look news india
The festive season brings excitement, joy and a pleasant feeling of meeting loved ones, but along with it comes a heavy burden of responsibilities at home. Especially in North India, where Diwali and the great festival of folk faith, Chhath Puja, come at a distance of very few days, there begins the hustle and bustle of deep cleaning of the house, painting, running to the market, packing of gifts and arranging traditional dishes and soup-daura of Chhath. For working women and men, managing office deadlines and countless household tasks simultaneously proves to be extremely tiring both physically and mentally. Many times, by the main day of the festival, people become so exhausted and burnt out that they are unable to enjoy the joys of the festival. If you work with proper planning and smart lifestyle, you can spend the entire festive season full of energy without any stress and severe fatigue.
The biggest mistake people make during the festive season is that they start many tasks at once without any prior preparation. Sometimes he took out the items from the cupboard and went out for shopping in the middle. This disorganized approach puts unnecessary pressure on the mind. To avoid this, first prepare a systematic checklist of all the tasks in a notebook or the notes app of your phone. Divide it into three categories: urgent, routine and optional. The tasks which can be completed two weeks before Diwali (like washing curtains, cleaning the store room or sorting dry Chhath utensils and items), complete them first. When you tick off tasks one by one, dopamine is released in the brain and mental stress is automatically reduced to half.
Starting cleaning doesn’t necessarily mean decluttering the entire house in one day. The first golden rule of cleaning is ‘decluttering’ i.e. taking out unnecessary things. First of all, remove old newspapers, empty boxes, broken plastic toys and unused clothes from the house. When the excess junk is removed, 40 percent of the house automatically appears cleaner. After this, aim to clean just one room or section (like just the kitchen or just the bedroom) in a day. For cleaning, resort to modern gadgets like vacuum cleaners, microfiber mops and easy cleaning sprays available online so that bending and lifting heavy buckets do not put extra strain on the waist. Do not sacrifice your health in order to become a perfectionist, because the house has to be made beautiful enough for humans to live in, not spotless like a showroom.
A festival is not a celebration of any one person, but of the entire family. It is often seen that the women of the house single-handedly take the entire burden from kitchen to decoration on their shoulders, which becomes the cause of their illness or irritability on festival days. Assign responsibilities to each member of the family—husband, children, and elders—according to their capacity. Children can help in arranging the colors of the rangoli, soaking the lamps or making the fringes, while the youth can take charge of bringing fruits, puja materials and ration from the market. Working together not only saves a lot of time, but also increases communication and doubles the real joy of the festival.
Due to the hustle and bustle of work, people often forget to eat on time or get upset by drinking tea or coffee continuously. The body needs the right fuel to remain active throughout the day. Start your day with soaked almonds, walnuts and lukewarm water. Be sure to consume at least 2.5 to 3 liters of water, coconut water or lemon water a day so that there is no problem of dehydration and muscle cramps. Along with this, definitely set ‘buffer time’ in your daily schedule. Take a 30 to 45-minute break in the afternoon or evening in which you do nothing—just lie down with your eyes closed, listen to soft music, or breathe deeply. 6 to 7 hours of restful sleep is essential to maintain your immunity and freshness. By adopting these small but effective precautions, you can welcome the lights of Diwali and the holy Arghya of Chhath with full energy without any fatigue.