mindfulness Archives

November 10, 2021 By Navnee Garg 2 Comments

This is What Binge Watching is Doing to Your Health!

I’m writing this blog with a pinch of salt because recently, I’ve been binge-watching as well. While stuck in this trap, I realized that this is something serious and needs to be addressed. Binge-watching may not be a new concept but it is quickly becoming the new normal. Thanks to the online streaming boom, you no longer need to watch a single episode with multiple commercial breaks and a cliff-hanger that keeps you biting your nails for another week.

Imagine having an entire series at your fingertips minus the ads. Now imagine what this much entertainment might be doing to you. We all remember Uncle Ben’s quote from Spiderman, “With great power comes great responsibility.” If you’re not responsible enough with your time, can you imagine what binging can do to your personal and professional health?

How Binge-Watching Affects Your Health

Kills Time: The humour or suspense in the story will make you want to spend hours watching episode after episode without even realizing. Binge-watching may result in slipping grades, being late to work or class and most of all, not being active.
Hello Heath Risks: Sitting for long stretches of time increases your risk of health issues (including diabetes, heart disease, and cancer), even if you also exercise regularly. If you must binge, make it healthier by standing, stretching, and taking mini-breaks for physical activity.
Addiction: While binge-viewing can be fun and feel satisfying, there’s always the danger of becoming too obsessed. Behaviour also becomes addictive when it begins to negatively affect other aspects of your life. For instance, if you neglect other activities or responsibilities to binge.
Antisocial Alert: Binge watching tends to be a pretty isolating activity. You’re taking time away from other essential things in life like hanging out with friends or working.
Binge Watching = Binge Eating: While watching an entire season of a show that caught your eye, you often tend to munch on a bag of chips, bowl of popcorn or multiple chocolate bars at the same time with an accompaniment of a soft drink or two. This happens due to mindless eating which ultimately leads to weight gain and health issues.

Is There a Way to Stay Healthy?

If you must binge, then here are a few tips that will help you be more mindful and make healthy choices consciously.

If you binge, make it healthy by standing, stretching, and taking mini-breaks for physical activity.
Try having breaks between episodes and not snacking while you watch. This would avoid mindless eating, and thus, avoid weight gain.
Prefer watching with family & friends. Chatting with fellow fans about the show can also make your binge habit healthier since it pulls you away from the main screen and allows you to reflect on what you’ve just watched.
Use Time Management as a tool to avoid wastage of time. Prefer setting a particular time slot for your favourite series in your daily routine.

However, Binge Watching is incomplete without Binge Eating. The only option left here is to choose healthier alternatives such as baked kale chips, simple roasted chickpeas, apple chips, salt and vinegar Zucchini chips, nuts and seeds mix, etc.

If you’re looking for more tips to live a healthier lifestyle, you can explore Healthy Reads or connect with a GOQii Coach by subscribing for personalized coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

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August 26, 2021 By GOQii Leave a Comment

Top Stress Busting Foods For A Healthy Mind!

Stress is a part and parcel of life. There’s no escaping it. Everyone endures stress and it is perfectly natural to seek some relief from it. In fact, relief is necessary because prolonged stress can lead to chronic stress which if left untreated, can cause heart-related issues, burn you out and affect your mental and emotional wellbeing. When faced with massive stress, we turn to food but are you eating the right kind of stress busting foods?

Top Healthy Stress Busting Foods

Don’t let relief come in the form of junk food. Instead, you can try these healthy stress busting foods:

