Tag: mentalhealth

Marital Rape

This report is an excerpt of an interview project that i completed for one of my practical classes. I had to interview people working in NGO working for marital rapes analyze the interview.In this project i’ve interviewed Dr. Chitra Awasthi, the founder of RIT foundation that in collaboration with many NGOs to promote gender equality in India.

NATURE OF REPORT

In order to gain insight on the prevalence of marital rape in India and to promote gender and social equality in the country, the students of Mass communication and journalism were instructed to interview an NFPO (RIT Foundation) within the field of awareness through Media

There were no stipulations about the medium used or the questions to be asked. Students were permitted to select their own respondent owing to their comfort as well as good knowledge of the field. The report is directed to citizens of the country and people across nations. The report aims to start a conversation on this topic, to give women under martial rape the courage to raise their voice and to pressurize the law-makers to criminalize such acts.

MARITAL RAPE

The act of sexual intercourse with one’s spouse without the consent of the partner is known as marital rape. Whether the perpetrator is a stranger or a spouse, it is one of the most horrific acts a man can conduct against a woman. Though marital rape is the most common and repugnant form of masochism in Indian society, it is hidden behind the iron curtain of marriage.  83% of married women i.e. nearly one in every 3 women have been subjected to physical, sexual and emotional violence from their spouse. Almost 31% of married women between the ages 15 and 49 have suffered from sexual abuse cite their current husband as the perpetrator. 

Any undesired sexual actions by a spouse or ex-spouse conducted without consent and/or against a person’s will, achieved by force, threat of force, intimidation, or when a person is unable to consent, are classified as marital rape. Intercourse, anal or oral sex, forced sexual conduct with other people, and other sexual practices that the victim finds degrading, humiliating, painful, or unwelcome are examples of these sexual actions.

Rape is a crime that occurs when a woman refuses to provide her consent. It’s crucial to remember that lack of consent doesn’t always have to take the form of the word ‘no.’ It’s reasonable to assume given the circumstances. If a woman consents to sexual intercourse within a marriage because of the threat of harm to her children or herself, the woman loses her right to stay in the house or get maintenance, it is not valid consent. It is still rape.

THE CURRENT SITUATION AND STATISTICS

140 of the world’s 195 countries have already made marital rape a criminal offence. The United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, and Russia are among the countries on the list.

However, 55 countries, including India, China, and Singapore, are countries where it is still OK to rape your wife.

The concept of marital rape has not been recognized until today. We’ve been lobbying for a law to make it a crime, but first we need to gather statistics on rape in marriage.

 And according to the latest National Health and Family Survey (NFHS-4) for 2015-16, 5.4% women have experienced marital rape, under this category. But while the data on marital rape in India exists, marital rape as a crime “does not exist”.

And yet 5.4% of married Indian women say they have experienced marital rape. 4.4% of them say they have experienced marital rape in just the last 12 months before this survey. The figure recorded by NFHS-3 for 2005-6 was 9.5%.

But while the data on marital rape in India exists, marital rape as a crime “does not exist”.

The data also includes entries for “forced her to perform any sexual actions that she did not want to” and “forced her to perform any sexual acts that she did not want to with threats or in any other way.”  Overall, 2.5% and 3.6% of married Indian women answered affirmatively to these categories as well. That brings the number of married women who have been subjected to what would be called rape or sexual violence if the perpetrator had not been their husband to 11.5 percent.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) ‘Crime in India’ 2019 report, about 70% of women in India are victims of domestic violence.

Marital rape exists in the data, but not in law

Despite the historical misconception that rape by one’s partner is a minor occurrence that causes little damage, research shows that marital rape has serious and long-term implications for women. Injuries to private organs, lacerations, discomfort, bruising, torn muscles, tiredness, and vomiting are some of the physical repercussions of marital rape. In addition to broken bones, black eyes, bloody noses, and knife wounds, women who have been assaulted and raped by their husbands may experience other physical consequences such as broken bones, black eyes, bloody noses, and knife wounds as a result of the sexual violence. Miscarriages, stillbirths, bladder infections, infertility, and the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases like HIV are all gynecological repercussions of marital rape.

Women who have been raped by their partners are likely to experience significant psychological repercussions. Anxiety, shock, acute dread, despair, suicidal ideation, and post-traumatic stress disorder are some of the short-term symptoms of marital rape. Disordered eating, sleep issues, depression, difficulties forming trusting relationships, and increased negative thoughts about themselves are all common long-term impacts. The psychological consequences are likely to linger for a long time. For years after the abuse, some marital rape survivors describe flashbacks, sexual dysfunction, and emotional pain.

OTHER COUNTRIES’ LEGAL STATUS

In the United States, experts estimate that 10% to 14% of married women are raped throughout their marriage. Researchers discovered that marital rape accounted for almost 25% of all rapes when they looked at the frequency of different types of rape. Given the popularity of marital rape, social scientists, practitioners, the criminal justice system, and society as a whole have paid little attention to the issue. In fact, it wasn’t until the 1970s that society began to recognize the possibility of rape in marriage. Until recently, the usual rule was that a husband could not be convicted of raping his wife because he has an implicit right to sexual intercourse with his wife under the marital contract.

Resistance restrictions are still in place in the majority of American states. There are no exemptions for husbands from rape prosecution in seventeen states and the District of Columbia. There are still certain exemptions for husbands from rape prosecution in thirty-three states. In several of these thirty-three states, a husband is excused from prosecution when his wife is most vulnerable (e.g., she is mentally or physically disabled, unconscious, asleep, etc.) and legally unable to consent. The majority of States have certain spousal exemptions, indicating that rape in marriage is still considered a lesser offence than other types of rape.

When we look at the laws of various countries, we can find that most of them punish rape both within and outside of marriage.

In Australia, for example, if a person has achieved the age of 16, he or she can petition to a judge or magistrate for an order permitting them to marry.

By 1991, however, the marital rape exception had been repealed in every state in Australia.

In New Zealand, a person under the age of 20 but over the age of 16 can only marry with the approval of their parents. For women, the age of sexual consent is similarly 16 years. The New Zealand Crimes Act of 1961 makes no provision for marital rape. In 1985, the marital rape exemption was repealed.  In the United Kingdom, a marriage between two people under the age of 16 is void.  In 1991, the marital rape exemption was completely repealed.

A marriage between two people under the age of 16 is void in the United Kingdom. In 1991, the marital rape exemption was completely repealed. In Egypt, the age of majority is 21 years old for all legal reasons except marriage. The legal age for consent is 18, and intercourse with a female under the age of 18 is considered rape under the penal code.

Various states in the United States have different laws. In the United States, the marital rape exception has been repealed in 50 states. In Indonesia, the age of majority, as well as the age at which girls and boys can marry, is 16 for girls and 19 for boys. A girl’s legal age for giving valid consent to a sexual act is also established at 16 years. Any marriage that occurs before the age of majority is null and invalid.

LEGAL POSITION IN INDIA

In India, marital rape is legal but not de facto. While in other nations, the legislative has either criminalized marital rape or the judiciary has actively participated in recognizing it as a crime, the judiciary in India appears to be working at cross-purposes. The Supreme Court ruled in Bodhisattwa Gautam v. Subhra Chakraborty that rape is a crime against basic human rights and a breach of the victim’s most prized fundamental right, the right to life, which is contained in Article 21 of the Constitution. However, it contradicts this declaration by failing to recognize marital rape. Though there have been some advancements in Indian domestic violence legislation, they have mostly been limited to physical rather than sexual abuse.

This established the notion that a woman does not have the right to refuse sex with her spouse once they are married. This gives husbands sexual access to their spouses, which is in clear violation of human rights principles and gives husbands permission to rape their women. The rape legislation only applies to two types of married women: those under the age of 15 and those who are separated from their spouses. While rape of a girl under the age of 12 may result in a sentence of ten years or more in jail, rape of a girl under the age of 15 results in a lower punishment if the rapist is married to the victim. When Section 376-A of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, was added in 1983, it made some headway toward criminalizing domestic abuse against the wife.

The Law Commission’s proposed definition of sexual assault, which is wide, complete, and acceptable, could be used in place of the existing term of rape in Section 375 IPC, according to the report. The Task Force, like the Law Commission, stopped short of suggesting that marital rape be included in the new definition. Currently, India’s legal framework is severely inadequate in terms of safeguarding women’s bodily integrity and sexual autonomy.

ABOUT THE FOUNDATION

The RIT Foundation is a non-profit organizationcreated in 2009 by Dr. Chitra Awasthi, an educationist, writer, and philanthropist. The RIT Foundation is collaborating with a number of non-governmental organizations in India to promote social and gender equality.

In 2015, they filed a petition – RIT Foundation v. Union of India writ petition c no. 284 of 2015 seeking to criminalize marital rape. It will be coming up before the Delhi High Court for final hearing early next year.

“The first step to breaking the silence is having the tool to validate,” Chitra Awasthi says. The last refuge of male dominance is the control of women’s sexuality and bodies. It will take time to smash it. However, as a society, we must begin a dialogue and put pressure on lawmakers to act.”

Respondent’s Background

Dr. Chitra Awasthi is the president and founder of RIT Foundation. She has been working as an educationist with children and young adults for the past 36 years now. She is well-known in academics for her psychological insights and comprehensive understanding of holistic living solutions. With a postgraduate degree, a university topper, in sociology from Kanpur University, she has authored a wide range of books on sociology and allied subjects. Her major interest, however, has always been in religion and spiritualism. She has translated, edited, and produced secret treasures from English, Sanskrit, and Hindi, and she is an eager student of spiritual literature in the Indian tradition. Rit International is her first foray into the corporate world. She does, however, wish to help share the same knowledge to children who are less privileged, so that they can benefit from high-quality education and knowledge.

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INFIDELITY

Credits – Behance

INTRODUCTION

Infidelity can be better defined as any act that violates an open or explicit agreement

between two people, thereby damaging the relationship. It usually means having an

emotional or intimate relationship other than your partner.

Deception is one of the most devastating and destructive things that can happen in a

person’s life. It can lead to emotional distress, anxiety, depression, increased risky

behaviours and cause real physical pain.

All infidelity violates the supposed or implied marital union, whether that be emotionally or

physically.

Relationships in which more than two people are involved are known as Polyamory

relationships. In non-monogamous behavioural relationships, partners can practice flipping

or polyamory (having multiple romantic relationships at the same time). These programs

promote honest communication and consent between all members and is not an example of

infidelity.

Now, how does Infidelity affect society?

Disloyalty to a person is like a storm. When it floods you, you and everyone else are thrown into many different places. When parents are in trouble so are their children. When a house burns down, children and adults are left homeless. The same can be said of infidelity. Confusion, fear, uncertainty, anger, tears, withdrawal, suspicion, frustration, fighting affects everyone in the family and especially children who are naturally more sensitive and rely on their parents for emotional and physical stability and security.

For young adults, infidelity can wreak havoc on trust, and infidelity can have devastating effects on a person’s mental and physical health. The condition is associated with depression, anxiety and unhealthy coping strategies such as poor diet and substance abuse. Some mental health professionals believe that there may be a similarity to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Types of Infidelity

• Physical Infidelity: Physical or sexual contact outside of relationships. There may or may not be an emotional attachment between partners.

• Emotional Infidelity: Emotional attachment or intimacy with another person. Emotional affairs can do as much damage, if not more, to a relationship as a physical affair.

• Cyber Infidelity:

social media has made it easier for people to engage in online

messages, chats, forums, or groups with sexual content. Cyber infidelity also

includes viewing erotic stimuli, such as porn.

• Object Infidelity:

Excessive love or interest outside of relationships can lead to

what is known as materialism. This is a situation where one partner is too focused on

something like their job or their phone, causing disruption in the relationship.

Credits – neil webb

Data And Facts

Statistics report that anywhere from 40-60 percent of adults in committed relationships commit acts of infidelity and despite popular opinion, there is no significant difference in these percentages between men and women. Not only has dishonesty in the workplace become increasingly common but it has also become easier to deal with dishonesty on the Internet and social networking sites.

How To Achieve Emotional Intelligence?

Each of us has a unique personality, as well as varied needs and desires and emotional expression styles. It requires tact and wit to get through all of this, especially if we want to thrive in life. Emotional intelligence is crucial in this situation.

Understanding your emotions, what they’re trying to tell you, and how your emotions influence those around you is emotional intelligence. It also affects how you see other people; you may develop partnerships more skillfully when you get other perspectives.

Self-awareness is the foremost step to achieving emotional intelligence. It simply means being aware of your strength and weakness. It builds confidence and due to this, it doesn’t let emotion rule them in any way. Self-regulation is basically thinking before you act. It doesn’t allow one to be impulsive or jealous and can be gained by controlling emotions there is more thoughtfulness than envy. Empathy one of the essential elements in emotional intelligence . Being able to identify other persons feelings and opinions help them to manage good relationship with others, and makes them avoid being judgemental or stereotypical and through these it can lead to development of motivation and social skills.

To establish social awareness in yourself the first step would be to observe around and be aware of the environment. Before forming an opinion about someone try to put your shoe in theirs and acknowledge their perspective. Coming out of your comfort zone and enjoying the new challenges that life gives you. Moreover, analyze how you cope up in stressful situations do you blame it on others and doesn’t take the initiative by yourself? That’s when you initiate with the practice of humility it will guide you to be aware of your actions and be true to it. Moreover, the main key is to keep an open mind. Whatever situation come and go it will help you understand how the world works. Grow and let others grow.

Importance of seeking a spiritual experience.

I went into the Osho centre expecting a breath of fresh air and a new perspective on life. I had reached my saturation point and was seeking something meaningful. I learned a meditation technique there which changed my life forever. So the process, is that you have to lay down and breathe slower than you usually do. After doing that, you focus on your left leg and try to breathe through it. You move your attention towards the right leg and do the same. That’ll make your legs very light and peaceful. After doing this, you move all your attention to your navel centre which is the centre of your body and breath through it. If you do this correctly then that’ll give you immense harmony and peace. It feels as if all the negative vibrations are leaving your body. After this, you move your focus to your heart and breathe through it. And then from the face. In the end, you try to feel your whole body and try to breathe through your whole body. After this, you reflect on your meditation and take 3 deep breaths.

I’ve been practising this meditation for the last 2 months and it has made me comfortable with myself. I am now more accepting than ever, more confident than ever. It gave me a roadmap to working towards myself. Meditation makes you interact with yourself. When you do that consistently, you become more sure of who you are and what you want in life. I feel if you have clarity in life, everything automatically falls into place. Meditation definitely helped me do that.

I also met people from different walks of life in the centre. Middle-aged people, old people and young people doing completely different things. But doing things at their own pace and getting better at dealing with it every day. I came across a man whose name is Aditya. He is a middle-aged man in his 30s. He is not married and lives alone. In India, more often than not you expect a man in his 30s to be married cause that’s what society dictates. But he was completely free and detached from the social bounds we have. He was an artist working as a freelancer for the last 10 years. His energy was just different from the normal crowd. It was so refreshing to meet someone like that.

I always wanted to inculcate meditation in my life but I never had the discipline to do it until I started going to this centre. Meditation is so helpful for any human being because it makes you more conscious about yourself and when you are self-aware, you tend to make better decisions that affect you and you are aware of your flaws and you respect them. You find a way to deal with your vulnerabilities. I’d encourage my fellow members to go and seek out a spiritual experience free from the bounds of bureaucracy. This experience was personally so therapeutic for me and encouraged me to think in different ways and change my brain pattern towards life. It made me conquer my fear. And the only way to conquer fear is to accept it. I’d leave it at that.

Psychedelics substances and their magic.

The world we live in today continues to grow more anxious and ignorant of their surroundings. Information is indeed a boon for humankind but there’s only so much data we can process in a day. The problem is that we have an abundance of data available which is harming us in ways we can’t imagine. To reduce our tension we seek help from pharmaceutical industries but are they worthy of our trust? No. Then, what is our substitute? Or rather I should say what’s better for us? A possible answer can be psychedelic substances. In the recent past, there have been a lot of studies and experiments in the psychedelic environment which have been successful. These substances can help human beings fight depression, anxiety issues and different brain disorders. And this is just one of the realms of possibilities that psychedelics are capable of.

I will be discussing two case studies carried out by robin Carhart-harris who is a neuroscientist at imperial college. The first study revolves around the story of a man called kirk rutter who was in grief after his mother’s demise followed by a break-up and a car accident. Such events can disturb any human being. Kirk was in depression. He couldn’t think of anything but negative thoughts. He felt guilty, disturbed and sad. He called his condition “an automatic circuit” as he lost control over his thoughts. He had been on a lot of different medications but nothing helped him. Finally, he decided to participate in a study conducted by Carhart-harris. Rutter was taken into a room where the researchers studied his brain activity through magnetic resonance imaging [MRI]. Then harris explained to him about the drugs which he’ll receive and told him he’ll neutralize the hallucinogen if he couldn’t handle it. Then the two practised a technique which’ll help him calm down if he becomes overwhelmed. Rutter burst into tears while doing that. The next day he came back and was handed two pills by a researcher containing a synthetic form of psilocybin [psychedelic substance]. He lay on a bed and put on his headphones and an eye mask. The process began, the first hallucinations that he saw were some Sanskrit words and then he went on to reflect on his grief. He took his eye mask off and noticed that harris had an eye in the centre of his face[of course he’s hallucinating] and harris joked “I might be looking very different to you” they both laughed. Rutter talked about his resentment and discussed his life with harris like he never did before. The next day he returned for the second dose which was stronger. The trip was followed by an integration session where he would discuss his experience.

Rutter went on record to say “ This process made me look at grief differently. It was a realization that it wasn’t helping. Letting go was not a betrayal”. Rutter was depressed for more than 6 years before this study.  He was convinced that this experience changed his life for the better. He feared sometimes will the automatic circuit return? But he has some control over it now. 5 years later, his depression has not returned.

The second study carried out by harris included 12 people who were clinically depressed for more than 17.8 years on average. I am stressing over the term “clinically depressed”. They were also given the psychoactive substance available in magic mushrooms called psilocybin. No other medication could help this lad. One week after the oral dose all the patients experienced improvements in their symptoms. After 3 months, 5 of them were in complete remission. Harris said, “this is remarkable in the context of currently available treatments”. These researchers do not claim psilocybin to be the last resort to cure depression. They just claim that this can be done. After all, they were able to cure clinically depressed patients which no other legal medication could do.

The major argument that concerns psychedelics right now is the legalization of the substance. The science community believes that it should be legalized because it can help a lot of people fight their condition. If it becomes legal we can regulate the product and we can also create a safer environment whenever anyone consumes it. Researchers have enough evidence about its therapeutic potential and if this movement is promoted by authorities then it’ll be a huge boon for humanity. Legalization of anything increases the consumer’s safety as it’s labelled and safe for consumption. There are no major arguments against it but some scientists do believe that open consumption of psychedelics can lead to chaos but they have not considered the fact that if it gets legal it’ll be regulated. The scientists have virtually no funding to continue their research on these substances and also the public perception of these substances is very vague and false. Scientists argue that the awareness around this should be increased.

The public perception of these substances is the real problem. People put these drugs in the same category as crack and cocaine which is a very dangerous simplification. Although the majority of people are unaware of these substances but false interpretation dampers the image of the product. Psychedelics are referred to as “party drugs” but they are much more than that. The people who are aware of it are very limited and are unable to successfully communicate about it. Psychedelics needs to step out of its ivory tower and try to spread its importance where people don’t know anything about it. There are some communities in places like Haiti and amazon forest that celebrate the psychedelic culture and fully embrace it. But they are very small in number.

Before 1968, LSD and Psylocibin were legal. There were a lot of reasons for it getting banned. One of the reasons was the irresponsible behaviour of the civilians. People used it without really knowing about the substance. Your environment plays a big role when you are under the influence of psychedelics. If your environment is appropriate then your trip can be very soothing but if it’s not then it can result in psychosis. Some people ended up murdering someone. Although the biggest reason was the tyranny of the US government. Countries that had a well established psychoactive and pharmaceutical industry would’ve suffered huge losses if psychedelics expanded. The USA was one of them. The USA introduced a new classified system called scheduling. Under this system, drugs marked under schedule 1 are dangerous and offer no therapeutic value and the drugs marked under schedule 5 are safe and have some therapeutic value. LSD and Psylocibin were marked under schedule 1 even though enough evidence concluded that these substances have promising therapeutic potential. There was a conference organized between countries that had strong pharmaceutical markets and countries that we’re struggling to establish a pharmaceutical market. You can guess who won. psychedelics became illegal in most parts of the world. President Nixon’s assistant to the president John Ehrlichman went on record to say and I quote “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. Do you understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course, we did.” And after that, the criminalization has never stopped.

