How to use the journal : Deep

Deep - A Virtual Retreat with Durgesh Nandhini

Deep is a Journal to bring in awareness, initiate change and create growth.

Core Focuses of the Journal:

Importance of a Plan:
A plan is the vision for your future self. The future self is already there. The focus and targeted action helps you rejoice in your future self. The targeted action makes us feel worthy of enjoying the fruits the action has brought. 

Power of Awareness:

The simple act of noticing what you do is the first step towards growth. Each day, with the help of the journal, you become more aware of your actions and the feelings behind them. This awareness gently nudges you forward to work on your desired plans.

Significance of Keen Hunger:
True hunger is the best indicator that your last meal has been fully digested. Hunger triggers the release of adrenaline and cortisol, which enhance focus. Eating only when hungry, and with full attention on your food, leads to greater absorption and satisfaction.

Do you choose to eat when you experience keen hunger?
Or do you choose to eat when you experience these emotions?

Bored: Eating when nothing else excites you.

Craving: The trigger to eat a specific food when you feel deprived.

Scheduled: Eating in alignment with your planned schedule.

Social: A belief that eating helps build connections and foster relationships.

Stressed: Using food as a coping mechanism.

Food-Feeling Connection:
The gut microbiome plays a crucial role in mental health. A healthy gut can produce neurotransmitters like serotonin (often referred to as the 'happy hormone'), significantly impacting mood and emotional well-being. Diets rich in fiber, fermented foods, and prebiotics promote a healthy microbiome, while diets high in processed foods can lead to inflammation, which has been linked to mood disorders such as depression and anxiety. Being aware of how you feel before and after eating is an excellent way to understand the connection between food and feeling.

Some of the common feelings associated with food and eating : Excited

Peaceful, Grateful, Discomfort, Guilty, Anxious, Tired, Frustrated, Alone, Miserable, Fearful, Confused, Insecure

Poop Study:
A healthy bowel movement helps remove waste and toxins from the body and is a crucial indicator of both digestive health and overall well-being. By paying attention to your elimination patterns, you can monitor an important aspect of your health.

The image below shows the Bristol stool chart for reference 

Science and Significance of Sleep:
Sleep is not a dormant activity; it is a period during which the brain engages in various functions essential to improving quality of life. Sleep is most refreshing and restorative when circadian rhythms, the natural cycle of daylight and darkness, and sleep patterns are aligned. Sleeping on an empty stomach further enhances the body’s ability to heal and rejuvenate, as vital energy is directed toward healing rather than digestion. This sleep report encourages you to track whether you follow the circadian rhythm, your sleep satisfaction, and any reasons for not prioritising restful sleep.

Necessity of Hydration:
The body needs to be hydrated to function at its best. Being adequately hydrated is crucial to regulate body temperature, keep joints lubricated, prevent infections, deliver nutrients to cells, and keep organs functioning properly. Dehydration is the root cause for various illnesses. Here, you track the amount of water intake to motivate yourself to hydrate more.

Mindfulness Rating:
Mindful eating helps slow down, increases awareness of food, allows one to be more aware and responsive to hunger and fullness cues, and brings in more feelings of satisfaction. Mindful eating helps in rebuilding our relationship with food. Here, rating your mindfulness of every meal gently nudges you to eat more mindfully which in turn brings in improved satisfaction and self-trust in life.

Importance of clean and organised kitchen:
The kitchen is a sacred space, the way it's clutter-free, clean and organised, invites us to be present and enjoy meal preparations. Every meal is an opportunity to give. An organised kitchen creates a sense of calm and control, which helps one to implement powerful eating habits. Here, you will bring in awareness of your processes in the kitchen, which instantly affects your mood and health.

Goal of a Prepared Environment in the kitchen :
A well-designed environment can make it easier to make healthy choices. In the kitchen healthy options should be readily available and easily accessible, while unhealthy options and distractions should be removed or minimised. This well thought, prepared environment makes healthy choices easy, obvious, attractive and repetitive. Here, you are marking the readiness of your environment to support your goals.

