There is an interesting array of different health and fitness techniques and developments in India which attest to the tie between old and new, eastern world and western world values.

Natural Concepts, a Mumbai based company, has created a new exercise machine which is currently being featured in Goa.

“Natural concepts has arranged free demonstration for people suffering from diabetes, blood pressure, bone and joint pain, excess fats, asthma, lack of blood circulation, insomnia, all health conscious people can avail free demonstration of the gadget at Natural Concepts stall at Family Utsav exhibition (closing tomorrow) at Kala Academy, Panjim. This gadget has been certified by Indian public health association of Maharashtra chapter of Indian Association of Preventive and social medicine, says a press release.”

In a “Hindustan Times” health watch column about meditation, usually recognized as a prototypically Eastern religious practice, Dr. KK Aggarwal explains how to practically use meditation to target such health issues as cigarette addiction and eating disorders:

“One should start practicing this for few minutes a day, for example, start with eating awareness. The practical teaching is while eating have all your five senses focused on eating. Enjoy the sight, touch, small and taste of the food and concentrate on the sound it produces while chewing. Eating awareness reduces weight as one cannot overeat while concentrating on it.
Similarly, smoking awareness can help in de-addiction. If all five senses start experiencing smoking then one is surely going to dislike it.”

“Femina”, a publication which provides advice about beauty, fashion, relationships, as well as health and fitness, features an article about and holistic practice called ‘Color Therapy.’ The crux of the concept is that color is directly linked to one’s energy, mood, and health. The effects of each color can be either beneficial or detrimental and, by after determining which color is in excess or lacking in a patient, a color therapist such as Aneeta Sanas, introduces the necessary ones into his/her environment.

“Aneeta generally uses a combination of crystals and aura-soma for colour therapy. The curing process happens on the individual’s physical, emotional and mental levels. She recalls a patient with severe compression of the nerves in the spinal column, resulting in paralysis of the right side of the body. A disc replacement surgery had been prescribed. When he came to Aneeta, he was stressed, tense and scared. Aneeta saw a lot of red and black in his aura, colours which are related to fear and anger. She started off by first using a lot of orange for healing and pink for un-conditional love, mainly for himself, combined with blue and violet to calm his fears. Having undergone therapy with aura-soma and crystal cures in the form of rings, he became more positive and readied himself for the surgery, which was successful. Post surgery, Aneeta used a lot of red to give him the life-force energy, green for healing and gold for positivity. It has now been over a year-and-a-half and he is absolutely fine with no problems whatsoever.
In another case, a nine-year-old was having sleepless nights with untold fears and was prone to bedwetting too. He was getting more and more emotionally and mentally unstable. Aneeta found his aura torn and edgy, with dark red and black as the dominant colours. She used pink and violet coloured crystals to calm him and suffuse him with unconditional love. As healing progressed, she brought in green, which started his physical healing, black to ground him and gold for security. He was made to wear a tiger’s eye for protection from psychic attacks, rose quartz to help him feel loved and amethyst for calmness and peaceful sleep. As the sessions progressed, he started sleeping for longer periods and his bed-wetting stopped completely. His aura is now bright.”

I’m feeling pretty dark red, with a hint of mint-green today, how about you?

Lastly, according to another “Femina” article, yogurt, a staple of Indian cuisine, seems to not only be useful for making one “cool” (in the Ayurvedic sense) and as a main ingredient in dishes/drinks such as ‘lassis’ and ‘raitas’, but it’s healthy, too! And not only that, you can put it on your skin, and in your hair, alone or mixed with other ingredients. The article even notes that there are Vitamins, and other amazing nutrients inside the actual yogurt itself.
It is consistently fascinating to me how scientific knowledge is mixed with classical Eastern conventions and results in the unique set of health and fitness fields and approaches such as those above.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 2nd, 2006 at 6:53 pm and is filed under Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.