Walk the HealThee way

Want to flex your muscles, want that trim waistline or a firm butt, how about a refreshing visit to your nearest part. All these and more is what a good walk could give you. At the time of writing this I'm in Tokyo. A place known for it's excellent public transport system. Having to walk to the station every morning and evening, it drains the system of all the collected strains of the day.

The good thing about walking as an exercise is, you don't have to make time for it. You could do it as part of a daily chores. A walk to the nearest convenience store, a walk to the station, a walk around the office building. Anywhere anytime is the ease of a walking exercise.

A few observations about walking:
* Makes breathing deep and uniform
* Moves almost all the muscles in the body
* Try this... with the back of your hand, touch the centre part of your back as you walk. These are muscles that stiffen due to prolonged static posture. A walk could move these muscles and prevent stiffness.
* Moving the arms back and forth can exercise the wings, shoulder, elbow and biceps.
* The stiffness of the neck is cured.
* A mild walk can bring the much required oxygen flow and blood circulation within our body.
* Focussing on near and far objects as we walk could easily exercise the eyes and surrounding muscles.
* Look forward as you walk and not down at your shoe. 10ft and above in front of you is a good point to be looking at.
* Do not slouch as you walk. Keep the shoulder blade in line with the body.
* Keep the back straight at the hip.
* Hold the weight of your upper body on your chest.
* Pulling your tummy in could help reduce that extra flab and move those muscles.

Now, how long a walk is a good walk? To start with use time to measure your day's walk. A ten minute walk from your house can take you back in 20 mins. As your regularize the activity, you tend to walk a little faster. This would increase the distance automatically.

Walk on a different route every time. This would keep your interest. Keep the sun on your side and avoid direct sunlight onto your face. Walking towards the sun could tire you easily. Do not keep the sun behind you either. When you return home, the sun will hurt your eyes.

Best time to walk is before the sun starts blazing. Depends on the time of sunrise in your region. Here in Tokyo, summers day breaks as early as 4AM.

Cleansing

Good health starts with clean organs in the body.

A daily regimen for a clean body:

• Colon: As soon as you wake up, do water therapy (1.5 ltrs of water in empty stomach)
• Nose: Clean your nasal track by sucking water from the palm of your hand and pushing it out immediately with force. Warm water with common salt is preferred.
  
• Eyes: Cleaned with an 'eye-cup' that fits the eyes. Fill the eye-cup with water and roll the eye balls in all directions.
• Ear: Using the index fingers firmly fixed on the respective ear, shake the hand as fast as you can to generate a momentum in the outer ear. This will help bring out loose wax and dust from the ear.
• Mouth: Brush with a less corrosive paste, gorgle thoroughly. Do not use a tongue cleaner. Use the index-middle-ring fingers and rub the inner end of the tongue gently.
  
• Pranayama: (A guru is suggested) Practice atleast 10 minutes of pranayama early in the morning. Preferrably 1.5 hrs after the water therapy is done.
• Shower: A warm good shower, with naturally cleansing soaps
• Mind: A 20 minute meditation program

This takes less than 90 minutes in the morning, which is way too much for most of us in our late-to-bed run-to-office regimen. Once you get into the routine, it's a piece of cake.

Water

Water has many curative properties. 70% of our body is just water. Taking 1.5 litres of water first thing in the morning, on an empty stomach is called water therapy.

Water therapy has many proven curative properties on many ailments. Foremost of them is the ability to clean up the digestive system and flush the system. This renders the colon fresh and clean. A healthy digestive system becomes a source of a healthy life. Food, as we all know is the vital source of energy to our body and it's operations.

Apart from a good digestive system, water therapy also helps in keeping up the water content in the body. When the body is drained of the water, even the mind is crippled. A healthy water intake can stimulate the brain cells and keep us active throughout the day.

Tummy Breathing

Breathe out and feel the body relaxing. Breathing, an involuntary activity, when done with awareness can calm your mind, relax your body and elate your senses towards your soul.

I've tried this technique of tummy breathing and have realized quite a lot of benefits.

• Breathe out completely
• Push your tummy out and suck as much air as possible through your nostrils,
• Breathe out completely

When in empty stomach, you could do this by breathing out as fast as you can.

Do it in a relaxed posture with your back straight.

After a few minutes, you'll feel your breathing calms down, and your body will manage with very little breathing and the frequency too reduces significantly.

If you can do this consciously throughout your waking hours, you'll feel a surge of creative energy in you. Just concentrate on pushing out all the air from your body and the tummy movement. Let the 'breathing in' happen automatically.