My opinion on this is every person who can experience these substances should do it.  I am saying this because I’ve had some personal experiences with LSD. I have consumed LSD a couple of times and I can say without a doubt that It was the most profound experience of my life. What it does is it makes you reflect on your vulnerabilities. It doesn’t matter if you like it or not. You question your rights and wrongs and your worldview. We all are insecure about ourselves but we never take out the time to reflect and introspect. Lsd made me do that. It made me more aware of my surroundings, it made me more empathetic towards people so I can see things from their perspective. And most importantly, it made me resolve the conflicts within me.  I had created an elite class system within me that I was hardly aware of. I used to judge and see people through this class system. During my trip, I realised that and immediately made a promise to myself that I will resolve this. That’s why I chose this topic. I was personally affected and I thought I can explain to people what a wonderful thing psychedelics can be.  Like me, a lot of people find it hard to deal with their conflicts and I genuinely feel LSD can help them. If there’s such an efficient and wonderful medicine available to us, why don’t we use it for our benefit?  There’s a reason we have a DMT receptor in our brain.

I would like to conclude by saying that with proper regulations psychedelics can help human beings increase their quality of life. I’ve given enough evidence to back my statement. All it needs is some support from the government and some positive word of mouth. Soon, there will be a lot of experiments and trials concerning this.

My sources-

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00187-9

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41591-020-00001-5

Why Are Psychedelics Illegal?

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254121216_SocioCultural_and_Psychological_Aspects_of_Contemporary_LSD_use_in_Germany

Fear of Future

Fear of future is a negative word let’s call ourselves Forward Thinkers . Yes, forward thinkers are the ones who are always worried about what will happen in future.

If you are in school , you must be wondering what will I study in college, which career will make me more money , what if I don’t clear entrance, etc. If you are in college and you didn’t get into your dream college you are already dreading about your life by thinking of all the self sabotaging thoughts.

Well these thinkings if asked to an experienced person who has already lived his life will say that – ” Having worries and sleepless nights over future worries is a good sign that you are in a right path ” . It means you know that the life that you crave for will not come merely from attending college. You know that wasting time and money with friends who won’t contribute you in anyway is serious damage to your future. You are very much aware and that itself stands you out of the crowd.

A person who worries is more prone to take steps rather than the one who doesn’t. You are already more mature than your peers. You are already embracing the struggle in you and fighting to remove the worry. So keep that fire of worry in you alive and take that action today because the life that you crave for won’t come in a day it will come after many years of sleepless and ruthless nights.

The importance of solitude for a balanced life

In a society that values conformity over emotional support, where giving time to yourself is frowned upon , it is essential to liberate yourself from the sameness.
We as a society have been wired to conform to the social norms We constantly try to satisfy ourselves by satisfying others. True ,when you serve others you achieve some measure of happiness but if it comes at a cost where you neglect your own well being then it becomes a cause of concern

When people commit crimes , Society punishes them by locking up in solitary cells. This is not to say that they shouldn’t be punished though. You’d be considered a loser if you choose to stay at home on a Friday or a Saturday night.

The problem is that We’ve been wired to believe solitude is our worst
enemy.


We’ve also tried to equate loneliness with being alone. Loneliness is a feeling of emptiness. It means you feel isolated and not connected to others , it’s a feeling or an emotion. On the other hand, solitude is a state of being happy and content with your own company.


Twice a year, Bill Gates takes a self-proclaimed “think week.” He spends seven days of solitude in a cabin in the forest.He does it to self introspect , to read books , to escape from the everyday
stress in life and to develop a deeper creative thought.

Spending some valuable time with oneself is vital for your mental health and serves as an essentially ingredient for your personal growth . And perhaps the greatest gift to solitude is that it allows you to become the best version of yourself.

Best Ngos in India

NGOs or Non-governmental organizations Are organizations that are generally formed outside the government so as to be independent. NGO as an organization is aimed at the welfare of society. NGOs do much social work such as housing for widowed women, teaching poor orphans, protecting women. They can be big or small, have government funding or million-dollar budgets, or run-on volunteers’ time. Some NGOs specialize in promoting gender equality or saving rainforests.

With their efforts in the last few decades, Non-Governmental Organizations have grown and strengthened in India. Only a few of them, however, have had an impact on society, and some are still hard at work and serving their communities. Although our nation is rife with problems, the level of corruption and transparency is low. Several Indian NGOs have reached a certain level, and some want to expand their efforts to a larger Indian community. In the article, we are provided with detailed information about the top NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) in India, their work for India’s society, as well as their ideals. They will provide comprehensive information about NGOs and how they can achieve success.

Some of the best NGOs in India are-

  1. Smile Foundation

Smile Foundation is a non-profit organization based in New Delhi, India. The company was founded in 2002 by Santanu Mishra and operated in 25 states. Since 2017, the Foundation has reached more than 4 lakh children and their families. Smile Foundation for Education in India was dedicated to promoting education among underprivileged children. They have integrated education, health, livelihood, and inclusion of women and children equally in their development program. His programs include Smile on Wheels, Mission Education, and Smile Twin e-learning.

  • Nanhi Kali

Founded in India in 1992, Nanhi Kali supports the education of underprivileged girls. Anand Mahindra founded it in 1996. It is jointly managed by the Naandi Foundation and the KC Mahindra Education Trust, part of the Mahindra Group’s corporate social responsibility initiatives. In the long run, Project Nani Kali educated girls and women to positively influence India. “We wanted to raise global awareness about young girls in the country who have been deprived of basic rights,” Sheetal Mehta, chairman of the non-profit organization, said in an interview with the Daily News and Analysis.

  • Give India Foundation

GiveIndia is a not-for-profit organization in India. Through this platform, trustworthy non-governmental organizations throughout India can receive funding and resources through online donation channels. Through its web portal, it allows individuals worldwide to donate funds and contributions and send those funds to trusted NGOs in India.

  • Goonj

The non-governmental organization Goonj is based in Delhi, India. The organization works in 23 states of India, providing emergency relief, humanitarian aid, and community development services. Echo focuses on clothing as a basic but unheard-of need. The company was founded by Anshu Gupta in 1999. The Ramon Magsaysay Award was given to him for his work with Goonj in 2015. In 2012, Schwab Foundation, a partner organization of the World Economic Forum, named him the Social Entrepreneur of the Year. Goonj has grown from 67 garments to over 3500 tonnes of material every year. In order to qualify for foreign contribution exemption, it is registered under the Societies Act and Sections 80G, 12B, and FCRA.

Blood type

Do you know your blood type? If you haven’t been in any medical situations where blood type is important, you might not.

We know that there are 8 main blood groups that make up most of the world’s population.

But it turns out that scientists still don’t know why we evolved different blood types. And that may remain a mystery for a long time. But from now, science can at least tell you about your own blood.

Knowing your Blood type

In develops parts of the world, it’s not crucial to know your blood type off the top of your head. Doctors will typically run tests before any major procedure and if there’s any doubt in a medical emergency, you’ll most likely receive O negative blood, because that’s the universal donor blood that’s save to give to any A, B, AB or O recipient.

Blood type experiments

For thousands of years nobody really understood blood. A Greek doctor Claudius Galenus from 200 CE believed that it was created food and liver, and this school of thought lived on for nearly 1500 years.

It wasn’t until in the 17th century A british doctor named William Harvey, discovered that blood actually circulated through the body. This spawned A new age of experimentation with blood.

In 1665, an English physician successfully kept one dog alive by transfusing it with a blood of another dog. Just two years later, doctors began experimenting with Xenotransfusions. That is transfusing humans with animal blood, such a sheep. And those human patients died.

It wasn’t until 1900 that we finally realised people and animals actually have different types of blood that determine whose blood can mix with whose. That’s where different letters came into play.

If you’re type A, your immune system will perceive type B blood as an intruder and trigger auto immune response that can cause

  • kidney failure,
  • extensive blood clotting, and
  • even shock.

The reverse is true of type B blood. The immune system will attack type A.

AB blood however, accept both A and B blood without triggering the auto immune response. These things get little bit complicated when introduced there negative and positive part of your blood type. Positive can’t accept negative, but the opposite is extremely dangerous.

Other than 8 Blood types

To further complicate things scientists have discovered dozens of more blood type, such as the Duffy blood group, which can determine your susceptibility to malaria. Or the Hh blood type, which 1 in 10,000 people in India have. But the vast majority of the humans fall into this A, B, O system.

As per why humans evolved this complicated system of blood types and compatibility, we really don’t know. The original mutations are thought to date back nearly 20 million years. But whatever the biology is behind blood typing, it’s a real practical thing that matters.

It’s just not a bad idea to know your blood type. If you’re traveling somewhere that’s rural, or doesn’t have access to advance medicine, it’s good for you and your travelling companion to know your types, just in case of an accident along the way. In big emergency closer to home, blood banks often put in calls for donors of a specific type. And remember if you’re type O Negative, you’re an extremely useful universal donor. So, knowing your type can give you a peace of mind.

Your body when you Swim

Harvard medical school published a study which looked at over 40,000 men, aged 20-90 who were either runners, walkers, swimmers, and physically in active people. With an average length of 13 years of observation and in that time

  • 2% of swimmers passed away
  • 8% of runners passed away
  • 9% of walkers passed away
  • 11% of physically inactive people passed away

This study showed that swimmers are much healthier later on in life than the rest of the population and for women swimming just 30 mins a day can decrease coronary heart disease by 30 to 40 percent.

It also helps to increase HDL aka good Colestrol. Some studies have also shown that aerobic excercise can keep the cells in the lining of your arteries more flexible and healthier. Hence there is no question that swimming is an awesome form of fitness.

Body during swimming

What do you actually feel when you go into the water? Here are some main elements of the human body that gets impacted during swimming.

1. Blood

According to the America Heart Association, swimming is considered as Aerobic activity. Aerobic excercise enlarges the heart and it increases the blood flow through the entire boby. Because swimming is an excercise, the blood has to pump all the molecules into the body.

2. Heart

Since so much of blood has to be pumped into the body, that ties into how it impacts your heart because we know that after 2 mins your body goes into aerobic respiratory because your heart has to pump all the oxygenated blood through the body. So as you swim, your heart is circulating the blood which help your body to perform and achieve the required goals.

3. Skin

You must have seen that the skin color changes of swimmers. For example, some swimmers face turns red when the swim, that happens because your blood vessels are dilating and the brings the heat to the surface into the skin then some people turn red, as a result your skin is showing the effort that you’re putting in the water.

4.Muscles

There’s a reason why swimmers are considered to have best body and physiques in the world compared to any athlete, because swimming engages every single muscles in the water when it comes to your core stability, your upper body, your biceps, your hamstrings, your calves, everything is engaged when you swim.

When you’re swimming, you are micro tearing your muscles while swinging it. And the muscles requires 24-48 hrs to recover those muscles. That’s when sometimes you might feel sore.

5. Lungs

Swimming can actually help increase your lungs volume because in swimming different than other sports, you can’t actually breath whenever you want. It’s not like running when you have full access to oxygen.

In swimming you’re engaging your muscles and you’re not allowed to breathe necessarily at the time when your body might want it. So because you have to get used to this, you actually increase your Vo to max (maximum amount of oxygen body is able to use). So basically you are making your lungs more efficient at functioning.

6. Brain

The Brain loves swimming, because of all the extra blood flow moving through these endorphins that makes you more awake, alert and focus.

But this could happen in any type of sport but swimming is something really special because you’re sort of in your own world where the medium is 800 times more dense than air, which makes you feel free and relaxed.

Hence, from physical health to mental health, swimming is an incredible benefit human body and after reading this you must be thinking of trying swimming.

Being Bilingual

People have very different opinions on what bilingualism really is. For some it means speaking two languages fluently and with little to no effort rather strongly consider a person bilingual, if it has perfect pronounciation in both languages and makes very few grammatical errors while talking.

  • Illustration of language concept

The truth is that, even with a bad accent and making some mistake, being able to speak in two or more languages rather than one has practical benefits in an increasingly globalised world.

Multilingualism

Multilingualism has been shown to have many psychological and social advantages that can go something simply as

  • watching movies with no subtitles
  • to having less problems in traveling and
  • even getting a job or business opportunities specially in tourist areas.

Types of Bilingualism

It is considered to be two types of Bilingualism

1. Compound Bilingualism

Compound Bilingualism, also called addictive Bilingualism happens for example when a child is raised by bilingual parents and both languages are used in home, the child grows when both languages are used simultaneously in the same environment.

With this type of Bilingualism, the person does not see the two languages as separate it is common to hear such people speaking different languages in the same sentence or using a word of a different language from the one they’re talking to better express themselves.

2. Coordinate Bilingualism

This is the second type of Bilingualism also know as Subtractive Bilingualism. In this type, the person perceive two languages as separate because he learns them separately and in different environments in context.

I am an example of coordinate Bilingualism, most of the time i talk Hindi when I’m in my college environment or to people who talks only that language, I use the language specifically for those context but to my family members i usually talk in Bengali which is my native language, the language related to my home environment. I see these two language as separate since I learned and used them in completely different environments.

Officially Monolingual Countries

Only a few countries in the world including the U.S, England, and Australia are officially Monolingual but even in these countries only a considerable percent of people who speaking and understand more than one language.

Advantage

Researchers suggest that bilingualism can slow the advance of age-related mental issues such as Dementia and Alzheimer’s by up to 4 years.

Also in bilingual adult, brain tissue called grey matter is denser compared with Monolingual adults.

Although speaking more than one language does not necessarily make you more intelligent person, it helps stimulates and increase brain connections. Learning a new language is like an excercise to the brain that will improve your Cognitive skills and even if you grew up in a Monolingual environment, it is never too late to start learning a different language.

History of Halloween

From communion with the dead to pumpkins and pranks, Halloween is a patchwork holiday, stitched together with cultural religions and occult tradition that spans centuries.

Before Halloween

It all began with the Celts; a people whose culture had spread across Europe more than 2,000 years ago. October 31st was the day they celebrated the end of the harvest season in a festival called Soin, that night also marked as Celtic New Year and was considered a time between years; a magical time when the ghost of the dead walked the earth as called as time when the veil between death and life was supposed to be at its thinnest.

At that time the villagers would gathered and lit huge bonfires to drive the dead back to the spirit world and keep them away from the living. But as the Catholic Church’s influence grew in Europe, it frowned on the pagan rituals like sawing.

The name Halloween

In the 7th century the Vatican began to merge it with a Church sanctioned holiday. So November 1st was designed All Saints day to honor martyrs and the deceased faithful. Both of these holidays had to do with the afterlife and about survival after death, it was a calculated move, on the part of the church, to bring more people into the fold.

All Saints day was known as then Hallowmas; hallow meaning holy or saintly, so the translation is roughly mass of the saints. The night before October 31st was All Hallows eve while gradually morphed into “Halloween“.

How the holiday spread

The holiday came to America with the wave of Irish immigrants during the Potato Famine of the 1840s. The brought several of their holiday customs with them including

  • Bobbing for apples and,
  • Playing tricks on neighbors like, removing gates from the front of the houses
Irish immigrants

Trick-o-treat

The young pranksters wore masks so they wouldn’t be recognised but over the years the traditional of harmless tricks grew into outright vandalism such as in 1930s, pranks during Halloween became really holiday, as there was such a hooliganism and vandalism.

Trick-o-treat was originally a extortion deal, give candies or get your house trashed. Storekeeper and neighbors began giving treats or bribes to stop the tricks and children were encouraged to travel door-to-door for treat as an alternative to trouble making. By the late 30s trick-o-treat became a holiday greeting.

Where did Necktie came from?

The neckties, also known as decorative noose are a narrow piece of fabric designed to be worn around the neck and tied at the throat. They can be made from many materials but commonly constructed from silk or cotton.

Varieties

Today there are many different kinds of neckties:-

  • Ascot tie
  • The zipper tie
  • Clip on tie
  • The tie dye tie

So when did wrapping a piece of fabric around your neck become a formal style necessity. The length of World War to blame can partially be placed on the French Military. While humans have been tying fabric around their neck since they could sew.

History

The neckties is been known as it didn’t start crowding collars until the 17th century. King Louis XIII of France had hired Croatian mercenaries to fight for him during the 30-year war and the king was impressed by the length of cloth the Croatian used to keep their jackets together.

Croatian

Louis liked it so much that he required his entire royal court to wear them a tradition that his son will continue in his court. The trend soon spread across the French aristocracy and it wasn’t long before all of the Europe had converted to the curve at.

Tying a Necktie

There are four main ways to tie a neckties;

  1. The Four-in-hand knot
  2. The Pratt knot aka The Shelby knot
  3. Half-windsor knot
  4. The Windsor knot

According to researchers from Cambridge Cavendish Laboratory, there are 85 ways to tie a tie. Thomas Fink and Yong Mao actually use Mathematical modeling to figure this out and publish a book on their finding.

Towards the end of tie fashion

The necktie is losing its grip around the throat of male fashion. Tech companies such as Google, Amazon, and eBay actually encourage their employees to dress casually with some going as far as banning traditional office wear entirely and other companies are following suits.

Its fast become a power move to dress drown to the office in the 21st century as a statement of fellow workers, you can wear what ever you want.

Californian companies have led the charge in disrupting many common business practices, by rejecting aspects of corporate life that once seemed to given such as

  • Traditional working hours
  • Corporate hierarchies
  • Paying employees a living wage

Now politicians and even royalty are leaving tie in their dresses so it many not be long before neckties joins the history books of pointless male neck fashion.

BODY DYSMORPHIC DISORDER(BDD)

Body Dysmorphic disorder is a mental disorder marked by an obsessive of perceived defects or flaws in once appearance. A flaw that to others is considered minor or not observable.

People suffering from BDD

  1. Can feel emotion such as shame and disgust concerning a part or parts of their body part and fixate on this.
  2. The obsession is so intense that the person repeatedly checks and compares the perceived flaw seeks reassurance sometimes for several hours each day.
  3. The person can also adopt unusual routines to avoid social contact that exposes the perceived flaw.
  4. This pervasive thoughts about their appearance and body image interfere with their daily life via
    • Educational
    • Occupational dysfunction and
    • Isolation

No matter how many times people assure them that there is no flaw, they cannot accept that the issue doesn’t exist.

The most common features about which people obsess includes:-

  • Nose
  • Wrinkles
  • Acne
  • Complexion
  • Blemishes
  • Hair
  • Skin
  • Vein appearance
  • Muscles size
  • Tone
  • Breast size
  • Buttocks
  • Genitalia

BDD is estimated to affect up to 2.4% of the population. The condition usually starts during adolescence affecting both men and women. BDD does not go away on its own if Untreated it may get worse with time leading to

  • severe depression
  • Anxiety
  • Substance abuse
  • Suicidal thoughts and behavior

Causes

The exact cause is unknown, but like every other disorder BDD may result from a combination of causes such as:-

  1. Brain differences
  2. Environmental factors; special if they involve negative social evaluations about the body or Self-image
  3. Childhood trauma
  4. Genetics; studies suggest that BDD is likely to run in family.

Certain factors that may increase the risk of developing the condition may include:-

  1. A family history
  2. Negative body image
  3. Perfectionism
  4. Negative life experiences such as bullying or teasing
  5. Introversion
  6. Media influence.

Symptoms

Extreme preoccupation with a perceived flaw in your physical appearance that appear minor to others for at least one hour a day. Attempting to hide perceived flaw with –

  • styling, makeup or clothes – to seeking plastic or cosmetic surgery,
  • avoiding social situations,
  • constantly comparing appearance with others,
  • always seeking assurance about appearance from others,
  • low self-esteem, compulsive behaviour such as skin picking and frequent clothes changing.

Extreme preoccupation with an appearance that interferes with social life work, school, or other functionality.

Diagnosis

A medical evaluation will be carried out other medical conditions after which further evaluation is carried out by a mental health professional.

Diagnosis is based on:-

  1. A psychological evaluation; which aims at assessing risk factors and thoughts feeling as well as behavior can be associated with a negative self-image.
  2. Personal, medical, family and social health history.

Treatment

Treatment option may include therapy and medication includes:-

  1. Cognitive behavioral therapy; that helps you learn how to cope and behave to improve your mental health
  2. Medications; such as SSRIs may help is control obsession and control repetitive behaviours

Psychiatric hospital may be suggested if the symptom is severe such as when you’re in immediate danger of harming yourself.

Famous personality with BDD

Here is a list of people with BDD;

  • Michael Jackson(singer, dancer)
  • Billie Elish (singer)
  • Robert Pattinson (from twilight)
  • Ileana D’Cruz (from Rustom)
  • Miguel Herrán (from money heist)

History of Indian Stamps

India got independence on 15th August of 1947 assured in a new era in the history of the country but philatelist had to wait another 98 days for the release of India’s most commemorate stamp on 21st of November 1947.

