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CAN WE IMPROVE OUR HEALTH BY DOING LESS? BY ASMA KASSAM
We are a society of do-ers. While this drives our society forward, we want to remember that our body has a limited energetic capacity.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Asma Kassam, BHK, CSNA, CFST is a Kinesiologist, fitness coach, certified Sports Nutrition Advisor, injury and mobility coach, Fascial Stretch Therapist and women’s health advocate Visit: www.akfitnessandhealth.com
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Reflecting The South-Asian Lifestyle
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s It possible, we would experience more success in our health by adopting a season where we do less. Hear me out. I’ve put down a few reasons to help create logic in proposing how I think we could benefit from less doing. Firstly, in order to use the term less, you need your own frame of reference. Your frame of reference is unique to you. You are the best judge for what you need in your life, and sometimes we get to do things that
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are a little out of our comfort zone to make small shifts that lead to small wins. Before we get into the juice, let’s preface with, these proposals may not resonate for you. I do hope there is one small takeaway that will help you, on your health journey. Here goes! We are a society of do-ers. While this drives our society forward, we want to remember that our body has a limited energetic capacity. Visualize a pot or a tank. This pot or tank is yours, and it holds all the energy your body has.Visualize your name on this tank “_____ (your name)’s energetic capacity.” Your body has one energy tank. This tank is used for physical, mental, and emotional functions. Under the umbrella of physical demands is also physiological processes - like digestion, fat-burning, hormone production, detoxification, skin repair, etc. Mental and emotional functions of the body are more self-explanatory The tank of energy is not bottomless, and it can be emptied out if not refuelled. Now keeping this energy tank in your mind, let’s talk about doing less, and how it could potentially help us with our health. Also, while reading, keep in mind, health is wealth. Health is energy. Health is vitality. Health is freedom of movement. Now let’s move forward. One of our human gifts is our ability to focus. Focus is a process that requires the brain to process and direct attention to a particular task. Many hours of focus, means our brain is constantly stimulated to process information. This mental focus is mileage and will consume energy from the tank. What if we were to adopt some measures that saved some energy? Would this leave us with some extra mental capacity? Perhaps that
