Why are we a Painful Generation?
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The art of life these days is the art of avoiding pain. The greatest gift you can give your family and the world is a healthy you. Fifty years ago women and men may not have worked out; in the gym, swam or spent hours golfing at the club or followed a Keto or Intermittent fasting Diet. But they surely burned up more calories than their counterparts today and were healthy, wealthy and wise. That’s why my question- Why are we a Painful Generation?
Manual Labour @Home
Our mothers and grandmothers burnt quite a lot of fat every day through their domesticated lifestyle. Whether it was manually grinding on the grinding stone or on the mortar and pestle. Chugging water from the hand pump or well, washing clothes with a washing bat. Cooking cleaning, scrubbing the floors. The men too led disciplined lives of hard work and a daily stroll at the end of the day.
We, at this Millenial, consume a lot more calories. This could be the result of eating junk food and processed foods. Most meals were simple; served with vegetables compared to the exotic pasta, cakes and instant noodles today. Appliances; kitchen machines, grinders, washing machines and dishwashers have played their part in reducing the number of calories burnt. Now we have Alexa, Echo and flick on and off gadgets from office.
Ask yourself- Why are we a Painful Generation?
Women cooked on low fires and served meals on the floor. I do not remember my mom ever complaining of a backache. And here I am already with a spinal fusion and all my bones creaking and complaining. Today, you drive rather than walk. You have freezers which mean fewer shopping trips and use supermarkets which provide everything under one roof. It is all a far cry from the olden days. I have fond memories of seeing my mom traipse between the greengrocer’s in the market, carefully selecting the best produce, be it an aubergine or perfect guava.
Then and Now-Why are we a Painful Generation?
Women 50 years ago didn’t, have the luxury of 45 minutes on the treadmill or Zumba dancing or even a 30-minute yoga class. Their idea of relaxation was exchanging gossip; when they had tea and a biscuit while the kids played hopscotch in the lane.
Evening entertainment was not binge-watching Netflix or trashy, melodramatic soaps but involved listening to the radio. My dad loved the soft romantic songs and the plays on Hawa Mahal. . My dad had a wonderful voice and serenaded my mom with the choicest of romantic Punjabi ballads.
We strained our ears to the latest songs on Binaca Geet mala every Wednesday. Curling up with a magazine, snuggling in grandma’s bed to listen to her unbelievable stories from across the border was the norm. Those were the days, sleeping under the stars and moon and the air smelling of jasmine and my dad’s lyrical notes. Sigh!!
Why are we a Painful Generation?
People were much healthier then. Slipped discs, sciatica, knee joint replacements, frozen shoulder, et al was unheard of. Technology has made us lazy. It goes to show the importance of exercise in the battle to maintain a healthy balance. Yoga is being hailed by the west. While we Indians haven’t yet realized the value of our rich lineage.
Exercise and diet are not the only things to radically change over the last half-century. Food is meant to be fuel for the body. If that fuel is not burnt off it turns to fat. That is why there is now an obesity epidemic.
Walking is the cheapest and best exercise as it burns off the calories that we have consumed. Obesity can be calculated vis-a-vis to the number of cars in a family these days. Although many affluent people do use their brains and their legs.
Playground Versus PlayStation time
When we were in school we had to go through the PT class and other sports as it was compulsory and once back home, playing with my cousins was the norm. Kids these days hold the iPad or the tablet or worse the X Box and keep playing mindless games or watch cartoons on TV which hardly do anything to stimulate the mind.
Homemade Healthy Meals
As for meals, there was virtually no instant food. Hadn’t heard of Swiggy, Zomato or Uber either. We had a hearty breakfast and home-cooked lunch was served hot at lunchtime in school by the dabbawali (the lady who brought our lunch) in the dining hall. We arrived home at 4.30 pm to hog again and burnt it all off in play. Sometimes it would be mother’s homemade snacks or even the leftover rajma-chawal from lunch. I don’t remember any ready-to-eat food and frozen food did not exist, we hadn’t heard of burgers n buns but had fresh milk bread for sure. Take-away or a rare visit to a restaurant would always be healthy idly-dosa or Thali meals.