First stamp

The Postal Telegraph Department however came out with a large Kashi postmarked with the slogan “Jai hind” for the occasion and letters mailed that the major post offices of the country were cancelled with this post mark.

The India’s first commemorative stamp features the Lion capital of Ashoka which had one set on the top of a column of Sarnath near Varanasi. The lion capital has since been around at the state emblem of India the denomination of the stamp was one and a half annas and an inspiration of “Jai hind” in Hindi was also depicted in the stamps.

Other stamps

Actually three stamps were planned to release at the time of Independence. The rest two stamps were released in the 15th of December 1947 with the three and a half annas stamp with portray of the national flag in tricolor Saffron on the top, white in the middle and green in the bottom.

The twelve annas stamp depicts an aircraft a symbol of the modern age. These stamps also have inscription “Jai hind” in hindi, they are also known are Jai Hind stamps.

The stamps were printed offset lithography. As the three and a half annas stamp was printed in three colors in three steps because difference in inking at different stages, because specimens having the top of the flag in deep orange or pale orange and the lower part in pale green and deep green were coming across.

Petroleum Jelly is harmful to skin

You probably have a jar of Vaseline somewhere in your house. Millions of people swear by it as a remedy for clapped lips, congestions, diaper rash and dry skin. Unfortunately the popular product is more harmful than many realise.

What is Petroleum Jelly?

Petroleum jelly, commonly known by the brand name Vaseline, is a byproduct of the oil refining process. It was originally found coating the bottom of oil rigs in the mid 1800s. As a byproduct of the oil industry, it’s an unsustainable resource and far from eco-friendly.

How does it work?

Used in everything from lotions to baby products, petroleum jelly works by creating a protective barrier on the skin to hold in moisture. The waterproof barrier it created on the skin blocks pores and can lock in residue and bacteria.

When used on a burn or a sunburn area, it locks in heat and can block the body’s ability to heal. You need to stop using Vaseline for these four reasons:

  1. It contains harmful Hydrocarbon. The skin is unable to metabolize petroleum jelly, so it sits as a barrier on the skin untill it wears off. This blocks the body from gaining any benefit from the substance. A 2011 study found strong evidence that the mineral oil hydrocarbon Vaseline contains are “the greatest contaminant of the human body”
  2. It Promotes Collagen Breakdown. Due to the barrier that petroleum jelly creates on skin, it blocks the skin ability to breathe and absorb nutrients. This can cause the skin to pull the moisture and nutrients it needs from within, leading to collagen breakdown.
  3. It can leads to Estrogen dominance. Estrogen dominance occurs when the body has high levels of estrogen and low levels of progesterone. It has linked to infertility, menstrual problems, allergies and autoimmune problems. Petroleum jelly contains chemicals called xenoestrogens which are believed to increase estrogen problems.
  4. It can cause pneumonia. Although rare, a condition known as lipid pneumonia can occur when small amounts of petroleum jelly is inhaled and build up in the lungs. Because the body can’t metabolize or breakdown the substance, a severe inflammation in the lungs can occur.

Natural Alternatives

There are several natural alternatives to petroleum jelly that you can use without worrying about health risks. If you’re looking for a simple alternative, try one of these options:-

  • Shea butter – High is vitamin A, E and F, shea butter works to nourish the skin through the beneficial fatty acids it contains. It can also help reduce inflammation and increase collagen productions.
  • Beeswax – a great alternative to petroleum jelly is Beeswax. It can be blended into homemade beauty products to protect the skin. Add it to a homemade lip balm and body cream.
  • Coconut oil – this oil loaded with health benefits. It works to nourish the skin through the fatty acids, lauric acids and anti-inflammatory compounds.
  • Coco butter – it contains antioxidants and benefits fatty acids. It may even reduce the signs of ageing.

Why does a student need to be industry ready & how they can be?

What do you mean by industry ready?

An industry expects their employees to have Non-technical skills and personal attributes such as team work, communication skills, integrity, reliability and self-motivation are considered more important than purely technical skills to get industry ready.

Importance

A study shows that 50% of the curriculum that are been taught in college/universities, by the time students will graduate, it will get auxiliated with new technologies in the market.

Let’s say for example, a product manager of a company who advertises the product, collects data and analysis the data to improve the marketing strategies of company. He can do it manually, but with time if an app is developed for this work, the company won’t be requiring any product manager.

Although degrees are important for future but it is also important to have a knowledge about what all techniques and skills that will be there in future and also to start developing those skills.

How can students be industry ready?

Here are some ways of getting industry ready:-

  1. Practical Knowledge of Doing Things:- If you can demonstrate how to implement the theoretical knowledge you have then your chances of getting hired will improve significantly.
  2. Sharpen Your Communication Skills:- If you are not able to communicate properly, your knowledge will be of little use to you.
  3. Inculcate the Habit of Innovation:- Form a habit to think out of the box, if you can provide a company with a method to save on expenditure or increase their profit, you have better chances of getting hired.
  4. Read Books and Newspapers Regularly:- Form a habit to read a newspaper or book at least half an hour daily, as this will improve your thinking process as well.
  5. Build Your Profile to Show Your Accomplishments:- One needs to be presentable and be able to exhibit his or her qualifications and capabilities convincingly.
  6. Pursue Online Courses to Hone Your Skills:- To make yourself industry ready, it is better to learn some new skills online.
  7. Work on Your Weak Areas:- The trick here is to present your weaknesses in a way that it looks profitable to the company for whom you want to work for.
  8. Learn to Organize and Manage Your Time:- It is about getting the maximum output in a given amount of time. Productivity matters a lot when you are working for a company.

So start investing more on prolonged and sustainable skills because knowledge and degrees are not going to be most required in future. This is the time to decide what is to be done and how should the steps be taken forward.

Will you take Chinese vaccine?

Made in China, accept it or not but for many of us this label has become synonymous with low cost and low quality. So how true is the stereotype and what has Chinese done to deserve such a bad reputation? Well the list goes long, the latest item is vaccine.

China has sold vaccines to the World which may not be working. It is currently exporting vaccine to 43 countries with:-

  • a total of 742 million doses that have been sold,
  • 22 million doses have been donated,
  • 262 million doses have been delivered.

China is exporting 3 major vaccines:-

  1. Sinovac
  2. CanSino BIO
  3. Sinopharm

But do these vaccines even work? Let’s look at some of the countries those have received Chinese vaccines.

Mongolia

In Mongolia, more than half of the population is fully vaccinated but daily infection has risen by more than 70% in the last 2 weeks, and they’re using the Chinese vaccine Sinopharm. No doubt Mongolians are questioning the effectiveness of the Chinese vaccine.

Bahrain

Bahrain an Asian country is witnessing a surge. There’s a sharp rise in the number of infections and this dispite of high levels of inoculation. How will China explain this? China’s Sinopharm vaccine, accounts for 60% of the inoculation. Bahrain is now administering a Pfizer booster shot for those who have received both doses of vaccine.

Seychelles

Seychelles of East Africa, 61% of the population have been vaccinated with just 100,000 of people. This island nation has the highest vaccination cover globally. It’s daily average cases rose up to 400 with 37% of the fresh infections reported in fully vaccinated people. This is the result of the Chinese vaccine they’re using which is Sinopharm.

UAE

The United Arab Emirates has vaccinated more than 38% of the population with more than 51% have received first dose and yet daily new cases exceeded to 1700. And they are also using the vaccine Sinopharm that was received from China and UAE is also questioning the efficacy of the Chinese vaccine and also giving a Pfizer booster shot to Sinopharm recipient.

Countries who have refused

Philippines

In the month of May, the Philippines President apologized and asked China to take away Sinopharm vaccine back. He sent back the doses because Chinese cure is unproven.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has also refused to recognise certificates of Sinovac and Sinopharm. It is recommending Pfizer and AstraZeneca instead.

Do Chinese vaccines works in China

There’s a fresh out break of new infections that are been reported in the Guangdong province of China. Guangdong with its capital Guangzhou, accounting of 90% of the confirmed cases. Health authorities of the capital blames the delete variant which was first identified in India. A strict lockdown has been composed there overseas arrivals are being quarantined, million have forced to indoors.

Hence its proven that the rumours of China had conquered the pandemic was false. The virus is unpredictable, it keeps spreading. Vaccines are not full proof in preventing infections but if one vaccine has repeatedly proven ineffective then it’s time for some reflection.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Narcissistic personality disorder or NDP is a personality disorder characterized by grandiosity. You may see it in people who have an inflated ego, with little regards to others. It is important to note that NDP is a psychiatric condition, and it is more complex than simply being arrogant. It’s distressing for those who have it and for those who’re around them. Hoping to shed some light on the condition, and sign that a person should seek help. While much of T.V and movies portray narcissism as people who feel like they’re better than everyone else, it’s usually not just the case.

What is narcissism?

Narcissism is a set of traits classified and studied by psychologists. The psychological definition of narcissism is an inflated, grandiose self-image. To varying degrees, narcissists think they’re better looking, smart and more important than other people and that they deserve special treatment.

Psychologists recognize two form of narcissism as personality traits:

  • Grandiose
  • Vulnerable

What is NDP?

  • NPD is a personality disorder in which the person feels self-important and craves constant validation.
  • Their feelings of superiority often hint at a deeper problem.
  • As their need of validation often comes from a place of insecurity and instability rather than genuine self love which they may not be aware of.

What causes NPD?

  1. While the cause of NPD is unknown, researchers believe that it has to do with a combination of genetic and environmental factors.
  2. It’s believed that 6% of people have this disorder. Men have a higher chance of this disorder than women.
  3. Some believe that NPD is developed to cope with trauma and feelings of inadequacy. Others believe it may be learned in early childhood from dealing with anything, from abuse to excessive pampering.
  4. There is even a debate as to how much of the disorder is passed down from parents to children acquiring the disorder.

What are the signs and Symptoms?

The feeling of grandiosity where they feel that they’re superior to others and low empathy are often seen in those with NPD; they don’t care much for others expecting to receive constant validation.

  • People with NPD feel as though they’re entitled to whatever they want which can be dangerous as it can manifest into toxic relationships.
  • They may manipulate others to get what they want.
  • They brag and exaggerate their achievements or feel envious of anyone that outperforms them, but deep down the person with NPD may be really dealing with their own feeling of inadequacy.

How to get help?

  • People with NPD may not seek help for the disorder itself as they may not know that there’s an issue.
  • Usually, people are diagnosed because they seek treatment for other issues such as depression or addiction.

However people who feel that they may have the condition and urged to reach out for help. NPD and the underlying feelings of inadequacy can be treated. It not only benefits the individual, but also to people around them.

What treatment options are available?

People diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder will most likely work with a therapist using psychotherapy methods.

Other self-improving activities such as:-

  • Doing exercises and,
  • Hobbies may be used in conjunction with therapy.

Coming to a conclusion, we do live in a very materialistic and Consumersious society and as long as that’s the case, narcissism is going to win because it’s about putting yourself first and not caring as much about others. Not to mention people with NPD can be very generous when it’s going to get them what they need. They may buy everyone big dinners and take everyone on a big vacation so it creates this illusion that there’s lots of people all around them, because it’s all the stuff that they’re making possible for them. It’s important to know that treatment is available and that life can be made more manageable.

Story of Cellular Jail of India

You might have heard about the deadliest punishment that one could never wonder in their dreams. It is also known by the name Kala paani ki saza or by the name The black water punishment. So why is this jail different from other jails?

Emergence

During the colonial rule, Britishers got short of places where they could keep and punish the freedom fighters and political activists who were emerging against them. So they made single cellular jail punishment there they can punish the freedom fighters. In the year 1896, Britishers decided to build this jail on Andaman & Nicobar islands and in the year 1906 it was completed.

It was named as “cellular jail” because every jailer was kept in a single cell, so that the one jailer could not talk to others. As the jailers were freedom fighters so if they communicate somehow they will be able to find a way out. The cellular jail is also on an island which is surrounded by water so that the jailer won’t ran way.

The Punishment

The cellular jail wasn’t any normal jail it was like an experimental jail for the Britishers which involved torture, medical tests, forced labor and also some of these punishment which are unimaginable. The Britishers used to send freedom fighters to 1300 km across the water to the Andaman & Nicobar islands. It was so far away from India that people would die even on the boat voyage. So if the prisoners made it that far, they were kept in the cells which were designed for solitary confinement.

The cells of the jail is made up of brick and concrete where there is no toilet, the jailers were allowed to go to the toilet in the morning and at night and the rest of the time they were just locked in the cell. They prisoners were also forced to do labor like to extract 30 pounds of coconut oil and 10 pounds of mustard oil in a day. And if they don’t, then they have to face the consequences by beating up with iron rods while they are chained in iron chains.

Britishers in their own jail

In the year 1944, Japanese came to India and invaded the Islands and took over. The Japanese prisoned the Britishers in their own prison. As per Mahatma gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore’s demand the Indian prisoners were set free.

After the Japanese lost in World War II, they had to retreat, and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands became India’s part when it got independent in the year 1947.

After independence the cellular jail was declared as a National Memorial which is now a tourist place for all. There is also a Museum where you can get to know about all the freedom fighters along with their stories.

Pollution causes blindness

Air pollution is a global malice. It destabilzes the climate, punishes our lungs and now according to a new study could possibly affect our eye sight or might make you blind.

The research was published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, it analysed 115,000 participants over 14 years. At the start of the study in 2006, these people have no eye problems but in the latest medical examination , 1,286 of them reported A.M.D (Age related Macular Degeneration). It is the leading cause of blindness among the people aged 50+ in rich nations. There are 200 million people living with this condition.

There appears to be a link between A.M.D and air pollution. People exposed to fine particulate matter are more vulnerable to A.M.D, nearly 8% vulnerable and this isn’t from industry level exposure. Even relatively low level of air pollution could be triggering A.M.D.

Effect on eye sight

The eyes have particularly high flow of blood. This leaves them vulnerable fine particles that flow through the body. It’s important to note that this study is observational. It cannot categorically establish a link between air pollution and A.M.D. However there has been similar study elsewhere with the same results. And the link between smoking and A.M.D has always been known.

The threat from air pollution has always been clear, but new studies are revealing more dimensions of this threat.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that air pollution contributes to 7 Million deaths annually. This leaves us with another cause of concern, toxic air could leave you blind.

History of Dentistry

From brushing and flossing to straightening and whitening, people today put a lot of work into maintaining a health and appearance to their smile. The current trend is for straight, pearly white teeth. But history of dental care stretches all the way back to the beginning of human society.

Ancient ways of cleaning teeth

Prehistoric humans who lived before the advert of oral care actually had very few dental problems. Scientists believe this is on account of their diet, which consisted of unprocessed fibrous foods that help clean their teeth while they ate. However as human evolved, so did the food on menu. Overtime, people found if they didn’t take care of their teeth, they developed dental problems.

Archaeology found evidence that early humans cleaned their teeth by picking at them with things like porcupine quills, animal bones, and tree twigs.

In earlier 3,500 BCE, Mesopotamians were using chew sticks to clean their teeth. Egyptian and Chinese have known to use them as well.

Tooth Decay

Ancient people were always aware of the tooth decay. But the first known scientific theory about its causes dates back at least 5,000 years, to Ancient Sumeria. The theory was that cavities were caused by a creature known as the tooth worm, which they believed would wore holes in teeth.

Cavities can actually resemble the kinds of holes that the worms bore through other materials, like wood. The Sumerians, Greeks, Egyptian, Chinese, Japanese, and Indian people all believed in the tooth worm. Some European doctors were still warning people that worms were the cause of their tooth decay as late as the 14th century.

First Toothbrush

Though no one knows exactly when people started brushing their teeth, archeologists believed the practice originated somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 BCE. The Babylonians and the Egyptians were the first cultures we know of to fashion rudimentary toothbrushes, which were made mostly from twigs.

The first used bristle toothbrush was created in China sometime during the Tang dynasty, between the 7tg and 10th centuries. It was made from hog bristles which would have been attached to a handle carved from bone or bamboo.

Explorers eventually brought these to the West. And in the 17th century, they began to be adopted in Europe.

New trend

In modern times, the dental ideal is considered to be a bright smile with straight white teeth. People will wear braces, use whiteners, to achieve the look. But most didn’t realise, its a relatively new fashion.

The popularity of look really only goes back to the 20th century and was greatly created by Hollywood movies. The trend, arguably, began their veneers, created by cosmetic dentist named Marcus Pincus in the 1940s. It was spotted by movie stars, like Shirley Temple and Judy Garland, who became famous for perfect smiles.

Judy Garland

While mass market teeth whitening products didn’t became a thing until the 1980s, teeth whitening itself is nothing new.

Introducing Skateboarding in Olympics

In recent history, skateboarding has become a pop culture phenomenon. We see it in everything, from T.V advertisements to fashion shows. And for the first time ever, skateboarding will be introduced in the 2020 summer Olympics. But, skateboarding hasn’t always had the mass appeal we see today.

Brief history

Sometime in the late 1940s or early 1950s, skateboarding was born out of the boredom of surfers when the waves were no good. They would remove the wheels from the roller skates and attach them to a piece of wood to create a skateboard.

By the 1960s, skateboarding’s popularity has grown with rise of surf culture. Contest were held all over and the first sponsored skateboarders were beginning to emerge. However, the popularity of skating in the 60’s dropped just as fast as it rose.

The 1970’s brought along one with the most important changes to the skateboarding world, the advent of the Urethane wheel, which allows skaters to ride faster are over rougher types of ground than ever before.

In 1976, a horrible drought in southern California forced most homeowners with backyard swimming pools to drain them, giving way to birthplace of pool skating. This was the first major shift in how people rode there skateboards. No longer were they limited to the abysmal, flat grounds of parking lots and sidewalks.

The 1980s were a time of Renaissance in skateboarding. People were constantly inventing new tricks, pros were earning unheard of amounts if money, and skateboarder-own companies were thriving.

The vert

The favourable terrain for most of this era was vert. And even though there was a high level of progression occurring, to the untrained eye, skateboarding had gone stale and the popularity once again fell flat.

This lull in skateboarding led to the introduction of street skating which brings us into the 1990s. Skating during the era was at its most raw. Skaters took to the streets, to find new terrain, abandoning traditional skaters parks for something that felt more natural and could be done anywhere, by anyone.

Popularity

Skating things that occur almost anywhere, like sets of stairs, handrails, benches, curbs, and just about anywhere four wheels can roll. From there, skateboarding has been a nonstop, uphill climb to what it is today.

At its core, skateboarding has traditionally been for the underdogs, the outcasts, the misfits, and in result has been thought of negatively by a large major of its existence. But now, with generation of young adults who grew up with skateboarding and the exposure at an all-time high, the future of skateboarding is looking bright.

Mountain of light: Kohinoor

Kohinoor, which means mountain of light, is a colourless Diamond which was discovered in the mines of Guntur in Andhra Pradesh somewhere in the 13th century. It was the biggest Diamond ever known to mankind during that time.

Currently, this Diamond is embedded in the Queen’s Mother’s crown. Governments of India, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan have all claimed the ownership of this Diamond, but the UK governments has denied it stating that it was obtained legally.

Journey

Kohinoor has rich history behind it, though it is generally believed that this Diamond was discovered in 13th century during the kakatiya dynasty rule. There are scholars who dispute saying that the Diamond was discovered in the 16th century in Golconda. Kohinoor was taken by Alauddin Khilji who’s army defeated the Kakatiya dynasty.

It was with the Mughals most of the time after it’s discovery. However, Mughal lost the battle against Nadirshah in 17th century. It was Nadirshah who took the diamond from the Mughals and named it Kohinoor. After Nadirshah’s death, the diamond was passed on to Ahmad Shah Durrani who was his General.

After that Kohinoor was later gifted to Ranjit Singh by the Durrani dynasty during early 18th century. However, British East India Company defeated Ranjit Singh’s army in mid 18th century and took possession of this Diamond. Kohinoor was later shipped to Britain and the diamond was gifted to Queen Victoria in 1850 and Kohinoor has been in possession of the Royal Family since then.

Cursed?

An ancient Hindu text describe this diamond as

He who owns the diamond will own The World, but will also know all its misfortunes. Only God and women can wear it with impunity.

Well by the consequences that we have seen so far it is quite evident that whoever has owned this diamond we’re either defeated or died.

  • Kakatiya dynasty (original owner) defeated by Alauddin Khilji
  • Alauddin Khilji died shortly after that and the diamond was passed on to Mughals.
  • Mughals lost the war to Nadirshah weakening their army.
  • Nadirshah died while Kohinoor was in his possession.
  • Ahmad Shah Durrani died while Kohinoor was in possession.
  • Ranjit Singh had Kohinoor with him when he lost the war with British.
  • British Empire started losing hold on its colonies including India when they had Kohinoor

This supposedly curse of Kohinoor in Britain. Only the Queen is allowed to wear the Kohinoor diamond. Men are prohibited in using it. With such a history of blood and violence behind it, no wonder this diamond has generated more curiosity in people over a period of time. We might not know if this diamond will come back to India, but the bigger question is will this be a blessing of disguised for India.

