Mindful activities that transforms your wellness and helps you live longer

One of the secrets of a long life that many centenarians have shared is leading a stress-free, happy and purposeful life. Instead of sleepwalking through your life, being mindful of life’s pursuits, and allocating some time for personal well-being can go a long way in boosting longevity. Even a few minutes of mindfulness can be beneficial for cognitive health and bring about positive psychological changes.

While stress has become a part and parcel of life, managing it could be easier when you are more mindful. In a study, psychology researchers found that people who received MBCT ( Mindfulness0based Cognitive therapy) were less likely to react with negative thoughts or unhelpful emotional reactions in times of stress.

 Here are mindful habits that can transform your wellness and help you live longer-

Meditation

One of the oldest mindfulness practices  followed by saints and sages of India is meditation. By focusing attention on your inner world, and disconnecting from the external world for a while, a sense of calm and peace is achieved. In this state fighting anxiety and stress becomes easier, which has a positive effect even on your physical health. People who meditate regularly live a longer life. According to a study, meditation has potentially beneficial effects on the plasma telomerase level which is linked to longevity and delaying cellular ageing.

 

Mindful eating

A toxic relationship with food can be detrimental to your health as it can lead to emotional eating, eating to satisfy your taste buds or mindless eating. Building a positive relationship with food means observing whether or not you are hungry, and enjoying every morsel of your food. Mindful eating is all about paying complete attention to your meal and savouring it with every bite. Enjoying the aroma of a freshly prepared meal and relishing it, while understanding body cues on when to stop, is something mindful eaters do. Such kind of eating is associated with good digestion, satiety, weight loss and relaxation.

 

Flow

Being in a flow can be immensely rewarding and enhance your well-being. Flow happens when you are completely focused on a task or a chore, lose the sense of self and time, and find activities intrinsically rewarding. In his book Flow, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes “ flow as the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it”. Being in ‘Flow’ can be extremely rewarding and make you happier and more satisfied person. It can reduce stress, help in emotional regulation and keep you self-motivated.

 

Slow walking

Slow walking is what it sounds like. Walking at a sluggish pace with complete focus in your every step is slow walking. This mindfulness way of walking is becoming popular as it is not only good for your joints, but also helps you connect with your inner world by promoting calmness and connection. While walking, pay attention to how your leg lifts and touches the ground and how your arms move. The practice is said to reduce anxiety and depression, and helps you connect with the present moment.

 

Body scan

Sleeping mindfully is as important as living mindfully, as drifting off to sleep with a tired body but a restless mind can will carry forward your daily stress to your sleep too, which means the deep sleep that’s considered restorative may evade you. In body scan meditation, you focus attention on every part of your body, which helps release the hidden stress and allows you to slip into a deeper and more restful sleep. Sleeping well is associated with increased longevity as it can help chronic diseases at bay and boost your overall well-being.

If there is any antidote to stress, it’s mindfulness, as it connects us to the internal as well as external world, and soothes the mind. Stress is one of the major risk factors of most of the chronic diseases today, including heart disease, hypertension and stroke. Embracing mindfulness can help a person lead a healthier and happier lie.

 

 

This is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.   

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One of the secrets of a long life that many centenarians hav ..

Read more at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/113102392.cms?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-intl&utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

One of the secrets of a long life that many centenarians hav ..

Read more at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/113102392.cms?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-intl&utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Heart patients who walk faster hospitalised less

Increasing the pace of walking may bring some added benefits as researchers have found that faster walking patients with heart disease are hospitalised less.

“The faster the walking speed, the lower the risk of hospitalisation and the shorter the length of hospital stay,” said study author.

“Since reduced walking speed is a marker of limited mobility, which has been linked to decreased physical activity, we assume that fast walkers in the study are also fast walkers in real life,” she added.

The study was conducted in 1,078 hypertensive patients, of whom 85 per cent also had coronary heart disease and 15 per cent also had valve disease.

A total of 359 patients were identified as slow walkers, 362 intermediate and 357 fast walkers.
The researchers recorded the number of all-cause hospitalisations and length of stay of the participants over the next three years.

During the three year period, 182 of the slow walkers (51 per cent) had at least one hospitalisation, compared to 160 (44 per cent) of the intermediate walkers, and 110 (31 per cent) of the fast walkers, according to the study published.

The slow, intermediate and fast walking groups spent a total of 4,186, 2,240, and 990 days in hospital over the three years, respectively.

The average length of hospital stay for each patient was 23, 14, and 9 days for the slow, intermediate and fast walkers, respectively.

Each 1 km/hour increase in walking speed resulted in a 19 per cent reduction in the likelihood of being hospitalised during the three-year period.

Compared to the slow walkers, fast walkers had a 37 per cent lower likelihood of hospitalisation in three years, the findings showed.

“Walking is the most popular type of exercise in adults. It is free, does not require special training, and can be done almost anywhere. Even short, but regular, walks have substantial health benefits. 

Our study shows that the benefits are even greater when the pace of walking is increased,” the author said.

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                                                                                                                                                                                                        PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO  VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                           https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/  

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Older adults who have slower walking speeds may have increased risk for dementia

As of 2015, nearly 47 million people around the world had dementia, a memory problem significant enough to affect your ability to carry out your usual tasks. The most common cause of dementia is Alzheimer's disease, but other forms exist, too.

Because there's currently no cure for dementia, it's important to know about the risk factors that may lead to developing it. For example, researchers have learned that older adults with slower walking speeds seem to have a greater risk of dementia than those with faster walking speeds. Recently, researchers  teamed up to learn more about changes in walking speed, changes in the ability to think and make decisions, and dementia. 

The researchers examined information collected from a Study of Aging. The study included adults aged 60 and older who lived in England. In their study, the researchers used information collected from 2002 to 2015. They assessed participants' walking speed on two occasions in 2002-2003 and in 2004-2005, and whether or not the participants developed dementia after the tests from 2006-2015. Then, they compared the people who had developed dementia with those who had not.

Researchers discovered that of the nearly 4,000 older adults they studied, those with a slower walking speed had a greater risk of developing dementia. And people who experienced a faster decline in walking speed over a two-year period were also at higher risk for dementia. People who had a poorer ability to think and make decisions when they entered the study -- and those whose cognitive (thinking) abilities declined more quickly during the study -- were also more likely to be diagnosed with dementia.

The researchers concluded that older adults with slower walking speeds, and those who experienced a greater decline in their walking speed over time, were at increased risk for dementia. But, the researchers noted, changes in walking speed and changes in an older adult's ability to think and make decisions do not necessarily work together to affect the risk of developing dementia.

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                                                                                                                                                                                                      PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                           https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/   

FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                                           https:// kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com/                              

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