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Always Stay Naturally High!
It’s a routine Monday afternoon at work., but there is something you are excited about. You’ve planned a dream holiday starting this weekend. To this place you’ve always wanted to travel to, this beautiful island with crystal clear turquoise waters shimmering over fine silver sand, ravished by towering tropical mountains spread across the terrain. You are thrilled and can’t wait to get there and soak up the evening sun, staring at the horizon. And put your body to the test on that hard but gratifying trek up the peak to experience that alluring orange sunrise above the waters far away. You snap back to reality, the present - staring at your screen, with about 10 more emails left to conclude your Monday’s work. You have a smile on you and a smirk even your colleague can notice, but only you know why. But it doesn’t matter, you are in a happy space with bundles of energy. Your mind’s working faster, and you have very few complaints. Everything feels beautiful, everything is pleasant. Save this picture of you. We’ll get back there.
Twelve days passed, it’s the last day of your amazing trip on that beautiful Island. It’s Saturday evening by the beach, beneath the million starry sky. Lounging by the sea, you are pondering about everything but the present - thoughts about responsibilities back home, about unsolved problems, about the normal routine starting once more. The beautiful beach doesn’t feel the same as in the beginning. You hardly notice the stars. You fail to remember that you are on this breathtaking Island, so lost in thoughts about what’s later, that you need someone to nudge you to come back to earth. However, the energy and vibe you feel deep in don’t live up to what it was earlier. Save a picture of this too.
Look deeper into what's happening with both these situations. In the first, on a normal Monday at work, you dream about being surrounded by the awe of nature on your amazing trip, and then you snap back into the day’s work. Somehow the positive energy and vibe spread through the rest of the day, and what your conscious mind assumes as a normal day, actually turns out to be happy and energetic. Though you’re not on the Island, you are already content and buoyant. Jump to ‘Saturday evening’ on the amazing Island - the second situation, your thoughts race to concerns you have limited control on, and matters that stress you. Somehow this dullness and anxiety escalate on to the rest of the evening. You’re actually on the Island of your dream but probably only in body. In both these situations you’ve allowed your thoughts of what’s ahead affect the present, initially brightening a normal Monday at work and later stressing a leisure Saturday evening. One is desirable and the other is not, but surprisingly the desirable happy day is not on the holiday and the dim evening is on the Island.
What if this need not be the case, what if you can stay joyous and energetic irrespective of you being on a holiday or not. You’ve experienced in both these circumstances, your physical presence or instantaneous existence doesn’t completely define your mood. How we actually feel is controlled by what we let in and what we do about it. Being alive to the moment ‘no matter what it is – work, play, daily routines and anything and everything’ , completely immersing yourself in that action with energy and positivity can turn any perceived normal or dull moment into contentment and satisfaction . Well you might argue that you are forced to think about certain things in life and have responsibilities - you couldn’t help it. But what if we are just giving ourselves an excuse, and don’t we love being a victim? We humans are experts in reasoning out anything and everything for our convenience, most times blaming, worrying about things out of our control.
Aren’t we? 99% of the times we mistake worrying about the future to preparing and planning for the future. These two are altogether different things. It’s healthy to plan and take actions in the present hoping to have a bearing on future outcomes, but plain thinking about future outcomes is actually energy wasted on nothing and can be defined as worrying, leading to anxiety and negativity. Let’s take a simple and basic example - all of us have taken exams in life right. Imagine you have an important paper to write next week. There’re lot of future plans and goals hanging on to the outcome of the paper. Now, thinking about the results, the repercussions, the what-ifs, pondering about the number of times you procrastinated, remembering and regretting the number of days you’ve wasted in the past are all nothing but worrying about by-gones and the yet-to-comes. In-fact all that matters is - doing something at this moment helping the preparation. It can be opening up the books and studying or taking a pen and jotting down a plan of action. Basically the now-actions are all that matter - how we use the present moment. And the toughest part is getting started, once we take that first step whole-heartedly, the rest flows. Am sure all of us have experienced that zone when we are so immersed in our preparation that we are actually loving it. In that instance we forget about the real exam. We are so passionately involved in the task at hand. That’s the ‘real’ – ‘being in the present’.
