During our holidays we are resting from our job, but we can never rest from ourselves. Wherever we go, we always carry ourselves

How do we stay conscious during the holidays without letting it go?

THE RIGHT NUTRITION

Imagine how interesting the Christmas Fast is, ending on Christmas with a roast pig or whatever meat there is after 40 days of fasting. First you purify your body with abstinence, then you stress it out with a bunch of food. It is not accidental that there are a lot of sirens on ambulances around the holidays. Do not be one of those 3000 who are part of the statistics during the holidays. Feed responsibly, with love and awareness of your body, and what you do to it with overeating. Due to its miscellaneous nature and richness, festive food is a prerequisite for swollen belly and gases.

Eat what you love and chew slowly with delight. The good of the holidays is that there is time. What better than slowing down the pace and enjoying little pleasures such as food prepared with attention and love and a good glass of wine. Yes a glass, a maximum of two is enough. Do we need alcohol anesthesia to feel the joy of the break? Just on the contrary, slowly taking alcohol (if you drink at all) and food.

MANAGING  OF FOOD HABITS

Harata is the home of the agni-digestive fire. While eating, it is good to feel the food entering the body and turning it into energy. If we eat at large and unconsciously, this same food becomes poison.

Overeating and frequent feeding do not allow the digestive system to process the well-swallowed and a process of rot in the gut begins

That’s why it’s nice to take ginger tea between meals. It has a warming effect and promotes digestion. It also helps with nausea.

Three hours breaks between meals are mandatory (usually 2, but given the quantity and nature of the meal I suggest 3). If you decide to go around the family in one day and have a meal at each table, plan to make sure the food break is processed. Better put on the plate of less food instead of filling it up and throwing it away.

BEGIN THE DAY WITH CARE

My life emergency kit in the morning is a glass of hot water, lemon, turmeric, ginger and a little bit coconut oil. Then there is a glass of water with dissolved psyllium husk (Indian plantain), then I take a spoon of laminaria (brown algae).

Make your start of the day with charging, so that you first take fluids to aid the purification process that goes on after the night. At night, your liver works tirelessly to detoxify your body. Its meridian is active between 1 and 3 o’clock in the night, so it is not good during that time to take anything (especially alcohol). In the morning, the meridians of the colon are active (between 5 and 7 hours), stomach (between 7 and 9 am) and spleen (between 9 am and 11 am). So it is logical first to take care of the purifying processes in the body before you put food. I do not eat before the gut has  cleared out in the morning. For me it works like a clockwork – after drinking all the fluids. If you have constipation – husk can help you.

SPARE YOUR STRESS

Its Holiday time – time to rest. And what happens – a mass hysteria that raises the air and makes us alert. It does not seem like a feast, but a war. Everyone is arguing about gifts, but they miss the most important thing – caring for themselves. All this stress mobilizes the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) to react by releasing the adrenaline and cortisol – the stress hormones, and at the end of the year instead of relaxing and preparing for the new, we are under steam. In this mode, the cell membranes are closed and do not let the nutrients to the cells. That’s how we eat a lot – but our cells eat very little. Also, the heart rhythm increases, the muscles are shortened and the blood vessels shrink. We give the body a signal – prepare for battle or for escape and all processes to accelerate mobilization are maxed out, as the processes of integration are minimal because the body prioritizes its needs.

Take at least one whole day and in the comfort of your home read this book for which you do not have time, do a meditation in the morning and evening for 10 minutes and start a breathing practice.

Conscious and regulated breathing (pranayama) immediately invites the parasympathetics to take over the reins, and all processes in the body slow down. The muscles relax, the blood vessels expand, the cell membranes regain their permeability, and the bloodstream feeds the organs. Yin energy begins to grow, and it is the depository of  the yang energy. In order to be able to function in a balanced way, it is better to take care of the yin energy (breathing, yoga, resting, slow walks in nature) to get a tide of power (yang energy).

MOVE

Long meals are great if you are still moving. And twice as much as in the days you eat half. You have time now, don´t you? Why don´t you start the day with an energetic morning walk in the magic park or the nearby forest? You have time to look at frosted pines, collect cones for natural decoration, and why not fresh pine twigs scattered on the road. The richness of the forest saved this year the artificial decorations in my home.

Why don’t you make the challenge to make each day during the holidays push-ups, sit-ups or high-intensity interval training (HIIT), in which, for a short time through intensive lifting movements to lift up the pulse and raise the metabolism through the day. This way you can process the food you intake much easier. High Interval Intensive Training (HIIT) has two phases – high intensity ,in which the pulse rises to 90% of the maximum and the low intensity, in which starts the fat burning. There are videos on youtube that can be a great navigator.

OBSERVE

Now it’s time for a rest , but not from yourself. Stay awake. A lot of food and alcohol have an anesthetic effect for the Observer in you, and when he’s sleeping, you’re immersed in the ocean of ignorance. There you’re an easy prey for consumerism that requires you to consume more, more, more. While the inner dragon does not come up with countless heads that eat the poor Observer, you are just a puppet.

Freedom requires you to not stop being aware, attending, and making informed choices.

NOW is the time to pay attention to yourself, to everything that has been postponed for so long.  It is now the MOMENT to care for your body instead of forcing it. Everything moderate is good and it will make it much easier for you to return to your usual daily rhythm if you have not crossed the border.

Happy and bright holidays