CONTINUOUS CALM

These very simple practices can have a profound effect on your day. They are so easy to include in your daily routine, and can be performed almost anywhere you go without drawing attention to yourself. Apply the Calm Principle and find a few extra minutes during the day for a Calm Break.

Only then will you learn how to enjoy and appreciate every aspect of life as it's happening. Only then will you be blessed with a permanent sense of calm and order.

LIFESTYLE CONSIDERATIONS

As I have said before, the Calm Technique can have a profound effect on your existence, without asking you to modify your lifestyle one bit. However, it is only one aspect of development; it is not the universal remedy to all life's ills. Just as an exercise programme alone with no consideration to diet will not produce the most healthy body, so too a meditation programme with no consideration of other lifestyle factors cannot be expected to produce the ultimate calm.

Please bear in mind that I am speaking of optimum results here. The Calm Technique works in its own right and needs no dietary or exercise assistance to be a great comfort and benefit in your life. However, if you combine the Calm Technique with other programmes, the results will be even greater.

One of the unique characteristics of the Calm Technique is that after you have been using it for some time, you begin to grow more aware of yourself. You begin to get in touch with the subtleties of your own physiology. Your body will tell you that it doesn't approve of large doses of alcohol, drugs or cigarette smoke. Your body will tell you that certain foods are more acceptable than others. Your body will tell you that you need a certain amount of exercise.

This new awareness of the Self is part of the reason why those who practise the Calm Technique find it easier to give up smoking, reduce drinking, live without drugs. Obviously the elimination of stress has a lot to do with this. But equally as important is a new discovery of your own body and make-up. You will feel when something is good for you, or when something should be avoided. You may argue that you already know that certain things aren't good for you, that your smoker's cough or hangovers are constant physical reminders of what you're doing to yourself. But with the Calm Technique, your body helps you avoid these things by not craving them. To enjoy life to the fullest, to be a complete human being, pay attention to the four different aspects of your life:

1) The Calm Technique
2) Diet
3) Exercise
4) Attitude

THE CALM TECHNIQUE

The Calm Technique or some other form of meditation is essential for a well-balanced, happy, healthy way of life.

DIET

If there's one thing that affects your state of mind as much as your health, it's your diet. It is common enough knowledge that diet affects the emotions and mental state as much as it does the body. You really are what you eat.

There is no need for this book to explore diet in great depth, many other publications cover it. Nevertheless, there is one dietary principle which deserves to be highlighted over and above everything else: moderation.

Moderation in diet is a principle that has been ignored by the hundreds of books which come out each year on this subject. The fact is, no-one ever grew rich (or became noticed) by preaching moderation. A scientist or dietician is not going to be considered very innovative nor is she or he going to create any new fad or movement by encouraging moderation. Yet this is the most obvious and most sensible practice to adopt.

We all know that the modern person eats far too much. The average person's calorie consumption far exceeds recommended daily requirements. Today's average food intake is more suited to the requirements of primitive man with his regular episodes of 'fight or flight' than it is to a modern person's hours in the office, in front of a television or driving a cab.

Eat less, unless, you're already eating less.

Moderation in choice of food is also becoming a rare principle these days. As every second person you meet seems to be advocating the 'Drinking Girl's Diet' or the 'Banana Diet' or the 'Armed Services Diet' or the 'Hamburger-and-Cola Diet', is it any wonder that the 'Moderate Diet' is vanishing? The 'Moderate Diet' is just what you learned at school: sensible, varied proportions from each of the five good groups.

Eat more fruit and vegetables, especially raw ones. Choose wholegrain rather than processed. Drink more (unchilled) water than you think you need. Choose herbal teas in preference to tea or coffee (as soon as you stop comparing them with 'real' teas, you'll learn to appreciate the calming and soothing effect they can produce).

Choose foods rich in vitamin A (yoghurt, cream, butter, eggs, liver, carrots, leafy green vegetables, fruit) which counteract the ravages of stress. Choose even more vitamin C foods (fruit and vegetables), which are required in greater proportions as stress levels increase. They also have a positive effect on one's mental health. And, most importantly of all, make your diet rich in vitamin B foods (beans, lentils, peas, nuts, seeds, wheat germ, bran, wholegrains, brewer's yeast, liver, eggs, milk, cheese, yoghurt, meat, fish, poultry and green leafy vegetables). Remember that, like most vitamins, the B vitamins are rapidly destroyed by light, high temperatures, steam, long cooking and long storage.

-- This excerpt was taken from The Calm Technique by Paul Wilson