Meals on the Floor
Food is digested best when you sit on the floor and eat. Our parents and grandparents were used to sitting on the floor and had food along with the family. Yes, their diets were far richer than ours but they were fit and fine, so it takes only common sense to realize that sitting on the floor and eating was a health funda. This was an almost sacred ritual which was rarely broken. They used to sit in Padmasana or Sukhasana as it is also called. The first part ‘Sukh’ means -at peace of body as well as the mind. Ayurveda says that eating with a calm mind helps better digestion and in some cases has even helped people relish food better and what better way to calm your mind then just simply sit on the floor and enjoy your meal with your family.
Padmasana and Digestion
When we sit on the floor, the posture itself (sitting cross-legged) helps digestion. Apart from that when the plate is placed on the floor in front, you naturally have to bend forward to eat from the plate and go back to your natural position. This constant back and forth movement helps in the abdomen muscles being activated throughout the meal and leads to the better secretion of the digestive juices making the food to be digested properly and quickly.
Floor seating also helps circulation as the blood flows naturally through the heart to digestive organs in contrast to chair seating where the blood flow to legs. Therefore sitting on the floor and eating, affords you a healthy heart with strong muscles to help it cope with the pressures of daily life.
Timely Meals
Designating a mealtime as a special activity helps you connect to your food and eat less. Constant grazers or those who ransack the fridge every couple of hours will only put themselves at a disadvantage. Eating at Buffets, one is hardly taking stock of what’s being consumed. On the other hand, this position the semi-Padmasana enables us to eat slowly than in other positions which. In fact, give your stomach and brain, time to cognate the signals of feeling full, thereby preventing overeating and bingeing. Now we have TV dinners which are a norm and the couch potatoes cannot blame the obese carbs stored in the body.
Posture Problems
I find a stark difference in people’s posture around me these days especially, in the Gurudwara. (Temple) I do not remember any of my parents or uncles and aunts ever sitting on chairs while praying or while partaking langar in the Gurudwara. A few years ago it would be sacrilegious to even think of sitting on a stool in the Gurudwara and now we have elaborate sofas and chairs for those who cannot sit on the floor.
The numbers are growing and the age limit is going down too. I have seen women in their 20’s, sitting on a chair rather than squatting on the floor.e As I had a spinal fusion, I find it difficult to sit on the floor as well, but I still do. I remember watching grey-haired gentlemen who walked erectly but held on to a stylish, carved walking stick in the park- I used to wonder why they held it. But now I see every other person holding onto all sorts of surgical walking sticks, stands, walkers, you name it (tremendous potential for business there).
Talk About Designer Bags or Braces?
Women exchanging notes on designer bags, clothes and jewellery are common. But recently at a funeral gathering, I witnessed an amusing scene in the Gurudwara (temple). One of the ladies was uncomfortable sitting on the floor and was rubbing her back and the lady next to her suddenly ripped out a sleek back brace from under her dress; turned to the lady next to her asked her to try it on! Now we talk about neck, back, knee joint braces instead of designer shoes and bags!
Bathrooms or Glamour-rooms
Indeed as we have “progressed” in every sense possible there have been many areas where we have lost. We have found easier and lazier alternatives to everything from how we eat to how we poop. There were no attached baths to the rooms in the not so distant past and the bath and toilet were always a distance away from the main house. Squatting was the best way to an easy stool and good to lubricate those knees. The western pots only make one constipated and prevent you from working those knees; major reason Why are we a Painful Generation? Knee pain only happens to older people is a myth.
Loo-time or Me-Time-Why are we a Painful Generation?
