Category: Health

9 Reasons To Learn Content Writing.

Knowing SEO as a writer is a key component of making sure your content is easy to find. As with any business, it’s important to make content writing an ongoing part of your marketing strategy. Do your best to create high-quality unique content – keep your articles engaging and grammatically correct. Providing readers with relevant and authentic content is the best way to maintain author credibility.

At the same time, creating high-quality content is critical to any marketing strategy. You need to make sure your content reaches the right audience, and outsourcing content writing can help you improve your overall content strategy. Of course, you need to know what to write and how to make it resonate with your readers. In today’s marketing environment, you also need to make it attractive to search engines.

Sharpen your writing skills as well as take advantage of SEO tools to help you maximize your content creation efforts. Writing great content is never easy, but it gets a lot easier when you write something you’re passionate about. Content that is very easy to read and easy to share is the key to great content. For more information on writing great content, visit the Copyblogger blog.

If you don’t spend enough time writing thoughtful content when you share your posts, it’s time to get started. Regardless of how you come up with ideas for your blog posts, it’s important to have a blog and use it.

Maintaining an active presence on some social platforms will not only improve your chances of getting certain writing assignments, but it will also generate valuable leads. Customers are always looking to increase reach, so if you can offer to share content with your network; they will have an additional incentive to hire you.

Also, content writing can help you save a lot of money that you would otherwise have to pay someone else to get articles for your blog or website. If you know how to write great content, you can work full-time, part-time, or even as a freelance writer. You can grab attention and become a recognized industry leader by providing useful content without wasting time and money appearing in local publications or advertisements.

Creating great content that really resonates with your target audience requires you to understand what’s going on in your industry. In fact, you can gain an edge over other bloggers and sites by finding trend research and writing content that is relevant to your readers or your niche. Take the time to continually develop these skills, and you’ll find that you can create content that readers can easily find, read, and want. Also, freelancers don’t just study the art of writing.

However, by learning how to write content and having a blog or website, you will become richer. But if you know how to write content, you can make a lot of money understanding just a few basic details or knowing nothing at all about digital marketing. In this article, we list nine skills that content writers should have, suggest steps to improve your content writing skills, and learn how to incorporate content writing skills into your job search.

Learn how to combine your employers’ content recommendations with your creativity and you’ll be a much more valuable content creator in the long run. Promoting useful content on your website and social media will improve your online presence, which means more visibility for the company. If you write original content, search engines will help your site get more attention. The right content will attract visitors to your site and increase conversions.

Remember, writing content for your website must satisfy customers at different stages of the buying journey, so you must have content that appeals to customers at all levels. One thing that makes customer newsletters and emails different from other types of content writing is that often your audience for this content is people who are already customers and family members or who are loyal to your brand. Content writing helps small businesses as it enables them to connect with their target audience on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Content creation benefits small businesses by giving them the opportunity to learn more about their industry and improve their services.

Small business owners who don’t create new content neglect to improve their business the way it should be. Content creation is an invaluable way for small business owners to establish credibility and showcase their know-how in what they do. In addition, high-quality content written by professionals has a high probability of engaging the audience and making new contacts.

Depending on your location, you may be able to work from home or your favorite coffee shop, decide what topics to write about, and see your work get published and bring real value. It’s definitely not all glorious, and you have to be willing to dedicate hours, develop your writing skills, and work with a wide range of clients to earn a full-time living in the gig economy.

But there are many benefits to freelance writing too, and we asked some of our top content creators to talk about them. Everyone had something interesting to say about the benefits of freelance work, saying many times that it’s hard to pick just one benefit to share. Here’s how some of our top content producers are taking advantage of freelance writing to live the rest of their lives to the fullest. A career as a writer seems exciting to those outside of the inner circle of content, but experienced freelance writers know what work to do for a living.

But once you start writing like a professional writer and keep improving your skills, the pay scale is limitless. Editing. As a writer, you can take up editing. So if you want to become a writer, sign up for a content writing certification to brush up on your language skills and start your writing career today. Expanding Your Career Opportunities: A content writing certification not only helps you become a content writer, but also opens up many other opportunities.

