On November 8, 2009, early morning, a young wounded soldier, an amputee, an unknown Indian, was hopping on one leg, in gruesome pain, bruised all around his groin, but was hell bound to reach his destination. No, it was not a war scene, it was a scene of Airtel Delhi Half Marathon, in which he was scripting the history.
History of becoming 1st Indian Amputee to complete 21km of half marathon. It was a thrilling experience of achieving many successes, completing 21 km was just one of them.
It was a success of winning over self-limiting thoughts, lack of sleep, lack of hunger, indigestion, irritable bowl movement, various pains and all such things which had affected me due to the injuries I had sustained in Kargil war. I was injured in 1999 and till 2009, I was finding solutions of all above ailments in various pathies.
Allopathy, Naturopathy, Homeopathy and whatever. I am not trying to disregard the value of these various ways of treatment, but, I am just trying to convey that most of the time, the way to come out of ailment is not by supporting and giving comfort to the affected body part but by using the body part by stretching its limit.
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Running helped me to put my body into usage and that is how various parts got activated, woke up and started behaving. The benefit of physical activity is unparalleled. It helps to heal.
Any physical activity speeds up the blood circulation, oxygen is supplied to body part at a faster interval, which helps in healing. Alongside, sweating helps to flush out toxins.
It also generates good hormones, like Dopamine and Endorphins, which elevates the mood and mind starts feeling good. Good thoughts further generate health and over all your body not only heals but you also become happy.
This therapy after me, who is 100% disabled, has been shared with many more amputees, through my NGO, The Challenging Ones, and the result is not just health and happiness but also Inclusive society admiring abilities of people.
Now, I leave it to you if you wish to be happy or not. If you chose the answer yes, then just go out and start with walk, over few days, graduate to intermittent jog and walk, and slowly pick up jog and running. See yourself blooming and glowing without spending any money.
Not just that, see yourself having good sleep at night. Wishing you all the luck. Let’s use ourselves to make a healthy and happy world around us. Jai hind.
(Maj D P Singh, conferred with 2018 National award by Govt of India, in Role Model Category. He is a Kargil war veteran, 100% disabled, India’s first blade runner, a marathoner, 1st solo skydiver of Asia. A motivational speaker based out of Gurgaon, he can be reached at majordpsingh@gmail.com
