Tag Archives: health

My Health and Wellness Tools

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(Originally published in aspIRe magazine Issue 18)

Image: www.canastotacsd.org

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.

 

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The Perfect Doctor

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Last week, I shared with you the secret of real wealth: good health. This week, I would like to continue this theme. I am certainly not a doctor, but I do believe that our own good health is our own responsibility.

We are each blessed with a body that has been designed to care for itself, as long as we are there to help it. The body is the perfect doctor: The body will cure itself, but we just need to learn how to not block the process. Moreover, with so many other drugs and medicines that are introduced into our body’s system, the body loses its memory on how to protect itself. The body will always send us a signal when something is wrong. But often, we don’t pay attention or don’t recognise the signal at all.

I would encourage everyone to learn about their body and learn how to give your body the best environment in which to do its job of protecting and healing itself. I am not saying there is no need for doctors – there is – but we can make the doctors’ jobs a whole lot easier if we pay a little more attention to what our body is saying and why it’s saying it.

Things like short-term fasting, flushing, cold press, dry brushing, massages – all these things help to ensure our body is free from toxins, and clears the way for the body to get on with performing all the vital functions it was designed for. Eating well, exercising, getting enough sleep, managing your stress levels, staying away from alcohol and cigarettes, maintaining a vegetarian diet – these are all things that we have perfect control over and can pave the way for a body that is allowed to do what it was created to do – live.

Please take a moment to ponder… our body is designed to protect us. Don’t get in the way of that.

Sincerely,

Joseph Bismark

Group Managing Director, QI Ltd

Bear in Mind…

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One of our most fundamental needs as a human being is to spend and recover energy. This is called oscillation.

The opposite of oscillation is linearity.

This is when we spend too much energy without recovery, or too much recovery without sufficient energy expenditure.

Other than eating and breathing, sleeping is the most important source of recovery for the human body. It is also the most powerful of the circadian rhythms that include body temperature, hormone levels, and heart rates. Even small amounts of sleep debt and insufficient recovery have a significant impact on strength, cardiovascular capacity and mood, as well as on overall energy levels.

During my years as a health instructor, I read many health studies and reports that state mental performance, reaction time, concentration, memory, and logical and analytical reasoning all decline steadily as sleep debt increases.

In one especially dramatic study, psychologist Dan Kripke and his colleagues studied the sleep pattern of one million people over six years.

Mortality rates from nearly all causes of death were lowest among people who slept between seven and eight hours a night. For those sleeping less than four hours, mortality rates were one and a half times higher. In short, too little recovery and too much recovery appear to significantly increase the risk of mortality.

The longer, more continuously, and later at night you work, the less efficient and more mistake-prone you become.

In my opinion, it is not about working overtime that makes you effective, it is the management of your energy.

Please take a moment each day to ponder and think…

Ask yourself these simple questions: “Who am I?” and “What am I doing?” and “Where will I go when everything ends?”

Sincerely,

Joseph Bismark
Group Managing Director, QI Ltd