Keep calm and relax, you can totally ace being a bride..

Text : Nuthan Manohar    Photos : Various Sources

It is that time of life when you are expected to look the very best you can, behave the very best you can, stretch your social skills, master your talent to shop, look gorgeous in photos, make the best impression on strangers fast turning into close family, learn about love boundaries, roles, responsibilities, preferences… the list is exhausting and yet the task need not exhaust you. Here are the top few tips and tricks for feeling zen on your big day.

Meditate

Resolve to do fifteen minutes of meditation daily. It does not really matter, which technique you follow to meditate, as long as you can sit with your spine straight and teach your mind calm down and ease into a thoughtless state. If meditation is difficult, you can try guided visualization or hypnotherapy that suggests you to find that state of peace within you.

Eat Green and Detox

The stress of the wedding would cause changes in your chemical composition in a harmful way. Free radicals would be running amok in your system, counter them by having green foods like broccoli, muringa leaf, spinach, celery, cucumber and have teas of herbs like tulsi. Three amlas a day with turmeric will boost your immunity.

Go Berry Yourself

Berries are rich in antioxidants. Ensure to have them in your smoothies. Replace a meal with a nutritionally rich smoothie. This will also help reduce your bloating. Ensure all your meals are balanced and that you are cutting down on fried, junk and sugars completely. Learn to snack on nuts, fruits and rich chocolate instead of snacks. Know portions that are apt for you.

Diaphragmatic Breathing

Nothing reduces stress like diaphragmatic breathing. Learn to practice diaphragmatic breathing by placing a hand on your abdomen and the other hand on your chest. When you inhale the abdomen should rise and then the chest when you exhale the chest should fall, followed by the abdomen. Try to slow down your breath.

Essential oils

Invest in a good pure essential oil collection – that includes rose to open your heart, cherry blossom to ward of fears and worries, mint and lemon grass to keep you pepped up, musk to keep you sensual, sandalwood for staying balanced, incense to cleanse you and lavender to help you sleep. Trust your nose, it will lead you to the right aromas for you.

Mudras

Mudras are simple tools to help calm frayed nerves and to revitalize. It can be done anywhere, anytime. Learn at least a set of ten mudras to combat various ailments and situations. Chin mudra promotes focus; vayu mudra for gas, joint pain; agni mudra for digestion etc.

Learn to Disconnect

Remind yourself, in a compassionate manner – “not my circus, not my monkeys…forgive especially when the other is not sorry”. Learn to observe the human condition, if the other knew better, they wouldn’t be behaving in such a manner.

Be Eco

“You should spend half an hour in nature, more if you are busy” – goes the Zen saying. As you are stepping into a new role, start befriending nature. There will be moments in life when you are completely alone, those moments it would be nature and the divine that helps you heal and overcome. Do take the time to start this journey as well so that there is a beautiful earth for your children too.