For example, it teaches you how to write content for websites, marketing repositories like advertisements, booklets, brochures, emails, newsletters, flyers, etc. Develop your skills in blogging, academic writing, writing SEO, writing content for social media, print publications, research papers, general and business content, copywriting, etc. This may include writing blog posts and articles, scripting for videos and podcasts, and content for specific platforms such as Twitter tweetstorm or text post on Reddit. The content it produces can take many forms, including blog posts, videos, e-books, photos, and infographics.

Content writers use strategic planning to write and edit high-quality stories designed to enhance the company’s brand. Writing means expressing your ideas naturally while respecting your content marketing strategy.

Types Of Diet To Follow.

These are foods that you should definitely eat every day, if possible, at every meal, regardless of the diet you follow. Whatever diet you follow, vegetables are the most important food for your health.

Focus on choosing less processed foods like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains as a major part of your diet. If you’re on a plant-based diet, most of your meals will consist of plant-based foods, such as vegetables and beans.

Each type of plant-based diet depends on how much animal products such as meat, dairy, and eggs are included in the diet. In terms of heart health, people on a ketogenic diet are encouraged to choose good quality foods and eat plenty of plant-based foods such as fruits and vegetables. Safe and healthy diets do not require excessive amounts of vitamins or supplements. The diet should include foods that you like, that you would like to eat throughout your life, not those that you can tolerate throughout the entire plan.

If you don’t like the foods on the plan, if the plan is too restrictive, or if it gets boring, you may not stick with it, so long-term weight loss is unlikely. But a healthy diet and snacks, along with exercise, can help you lose weight and maintain normal growth. Regular exercise can help teens feel healthier and feel better about themselves. However, combining a healthier diet with more activity is the best way to lose weight, maintain your weight over the long term, and improve your health.

In some situations, faster weight loss can be safe if done right, such as following a low-calorie, doctor-supervised diet or a short, fast-start phase of a healthy eating plan.

The bottom line is to understand your body type and choose a sustainable healthy weight loss plan, given that different diets work for different people. Here are the 8 best diet plans to help you lose weight and improve your overall health. The good news is that anyone can follow The Healthy Eating Plate’s recommendations and choose healthy, flavorful foods to create the diet that’s best for you.

Vegetarian Share on Pinterest Many people choose vegetarian food for ethical and health reasons. Types of vegetarians include fruit vegetarians, ovo vegetarians, egg vegetarians, semi-vegetarians, peach vegetarians, and raw vegetarians, leading to some differences in their meal plans (18).

Terms applied to such eating habits include “junk food diet” and “Western diet”. Some people eat unhealthy diets out of habit rather than consciously choosing unhealthy foods. A diet is best described as a fixed eating and drinking plan in which the type and amount of food is planned to achieve weight loss or maintain a specific lifestyle. Dieting is the practice of achieving or maintaining a certain weight through diet.

The individual diet is the sum of foods and drinks that you usually consume. The ketogenic diet, or keto diet, is a strict form of low-carbohydrate diet in which carbohydrate-containing foods are hardly consumed in order to put the body into a state of ketosis. The keto diet was designed to keep the body in a near-permanent state of ketosis, a metabolic state in which the body produces ketones from fat to use as energy instead of sugar from carbohydrates (the body’s primary and preferred source of energy). This is a popular, fast, low-carb diet for weight loss, whose proponents believe that you can lose a significant amount of kilograms by consuming proteins and fats in any amount, but without carbohydrates.

According to a May 2017 article in the Journal of Geriatric Cardiology, a plant-based diet is associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. A study published in August 2019 in the Journal of the American Heart Association also concluded that people who followed a strictly plant-based diet had a 25% lower risk of dying from any cause than those who did not. This study raises questions about long-term effects and mechanisms, but the researchers concluded that a low-carb, high-protein, high-fat diet could be considered a real recommendation for weight loss.

The results of these three studies suggest that a macronutrient-based dietary approach may have some benefits, but studies also show that while a particular diet may lead to weight loss for one person, it may not be effective for another person. individual differences in genes and lifestyle.