Why India can’t have an Official Language

Our Home Minister Amit Shah mentioned about promoting one nation, one language in one of his tweets in 2019. He also added that it should not be done at the cost of other languages. Some of us might know that 14th September is celebrated as Hindi Diwas in our country. So why can’t we have Hindi as an official language?

Critics

After Amit Shah statement, critics said that if Hindi becomes the official language, then other languages like malayalam, tamil, telugu and more, will lost their importance. South Congress leader Jairam Ramesh also said “this one nation, one language will never be a reality” because it will never be easy to have a common language in India.

Also in the New Education Policy (NEP) draft in the year 2019, Hindi was asked to make mandatory in every state. This was also criticized by the South Indian governments and they refused to dilute the state’s two language formula. This resulted in changing the draft and not to have Hindi as an official language.

Steps taken

India is a big nation, so there should be a language that will represent India on world stage. Talking about Hindi, it is spoken in India, Fiji, Suriname, Mauritius, Trinidad, Tabogo and Guyana. So India is working actively to have Hindi recognised as an official language of the UN.

Advantage of having an official language

A Chinese research concluded that

  1. When we have an official language, it can even help to eliminating poverty. As China have experience in fight poverty so we can also learn the power of having an official language.
  2. China also mentioned that an official language also helps in having communicate without any language barrier.
  3. Official language also help to built unity among the citizens
  4. Also helps when people migrate from one city to another, as they can communicate in the same language.

Disadvantage of having an official language

According to the 2001 Census, 41% of India population are native speaker of Hindi dialect. But what about 59% of the population who are non – Hindi speakers? Politician Shashi Tharur said

India should not even try to add Hindi to the list of official language of UN because what if in future our PM is from South part of India and does not speak Hindi, then how will he give speech in Hindi on behalf of India.

But apart from all these we still agree that there should be an official language for a country to function.

As per as official language is concerned,

  1. English is also been promoted in India. Promoting English can result in heavy school fees, as we’ll have to teach the whole population to speak English.
  2. Enough English teacher will also be required and if not then it won’t be successfully become the official language.
  3. This will also result in neglecting the weaker section of the society who won’t be able to speak English and their career opportunity will get affected.

Eventually we need to figure out to take a right decision about official language and keeping in mind of the consequences that could possibly be in long terms situations.

Banned cartoons and their reasons

You may have came across the word “ban” Or “censored’ used in movies, but do you know these terms are also used for some cartoons in some countries which are liked by other countries. Let’s have a look at some popular cartoons which are banned in some countries and their reasons.

1. SpongeBob SquarePants

This is the longest running Nickelodeon show ever. It got banned because of violence and foul language which are used in this show. Countries like Russia, America and 120 others have banned this show from watching.

2. The Simpsons

This is America’s most popular cartoon show till now. This show had scenes where public figures like Donald Trump, were insulted. This show also promoted disorderly behavior which were totally misleading for kids. After sometime, the show is now available to watch, but there has been argument going on this show as countries like US have censored this cartoon show.

3. Mickey Mouse

This is world’s first cartoon show which had voice, and the first word that Mickey Mouse said was “Hot Dogs”. This cartoon show got banned in 1930s in the Romanian region because Romania government stated that big Mouse in this cartoon will scare the kids rather than making them laugh.

4. Doremon

This is a Japanese cartoon show which is ban in more than 50 countries because of the character Nobita. The Nobita character is a lazy character who always depends upon the character Doremon for helping gadgets. An argument concluded that the Nobita character was promoting laziness, procrastinating, etc, which resulted in banning.

Cartoon shows should be developed keeping kids as their main audience. It should have the simplicity and cleanness that attract audience and also focusing on the impact and effect that it’ll leave mainly on audience. That’s why shows that promotes foul language can always make a big effect on kids. This makes banning a healthy and better option.

Why do Insectivorous plants exist?

If you find insectivorous plants strange and fascinating then this blog is for you.

What are insectivorous plants?

Insectivorous plants are those plants that derive some nutrients by trapping and consuming animals, mainly insects.

Categories of being insectivorous

There are essential two things that a plant has to do to be considered insectivorous:-

  1. Ability to take nutrients from dead prey:- a plant should have the ability to trap the prey and absorb nutrients from it. Those prey is usually insects or small vertebrates like, salamanders. It is not enough for the plant just to have defenses that can kill an animal that’s trying to snack on it. It also has to get it’s animal’s nutrients.
  2. At least have one adaption:- the plant need to have one adaption that actively lures in, catches, or digests it’s prey.

Doing at least one of these things and absorbing the nutrients for it’s benefit make it a insectivorous plant.

Plant traps

Over millions of years and across hundreds of species, plants have developed five different types of traps, most of them are from different times. And traps can be passive, if prey just fall into them and can’t escape, or active, if plant actually moves to catch its prey.

  1. Pitcher plant:- pitfall traps are the standard and passive trap used by plants like pitcher plants. Prey lands on the plants slippery surface and slides down into a pool of digestive juices.
  2. Sundews:- these are flypaper traps in which the prey become stuck in a sticky substance that is produced by the plant leaves. These traps can be passive as well as active. Sundews have sticky moving tentacles that react to contract with prey.
  3. Venus fly trap:- these are snap traps which are active, using rapid modified leave
  4. Bladderworts: they have bladder-suction. This creates little negative pressure vacuum inside their traps, which, when triggered by prey, pop open and suck the victim inside before snapping close.
  5. Lobster-pot trap:- they passive traps that force prey to move towards the plant’s digestive organ by having little inward pointing hairs that keep prey from moving backward out of the trap.
Venus fly trap
Lobster-pot trap
Bladderworts
Sundew
Pitcher plant

All of these unrelated plants have not only developed the same kinds of traps but it looks like they have also developed that same molecular mechanism for digesting their prey.

Reason of existence

It goes back to idea of convergent evolution. All these different insectivorous plants are responding to similar environmental pressure:-

  1. Found in open sunny places that have moist but nutrients – poor – acidic soil. Many of them live in bogs and fens.
  2. In these kind of habitat where nitrogen and phosphorus is not present in the soil, the plant tend to developed two kinds of leaves one for normal photosynthesis and one that are modified onto their particular type of trap.
  3. This results them to invest more in modified leaves than normal photosynthesis leaves as they have to live in a place with enough sunlight as well as to trap preys

Insectivorous plants can stop paying carnivorous temporally once they’re put in nutrients rich soil and if they don’t get enough sunlight and water.

Insectivorous plants are pretty rare and they are only found in certain kinds of habitats, they are just less likely to fossilize than other kinds of plants that are more widespread.

Sleepwalking

Did you ever Sleep walked? Here’s what I came to know that every 1 out of 3 kids aged between 4 to 8, sleep walk. And that’s a lot by the way.

Sleep walking formally known as Somnambulish is a strange phenomena where people get up and do things in their sleep, sometimes more than just walking and when they wake up they don’t have any recollection of what they were doing. Moreover, if they find way back to their bed they may not ever know that they were sleep walking.

Sleep walking is nothing about embarrassed about though or terrified for that matter, it’s relatively common. In a recent study Stanford found that 1 out of 3 people sleep walk at some point of their lives. It is specially common among children, between the age of 4 and 8. So what happened when we sleep walk.

Reasons

A leading theory about why we sleep walk is:-

  • In normal sleep cycle, your brains motor system continues to issue physical commands to the body.
  • Whereas those who sleep walks are suppressed by sleep chemical called GABA.
  • GABA access act as a break in your brain, it brings your mind and body down to rest by neutralizing Glutamate a chemical that causes excitement.
  • In sleep walkers there’s a glitch in the process that suppresses your boby from moving around namely that you don’t produce GABA.

So that’s why you are moving around when you’re still asleep. There are few causes of GABA deficient in the body:-

  1. Genetic sleepwalking :- when sleepwalking runs in the family
  2. Underdeveloped system:- when the boby simply hasn’t matured enough to produce the proper amount. That’s why it is more common amongst kids.
  3. Depression:- Those who suffer from depression are three times as likely to sleep walk.

Myths

You would have probably heard about the myth that you shouldn’t wake a sleepwalker because they’re going through a psychotic rage that could even kill you. But these are myths, if you see anyone sleepwalking, you are asked to wake them up gently, especially if they are in the kitchen or holding a knife.

Recently there was a story about a lady who drove 190 miles in her sleep without hurting or killing herself or anyone. She should be definitely called lucky.

Are you a Smartphone Zombie?

Few days back i saw a question on a site asking “I want to put my phone aside and study, but i’m not able to do it? Is there any I can get rid of it?”

Well we can say that we all faced this phase where we get too much addicted to Mobile phone and couldn’t keep it aside and focus on other works. A research recently released the details of a study which told us where in the world was the biggest Smartphone penetration:-

  1. South Korea
  2. Australia
  3. Israel
  4. U.S
  5. Spain
  6. U.K

But this doesn’t mean that people in this countries are using mobile phones all the time. Based on a 2016 study led by Statistica, it does look like people in those countries might fall into the category of smartphone zombies. The study also said that

  • Brazilian spend the most hours on average connected to a smartphone as 4 hr 48 mins per day.
  • Chinese spend the most hours on average 3 hours 3 mins
  • Followed by U.S 2 hours 37 mins
  • Italy 2 hours 34 mins
  • Spain 2 hours 11 mins
  • South Korea 2 hours 10 mins

One thing range true for all countries in the study, and that was the fact time spent on a smartphone for the average person was up quite a lot from 2012 to 2016.

It’s not totally people’s fault that we are addicted to the smartphones. We have this exciting thing in our pocket that flashes, beeps and invites us to use it. NPR in 2018 talked about this manipulative object we carry around with us, that is just so irresistible. The story mentions Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov, and what we know as Pavlov’s dog. The psychologist one day realised that when his dog heard a bell or a buzzer, he knew it was feeding time, thereby associate with a sound to eating, which led to the dog drooling and looking excited.

Modern psychologist tells us this is what is happening to us when we hear a beep or a ding inside our pocket; we become excitable, like Pavlov’s dog. Our reward is coming, and we get a hit of dopamine and we want more. We check our phone on average every 15 mins and that make the tech use psychological tricks to keep us checking in.

All the time spent checking in may affect our sleep, our relationship, our work, or even all the creative things we might do to have a flourishing existence. Psychologist tend to agree we should be checking in less, and tech producers need to start thinking about creating less powerful digital drugs. But that isn’t easy because as most people now need those beeps and likes, and need to feel that they are not missing out on something.

Experts even states that putting your phone down, you may experience withdrawal symptoms, such as craving, restlessness, irritability or difficulty in concentrating. So from now on you might turn off notifications, have a plan for the day and stick to it, take off the apps you really don’t need as that might lead to a kind of app surfing. In general, not many people are against these technologies, but we should be focusing on what we might call device quality time, educating ourselves and being productive and creative.

Attraction

Ever thought why do we get attract to someone? Well everyone has different answer to it. For some it can be the way one look, smiled, walk or may be their was an unusual aura around that one.

What is attraction?

Attraction, especially in a romantic way, is a complex process that take place in our brains, and has had it’s roots since it’s beginning of the humankind. It’s our minds way of telling us who has the potential to be our partner, our friend, or even our soulmate, and is based on a complex blend of our interest, values, experience, and desire. Physical and romantic attraction, which are often focused on, are only small facets of a much larger equation.

Psychologist look at the ingredients of attraction is in a form of pyramid, split into 4 different sections.

The base of the pyramid is made up of health and status:-

  • Status – 1. internal (confidence, self set, beliefs) 2. External (person’s job, possession and appearance.
  • Health – Physical attributes, smell, basic level of intelligence.

If the potential partners passes these initial requirements then we move to the center of the pyramid, which are the emotional factors:- includes

  • trust comfort someone wants,
  • their emotions intelligence, and
  • unique characteristics.

The final portion of the pyramid is “Logic”.This is the part that differentiate us from other animals, and is the part where our brains seriously

  • considers whether we are totally compatible for that person.
  • It ensure that the other person is aligned with us in term of what they want – things such as marriage, children, even the city they want to live.

According to this model, the more alignment there is, the more attraction there is, but it doesn’t always have to follow from bottom to top – like online dating.

What makes someone Attractive?

The answer to this questions make come to our mind is physical traits. Due to the influence of media, we tend to favor women who is younger, and more feminine features, in men on the other side, qualities such as broad shoulders, a deep voice, and strong jawline are highly upon.

Scientists suggest that, these also have an evolutionary origin because these traits are associated with a higher chance of producing health offspring and passing of good genes. Also, values, culture, and the environment, that we grow in also plays an important role.

Hence, attractiveness is complex, there’s a number of different perspective to consider, and at the end of the day, there’s very little we can choosing who we are attracted to. As each person looks for unique set of traits and, while physical traits are often focused there are far more factors that come into play. A person’s upbringing, behavior and even lifestyle have major influence. The most important thing to remember is to be happy and make the most of it.

Zero Waste During Lockdown.

The Corona virus pandemic has swept over the planet and with it has brought about concepts like quarantine and social distancing which were earlier seen only in films. The lockdown that is widely being followed all over the world has not been the easiest time for people. With no provision to step out of the house, markets aren’t functioning and economies are crashing. A common man would wonder, ‘How am I supposed to help out, when I am locked inside my own house?’

Your miniscule contributions to the society, can massively assist the authorities and the paramedical staff in this time of need. A major step you can take during this quarantine period is to ensure that the waste produced in your home is minimized. In India alone, 21 million tonnes of food is wasted every year. This wasted food is often treated with plastic waste leading to emission of methane gas in a large quantity. While a life-threatening disease is upon the earth, one must not forget another crisis that is underway, that of global warming. Dealing with the COVID-19 gives us no excuse to forget caring for nature. The small roles we play at our house can make a huge impact outside.

How has Pandemic increased Waste Production?

The Corona Virus has forced the government to take some drastic measures. The shutting up of all non-essential shops across the country was the first of many shocks. People were advised to reduce their trips to the market in order to encourage social-distancing. Lots of families misunderstood this message and hoarded up on supplies to minimize their trips to the market. This uncalculated decision made by the people has led to the wastage of food on a large scale. The pandemic has led to the limitation of a few commodities and we cannot afford to waste even the slightest of food.

1. Buying Smart

The first step in moving towards a zero-waste lifestyle is to by only the amount of food you will require. Hoarding should be thoroughly discouraged as it is the main cause of waste production. The limited number of supplies means that the food you waste could have actually filled the stomach of a person in need.

2. Proper Storage

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In these testing times, you never know, when even a single loaf of bread could be useful. Hopefully, the situation won’t get to such an extremity but storing items should still be a priority. Keep food items in cool and covered places to ensure that they are not spoiled. This could immensely reduce the amount of waste being produced at your place.

3. Use Items before they Expire

About 40% of the food produced in the country is thrown into the trash, uneaten. During the lockdown period, try and have a basic idea of the expiry dates all food items in your home. It is essential to make sure that no sort of canned or packaged food is kept win your house past its expiry date. Make sure that you have completely finished an item before going out to buy more. An interesting fact about packaged food is that some of it is safe to consume even after its ‘best before’ date. Check on the internet to find out if the can in your store room is still safe to consume. If not make sure it is disposed off correctly. Separate the food item from its packaging before throwing it away in two separate bins.

4. Utilize the Leftovers

The most important aspect of living a zero-waste life is to ensure that your leftovers are put to good use. Segregation into two different bins is an ideal way to dispose off leftover food. The only problem lying with this situation is that many garbage trucks and cleaners just pile all the garbage into one huge bag regardless of its recycling and ecological properties. The perfect way to deal with this problem would be to use the leftover food as compost.

People often avoid using compost as it is a long and slightly difficult process. The quarantine makes it a perfect time to finally do something good for the environment. Before creating compost make sure that you are doing it right. There are a lot of factors that need to be considered before generating a manure in your kitchen. Use proper tips and techniques from professionals for optimal results.

5. Mini Farming

Now that you have composed manure just from your wasted food, it is time to put that compost to good use. Indoor farming is not easy and it requires care and time but it is not necessary for you to own a huge balcony or a garden. You can grow vegetables even in the small terrace of your house. There are families around India who have become completely self-sufficient. Shilpa and Nitin, a couple based in the traffic heavy Bengaluru, grow more than 50 vegetables in their small balcony. Just one small pot for each type of vegetable is enough to sustain a family of four. The food they consume is from their own balcony and the waste produced in their home is used as manure to grow more vegetables. This ecological cycle can have a huge positive impact on the environment.

6. Eat Healthy

Perhaps the most underestimated way to reduce food wastage is to eat healthy. Junk food, has a much faster rate of decay when compared to fresh vegetables and fruits. Having a balanced and planned diet can help you minimize the amount of waste you generate. If you do not have the provision to create compost and farm in your balcony, you can start by eating healthy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has not been an easy time of us. Para medical staff and nurses are working overtime to ensure that we are safe the least we can do is reduce the burden on the planet. Correct utilization of leftovers and controlled generation of waste will make sure that the country has ample supply of food for the poor and needy. Play your part in the quarantine by changing to a zero-waste lifestyle.

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A Guide to Introverts

Do you know people who are too shy to interact or speak up, who prefer their own company and actually enjoy it? It often leaves people with personality traits different than that of introverts, befuddled to see introverts having the time of their lives- alone!

Here is a write up to help you understand more about introverted people.

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“Telling an introvert to go to a party is like telling a saint to go to Hell.”

-Criss Jami, Killosophy

Introduction to Introverts

Merriam Webster defines introversion as the state of or tendency toward being predominantly concerned with and obtaining gratification from one’s own mental life.

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Introvert is one of the, basic personality types according to the theories of the 20th-century Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. According to these theories, an introvert is a person whose interest is generally directed inward toward his own feelings and thoughts.

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The typical introvert is shy, contemplative, and reserved and tends to have difficulty adjusting to social situations. Excessive daydreaming and introspection, careful balancing of considerations before reaching decisions, and withdrawal under stress are also typical of the introverted personality.

Takeaway:

  • In simpler words, introversion is the state of being shy and quiet, and preferring to be alone than in company of people.
  • Introverts are people whose character traits are marked by signs of introversion. These are the quiet, observant wallflowers who stick to the corners than the limelight.
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Fun Fact:

Scientifically, introverts are highly sensitive to dopamine (feel good hormone) and large quantities of it can make them overstimulated as opposed to extraverts.

Signs of Introversion

  • They prefer to be alone than seek company.
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  • Too much socializing often drains them of their energy.
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  • They may prefer writing over vocalising things. They are often not great talkers.

“Writing is something you do alone. Its a profession for introverts who want to tell you a story but don’t want to make eye contact while doing it.”

John Green
  • They may fear social confrontations and speaking in large groups due to a fear of humiliation.
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  • They usually have a public and private self.
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  • They tend have impeccable ability of concentration and can concentrate for long periods of time.
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  • They usually have a small circle of friends.
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  • They tend to need time for decision making and are likely to struggle with overthinking.
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  • They mentally rehearse before speaking.
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  • They are in constant need of privacy
  • They tend to be observant and pick up things by observing them.
  • Vulnerable to bouts of anxiousness or social anxiety.
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Conclusion:

Some people enjoy their own company, some people are apprehensive in sharing everything about themselves, some people prefer solicitude, some people prefer to speak less, some people don’t open up to others or take time.

Prodding people to come out of a place that you deem lonely might not always be the brightest idea. Don’t become energy vampires, draining people of their energy.

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Give introverts the berth they need to thrive and grow.

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citation: https://www.britannica.com/science/introvert

Countries that haven’t reported a Single case of Covid-19.

Most of the world has been struggling to contain COVID-19. The disease which was first reported in China, has become a global pandemic that many countries are still trying to get under control. But a hand full of nation have not reported a single case of COVID-19 to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Most are in southern and central area of Pacific ocean.

  1. Federated States of Micronesia
  2. The Marshall Islands
  3. Naru
  4. The Solomon Islands
  5. Vanuatu
  6. Tuvalu
  7. Kiribati
  8. Samoa
  9. Niue
  10. Tonga
  11. The Cook Islands
  12. Palau

These small islands are all technically Covid-19 free. Health experts these 12 countries escaped the pandemic because of a combination of remoteness, small number of people as their combined population adds up to just 1.6 million and because they closed borders when the Corona virus that causes Covid-19 began to spread widely. But just because they haven’t reported any Corona virus cases, does not mean these nations have entirely dodged the effect of the pandemic.