Asparagus: is high in folic acid which helps you relax. A vegetable like this, which is high in folate, a calming B-complex vitamin known to reduce feelings of stress and anxiety and at the same time, produce dopamine for the brain. Enjoy cooked or raw asparagus to reap the benefits of this powerful food.
Avocado: Rich in healthy fat, magnesium and fiber, Avocado also contains vitamin B which benefits your nerves and brain cells while reducing stress. It has a substance called potassium which helps you by regulating your stress and blood pressure levels. Eating half an Avocado on a daily basis is good for you!
Almond: Vitamin B and magnesium help your body produce serotonin – a hormone that regulates mood and relieves stress, and Almonds are loaded with it! So don’t be driven nuts by stress, instead eat almonds!
Spinach: might not be on your go-to list of foods to eat when stressed, but it is necessary! The magnesium in Spinach can lift your mood and keep your stress hormones in check.
Coconuts: are rich in Medium-Chain Triglycerides, which is an excellent fuel for the brain and the body. The antioxidants in coconut can heal your system and protect your mind. Medium-Chain Triglycerides are excellent at improving your digestion and overall mood.
Walnuts: are known for their omega 3 content – which is very useful in fighting depression. They’re also packed with tryptophans which indirectly increase serotonin levels. When your serotonin levels are high, you feel more relaxed, calm and happy!
Pumpkin seeds: contain magnesium which helps in reducing stress naturally, decreasing the tension in your muscles. It also contains another mineral called zinc that keeps you cheerful always.
Eggs: have a good amount of vitamin B12, which are great for building mood. They trigger the production of feel good neurotransmitters like acetylcholine.
Ghee: Homemade or pure A2 Ghee is known to have medicinal properties that can heal your gut and improve digestion. Better digestion also improves your emotional state. This makes it one of the top stress busting foods.
Honey: is packed with anti-inflammatory properties which can increase the spread of serotonin and dopamine in your brain. Some raw organic honey can certainly make you happier!
Cashew Nuts: Apart from satisfying your taste buds, Cashew nuts are one of the best stress busting foods out there as they supply your body with a good amount of protein and zinc – which help you reduce stress and anxiety.

We hope you will incorporate these stress busting foods to your daily diet. Do you know someone who is perpetually stressed? Share this with them and help them find relief. For more articles on busting stress, check out Healthy Reads. Get these tips directly from your GOQii Coach by subscribing to personalized coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

You can also purchase some of the above listed foods such as A2 Cow Ghee, Organic Honey, Pumpkin Seeds, Cashew Nuts and Walnuts for a discount using GOQii Cash on the GOQii Health Store within the GOQii App.

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February 5, 2021 By Pallavi Barnwal Leave a Comment

Mindful Sex Practices

The fast-paced life has left most of us exhausted, stressed, and disconnected, and most of us attempt sex under these unfriendly conditions. Immediately after sex, most couples rush for their smartphones and sex timing is cut short to quick foreplay and ejaculation. It is difficult for our monkey minds to stay present and shut off all outside distractions. Such sex is unlikely to generate any intimacy, connection, and stronger orgasms. I have been through this nightmarish journey most of my life until I experienced a glimpse of divine lovemaking with a man. The synchronicity of our orgasms, the chants I sang as he thrust inside me, and the power I gained in my being as I rode on him with full confidence; all came from a deep work from within on my self and the man, that involved a blend of meditation, bodywork, and liberating conversations. Yes, this will take time but bedazzled by this experience, I am motivated to share some simple mindful sex practices that can begin the transformation of your intimate life with your partner. Run through the list, practice, and let me know your experience!

Mindful Sex Practices

Embodied Movement: Most of us are so disconnected from our bodies; wearing tight clothes, spending most of our time sitting and unhealthy eating habits, all take us away from our bodies. It is important to drop in our own bodies and feel each cell, each pore of your being before you start to receive pleasure. This embodied movement brings you back to your home, your body. Start by standing tall, feet rooted, and taking a deep breath. Turn on music that matches your current mood and dance it out, feeling the motion move through your body. Then shift to music that matches how you want to feel and repeat.
Relationship Agreements: There is a lot of unresolved, unspoken angst and resentment between couples which they bring out at the most unrelated occasions. Sometimes a seed of thought stokes an entire mental film where the person goes into unfounded imagination, a chain of destructive thoughts. All of this negatively impacts harmony in your relationship and eventually, sex takes a backseat. In order to avoid this, strive to form small relationship agreements that are doable, and can be discussed without hurting the ego of the other person. Choose 1-2 things you want to work on and set up a rule. Some examples: whenever one of you will talk about your inner feelings, the other person will not judge and will be compassionate; when you wake up in the early morning, give each other a nice hug; no phones at the dinner table (or in the bedroom), consciously give each other personal space. Express Gratitude. Sit, stand, or lie facing each other and holding hands or embracing. Take turns saying “I’m grateful for…” Continue until you both feel everything has been said.
Eye Gazing: Keep eye contact with your partner during sex. You can be touching each other or in any sex position. Giggles and laughter are totally welcome. Try this daily for deeper connection and to shift out of your head and into the present moment.
Connection with Heart Chakra: First, breathe into the center of your chest – your heart. If you are struggling to stay present, imagine breath and light going into your heart. These are shallower breaths so be mindful of doing this. Then connect your breasts with their chest – give their heart some physical love by massaging, cupping, pulling, and generally loving on their breasts.
Sensate Focus: Use your monkey mind to notice all the sensual things happening. What are 5 things you see? Taste? Feel? Hear? Smell? Can you notice where exactly the hand of your partner is on your body as they are exploring you? What kind of sensation do you feel? This practice enhances our sensory experience and we are able to feel fully all the pleasure that is received by our body.
Tantra Breath: Take a deep inhale and exhale with sound ‘ha’. Sounds create internal vibrations in our body and take the energy up from lower chakras to higher chakras. Something you can practice with a partner and take into sex. The sound should be deep but not high-pitched. As you get closer to orgasm, deepen your breath and breathe into your genitals. Any sounds you’re making will take you deeper into the higher realms of lovemaking experience.
Chant As You Reach Orgasms: You can pick any mantra, (my favorite is om, omkar). Sex is this profound oneness, the union of masculine with the feminine, the arc of energy that travels from the masculine, emissive pole to the female, receiving pole. Through our chanting, we merge our personal consciousness momentarily with the infinite consciousness that is our origin and our destiny. It is the drop of water finding its way back into the ocean from which it came. Chanting raises your physical lovemaking experience to spiritual dimensions.

