Soft landing (Reset from travelling jitters)
- Preeti Girisha
- Jan 25, 2020
- 3 min read
How do you feel when you travel to and back from different time zones? Do you feel tired and jet lagged after family vacations and oversea travels. Some travel more frequently on business. For many the feeling of not your best self immediately when you land is just a part of travelling overseas or different time zones experience. You often think it is normal to feel the after effects of travelling and common to experience jet lag.
I notice that every time I returned from long distance travel, I would sleep during the day and be awake most of the nights. This pattern continued for few days slowly resetting the sleep wake cycle. Did I mention, during the days I felt jet lagged my kids thought I was getting irritated and angry on little things. I would feel tired and everything felt overwhelming from unpacking to getting back to work and routine balance.
My recent one week trip to India, I decided to do something different. I planned to conquer my feeling of jet lag and get back to my routine without a rough restart but with a smooth landing.
The excess of static charge builds up in the body as a result of air travel that slows the energy powerhouse of the cells (mitochondria) function.
Here’s what I did….
1. Restore the feeling of tiredness: When I got home, I took some time to go outside and walk barefoot in the grass for 15-20 minutes. Modern lifestyle and rubber soles block the subtle flow of earth’s energy. I remember my childhood days often playing in the open fields, barefoot. This present day, we rarely experience the feeling of running around barefoot. The researcher’s call this as ”Earthing” ( Clint Ober and Stephen Sinatra, MD, are the individuals that introduced health benefits of reconnecting to the Earth).
Earthing or Grounding is a technique where your body (Skin) is in direct contact with the earth’s surface. Especially walking barefoot on the grass, dirt, sand or concrete that is not sealed or painted. Earthing is a natural way to neutralize the bodies excess positive charge buildup with earth’s surface that is considered to have slight negative charge.
If your destination has a scarcity of ground then try Earthing mats, Earthing shoes or Earthing sheets.
2. Yoga Posture or Asanas to restore grounding: I added 10 minutes of these exercises barefoot and on bare surface with Deep Breathing exercises to help my aches and pains from long travel and prolonged sitting.
a) Mountain pose or Tadasana
b) Warrior pose or Veerbhadrasana
c) Lotus pose or Padmasana
d) Garland pose or Malasana
I choose these postures to rebalance the root chakra that is the element associated with center of earth.
3. Hydration: We overlook the importance of consuming fluids in air due to the wide choices of beverages, sugary juice, soda and alcohol that is served in flight. We stay hydrated by choosing from the above options but fall short on the amount of quality water consumption. The water in the cells of our body has a negative charge and air travel and air in cabins disturb the balance. Restore the dehydration from flying by adding ancient minerals or pure sea salt to your water.
Prolonged sitting with minimal movement, dehydration, high altitude and air pressure and longer flight duration affects blood circulation, increasing the risk of blood clots-Yaser ADi,Sue Bayliss et’all.
4. The meals in flight can upset digestion: To restore digestion consider simple fruits and vegetables rich in polyphenols and root vegetables. I added this to my grocery shopping list and paired it (salads) with my simple home cooked Khichdi and dal.
a. Strawberries
b. Cherries
c. blackberries
d. Apples
e. Artichokes
f. Spinach
g. Root vegetables (Beets, carrots, Daikon, Jicama etc.)
5. Sleep: Bright Florescent lights and uncomfortable seats while crossing different time zones disrupts the biological clock (circadian rhythm) leading to sleep deprivation and fatigue. Epsom salt foot baths and/or adding Magnesium in the form of spray or Magnesium citrate powder mixed with water helped reset my sleep/wake cycle.
6. Positive affirmation: Positive affirmation and mindfully grounding through all the above techniques helped me regain my strength and get back to routine safely.
Thanks for reading this article.
Reference:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC434500/
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