Tourism plays a major role in the economics of most of these countries. And as in many around the world, a lack of visitors has left hotels and restaurants struggling. The owner of the hotel says since March 2020 they have lost their whole business and have zero income.

Palau is one of the island nation feeling the economic pain of Covid-19. Streets that are normally bustling with visitors from abroad have been all but empty for months. With no guests, hotel in the country have also had to make serious cuts. A hotel owner says

No one in our hotel is making their full salary. Most people are 50% or below. Everybody is feeling the pain as thers is no economic opportunity left.

The Palau government recognized early on the economic toll of shutting it’s borders to foreigners. He says

Our capacity, our reality a situation here its that you’re better of with prevention than trying to do something about it later on. So, it became a question of economics or people’s lives, and the right thing to do for anybody in this world is to consider people’s lives.

The Government provided generous subsidies of up to US $10,000 for local people and a few hundred dollars for foreign workers affected by the halt in tourism. Not all Pacific countries rely on tourism as a main driver for their economies.

Countries like Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia rely on fishing and farming and financial aid from the US. But with limited health care facilities and population spread across many islands, the nation’s priority has been keeping COVID-19 from their shores and educating citizens about thorough handwashing, social distancing and other precautionary measures.

Other than Island Nations

In addition to these tiny island nations, there are other countries that haven’t reported a single case of COVID-19 to the WHO: North Korea and Turkmenistan.

North Korea closed its borders in January 2020 and it’s leader Kim Jung-un has repeatedly said the disease is a “potential” threat. He even put the town of Kaesong, which borders South Korea, under lockdown in July 2020. But many observers are are sceptical about the country’s official statistics. They say North Korea’s weak healthcare system may not be able to confirm Corona virus infections, or that the ruling party may simply not be very transparent about whether there are any cases.

Health experts are also wary of Turkmenistan’s claim to be COVID-19 free. It is among the hardest countries in the world for foreigners to enter, and it also closes its borders early on in the pandemic. The authorities government in Turkmenistan also says there are no people in the country living with HIV or Aids, a claim most scientists say is just not plausible.

Back in Paula, where people are doing their best to ride out the economic toll of the pandemic, hotel owner have a bleak prediction about the future. They’re predicting how long will they continue to lose money before suspending more operations or total operations and just wait for the whole world to settle down? Because it’s a financial question arises, we’re willing to lose money, but how much money are we willing to lose?

So while border control, good hygiene and social distancing seem to have effectively kept the disease away from these places, there is no defence against the economic devastation caused by the global pandemic.

The relevance of yoga and meditation in the modern lives

We are living in a complex world, it’s a changing world, nothing is permanent, traditions and values are changing everything seems to be in the state of flux. In today’s world the majority of the people are suffering from mental and physical illness.What we can do to overcome them. The simple answer to the question is that follow the path that is showed by our sages and great gurus and that is the path of yoga and meditation, the modern life is full of confusion people are generally seen obsessed with materialistic things, consideration a good house , big bank balance are the three virtues of successful modern life according to today’s man,but do they lead to real peace? Do money and modern items make happier human beings perhaps not here comes the relevance of yoga and meditation. They are the creative processes ,the discipline in our minds as well as the body, the great extra energy and power yoga exercises help us with many elements and prevent many diseases . Meditation helps our mind . to neglect other thoughts and make us feel positive .It also makes us confident and morally strong . Yoga and meditation are necessary for students too, they are generally engaged in online work be it online studying or any other business work in which there is no physical movement ,but yogic exercise and meditation can help them restore their reserves of their lost energy and power that can help them in concentration and remove tiredness too.

Some of the types of Yoga are which help are useful are:-

(1).Mountain Pose (Tadasana)

The heels root down, the muscles of the legs are engaged, the bones are stacked with the shoulders directly over the hips, the shoulder blades slump the rear , and therefore the crown of the top rises. do not forget to breathe.

(2).Garland Pose (Malasana)

Photo by Marta Wave on Pexels.com

Move your feet, bend the sides of your mat and bend your knees, coming into a squat. The toes may end up if necessary. If your heels don’t reach the ground , you’ll sit on two stacked blocks. This modification makes the pose more accessible for several people.This is an edge that’s quite natural for youngsters , but we lose the knack for it as adults. It’s great for the hips and to counteract the consequences of an excessive amount of sitting in chairs and riding in cars.

What is meditation?

Meditation refers to the practice of focusing attention on breath or on an object or thought or a mantra. Here attention is focused.

Some of the types of meditation are :-

(1) Vipasana meditation

It is also known as mindfulness-based meditation, there is no fixed object or thought to hold the attention. The person passively observes the various bodily sensations and thoughts that are passing through in her or his awareness.

(2) Kundalini Yoga

It is taught within the USA and has been found to be effective in treatment of mental disorders. The Institute for Nonlinear Science, University of California, San Diego, USA has found that Kundalini Yoga is effective within the treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder. Kundalini Yoga is a mixture or combination of pranayama or breathing techniques with chanting of mantras. Prevention of repeated episodes of depression could also be helped by mindfulness based meditation or Vipasana. This meditation would help the patients to process emotional stimuli better and hence prevent biases within the processing of those stimuli.

Coronavirus: Top 10 Popular Coronavirus Myths

Coronavirus has been causing a deadly disease which has taken upon the world within a very short period. This disease caused by Coronavirus has created not only a lot of panic among the public but has also resulted in several rising rumours and myths. At this stage, to curb the disease, it is very important to know everything about it. Here are ten myths which common people have mistaken as facts.

1. “Coronavirus can also be called Chinese disease.”

It’s called COVID 19 and not a Chinese virus. The name of the virus has been divided simply into, CO from corona because the shape of the virus appears to be crown-like, VI stands for the virus, D is for disease and ’19’ symbolizes that it started spreading in the year 2019. Many people are calling it a Chinese virus. Even President Donald Trump recently addressed it as ‘Chinese virus’. It’s not spreading from Chinese, not every Chinese person has it. A girl from Manipur, in India, was called ‘Corona’ by an old man, and he spat ‘paan’ on her face to show his disgrace towards her. North-eastern Indians are facing many racial remarks because of this outbreak. Many Chinese people living abroad have faced similar situations. It’s not just racist but also inhumane. People should address the virus with the correct name and should think twice before making any such insensitive remarks.

2. “Drinking alcohol can kill the virus.”

 False! Alcohol is a disinfectant was thought to be a killing substance of the virus, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. The virus, once inside the human body, cannot be killed by alcohol. Any surface might be disinfected with alcohol, but using alcohol on the skin can cause harmful reactions and consuming excessive alcohol can definitely take a toll on your liver.

3. “Only Old people can die of the virus.” 

Anyone, including a child of one day, or even inside the womb, can catch the virus. Younger people might have higher immunity and may have higher chances of surviving the virus, but it is still deadly for them. The virus is indeed more deadly for old people or people having an underlying health issue such as diabetes, heart problems or asthma, but that does not mean that the younger are safe. Everyone should take precautions.

4. “Stay away from people who are wearing a mask.” 

The virus has infected not everyone who is wearing a mask. They might just be wearing it to protect themselves. Incidents have been reported where people wearing masks in public were harassed. People can wear the mask as a precaution, but it should be noted that even though one is wearing a mask, the chances are that the virus enters through your eyes. Hence, the only solution is to suggest anyone who is coughing, should wear a mask or cough in their shoulder so that no droplets fall around and infect nearby people.

5. “Eating ginger, garlic or lemon will increase your immunity

 People started with their own home-based remedies. Eating healthy may increase immunity but will not create complete protection from the virus. Even drinking cow urine was said to be one of the ways to kill the virus. There was a lot of fake WhatsApp news which were circulated. It was also said that smoking weed could kill the virus. People also said that sitting in the sun or warm climate can kill the virus. People around the globe considered taking a hot bath can kill the virus within their body. The only way to cross-check any such news is to visit the ‘WHO’ site and check if they have published any such news or not. Any news related to the research of coronavirus, be it positive or negative, will be posted on the WHO site.

6.” Only people coming from abroad should get tested and be scared of having it.” 

 It’s highly wrong to think that only those people should be scared who have travelled recently abroad. Anyone who has symptoms of the virus should immediately get checked. Anyone who has a recent travel history should try self-quarantine. One should understand that if the person who recently travelled abroad failed to take any precautions and refused to self-quarantine, he/she might end up spreading it to others. So, you could be infected by a complete stranger in public. Staying at home and getting checked if showed any symptoms, is the only way to fight the spread of the virus.

 7.”It is a city disease.” 

 Most of the labourers are going back to their village or hometown, considering that the virus is only spreading in “cities.” However, they are not taking into account how there is a chance that they might transmit the virus with them to their respective hometown. Going back to your hometown, even with current zero cases of the virus, does not mean that one stops taking precautions to be safe. Under all circumstances, social distancing should be practised.

 8. “Chicken, dogs, and cats are spreading the virus.” 

No! The disease can be transmitted only through human contact. There has been no study which proves that animals can transmit the disease. Animals should not be treated with cruelty on any basis. One should consider the well-being of the street dogs and cats, and should at least feed them during the lockdown. In India, the rate of chicken had seen a drastic fall, especially in the state of Maharashtra, because of the rumour that the disease can be spread via eating chickens. In fact, the truth is that consumption of chicken may help in increasing your immunity and save you from the seasonal flu.

 9.” Coronavirus has a 97% Survival rate; the government is making us panic for nothing.”

To put this in a simple analogy, it’s like if you are given ten apples, and one of them is infected, you probably shouldn’t take the chance to infect yourself by eating any of them. There is a limited supply of healthcare services, and in a country like India, which is highly populated, should not risk the spread of it. If the number of cases keeps going higher, we might fall short on several doctors and nurses present to help the patients. 

10.” Stock as much food as possible.” 

The pandemic created such a panic among the public that on the announcement of the lockdown, people rushed to the stores to buy as much food as possible. In this rush, they forgot how close they were standing to strangers and how the deadly disease could be passed on unintentionally as many failed to wear a mask. Stocking of excess food will also create a shortage for others who are in need. People were found stocking up on basic medicine as well, such as fever and cold. This might have created a deficit for someone who is currently in need of it. The government is taking as many measures as possible to make ends meet. In Maharashtra, grocery shops will be open all day and night to provide essential items to the customers.

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By Megha Sharma

Posted in Internship

Rating: 1 out of 5.

“Internships : A Door To Opportunity”

Internships- really being a door to opportunity for so many of us, being the only source for the growing students to learn something new & to explore different work fields in this leisure. Internships are the proven way to gain some knowledge, interest & maintaining a healthy connection with the work fields. This lockdown has taught us the meaning of internship, and to work as an intern in a firm. Since online studies are going on, doing an internship in this leisure is a perfect & productive way to utilise your free time! Internships not only enhance our skills, but also makes us confident, independent and self reliable. Since, adults has nothing to do in this lockdown, internships are way better to do something productive and to invest our time in learning something new. Internship is basically a platform where students puts up their education into practice, and develop relevant personality development and skills as well. For the college going students, internships plays a very important role in their lives. Being indulged in internships not only helps you to know more about the work fields, but also unleashes different side of your personality that you didn’t even know that it existed.

IMPORTANCE OF INTERNSHIPS

Internships plays a very prominent role in a students life, it provides a real life experience of working for the firms & companies for the fresher students! Freshers, who are new to this world, internships provides a platform for them to learn something new apart from their studies, and to enhance relevant interest in different fields. It is an ideal approach to gain understanding of your chosen Industry and field. Providing a platform to maintain a healthy yet professional connection with the work staff, and to learn & explore that how a firm works. It gives you a significant practical experience of working with the firm and also an opportunity to showcase your knowledge of degree program in real- life situations. Internships, based on hard work & stipend gives an opportunity to the students to showcase their hard work and skills on the respective fields and earn a minimal amount based on their skills and performance. It provides students the value of earning money on the basis of their hard work, and to work as an intern for a company.

ADVANTAGES OF INTERNSHIPS

  1. Get Industry Experience

The first and foremost factor of doing an internship is that it provides a platform for the students to explore the working of an industry or a company, and gives relevant workshops to learn that how exactly a company works. Fresher students learns how to work in a company by working as an intern so that they can gain experience of various fields they have chosen to work in. It further helps them to work in different fields , and hence built a significant connection with the workspace and the staff. It provides a practical way of learning and working for a company, and to gain an experience of how a company works and gives an opportunity to the students to put up the knowledge they’ve gained till now in real life situations.

2. Boost the value of your CV

There no task harder for a fresher to build a CV when they have literally no experience. No experience mentioned in the CV is a big turn off for most of the companies, why would a company hire you when you don’t have any work experience? The importance of doing an internship not only gives you opportunity to showcase your knowledge in real life situations, but also enhances your personality development and skills that are vested in your personality. You can easily know about the importance of internships when you will list down the accomplishments on a piece of paper, and that piece of paper literally decides your future. Thus, after completing an internship, you must sit down to contemplate over all the things you got to learn and how they can help you professionally as well as personally. As an intern, you will have to chance to take up new tasks and get an edge over your competitors, thus ensuring that your CV gets more than a casual glance from your potential employer.

3. Facilitates Self Growth

Internships not only help you in developing professionalism but also enhance self-growth. You certainly develop various characteristics like integrity, commitment, and self-motivation. Pursuing an internship, you will get to work on a wide range of tasks that will boost your managerial skills, and working in a team, you can polish your interpersonal and communication skills while learning about the importance of teamwork. Furthermore, you additionally get a chance to investigate the different choices that you have without the obligation of a full-time job. You can do different internships in different enterprises and profiles before you make sense of the best field for yourself. 

4. Learn new Abilities and Aptitude

While an undergraduate program gives you the perfect foundation for your professional journey,  internships add to it by giving you a chance to learn new aptitudes. These new abilities include a mix of both complicated and easy aptitudes. With a temporary position, you get the chance to learn new things, be it a software application or any other skill you wanted to explore. Many companies provide interns with the scope to explore working in different departments and find the best one they like working in. Correspondingly, you get the opportunity to improve your abilities by learning interpersonal and communication skills and how to behave in a workspace. 

In short, Internships plays a very prominent role in a students life it polishes our interpersonal and communication skills at its best! and helps us to explore more about the working sector in a very interesting manner. Apart from this, student also got a performance based stipend, solely based on their hard work and the performance they’ve showed while working as an intern. 

-SUKHMANI PANESAR

Science and Technology-A boon in pandemic

“The science of today is technology of tomorrow”

~Edward Teller

Ever thought that science and technology would have become so important to us in 21st century that the people could become habitual of virtual world than the physical one? The answer to this question maybe yes or maybe no.

The ongoing pandemic has itself made science and technology as a ‘war without smoke’ .It has united people to overcome difficulties together and choose an online mode as a new normal therefore a way to neither get stuck at home being jobless but move ahead and earn by sitting in front of electronic devices and earn their living.

What is difference between science and technology?

Science focuses upon knowledge through experimentation and observation while technology is an applied science and all about processes. In simple words ,it means that science is a study of natural world in terms of observation while technology is all about applying it in a practical manner.

Development of science and technology in everyday life

  • EDUCATION SECTOR

If we discuss about the education sector the old techniques of studying through blackboard, chalk and duster have been replaced by smart class system and within the ongoing pandemic it has been replaced to mobile phones and laptops. Students can attend online classes in remote areas as well.

  • MEDICAL SECTOR

The essence of science and technology that is contributed to society is the foundation of new knowledge further when this knowledge is utilised successfully and deals with great issues in society. Earlier the disease which were incurable have now been cured using various instruments an medicines. For example, Cancer which caused many deaths in the past years are now cured through various medicines.

  • COMMUNICATION

Communication too has evolved over the years. Earlier the source of communication was only through simple text messages or calls but now internet is playing a crucial role in the field of communication which has enabled whats app calls and video calls.Many such sectors too have evolved over the years which has enhanced productivity as well as suitability for the coming generation.

Application of science and technology

The following points address how science and technology is applies in our daily lives:-

  • Technology facilitates communication between co-workers and consumers
  • There are many software programs that help to achieve accuracy in financial transactions.
  • If we talk about the soaps which are used for various purposes at home are nothing but the creation of science!
  • The house in which we live in is too a product of science!

Technology has become almost a part of life.In the times of pandemic people have Almost tried to prefer online mode in all the aspects which has affected many lives it has become a new normal and one of the alternative for the a large scale businesses as well as for various sectors of economy.

TECHNOLOGY IS A USEFUL SERVANT BUT A DANGEROUS MASTER

~Christian Lous Lange

Signs You’re Overthinking

Overthinking is thinking about something continuously until you get a proper reason. A person ponders over a particular event wishing that he/she had acted differently until they find a solution and at times they may even think about it after solving it.

You can’t stop worrying.

Worry is a very normal emotion bet it is not too normal when a person exhibits it on a very frequent basis. You may find your self continuously being worried about trivial things one after the other. This is a very basic sign that you are overthinking about an issue.

You constantly think about your mistakes.

Constantly thinking about the mistakes you have committed in the near of far past is another sign. You may tend to keep on thinking about the mistake and wish that you could correct it.

On recalling conversation, you wish that you shouldn’t have said somethings.

A very common thing we all do is regret a few words or conversations we had. Well, that’s quite normal but when you regret something you said which isn’t really a sensitive topic or if you feel bad for a small joke, they you are overthinking.

You dwell on the way someone spoke or acted.

Not all people can act and speak according to our perceptions and likings and thus, these are things to either confront in a polite manner or just ignore. Without doing either of them, if you keep on thinking about what happened and feeling that the person dislikes you, then you have spotted an over thinker.

You face difficulty in falling asleep.

Your mind may be rethinking over actions or encounters you had on the day and it may give you confused or conflicted feelings making you ponder on them. Your brain becomes active and prevents you from being relaxed.

You think about hidden meanings behind people’s actions and words.

Spending your free time thinking about the assumed hidden meanings behind the way a person acted towards you or rather the words a person spoke to you is definitely a sign that you are an over thinker.

You feel worried about your future.

Being constantly sorrowful or fearful about something you cannot control is another sign.

You feel trapped in problems.

You are constantly moving from one issue to another. You continuously keep on tackling issues and once an issue is solved, you seem to find another issue lined up for you to tackle again.

You dread a vague or one word reply.

You may write in a big essay about something and get a ‘kay’, ‘k’ or ‘okay’ as reply, this would make your head go in turns and find theories after theories figuring out a possibly non existent issue.

You are too self conscious.

You are always conscious about what you speak, the way you act, the replies you give etc. You feel that everyone would judge you for what you say and making a mistake probably isn’t even in your dictionary.

You expect the worst out of situations.

You overthink about situations and feel that the possible outcome of it will be against you. You get filled up with negative emotions like fear and anxiety.

You love to ask ‘why’.

Your favorite question is often ‘why’ because you tend to keep on thinking about reasons for certain actions or situations. You feel much more relaxed and calm once you know the reason.

Alone and Happy

Feeling alone at parties or having nothing to do on weekends. Having no one to hang out with on your worst days or no close friends to remember your birthdays. Having none to talk about life… we all would have faced these kinds of situations at least once in our lifetime. Some people have these feelings as a routine, but they do not cry else express their loneliness on social media. They are productive and happy. Why is that so? What do those people have which we do not? Why are they at peace even in loneliness when we are depressed about being alone?
Well, the reason is, to them being happy is a choice. Those people just realized that being alone is different from loneliness. It might not be possible at first but, it becomes a habit. This pandemic might have curbed our limitations where we can’t breathe. Still, we have been used to it and, we do try to stay happy.

Being alone is not always being lonely. It means that you have fewer people to argue with, you have more “me-time” and a lot more time for self-realization. Take time to think about the boundaries of the universe and the creations of life. Try to understand the stories behind every face and the hidden mysteries about every object. Travel into the pages of your favorite book or sink into your favorite cup of tea. On average, nine out of ten people see loneliness as a monster. This pandemic might have taken lives but, it has also given people chances to think about themselves. Partying at the weekends or being the center of attention at school, workplaces do not work anymore. We have been forced to give a hand to ourselves. Giving this a thought being in a bubble is far better than being with a bunch of people with whom you have to wear a mask all time. Somehow we all have been accustomed to this new normal. Loneliness seems less lonely if you keep your mind healthy.


To all those who still see loneliness as a monster, let me help you make up with loneliness:

  • Start your day by making your bed. When you make your bed, you take care of yourself. The self-satisfaction you gain in the first hour of your day will last till dusk.
  • Cook your favorite food or cup of coffee.
  • Grab a book. Let your mind explore the world between the pages. Romanticize every word. Smile at the little moments and memories through those words of the author.
  • Create a to-do list.
  • Go for a walk or exercise. Keeping your body healthy is as much important as keeping your mind healthy.
  • Take a nap. According to a study, nap time increases your psychological health.
  • Keep track of your journal. Writing helps one to self realize one’s actions. Write things that you feel grateful for, even if you have nothing to thank, thank yourself for surviving the day.
  • Listen to music. Music is the best companion.