Magic of Affirmation:
Thoughts and beliefs significantly shape experiences and outcomes, don't they? Affirmations are positive statements curated by an individual that reflect one’s desires and intentions in life. By consciously incorporating affirmations into daily lives, one can harness the power of thoughts to create positive change and cultivate a growth mindset.These affirmations also reinforce the identity that one is trying to create, for example, here by writing affirmations on health, you reinforce your identity that you are a healthy person, and this identity has the power to influence the choices you make in life. Sculpt your life one word at a time by writing powerful affirmations.

Power of Gratitude:
Gratitude is a powerful emotion. Gratitude helps us to focus on the present moment. By focusing on blessings, one is cultivating enhanced relationships and overall better life satisfaction. Here, let's embrace gratitude, recognizing the abundance that already is.

Structured Menu Planning:
Menu planning provides a clear roadmap for healthier eating. It empowers you to take charge of your meals, reducing impulsive choices, fostering self-awareness and minimising food waste. Start involving your family in the process too, that way you create a sense of togetherness and transform healthy eating into a rewarding and fulfilling experience for everyone. Here, alongside the menu plan, you work on how you procure and store, creating a process that ensures you make healthy eating possible every meal.

Preparation and Planning is half work done:
Preparation and planning is half work done, start visualising the whole process, plan every step from procuring, storing, soaking, cutting, cooking, serving and cleaning. Let the focus be on fresh and whole ingredients, and bringing in life energy by soaking and sprouting. If you are prepared with three recipes with a particular ingredient, that is when you procure it. Also, note down in what all steps you will need help and support. When you are prepared with a menu plan and have all the ingredients in place, making a healthy meal is so easy.

Energy Tracker:
Energy is finite. One has a finite amount of vital energy everyday. Understanding our daily energy levels and how we optimally utilise them is essential for achieving our daily goals. Diet is an important factor that influences energy levels. Tracking energy hourly reveals patterns and fluctuations, allowing us to schedule demanding tasks during peak energy times and rest when necessary. It also helps us identify what drains our energy and what replenishes our energy, and be prepared accordingly. Life is about balancing energy; let's become mindful of our patterns.

Periodic Reflections:
The key to a blissful life is to know ourselves better. Always compare yourself with yourself. You are working on becoming a better version of you and utilising your fullest potential in life. Periodic reflections are a vital part in the journey. Self examine your thoughts, feelings, behaviours and actions over a period of time, it gives valuable insights. Let these periodic reflections be a beautiful way to love, admire and appreciate yourself. Let these enable you to see your growth, reflect on where to improve and create a plan for the same. The cycle repeats only when you sit with yourself and self examine.

Guide to Goal setting and Achieving:
Goal Setting is not just about rejoicing the success, it's about prioritising and focusing. Be precise and choose only 3 or less goals. The goal statement should be specific, it should answer when, where, how you will perform the habit. For example, I want to eat more salads is vague. I want to eat salads from monday to saturday for lunch at 1 pm mindfully - is specific. I want to eat salad once a week whenever possible. I wish to chew the first bite mindfully. - is also specific. It's also important to have a measuring or tracking mechanism set in for the goal, so that you understand if you are actually working on things that are important in your life.

Simple yet Effective way to build a habit and stick to it : Habit tracking 

Habit tracking is a simple yet powerful technique. First, you write down the list of habits you are working on. Then, you track it every day. It creates a visual cue that can remind you to do your habit everyday. Also, you don’t want to break your streak, so you repeat the habit. It is motivating to see the progress you are making. You are training your mind to believe that you are consistent, and you are reinforcing your identity.Also remember, 5 days a week is also consistent, 10 times a month is also consistent, it does not have to be 31 days all the time. Habit tracker brings a satisfying feeling to record your success in the moment. A tick mark on the habit tracker is a reward in itself. Go ahead, and track your progress.

These are the above pointers that Deep is working on. We are wishing to bring you the Deep workbook, where the book itself is helping you push you forward on this angle. Becoming aware in one area of life, we will become aware in many parts of our life too.

Wishing you all the very best with Deep. Deep is looking forward to creating journaling as a practice, but also to handhold you in the practice by creating a community spirit. We want to work with you to deepen our connection with the community. If you have more comments or ideas for the community we are trying to build in, please comment here or mail us at admin@durgeshnandhini.com.