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Tulsi or Basil: Queen of Herbs

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I have always wondered why ‘Tulsi’ is given so much importance in India. I recall my aunts and great-grand aunts narrating stories about Tulsi being the consort of Lord Vishnu. As an inquisitive child, I questioned this. “How can a plant be a consort? A plant is a plant! Period! It gives oxygen and takes in carbon dioxide.”

tulsi

Today, as a doctor, I understand that the significance of many plants is rooted in folklore. Unfortunately, while the stories remain, the importance is often forgotten.

In this article, I delve into the significance of Tulsi – The Holy Basil, also known as the Queen of Herbs! It is grown in almost every Indian household for religious purposes. However, I suggest we grow it not just for spiritual reasons but also for its remarkable medicinal properties—saving us from hefty medical bills for minor ailments!

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Why is Tulsi Known as the Queen of Herbs?

Tulsi is

  • Antibacterial
  • Antiviral
  • Antifungal
  • Antipyretic
  • Antioxidant
  • Antiseptic
  • Anti-cancer

Health benefits of Tulsi

  1. Cold & Cough Relief
    Tulsi’s antiviral and antibacterial properties make it effective for colds and coughs. Combine tulsi juice with ginger and betel leaf juice, mixed in honey, and consume twice or thrice a day. For severe coughs, add a pinch of black pepper powder and black salt to the mixture.
  2. Fever Reduction
    Tulsi’s antipyretic properties help manage fevers from malaria, influenza, or colds. Juice 10-12 tulsi leaves, mix with honey, and consume thrice daily.
  3. Detoxification
    Regularly consuming 10 tulsi leaves with jaggery for 15 days helps control worm formation in the abdomen. For ringworm, apply tulsi juice mixed with camphor twice daily on the affected area.
  4. Liver Health
    Mixing juice from 15-20 tulsi leaves with aloe vera supports liver health and detoxification.
  5. Oral Health
    • Apply a mixture of tulsi leaves and clove powder on teeth for instant pain relief.
    • Use dried tulsi leaves mixed with mustard oil as toothpaste to prevent bad breath and maintain gum health.
  6. Kidney Health
    Tulsi acts as a diuretic and detoxifier, reducing uric acid levels and aiding in breaking down kidney stones. Consume tulsi juice with honey daily for six months for relief.
  7. Skin and Hair Care
    • Tulsi purifies the blood, reducing acne and blemishes.
    • Its antifungal properties soothe itchy scalps and reduce hair fall. Mix powdered tulsi in coconut oil and apply it regularly for healthier hair.
  8. Stress Relief
    Consuming 10-12 tulsi leaves daily can help alleviate stress, thanks to its calming properties.

Environmental Benefits

According to Shyamkant Padoley, an eminent botanist, “Tulsi gives out oxygen for 20 hours and ozone for four hours a day, along with nascent oxygen that absorbs harmful gases like carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and sulfur dioxide from the environment.”

A Part of Your Daily Diet

Incorporating tulsi into your daily diet is easy, cost-effective, and side-effect-free. Let Tulsi become your go-to natural remedy for better health and well-being!

If you found this article helpful, share your thoughts in the comments below! Explore more tips on natural remedies and healthy living on Healthy Reads. To learn more about personalised health guidance, subscribe to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

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Mastering New Year’s Resolutions: Unveiling the Secrets to Lasting Commitments!

new year gaolsAs we edge closer to bidding adieu to 2024 and stepping into the vast possibilities of 2025, the tradition of setting New Year’s Resolutions looms over us. It’s that time of year when we pledge to shed old habits and embrace new beginnings.

Crafting these resolutions is the easy part, sparked by the optimism of a fresh start. Yet, as the year progresses, these promises often fade into the backdrop of our busy lives, forgotten amidst the daily grind.

Today, let’s dive into the art of choosing impactful resolutions and, more importantly, uncover the secrets to sticking with them throughout the year.”