These new beginnings might seem difficult at first. Eventually, you get used to them. We all grow up and develop ourselves. That is how things work in this world. You will have to find peace in your loneliness. Go find and embrace yourself!

The importance of solitude for a balanced life

In a society that values conformity over emotional support, where giving time to yourself is frowned upon , it is essential to liberate yourself from the sameness.
We as a society have been wired to conform to the social norms We constantly try to satisfy ourselves by satisfying others. True ,when you serve others you achieve some measure of happiness but if it comes at a cost where you neglect your own well being then it becomes a cause of concern

When people commit crimes , Society punishes them by locking up in solitary cells. This is not to say that they shouldn’t be punished though. You’d be considered a loser if you choose to stay at home on a Friday or a Saturday night.

The problem is that We’ve been wired to believe solitude is our worst
enemy.


We’ve also tried to equate loneliness with being alone. Loneliness is a feeling of emptiness. It means you feel isolated and not connected to others , it’s a feeling or an emotion. On the other hand, solitude is a state of being happy and content with your own company.


Twice a year, Bill Gates takes a self-proclaimed “think week.” He spends seven days of solitude in a cabin in the forest.He does it to self introspect , to read books , to escape from the everyday
stress in life and to develop a deeper creative thought.

Spending some valuable time with oneself is vital for your mental health and serves as an essentially ingredient for your personal growth . And perhaps the greatest gift to solitude is that it allows you to become the best version of yourself.

What Is the Best Time to Post a Blog and How to Test it?

Are you wondering when should you publish blog posts? Do you want to hit that sweet spot where you get the most traffic, social shares, and comments?

If you’ve just written a great blog post and want it to go viral, then publishing time can play an important role.

In this article, we’ll show you what is the best time to post a blog by going through key facts. We’ll also show you how you can test the best time to take your blogs live.

Let’s kick things off with a look at…

Best Time of Day to Post a Blog for More Pageviews

As you start blogging, you’ll have many questions like what time of day should you publish a post. Or which days are best for getting the most traffic.

To answers such queries, different studies have been done where agencies and websites have gone through tons of data.

And among them is a study conducted by Shareaholic in 2011 that shows the best time to publish a blog post is early morning between 7 AM to 1 PM EST on weekdays.

The peak is between 9 AM and 10 AM, which shows when you can schedule or publish your posts.

Building upon the same point,

shows that 70% of users read blogs in the morning (during the AM hours).

&It makes sense as people starting their day would be going through emails, planning their week, and reading up on the latest news.

That said, people do read blogs throughout the day, so you can publish posts in the later hours as well. Now let’s see which days you should take your blogs live.

Best Days to Publish a Blog Post for Traffic

Along with time, different studies show that posting blogs on certain days can help generate more traffic. And which days are we talking about?

Shareaholic suggested that the best day to post a blog is Monday if you want more pageviews. Similarly, Kissmetrics also says that Monday is the best to publish a post and generate traffic.

What’s the Best Time to Post a Blog for Social Shares?

When it comes to engaging people on social media, you’d want to push your blog post when your users are active.

And to give you an idea of what’s the best day for getting social shares, consider a study by TrackMaven. They analyzed 65,000+ blogs and suggested that blogs published on a Sunday get

A possible reason for this could be that on the weekend’s people have more time to read through your content and then come up with a reply.

So, if you have a topic that wants user opinion or start a conversation, then this is the best time to post a blog.

But what if these times don’t work for your website? How can you find the best publishing day and hour for your content pieces? Let’s find out.

How to Test the Best Time to Post a Blog?

The researches we’ve shown you in our article provide a benchmark but in reality, there’s no best time to publish blogs.

That’s because these studies use their own samples of websites to provide a generalized conclusion. And most of them are very old, going back to 2011.

A better way to find the best time to post a blog is by doing your own testing. By monitoring which days and time you get most visitors and engagement, you’ll know the optimal time of publishing.

And the best tool to help you out is MonsterInsights. It’s the leading WordPress plugin for Google Analytics and makes decision making easy by providing insights about your site’s performance with detailed reports inside your dashboard.

MonsterInsights makes it super easy to set up custom dimensions on your website and start tracking custom data of your choice in Google Analytics.

With the help of its Custom Dimensions Addon, you can exactly see what’s the best time to post a blog. Not only that, you can set up custom tracking of individual authors, post types, category and more.

You can follow our complete guide to custom dimensions in Google Analytics for configuring tracking of best publishing times.

mental illness during pandemic

Mental Illness during Pandemic.
Covid19 pandemic hit the masses most severely mentally. The trauma from looking for the medicine, hospital beds to dealing with the mass of dead bodies, from being left jobless to mass migration and suffering. These all circumstances severely impacted our mental state. A tremendous number of people have lost their dear ones. And some are fighting for their life. While their loved ones and family are busy in the constant search of medicines and oxygen cylinders. Those who are safe are also suffering from mental illness by looking at their environment. Full of grief, devastation. This time is very hard. And financial crisis makes this problem. So many families especially of the lower class. Left without money and aid. Those who earn daily and labor are struggling a lot. These financial bottlenecks resulted in mental illness. Especially those students who are handling the digital divide. Faces stress and mental illness. All students couldn’t afford online education due to a lack of digital gadgets. That acts as a hindrance to the growth and education of unprivileged students. The cost of academic education and institution creates a financial burden for the students and the family. some can deal with it. But those who couldn’t eventually end up dropping out there college and institute. That leads to mental stress among the students. Recently, the cases of suicide by students increase manifold. That shows how mentally covid have impacted the students. Therefore cases of suicides are reported manifold. Students who are privilege enough. Also facing mental trauma. Online education also created an additional problem, technical glitches, electricity problems, access to devices, are major problems related to online education. That cause mental stress, headache as well as eyesight problems. This problem can be overcome through everyone’s participation. All need to contribute. By providing financial aid to the needy. And by including in the conversation as much as possible with our friends and family in this hard time. Chatting with each other acts as a medicine to cure the ailment of mental stress.

MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES

Mental Health Issues are a range of conditions that affect you, your thinking, your mood and your behaviour. It makes things hard and complicated for you.

There are numerous mental health issues, most frequent ones includes anxiety disorders, behavioural and emotional disorders, bipolar affective disorders, dissociation and dissociative disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, eating disorders, post-traumatic disorders, schizophrenia, psychosis, depression and paranoia.

How to know what mental illness you have?

It might be hard to understand yourself at times, especially when you face multiple hardships at the same time. The best and most effective way is to take an online screening test where you will be asked questions about how you feel, what you would prefer in a particular scenario, what are your likes and dislikes, etc. After completing this test, you will get your results, if it shows that you have signs of one or the other disorders consider sharing with someone and consulting a therapist or a doctor.

How to improve your condition?

You cannot continue to face such issues all the time. No matter, how hard you try to tell yourself everything is fine, it will never be fine so seek help.

• Try accepting yourself the way you are, do not run away from the things you are having difficulty with. Take some time to understand your problems. Once you find the root of your problem, try to cut it off, for example, if your toxic friends keep demotivating and discouraging you, gather the will to speak up and end things honestly.

• Take rest and calm yourself as much as you can. Everyone has to face their problems but what makes each one of us different and unique is the way we tackle our problems. Deep Breathing is a great way to think of a solution with a calm mind. It has simple steps “5 3 7”, breathe in for 5 seconds, hold your breath for 3 seconds and finally breathe out for 7 seconds. It will decrease your tension and your heart will start to relax. This deep breathing when done in a continuous pattern will automatically make our brain think everything is fine and in favour of you.

• Try doing the opposite of what your illness makes you do like if you are feeling afraid of everyone around you, try eliminating that factor and go out, be with people and try to socialize. This one is quite difficult so it may not be favourable for everyone but it’s very effective and can get you a permanent solution.

• If you keep remembering about the past bad things that happened to you (PSTD), divert your attention from there to what is happening around you, for example, try touching the place where you are sitting like bed or floor, listen to your mom shouting at you because you did not do the chores, smell the spices your mom is putting in today’s lunch, see what your siblings are playing, etc. Engage yourself in answering the questions about the things around you.

• Not every day is good but at least there’s one good thing that happens to you every day. Try thinking of your destinations like if you are having stress about studies that you have so much to study but you are not in the mood so think of what you are going to become one day by studying this, think of your dream jobs and what your parents have gone through to provide you with the best.

• Share it with your trusted people. Talking them out will help you in accepting yourself. It’s okay to cry when you are suffering but it will be better if you have a shoulder to cry on.

• Consult a therapist or doctor if your illness makes you go crazy and hurts you too much emotionally. Therapists know better than anyone how to treat a patient and calm them down. If nobody will understand you, they will definitely understand you and help you get rid of it.

Above are the ways which helps most of people get rid of their mental health issues, even if you’re not comfortable with any of it try visiting a platform which provides demo therapy sessions for free and if it pleases you, you can consider to go for a paid therapy session.

How do you maintain a cheerful and upbeat mood when on lockdown?

Even if we’re closed, we believe it’s as vital as ever to stay connected, motivatad, and supportive of one another. We enter an area where we  can really reflect as everyone of us is  influenced by the present health issue. We all had our aspirations and  ambitions, as well as plans for the  remainder of the year, not long before  the coronavirus outbreak. Nonetheless, it appears that life has been put on wait indefinitely. Some of us have  acclimated to our peculiar circumstances, while others may feel lonely or  demotivated.

Some of us may have assumed the  pandemic would be over by  mid-summer, but Covid-19 cases are  still being reported over the world, particularly in India, and many  businesses have been forced to file for  bankruptcy.

After months and months of trying to  be positive, it may sound clichéd at this time, but honestly, what other option do we have? Should we fold, stop, or give up?

To assist you get through these trying  times, we’ve put together some mental health and well-being advice that we  hope will help you continue to look  after yourself:

1. The importance of routine cannot be overstated.

Set short-term goals that aren’t too demanding but will get you going, such as a 14-day challenge to run 30 minutes every day.

If you want to stay happy and motivated, you need a routine.Making a thorough schedule is a good habit to get into. This way, even if you fail to complete a task on your to-do list, you can always keep track of what needs to be completed and delegate it to the next day.

Revisiting your milestones so you may assess your progress at regular intervals and appreciate any successes you achieve This is an excellent moment to fine-tune, get everything running smoothly, and enhance aspects that you may have neglected when at full sail.

When the horizon seems too far off, shorten the distance by setting achievable goals.Set attainable goals to shorten the gap between you and the horizon when it feels too far away.

2. Health is wealth.

Always remember, like the ancients did, to treat our bodies with the highest respect.

Fitness, in my opinion, is essential for being positive and optimistic. Regular exercise can help you enhance your mental health and mood, which I’ve discovered can make you feel more optimistic and happy about things.

Taking care of yourself physically and mentally also allows you to develop and realise personal goals. Consider doing some backyard push-ups and sit-ups, as well as purchasing some at-home gym equipment. Set weekly goals, break them down, and gradually increase them as your skills improve.

Good diet is essential for good health, especially when the immune system is under attack. Sugar, salt, and fat should all be consumed in moderation. Consume an adequate amount of fibre. Make fresh food a priority. Take advantage of meal delivery choices if you want to eat out.

3. Pay close attention to your emotions.

It’s important to remind ourselves that it’s okay to feel bad every now and then. We’ve all had them because they’re an unavoidable part of life. After all, we wouldn’t know joy if we didn’t have pain. Make contact with your loved ones.

Limit your exposure to media coverage, as it might cause worry and panic. Choose precise times of the day when you’ll receive updates, and make sure they’re from reputable sources.

If necessary, get additional assistance: You can call some support lines to get answers to your questions or to request assistance. You don’t have to be afraid or embarrassed to contact one of these organisations. Keep in mind that the most important thing is to keep healthy!

4. Keep yourself occupied.

Because we are always so busy, time has become a valuable commodity. Now that we have more time on our hands, we should make the most of it.

Painting, drawing, attempting a new dish, or writing may all be very calming ways to express yourself creatively.” There are a plethora of methods to be present – after all, painting is a type of meditation.

Keep your cool by reading a book or listening to a podcast. Because it allows you to multitask, a podcast is a wonderful alternative to reading.

5. Be optimistic and spread positivity.

Negativity, I feel, depletes energy, whereas positive generates it. And right now, you, as well as your family and friends, need all the positive you can muster.

This, too, will come to an end. We shall overcome these adversities and emerge stronger and better than we are now. Let’s make this our objective. Let’s hope for the best. When you’re positive, I believe you have something to give. Positive thinking can help you stay motivated while also motivating those around you. Is there any land on the horizon? No, not just now. However, I am confident that it exists, and I am more motivated than ever to achieve it.

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” ―Nelson Mandela

Is ‘SOCIAL’ Media turning people ‘ANTI-SOCIAL’?

Social Media! One of the most happening things in people’s life these days. It was originally invented for people to connect, communicate and stay close to their loved ones but these days it has been used by people for the following main purposes: Learning, Interacting, Marketing, and Sharing.

Many of the young influencers have started using it as a means of earning. Companies are making huge amount out of Digital Marketing. Whether social media is good or bad has been a popular debate among both the old and new groups of people. Where some people find it comfortable to open up to some random person on social platforms, the vulnerable sides of these platforms aren’t hidden either. For one person social media can be a lifesaver whereas for the other person it can be just a video, a picture or even a heinous comment to conclude his career.

When on one hand it has made communication and connecting with people easy on the other hand it is also been accused of making people anti-social. Yes, you read that right. ‘SOCIAL’ Media accused of making people ‘ANTI-SOCIAL’; Irony! isn’t it? But what is more ironic is the fact of this being true. 

Our lives depend on these platforms even for the slightest of information. These has been proving itself like an escape from reality; if you don’t want to talk to someone in front of you, then put your heads down into your phone. Regardless of how useful these platforms may be many studies have shown that due to the virtual life people have started losing their confidence to engage with a present life situation. They have discovered a new way of dealing: by posting their experiences on various apps. 

Today not having access to internet is bigger issue to some than not having a dream for oneself. Imagining a situation where we can’t track our social accounts is worse than a nightmare. This has even led to a discovery of many mental disorders and the most interesting one for millennials is the FOMO. Those unknown to this acronym, it means Fear Of Missing Out. At present FOMO is more dangerous than depression!

 But for once let’s consider WHAT IF LIKE THE OTHER STORES IN MARKET, SOCIAL MEDIA TOO SHUTS DOWN AT 6 P.M? What will our life be like in the last quarter of the day? Will people start connecting again at the night parties again or will their FOMO dig into them?

If we take out the pros of this situation, we can list them as follows:

  • More people will show up at the parties and families will be spending more time at the dinner table in the absence of cell phones.
  • People will start discussing real problems with real people.  
  • What people are looking for in the world of social media may find it near them.
  • People may start spending time with their loved ones.
  • The hidden artist of the people will find the time to come out and hence allowing creative juices from the blocked canals of the brain to flow.
  • Out of the extra time, people may start taking care of their bodies more.
  • Even for a brief moment people will start paying attention to their own lives.

Aren’t these different therapies used by psychiatrists?

But this is all just an imagination and one thing which is not, is the need of improvement in living we all need. There is a fake world people have created around them. But we must understand that its not the Likes and comments that are important but the mental peace; which almost every other individual is lacking.  We shall conclude this post with words of a famous German diarist :

“The final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hand”

Anne Frank.

Mental Health Awareness

Mental health is a much talked about topic these days. Earlier people barely talked of it let alone address it as a genuine problem. But this is changing. People are becoming more and more vocal about their mental health issues and sharing their stories over the internet with the hope that it might help someone. 

What is mental health?

Mental health is a total of our emotional, psychological and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel and act.

How we handle stress, relate to others and make choices also depends on our mental health.
But with growing restlessness and fast-moving life, we have neglected our mental health. Neglecting our mental health gives rise to many mental problems. It reflects in your mood, behaviour and thinking. 

Not just restlessness and life but there are other factors also that contribute to mental health problems. Including:

  • Biological factors like genes and or brain chemistry 
  • Life experiences like trauma and stress
  • Family history of mental health problems. 

A person with good mental health will be able to realise their full potential, cope with stresses in life, work productively and make meaningful contribution to the community as whole.

Early signs of mental health problems

Some you might know may be suffering from mental health issues without you being completely unaware about it. Notice the following symptoms and reach out to them if you think they need help. 

  • Eating or sleeping too much or too little
  • Having low or no energy
  • Pulling away from people and social activities 
  • Feeling helpless or hopeless
  • Yelling or fighting 
  • Severe mood swings 
  • Having unexplained aches and pains 

There are other symptoms as well but these are the most common ones. It is very crucial to identify these signs and help the one in need or get professional help before the situation gets worse. People who are suffering from mental health problems may also try to harm themselves. Before the situation gets to this, it is advisable to seek help from a professional. 

Mental health awareness

The pandemic had a big toll on everyone’s mental health. Apart from the people who died because of the coronavirus, there were hundreds of people who died because of mental health issues. It was also reported that the number of suicides increased during the lockdown. 

But our society has since very long considered mental health a myth and has continuously ignored the problem. And the main reason behind this ignorance is the lack of awareness. 

More than half of the people still consider depression as being just sad or crying. They are unaware of the fact that a person may look happy on the outside but may be suffering alone on the inside. They still don’t know that depression and anxiety are so much more than just being sad. 

This is where awareness comes in. People and celebrities have openly started talking about their struggles with mental health. This has encouraged many people to come forward and talk about their stories. Many helplines have also been set up for people who need to talk to someone or a professional. 

You can talk to someone you trust or a loved one. But if you feel like the situation is much worse which can’t be solved by talking out, seek professional help. 

It’s not always the person suffering from a mental health problem who has to reach out to help. If you know someone who might be suffering you can also reach out first. Check up on your loved ones once in a while because it might make a lot of difference. 

In the end, awareness is important but it is useless if not brought into action and implemented properly. 

Power of Happiness

Happiness is a feeling of love that you feel and express through different medium. In our current situation many have lost their smile on their face that lead to depression. Is that you really want in your life? Nobody wants to be unhappy in their life. There are solutions where you can find happiness.

The most important thing is to love yourself first. The feeling or sense of happiness towards yourself can bring positive changes into your life. If you are happy then you have the power of making another being happy.

Different people express happiness in different ways. Someone happiness is to travel and explore the world while some other people love to cook, dancing, singing and many other things. You must do what makes you happy. Spend times with your loved ones whom you care about. Life can be in difficult situation sometime, but never lose hope. It’s ok to cry or feel sad for sometime. But not too long, try to kick away those bad moments and try to create happy and cheerful surroundings. If you are being happy, you have the power to attract nice people into your life.

Happiness is a miracle that it reduces stress and problems that are attached to your life. Researchers have found that a happy person is the most successful people in life. Successful doesn’t only mean money, it also means to living a happy and meaningful life with your closest ones. It is also very important to cut out those people who try to bring you down and makes your problem bigger.

Those who have an upset mood of sitting bored at home,not going anywhere. Try to make them happy and spend your leisure time with them. A person trying to make others happy can reflect him back with a smile which will also make his day better. Helping a needy person can also create happiness to you as well as for them. Create wonderful moments and never stop being in life. It is you who decide what to you make to lead a happy life. Light up your world and it will give you the power of Happiness.

Bullying

Bullying is repeated aggressive behavior that can be physical, verbal, or relational, in-person or online. Bullies are often relentless, bullying over and over again for long periods of time. You may live in constant fear of where and when the bully will strike next, what they’ll do, and how far they’ll go.

Physical bullying – includes hitting, kicking, or pushing you (or even just threatening to do so), as well as stealing, hiding, or ruining your things, and hazing, harassment, or humiliation.

Verbal bullying – includes name-calling, teasing, taunting, insulting, or otherwise verbally abusing you.

Relationship bullying – includes refusing to talk to you, excluding you from groups or activities, spreading lies or rumors about you, making you do things you don’t want to do.

Boys frequently bully using physical threats and actions, while girls are more likely to engage in verbal or relationship bullying. But no type of bullying should ever be tolerated.

Cyber bullying:– Technology means that bullying is no longer limited to schoolyards or street corners. Cyberbullying can occur anywhere, even at home, via smartphones, emails, texts, and social media, 24 hours a day, with potentially hundreds of people involved. Cyberbullies use digital technology to harass, threaten, or humiliate you. Unlike traditional bullying, cyberbullying doesn’t require face-to-face contact and isn’t limited to just a handful of witnesses at a time. It also doesn’t require physical power or strength in numbers.

Cyberbullies come in all shapes and sizes—almost anyone with an Internet connection or mobile phone can cyberbully someone else, often without having to reveal their true identity.

