Shubhra Krishan - Radiant Body, Restful Mind: A Womans Book of Comfort

I AM DEEPLY GRATEFUL TO:

Georgia Hughes, for placing her trust in me yet again.

Katie Farnam Conolly, gentle yet firm, the guiding light of this book.

My husband, Hemant, who is always just an unspoken whisper away when I need him.

My brother Sachin, whose dreams for me are my inspiration.

My son Harshvardhan, who cheerfully sacrificed several outings because I was busy with the book!

Hannah Polmer, for helping me connect with several women quoted in this book.

All my family members and friends who contributed their tips and ideas to this work.

Most of all, to my mother, for her unconditional love.

L ife offers you two kinds of simple pleasures. Those that you get for free, as perks for being part of this beautiful world: the scent of rain, a fresh breeze, wildflowers, love. Then there are the pleasures that you create for yourself, simply by taking the time: a rejuvenating walk, a warm bath, tea with a friend on a summer afternoon.

It is about these self-made pleasures that I write here. Ive seen that taking the time to savor them can take your body from weary to radiant, your mind from restive to restful, and your life from humdrum to humming. Like little rest-stops along the highway of life, these gifts of kindness to yourself can make the journey a more positive, pleasurable one.

Take a moment to sample some delectable life-enriching ideas with me:

When youre feeling blue, pick up a family album and travel back through the times when life was uncomplicated and you were happy. You will feel your mood lift.

Go ahead take a nap. Just for fifteen minutes, sleep like a dozen logs. Youll wake up feeling like you can make magic.

Keep a pitcher filled with iced tea or pure mineral water in your refrigerator for a sip of instant bliss.

Like a bee flitting from flower to flower in search of the sweetest nectar, Ive spent twenty delicious years seeking such recipes for comfort. Ive culled them from meadows far and wide magazines, books, people, places, words, and momentsand all along, it has been an immensely pleasurable quest.

But wait. A bees hunt doesnt end with what it finds.

When a scout bee finds the right flower, she performs a special dance for the other honeybees, inviting them to delve inside the petals of a waiting flower, ripe with sunshine and juice.

This book is my dance for you. Between its pages, youll find life-enhancing secrets Ive gathered and treasured. Take time to try any, some, or all of these ideas not just because Im urging you to, but because youd love to, you have been longing to, and you totally deserve to.

I promise youll find them bee-licious.

A s a kid-rearing, hair-tearing, bus-hopping, word-chopping, seldom-stopping, coffee-drinking, hardly-blinking big-city girl, I can relate to hectic lifestyles. But wait. Does that mean Ive resigned myself to a lifetime of self-neglect? No way! Not when Im armed with a powerful secret for looking and feeling bright even on a high-voltage Monday packed with deadlines.

Usually Im good at keeping secrets, but this one is too delectable not to be shared aloud. So here it is: I tweak time. Dont get me wrong. I dont shirk work or compromise on its quality. In fact, my boss knows about and appreciates my self-improvement strategy. All I do is help myself to a little me-minute here and a few self-care-seconds there tiny crumbs of time sprinkled throughout my day. For a long time, I didnt even realize how many of these crumbs I had available to me that I let slip through my fingers like the stray dollars I spent on a cup of coffee, a phone call, or a greeting card. Then, out of sheer desperation to perk up my ever-plummeting energy levels, I started noticing the tiny treasures of time that were begging for me to spot and use them.

To my surprise, I found a bounty of free time in my day minutes and seconds that seemed to be pleading pick me up for a pick-me-up! Heres a sampling:

Five minutes in the morning, just before getting out of bed.

Perfect for breathing deeply, stretching lightly, and thinking positive thoughts.

Sixty minutes while driving to work and back.

Wonderful for listening to soothing music, singing to myself, breathing deeply at traffic lights, relaxing my death-grip on the steering wheel, and practicing butt-squeezes and Kegel exercises. (To learn the basic Kegel exercise, which tones the muscles of the pelvic floor, see sidebar.)