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1 Power-Minute

Link to the Episode

Anshu Bahanda: Welcome to Wellness Curated. I’m your host, Anshu Bahanda, and the idea of this podcast, as you know, is to bring you trends, techniques, ideas, development, which will help help you lead a healthier and happier life.

And to that effect, today is the last episode of – ‘Let’s Get Physical’ and for this episode,  we have something really fun for all of you. We have experts across disciplines today. So we’re going to cover everything from skincare to dance to fitness to happiness. And we’re going to share a transformative exercise that you can do in just one minute. So as our lives are getting busier and busier, we don’t seem to prioritize ourselves. We almost feel like we’re selfish if we’re spending time on ourselves; we almost feel like we’re selfish. So we’re going to give you exercises which take only one minute to do. And this is a very exciting idea because it might teach you to spend time on yourself. And if you spend that one minute a day, dedicated to yourself, maybe by the end of the month you will see a transformation and that will encourage you to spend maybe a little bit more time on yourself.

So let’s get started. We have, right at the beginning, the beautiful Prriya Khandelwal, who is a certified face yoga expert. Thank you for joining us on this show, Prriya, and welcome to the show.

Prriya Khandelwal: Thank you for having me here. I am Super excited.

AB: Great. Now tell me, tell our viewers a little bit also about your work and how face yoga helps, what the benefits are, how long do you need to do it, and how often [should you do it] to reap the benefits. 

PK: All right, so as the name suggests, ‘face yoga’ is yoga for your facial muscles. What I’ve noticed in the last… I’ve been doing yoga— body yoga for the last 22 years, and what I’ve realized is no one gives any importance to the muscles of their face, which essentially extend from the front of your neck to the back of your head. Right?

AB: Right.

PK: Face yoga, in a nutshell, is not only exercising your face muscles, but it’s also about the relaxation of the facial muscles. I mean, we have extremely overworked and over-expressive muscles. [When] we smile, we don’t only smile with our face, we smile with our eyes. We use our foreheads, [even when] we frown. And we tend to develop those premature lines, the premature aging, as they call it. So that’s where the combination of yoga— the exercises and the massages— are in perfect synchrony with one another to help you age gracefully. We’re all aging, but we’re trying to slow it down and we’re trying to be our best beautiful. And one last thing that people really don’t understand about face yoga is how much importance these exercises and massages give to lymphatic drainage. So the lymphatic system is the one that stores all the toxins, but it needs a bit of a push, it needs a little bit of a motor. It needs a little bit of external help and that’s where face yoga comes in to naturally detoxify you and get that glowing, supple skin.

AB: Okay, very quickly, how often should people do it? What are the benefits?

PK: Every day. Ten minutes a day. Five minutes a day. 1 minute a day. [As for] Benefits: as long as you’re exercising, it benefits self-love, self-care, the way you look at yourself, collagen and elastin, boosting it up, skin glow, a more toned and sculpted face, and just looking at yourself differently in the mirror, honestly, when you invest those five minutes.

AB: Thank you, Prriya. Now tell me, is there a one minute routine that people can do to enjoy some of the benefits?

PK: Absolutely. We will be doing different parts, but only for 10 seconds each so that everyone can reap the maximum benefits of this. So you just have to tell me— go.

AB: Okay, go.

PK: Okay, so we always start with tapping. Do you want to do it with me? It’s a lot of fun. You just tap, tap, tap on your forehead, tap under your eyes, tap all over your cheeks. This is to wake up your facial muscles and to get that blood flow coming to the surface…

AB: So my team is watching. Please do that. Please tap. 

PK: And with the lymphatic drainage stimulation, which starts on the neck. So you tap all over your face. Now forehead: three fingers, centre of the scalp/ of the forehead. Gently pull aside,  open your eyes wide, keep breathing and just hold for 10 seconds. As simple as that. Exercise number two, make a peace sign with your index and middle fingers and place them on the inner and outer corner of your eye and gently just squeeze your eyes like the sun is coming in and you’re trying to protect your eyes from the sun. You do this about ten times and you will actually feel your entire eye muscle getting activated. Next, the cheeks. Something as simple as puffing up the air in your mouth and making a balloon. So you just puff up the air, hold it in there and keep breathing in and out of your nose for a count of ten. Three, two, one and relax. And the last one, super simple for the neck and jawline, is my personal favourite, which is called ‘kiss the sky’. So you hold your hands to your collarbone, you look up at the ceiling, and you simply kiss [the air] ten times. And you feel all your muscles getting engaged. And if I have 20 more seconds, you can do the same exercise diagonally up to the right. So you look at a point at the ceiling and the opposite side of your chin, your jaw, and your neck gets stimulated. So give me five kisses on one side. And now move your head diagonally up the other side and kiss away. And that, in one minute, is literally how we worked out our forehead, eyes, cheeks, mouth, lips,  and the neck and jawline.

