Staying fit is a dream many of us deeply harbor. So what keeps us from realizing it? Sincerity, concentration and a dedicated journey to achieve the goal of staying fit! Basically, being a fitness freak is a gift and endowed with such a delightful gift is renowned dancer Sanchita Bhattacharya.
Let’s hear her journey as a dancer and about her indomitable zeal to stay fit –
“I have been dancing since my childhood, and it is now almost fifty years that I am into it. 10 years ago, I was fortunate to be bestowed with the degree “Guru”, and since then people address me as Guru Sanchita Bhattacharya. I believe that people who dance, it is worship for them and hence they need to maintain a disciplined life, stay fit and healthy. I start my day with yoga, followed by a workout and then meditation. Yoga is an art that has developed in India, and eventually the entire world has benefited from it, adapted it to their individual styles. Yoga not only helps us to stay fit physically but also positions us in a mentally peaceful state,” shares Sanchita.
An indispensable part of staying fit is to eat healthy, by means of a balanced diet complete with enough fruits and green vegetables. Added to this is drinking copious amounts of fluid in form of water, health drinks, juices etc.
“I include a lot of fruits in my dietary chart, it is my favourite food and I think cooking with a lot of oil and spices does not make a dish tastier, oil needs to be in healthy and proportionate doses,” mentions Sanchita.
Speaking about being fit is just an expression among youngsters, and a rare trait among middle-aged people and senior citizens, Sanchita told The Optimist, “Every human being has three ages, one is manufacturing age, second is the hardware age i.e. our physical age, and the third one is the software age or our mental age. If we believe that mentally we should stay young, we need to keep our physical body healthy and flexible, in order to keep our mental age in control, therefore I believe staying fit is a universal desire, from eight to eighty.”
But how to cope with the ever-changing lifestyles of youngsters, that force them to have fast-food on a daily basis? It is the challenge of the time that continuously dictates and restricts them to find time for proper health monitoring.
Responding to this the danseuse says, “I strongly believe that our body gets adapted to the type of work we do. So, if a person is working in changing shifts, he/she must try to manage a health monitoring schedule accordingly. One needs to have the motivation to stay healthy. Keeping this motivation will gradually help to stay fit and fine, as Sri Ravi Shankar Ji has rightly said, ‘Your body is your Best Friend.’ Once, our body turns frail, we shall be a burden to others, and will live a life of ignominy.
The unprecedented pandemic period has increased work pressure for many; sitting in front of laptops and other gadgets for hours has adversely affected the physical health of both youngsters and middle-aged people.
According to Sanchita, this unprecedented time brought by COVID19 is absolutely a pro-health period rather than anti-health. When people used to go outside to their offices it was difficult to control their food habits, but with staying at home, we can now control our diets and opt for healthy eating. In this way, we devote time towards health monitoring and stay fit,” she suggests.
With growing age, people lose hopes and targets of staying fit, mounting workloads and stress restrict them from finding time for workout or yoga, leading to health issues. When asked about her mantra to stay motivated during these trying times Sanchita says, “My Mantra to stay dedicated to my fitness goal even at this age is, ‘the mirror should say, you look beautiful, the rest of the world is biased but the mirror gives an unbiased opinion’.Fitness gives you confidence, an inner glow and determination to work even under pressure at hard times,” enthuses Sanchita.
Sanchita Bhattacharya’s motivational story of staying fit inspires us to adopt a health monitoring regime, so that we too can look and stay fit and healthy. Life is a journey to enjoy to the lees, and not to stand as a distant onlooker, crippled with infirmity of the body and mind.