It’s the same when you are so immersed in your work, you forget that annoying boss, you forget the deadline, you forget it’s time for some lunch. It’s just you and what’s in front of you. Your instincts take over, your conscious and subconscious are one and the same, this is the most productive you’ll ever be. You are in the moment and nothing else matters – absolutely loving the zone you are in. That’s being ‘Naturally High’!!
The same in sport as well. You are in the middle of a cricket game, thinking about the possibilities, the pressure and what is to happen next rather than just putting all your energy into the only thing which actually matters – the present. The ball you facing or delivering, and nothing else – cause this is the one and only thing you can control. And controlling that to the best of your ability will define the next instance – the future. It’s always one ball at a time. That’s being in the zone. The great players stay in that zone for longer and more consistently than all the others. No matter what we are faced with in life, this holds true. We are never defined by what is in front of us, we are always defined by how we approach the present. That’s being ‘Naturally High’!! Many of us confuse being ‘fully in the present’ as being careless about what is ahead. It’s actually being aware of both the past and future yet staying in this moment – the present.
“If the majority of your energy and time is spent thinking, worrying – ‘about what’s ahead, then you ain’t doing enough in the present for ‘the ahead’. Only your action in the present, can have any sort of bearing for the ahead, and not your plain thoughts.”
Being happy and ‘Naturally High’ is not limited to the general accepted ways of fun and relaxation. It can be anything and everything including your work, relationships and daily routines – If only you are fully engaged in that instance. But why do we connect better and faster to certain situations and instances! That’s cause positively activating our physical and mental states, gets us there quicker. It’s easier being fully immersed in these situations - the ones which take our body and mind on a rush. It’s that feeling you get when you go skydiving, after the initial free-fall when you’re drifting back down to the ground. It’s the feeling of waking up in a foreign place. Naturally High can be watching the sunset in a brand-new scene. It’s sipping a cold beverage after running your first marathon. It’s doing something you’ve never done before. Naturally High can be seeing your newborn child for the first time or even taking your dog to the park for a morning walk. It’s that connection you feel with a random stranger. That spark. It’s the same feeling when you are in your zone at work, forgetting everything around you. It is a sense of peace and freedom, and heightened awareness. A vibration of gratitude and love. It’s that consciousness-expanding level of euphoria can be naturally cultivated by you every day.
Naturally High is not just that feeling you search for occasionally. Naturally High is the lifestyle.
Naturally High Is not just about doing something exciting all the time, it is about making the best of the present.
Naturally High is not about being Selfish, is being Selfless.
Naturally High is not about forgetting everything, it’s about being everything.
Naturally High is being in the flow, when your mind and body is perfectly in sync - knowing that you are exactly where you are supposed to be, doing exactly what you are meant to do.
It’s about being completely immersed in the moment.
….to be continued
-----Stay Naturally High, Stay in the Moment---
Avocado Smoothies
The Evidence of the existence of species of this berry can be found dated back to the beginning of time itself but the original Avocado that we consume today can be found in the land of Mesoamerican civilization, the land we call today as Mexico.
Before we directly jump to the whole aura of avocado smoothies, we’ve got to know the origin story of it (Like it’s some sort of super-hero ; well it is for our bodies though). Now don’t be bored over the history as to why we need to learn it and why not just directly eat the damn fruit (Yes, its a fruit not a vegetable), To answer that question we must quote the great Marcus Garvey (Don’t bother asking who he was), “The One without the knowledge of the history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots”.
So, back to our lesson. The Avocado gained popularity when the Spanish colonized South America and took back the berry back to Europe (Well, at least something good happened with the conquest). The term ‘Avocado’ was coined by an Irish Naturalist, Sir Hans Sloane back in 1696.
George Washington found it in West Indies and really loved it. Then Henry Perrine (A Horticulturist) got it back to Florida, America back in 1833.
