I learnt my first asanas from my mother and then from the great Himalayan yogis, Swami Yogeshwaranand, who was brahmachari Vyas Dev at that time, and from Swami Shivananda, of Divine Life society, at his ashram. Because of my special situation I was close to him.
I am a post graduate in political science. Having studied subjects like political theory, international law, public administration, political history and constitutions of various countries. I have graduated in English literature and psychology.
I have been a secretary of the Lioness club for a number of years, and was founder / managing trustee of an NGO named Anchorage’ where we imparted computer knowledge to rural women. My daughter is running it now.
I kept on growing, learning as I moved on in life. My children were my major concern. Teaching them various skills and bringing them up to be valuable members of society was my prime aim. At one time we were four celebrities living under one roof. As we brought up our family we dealt with health problems at home, with home remedies, simple herbs or cell salts.
I was chosen Mrs. Bangalore 2nd runner up in 1988 at age 38 where I competed against 24 and 25 year olds.
I have dedicated this book to my mother, Smt Shanta Shastri. She brought us up on alternate therapies like ayurveda, naturopathy, homeopathy, home remedies etc. It was easier for me to adopt and integrate all those things in my life because of my upbringing.
My husband has been very supportive. He encouraged me to learn anything that I wanted to learn and he supported me in all my pursuits.
I thank Prema Shastri and Dr. D.N. Bhadkoti who guided me and encouraged me whenever I needed help. My thanks also to Mr. Chandra Mouli of Judge Press and Rima Kashyap who have taken a personal interest in the book and helped with every aspect of bringing it into print. I must thank Mr. Alexander Joseph for initial editing of this book. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has knowingly or unknowingly contributed to this book. I thank my own children as well because during the writing of the book they were there for me.
In this book, I have included accounts of my own successful experiences as well as those of other people I know. The names have been changed for the sake of privacy. Some of the information given here has been gleaned from the Internet and some from certain books.
As this compilation was meant for use by my own family and friends, I have not kept records of the sources I have used to corroborate my experiences. About the internet sources I thank all those who may find any similarity in this book to what they have written. This could happen because I may have used their opinions to bolster my own beliefs. This book has been written in easy language so as to keep the interest of the reader alive. It is not a literary piece; technical language makes writing heavy.
As I put this book together I thought of it as a way of life. 1 have tried to organize it so that one could read it as a whole or pick up threads as it suits them.
Through this book, at places, I am talking directly to my readers narrating some incidents in my life or the lives of others. All this is to provide evidence that simple things do work.
I am an ordinary housewife with no degree in any therapy, I am not a doctor. My mother had brought me up on alternate therapies. When we had fever we were given a tub bath or a steam bath. When I was young I saw a case of eczema being cured by tying wet red mud on the oozing area. Cell salts were very popular with the young ones for these were sweet and they gave instant relief. My mother was a walking, talking encyclopedia of these and other herbal remedies. Someone asked her to write a book, which did not happen, but somewhere along the way, I had learnt from her, and was able to write down my experiences, but her understanding and knowledge was much deeper.
Most of what is written here is based on my own experiences, how I understand the imbalances in the body and correct them. I was brought up on these therapies and I used the same to good effect. I found to my amazement that many times small things bring about healthy changes. Most of the time we are ignorant about this, at other times we feel that a doctor could do better than using salt or turmeric. Sadly we are too lazy to pull out two / three things from the kitchen cabinet mix them and have them. Out-sourcing our health to a doctor seems to be much easier.
What is given here as ‘how to lead our life’ may be difficult for everyone to follow strictly, but it is important to know what is right from what is wrong? Once you know that, you will try to fit in as much as possible into your life.
Even if some of these do not fit, others are much easier to follow. It will however provide you with the knowledge of what should be done as against what should be avoided, and a choice of what could be done alternately.
You may feel that there is nothing new that I am saying as you may already know much of it but to believe that small thing can help to that extent is what is required. You might be amazed to know of the powerful efficacy of humble everyday things.
By reading it all here you may be remotivated to use remedies that you yourself know, and a faith that these will work, and work better than conventional (modem) medicines, which may give immediate and short term relief but leave us laden with serious side effects and loads of toxins. When my husband had a stroke my friends had so much faith in me that one of them commented, “Once she (I) takes him home she will make him all right”
And he did recover - well enough to be able to do everything on his own even driving his car within four months of the stroke.
Reflexology was another therapy that made me avert two operations on my daughters. One was for polycystic ovaries and the other for appendicitis. All this and more is described in this book.
Through this book I am trying to provide confidence. I have dealt with severe problems using different alternate remedies and benefited each time I used them.
Every household has numerous books on home remedies, but people rarely consult them in times of illness. Our first thought is to rush to the doctor for advice. This trend eventually becomes a habit which is hard to break. I rush to my books as soon as something happens to find out what will cure, within my means.
How nice it would be if we did not have to deal with the side effects of the medicines that we take? Yes, we all want that and in order to do that we have to take our health in our hands.
I suggest that readers make notes in a diary, create their own documents for their specific needs and give them specific titles (because after a few days one may forget what the prescription was and what it was for). They should link each specific remedy to the ailment that it will cure. This will make the remedies noted, easier to access and apply. Starting from the first chapter the remedies are interspersed with stories of actual experiences in the entire text, so you may underline where ever you find one that is specific to your own need or better still write it in your own diary/document for easier reference. Do not let anything go unnoticed as something mentioned in one place might be of interest to you and may not appear under the specific heading. (The ailments are given alphabetically in Chapter 7 of Part 2 and have been indexed in the end).
Very often the newspapers carry articles on ‘food therapy’ — about how a particular food is helpful. Make notes of that or keep those cuttings for future reference. By means of this book I am trying to bring home the fact that simple ordinary things work — and they work better.
The human body is capable of taking lots of abuse, and it responds quickly when remedial measures are taken. It is not so difficult to bring balance and harmony back into an ailing body. We all have a basic knowledge but we need someone to bolster that belief. I hope this book will do just that.
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