These diets have proven themselves by limiting and eliminating entire food groups from the diet. The point of these diets is to match people with their overall dietary needs based on their blood type. For example, people with blood type O are encouraged to eat plenty of protein-rich foods.

When following a gout diet, people should eat all vegetables and fruits, eggs, whole grains, low-fat dairy products, and most beverages. If you’re following the Atkins 40 diet, you should eat all of the above foods in addition to the foods below.

Foods that should be included in this diet on a regular basis include fruits, protein, starchy vegetables, whole grains, plant-based milk replacers, non-starchy vegetables, condiments, herbs, spices and seasonings, nuts seeds and other healthy fats, beverages Wait. Healthy fats, dairy products, vegetables, protein, fruits, herbs and spices, and beverages are some of the staples after a very low-fat diet.

Just as we have foods that most diet and nutrition experts recommend eating on a daily basis, we have foods that most nutrition experts advise against eating. Following the Sirtfood diet is not as easy as eating only these foods. As the name suggests, this diet encourages eating raw, unprocessed foods (at least three-quarters of the food you eat should be raw). The Raw Food Diet The raw food diet, or raw food diet, involves the consumption of foods and drinks that have not been processed, are 100% plant-based, and are ideally organic.

First and foremost, you need to base your ketogenic diet on healthy foods like healthy oils, avocados, eggs, oily fish, meats, cheese, seasonings, low carb vegetables, nuts and seeds, butter, and cream. An extreme diet can cause problems if you don’t get the right types and amounts of nutrients. Eating large amounts of certain foods such as grapefruit or meat will drastically cut calories; o Eliminating entire food groups, such as carbohydrates, can cause nutritional problems.

But there are some common anti-inflammatory foods to include in your diet if you’re in pain. Rather than trying to follow a long-term, low-FODMAP diet, Dr. Farhadi suggests using a food list to identify personal triggers—by far the most helpful thing anyone living with IBS can do, since some foods are triggers for some patients, but not others (and even triggers may not always be disabled).

How to sleep better

Can’t figure out how to sleep better? Below are the best techniques for getting better sleep, from sleep experts and neurologists.

1. Keep Clocks Out of Your Bedroom

What’s the biggest change you can make to get more sleep? Don’t look at the clock during sleeping hours, says sleep expert Terry Cralle. Without a clock, the “chore” of falling asleep goes away. You won’t start doing math in your head and worrying about how little sleep you’re getting. If your room is dark and cool and you’re “in the dark” about how much sleep you’ve missed, you’ll most often fall back to sleep soon.

2. Follow a Sleep Schedule

One of the biggest reasons we don’t sleep is that we don’t respect it. “People say they only have time for 4–5 hours a night,” says Cralle. “But that can be dangerous, with studies showing metabolic changes after just a few nights of short sleeping.”

Wondering, “When should I wake up?” Or, “What time should I go to bed?” Try to go to bed as close to the first full darkness as you can, and rise with the sun. Going to sleep at 9pm, 10pm, or 11pm matters less than keeping the same sleep schedule every night.

Is 6 hours of sleep enough?

Getting 6 hours of sleep a night will sap your focus, moods, health, and well-being. Always get 7–9 hours of in-the-bed sleep time, even if you’re awake for some of it. Even if you feel fine after six hours of sleep, your effectiveness suffers.

3. Get More Daylight

Numerous studies show getting more natural light is one of the top techniques for how to sleep better. Yet we’ve got ever brighter screens in laptops and phones. Those screens—and our brightly-lit homes—are sending silent messages to our brains that say, “It’s morning! Go to sleep 12 hours from now.” Trying to override those messages can be like eating a 32-ounce porterhouse steak right after Thanksgiving dinner. Your body will say, “Nope.”

The upside? One-third of US employees work from home at least sometime during the week. That gives us a tremendous opportunity to work on a porch, park bench or in an outdoor cafe. In winter, sit near a window for a few hours in the morning.

4. Have a Coffee Cutoff Time

Tired of being tired? Try switching to decaf after 2pm. Studies show that even drinking coffee 6 hours before bedtime can rob your sleep time.