In India, it was not popularized directly but rather through Sri Lanka and entering through South India to Sikkim (As the berry cannot bear the hot dry climate).
That’s it for the antiquity of this superhero/food. The Avocados were always famous for being included in the salads, but it was not until the early 21st Century that it got added into the smoothies (Since the Millenials like to experiment a lot, and I mean a lot).
Now there are such recipes of avocado smoothies that you can’t even think of, from blueberry to coffee to chocolate peanut butter avocado smoothies. Just not that, we here in Drunken Monkey has over 200+ varieties of smoothies. Now who would have known that this ancient berry has the power to blend into almost anything.
Like Spiderman’s uncle said, “With great superfood comes great super benefits” (Oh, let's just assume he said that late Stan Lee would agree with us). This superfood has the power to strengthen you in terms of getting yourself to a level of ultimatum towards having healthy hair; thanks to Vitamin E (Maybe just like the ones in the Garnier’s ads); great eye vision, again behold the Vitamin E ( We are not promising anything like the sort of Superman’s eyes); delaying the skin ageing process (Now haven’t we all asked our magic mirror the snow-white question); Strong Bones, thanks to Vitamin D (Again, Nothing like the sort of Wolverine); healthy muscles, bless the potassium (We think it was avocado, not green gamma rays that transformed hulk, no kidding).
This superfood is so super that some might say it's quite superficial, it turns out it is a part of its own super league (Ah! Too much Superiority). But isn’t it great that all of this and many more are trapped in a single berry (Or fruit, or superfood, whatever you’d like to call it there’s no rule) and these powers are disguised in beautiful ancient form and the smoothies are just a boost towards a healthy lifestyle that humankind deserves.
Cheat Day in a GOOD WAY
Remember those days when you used to study for the exams all day long and also all night long but nothing used to register in your brain? And you would get frustrated and give up? There was a simple solution to that which involved ‘Taking a break’.
Taking a break would count as, playing games for a certain amount of time, taking a small nap, visiting a friend’s house or watching a movie.
Well, the same thing applies here, as you go through a strict healthy diet for various reasons that you might have; you might get a little frustrated to have something to cheat on, which is where we introduce you to our ‘Something Special’ category. Well, the goal is to stick to the restricted diet for as long as possible unless it becomes your daily appetite.
To achieve that goal it is ‘okay’ to have a reward-based strategic diet plan that involves giving yourself brief period of ‘Something Special’ to cheat on. In that case, it is possible in a long term that you will love your diet and stick to it as we know that weight management can be a very difficult and complicated process, so sticking to a strategic diet is the primary goal.
But when you are dedicated to a strict diet like the Ketogenic diet that does not provide any flexibility for a cheat day then the strategy for a cheat day diet should not be used, else it may not show the results you want to achieve at the end of the day.
But lucky for you that we provide such smoothies that can fulfil the craving of your heart and soul. And in that process can provide you with a little amount of calories than the rest of your indulgence out there. Our category of ‘Something Special’ involves the likes of dates, nuts, caramel, boring but amazing fresh fruits and of course the mighty Nutella and many more.
We have thought through it as cheat day smoothies will vary from person to person in terms of taste.
Our simple theory is that by sticking to strategic cheat diet by indulging yourself in the smoothies that are not a part of your restricted diet, it is highly likely that you will strictly stick to your planned healthy diet. By doing this there can be two paths that can be drawn, the one would be that ‘People can resist their temptation knowing that their planned cheat day is coming up’ or ‘People can completely indulge themselves into the cheat diet and get lost in the beauty of it’. If the latter takes place then there is one solution of backing out of the whole deal and start over again. (At least we got you covered in the taste part of it)
So it is ‘Okay’ to take a break from a restricted diet just like it is ‘okay’ to take a nap before your biggest test. But it would be perfect if it is strategically planned and you are not too much indulged in it, otherwise, we all know the result would be excessive calories in terms of your diet and a poor performed test in terms of your examination.
