Sitting and eating on floor

In India and several Asian countries people sit down to eat. Every meal including breakfast, family eat together while sitting on floor on a mat or wooden small piece.

With change in lifestyle many households especially in towns and cities people have embraced dining table and chair to eat.

It is comfortable for many especially when they have knee and leg problem where they cannot sit on the floor to eat.

But practice of eating while sitting on the floor in cross legged position (Padmasana), it given tremendous benefits as we age.

To get this benefits few days in a week try to sit on the clean floor to eat.

What are the lifelong benefits that we can get from sitting and eating on the floor- listen what grandma has to say.

• Sitting in Padmasana or sukhasana pose which is similar to Yoga pose, helps to improve digestion. Reason is while sitting in this pose, we bend and reach the food. After taking food in hand we go back slightly to swallow the food. This will help to move the digestive muscles and makes it easy on the system as it becomes active.
• Mindful eating: While eating food we feel more related to earth and food. It helps us to focus on the food and mind feels calm to receive the proper nutrition. Every bit of food that we take, we will feel it as we don’t rush to finish our food or gulp our food.
• Flexibility: Practicing sitting on the floor for half an hour, three times a day increases the flexibility of the body. We will be able to gain the balance immediately in case we sit for longer hours at work or flight or places where we must bend and work. Thigh muscles will get stretched with this posture and blood circulation below knee becomes normal. This will reduce the pain that many of us get after certain age. In addition this posture lubricates knee and hip joints.
• Weight loss: When we sit on table to eat if you notice, our mind is always wants to hurry up finish eating. Our focus on food reduces and we focus on TV, talking and discussion. In other words, we don’t realize how much we ate. While sitting on the floor our brain calms down with a feeling of fulfillment, focuses on the food and stomach feels full faster. As science says, the signal coordination between brain and stomach will happen properly and brain focuses on food. It prevents us from overeating and portion control.
• Family bonding: The fun and joy of eating while sitting on the floor as a family, helps us keep good relationship with family. It becomes a family activity and as a family we bond well, we understand each other’s needs, we talk only essential matters and focus on over all well being of family.

While we sit on floor and eat, it helps us release the stress and removes negative energy out of our body. This in turn increases our life span. The benefit is lifelong. Health is all about how we treat our body and what we feed for its growth. If we take care of our body and treat it well it takes care of us – it is as simple as that.

Grandma online: Listen to grandma www.healthylife.werindia.com