Happy Just to be Alive

I wrote this at the beginning of the article titled Paradise Is… and I will copy it verbatim here:

Nearly 150,000 people die every day. Assuming that 50 people considered each one of these as a loved one, 7.5 million people in the world (~ 0.1% of the world population) lose a loved one every day. So Sadhguru says, “If you wake up in the morning and all your loved ones do too, that in itself is enough to be happy, content, and peaceful.”

I couldn’t agree more. But you might not. You could say, “If so many people die every day and so many lose a loved one every day, it is awesome if I wake up in the morning and all my loved ones do too. I might feel happy, content, and peaceful about that for a few days, or maybe even a few weeks. But is it enough to feel happy day in day out? Doesn’t that feeling wear off after a while? And then don’t you need something else to be happy?”

Well, in the current state that I am in, I don’t. But there is something else that I get every day which definitely helps me to stay happy, content, and peaceful. Let me tell you what it is. It’s a long-winded answer. So please bear with me. ??

The first thing that I do after getting up in the morning is drink 1.25 to 1.5 litres of lukewarm water. A distant relative of mine told me this about 10 years back. He said, “If you do this every morning, you will attain perfect health and then stay in perfect health.”

Normally, I am extremely weary of such hyperbolic advice but I thought to myself, All he is asking me to do is drink water. What harm can it do? And if it does, I can always stop doing it. So I decided to try it the very next morning.

The first half a litre was easy to drink. The next half a litre was slightly difficult as I started feeling full. The last half a litre was tough and it took me much longer too. But I was able to drink 1.5 litres. As I finished doing that, the “pressure” that I felt in my bowels was unimaginable and it led to an epic dump! Followed by a feeling of pleasure, which could legitimately be characterized as even bliss. I know this is almost a taboo topic but it is what it is! ??

Then towards the end of my teeth brushing, I felt the urge to vomit. I didn’t resist and vomited to my heart’s content. When I was done, it was again followed by a feeling of pleasure.

After that, I felt so incredibly hungry that I couldn’t wait for even the few minutes that it took my wife to serve me breakfast! And it was probably the most enjoyable breakfast that I have ever had!

In the 10 years that have passed since that day, I don’t think I have missed this morning schedule of mine even 10 times. Come rain or shine, I follow this schedule and only then leave the house. It takes me 1.5 hours to follow this schedule, take a bath, and get ready to start my day. So whatever time I have to leave the house, I get up 1.5 hours before that. It’s as simple as that. But I never give my morning schedule a miss. Ever!

Why? Because it starts off my day on such a positive note and so there’s no chance in hell I will miss it for anything! I didn’t know what a “dopamine hit” was back then, but I do know today. I also know that my morning schedule – epic dump, vomiting after brushing, and breakfast – gives me 3 huge dopamine hits that last me almost the entire day on most days. That is why I don’t (and won’t) give it up for the world!

But dopamine hits aside, my morning schedule indeed helps me stay in perfect health. When you have a good bowel movement every morning, it helps maintain gut health, which is imperative to overall health and well-being.

• Our food is digested in the gut and broken down into simpler forms that are absorbed in the blood and delivered as nutrients throughout the body. So, proper digestion and absorption is the key to good health.
• A healthy gut helps maintain the delicate balance in the immune system by eliminating invading pathogens while preventing the immune system from going into overdrive.
• In recent years, gut health has been linked to numerous aspects of health that have seemingly nothing to do with digestion like anxiety, depression, emotional stress, and chronic illnesses including Type II diabetes and cancer. Till recently, it was thought that the mind affects the gut. But now it is amply clear that the gut affects the mind as well. And in fact, our body’s second brain (the enteric nervous system ) is in the gut!

The main advantage of vomiting after brushing is that it keeps a check on hyperacidity, which is a menace that afflicts just about everybody these days. On most days, what I throw up is water like. But on some days, especially when the previous day has been a stressful one, I throw up a yellowish liquid which is very acidic. In Ayurveda, I believe it is called pitta. Getting rid of this pitta is what keeps my acidity in check I think. If not done, it leads to hyperacidity and its most vexatious symptom: heartburn.

Lastly, having a good and healthy breakfast gives me the energy to start my day on a high note and have a productive day. There’s an old saying which says, “Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.” The three actions are not independent though. Having a breakfast like a King is what enables you to have lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper. But many people do the exact opposite. They have a light breakfast, or skip it entirely, mostly due to lack of time. They have a light lunch as well because otherwise it makes them sleepy in the afternoon which affects the quality of their work. So, by evening they are famished and are therefore forced to have snacks (which are more often than not unhealthy) followed by a big dinner. That affects the digestion – it doesn’t get done by morning – which in turn affects the bowel movements in the morning. This sets in motion a vicious cycle and leads to all kinds of chronic illnesses.

My distant relative was right after all. If you start your day by drinking 1.25 to 1.5 litres of lukewarm water, it really does help you to attain perfect health and then stay in perfect health.

Coming back to the original question: what else do I need to be happy, content, and peaceful? On most days, the 3 dopamine hits that my morning schedule gives me is all I need to get me through the day. But more than that, it is the good health that comes from following my schedule every day that I need to be happy, content, and peaceful. Why? Because it allows me to give my best every single day, which gives me a deep sense of satisfaction. After all, that is all that we can do, isn’t it? Give our very best to whatever we do. Then whatever happens, happens…

In short, I don’t need much to be happy, content, and peaceful. I was never a materialistic person and so my needs were never out of control. But whatever needs I had, I now know that they were simply accessories to life which I can be happy, content, and peaceful without.

But just because I am happy, content, and peaceful with almost nothing doesn’t mean that I don’t feel like doing anything. On the contrary, I feel like doing a lot of things and I do them too. However, earlier I used to do the things that I wanted to do in order to become happy. Now I already am happy, and so in some sense I don’t need anything. So, I do the things that need to be done, which leads to very different choices.

And while doing what I choose to do, if I get “too caught up” in it, my homing signal is that it is awesome if you and your loved ones are just alive and healthy. That’s enough to be happy, content, and peaceful.

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This article is part of a series of articles on self-improvement for working professionals .