Dear Friends,
Namaste!
Stephen Covey, in his book ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’, talks about a principle called the ‘Production – Production Capacity (P-PC)’ principle. The principle states that the effective output of a machine over the long term would be much higher if the machine were to be periodically overhauled to maintain or increase its production capacity rather than just running it at maximum capacity continuously till it breaks down – sometimes beyond repair.
In times when there were no computers, there lived a man in a village with his family and a goose. The man was extremely lucky because the goose, unlike other geese, laid a golden egg every day. The man would sell the egg and support his family.
The fame of the goose spread far and wide. Soon people began wondering if the man was indeed making the most of this opportunity. Tongues started wagging and slowly the man became convinced that he was squandering away the good fortune that had befallen him.
He was no more happy with just one golden egg a day. He wished to become very rich very soon. One fine morning, he killed the goose and slit open its stomach to get all the golden eggs at once…
Our body, too, is a wonderful machine. In our quest for acquiring total physical, mental, intellectual and social fitness and happiness, it is mandatory that we take sufficient doses of resting and fasting. This has to be done as a part of routine (as a preventive measure) as well as on those (unfortunate but hopefully rare) occasions when the machine breaks down and needs breakdown maintenance to be performed. When we take a break, we allow our system to ‘cool down’. The system has so much intelligence built into it over a number of centuries of conscious and sub-conscious evolution, that it uses the opportunity to automatically repair itself!
For example, usually we work through the day and rest at night. What happens? During the day when we are working or exercising or otherwise spending our energy in carrying out various activities, we are subjecting our body to wear and tear. Unless we give our body a chance to recover, it would not go on for the next day – and the next. Therefore we sleep during the night. When we are sleeping or otherwise resting, the body sets about its task of rebuilding and rejuvenating itself.
We must consciously assist in this renovation process. And the best way we can assist is by not interfering!
“What?” you will say, “Do we actually interfere in our body’s process of restoring itself?”
More likely than not! One of the common ways of doing this is eating a large meal quite close to the time of sleeping. The body gets busy in digesting the food when it should have been busy rebuilding itself. Another way is to indulge in a stimulating activity just before going to sleep – this could be at physical level (drink caffeine) or mental level (get into arguments) or intellectual level (try and solve brain teasers for example).
Such things result in us being unable to go to sleep in the first place and when we do, the quality of our sleep is too poor and the duration too inadequate to complete the process of recharging our batteries. The result is for all of us to see the next day – we wake up groggy, heavy, listless, worn out, hating to get out of bed and generally swearing at the whole world!
So what do we do to assist in the refurbishing process and wake up the next day feeling alert, light, full of energy and enthusiasm and looking forward to the day ahead? Here is what –
1. Eating the last meal of the day at least two hours before we hit the bed. Also ensuring that the meal is not too heavy (remember the cup we can form by joining our palms together!). Large part of digestion must be over before we go to sleep so the body is not distracted!
2. Including proteins in our last meal. Proteins are the ‘building blocks’ and provide the body with much needed material for reconstruction.
3. Avoiding stimulants of any kind and ramping down activities towards bed-time.
4. Sleeping for sufficient duration – between 6 to 8 hours every night.
5. Having uninterrupted sleep. Not getting up in-between to relieve ourselves or drink water or raid the fridge! A good 10 hours of fasting every night must happen since the last meal of the day.
6. Sleeping at regular hours, preferably between 10 pm and 6 am (we will see why).
So, if resting and fasting is so important, why does the third axiom state“Go Slow on Fasting”?
Let’s find out next week.
Till then…
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