Cyberbullies can torment you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the bullying can follow you anywhere so that no place, not even home, ever feels safe. And with a few clicks the humiliation can be witnessed by hundreds or even thousands of people online.

The methods kids and teens use to cyberbully can be as varied and imaginative as the technology they have access to. they might range from sending threatening or taunting messages via email, text, social media, or IM, to breaking into your email account or stealing your online identity to hurt and humiliate you. Some cyberbullies may even create a website or social media page to target you

Being bullied can leave you feeling helpless, humiliated, depressed, or even suicidal. But there are ways to protect yourself — at school and online—and deal with a bully.

While there are many reasons why bullies may be targeting you, bullies tend to pick on people who are “different” or don’t fit in with the mainstream. While your individualism is something that you will celebrate later in life, it can seem like a curse when you’re young and trying to fit in. Perhaps you dress or act differently, or maybe your race, religion, or sexual orientation sets you apart. It may simply be that you’re new to the school or neighborhood and haven’t made friends yet.

Other reasons why kids bully:

  • To make themselves popular or to gain attention.
  • Because they’re jealous of you.
  • To look tough or feel powerful.
  • Because they’re being bullied themselves.
  • To escape their own problems.

Whatever the reasons for you being targeted, it’s important to remember that you’re not alone. Many of us have been bullied at some point in our lives

There is no simple solution to bullying or cyberbullying, or a foolproof way to handle a bully. But since bullying or cyberbullying is rarely limited to one or two incidents—it’s far more likely to be a sustained attack over a period of time—like the bully, you may have to be relentless in reporting each and every bullying incident until it stops. Remember: there is no reason for you to ever put up with any kind of bullying.

Don’t blame yourself. It is not your fault. No matter what a bully says or does, you should not be ashamed of who you are or what you feel. The bully is the person with the problem, not you.

Try to view bullying from a different perspective. The bully is an unhappy, frustrated person who wants to have control over your feelings so that you feel as badly as they do. Don’t give them the satisfaction.

Don’t beat yourself up. Don’t make a bullying incident worse by dwelling on it or reading cyberbullying messages over and over. Instead, delete any messages and focus on the positive experiences in your life. There are many wonderful things about you so be proud of who you are.

Spend time doing things you enjoy. The more time you spend with activities that bring you pleasure—sports, hobbies, hanging out with friends who don’t participate in bullying, for example—the less significance bullying or cyberbullying will have on your life.

Learn to manage stress. Finding healthy ways to relive the stress generated by bullying can make you more resilient so you won’t feel overwhelmed by negative experiences. Exercise, meditation, positive self-talk, muscle relaxation, and breathing exercises are all good ways to cope with the stress of bullying.

When you’re being bullied, having trusted people you can turn to for encouragement and support will ease your stress and boost your self-esteem and resilience. Talk to a parent, teacher, counselor, or other trusted adult—it doesn’t mean that you’re weak or there’s something wrong with you. And reach out to connect with real friends (those who don’t participate in any kind of bullying). If you’re new to a school or neighborhood, or don’t feel that you have anyone to turn to, there are lots of ways to make new friends. It may not always seem like it, but there are plenty of people who will love and appreciate you for who you are.

Unplug from technology. taking a break from your smartphone, computer, tablet, and video games can open you up to meeting new people.

Find others who share your same values and interests. You may be able to make friends at a youth group, book club, or religious organization. Learn a new sport, join a team, or take up a new hobby such as chess, art, or music. Or volunteer your time –helping others is a great way to feel better about yourself and expand your social network.

Share your feelings about bullying.Talk to a parent, counselor, coach, religious leader, or trusted friend. Expressing what you’re going through can make a huge difference in the way you feel, even if it doesn’t change the situation.

Boost your confidence. Exercise is a great way to boost your self-esteem and reduce stress. Go for a run or take a kick boxing class to work off your anger in a healthy way

Tips for dealing with cyberbullying—-

Dealing with cyberbullying is rarely easy, but there are steps you can take to cope with the problem. To start, it may be a good time to reassess your technology use. Spending less time on social media, or checking texts and emails, for example, and more time interacting with real people, can help you distance yourself from online bullies. It can also help to reduce anxiety, depression, and feelings of loneliness.

As well as seeking support, managing stress, and spending time with people and activities that bring you pleasure, the following tips can help:

Don’t respond to any messages or posts written about you, no matter how hurtful or untrue. Responding will only make the situation worse and provoking a reaction from you is exactly what the cyberbullies want, so don’t give them the satisfaction.

Don’t seek revenge on a cyberbully by becoming a cyberbully yourself. Again, it will only make the problem worse and could result in serious legal consequences for you. If you wouldn’t say it in person, don’t say it online.

Save the evidence of the cyberbullying,keep abusive text messages or a screenshot of a webpage, for example, and then report them to a trusted adult. If you don’t report incidents, the cyberbully will often become more aggressive.

Report threats of harm and inappropriate sexual messages to the police. In many cases, the cyberbully’s actions can be prosecuted by law.

Prevent communication from the cyberbully, by blocking their email address, cell phone number, and deleting them from social media contacts. Report their activities to their Internet service provider (ISP) or to any social media or other websites they use to target you. The cyberbully’s actions may constitute a violation of the website’s terms of service or, depending on the laws in your area, may even warrant criminal charges

Depression

Depression (major depressive disorder) is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. Fortunately, it is also treatable. Depression causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities once enjoyed. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems and can decrease a person’s ability to function at work and at home.

The death of a loved one, loss of a job or the ending of a relationship are difficult experiences for a person to endure. It is normal for feelings of sadness or grief to develop in response to such situations. Those experiencing loss often might describe themselves as being “depressed.”

But being sad is not the same as having depression. The grieving process is natural and unique to each individual and shares some of the same features of depression. Both grief and depression may involve intense sadness and withdrawal from usual activities.

Risk Factors for Depression

Depression can affect anyone—even a person who appears to live in relatively ideal circumstances.

Several factors can play a role in depression:

  • Biochemistry: Differences in certain chemicals in the brain may contribute to symptoms of depression.
  • Genetics: Depression can run in families. For example, if one identical twin has depression, the other has a 70 percent chance of having the illness sometime in life.
  • Personality: People with low self-esteem, who are easily overwhelmed by stress, or who are generally pessimistic appear to be more likely to experience depression.
  • Environmental factors: Continuous exposure to violence, neglect, abuse or poverty may make some people more vulnerable to depression.

Self Help And Coping up

There are a number of things people can do to help reduce the symptoms of depression. For many people, regular exercise helps create positive feeling and improve mood. Getting enough quality sleep on a regular basis, eating a healthy diet and avoiding alcohol (a depressant) can also help reduce symptoms of depression.

Depression is a real illness and help is available. With proper diagnosis and treatment, the vast majority of people with depression will overcome it. If you are experiencing symptoms of depression, a first step is to see your family physician or psychiatrist. Talk about your concerns and request a thorough evaluation. This is a start to addressing mental health needs.

EATING DISORDERS

We will in a world where being thin is considered to be the beauty standard and anything other than thin is fat. People openly comment and advise on how to lose weight. So people in the process of being thin some develop eating disorders. Eating disorders are a type of mental disorder which abnormal eating behaviour negatively affects ones physical and mental health. People tend to assume that eating disorders are a lifestyle choice or that people choose to have an eating disorder. The eating disorders are of different types. Some range from extreme overeating and extreme restrictive eating. There are different types of eating disorders. But there are two main types, Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa.
Anorexia Nervosa is a type of eating disorder where people perceive that they are overweight, they also have bad self-esteem where they constantly feel fat and have to lose weight. People suffering from anorexia nervosa restrict their diet or vomit or use a laxative to force out the food in their system. Because they don’t want to gain weight, they force out food. Anorexia Nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any mental health disorders. Their diets are always restrictive with less calorie intake. Because they don’t eat a nutrition meal, they are very thin and have a deep fear of gaining weight. They consider themselves as overweight and continue to start themselves despite life-threatening starvation. The symptoms of the disorder are seen over a while. Mild anemia, brittle hair and nail and growth of fine hairs are one of the first symptoms seen. The growth of the fine is to keep the body warm when there is no fat to keep the body warm. Severe constipation, low blood pressure and multiple organ failure, the person will feel cold all the time and infertility are major symptoms the patients will face.
Bulimia Nervosa is an eating disorder where people tend to overeat large amounts of food with control over their eating habit. People suffering from Bulimia Nervosa eat large amounts of food and overcompensate by self-induced vomiting, over the use of laxatives to force the food out, fasting for long times. They overeat and then use extreme methods to get rid of it. They consider themselves as overweight and have self-perceived flaws. They always fear of gaining weight. They have a chronic swollen throat because of self-induced vomiting. They also have swollen salivary glands of self-induced vomiting. Acid induced reflex and intestinal distress and irritation from the use of laxatives. Long term effects are electrolyte imbalance which can lead to a stroke from there a heart attack; tooth enamel can become overly sensitive because of stomach acid because of self-induced vomiting
Eating disorders can affect people of all genders, ages and racial backgrounds. They usually start in the teenage year of a patient. There are many treatments for eating disorders.
People suffering from eating disorders have a higher risk of depression and suicidal tendencies. The treatments are usually psychotherapies and medications. To reduce the tendencies of self-induced vomiting and binge eating, Cognitive behavioural therapy is a frequently used therapy tool to help the patients acknowledge their unhealthy patterns of eating behaviour. Some medications are prescribed by the psychiatrist.

BODY DYSMORPHIC DISORDER

We all live in a judgmental society where our neighbourhood aunties tell us too eat more or eat less, maybe if we tried putting curd on our face as she told then well be fair or whiter or less brown to be precise, she always knows what’s best because she is older than all of us. All of these unwanted suggestions can lower our self-esteem when they point out your flaws you didn’t know existed. This just leads to us obsessing over our flaws. We all most of the times don’t like we see in the mirror but people who are suffering from body dysmorphic disorder obsess over their flaws on a specific body part which is usually exaggerated in their minds. This is body dysmorphia. Body dysmorphia or Body Dysmorphic Disorder [BDD] is a mental health disorder where you focus obsessively over your perceived flaws; the flaws might not be visible to others, this causes embarrassment, anxiety and leads to you being ashamed in public settings. Because the flaw is perceived its importance is exaggerated this leads to repetitive behaviour or people tend to avoid public settings or certain social engagements. It means repeatedly checking your appearance in the mirror, or seeking constant validation and repeated grooming oneself. Body Dysmorphic Disorder affects 0.7% to 2.4% of the population.

The disease was first reported in 1886 by Enrico Morselli, he named it Dysmorphophobia. It was first diagnosed as a somatoform but later reclassified as an obsessive-compulsive disorder. These people tend to indulge in behaviours which are directed towards fixing or masking their perceived flaw, they always compare their appearances with others, and they undergo cosmetic procedures with little to no satisfaction from the procedure. They also constantly think that others notice or make fun of their perceived flaw. Body Dysmorphic Disorder can be due to different factors, it develops during early adolescence, it might stem from social, cultural standards, psychological or trauma or abuse or bullying. It causes introversion and negative body image. Suicidal thoughts and depression are common in BDD. BDD also causes mood swings, depression, and the repetitive behaviour to mask their flaws causes’ obsessive-compulsive disorder to the patient, eating disorders to lose weight or to gain their perfect weight or to undergo multiple cosmetic surgeries.
BDD can be treated but most individuals tend to hide their obsessive disorders.

The conditions are hugely misdiagnosed because people are not open about it.
The common treatment for body dysmorphic disorder is Cognitive behavioural therapy is the most successful in treating BDD. Because BDD comes with an array of other disorders it’s a little difficult to treat but understandable. Cognitive-behavioural therapy provides a good mechanism where you can turn negative thoughts and irrational thoughts into positive thoughts. Responsive prevention in CBT teaches to resist the urge to mask their perceived flaw and how to seek validation from others and to grow confident. One of the ways to understand this disorder is that everyone is different and it’s no one’s business to tell others how to look or eat. Every person is beautiful in one or the other way and that not everyone is conventionally beautiful. So, be confident and find a niche for yourself.

The Perils of Perfectionism

Perfectionism can be described as the persistent need or desire to accomplish things perfectly, according to a standard that one sets for oneself. It is considered a positive virtue often in our culture. We encourage students to strive for their best and athletes have grueling practice sessions in order to reach their goals. The desire to do well is a good thing but one has to ask whether an obsession with perfectionism actually ends up being counterproductive. We need to distinguish between aiming to do well which is what high achievers tend to do, and being obsessed with nothing but perfection, a standard too high to reach and humanly impossible to achieve.

In a society where individuals are so often judged based on what they are capable of achieving and what position they hold, it is tempting to base all our worth on our ability to do something flawlessly. The temptation is greater for certain personality types who are naturally prone to work harder and be ambitious. Perfectionism has a positive side which involves healthy practices like setting goals for oneself, attempting to do better, and to learn and grow more. The negative side includes feelings of unworthiness, fear of failure, anxiety, insecurity, and debilitating stress. A healthy balance of both, and a need to overcome an obsession with being perfect is essential to maintain mental and physical health.

man in black suit achieved an accomplishment
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Perfectionism causes an individual to set standards for himself that he might not be able to keep. This can lead to him becoming anxious or depressed. It will affect his relationship with others, he might consider asking for help a sign of weakness, and he might develop severe trust issues since he tends to believe others will not do as good a job as him; he will think that unless he carries out a task, it won’t be perfect. This often leads to exhaustion and severe stress. A perfectionist tends to obsess over details that might not be that important, and their fear of failure might lead them to not engage in many opportunities. They usually tend to procrastinate chronically, and they might also end up holding others to impossible standards as well. Perfectionists are overly critical about themselves and worry about whether they are doing things right. As opposed to high achievers who will be satisfied with having given their best, perfectionists will need to have done everything perfectly regardless of how equipped they are to do the activity. Unrealistic standards and unnecessary self-criticism are detrimental to our mental health and our ability to do work well. It also makes us defensive and anxious about all criticism.

Understanding the signs of perfectionism and trying to undo it is important for every individual who struggles with this issue. Self-affirmation and acceptance can be one of the first steps towards a better and healthier approach to work. A work ethic that is bent on having everything perfect only destroys rather than builds. Acknowledge that you are not perfect and that you are bound to make mistakes. Delegate tasks and trust others when you are overburdened. Set goals that are achievable and be kind to yourself. Don’t ruminate over a problem excessively but learn to let go and move on. If you find yourself going on a thought spiral, find a distraction that will break that thought cycle: take a nap, do a mundane task, phone a friend. Remember to let yourself breathe and be human, to aim for excellence but not perfection.

Cultivating Self-Love

 

Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we’ll ever do. Be proud of who you are, and not ashamed of how someone else sees you.

The process of loving yourself can be extremely difficult. Especially if you don’t know what steps to take. So, it is quintessential to discern what self love constitutes and what it doesn’t.

Self-love is having time for your own beautiful ideas, memories and dreams. It is honouring yourself enough to believe in those passions and see that you need them, that you need to pursue them to be the person you were born to develop into. Self love is allowing yourself to mature and change, to grow into new perspectives and be comfortable enough in your own skin to allow your creativity to have the chaos it needs to be strong and the focus it needs to move in a positive direction. It is a state of being that respects these rights in others, that takes to heart that only they can see their path as only we can see ours, and that this sort of respect is a fundamental key to being human and living together. That this is part of liberty, that order comes from divine chaos, and all that requires self respect. Thus, self-love is genuine and complete acceptance of oneself.

However, what self-love discards is the egoistical self-centred sense of being whereby you only “love” yourself when you’ve “won” versus others, or when you consider yourself “better” than others. This is unsustainable and not authentic love for self, as when you truly love and accept yourself you don’t need to compare yourself to others. True self-love is not selfish pleasure, but rather the origin of discipline and willpower.

When you are conscious of that, that’s fantastic, you have made the first step- pat yourself on the back as it takes a lot of strength to admit that to yourself. Self-love is the most efficient route to everything from true self-discipline to pursuing your dreams, living out your full potential, and living an authentic and fulfilling life. It’s not easy, I am still on this path but it’s gradual and when you see yourself progressing on it, it truly is amazing. So how do we do it?

When you make choices or decisions ask yourself- ‘What would I do if I truly loved and accepted myself?”. Even if you haven’t accepted yourself yet, it puts you in the right mind-set and your decisions will reinforce the love for self. Aim to free yourself of any attachment. You are not your things, you are not your job, you are not your partner, you are not your friends, you are not your money. You are you. We cling on to them because they help us define ourselves – all because we don’t love ourselves. Stay true to yourself and if that means some people won’t accept you because of it – that’s fine because you are accepting yourself. Doesn’t it feel amazing when you acted naturally and did what was true to you ?
Do more of things that bring you true joy and not just pleasure. For example, think about what activities make you most happy or brought you most joy when you were a kid or teenager. It could be drawing, reading a book, helping someone, playing an instrument, etc. It must be true joy and not just superficial pleasure from activities as they might not help you cultivate that real self love.

Then, try focusing more of your attention to the present. Don’t get stuck with an image of you in the past or future. You need to realise that there is only now and no other time is real. The past was gone and the future is yet to come. Now is the only real setting there is- so bring your attention to it and cherish it. Look around you, focus on what your senses are feeling and even act surprised as if you just found out you exist. I personally found meditation to be incredibly powerful in cultivating this as a daily mind-set.

Those were the five things that helped me, I hope you will find something useful in them. Remember – let your ego fall and let unconditional love rise – for yourself and for others. You cannot truly love others unless you’ve learned to love yourself first. You must put oxygen mask on yourself first before putting it on others.

Self-love is looking out for yourself, not in a selfish way, but in a healthy way. Once we develop this discipline, we can use it in all sorts of life areas, like going to bed early, keeping up with physical activities, saying no to junk food, dedicating time to read and learn, and so much more. Quell the spoiled toddler, become the correct parent of your own mind. All the best with your beautiful journey !

Child Sexual Abuse

Child Sexual Abuse is one of the most heinous evils rampant in our society today. It is an issue that needs to be acknowledged in our houses and our systems if it is to be fought properly. Child sexual abuse refers to situations where a child is exploited sexually, tricked into involvement in sexual activities. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) as “the involvement of a child in sexual activity that he or she does not fully comprehend, is unable to give informed consent to, or for which the child is not developmentally prepared and cannot give consent, or that violates the laws or social taboos of society…”. The perpetrator is usually someone who the child knows well and has been around the child in places considered safe. The dynamics involved in such situations are very different from similar abusive cases involving adults and thus need to be treated differently.

Child sexual abuse includes both physical and non-physical activities between two individuals one of whom is a minor for the sexual gratification of the other person who is older than the minor. Rape, penetrative sexual activities, touching of breasts or genitals, forcing the child to watch porn or engage in harmful sexual activities, taking pictures and videos of the child, etc all come under child sexual abuse. It is not usually a one-time event but a continuous process that usually becomes more invasive and destructive with time. Child sexual abuse is a crime inflicted on a minor who is unable to give consent or process what is done to them. It leaves lasting effects that stay with them as they grow up and even cripples their ability to engage in everyday activities. It destroys them mentally, emotionally, and physically making many of them struggle with their experiences as adults. Self-doubt, fear, and repulsion of their own bodies is a common byproduct, as are PTSD, suicidal thoughts, and depression. Child sexual abuse leads to the devastation of entire families and individuals precisely because of its particular nature and the vulnerability of children.

road walking cute young
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Child sex trafficking rings and kidnappings are large scale industries which profit from sexually abusing children, but we need to be aware that this does not happen only in such spaces but inside our own homes as well. It thrives because the child is often unable to fully articulate or communicate what is being done to them. Even when they know or feel that something is wrong, they tend to not voice it, particularly when the perpetrator is someone they trust. This delay in identifying abuse also lends itself to aiding the abuse to continue for extended periods of time, even years. Another reason is the lack of awareness on the part of parents or guardians who miss the signs of abuse or take the expressions of the child as silly when they try to say that they don’t feel safe or comfortable with certain people. Indian cultural standards that often attribute respect to elders and never dare to question them becomes an ally to such practices since parents are more likely to scold than listen to their children when they say that someone in their own family makes them uncomfortable. Listening to the child and not invalidating what they are saying can greatly aid in identifying instances of abuse faster. Increased anxiety, health disorders, physical signs of abuse, or use of force are all pointers to the fact that something may be wrong. Being a watchful adult and being a friend to the child will often allow them to open up to us.

The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) recorded that in 2018, at least 109 children were victims of sexual abuse every day in 2018. One has to keep in mind that this statistic is solely based on cases that were reported. The number of cases increases every year and particularly now with a pandemic and everyone being forced to be shut inside their own homes, the cases have severely spiked. The urgency of the issue has to be understood and addressed not just by the law but the common citizen since she is the one who is most likely to be able to identify, intervene and stop it in the least amount of time.