I don’t remember anyone in my family hoarding toilet time for more than five minutes as there was always someone waiting outside for their turn. Now, everyone has their own private glamour rooms attached to their bedroom. Glass panelled to boot. Western style pots, health faucets and toilet rolls make it easier.
If the older generation is taking the newspaper or magazine then the young uns tug along their mobiles, iPads, tabs and even their laptops to the loo. A cousin of mine has this huge pile of newspapers and magazines beside his “throne” and spends at least a couple of hours ruminating on it while my son takes his heavy-duty Dell laptop as company to the commode. (His me-time he says) and my super-harried niece enjoys her cuppa tea in there as she doesn’t get a moment’s peace outside!
Agreed that great ideas do germinate on the shit-pot but for that, you only need to take your mind there isn’t it?
Why are we a Painful Generation? Overweight=Knee-Pains
People of all ages now suffer from knee pain due to injury or exercise or even brittle bones. It could also start as a mild pain that slowly becomes chronic. Being overweight can put you at higher risk for knee problems and that is a fact. Every extra pound you carry adds about five extra pounds of pressure on your knees when you go up and downstairs.
If you need to shed a few pounds, talk with your doctor about healthy ways to lose weight. Knee joint replacement has become the latest urban acquisition and I have seen so many people around me who have gone through it. Not that it is a sure-fire way of putting you back in the joggers’ park, as some surgeries have gone awry and the patients can only writhe in discomfort.
Back pain-An Epidemic
Do you remember your granny or your mom complaining of backaches, except when age had caught up? Back pain is an all-too-familiar problem that can range from a dull, constant ache to a sudden, sharp pain that leaves you incapacitated. It can come on suddenly—from an accident, a fall, or lifting something heavy—or it can develop slowly, perhaps as the result of age-related changes to the spine.
Regardless of how back pain happens or how it feels, you know it when you have it. And chances are, if you don’t have back pain now, you will eventually. It is the anathema of our sedentary lifestyle. And most importantly the time we spend on our mobiles and laptops. Our posture is skewed and our spine takes it all.
A Weighty Issue
Overweight people have an increased risk of back pain. This is especially true for people with extra weight around the mid-section, which pulls the pelvis forward; creating stress on the lower back. People carrying extra pounds also may experience sciatica and low back pain from a herniated disc or a pinched nerve caused by compensating for the weight.
Although back pain tends to be a universal complaint, middle-aged people are more likely than younger and older folks to have back pain that’s related to lifestyle.
By the time you reach middle age, your bone strength, muscle elasticity and muscle tone start to decline. The discs in your spine become drier and less flexible, making them less able to cushion your vertebrae. The degeneration also can make the spinal canal, the passageway that carries your spinal cord narrower. All these can lead to low back pain. Low back problems also can occur because of a lack of exercise.
Disparate Diagnosis
People with severe unexplained body pains are bounced around doctors and chiropractors like they are in a pinball machine. They are serially misdiagnosed and mistreated, often never finding a single doctor or therapist who recognizes the problem or has a clue what to do about it. I had to take seven opinions and still went through a wringer.
The need of the hour is- all parents should lead by example. Any gentle forms of exercise, or yoga, Pilates, swimming, riding a stationary bike or walking should become a part and parcel of our daily routine.
Your body is like a car, if you want it to run well early in the morning, you have to warm it up. Your body is a temple, worship and revere it as you will not get spare parts for it. Take care of your body, it’s the only place you have to live.
Why are we a Painful Generation? Now you know!
Check out my previous posts of #MyFriendAlexa My Cache of Positives from this Lockdown, Project Self Love, Natural Organic Hair Colour and Homemade Hair Oil Recipe for Hairloss Baby Potato fry
That’s so true.. It is our lifestyle that makes our generation painful. It’s high time that we bring change in our lifestyle before its too late. I agree with all the facts you mentioned.
Wow this is indeed true but some of us are trying hard to achieve health more than anything else. I mean giving yourself stress isn’t going to help you in anyway.
