Why are people drawn to vegetarianism? Some just want to live longer, healthier lives. Others have made the switch to preserve Earth’’s natural resources or from a love of animals and an ethical opposition to eating them.

Thanks to an abundance of scientific research that demonstrates the health and environmental benefits of a plant-based diet, even the federal government recommends that we consume most of our calories from grain products, vegetables and fruits.

And no wonder: An estimated 70 percent of all diseases, including one-third of all cancers, are related to diet. A vegetarian diet reduces the risk for chronic degenerative diseases such as obesity, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and certain types of cancer including colon, breast, prostate, stomach, lung and esophageal cancer.

Why go vegetarian? Chew on these reasons: 

You’ll ward off disease. 

Vegetarian diets are more healthful than the average American diet, particularly in preventing, treating or reversing heart disease and reducing the risk of cancer. A low-fat vegetarian diet is the single most effective way to stop the progression of coronary artery disease or prevent it entirely. Cardiovascular disease kills 1 million Americans annually and is the leading cause of death in the United States.

But the mortality rate for cardiovascular disease is lower in vegetarians than in nonvegetarians, says Joel Fuhrman, MD, author of Eat to Live: The Revolutionary Formula for Fast and Sustained Weight Loss. A vegetarian diet is inherently healthful because vegetarians consume less animal fat and cholesterol (vegans consume no animal fat or cholesterol) and instead consume more fiber and more antioxidant-rich produce——another great reason to listen to Mom and eat your veggies!

You’ll keep your weight down. 

The standard American diet—high in saturated fats and processed foods and low in plant-based foods and complex carbohydrates——is making us fat and killing us slowly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and a division of the CDC, the National Center for Health Statistics, 64 percent of adults and 15 percent of children aged 6 to 19 are overweight and are at risk of weight-related ailments including heart disease, stroke and diabetes.http

A study conducted from 1986 to 1992 by Dean Ornish, MD, president and director of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California, found that overweight people who followed a low-fat, vegetarian diet lost an average of 24 pounds in the first year and kept off that weight 5 years later. They lost the weight without counting calories or carbs and without measuring portions or feeling hungry.

You’ll live longer. 

If you switch from the standard American diet to a vegetarian diet, you can add about 13 healthy years to your life, says Michael F. Roizen, MD, author of The RealAge Diet: Make Yourself Younger with What You Eat. “People who consume saturated, four-legged fat have a shorter life span and more disability at the end of their lives. Animal products clog your arteries, zap your energy and slow down your immune system. Meat eaters also experience accelerated cognitive and sexual dysfunction at a younger age.”

Want more proof of longevity? 

Residents of Okinawa, Japan, have the longest life expectancy of any Japanese and likely the longest life expectancy of anyone in the world, according to a 30-year study of more than 600 Okinawan centenarians. Their secret: a low-calorie diet of unrefined complex carbohydrates, fiber-rich fruits and vegetables, and soy.

You’ll build strong bones. 

When there isn’t enough calcium in the bloodstream, our bodies will leach it from existing bone. The metabolic result is that our skeletons will become porous and lose strength over time. Most health care practitioners recommend that we increase our intake of calcium the way nature intended——through foods. Foods also supply other nutrients such as phosphorus, magnesium and vitamin D that are necessary for the body to absorb and use calcium.null

People who are mildly lactose-intolerant can often enjoy small amounts of dairy products such as yogurt, cheese and lactose-free milk. But if you avoid dairy altogether, you can still get a healthful dose of calcium from dry beans, tofu, soymilk and dark green vegetables such as broccoli, kale, collards and turnip greens.

You’ll reduce your risk of food-borne illnesses. 

The CDC reports that food-borne illnesses of all kinds account for 76 million illnesses a year, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths in the United States. According to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), foods rich in protein such as meat, poultry, fish and seafood are frequently involved in food-borne illness outbreaks.

You’ll ease the symptoms of menopause. 

Many foods contain nutrients beneficial to perimenopausal and menopausal women. Certain foods are rich in phytoestrogens, the plant-based chemical compounds that mimic the behavior of estrogen. Since phytoestrogens can increase and decrease estrogen and progesterone levels, maintaining a balance of them in your diet helps ensure a more comfortable passage through menopause. Soy is by far the most abundant natural source of phytoestrogens, but these compounds also can be found in hundreds of other foods such as apples, beets, cherries, dates, garlic, olives, plums, raspberries, squash and yams. Because menopause is also associated with weight gain and a slowed metabolism, a low-fat, high-fiber vegetarian diet can help ward off extra pounds.null

You’ll have more energy. 

Good nutrition generates more usable energy—energy to keep pace with the kids, tackle that home improvement project or have better sex more often, Michael F. Roizen, MD, says in The RealAge Diet. Too much fat in your bloodstream means that arteries won’t open properly and that your muscles won’t get enough oxygen.