For help: CHILDLINE – Call 1098 (Ministry of Women and Child Development)

ANXIETY

Anxiety is a concoction of feelings of worry, tension and fear. In India, alone 44.9 million people are dealing with anxiety disorders. Anxiety is a necessary survival instinct that had helped humanity survives. It produces adrenaline a hormone responsible for flight or fight response, it helps us fight dangers or to run away from them. Now the feelings or fear and worry revolve around our jobs, family and money. The nervous feeling before an important event is now a prolonged feeling of worry and stress. When anxiety is left untreated for a long time it can develop into anger. The socio-cultural aspects of our Indian society make it difficult for individuals with mental illness to come forward and get help. The stigma is still rooted that anyone who goes to a mental health facility is seen as crazy or disturbed.
Anxiety during lockdown can be tough. Anxiety can be divided into different disorders based on their severity or triggers. They are general anxiety disorder, agoraphobia which is anxiety which is triggered when they are forced to be in public situations, social anxiety, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), panic attacks and separation anxiety. A constant state of worry or fear might lead to panic attacks or bottled up stress turns into frustration which in turn becomes anger. During times of uncertainty where students worry about their academics, grad students who worry about future prospectus, a worker who are losing their jobs, anxiety are on the rise. Unprocessed anxiety can lead to anger issues as these feelings of fear or worry are left unacknowledged. The anger that is sourced from anxiety is not intentional but it is a natural reaction to anxiety. When these feelings are left untreated it’s normal for people to lash out because they do not know how to cope with it. But there are 5 things you can do to or tips that might help with anxiety.


1.People with anxiety usually tend to follow a routine they are comfortable with. In a lockdown, folks with anxiety should not lose track of their routine as it keeps them comfortable.
2.People how to suffer from panic attacks have many techniques that calm them down. One of my favourite techniques is sucking on an ice cube. Sucking on the ice cube distracts your mind from whatever is troubling you.
3.Staying connected with friends and family is important as social connectedness is important.
4.Minimizing the time spent on social media is a good option as social media is littered with constant news on coronavirus which might trigger anxiety in lockdown.
5.Talking to supportive friends or a mental health professional is always a good option.


Anxiety is treatable and there are many different ways it can be helped. The pandemic will pass and the thing will return to normal but something will remain different. The key to lessening the anxiety is to be kind to others and ourselves. We are going to some difficult times but life will always go on.

Productivity Obsession

We are living in a fast-paced world where everyone is always trying to do more. We are constantly bombarded with articles and self-help tips on how to manage time well and be more productive. The ability to get a large number of things done in the least amount of time is considered a quality that one should aspire to. This obsession with productivity, the repulsion to doing things slowly, or “wasting” time, and the perpetual need to prove oneself by what one achieves is a byproduct of the Capitalistic culture and attitude that we have imbibed. The worth of an individual is closely associated with how much she is able to contribute to society in tangible ways and the efficiency with which she does it. We often say that a person is not what they do but looking at how perceptions in society function currently, we are forced to reconsider if we really mean what we say.

One of the major factors that pervade this accomplishment-oriented culture is the idea of being productive. Productivity is supposed to be the ability to do more in less time, being focused on our goals, and always achieving what we set out to do. While these are good things in themselves, an obsession with being productive is detrimental to mental health and the quality of our lives as well. Many of the tips that we follow might end up being counterproductive as well. There are various myths about productivity that we hear and see around us; some of them in articles and blogs, others in books or videos. Again, while a few of these tips might work out, they do not generally function to make our lives better. In fact, many of us find that our inability to keep up with these advices make our days more stressful.

bored formal man watching laptop at desk
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A common myth is that we are only being productive when we are doing certain kinds of things. Here’s an example: It is considered more productive to learn a new language or skill than it is to spend our time reading a novel. Being focused on productivity makes us feel like there are always “more” productive things we can do, when in fact the things we are doing can be considered good and productive things themselves. We tend to grade our activities and give those which do not fulfill certain criteria, such as new knowledge or public appeal, as lesser productive. We forget that rest and leisure is often much more needed for our well-being than stressing over learning something new. Another myth is that we can look at successful people and copy their habits to be productive. Some say that we should read one book a day because someone famous did so, or that we should wake up at a specific time. While this might be good habits in themselves, we are not to discount the individual personalities and circumstances of people. it is not just habits but a collection of events that made someone who they are, and many of these things are outside our control. This often leads to comparison which almost never brings contentment.

Another important point to note is that being productive should not mean continuously being occupied with a specific kind of activity since that would just lead to burnouts and even repulsion after some time. People who tend to take regular breaks, spend time with themselves, and even “waste” time by doing nothing or engaging in seemingly irrelevant activities, are able to direct their energies better when involved in their actual work. It is not a better use of time but a better use of energy that lets them accomplish what is to be accomplished. Obsession with productivity is also closely linked to a culture that is becoming increasingly self-focused to the point of being egotistical. It can lead to us being so focused on getting things done that quality is sacrificed for quality, in order to have the feeling of having done more in lesser time than having done fewer things but of better quality. We must always keep in mind that taking rest itself is sometimes more “productive” in the long run than indulging in and spending our energies on anything that comes our way.

Mental Health: Are We Doing Enough?

 

“No one wishes to have dark days, sleepless nights, grumpy mornings and this endless dark tunnel with no sign that it ever ends. Mental illnesses aren’t a choice.”

Mental illnesses are the unseen, unheard, silent killers. It’s the pain that’s too much to cope with, too hard to deal with and so misunderstood. You can’t escape it no matter how hard you try, because it follows you around like a black shadow that’s on the inside, eating you.

There isn’t anything tragically beautiful about them, it’s just tragic. It’s not sad songs and poetry, shy glances or drowning in the bath. It’s not ghostly white skin tainted by charcoal circles under sad eyes and large purple bruises stretching viciously up your arms. It isn’t lonely walks, vacant coffee shops or smoking dusty cigarettes.

Depression is unwashed clothes and flaking skin. It’s over eating and the inability to even get out of bed. It’s giving up on yourself and not taking pride in your appearance anymore. It’s empty inboxes, bursts of anger and late night tears. It’s a feeling of disgust within yourself that makes you want to tear off your own skin just so you can feel clean. It’s uncertainty and confusion. It’s losing weight, long showers and greasy hair. It’s constantly wishing you could be somewhere or someone else. It’s losing the will to even live.

Similarly, anxiety isn’t just sweating and shaking and shortness of breath. It’s also feeling like you have no control over your life and there is a knot in your stomach and you feel like your world is crashing down completely and you have to sit there and act like you’re fine.

Being bipolar is like being on a roller coaster ride. Sometimes you can predict drop offs and others you just have to hang on because the next turn sends you into an unexpected spiral. Sometimes you are laughing and throwing your hands in the air and then other times you are clinging, simply holding on for dear life screaming it the top of your lungs.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorders are like unpredictable demons of your own mind, where the soul is a puppet of your own fears, where a line between right and wrong gets blurred, where your true identity disappears only in you, where you get accosted for thousands of pointless known questions, where you get beaten every single second by your own self, where everyone seems fine except you, where regret is smaller word for ‘reassurance’, where mind goes dead and breathing continues, where you stuck in a small box full of nightmares.

So, are we doing enough about mental health? Long answer short, no.

The first and foremost reason for India to lose its mental health is the lack of awareness and sensitivity about the issue. There is a big stigma around people suffering from any kind of mental health issues. They are often tagged as ‘lunatics’ by the society. This leads to a vicious cycle of shame, suffering and isolation of the patients. Also, there is a serious shortage of mental healthcare workforce in India.

One of the biggest hurdles in addressing mental health is the measurement of objective information. With other illnesses, there are lab reports, X-rays, CT scan, MRI, etc. which are used for identification of illnesses. In case of mental health, such objective parameters aren’t available. Secondly, despite it’s enormous social burden, mental health remains a taboo subject that is susceptible to age-old stigmas, prejudices and fears. Because people can’t see a physical deformity they think there’s no substance to your illness. People often associate it with pretending and take it lightly in less developed states. Even highly educated people react the same way and lack empathy. They’ll belittle mental illnesses and blame it on the sufferer’s personality. Thus, in our country, the discovery of a mental illness is often followed by denial and hesitation to seek help. Thirdly, the output of the same disease or problem varies significantly from person to person, making it very subjective. Thus, needless to say, the path towards addressing and normalizing discussions about mental health is indeed a rocky one.

Mental health stigma is not only a culturally learned aversion to discussing mental illness, it is also the subsequent ignorance in the general population about how to recognize stigma in everyday life or an institutional level. And this stigma is can be soul damaging. It’s also personal and unique to the individual, yet it encourages society to treat the ones suffering from it as: Dangerous. Expendable. Useless. Invisible. To dismantle stigma we have to look much deeper at the specific problems and manifestations of it. How does stigma penetrate into the scientific publications and research? What type of education are we given on mental health in public education? All of these more nuanced questions give us routes to comparison and action. I believe it is in these details that stigma exists and where it must be sought if we are to dismantle it.

We, as a society, need to learn to treat people with mental illnesses with compassion rather than telling them that their brain is defective.
To build a better world we need to consciously design a better environment for all of humanity, one in which all the choices we have are good options. What we have now is a dynamic that makes people sick and then blames them for being sick. This world of fear and coercion can be swapped for one of love and cooperation, a world that brings us all health and happiness in all our different and wonderful cultures.

Why is Aging Mindfully very necessary ?

Mindful aging is aging in a way that does not ignore the negative effects of aging, and also having a positive outlook to the benefits of aging. It’s all about accepting the things that come with aging, and not being ignorant to it. It’s all about not blowing things out of proportion. People often tend to have a negative response to aging, even if you think about aging all you can see is being dependent on someone, needing assistance almost all the time, having difficulties in doing your day to day activities and most importantly you feel you will stop enjoying life. But we should never forget that it’s in our hands to draw limitations or never think about it at all. We must never dwell on the misery life has installed for us, be it today or tomorrow, always find ways to make today better than yesterday. Constantly ask yourself these questions: 

● Am I willing to grow old? 

● Am I ready to face tomorrow? 

● What can I do to make complete use of my time later? 

● How can I overcome the fear of getting old? 

● How can I stop dwelling on negative thoughts ? 

● Is it really bad to grow old? 

As we grow older and older we are more thankful for everything in life, we get to see people falling sick , people dying. So we must be grateful that we are alive, and try to make the best use of our remaining time on earth. No one knows what the future holds, so enjoy every moment of life like there’s no tomorrow. By mindfully aging there is also a decrease in the stress and anxiety levels of a person. Practicing mindful aging is not only for people in their 60’s and 70’s but we can start practicing it today. Follow simple steps to start working on it: 

● We might often dwell on certain bad memories or friends who are no more friends with you, we must learn to let these memories fade away. You require space to make new memories and dwelling on these old and painful ones can only worsen your mind-set, and you may never be able to make a new one. 

● Plan things you could do when you grow older, make a bucket list of things you wish to do before you die, be it skydiving or traveling to the coldest place on earth. Planning things beforehand will help you stay focused on your happy life. 

● Try respecting your body as much as possible. You might not have the same tiny waist anymore or perfect skin, but you must learn to accept these inevitable changes your body must go through. Try making health your priority , you might not be able to run a marathon, but you surely can go out for a walk or go jogging. 

Conclusion:- 

You might feel that you don’t require these things as you’re still young, but this is not just something to do when you grow old, but we all need it right now. Being mindful must change into being our lifestyle, people don’t realise the importance of this, but it’s as important as 

taking your tablets when you feel sick, mindful aging is like therapy to lost minds. Older people are often more happy than younger ones, this is because they are aging more mindfully unlike the young ones. Remember the key to your happiness is in your own hands, make sure you unlock it before it’s too late. 

#Cancelled: Unravelling The Toxicity of Cancel Culture

 

“I believe it’s worth thinking about what accountability looks like beyond simply exiling someone. In doing so, we can position ourselves more firmly within the values of social justice.”

Cancel. It’s dictionary definition is “to destroy the force, effectiveness, or validity of.” Cancel culture, originally started as a means to correct or inform the misguided. However, it has become something much worse. People go along with it because they think it’s a cool trend to follow. They have gone down this spiral of cancel culture and the idea that everything is offensive. Nowadays, anyone and everyone is getting cancelled. It has become so widespread that by now people think of it to be a normality.

But it shouldn’t be.

The problem arises when it turns into a bunch of people only doing it so that they can show everyone else how good of a person they are. Then everyone tries to out-do each other and ultimately, you end up with a bunch of people wasting their time going through years and years of tweets to find the one wrong thing that someone said and call them out on that. All this, despite the fact that society didn’t care about those things at the time and the person has clearly changed since then. It’s quintessential to realize that today’s morals cannot be applied to something that happened ten years ago.

It should be understood that there’s a huge difference between “I dislike or disagree with this person, and it’s important enough to me that I will not personally patronize them” and “I dislike or disagree with this person, therefore they shouldn’t have a career at all.” Lamentably, the latter view pretty much plagues the minds of most social media users.

Cancel culture is based on the premise that anyone who offends you does so with deliberation, intention, and (usually) malignant motivation. Cancel culture uses public shaming and group complaining to attempt to induce permanent harm to those with whom they take exception. It uses the legal system to induce financial crisis, uses the publicity system to amplify their voice, and generally acts like that kid you see in kindergarten who has to play alone because they can’t be around other people without attacking them for not submitting to their desire to dominate a cultural or economic space. These kinds of people tend to regularly miss noticing that the world and other people (by and large) could not possibly care less about them, if they even know they exist. These kinds of people tend to assume that their own perspective is always the most important and relevant one, and try to get attention by amplifying outrage to culturally blackmail perspectives and people with whom they disagree. Then, they refuse to accept the concerned person’s apology when they do apologize and admit it was wrong and insensitive. It just ends up turning into virtue signalling for selfish reasons. Worst of all, they are willing to injure others and ruin lives to do it.

Personally, I find it to be an appalling display of self- absorption and egotism by people who, I think, behave and seem to be so emotionally insensitive that they just stop caring about anyone but themselves. The worst of the lot always seems to be the same personality. Cancel culture will die the moment this becomes more apparent. The good news is, that’s probably not that far off. The sad news is that in the meanwhile, they’re deriding and tarnishing a far longer and better tradition of social and cultural discourse that actually delivers on change.

It’s generally organized by malicious people who only gather together to form groups of hatred and intolerance for anything that they deem unfit. They probably have never let go of a grudge in their life and are also very likely to be the ones who take a sick pride in that. Their circles are usually only held together by common bonds of hatred, but quickly implode upon themselves the moment they can gather a group to harm one another. They tend to be ruthless, claiming virtue but displaying a twisted set of morals that only fit their own bill. They try and sell you a picture they’ve created from fragments of reality, out of desperation to advance their narrative (i.e., that their upset is more important than anything else in the world) and, sadly, most will probably buy into it if they are not aware of their intentions.

Their logic, too, struggles to hold up, for example, the “once a racist, always a racist” argument. From this perspective, an ignorant 15 year old cannot possibly change and become more educated or grown as a human being. Their comments imply that the people they’re fighting to stop never grow, never change their views on particular topics and are social scum because of comments, posts, tweets, etc. from years ago. It’s embarrassing to say the least. The best part is the likely hypocrisy. I’m willing to wager that even they, themselves, have committed ignorance acts in the past, which just haven’t been exposed, but they don’t think about that.

These people are willing and happy to see others suffer and that’s pretty much the antithesis of the intent of public discourse and even public protest. Some of them, however, outgrow this behavior and learn more productive ways to advance change. Then again, these would be the ones that are actually interested in change, not retribution.

We need to become a more tolerant society not only in matters of differences in sex, sexual preference, race, religion, and nationality but also in showing the willingness to allow the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with and not seek to harm the offender. It may be a fine line that we walk between a legitimate cancel and ill-advised one, but it’s a line that must be drawn to bring civility back to society.

We need to come up with ways to hold people accountable for their wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed.

– Bell Hooks

Addressing Toxic Masculinity

 

“Sometimes people hear “toxic masculinity” and think the term is anti-men. It isn’t. It’s anti-telling- men -they-have-to-repress-emotions- and – be-dominant-alphas-to- be- considered – real-guys. It’s pro-men. Thinking, feeling, resilient, strong, awesome men.”

– Amanda Jette Knox

I am sure that if you’re an international K-pop fan, then you are no stranger to the knee-jerk reaction people have after they have begged you to show them the images and/or music videos or any K-Pop group. Most reactions generally revolve around “They look like women” or “They are too feminine” or “Why are they wearing make-up?” or the infamous “Are they gay?”.

This made me wonder, what exactly is it that causes such a reaction? What does it mean to be ‘man’ or to be something lesser than that? Are we, as a society, missing out on addressing the toxic masculinity that plagues the young minds?

Although, there have been some colloquies on it, most of them leave out the dialogue that Asian men are particularly hyper-emasculated in western culture (and also by minorities in western culture) which could also be a reason why people automatically react in this manner, besides already having discrimination towards appearances that don’t fit the extremes of femininity and masculinity. As for the people mouthing off about K-pop looking too “feminine”, it ends up bringing up the connotation that femininity is a bad thing somehow. It’s essential to understand that feminine and masculine traits are social constructs, so they change according to each culture.

What is toxic masculinity?

Toxic masculinity is those elements of our social definition of masculinity that have concrete negative impacts on men by promoting behaviours such as refusing medical treatment to appear strong, suppressing emotions that show vulnerability, and idolizing violence as a solution to problems.

These behaviours are enforced by other men (and society as a whole), by challenging the manhood of those who deviate from this behavior, while also teaching each other that manhood is something to be valued above all else. In addition, most of them wrestle with the perception of masculinity, which, in a feudal society like ours, is very conditional. Of course, women perpetrate violence too: they can be aggressive and brutal, particularly to other women. But undoubtedly, the culture that stokes such violence smacks of machismo. Manhood is not naturally given, but is a goal to be achieved. To be born a boy is a privilege but one that can be lost if one is not properly initiated into masculine practices.

What are the core features of this model of manhood?

First, aggression is natural and desirable in men. A ‘real’ man is eager to pick up a fight. If he does not, he is told to wear bangles on his wrist. Even the slightest intrusion in his physical, mental or social space is unacceptable. Second, men must be tough — muscular and unemotional; they must not be easily perturbed, must not grieve and cry. Part of what it means to be tough is to suppress empathy towards others, to be embarrassed by fear or any other vulnerability. Third, men must be ambitious and ruthless. Once they set a goal, it must be achieved regardless of consequences to others. Since winning is all-important, other men striving to achieve the same goal are rivals to be eliminated. Extreme competitiveness, on this model, is a classical male characteristic. Fourth, it does not behove men to consult others, negotiate with the weak, or settle for anything less than what they want. They take independent decisions that brook no questioning. As famously put by Amitabh Bachchan in one of his films, ‘Bas… keh diya na (Enough, I have said so).’

And if you don’ fill in these roles, then too bad, you’re deemed to be not ‘man enough’.

In most discourses, however, what isn’t properly addressed is that women perpetuate toxic masculinity too. There is an institutionalized aspect of masculine toxicity as culture that we recognize as true for men in general, but ignore being equally true among women, even many feminist women. Most people and groups do this to some extent, it’s hard to be fully self aware and self critical. We don’t always see the flaws in ourselves as readily as we see them in others. Part of feminism is recognizing the invisible structures that pull societal norms to be what they are. This is just an aspect of that and speaks to the idea that we really have to be the change we want to see in the world and it’s pretty naive to consider yourself or your group as “clean hands” in the matter just because you are aware of one piece of the puzzle.

So, what can be done to overcome this?

The first step would be, abandoning ‘just for men’ attitudes, and not doing it for the sake of getting women to like you. ‘Woke’ bros are just as problematic, so just live honestly and act respectfully towards everyone. Stand up for what’s right even when it’s hard and you’re a minority voice.

Just like we “make room” or “hold space” for voices that are actually impacted by the problems we see in our society it makes sense we should do the same to at least include men as valuable voices to addressing the “male toxicity” problem. Only they can speak their own truth.

Violence, misogyny, and no accountability are pillars of toxic masculinity. So, knock down those pillars daily. Embracing who you are and standing up for those who need it, you start to realize gender doesn’t have a place to shape our lives as rigidly as society tells us. Call it inner peace and confidence! You can embrace your personhood, just not things. You can embrace your own idea of a ‘masculine’ identity, just don’t be attached to the external.

“All of us have to recognize that being a man is first and foremost being a good human. That means being responsible, working hard, being kind, respectful, compassionate. If you’re confident about your strength, you don’t need to show me by putting somebody else down.”