A PROPER, healthy diet plays a significant role in the improvement of health of any person. But the psychological factor is just as important. Dr Alexis Carrol, the Noble prize winning doctor, says: “Men who do not know how to fight worry, die young.”
Brooding for a prolonged period can make a person unwell. Just worry for an hour in the morning and you will need to take a rest later in the day for two to three hours to recuperate.
The elders of my family often say that during the Second World War, it would give them great relief when there would be announcements of ‘All Clear’, that is, when the bombardment would halt for some time. Their nerves would be immediately relaxed, but the feeling of psychological weakness invariably took the better of them.
Emotional weaknesses can sometimes result in physical disabilities. Anxiety can actually assume the shape of a disease, which could be just as real and as fatal as the outcome of eating unhygienic food. Arthritis, rheumatism, heart disease, goitre, diabetes, stomach ulcers, cancer, all can be caused because of emotional weaknesses.
In this respect I’m reminded of one case. I have a friend who has suffered a lot for 13 years. She has had a pretty good, trouble-free childhood. But at an early age she got married to a stern, older man. For a few years she let him do as he pleased; but when things got beyond limits, she took a stand against him. What ensued was daily quarrels and showdowns. The ceaseless mental strain caused her to develop colitis. Her physical suffering ultimately required five major operations and she suffered from a nervous breakdown. Afterwards, her husband died, and in a few years she once again got married. All of a sudden life changed for her. She began enjoying a good time and got rid of colitis. She would often say that she had never felt better.
But the situation didn’t last for long. The new couple too started to quarrel and her nervousness and colitis recurred. She harboured the notion that her physical troubles must have been caused by poor drinking water that she was getting in the area she had shifted to after remarrying. She thought leaving the area for a few months would do her a world of good. Doing so, she felt a little better. However, the cause of her illness was obviously emotional. Her doctor, who was senior fellow, took many by surprise when he prescribed strange things for patients like my friend: “Four glasses of water per day, vegetarian food with salads and fruit and a mild laxative.”
The doctor would visit his patients on a daily basis and let them divulge to him all their troubles. When they would finish he would affectionately say: “Now let us pray.” And they would be emotionally relaxed and feel better.
Maintaining emotional balance and inner calm, in this regard, is an important factor. While receiving treatment from physicians and healers can be a help, the most effective way to get recovered quickly is by saying one’s prayers. We should take time to kneel down and implore God to guide us. Then one should note down one’s worries and think hard what one can do about them. If nothing can be done today, then clearly it is tomorrow’s problem.
It is good to have at least one hobby. It may be reading, studying, gardening, stamp-collecting or any other thing. It is ideal to have several interests. If one is completely bored, it is a clear sign that he or she needs more interests.
There was an acquaintance of mine, who used to love only two things: her friend Habib and horse racing. Her mother, unfortunately, did not like Habib. She did her best to break the friendship and refused to let him come into their home. Physical reaction speedily set in and soon the girl had nothing better to do but spend time in bed with terrible headaches. She even lost interest in herself, not bothering even to wash her hair or brush her teeth.
To be emotionally balanced, as mentioned earlier, we must have plenty of interests. The difficulties that young, married couples often face are a manifestation of a lack of such interests.
Once I visited some friends of mine who, as I learned during the course of our conversation, were having difficulties in maintaining their relationships. First there was a friend called Zulekha who told her story. “Yasin is always busy with his business,” she said. “I spend the day thinking of him and preparing his favourite dishes and cleaning the house, just looking forward to the time when he would get home at 6pm. What do you think he does when he gets here? He just sits down and reads the newspaper and never utters a single word.” There were tears in her eyes. She was really miserable. She loved Yasin and felt she could not live without him, but how could she carry on with her life the way things were!
Then Yasin told his version of the story: “Well, all day I meet people, chat with them, trying to be pleasant, doing business with them. When I come home I want to be quiet. I can’t spend 24 hours just chattering away. I need to get rest as well. She ought to realize that.”
The effective solution in that case was for Zulekha to plan well her work at home, and use her time in worthwhile interests — something Yasin would like to here about, despite the fact that he would not want to talk much. That’s how couples could successfully solve their problems by sitting together in the evening over a cup of tea and talk about their mutual interests like cricket, friends, eating out, current affairs, books etc. This will help them feel better.
An excellent plan for emotional relaxation is to read the holy scriptures, whichever faith one may belong to. Many people lack inner peace because they harbour guilt of one kind or another. This can be effectively taken care of by remembering the Almighty. There is no peace like the one that follows when one knows his sins committed in the past have been forgiven.
One other way of relaxing is to exercise for at least 15 minutes every day. Stretch out, and let every muscle flex. This will let your blood circulate freely.
Also, anyone who squanders his money mindlessly, readily falls prey to worries of different kinds. It is always a wise idea to save.
A PROPER, healthy diet plays a significant role in the improvement of health of any person. But the psychological factor is just as important. Dr Alexis Carrol, the Noble prize winning doctor, says: “Men who do not know how to fight worry, die young.”