AB: Thank you, Prriya. That was such an excellent little workout, and it was also great fun. So I guess people can do it anywhere. They can do it in the car, right? As long as they’re not driving.

PK: In the shower. As long as they’re not driving.

AB: Exactly. So I’m sure a lot of people will stick to it. And we’ll come back to you next year looking younger and fresher. Thank you. 

PK: You’re very welcome.

AB: Next we have Reshma Padda, a skincare specialist, and founder of Amisa Pure & Natural. Reshma, welcome to the show. Thank you for making the time to be here with us today. Please tell us a little bit about your work, how you got into this line, and tell us about your products. Are they all based on old wives’ tales or are they your own concoction?

Reshma Padda: So Amisa came at a tough time in my life. I was running in and out of hospitals with my in-laws, so I was filled with anxiety and fear. And I knew I had to do something where I could focus, and [it had to be] something that I believed in. So I had already been making my own skincare products and oils for myself, and I decided, why not study that further? So I did a few courses, and I realized that the time that I spent crafting those products and making them was the happiest point of time in my day. So I got together with my sister and mother and we set up Amisa. Basically, there were three points that I really wanted to [incorporate]. The ethos behind Amisa was, firstly, that the product should be effective. So every product that we made has been used by me, and by my family members, it has been tried and tested, and I know for a fact that they’re effective. I didn’t want to put anything out there that I didn’t believe in, myself. Secondly, I wanted everything to be natural so that it’s safe for all ages, whether it’s kids, whether it’s teenagers, or whether it’s elderly people or us. I wanted everything to be natural and safe and also good for the environment. And the third point was to reduce wastage. So we don’t make our products in bulk. We make them to order. So I only make as much as required so that I don’t have to, at any point, throw away any products or raw material, for that matter. And we’ve tried to keep all our bottles glass and reusable so that we [can] encourage our clients to return all the bottles so that we can sanitize and reuse them. So this was basically the ethos behind Amisa. And I started it because I realized that I felt so much better using natural products. And everybody says that it takes time, but I would notice it in one use, like one use of a hair mask, and you’ll feel like your hair feels alive. It feels like it has life. The dryness has reduced, and it feels softer. So it was this that led me to… this belief in natural products, not necessarily mine,  but any natural products, my belief in their effectiveness, is what led me to start Amisa.

AB: Right, very quickly. Are they all old wives’ remedies, or are they your own concoction?

RP: I mean, a lot of it is based on what we’ve seen our grandmothers, mothers, and aunts do. We have tried to amp it up to a certain level where each product in itself is as effective as it can be. So I remember my aunt, it was like her everyday ritual to put cream and gram flour and turmeric on her face. So with that in mind, I crafted the Ubtan,  but I have, in my own way, tried to improve on it. So I’ve added almond flour and oat flour, and then we add active ingredients like papaya, tomato, lemon,  orange peel, kasturi manjal turmeric powder instead of the regular turmeric powder. And for people with drier skin, we add more coconut milk. So what we have done is we’ve basically taken the old and added our own research and practice to it, to amp it up and to make it all the more effective for our clients and the users. So we basically go by each client’s [requirements]. I speak to each client and get their requirements. So if a client has a need for an anti-aging product, so, to the same Ubtan, I will add carrots seed powder, I will add glycerine, I will add a bit of oil in it, so that when she uses that Ubtan, it solves her particular problem.

AB: Now, the one minute routine for us today.

RP: A one minute routine would require a little prep. So I recommend everybody, instead of using a regular commercial cleanser, could maybe make a little bottle of natural goodies. So if you keep it ready in your kitchen, say you mix almond flour, gram flour, and oat flour with a bit of turmeric and coconut milk, if you have dry skin. You keep this jar ready. So every day, you just add yoghurt or cream or milk, whatever suits you. You add it to this mix, and you just scrub your face with it for maybe 30 seconds. You don’t have to leave it on, you just use it as a daily scrub and splash it off, and then spray your face with rose water. And after that, any oil, any oil that you have in your kitchen or any oil that you feel suits your skin, it could be olive oil, it could be avocado oil, It could be almond oil or jojoba oil, whichever you feels suits your skin, you can just take a bit and dab it on your skin, and you’re ready to go. And of course the sunscreen after that, but I think in that one minute, it’s an ample amount of skin care with your own products that you would have in your own home, and you don’t necessarily have to go and buy natural skin care. You can just craft it on your own, at home, and it’s extremely satisfying, and you feel nice.

AB: Thank you. Thank you so much, Reshma. That was very helpful.

We have someone very special from Thailand today. His name is Khun Jah, and he is an Energy Healer. He does emotion code and life coaching, and he’s going to tell us how to get rid of the aches and pains in our bodies. Welcome to the show, Khun Jah.