The result? You feel zapped. Balanced vegetarian diets are naturally free of cholesterol-laden, artery-clogging animal products that physically slow us down and keep us hitting the snooze button morning after morning. And because whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables are so high in complex carbohydrates, they supply the body with plenty of energizing fuel.

You’ll be more ‘regular.’  

Eating a lot of vegetables necessarily means consuming more fiber, which pushes waste out of the body. Meat contains no fiber. People who eat lower on the food chain tend to have fewer instances of constipation, hemorrhoids and diverticulitis.

You’ll help reduce pollution. 

Some people become vegetarians after realizing the devastation that the meat industry is having on the environment. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), chemical and animal waste runoff from factory farms is responsible for more than 173,000 miles of polluted rivers and streams. Runoff from farmlands is one of the greatest threats to water quality today. Agricultural activities that cause pollution include confined animal facilities, plowing, pesticide spraying, irrigation, fertilizing and harvesting.

You’ll avoid toxic chemicals. 

The EPA estimates that nearly 95 percent of the pesticide residue in the typical American diet comes from meat, fish and dairy products. Fish, in particular, contain carcinogens (PCBs, DDT) and heavy metals (mercury, arsenic, lead, cadmium) that can’t be removed through cooking or freezing.

Meat and dairy products can also be laced with steroids and hormones, so be sure to read the labels on the dairy products you purchase.

You’ll help reduce famine. 

About 70 percent of all grain produced in the United States is fed to animals raised for slaughter. The 7 billion livestock animals in the United States consume five times as much grain as is consumed directly by the American population. “If all the grain currently fed to livestock were consumed directly by people, the number of people who could be fed would be nearly 800 million, says David Pimentel, professor of ecology at Cornell University. If the grain were exported, it would boost the US trade balance by $80 billion a year.

You’ll spare animals. 

Many vegetarians give up meat because of their concern for animals. Ten billion animals are slaughtered for human consumption each year. And, unlike the farms of yesteryear where animals roamed freely, today most animals are factory farmed: crammed into cages where they can barely move and fed a diet tainted with pesticides and antibiotics.

These animals spend their entire lives in crates or stalls so small that they can’’t even turn around. Farmed animals are not protected from cruelty under the law——in fact, the majority of state anticruelty laws specifically exempt farm animals from basic humane protection.

You’ll save money. 

Meat accounts for 10 percent of Americans’ food spending. Eating vegetables, grains and fruits in place of the 200 pounds of beef, chicken and fish each nonvegetarian eats annually would cut individual food bills by an average of $4,000 a year.

Your dinner plate will be full of color. 

Disease-fighting phytochemicals give fruits and vegetables their rich, varied hues. They come in two main classes: carotenoids and anthocyanins. All rich yellow and orange fruits and vegetables—carrots, oranges, sweet potatoes, mangoes, pumpkins, corn—owe their color to carotenoids. Leafy green vegetables also are rich in carotenoids but get their green color from chlorophyll. Red, blue and purple fruits and vegetables—plums, cherries, red bell peppers——contain anthocyanins. Cooking by color is a good way to ensure you’re eating a variety of naturally occurring substances that boost immunity and prevent a range of illnesses.

Going vegetarian is a breeze. 

It’s almost effortless these days to find great-tasting and good-for-you vegetarian foods, whether you’re strolling the aisles of your local supermarket or walking down the street at lunchtime. If you need inspiration in the kitchen, look no further than the internet, your favorite bookseller or your local vegetarian society’s newsletter for culinary tips and great recipes. And if you’re eating out, almost any ethnic restaurant will offer vegetarian selections. In a hurry? Most fast food and fast casual restaurants now include healthful and inventive salads, sandwiches and entrees on their menus. So rather than asking yourself why go vegetarian, the real question is: Why haven’t you gone vegetarian

“Leave your front door and your back door open. Let thoughts come and go. Just don’t serve them tea.” ~Shunryu Suzuki

There are few things more exasperating in life than having a noisy chatterbox in residence between your ears—a busy mind that never stops and won’t leave you in peace for a moment.

You are sitting by the pool on your long-awaited vacation.

The weather is perfect. Your diary is clear. You settle down on your deckchair with an ice-cold drink and your favorite book.

Everything is perfect—well, almost everything.

The message “on vacation” clearly hasn’t got through to the mind department.

“Man, that drink was expensive. Better suck your belly in, there’s someone coming. You are as white as a sheet. What on earth will people think? Okay, that’s it. I’m starting a diet on Monday. Oops, I forgot I’m on holiday. Okay, I’ll start when I get home.”

Just writing about it is exhausting enough, let alone living it.

Being subjected to a relentless torrent of mindless chatter and having no idea how to stop it can be exasperating to say the least.

