What is Soma?
By JP
Soma simplistically put refers to our physical body. Now we know what it is, how can we look after our soma?
There are many different ways we can look after our physical bodies. I think the main ways that come to mind are nutrition and exercise. These are the most basic and simplest things to know and the hardest to do or maintain. We all know we should eat healthy and exercise, which will go a long way to look after our bodies. However, our busy lifestyles, lack of prioritizing, changing weather, getting sick, injuries and the money involved all contribute to the barriers of realistically maintaining a healthy life style regarding our physical bodies.
Nowadays, with the internet and AI, there is so much information about how we can eat healthy and what that means for different people in their stage of life. The same can be said for exercise too! There’s so much information and how do you know what will work for you and how can you maintain it?
To make things easier, I asked our trusted Chatgpt for the most minimalist routine for maximum benefit and below is the summary it spat out. It won’t be anything new for most people, however I would like to highlight some possible methods.
Movement
I am not sure about your situation but a 30 minute daily walk can seem a bit long. I don’t know many people who have 30minutes to spare in one slot to for a walk. So one idea instead of doing this walk in one shot, another idea would be to break it up. Some options are 15 minutes in the morning and 15minutes in the afternoon or after dinner, or 10minutes after breakfast, lunch and dinner or even doing 20minutes in the morning and 10 minutes at night, some might prefer to do it outside or if weather is a problem, walk at the gym or on a treadmill. In that way, you could watch your favourite TV show whilst walking and that way kill 2 birds with one stone. Another idea people have is to do walking meetings if that is a viable option for you.
Strength
Regarding this, the research does that for people over 35 years old, who do strength training, regardless if it is body weight or heavier weights, some of the benefits include helping to preserve muscle, boosting metabolism, helping with daily life functioning, burns fat and decreases chances of injury. As I turned 36 this year, I’m actually looking more into this so that when I get older, my body will be stronger and hopefully able to stay independent longer.
Food
This is the hardest one I think by far. The recommended plate of food includes: ½ vegetables, ¼ protein (ie chicken/tofu/eggs) and ¼ whole grains or starch (brown rice, oats, sweet potato). There are just so many barriers and temptations to keep eating healthy. There’s the mental aspect and your relationship with food. When it is an unhealthy relationship hinders many people from maintaining a healthy diet. I think the most important step is to have a positive relationship with food and acknowledging when ‘you are not eating healthily’ to be able to reframe it in a positive way and to get back to eating the healthy foods as soon as you can. It’s also important to remember to encourage yourself in eating health foods. You will have a better chance at maintaining a healthy diet.
Drink/Hydrate
This is the easiest one for me at least. Make sure you fill up a drink bottle of water. Keep hydrated throughout the day with water. You can enjoy your sugary drinks and alcohol every now and then, although personally I find it easier to drink water in Asian countries because the temptation of cheap drinks in the west makes it easier to enjoy drinking sugary drinks. I recognize for some people this might be difficult for people to reduce their intake of their favourite drink that might be sugary or an alcohol drink. Again, like with food, the relationship with your favourite drink is important in moderation.
Sleep
The recommended amount hours of sleep for an adult is between 7-9 hours a night which I would say for the average person is difficult for many various reasons. Some might be young kids, others might have to work overtime, most people would stay up scrolling social media or watching Netflix/TV or some might have health issues causing them to find it difficult to sleep for that long. It’s important if this is a problem for you to make sure you take the time to address this. Sleep is a superpower in terms of health for our bodies. With a rested body we are more patient, kinder and more optimistic in addition to be more energetic.
Others
Sunlight is an important way for us to look after our bodies. I think Covid really taught me that. Sunlight helps our bodies, our minds and also helps us to sleep better at night! Other ways to help our bodies include to stretch if you can and stand more. I know of a few people investing in a standing table and they boast about how much it has helped them. Other things to consider is for those who are injured or sick to really take the time to recover and your body will thank you for it. Your physical body is important as we only get one in this life. Let’s look after it so we can love God, love others and love ourselves. Let’s honor God with our bodies (1 Corinthians 6:20).
Which one of these is the hardest/easiest for you to maintain a healthy body?
What’s one thing you can do today to look after your soma?
How we honour God with our soma? What is soma?
Looking after our bodies which are the temple of the Holy Spirit What are some ways we can do this?