mantras are spiritual sound vibrations. The basic meditation mantra Omkara (ॐ) is the sound representation of the Supreme Person. It is transcendental. It liberates mankind and all living entities from material sound vibrations. It purifies the soul of sinful, karmic activities that bind the soul in the repeated cycle of birth, disease, old age and death.

Meditation is also a process to develop real love – love for the Supreme Person that translates into love for humanity and all living beings. Love is the very essence of the soul, just like the wetness of water and the heat of fire. Love is inseparable from the soul. When love comes in contact with the modes of nature – ignorance, passion and goodness, it turns into lust. It becomes contaminated with worldly desires. It becomes the perversion of love. Material gratification does not satisfy love. When the soul is hungry and thirsty, we feed it by going inside ourselves and meditating.

The side benefit of meditation is to experience peace and tranquillity and to achieve the states of Atmarama (self-satisfaction) and Dhira (being sober). Being sober means not easily intoxicated or agitated. When we are spiritually sober, we are able to control the demands of our mind and the urges of our tongue, belly and genitals. It’s only when we’re sober that we become truly happy.

Meditation cleanses our hearts and makes us see the absolute truth more clearly. The ultimate goal of meditation is self-realisation. It means understanding that ‘I am a spirit soul in essence and I’m an eternal servant of the Supreme Person. I am not God. My eternal dharma (duty) is loving, devotional service to the Supreme Person.”

—–

Many of you have seen me carry around my Japa beads. Over the years, I have received numerous curious questions that I have only been very happy to answer. To those of you who have been asking me questions on the process of meditation, I have created a page on SoundCloud where I have uploaded some recordings of myself chanting mantras and bhajans. In the near future, I plan to also upload new tracks of my family and friends chanting. Thank you for letting me share with you what I’ve learnt from my Guru during my early life in the Ashram. I hope you all enjoy and take these Holy Names with you and chant always… Haribol!

https://soundcloud.com/japa16108

Taking Care of the Material Body and the Person Inside

Posted on August 14, 2015 by Joseph Bismark

(Originally published in aspIRe Magazine Issue 15)

I would like to share with you all my thoughts on a subject that’s very close to my heart – how to achieve overall soundness of body and soul.

We all have ego. The real meaning of ego is the self – I am. But sometimes, we put on a false ego. This false ego takes on many shapes and forms. For instance, if you identify yourself as a doctor and that’s what you call yourself, that’s a false ego. You are using a label to describe yourself; it’s not who you really are. You were not always a doctor or may not even be a doctor for the rest of your life. This goes for any other label you may give yourself. The false ego is the conditioning of a person to his/her environment. It is influenced by factors such as occupation, religion, nationality and name, among others. This false ego becomes your identity. This false identity then makes up who you are. Your success or happiness will be based on who you think you are. If you have misidentified yourself as a material body, false identity equals false goals. If I identify myself with my material body, I would automatically think that the more I indulge or gratify my senses, the happier I will be. I’ll associate my happiness with food or buy all the latest fashion just to keep myself happy.

If you think you’re the material body, you become the senses that comprise the body. So what would be your goal in life? Sense gratification. However, that should not be the case. You are doing that only to fill up your emptiness inside.

You have to understand that you’re not just the material body. There’s a person inside that you’re forgetting. Let me use a birdcage as an analogy. A cage is not just a cage. There’s usually a bird living in it. If you don’t feed the bird everyday, it will die. If you’re just cleaning the cage and neglecting the bird inside, it will without a doubt die. What’s the point of having a nice, shiny cage if it’s empty?

Similarly, what’s the point of taking good care of your body but neglecting the person inside? If you speak of success, what is it to you? Is it having a lot of money but ending up destroying your body by drinking, smoking and eating junk food? Does that equal success? Do you work so hard to make money only to engage in activities that would end up harming your body? Or, can success be something else? Such as, using that money to become a better person, a better citizen of the world. Do we not all want to be better people?

The real ego is you – the self, spirit-soul. The spirit-soul is the consciousness that sustains the whole body. Without my consciousness or awareness, I would not be able to type this message. When the soul leaves the body, the body dies. When the body is unable to function properly due to a disease or old age, the soul has to leave. Essentially, death only pertains to the material body because the soul is eternal.

So, take good care of yourself. Feed yourself with food for the mind, body and spirit. Eat healthy. Exercise. Spend time with yourself by communing with nature and meditating. Read books that give you spiritual enrichment and enhance your understanding of the human experience. Love and respect all living beings. Contribute to the betterment of the society.

Happy International Day of Yoga!

Posted on June 21, 2015 by Joseph Bismark

Photo: www.xtremerain.com

Namaste! Happy International Day of Yoga!

Yoga today is practiced by more than 2.4 billion people and everyone in the world has heard of the word ‘Yoga’ one way or another. Yoga means ‘to unite’ or ‘to reconnect with our true self and the Supreme Self’. Yoga is the goal of every living soul whether they realise it or not, because everyone seeks union, immortality, peace, love and freedom from pain and suffering, all of which can only be attained through the practice of Yoga.

In yoga, one begins to understand the difference between two distinct energies, matter and spirit. The real self separate from the physical body.

Again, Happy Yoga Day, and may all of you find your Yoga.

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June 21 was declared as the International Day of Yoga by the United Nations General Assembly on 11 December 2014. (Wikipedia)

Gems Of Wisdom

with Joseph Bismark

Yearly Archives: 2015