I have been running for one entire decade. Burning myself out. As a film producer, my life has been far from healthy. The last few years, I was running on fumes – and that’s when I started to start healing.

I took up things like pottery, did yoga, spent time with plants – in a nut shell, I slowed down.

Then we went through Covid. The trauma of that along with un-addressed issues led me to meditate, regulate, heal my body and my mind.

I needed to heal.

I gravitated towards some things to heal myself after repeated instances of trauma and struggle.

Things like regular yoga, meditation, ayurveda, physiotherapy, psychotherapy – and gradually my life started to look very different.

This made me wonder – shouldn’t we have these things in our daily lives already?

These are things that heal and nourish us. Commonly referred to as – ‘self love’ or ‘self-care’. These are things people engage in when they have experienced a lot of turmoil and stress.

A friend just suffered a disc prolapse. And she admits that she needs to focus on her body. She had ignored it over the last two years – and all the work and travel took a toll on her body. And now she is doing physiotherapy regularly – and will need to work out to strengthen her body. Another case of bringing healing and self-care into our lives after an injury or a trauma.

In a different part of the world, every time my partner practices for a marathon, his knee starts to hurt. He had a knee surgery nearly over 20 years ago and he only does serious physiotherapy after he is in pain.

For years, physiotherapy – was just that – ‘therapy’. Something we reach out to – when we are in pain or post trauma.

I propose a different way of life :

Where therapy, healing, self-care, nourishment – all of these become hygiene.

Yes, it requires a certain privilege to even think like this.

More than that, however, it requires a re-hash of the capitalist mind-set.

A move from the norm of exploiting our bodies and minds for work and money.

Where only once we burn out, do we consider taking a break.

What if we broke the system, instead of breaking our backs?

What if we made self-care and therapy a part of our day to day and routine?

From basic lifestyle changes – of eating, sleeping and exercising right –

To taking steps to nourish ourselves – massages & physiotherapy; counseling for our mental health etc. We can also learn more about ourselves – our mind and body, meditate and be more connected to ourselves and to the universe. Be more social. Be more spiritual. For our body, our mind and our soul. What if physiotherapy became routine for marathoners and yogis. Because the pace of life today requires therapy, self-care and routines that focus on self-love.

What if we made these a part of our daily life. Made this hygiene – and not something we only do when we can’t function any longer?

Why wait for a time when we pathologically need these things.

It doesn’t take as much time as we imagine it does.

What it takes is to build a connection with ourselves again.

To see that we do love and care for ourselves.

And once we do that, it becomes easy to incorporate these changes in our lives.

Here’s something that helped me.

Ayurveda recommends a dincharya – a daily routine that we can incorporate into our lives.

When I learnt about it, I thought – I would need half a day to do these things, but I was wrong.

It took only an additional 15 minutes, and you can always tweak them based on your day and your body.

Some of the things you can incorporate before you step out of the bathroom are –

Abhayanga – self massage.

Lymphatic drainage massage.

Bathing with natural materials.

Oil pulling.

Neti – nasal flushing.

Gargles.

Yoga.

Meditation.

The real shift was not doing these activities.

The real shift was the conversation I started to have with myself.

Where I started to listen to my body and mind.

If I needed to – I woke up 15 mins earlier in the day.

And if I couldn’t, I did a few of these things and left some of the things for the next day.

Some things – I did only over the weekends – because they would take longer and I wanted to give myself the luxury of taking those extra 10 minutes – like a hair oil massage.

My focus shifted from being a worker, to being a listener and a carer.

I started to care for my body and mind. I prioritized myself.

I found some activities that would anchor me –

And I made sure I got these things into my daily life.

Just the way our work is non-negotiable, these things became non-negotiable in my life.

Like eating healthy.

Gargles.

Meditation.

Yoga.

These things have now moved from being healing activities to being hygiene for me.

And I see the results. I am calmer. Healthier. I heal from viruses and injuries faster. And I have started to be gentler with myself.

So the question arises – can we convert healing into hygiene.

Can we take the time to love and care for ourselves today, without any pain and trauma?

Can therapy become routine care?

Can we see that we do operate out of self-love on a regular basis? And act accordingly too?

And can we really listen to our-selves – everyday?