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The soul is beyond the body and hence from this perspective, it is immaterial how tall or short a person is. The true height of a person is his or her character and deeds.
Yet, tall height is a natural ambition of humans. I agree that in current context it is partly because of the glamour associated with tall height. If that were the driver for any urge for height increase, the efforts would defeat the purpose. Because the true purpose for height increase should stem from an earnest desire to achieve as much of our potential as we can. A tall height represents complete growth of the body and hence we should endeavor to achieve that complete growth.
Height does vary from person to person as per his or her genetics, climate and other conditions. Thus blanket comparison of height with others is not a right approach. Instead the correct approach should be to keep as healthy as possible to gain complete growth of body.
I was born as a medium height child. Till age of 17, my height did not grow much. At age of 17, at just above 5 feet, I was among the short students of my class and often ridiculed for being short and thin. Very honestly, at times I did feel humiliated at tended to avoid public company to the extent possible. The matter got worse because I could see many other boys who were shorter than me few years ago now surpassing me.
But for once, I decided to no more rationalize and act as an ostrich. I decided to take my concern heads-on. I changed my complete life-pattern. For next two years, I committed to new patterns and by the time I was nineteen, I was 5’11” and had an extremely flexible and agile body. Today I have a height of above 6 feet.
In this article, I would share those tips that I followed in my height transformation process. I am sure these will benefit one and all in achieving their maximum potential:
Tip 1: Mind Power
Our body responds to our thoughts. As per our thought patterns, appropriate hormones are secreted and physiological changes happen accordingly. Positive thoughts reverse aging process and improve health. Negative thoughts accelerate aging process and stunt growth. Thus first critical step for height gain is to reprogram your thought patterns. Not only it will help you increase height, but also bring benefits in all areas of your life. To me, it made me a diligent person that helped me get admission in IIT. Here are specific suggestions on mind programming for height-gain:
- Refuse to accept that you are born unhealthy and short. Visualize yourself as having the most perfect health and live every moment in that vision.
- Stop compromising on matters of quality. Keep demanding as much as you can think of, from yourself.
- Imagine that your height is increasing every moment with every movement of yours.
- Stop traits of anger, helplessness and dejection.
Remember that will power is the key. Once you get a good grasp on it, rest would work automatically. If you try out these tips without strong will-power, it would never work. This secret gets you everything you want in life.
Tip 2: Food
Simply stop junk, fried, spicy and oily food. I cannot stress further the importance of simple, nutritious, healthy food. Our body is made out of food we eat. We grow from a baby of few inches to a full-grown adult only through food we eat. Food is the raw material used to build our building that we call body. How can you expect a strong building to be built if you use inferior raw material from junkyard?
Following are certain recommendations that have helped me:
- Eating at least two hours before sleep
- Having a light dinner
- Regular consumption of sprouts
- Having regular eating schedule and avoiding habit of munching every now and then
- Avoiding consumption of tea, coffee, cold-drinks, ice-cream, chocolates etc
- Regular use of trifala powder in night or early morning
- Eating lots of fresh fruits
- Drinking lots of water
- Walking for 10-15 minutes after meals
- Eating soaked almonds in morning. The gulbandi variety is best.
- Eating in sukhasan. This posture is a wonderful gift of our ancient seers.
Tip 3: Exercise
Human body is built to work hard and live actively. More we avoid physical labor, more we become prone to underdevelopment, faster aging and ailments. Make a habit of doing rigorous workouts at least thrice a week and normal exercises in rest of the days.
My routine in those days was as follows:
- Waking up by 5 am and having a variety of workouts till 8 am. These included mix and match of following:
- Running and jogging
- Flexibility and stretching
- Martial Arts practice
- Asans and Pranayams
- Meditation
- In evening I used to go for Taekwondo exercises thrice a week. The practice of high kicks is extremely beneficial
- On Sundays, we used to go to play cricket.
This active routine worked wonders on my body and activity.
Would request all health-seekers to join taekwondo lessons close-by. Taekwondo differs from other martial arts. In taekwondo, emphasis is on high kicks and free stretching which helps body grow. In many other martial arts, focus is on restricting body movements within a small region. Thus it seems to restrict height of a person.
Similarly weight-training should be avoided for first 20 years of life. That should be replaced with free hand exercises like pushups.
Many claim that Yogasan can help increase height. I even saw a video on it by a celebrated hathayogi. He gave a passionate speech in the video that seemed to showcase short height as source of all miseries and inferiority complex. Ironically the hathayoga guru himself appeared not more than five and a half feet!
The fact is that hathayoga is being overemphasized bit too much these days and its benefits are being over-inflated as a marketing gimmick. Certain asans do benefit but in essence it’s the overall package of healthy lifestyle which is effective. Replace these hathasans with any kind of aerobic physical activity and results would be exactly the same. Perhaps even more!
Having said this, certain postures are quite useful for height growth. These should be added in one’s fitness routine – chakrasana, halasana, sarvangasana, pashchimatanasana, pavanmuktasana, hastapadasana, mayurasana. Among Pranayams, the only pranayams I have found to be truly effective are Bahya Pranayam, Abhyantara and Chaturtha Pranayama. These provide all the benefits that are claimed from variety of breathing practices like Anulom Vilom, Bhastrika etc. These pranayams with rigorous cardio in open air gives all the benefit you desire from a fitness regime.
Do ensure that you develop a habit of deep breathing. We shall discuss the art of deep breathing in a separate article.
Tip 4: Miscellaneous
- Sleep well. More you work out, more the rest required by your body. Especially for growth, you should ensure that you do not deprive your body from much needed rest.
- Sleep early. Work so hard in the day that you tend to fall asleep by 10 pm. Wake up by 5 or 6 depending upon your comfort. I prefer varying the waking time as per my body needs. Avoid late night sittings.
- Keep spine straight
- While standing, try to stretch your entire body up. At times come on your toes for a full stretch. You can even raise your hands for a fuller stretch. In more formal occasions, you can stand normally and yet try stretching your entire body without raising your toes. Keep doing it every now and then. If you are in a bus, try if you can stretch up without coming on toes and touch the ceiling with head.
- Do not settle in one static position for long. Keep moving and changing postures. Remain active and give body a small workout every moment.
Tip 5: Brahmachraya (Control of mind)
Needless to say, all of this works only with a perfect control over mind. Make a habit of challenging your mind with even more control every moment. Once mind is mastered, the world will be at your feet, height is a petty thing.
To develop this mastery and realize what the real fun of life is, following is advised. More you practice, more you gain:
- Stop putting your mind in all form of sensory inputs that tend to promote lustful thought patterns – romantic/vulgar songs, movies, literature, company. These generate hormones which speed up the ageing process and stunt complete natural growth.
- Stop watching the idiot box. Apart from dumbing the mind, it makes your breath shallow and hence causes stunted growth.
- Similarly avoid video games, iPods and other mind-dumbing tools.
- Stop digging too much into stale newspaper. Use it only for keeping you updated. Filling your mind with depressing stories of past, the first thing in morning, is the worst treatment you can give to yourself who is naturally programmed to be always forward looking.
- Prepare actionable plans. Avoid discussions and analyses which have no relevance to practical application and are merely time-wasters.
- Needless to say, avoid all acts which lead to loss of vital energy and semen.
We shall discuss the subject of Brahmacharya in detail in another article and dispel certain myths surrounding the subject. Brahmacharya is the greatest potential remedy for all humans living today and needs a right, relevant and correct representation.
Please share your feedback with these practices. They should start giving results in a few months. Apart from a full body growth, you would also gain a healthy body and confident attitude.
Stretch to your fullest potential!
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