Fitness, Health, Happiness Whole Body Wellness
What really is health? How do you define yourself as fit? And what is really being happy? Maybe they are one and the same thing. By definition - We can say that all are an active process of becoming aware of and making choices toward a healthy and fulfilling life. Wellness is more than being free from illness, it is a dynamic process of change and growth.
And all three can be defined as ‘wellness’.
"a conscious, self-directed and evolving process of achieving full potential." - The National Wellness Institute
"...a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." - The World Health Organization
It is critical to maintaining an optimal level of wellness to live a satisfactory life. Our happiness matters. It is the driving force of every energy we possess and the efficiency of putting it to use because every emotion we feel and everything we do relates to our mental health and well-being. Vice-versa our emotions and actions are directly affected by our well-being.
Therefore in order to subdue stress, reduce the risk of illness and ensure positive interactions, it is important for everyone to achieve optimal wellness.
In today’s world being happy is about maintaining a balance on the different aspects which control our life and our mental state, both consciously and subconsciously. There are about four different dimensions that control this balance and for each person, the intensity of the effects of these dimensions vary. But every dimension of wellness is interrelated with one and other and can be the reason for pushing you higher or pulling you down in either of them. Reaching an optimal level of wellness is possible by maintaining and optimizing each of the following dimensions of wellness, to the level necessary based on how we are mentally and physically aligned to the world around us. – emotional, intellectual, physical and spiritual.
Emotional - relates to understanding our feelings, and what mentally works for us and what doesn’t. It also relates to how we understand our experiences and figure out a way to grow through them. This is the most important tool we have to fuel and also the toughest to master cause it requires involvement and at the same time, detachment too.
We must be capable of looking into our issues from the heart and yet make decisions being detached personally.
Intellectual - relates to us understanding the changes in the environment and people around us and having an open mind when we encounter new ideas and pursue expanding our knowledge.
Our intellect is what collects data as what it should be from whatever our brain encounters and putting it forward in the most structured way for us to analyse.
Physical - relates to maintaining a healthy body that manages and maintains our state of health and happiness. Having enough sleep, fuelling the body with the right food and making sure we are physically active ensures that our body has the best chance to keep itself in a good state to serve its purpose.
Spiritual – It’s always important to know why. Why do we take certain decisions and why we don’t? What is the reason for our bigger purpose?. It is not about religion, it is more about self-realization. More importantly, it means that you trust your instinct and would be able to make decisions you would live by and not regret at a later point in life “A healthy outside starts from the inside” And the most important thing of all, we are responsible for our wellness more than anything and anyone else, cause no matter what external circumstances we face, we have more things we can control
How Smoothie Culture Can Change Your Lifestyle.
We are all a part of this system where we feel that our life is scripted and everything is on a loop, right? We wake up and go to our respective places to work or study, then come back and sleep or just watch Netflix and chill. After all, that is what the millennials are trending themselves with.
With this hustle and bustle of the week, have you ever considered changing your lifestyle to make it healthy?
Have you ever thought of changing your weekends into something productive rather than just partying just to get that bad hangover the next morning? Your week is probably too hectic to think about these things. The smoothie culture might just change your lifestyle. Fun Fact:
The smoothie culture goes way back to the 1930s when health food stores on the west coast of the United States started selling smoothies. You might feel the concept is highly overrated but observe properly.
If you are really serious about your health then a smoothie is something that you should try. With no added artificial flavours and fruits and veggies straight off the tree, it produces the real energy within you. Unlike alcohol, you won’t have to hide from anyone.
Drink it anytime and anywhere and energise your soul. Even after a hectic workout session, it helps to regenerate the energy and keeps your protein level stable.
Now let’s go back in time. When it’s the last day of school and the summer vacation is just about to begin. We all used to fulfil our bucket list and hoped that we were all refreshed all the time not from the outside but also from the inside. That’s the time when our parents used to nag us to eat fruits and other juices to keep us healthy. Well, time doth fly. Those days are gone but smoothie culture kept ongoing.
