The little things that count

Try this exercise: Cover your ears, close your eyes and speak to your inner you, the one who lives in silence. Practice surrounding yourself with silence at least 10 minutes a day. You will discover the calmer side of your nature.

Yes, sometimes it is the little, simple things we do each day that add up to our total well-being. Here are a few inspiring vignettes guaranteed to inspire you.

Gisella is a fighter. She does not know the meaning of surrender. Not one to limit herself to a single solution to a challenge, she seeks a multi-level approach to problem-solving.

Take her blood pressure, for example. One fine day, she started developing minor headaches. Dismissing them as non-life threatening, she continued being the workaholic that she is. A week of non-stop late-night meetings caused her to disrupt her usual 11 p.m. bedtime schedule. In the mornings, she would always be too tired to exercise. Finally, her blood pressure hit 130/90. Alarmed by the rising numbers, she consulted her doctor. His first instructions were to get enough sleep and exercise daily.

Obedient as she was, there was the regular brisk morning walks —- putting in at least 5,000 steps daily. Then, it was bedtime by 10:30 p.m. Within a month, her blood pressure went back to her usual 120/80.

Nancy, age 26, is a beauty queen. She trained judiciously for a recent competition where she had won one of the major crowns. After the coronation, she got so sick that it necessitated hospitalization for two days.

The diagnosis: exhaustion due to dehydration. What she had forgotten to do during the intensive training was to hydrate. That's right, the lack of water can do that. A dehydrated body means a compromised body running on empty. This is the reason we all have thirst signals. For your sake, do not ignore them. In fact, it is wise to drink one full glass of water every hour. Make it a habit to bring a one liter bottle of water with you. Proper hydration leads to a better complexion.

Robert, age 30, has been doing Intermittent Fasting for six months. "I feel great," he used to boast to his classmates. Until the day he fainted in the golf course during their class tournament. He was out for a good 15 seconds. He recounted that all he heard was a buzzing in his ears and then the blackout happened. He had passed out. Waking up from an otherwise beautiful dream, he was afraid to know that he was not in control. What if, he said, it had happened to him while crossing a street or driving a car? Just the thought of it is enough to frighten someone. His neurologist friend advised him to pursue another form of exercise. Robert is now a regular swimmer. He dropped the IF. Since then he has not had a recurrence of passing out.

There is a little "country" in all of us, someone once said. By that, it means the longing to be close to nature is a natural instinct in everyone. This is why it is so important to bring the outdoors into the house.

After consulting a neurologist, he was advised to stop the IF, eat regular meals and to take a daily nature walk. Now, as we all know, the farther we are from the city, the more of the provincial ways set in. Thus, the intolerance to urban noise.

Try this exercise: Cover your ears, close your eyes and speak to your inner you, the one who lives in silence.

Practice surrounding yourself with silence at least 10 minutes a day. You will discover the calmer side of your nature.