I have tried all of this and surely, this has transcended our physical pleasure to a spiritual, universal dimension. We feel as if the entire universe is in love with us and so do we. It is a divine experience, a symbol of indissoluble unity of pleasure and emptiness.

We hope this article on Mindful Sex Practices helps you! Do leave your thoughts in the comments below. For more articles by our Sexual Wellness Expert Pallavi Barnwal, check out Healthy Reads or tune in to her LIVE sessions on GOQii Play. You can also connect with her on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pallavibarnwalcoach

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Disclaimer: Reader discretion is advised. This content is for an older, mature audience who seek to improve their health and wellness. GOQii is not responsible for any misrepresentation of this information.

June 4, 2019 By Vishal Gondal Leave a Comment

The Urgent Need For Healthy Eating

Ever wondered what constitutes healthy eating? I found my answer in creating new habits by adding beneficial foods and fostering a sense of responsibility to improve my quality of life! I am not talking about fad diets that make short term promises but making the right food choices and building a good relationship with them! Basically, embracing permanent and lasting changes.

Eat Real Food!

Scientific evidence has shown that what you eat can reduce your risk of developing heart disease and diabetes. It can ward off some forms of cancer, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, osteoporosis and obesity. Healthy eating and making the right food choices now is more important than ever.

Lifestyle Diseases on the Rise

Why so? Increasing members of our society are falling prey to lifestyle diseases due to wrong eating habits. Data collected from our very own GOQii IndiaFit Report 2019 indicates that there has been a rise in lifestyle diseases among people below the age of 45 since last year. High blood pressure has increased from 9% to 12%. Users affected by Cholesterol have increased from 10.1% to 14.1%.

Prioritize Your Health

If you prioritize your health, you’ll develop a “wellness state of mind”. The first thing you will begin with is making the healthiest choice when it comes to food and physical activity. Before you begin to make changes in your lifestyle, knowing where you are in your journey towards health and wellness is important. As a preventive healthcare company, we are striving to get people to be active and disease free. Our coaches promote balanced nutrition and healthy eating.

The IndiaFit Report indicates that there are key concerns in the nutrition area. Research indicates that 35% of the users have concerns around acidity and indigestion. 14% of the users are plagued by constipation. Bloating has increased from 8.5% last year to 10%. More than 25% have delayed meal patterns. All of these issues are due to bad eating habits.

Ask yourself the following question: Am I eating a balanced diet that comprises of all food groups to sustain health, energy, and well-being?

Healthy Eating is Not Complicated

While eating right is paramount, eating safe is equally important. We all know ingestion of pesticides can cause some serious issues including diseases like cancer over a period of time. From food grains to vegetables to fruits, everything is grown and ripened with the help of chemicals. Moreover, the concept of organic food is not well understood and most find it expensive.

But, having said that things are changing slowly and steadily. People are getting used to buying organic products from places like Farmer’s Market and few other health and wellness stores. In fact, the GOQii Health Store within the GOQii App offers curated products at a discount. These products are tested by our nutritionists and experts before being available for sale.

Remember eating right is not at all complicated. You don’t need to count calories all day long just eat the right foods and you will automatically start feeling healthy!