Bharti KOTWAL responds to ThinkWellness360 questionnaire.
Your view on beauty?
I personally believe that beauty comes from within — it has got nothing to do with fair skin, beautiful hair, or applying the best there is in beauty and body care. Positive thoughts, respecting others’ emotions, or feelings, being down to earth, and having everything that gives you the big reason to be a good and nice human being are what that makes us all beautiful.
Your ‘take’ on fitness?
I’d like to define fitness as the ability to perform one’s daily tasks without fatigue. A person who is physically fit, but suffers from anxiety, or depression, may gradually start feeling tired. This leads to stress, which affects the body in a thousand negative ways, while triggering lifestyle, or systemic, diseases, viz., hypertension [high blood pressure], diabetes and also cancer. The important aspect is: our mental fitness is way more important than physical fitness. To keep physically fit, you’d do yoga, or go to the gym. For mental fitness, you can opt for and practice pranayama, or dhyana [meditation] — a part of ashtanga yoga. Besides, one should always connect with the divine — this gives us a kind of positive energy from deep within. It also propels us to do what we love — with sustained passion and commitment.
Your view of health and wellness?
A person may have no disease, but they may not be healthy at all. Health depends not only on external, or environment factors, but also on the lifestyle choices of the person. Wellness is multidimensional; it is also holistic. It encompasses of lifestyle choices, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being, as also the environment. Thanks to our busy schedules, nay frenzied living, we can’t eliminate stress, from the inside out, but we can certainly incorporate intelligent lifestyle choices to prevent stress from wearing us down.
Your ‘take’ on work-life balance?
Work-life balance is the need of the hour. We are witness to people facing imbalance in work-related issues, including marriage and family problems. This leads to a stressful life and low productivity. One should aim to enjoy work as well as life; this is what that makes us happy. Long, irregular working hours can make you feel distanced from your family, wife, children and vice versa. This results in conflict. It disturbs one’s peace of mind; the resultant effect is anybody’s guess. It is best that one brings about a sense of balance, while learning the art of juggling work and life — smartly.
Your mantra to beat stress?
Nothing comes without stress, be it work, or anything else. Everyone is different, so is everyone’s way of dealing with stress. Some like to explore places, listen to music, or spend quality time with loved ones to beat stress. Some like to dance; or, get engulfed in stress. The list goes on. Just think of it: what we can’t control, we should always ignore. What is the fun in getting stressed over things that aren’t in our control? There is also no point in overdoing things, while looking at the future. This is impractical. Just focus on the present, and live in the moment with a positive frame of mind. Remember that life is precious. So, one should never waste time worrying about stupid, fancy things. My simple mantra is — let things happen when they have to, because there is always a good reason for things to happen at the right time. The best thing to do is just keep smiling, while taking the ‘ups and downs’ in life and career with equanimity.
We loved your interview. You’ve spoken from your heart; it is all so true❤️