The Seven Pillars of W-holistic Wellbeing Part 1: Physical Wellbeing
“After serious research and reflection, it became clear what w-holistic wellbeing meant. As mentioned in the summary, it is the use of holistic health to achieve a feeling of wholeness necessary to a person’s overall wellbeing”.
The first pillar of W-holistic Wellbeing is Physical Wellbeing.
Keeping in good physical condition can help us maintain a positive outlook and an improved quality of life, providing vital energy to our everyday activities.
Sleep
According to the National Health, Lung, and Blood Institute, sleep is vital for physical health. Among other essential features, sleep is key to healing and repairing heart and blood vessels. Consequently, “ongoing sleep deficiency is linked to an increased risk of heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke”.
Your immune system also relies on sleep to remain functional. One sleep study found that:
Sleep and the circadian system exert a strong regulatory influence on immune functions. Prolonged sleep curtailment and the accompanying stress response invoke a persistent unspecific production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, best described as chronic low-grade inflammation, and also produce immunodeficiency, which both have detrimental effects on health.
Physical activity
When it comes to life expectancy, exercise is the most important contributor to physical wellbeing:
Only a few lifestyle choices have as large an impact on your health as physical activity. People who are physically active for about 150 minutes a week have a 33% lower risk of all-cause mortality than those who are physically inactive.
Moderately intense activities are also recommended by the CDC when it comes to bone density, as these can slow the loss of bone density. With hip fracture being a serious health condition in older-adults, the prevention of it should be a priority.
Relaxation
It is widely recognised that stress is linked to hypertension. In a Pubmed journal article, it was shown that:
Stress can cause hypertension through repeated blood pressure elevations as well as by stimulation of the nervous system to produce large amounts of vasoconstricting hormones that increase blood pressure. Overall, studies show that stress does not directly cause hypertension, but can have an effect on its development.
This is why relaxation is key to physical wellbeing.
RoundGlass Sports
I am keen to promote physical wellbeing through all kinds of initiatives. This originated from my own transformative experience with yoga in my forties. As various scientific studies confirm, regular exercise energises the body and mind. Unfortunately, not everyone has the time, awareness or financial resources to engage in regular activity. That is why I developed the RoundGlass Sports initiative.
The RoundGlass Sports initiative promotes physical wellbeing by fostering young talent and passion in the field of sport. It offers world-class programs to nurture positive sporting experiences for teenagers and promote respect, integrity, empathy and teamwork.
Our main focuses are football and hockey.
In Hockey, RoundGlass is on a mission to rebuild India’s passion for Field Hockey. Through Grassroot Centers, RoundGlass has partnered with Hockey academies to help them raise their game while offering them a platform to showcase their talent in Junior and Sub-junior competitive events.
The RoundGlass Foundation is also revitalizing other sports in the State of Punjab. such as volleyball and kabaddi. Children and young adults who play team sports learn to channel their energies and talent in positive ways. They learn life skills like self-discipline, teamwork and team spirit, as well as the importance of physical exercise for improved wellbeing.
Another chief aspect of physical wellbeing is healthy eating. RoundGlass has also addressed this with another collective: RoundGlass Thali: a digital platform for Indian food and culinary traditions from the subcontinent. The philosophy at the heart of this initiative is to advance the age-old wisdom of food being at the center of our being and one of the core determiners of our wellbeing. In 2020, RoundGlass started creating food-related content such as recipes and articles (up to 500 of them) along with a number of videos offering users an insight into the world of Indian cuisine and the fundamental connection between food and wellbeing. In 2021, we are turning our focus increasingly towards plant-based foods from across the country, to show users why Indian cuisine is the best starting point for a vegan diet. By encouraging community, content curation and commerce around Indian food, RoundGlass Thali aims to become the biggest digital encyclopedia of Indian cuisine in the next five years, putting centuries of tradition and innovation on the world map.
Other healthy eating initiatives we are pioneering include Cook Together — an invitation to explore your curiosity around cooking and nutrition — and the Thali Chef Retreat — which brings together figures in the food industry, from nutritionists to organic farmers, to discuss, prepare and celebrate Indian food and ancient wisdom around healthy dietary choices.