5. Try Audiobooks

Listening to an audiobook can help you sleep. Turn the volume down and set the playback to its slowest speed. Then set a timer so it shuts off in an hour. Most phones can set a “stop playback” alarm. Here’s how on iPhone and Android.

6. Distraction Techniques

When your mind has a tricky “job to do,” it stays alert. “Some people fall asleep better with a distraction,” says Cralle. So, here are a few tips for how to sleep better with distractions:

The Navy SEAL Technique

Why is sleep important for Navy SEALs? Imagine trying to sleep in the rain, cold, or in a fire zone, when your life depends on being rested. Thankfully, these hardened warriors have a trick that helps them drift off in two minutes.

How to fall asleep:

  1. Sit on the edge of your bed.
  2. Relax the muscles of your face, jaw, tongue, and eyes.
  3. Let your shoulders and arm muscles go slack.
  4. Breathe out. Relax your chest, then thighs, calves, feet, and toes.
  5. Clear your mind for 10 seconds.
  6. Picture one of these three images:
    1. You’re lying in a pit room in a black velvet hammock.
    2. You’re in a canoe on a calm lake with blue sky above.
    3. You repeat the words “don’t think,” for 10 seconds.

The 2-minute Navy SEAL sleep technique works for 96% of sleepers. The downside? It can take six weeks of practice.

TEENS AND THEIR SLEEP CYCLE

Ever wondered why even after a busy day you couldn’t sleep at night ?

Most of todays generation is found awake for late nights, sleepless.This is because their brains naturally work on late schedules.This change takes place because the teen brains create the sleep hormone melatonin later at night than kids and adults do.

Among the teenagers, the body’s internal sleep cycle is reset to fall asleep later at night and wake up later in the morning. The sleep wake cycle is so crucial that it affects the regular activities of a person.There are several other reasons why teens lose sleep though. Considering the pandemic, the world functions on several devices which release blue light and delays the release of melatonin making It even harder to sleep.

Reasons of having Insomnia :

  • Feeling uncomfortable or sick due to a stuffy nose or headache or so on
  • Uncomfortable sleeping environment
  • Emotional trouble
  • Stress or Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Poor Sleeping habits
  • Lack of friends
  • Not speaking their thoughts out

How to improve ones sleep cycle:

To get at least 8 hours of sleep is very important among the teenagers for their regular mental and physical activities to be executed at their best capacity. Therefore, one should start picking up some habits and practice them regularly.

Here are some tips:

1.Electronics: It is advised to keep the electronic devices away from you while you sleep and stop with the homework or turn off all screens one hour before you go to bed.

2.Bed Time routine: Try practicing a relaxing bed time routine like a warm bath or shower or reading or listening to music

3.Caffeine: Avoid caffeine in the late afternoon hours or evening hours. It leads to absolute withdrawing of sleep.

4.Exercise: Practice regular exercise during the day but not anytime close to the sleeping hours. It makes your mind feel relaxed and also offers good practice in life.

Also avoid taking long naps during the day. Even on a tiring day a short nap not more than one hour should be taken. It is better to keep the bedroom dark, quite and cool.

Therefore, the teens today should adopt different methods to improve their sleep cycle which otherwise leads to many health ailments and also makes it difficult for them to complete their regular activities at the best of their capacity.

10 Advantages Of Digital Marketing

According to HubSpot’s report, digital marketing can help companies achieve a better cost of leads (CPL) than traditional marketing or even telemarketing. Business owners can easily achieve better results by incorporating technology-driven strategies into their marketing.

Companies use various digital marketing activities such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing (SMM), email marketing, search engine marketing (SEM), content creation, and more to promote their brand to potential consumers or build loyalty. clients. More and more small businesses are implementing digital marketing strategies to reach their target consumers online effectively. Many companies, new or established, use digital marketing strategies to reach their target audience online.

As such, online marketing is a great way for a small business or startup to launch their own marketing plans. Digital online marketing saves a lot of money for businesses and companies to reach their target audience compared to traditional marketing.