I know. It was the intense suffering inside my own head that led me to sign up for a six-month meditation retreat and later become ordained as a monk.

Happily, I quickly discovered that quieting a noisy mind isn’t nearly as difficult as I’d imagined.

Hint: You don’t even have to change or fix your thoughts.

These days, although I still have my crazy moments when the mind shoots off on a mad rant, my general experience is so much quieter and more peaceful than it used to be.

I’d love to share some (possibly surprising) truths that will hopefully help you achieve the same.

Here are seven tips you can start applying right away.

1. Accept Your Mind is busy.
   Did you know that the average mind churns out around 70,000 thoughts per day? That’s a lot of thoughts.

No wonder it feels so busy in there!

Even people who are relatively laid back have a lot of traffic going on between their ears.

So don’t be surprised that your mind is busy. Don’t create an additional layer of suffering by thinking there’s something wrong with you for having a ton of thoughts. There isn’t.

Expecting your mind not to be busy is like expecting the grass not to be green.

Let it be busy.

2. Engaging with the mind is optional.
   If I were to choose one thing I learned about the mind in my time as a monk—the one thing that had the greatest impact on my peace, it would be this:

Engaging with the mind is optional.

It is not so much the thoughts themselves that cause us to suffer but our fascination and preoccupation with them.

We spend our days chewing on them, wallowing in them, stewing in them, and generally giving them an inordinate amount of our time and attention.

And we don’t need to.

Want to know the secret to ongoing peace?

The less you get involved in what the mind gets up to, the more peace you will experience.

Sit back and let the mind do its dance. Your involvement is not mandatory.

Which brings us to the next point.

3. Watch your thoughts from a distance.
   In order to disentangle ourselves from our thoughts, we need to create some distance, some breathing space, between ourselves and the mind.

Most of the thinking patterns that rob us of our peace run unconsciously on autopilot. The same old patterns play over and over, day in, day out—like broken records. And it is so habitual, we don’t even notice we are doing it.

The key is to bring more awareness to these unconscious patterns.

The first step when you learn to meditate is to take a step back and watch the mind objectively—with an attitude of curiosity and non-judgmental acceptance.

You may also find that the simple act of watching thoughts, rather than being wrapped up in them, will stop thinking it in its tracks—or at least slow it down.

4. Give your thoughts the freedom to come and go.
   If you want to tame an angry bull, the worst thing you can do is to tie him up or try to confine him in any way. This will only make him angrier and more difficult to control.

The best way to calm him down is to give him a huge open field to run around in. Meeting with no resistance, he will quickly run out of steam.

And it’s the same with the mind.

Thoughts themselves don’t cause trouble. Left alone, they appear in your awareness, remain for a moment, and move on again.

No problem.

It is when we try to control or manage them—through labelling them as bad, wrong, or unacceptable—that we get into trouble and create suffering for ourselves.

Let them wander freely through the vast, open field of your awareness and they will quickly run out of steam. Don’t energize them with your resistance.

If thoughts are there anyway, it is much better to befriend them rather than struggle against them.

What happens to a sad thought or an angry thought if you welcome it rather than reject it?

What happens if you don’t mind it being there?

5. Don’t take your thoughts personally.
   Seeing that ‘my’ thoughts are not personal was another game-changing insight for me.

For most people, what typically happens is this:

You feel jealous. You feel afraid. You feel angry. And you then beat yourself up, believing you are personally responsible for the thoughts (feelings and emotions too) that show up in your head—believing there’s something wrong with you for having these thoughts.

There isn’t. You are not the author of your thoughts.

If you watch the mind closely, you’ll notice that thoughts appear by themselves, apparently out of nowhere.

In mindfulness training, we use the analogy of “the undercurrent and the observer” to illustrate our relationship with the mind.

The key understanding is that the undercurrent—the continuous stream of thoughts, feelings and emotions that pass through your awareness—is self-arising.

It is not within your control and therefore impersonal.

What most people do is thrash about midstream, like a crazed thought traffic policeman, frantically trying to control the flow—welcoming this thought, rejecting that one.

Trying to control the river is futile and exhausting.

Better to be the observer, sitting calmly on the riverbank watching the river flow by—knowing it’s not personal.

The less involved you are in trying to control the flow, the more peace you’ll experience.

6. Know the difference between thoughts arising and thinking.
   Although there’s nothing you can do about the thoughts that show up in your head, thinking is another matter.

Let’s say the thought appears, “My boss doesn’t like me.”

It then triggers a dialogue in your head, “He’s definitely going to overlook me for the upcoming promotion. It is so unfair. I’ve been working here much longer than Jane. But he seems to like her a lot. Things never go my way. I’m just unlucky in life.”

This type of unproductive thinking is the primary cause of suffering for most people—and it is entirely within our control whether we choose to indulge in it or not.

