Lakshmi KRISHNANKUTTY responds to ThinkWellness360 questionnaire:
Your view on beauty?
For me, beauty is being yourself and comfortable in your own skin, as also the ‘skin’ of your own thought. It’s rightly said, that, “Self-confidence is the best make up you can wear.” If you love yourself, it reflects on your face, body language, and everything makes you look the best version of you. Every individual is different and beautiful in their own way — no matter the colour of their skin, or physicality. As Ryuichi Sakamoto, the Japanese composer, pianist, singer, record producer and actor, whose penchant for a plethora of styles, as a solo and accompanying artist, said, “I’m just delighted to be living, to be able to have a simple conversation, to feel a ray of sunlight on my skin and listen to the breeze move through the leaves of a tree.” Or, as Cameron Diaz, the American actress and model articulated, “It’s [beauty] a kind of radiance. People who possess a true inner beauty, their eyes are a little brighter, their skin a little more ‘dewy.’ They vibrate at a different frequency.”
Your ‘take’ on fitness?
I think being fit means being active and not letting your body stop you from doing activities that you like. Being fit, for me, does not mean spending long hours at the gym to look a certain way, but just going for a morning walk, breathing fresh air, listening to the chirping of birds, the smell of grass, meeting people, conversing with them, or participating in a fun activity. This helps me to keeping my mind and body healthy and vibrantly active.
Your view of health and wellness?
Having a healthy lifestyle is as important as physical and mental wellness. People usually focus just too much on maintaining their body; they tend to ignore their mental, or emotional, health. Mental health, I feel, is more important than anything else. It’s all in the mind, right? If you are going through a low phase in life, it affects your mind and body. Ignoring your mental health is the biggest harm you can do to yourself. From my personal experience, I have realised that it is only when you feel happy, can you live a healthy, cheerful life. Problems are part and parcel of life. It all depends on our attitude towards fiddly, or complex, situations. Also, our physical and mental health depends only on us, not someone else.
Your ‘take’ on work-life balance?
My mom always tells us to ‘leave’ two things before entering the house — your shoes and your tensions at the workplace. I try to implement it in my life, but it isn’t as easy as it sounds. What I try to do is balance them, while not bringing work home, or even if I do, I try hard not to spoil ‘family time’ that we have every night. A little change in routine, at times, always helps. For example, taking out time and having conversations about your day with your family, making sure you have at least one meal together, going out once a week, etc. These are the simple pleasures of life — they can have a profound, abundant effect in life.
Your mantra to beat stress?
I think having your own ‘me-time’ is essential in everybody’s life. Make an appointment with yourself every day and make sure you don’t cancel it at the ‘drop’ of a trivial, insignificant ‘thought.’ You ought to utilise this time to do something you love — like singing, dancing, reading, meditation, or going for a drive etc. I love singing my most favourite songs, or dancing to the tunes I love to beating stress, as it were.