“Why New Year’s Resolutions Matter: A Roadmap to Achieving Your Goals”

The onset of a fresh year sparks the drive for resolutions. It’s an ideal opportunity to chart new paths toward personal growth—be it mentally, emotionally, socially, physically, or intellectually.

Setting Tangible Goals:

Creating resolutions often involves vague objectives like “work harder,” “get in shape,” or “limit screen time.” Opting for specific and attainable targets, such as shedding a defined weight, establishing weekly routines, cultivating healthier habits, or a regular exercise regimen, fosters a solid plan for accomplishment. Clarity in objectives enables strategic and sustained focus throughout the year.

Curb Resolution Overload:

Selecting a myriad of resolutions can overwhelm and deter progress. Focus on a few tangible goals, progressing in manageable increments to maintain enthusiasm and momentum toward newer milestones.

Craft a Strategic Blueprint:

Detailed planning acts as the linchpin for success. It equips us to strategize effectively, anticipating challenges, and structuring viable solutions. Rushing headlong into radical changes, such as extreme diets or abrupt behavioural shifts, often backfires. Incremental changes, like modifying meal habits or incorporating brief exercises, prove pivotal in the pursuit of long-term objectives.

Stay Positive and Driven:

Initiating changes can be daunting, yet dwelling on negatives only hinders progress. Redirecting thoughts away from anticipated fatigue after workouts or the potential stress of quitting habits helps maintain momentum. Anchoring yourself to the envisioned benefits and embracing positivity significantly influences your journey’s success.

Embarking on a transformative journey requires smaller, consistent strides. Whether it’s aiming for weight loss or seeking tranquillity, gradual adjustments coupled with unwavering determination pave the way for a victorious and fulfilling resolution journey.

Ready to kickstart your transformative journey in 2025? If you need any help or guidance to set and achieve your New Year’s resolutions, consider subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce

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Facing A Low Sex-Drive? This Could Be Why!

low sex driveLate-night google searches about what could be behind a low-libido or a sudden dip in sexual appetite brings up the usual suspects: medication, stress, depression, hormonal fluctuations, poor diet and exercise and lack of sleep. Now these lifestyle factors can definitely have a huge impact on your sex life, but the truth is, a loss in sex drive runs much deeper than this.

10 Surprising Factors That May Be Killing Your Sex Drive

1. Your Bedroom
The bedroom is going to be the place where you have sex the most. Take a look around your bedroom. Is it warm and welcoming? Or is it cluttered, messy, dull and distracting? If your bedroom isn’t a place where you would generally want to spend time, then why would you want  to have sex there? Try and create a relaxing and soothing atmosphere in your bedroom. Simply keeping it tidy, and having some warm night lamps, with clean sheets can go a long way! Let your bedroom be a space that inspires sensuality and intimacy.

2. Your Cell-phone
Cell-phones can be a huge turn-off. How often have you wanted to spend time with your partner, only to find them buried in their cell-phone? Technology addictions can rewire our brain, make us irritable, distracted and hasty. It can also build resentment between partners, and make you lose out on moments that could be spent together. Maybe spend a scheduled ‘no-phone’ time with each other, or ensure that phones are off-limits during dates or quality time together. The intimacy that can come with real-life moments is bound to help in your sex life.

3. Your timing
If you’re in a long-term relationship, chances are you initiate sex at the very end of the day, right before bed. This may come as a surprise: but this is actually the worst time to have sex, because you’re both already exhausted after a long day. You may also be discouraged by the fact that having sex will then take away the time you have left for sleep. If this sounds like you, morning sex may be a great idea, or having more sex on the weekends when there is less stress to sleep on time for a work-day.

4. Sexual pain
Did you know that 1 in 3 women experience sexual pain? This could be because of stress, muscle tightness, sexual trauma, sexual shame, menstrual disorders or a lack of arousal. If you experience pain, it’s no wonder that your body wouldn’t want sex: to protect you from experiencing pain, the body adjusts by no longer craving sex. If you think this could be you, consider seeing a professional. Most sexual pain is successfully treated through a combination of medication, talk therapy and physiotherapy.