Now let me give you an insight into how a smoothie can help you and your body. First of all, it helps in natural weight loss and prevents the growth of cancer.
Secondly, it gives mental clarity and clearer skin. With all those cosmetic junks that you use is not helping you. On the other hand, a smoothie can help you gain energy and focus. Remember those blurry days of the Saturday night parties? Smoothie, on the contrary, might give you a hangover that is fun and full of positivity. If you include smoothies in your regular diet then it will give your results for a better tomorrow.
The more our body consumes raw fruits and veggies the more our body, mind and soul will be in sync.
The objective is not to change your entire lifestyle because even that won’t lead you to a healthy life.
But a baby step towards the smoothie culture won’t harm you. Immerse yourself into this new habit and as time passes by you will eventually feel “Naturally High”
Feel what you always wanted to feel. Enjoy the little things. Rejoice every moment and sip a smoothie while you glide through your mundane week.
Smoothie fact:
Healthy smoothies were first invented by Steve Kuhnau who was experimenting on his health and it worked for him. It enabled him to open a health food store named Smoothie King, where he was selling smoothie drinks and later it has grown into a chain of other stores.
Hangover Warriors
We have evolved in so many ways both scientifically and technologically but the one cure everyone failed to find is the solution to Hangover. It’s hard to control on drinks while at a party be it a club scene or a house party. Most of us are in the same boat sailing through the experience of a similar feeling from the after party. The hangover!
We have all been there and done that! Enjoying the light-hearted laughs over some intoxicating fluids, but the following morning is rarely the best morning to get up to. Be it after a holiday or celebrating a party, we seldom get up fresh and energetic. And most of the times, we end up exceeding the limits of how much we can drink. Our body is the best and most effective machine we have ever come across. It’s our body’s own way of reminding us of the toxins we have consumed by cautioning us the importance of flushing them out and getting us back to our effective best. And this is often done through the signs of a hangover.
What’s a Hangover? Excess consumption of alcohol the previous night, can most times lead to a hangover in the morning. It generally involves headache, tiredness, dehydration, and nausea. A hangover can lead to difficulty in concentrating or thinking clearly and sometimes leads to anxiety as well. It is definitely not a great feeling after having one amazing time the previous night. The primary cause of the feeling is the ethanol in the alcohol which has after effects on our body including dehydration, electrolyte imbalances, low blood sugar, stomach and intestine inflammation, and sleep disturbances. There is no perfect cure for hangovers, and the best way to prevent a hangover is not to drink at all or drink in moderation.
However, there are ways to limit or prevent the feeling of a hangover in the mornings. Consuming ‘hangover smoothies’ help combat the effect of the bad symptoms you face the following day. These smoothies are very rich in electrolyte salts which help in re-hydrating the body and replenishing the salts and minerals lost during the consumption of alcohol. The lactic acid levels in the body increase when the body breaks down alcohol, which causes a drop in the blood sugar levels. Consuming smoothies of fruits like apple, banana, pineapple, grapes, etc. restore blood sugar levels and help the body battle the hangover symptoms. These smoothies are rich in fruits with antioxidants which helps in driving away the oxidative stress developed during alcohol intake. They also inject the body with the necessary nutrients including proteins, carbohydrates, and vitamins which aid on the repair and recovery process. Coffee can also act as a stimulant which can improve the feeling of fatigue which is accompanied by the hangover.
Other than that, it is also important to drink responsibly and take remedies while consuming alcohol. Drinking a lot of water and keeping yourself hydrated is very important. Eating healthy food before and while consuming alcohol reduces the effect of the alcohol on the body as it slows down the rate the body absorbs alcohol. And lastly, anything done in moderation will seldom cause any serious damage to your body. And if not anything, have smoothies and stay naturally high!!
But, if you failed to do any of these, then you know what to do. Just grab one of the hangover smoothies and it will definitely help you battle through the hangover. It will definitely help you get off the sheets and roll out of bed keeping you sail through the day so you can be back in action.