Yes I agree in previous time people used to have a lifestyle that automatically include good workout and healthy food and now with changing time every thing got mess up with many facilities. But we have to take this thing seriously and should pay attention on our lifestyle.
wow I never viewed it like this before.. some of things you mentioned about our lifestyle is really hampering us .. it’s time we bring about some changes
You have really covered valid pointers..yes!! we are more into PlayStation than the playground and other kinds of stuff are really making life so painful!!
True with technology and advancement the lifestyle has completely changed. People now want tools to make work easy and then go do yoga gym n zumba to burn the calories….. but we are humans always on a quest to invent something to make like better n easy.
Person evolve with the change and so do we all. Yes lifestyle changes are extreme that we all need to know how to balance them. If the balance is perfect then this generation will surely gain without any pain.
All the reasons behind “Why are we a painful generation’ are absolutely true, the chores of our predecessors were used to be time-consuming, which they used to perform so effortlessly. They blessed us with the same lifestyle, we new generation has all messed up in the name of comfort.
What a beautiful post and a relevant one. you have touched upon all the aspects and it is really true that we as a generation have a lot to learn from yesteryears. Very nicely written.
Know what, most of our lifestyle problems are invited by us. No one has stopped us from living the way our earlier generation did, we just became lazy. I hope people realise the loopholes of it before it’s too late!
Oh gosh this post is like a serious reality check for many of us! You are so right, our over-dependence on technology and gadgets has made us lazy and less likely to use our body which is so harmful for us.
This is a harsh reality in current times, in terms to look cool and follow fad we have come a long way from our traditional way of lifestyle and have lost so much in the process.. thanks for sharing this insightful pointers
This was an eye-opener, each of these makes so much sense and we can clearly see the difference between the old days and now. I personally believe, we all are learning to go back to our roots gradually and a lot of us are being more aware of our surroundings. For example, I have seen a lot of friends preferring to buy chakki ka aata than a packaged flour or not sit on the dining table while eating 🙂
Lifestyle changes with every generation and there are pros and cons of both. Agreed that our current lifestyle is leading to a number of health issues and there are newer ways to combat them. But ease in life has also meant that people have more time beyond just the day to day struggle and one sees creativity spurting from many corners. Also for women, technolgy has helped them reduce drudgery to a large extent.
This post is definitely an eye opener. These days we are very much dependent towards the gadgets , technology and all which makes our body lazy and in long term this is harmful.
I remember my granny saying this all the time, ‘tussi kam kee karde ho, jado wekkha phone te computer vich vade rehnde ho’ (what work do you do, whenever I look at you, its either phone or computer you are glued to) I never took that seriously then, but today the whole life is transformed because of these habits. SOme for good, and a few absolutely wrong.
true and well said and well written! we have more pain because we have stopped taking pains in the others areas of life.
health is one of the biggest victims of convenience.
I agree to some points cent percent. Like the point of change from the playground to PlayStation I see today’s kids and remember our time. We were so active. Also the couch potato thing. Instead of being active outside we prefer watching Netflix and other stuff.
I agree with all your points, Harjeet. We are a painful generation because of our own lifestyle habits we have chosen to minimize our workload. But surely the older generation was healthy, wealthy and wise. We should think of adopting some healthy practices from the past to improve our way of living.
Nailed it! By and large, our generation is the sandwich generation that does not want to go through the pain that our parents went through and at the same time, do not want our children to go through what we are going through. Nothing wrong, but in doing so, we are harming ourselves more as the lifestyles and habits that we have acquired over time are pain-inviting.
That is true. Today generation does not value nature and avoid doing any hardwork more lazy we become with new technologies.
That’s so true.It’s high time that we bring change in our lifestyle before its too late. I agree with all the facts you mentioned.. Quite informative post .
Very true ! The lifestyle we lead is harming us.