5. Self-Esteem
Your sex-drive is closely connected to how you feel about yourself and your body. If you have poor body image, or feel unworthy of love, it may manifest in an aversion to sex, touch and pleasure. A low-sex drive may be a signal from your body that you need to indulge in some radical self-care: whether it is working on your self-esteem, exercising, meditating, going for therapy, finding new hobbies or journaling; find what works for you, and let it nourish your self-esteem and sex life!

6. The initiation
An active, healthy, and happy sex life depends on communication around our sexual wants, desires, and dislikes. And the first part of communication lies in how you initiate sex.

Akshatha, who has been married for a few years spoke to us about how miscommunication during initiation affected her sex life: ‘I have a high libido, but I didn’t know how to initiate sex during the beginning of our marriage, because I thought initiation always has to come from a man. I lost many months of pleasure thinking this way. He was also a night-owl who came home late, which widened our miscommunication.’

In Akshatha’s case, it was seeing a counselor and communicating better with her partner that improved the situation. It required a lot of talking, and it is still a conversation that they revisit from time to time. Are you and your partner able to successfully initiate sex with each other? Do you know each other’s cues and signals when the other is trying to initiate sex?

Do you give each other space to decide if and how both of you want to have sex after the first hints of initiation? And do you know how to gently turn each other down, and be respectful when the other person doesn’t want sex? Ask yourself these questions, and if there are any weak links, work on them by talking to your partner!

7. Your relationship
Your sex life doesn’t exist in isolation from other things you share with your partner. If there’s been a lot of fighting, exhaustion, resentment, and/or a general feeling of being misunderstood or neglected by your partner, it’s no surprise that you wouldn’t want to have sex.

After all, we want to have sex with people who make us feel good, safe, loved, and desired. And if these feelings are breaking down in your relationship, you can’t expect your sex life to thrive. While no relationship is perfect, this may be a moment to take a step back and work on the basic trust, respect, communication, and comfort that nourishes every relationship. Couples therapy and a commitment to making things work again may help some couples get back on the right track. For other couples, this could be a sign that they need to reconsider the relationship or give it a pause. If you think your relationship is abusive, ignore all the above advice, and get help immediately.

8. Perfectionism
Many of us tend to bring perfectionism into our sex lives. We may think that a perfect, long-lasting erection is necessary, with a perfectly timed orgasm from both partners. We may watch porn and end up believing that both partners can pleasure each other perfectly without prior and ongoing communication. We may also believe that our bodies are supposed to look sleek, smooth, and perfect in every position, that we can’t make noises or faces that aren’t considered perfectly ‘sexy’ and that we’re supposed to get everything right on the first try.

Sexual perfectionism can create massive anxiety with regard to performance. And when this happens, the idea of sex itself may seem unappealing. If the stakes feel so high, why would you want to risk the humiliation of making a ‘mistake?’

This may be a good time to introspect on your insecurities and find a way to reconnect with your body in a way that focuses on pleasure, not performance. It may also suggest that you need to be open and honest with your partner about this problem. The more comfortable and intimate you feel with them, it will become easier for sex to feel like a natural progression of this connection, and not something that you have to ‘achieve’ in.

Remember, sex is human, clumsy, vulnerable, and messy. It isn’t meant to be perfect. Sex is meant to feel good: and this is much more important than how you look, sound or your ‘performance!’

9. Fear
We are told that sex is supposed to feel natural and organic, so when we find that we have to put in effort to make sex work, we may fear that something is wrong. And the more you worry about this, the harder it becomes to have and enjoy sex. If this is happening to you, first just pause and take a breath.

One of the biggest myths that sex is just ‘supposed to happen.’ In reality, the best sex requires more than just attraction: it requires honesty, trust and communication. And with our daily work lives, it may also require planning around timing and schedule. If you find that you have to put in thought and effort to make sex work with your partner, nothing is wrong with you! It’s absolutely normal. Don’t be afraid of the effort, planning or conversations that you need to have good sex with your partner.

