A Healthy Mind needs a Healthy Body

A game-changer and leader in the healthcare sector, Pritika Singh, CEO, Prayag Hospital and Research Center, became the CEO at the age of 23 and has business interests across many fields from the healthcare business, beauty, mental health, yoga, meditation and the pharma industry. She is also actively pursuing women rights, philosophy and is a relationship coach. She has also organised free camps, yearly, for acid attack victims and undertakes around 100 surgeries at nominal costs to help better the lives of these survivors. Pritika talks to Corporate Citizen about her philosophy of health and wellness

Corporate Citizen: Your philosophy on wellness?

Pritika Singh: I believe that holistic wellness is a choice you make consciously. It’s an inner journey of who you are as a person. In holistic well-being, you drop your anger, resentment, fear and anxiety.

CC: What helps you in dealing with stress and anxiety?

I try to lead a healthy lifestyle. I get up by 5 or 5:30 in the morning, and before leaving for the work, I work on myself for two hours. I start my day with meditation. I’m a Vipassanā mediator, and there is this new concept of Chakra cleansing that I follow. We have seven chakras in our body, which we must balance daily. Just like we eat our breakfast, lunch and dinner, we bathe and everything else, in the same way, we need to do self-work to prepare ourselves for the day. Doing self-work is the best thing to deal with any stress and anxiety.

CC: Your mantra about keeping fit and well?

Well, the mantra that I follow is to eat well, meditate, sleep well and repeat. It’s as simple as that.

CC: Share with us your secret ways of keeping your mind calm and cool.

I spend time with nature. I make sure that at least one hour I spend time with nature, walk barefoot on the grass, do grounding with mother earth and give water to the sun in the morning. I eat a Sattvic diet. Since I belong to the medical profession, you never know what might trigger tremendous stress, so I have to prepare myself for everything. Sometimes things are in your favour, and sometimes they are not, so you must develop the ability to receive both positive or negative very gracefully. I practice conscious gratitude and positivity every second.

"I firmly believe that soul, mind and body alignment is crucial every day. I meditate for the soul. For the brain, I follow a Sattvic diet & for the body, it is significant to work out, so I walk 10,000 steps every day"

CC: Tell us about your stress busters, rejuvenation routine and food philosophy.

As I said, the morning routine for preparing yourself is crucial. What you are eating is equally important. I follow a Sattvic diet because what you eat is what you become and what you become is what you vibrate on an energy level. Everything is energy, and we all are energy, so food is prime. Say, if you have stress at work the food should be very cooling and calming in nature. It will help you to tackle whatever comes your way. When I feel very stressed, I cook, water the plants, listen to mantras like Om chanting. These are all quick stress busters for me. Say, if I come across any stressful news while driving, I immediately put Om chantings on the music system. Things like these help a lot.

CC: Anything you will like to say about your exercise fundamentals’?

I firmly believe that soul, mind and body alignment is crucial every day. I meditate for the soul. For the brain, I follow a Sattvic diet and for the body, it is significant to work out, so I walk 10,000 steps every day. Just after my meditation, I do ten rounds of Surya Namaskar. It is crucial to maintain a balanced masculine and feminine energy within myself. I don’t do any rigorous workout. Ten thousand steps with Surya Namaskar is a great combo, and that’s what I do.

CC: How do you set out your priorities to keep your work and personal life balanced?

Being focused on the goal is very important. I’ve written my goals in front of my work desk, and whenever I feel bogged down, demoralised or angry, I pause for two minutes and reflect on my goals. I remind myself that the goal is paramount and the situation at hand is nothing but a mere stepping stone to reach that goal. Problems will always be there no matter what you do, so the best practice is to learn to accept them and follow a solution-based approach. Especially, when you are passionate about something and have compassion within you, you will learn to focus on your goal in every situation and that will help you in finding solutions. And when things go south despite your best attempts, learn to embrace and accept it. That’s the best you can do for your well-being.

CC: Please give five tips that work the best for you to maintain a work-life balance.

A good eight hours of sleep, self-work, mindful eating, spend time with nature, and exercise. These are the top five things that I follow.

CC: Anything else you would like to say about keeping fit and on holistic wellness, what can others learn from your learnings?

A healthy mind needs a healthy body, and that healthy body vibrates positive vibrations. So, a healthy brain is of utmost importance. When you function with an unhealthy mind, you vibrate negative energy, and then you cannot achieve higher vibration despite the best attempts. I believe it is crucial to have a healthy brain first. That will itself lead to a healthy body. If the mind is not healthy, you will gradually start getting diseases, and once that happens, half of your energy depletes anyway. So a healthy mind and a healthy body can give good vibrations.