Week 3 guideline – Sit in sukhasana to eat your food

January 26, 2020

584

Week 3 guideline – Sit in sukhasana when eating

Just sit down first. Heard that before? Anytime you want to share anything serious or life changing, you are asked to first sit down. Which is why prayers/ meditation are done seated. So, the guideline of the week is – adopt the cross-legged posture for at least one meal every day.

The main theme of the #12week2020 is reviving our age-old health and well-being practices. A lot of times we feel that health is built by eating that one superfood or following that one exercise program, etc. But it’s the small things that we do daily that come together over a period of time and lead to good health. This is exactly what our elders did. One such small, but daily practice was to sit down and eat.

Why? There are many benefits of this –

• Allows for an improved posture as your spine is aligned and the shoulders square.
• Improves focus and attention to the act of eating and prevents overeating
• Better blood flow to the stomach and improved assimilation of micro-nutrients like vitamin B12, Vit D, etc.
• Keeps the body young and mobile, retains lower body strength and stability

In addition to sitting down, eat with your hands. Traditionally, eating is considered to be a Havan, an offering of food to the digestive fire in your stomach. So, the food that you eat must be with your hands and the offering heartfelt. Also, as you already know, no gadgets while eating.

The ability to sit down is also a predictor of our overall health and fitness. We all know that as health sinks, it impairs our ability to sit down (and be mobile in general), taking a toll on digestion, which causes excess weight – leading to a vicious cycle. And well, sitting crossed legged for at least one meal a day will help break that vicious cycle and improve your overall health and wellbeing.

How? Here’s a weekly plan if you are currently not sitting cross legged on the floor –

Week 1 – Cross your legs on the chair and sit.
Week 2 – every alternate day, change the cross of your legs and sit
Week 3 – start sitting down on the floor for one meal everyday (with the cross that is easier)
Week 4 – sit down every day, and alternate the cross of your legs daily.
Week 5 – build it from one meal to sitting down on the floor for all main meals.

Note – If you are not able to sit on the chair with both legs up, you can start with one leg up on the chair at a time, slowly building to both legs up.

There are many simple things that we used to do which we have lost out but it’s not too late to bring them back. Take the example for squatty potty. It’s essentially just a stool that lets you sit on the pot but works at imitating the full squat posture. So, before someone turns “sit down and eat meals with your hands” into a business model, app or appliance, adopt it and practice it. The benefits are many.

P.S – Try the sitting rising test (https://en.wikipedia.org/…/Sitting-risi…) and share your score in this week’s form (score range is 0-10, details online).