Sex, intimacy and physical contact are deep, essential human desires for most of us. And an unhappy sex life can create intense feelings of loneliness and yearning.

As Samar, a professional in his 40s says: ‘I am extroverted, passionate and romantic by nature. I wanted so badly to feel this romance, and of course, passionate sex, after marriage. I had an arranged marriage, and soon it was clear to me that my wife was the opposite. She was determined to be a ‘wife’ and not a ‘lover.’ You may not believe it, but in my seventeen years of married life, I have never been hugged, kissed or cuddled. Sex has just been for duty, and never for love-making. It’s a painful truth that I crave for a loving hug.’

This is also why sexual compatibility is important in a relationship. How do you and your partner relate to sex? Are you comfortable discussing your fetishes, fantasies, desires and kinks? Is it similar for both of you? Do your sex drives match? And if not, how will you manage it?

These are questions worth asking before entering any long-term relationship. But even for the most sexually compatible couples, a sudden dip in libido may occur, or sometimes the sexual excitement just fizzles out. If this happens, don’t panic. It’s normal for your sex-drive to fluctuate over time. Don’t be afraid to seek help and support, and make sure that you aren’t making any of the libido-killing mistakes mentioned in this article! Be kind to yourself, and remember: sex is supposed to feel good, so don’t overthink it!

We hope this article helps you! For more on sexual wellness, tune in to LIVE sessions by our sexual wellness expert Pallavi Barnwal on GOQii Play.

#BeTheForce

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5 Foods That Will Help You Avoid Acidity

avoid acidityDay in and day out, most of us experience acidity due to an erratic lifestyle, wrong postures, no time to have meals, eating junk or spicy food outside. Acidity is also known as heartburn. Do you know why? Because it actually feels like your chest is on fire! Acidity can be a serious mood killer in any circumstance and it can happen to anybody irrespective of age. So exactly can you avoid acidity? Before we answer that, let’s look at some common triggers: 

  • Staying on empty stomach for too long
  • Having too many cups of tea or coffee a day 
  • Spicy street food
  • Deep fried oily food
  • Junk food consumption containing refined flour
  • Frequent restaurant visits

What Can You Do To Avoid Acidity? 

To avoid acidity, you need to first avoid the above triggers. You can also try these 5 foods below which help in relieving acidity. 

  1. Bananas: This fruit is easily available throughout the year. Its high fiber content strengthens the digestive system. Pectin, found in bananas, moves the residues through the digestive tract which actually helps one avoid acidity. 
  2. Ginger: is a natural treatment for acidity due to its anti-inflammatory properties. Ginger juice can be extracted and 2-3 drops or 1tsp of ginger juice can be consumed as ginger shot post meals to relieve acidity. Another way to consume ginger is by making ginger tea.
  3. Yogurt: also has a soothing effect on our digestive system as it helps coating the lining of the digestive tract. Also it contains probiotics which are healthy gut bacteria that aid digestion. Consuming curd/yogurt is a proven remedy for acid reflux. 
  4. Aloe Vera: not only soothes the skin but our gut as well. Due to its anti-inflammatory properties, it helps you avoid acidity. Drink 5-10ml of aloe vera juice everyday on an empty stomach for good results.
  5. Fennel Seeds (Saunf): are loaded with anti-inflammatory properties and they also aid good digestion, reducing the symptoms of acidity easily. Consume about 1tsp of fennel seeds post meals. It will not only improve digestion, but also help you fight against acidity. It works great as a good mouth freshener too.

So keep these easily available foods ready with you to avoid acidity. Do remember to avoid the triggers as well, as prevention is always better than cure. We hope this article helps you. If you’re suffering from acidity, try them out and let us know your experience in the comments below.

For more home remedies on acidity, check out Healthy Reads or ask a GOQii Coach by subscribing for Personalised Health Coaching here.

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