#1 Water – no ice!
In America everybody drinks water with ¾ of the tumbler being full with ice cubes. Now what I say now, will be unpopular.
In the yogic culture, if you are a yogi, if you are on the path of inner transformation, if you want to transform your system to another dimension of possibility – then you drink water only which is within 4 degrees variation, upwardly and downward. That is, your normal body temperature is somewhere around 36 degree centigrade, so you can drink upto 40 degrees or 32 degrees. This is the best way to consume.
If you are a student, that is, you want to absorb knowledge, you are not looking for transformation, you are only interested in absorbing knowledge – then you must drink within 8 degrees variation. That is, you can drink upto 44 degrees and 28 degrees.
If you are a householder, who is not interested in any transformation, or learning, you just want to manage your wife and children and husband, that is all your thing is. Then you can drink upto 12 degrees of variation from both sides. Beyond that, is not conducive for anybody.
So, that is an unpopular thing to say, but it’s important that whatever you consume is somewhere in the range of the body temperature. Not too far away from that, because it will disturb the way the water within the system behaves, by consuming water or any substance which is very very far away from the body temperature. I know the ice cream loving people will scream at me now. I’m just telling you the ideal conditions. How many of you want to live in the ideal range or being conscious of it wherever possible, staying there is a good thing to do.
#2 How much water to drink?
If you don’t feel thirsty, if you don’t drink water, nothing is going to happen – you are going to be fine. It’s only in America you will die, if you don’t drink water. Nowhere else do people simply drink water. When they get thirsty, they drink water, otherwise they are fine – even in a desert.
It’s only in America, in cold climates, everybody is carrying a bottle and sipping continuously, because the marketing machines have done this to them – that they must drink lots of water. Excessive consumption of water, especially if it’s done in small sips, the body absorbs. When it absorbs the sodium levels, which are very delicately balanced, will drop. Rest of the body also is affected, but may not be noticeable.
But in the brain, sodium levels dropping, will lead to swelling of the brain. This does not mean that your brain is growing. Swelling means it’s a kind of sickness okay? Not expansion of the brain. It’s swelling up because of lack of sodium content. So because there is not enough sodium, more water goes into the brain, trying to supply the required sodium to keep the balance. So more water in your brain means you will slosh – psychological imbalances will come.
See, if you drink lots of water at one go – the body will decide, how much to absorb, and how much to throw out. But if you keep sipping through the day, the body kind of gets deceived and tends to absorb more water than it should. But let’s say right now you drink two litres of water. All of it is not going to go into the system. What is needed, it will take, the rest of it will be shunted out.
Nobody needs to drink water simply because you think it is a good thing to do. When you feel thirsty, you must drink water. Just to ensure you are drinking enough, drink 10% more than what you actually need. Couple of cups more, just to ensure that you don’t drink less. You have a certain amount of time before you can drink, that it is not an emergency.
At the same time, when you need water, when you are thirsty, if you don’t drink, it will cause damage to the system. The damage to the heart is immense, when the water that is needed is not is not there in the system. But when I say water, it is not about drinking liquid water.
You must eat high water content foods. If you eat a fruit, it is nearly 90% water. Vegetables and other things are over 70% water. When you consume food, at least it must be level with the percentage of water content in your own body. So any food that you eat should be at least 70% water content. This is why vegetables, fruits must be part of your diet so that it is there.