Replaying the past over and over, catastrophising about the future, wallowing in unfounded beliefs and assumptions—these are some of the patterns that can create so much unnecessary misery.

And it’s entirely avoidable.

When you notice you’re caught up in an unproductive mind-movie, STOP.

There is nothing that can compel you to continue if you choose not to.

You’re the one in charge.

Focus instead on being present in the moment. Put your attention on your breath, on the sensations in the soles of your feet, on the sound of the wind rustling through the trees.

Unproductive thinking is mostly a habit. And like most habits, with a little awareness, it can be broken.

7. Live more in the present moment.
   One of the main insights in meditation practice is that your awareness can only be in one place at a time.

If you are lost in your thinking mind, you can’t simultaneously be aware of your surroundings. Likewise, when you shift your attention to the present moment, thinking stops.

When you are present here and now, the mind automatically becomes quiet.

Whenever you are aware enough to catch yourself falling into habitual thinking patterns, stop and engage your senses.

Tune into the sensation of the air caressing your skin, feel the weight of your body coming into contact with the chair, listen to the sounds around you.

Be intensely aware that now is happening and notice what happens to your thinking mind

Take Back Control From Your Busy Mind
The mind isn’t a bad thing of course. It would be pretty hard to get through life without one.

It can come in very useful for problem solving, writing articles, booking flights, or remembering which house is yours when you get home from work.

Used productively to carry out specific tasks, the human mind is an incredible tool.

But it can also be deeply destructive—like an out of control Frankenstein monster with a life of its own.

The mind can be a beautiful servant or a dangerous master.

It all depends on who’s in charge.

The next time you’re sitting on your deck chair trying to relax and the mind kicks off with its crazy dance (as it will do) remind it who’s boss.

Don’t give it the power to ruin your holiday.

“There is no failure except in no longer trying.”

We all admire a lot of people for their success. But before their success, they too experienced epic failure in their life. We celebrate their success, feel proud, but often overlook the path that got them there, a path marked with number of failures. It’s our chance to learn from them, and accept failure as a chance to learn.

Can you imagine your childhood without Disney? I don’t know about others but it seemed black and white to me. I get chills down my spineby even thinking about it. There would’ve no Disney princesses, no Micky mouse or Hannah Montana, NOTHING!Well it could easily have been if Walt had listened to his former newspaper editor. The editor told Walt that “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas”. Surprising! Isn’t it? This is the same man who filled our childhood with number of amazing and colourful stories.

As it is rightly said, “no one can stop a man who is determined to prove himself not to the world but to his own eyes”! Undeterred, old Walt went to create the cultural icon that bears his name “WALT DISNEY”, sounds like a brand to me. Despite being one of the most influential people of the 20^th century, Disney endured many failures before creating “The happiest place on earth”.

And now he is known as an extraordinary successful creative whose visions as an animator, filmmaker and theme park developer changed entertainment in the 20^th century and beyond.  His road to success was paved by an unhappy childhood and countless business failures or setbacks.

Yet, Disney’s take on failure was:

“I think it’s important to have a good hard failure when you are young, because it makes you kind of aware of what can happen to you. Because of it, I have never had any fear in my whole life when we’ve been near collapse and all of that. I have never been afraid”.

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Recently, GNS Science, a New Zealand research institute, has published two new maps covering Zealandia’s tectonic profile and shape.

Zealandia is an almost entirely submerged mass of continental crust located in the southern Pacific Ocean that subsided after breaking away from Gondwanaland 83–79 million years ago.

The land mass may have been completely submerged by about 23 million years ago, and most of it (93%) remains submerged beneath the Pacific Ocean.

It is also known as Tasmantis due to its proximity to Tasman sea. Te Riu-a-Māui is another name for Zealandia.

The name and concept for Zealandia was proposed by Bruce Luyendyk in 1995.

Political Divisions Under Zealandia Are:

New Zealand, New Caledonia, Norfolk island, Lord howe island group and Elizabeth and Middleton reefs.

The Reserve Bank of India has launched the inflation expectations survey of households and responses of the participants will be gathered over telephone in view of the coronavirus pandemic. The RBI has been regularly conducting the survey to elicit subjective views of the households on price movement across various cities of the country. The results of the survey are used as inputs for monetary policy.
 
The July 2020 round of the Inflation Expectations Survey of Households has been launched. As per RBI release, Hansa Research Group, Mumbai has been engaged to conduct the survey of this round on behalf of the RBI over telephone instead of the regular personal interview mode in view of the pandemic. The survey aims at capturing subjective assessments on price movements and inflation, of approximately 6,000 households, based on their individual consumption baskets, across 18 cities.
 
The cities that would be covered are Mumbai, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi and Thiruvananthapuram. The survey would seek qualitative as well as quantitative responses from households on price changes, general prices as well as prices of specific product groups, for the three months ahead as well as in the one year ahead period.