We South Asians are famous for unlimited exuberance when festivities are around and the holiday season is no less. Not all in the community are in sync, but most embrace the season with full cheer and, yes, excess.
The generous impetus to shop-gift-cook can lead to inordinate stress. The cold weather is a bully! Fortunately, we have a fund of age-old wisdom and practices to help us stay healthy, happy and content. Let’s mix up Western and South Asian traditions this season.
Relax and enjoy through mindfulness
To fully enjoy the holidays, suspend multi-tasking! The teachings of sages tell us to focus fully on the job at hand, without interfering thoughts. Permitting the mind to race on to other situations instead of centering on the current one is a sure way to invite anxiety. Enjoy the moment. PRACTICE MINDFULNESS in whatever you’re doing this season – icing cookies, clearing snow, having dinner with family and so on. If needed, calm your mind and body with a few moments of deep breathing and then immerse yourself in the NOW.
Managing holiday stress with mindfulness
Drink up those famous therapeutic teas and restoratives
There’s not a single South Asian kitchen that does not stock the magically restorative turmeric. Bring it out and stir it up to build immunity! Also stave off cold with famous teas that use tulsi, ginger, pepper, cardamom and other ingredients. Almost every family has a ‘grandma’s recipe’. It could be a great health gift to those who do not know: a drink a day can keep the sniffles away. Each region has its own rendition. Some of the remedies:
Cough remedy from Bangladesh
Sri Lanka’s natural healing drink
Pakistan’s Daadi remedies
India’s golden milk
And if all this doesn’t satisfy your traditional cravings, there’s an unlimited range of South Asian winter cooking that complies with ayurvedic principles, full of warmth and goodness, in the form of rasam, gajar halwa, panjeeri, gond laddu….share the recipes, spread the joy!
(The goodness of Rasam: The medical virtues of rasam)
Seniors & Juniors, make a chair your exercise partner
The largesse of yoga is it fits each person’s needs, in varying physical circumstances. It is GENTLE. You can practice the exercises to keep you fitter, even as chilly weather makes you shutter up. The important thing is to do it. As much as you can, daily. Gently.
For seniors, yoga while remaining seated
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rJPwLkXzvg
While using a chair for support
https://www.instagram.com/p/C0fUp-IrZff/
https://www.instagram.com/p/C0uLd7ruZad/
General chair yoga
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UnBHVf_HVg
Be Mindful of the joy and spirit of the season
It’s great to go with the flow and express your togetherness. At the end of the year the lights are sparkling! There’s so much to be grateful for, so much to hope for, so much to acknowledge.
Our traditions teach us to cherish what we have and focus on kindness and joy.
https://chopra.com/articles/3-meditations-to-get-you-in-the-holiday-spirit