Khun Jah: Hello, Anshu. Thank you for having me in your ‘1 Power-Minute’ segment. And hello,  everyone. I’d like to share with you a simple protocol that may help reduce your physical pain. But before I do that, let me give you a little background on the benefits of this protocol. This protocol may help reduce your physical pain that are associated with emotion, right? What it means is that most of your pain, 80% to 90% of your pain actually has an emotional attachment to them, your old memories. So if you have the ability to release this emotion from the old memories, then your pain will be reduced, even chronic pain. And the protocol is very simple. You just think of the pain. Give it a number. How strong is the pain from zero to ten? Give it a number, with ten being the strongest. Alright? And then you tap on five points on your body, and you program yourself, all right? The five points are right between your eyebrows, your crown,  your [back of the] neck, the middle of your chest and your stomach area.  Each point, you have to say some programming into it. Let’s say for the pain, let’s say you have neck pain. Give it a number. And then you say this. You tap [between your eyebrows] lightly using two fingers or three fingers and say, ‘I let it go’, ‘I let the pain go’; [Tapping the crown]: ‘It’s safe to let it go’; [Tapping the neck]: It’s okay to let it go; [Tapping the middle of your chest]: ‘I want to let it go’. And finally, [tapping your stomach area]: ‘I already let it go’. All right? And then you take a deep breath, tell yourself: love, peace, and joy. All right? That’s roughly the protocol, okay? What this does is, it’s going to try to release the emotion attached to the old memory and fill this gap, this void, with peace, love, and joy. Okay? So you can do this protocol three times within one minute. And your pain— highly likely will be reduced, because you are the one who created this pain. So you have to be the one who released the pain, right? So we’re trying to bring back the power of healing, and self-healing to ourselves, by working ourselves with this simple protocol,  which you can do within a minute. All right? So to have fun, you have to try it out. Come. Let’s try it together, with me, three times so that we can track and see if our pain gets reduced. All right? So let’s get started. So anyone with pain anywhere in the body. Even chronic pain in the arms or in the neck, in the shoulder, whatever. Think of the pain that you are having right now, okay. Give it a number from zero to ten. How high is the pain? All right. Then we go, [tapping between the eyebrows]: ‘Let it go’; [Tapping the crown]: ‘It’s safe to let it go’; [Tapping the neck]: It’s okay to let it go; [Tapping the middle of your chest]: ‘I want to let it go’; [Tapping your stomach area]: ‘I already let it go’. Take a deep breath. Love, peace, joy. One more time. [Tapping between the eyebrows]: ‘Let it go’; [Tapping the crown]: ‘It’s safe to let it go’; [Tapping the neck]: It’s okay to let it go; [Tapping the middle of your chest]: ‘I want to let it go’; [Tapping your stomach area]: ‘I already let it go’. Take a deep breath— love, peace, joy. Now notice the pain again in your body. See if it’s been reduced. You might be surprised that the pain has come down just within a minute. We’ll be doing it in three rounds. Please try it out and have fun. So go give us feedback and tell us,  what you think, have you tried and does it work for you?

AB: So no one-minute instruction is complete without a transformational breathing coach who teaches you how to breathe, to solve all your life’s issues. We have with us Harika Pekinel who is a Transformational Breath(R) coach and she’s going to give us some really interesting techniques. Thank you for joining us and welcome to the show, Harika.

Harika Pekinel: Hi, everybody. I’m going to introduce you to Breath of Joy. So what we’re doing here is we are going to raise our hands as we breathe in and then bring them down as we breathe out. So when we take them up, our hands are open. When we bring them down, the hands are closed. What this one does for you is, obviously, it’s a complete physical exercise. We are going to jump up and down, so your shoulders, your arms, your whole torso, just keep your tummy tucked in and your whole legs are working as well. And it’s going to ground you. It’s going to give you energy and it’s going to bring joy into your life. Let’s go! [While hopping on each leg] Breath in— hands go up; breath out— hands come down.

AB: Our next guest has spent 25 years as a cognitive psychologist. He’s taught cognitive psychology at some of the best schools in the UK. He’s co-founder of the Movement in Practice and the Movement in Practice (MiP) Academy. Welcome to the show, Dr Peter Lovett. Peter, I’d love for you to tell us what we can do in one minute to transform ourselves.

Dr Peter Lovatt: If you’ve got one minute and you want to start moving, the best thing to do is to, first of all, put on some music that you really enjoy and then just feel the groove of that music. Once you feel the groove in it, now, what that means is feeling the beat and then making the beat bigger and bigger and bigger and then move different parts of your body. So think about moving your head and your shoulders and your chest and your hands, and move down your body and give yourself a movement massage. So your whole body feels that groove. And maybe even pick up different bits of the rhythm and the beat with different parts of your body. So really, listen to the music, pick up those different beats and feel the groove across your body and I promise you, it’ll make you feel fantastic.

AB: Thank you for listening to our show. I hope we helped you through our ‘1 Power-Minute’ into leading a healthier, happier life and helping you get closer to your dream life. I hope you learned something new. And if you enjoyed this show, please do like it,  share it with your friends and family and press the subscribe button below. Thank you.