World Health Day: 5 tips to keep your health in check from Dimple Jangda’s book ‘Heal Your Gut, Mind & Emotions’ – Times of India

An age old saying says ‘Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.’
But today, is sleep the only factor for a good, fulfilling life? Maybe not.
What is important now is to also heal from within. And the focus today is healing your gut, mind, and emotions. This trio has become extremely important for overall well-being and vitality in recent years.
Research says that your gut health impacts not just your digestion but also your immune system, mood, and cognitive function.And so, by nourishing your gut with a balanced diet rich in fiber, probiotics, and prebiotics, you support the growth of beneficial bacteria and reduce the risk of inflammation, which is linked to numerous health issues.
On the same side, it is also important to take care of your mind! A healthy mind is not just important for mental clarity at work but also emotional stability at home and other places. So today, doing simple activities like meditation, journaling, or taking therapy can help relieve stress and anxiety. In today’s world, keeping a positive mind is extremely important so that the world around you does not overwhelm you.
And if you are someone who is looking to heal your body and mind, Dimple Jangda‘s audiobook, ‘Heal Your Gut, Mind & Emotions’, might be just the read you would like.
Here Audible shares five actionable tips from Dimple Jangda’s ‘Heal Your Gut, Mind & Emotions’ that will help you keep your health in check.
1. Combat sinusitis woes by trying these home remedies
Dimple Jangda, in her audiobook, discusses how sinusitis impacts overall well-being and functioning. She shares a few practical methods that one must consider implementing to treat it comfortably within the presence of one’s home. She shares the following remedies for a natural recovery –
Try steam inhalation with a few drops of eucalyptus oil for its anti-inflammatory properties. It eases breathing and also reduces cold sores, blood pressure, blood sugar and fever symptoms.
You can take 3-4 teaspoons of ajwain, and carom seeds, dry roast them on a pan and place them inside a small handkerchief. Inhale it slowly through both nostrils. This helps release the pressure and inflation in the sinus areas.
You can also massage your temple to reduce the pressure on your sinuses.
Another remedy is to boil ginger with some mint leaves in a glass of water and sip it when it is warm. For sneezing woes, take black peppercorns, and chew on them slowly. This helps kill the bacteria in the mouth and bronchi region.
Incorporate jal neti yoga into your routine by flushing the sinus passages with warm water and salt through one nostril and letting it flow out through the other nostril. After this, always remember to gargle with warm water, turmeric and salt to prevent parasites from irritating the throat.
2. Bid adieu to unhealthy foods for improved gut health
Dimple emphasises the vital role of gut health in our overall well-being, underscoring the impact of dietary choices on maintaining a healthy gut. She provides insights on food choices one must make or avoid for healthy gut health.
When we eat a simple home-cooked meal that is made with fresh ingredients and lovingly prepared by our grandparents, parents, partners or even ourselves, we naturally feel satiated and happy due to serotonin released in the gut. On the other hand, when we eat reheated, packaged foods that have preservatives, the feeling isn’t the same. The gut often responds to the quality of ingredients and cooking methods.
Refined sugar is dangerous as it has the same impact on your brain as that of hard drugs and acts as fuel for bad bacteria.
Refined oils, refined salt, packaged foods, deep-fried foods and carbonated drinks, all of these are so finely processed that they cause holes in the gut and leak into the bloodstream, causing inflammation and chronic health issues.
Refined flour used in pizza, burgers, breads, and pasta is the most inedible food. It turns into a sticky glue-like substance and gets stuck to the gut lining for days and weeks together. Other food particles begin to stick to this glue-like substance which becomes a breeding ground for bad bacteria to multiply uncontrollably. When bad bacteria multiply your mental health also gets impacted.
3. Aid your mental well-being by avoiding tamasic foods
To keep our emotions in check, Dimple sheds light on the importance of mental well-being by discussing tamasic and sattvik foods. Tamasic foods are those foods which have the potential to harm physical and mental health, while sattvik foods entail nutrient-rich plant-based options and minimally processed foods that promote well-being.
Tamas is a state of ignorance, inertia and laziness. It is responsible for negative emotions like anger, attachment, depression, dependency, self-doubt, guilt, boredom, irritation, addiction, apathy, confusion, grief and ignorance. Foods that contribute to tamas include meat, fish, eggs, poultry, stale food, packaged food with a lot of chemical additives, reheated food, alcohol, cigarettes, and addictive drugs.
A sattvik diet includes foods that are rich in nutrients such as fresh fruits, vegetables, juices, whole wheat bread, pulses, grains, sprouts, nuts, seeds, herbs, honey and cruelty-free dairy products. These foods increase your state of awareness and consciousness, inspire positivity and also help unleash your inner potential.
Sometimes, even sattvik foods can turn tamasic when they are old, reheated or deep-fried. These foods do nothing to uplift your energy and take you down to a state of inertia, heaviness, gluttony, lethargy, or aggression. One must avoid late-night meals as they are tamasic in nature.
4. Enhance digestive health for overall well-being
Achieving a healthy lifestyle through proper dietary habits may appear daunting, but in the audiobook, Dimple breaks this down in a simple manner. From eating raw fruits to drinking soups, she provides actionable tips essential for enhancing digestive and gut health, guiding us towards holistic well-being. She says,
Eat only when you’re hungry otherwise, the food sits in the gut for hours leading to indigestion.
Eat until you’re 80% full, your stomach is the size of your fist, so eat until you’re 80% full, and then there will be room for the digestive juices and stomach acids to work.
You must chew your food until it turns into liquid. Chewing creates saliva which aids in the digestion process, do not make a smoothie of all your foods as that eliminates the chewing process and stresses the stomach.
Instead of fruit juices, have raw fruits and instead of smoothies, have warm well-cooked soups with spices that stimulate the metabolic fire and aid the digestion process. Eat your liquids which means sitting down while drinking water.
Remember, the gut is communicating with the brain, so if you are distracted when you’re eating with a mobile phone or television, the brain struggles to focus on digestion which can lead to bloating, overeating, acidity and indigestion.
5. Make room for positivity by letting go of negative emotions to avoid diseases
Did you know that your uterus stores memories? Dimple encourages everyone to maintain a positive outlook in life and release any negative emotions as they can impact one’s physical well-being. She advises the following to get rid of these emotions –
When we hold negative emotions and unresolved childhood trauma, grudges, worry and pain, it gets stored in different parts of the body like the hips and uterus and translates into physical symptoms of diseases.
Negative emotions affect hormonal health and the immune system changes the brain chemicals, the body’s ability to fight diseases and how it impacts a person’s lifespan.
Let go of all the negative memories and emotions that no longer serve you, and forgive all those who have hurt you, including lovers, who do not live up to your expectations and family and society who fail to protect you.
Forgive them and let go because when you forgive, you are releasing negative memories and energy from your body. You start healing yourself and you are healing the generations that come after you as well as the many generations that came before you.