Targeted and well-planned digital advertising and marketing campaigns can reach the right users in less time and at a lower cost. The greatest benefit of digital marketing is that you can reach your target audience in a cost-effective and measurable way. You can connect with people who match your ideal customers with targeted advertising, stay connected with current customers, and get noticed by people who are actively searching for your products or services online. With traditional marketing, you never know who your investments will reach because results are difficult to measure.

This is difficult for your budget because you can’t change it while the campaign is active for better results. Whereas in the case of traditional marketing, you would have to wait weeks or even months to assess the credibility of the campaign.

Unlike traditional methods, you can see in real-time what’s working and what’s not working for your online business. You can engage in real-time to gain a good understanding of how customers perceive your brand. By optimizing your content in the digital space, you can reach more buyers of your products online. Using relevant keywords can help you describe what you have to offer.

In fact, over time, your website’s traffic will increase and so will your conversion rate. This is a valuable marketing strategy, especially for businesses located in restricted areas like restaurants. Small brands can drive traffic locally and nationally to reach targeted consumers.

According to the report, by 2020, 26 billion gadgets, including smartphones, tablets, home appliances, shoes, glasses and other accessories, are expected to be integrated into a global online ecosystem, which speaks to the importance of digital marketing. Today, over 7.7 billion people around the world use the Internet to find, buy and promote products/services.

Digital platforms are increasingly associated with marketing schemes and everyday life. In today’s digital age, building an online presence and investing in internet marketing versus traditional marketing is essential for a business to survive and thrive. Today, hundreds of thousands of companies are engaged in digital marketing, because it is easier and more convenient for them to reach a large number of people in this way.

Traditionally, businesses reach their target audience through channels such as television, radio, magazines, events, and direct mail. Now that people are spending more time online, companies are trying to reach potential buyers through digital channels. In the age of digitalization, your best strategy would be to meet your customers online, where they already spend a lot of time.

Online marketing is great for businesses as it offers consumers a better and more convenient shopping experience. This high adaptability of online marketing is an important advantage that businesses can take advantage of to offer their consumers the best shopping experience. With online marketing, companies can deliver content to their customers through personalized and low-cost communication.

With all the benefits internet marketing can bring to your business, running a professional internet marketing campaign can further expand your business by bringing in more customers for your product or brand. Internet marketing is a great opportunity to grow your business and get more valuable traffic and sales. Even if you don’t have the budget for SEO or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, businesses can still use digital marketing to build and connect with their audience.

Social media is one of the most convenient digital marketing methods used to distribute content and increase visibility for your business. Every social media profile you add to your marketing mix is ​​a gateway to your website, and every content you post is another opportunity to acquire a new customer.

Without the use of social media as part of your marketing strategy, it will be much harder for you to connect with anyone outside of your circle of loyal customers. You need to reach people who are interested in your business and want to hear from you.

Of all the benefits, the most significant benefit of online marketing is the ability to target people in a targeted manner. The main advantage of digital marketing is the ability to reach target audiences in a cost-effective and measurable way. Reduce costs: A properly planned and targeted digital marketing campaign can reach the right customers at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing methods.

Trackable and measurable results. Measuring your online marketing with web analytics and other online tools makes it easy to determine the effectiveness of your campaign. With Google Analytics, you can track statistics and information on your marketing website.

By showing a breakdown of all of this traffic information, these analytics can help you prioritize your marketing channels. Real-time analytics give you a better understanding of the effectiveness of your marketing strategies. With access to this information, you can also optimize your marketing budget by investing in effective marketing campaigns. Digital Online Advertising and Marketing introduces you to these channels and strategies so your potential buyers can see you, learn more about you, and find out what’s important to deliver.

Digital online advertising and marketing help organizations and individuals easily reach audiences around the world. If your business is not limited to a specific location, you can use digital marketing to reach your target audience around the world. Unlike mass marketing, which effectively engages local audiences through radio, newspapers, and print media, Internet marketing allows businesses to build more personal relationships with consumers around the world. You can connect with potential customers online through various digital marketing channels, such as social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, etc.), SEO, email marketing, videos, etc.

As you can see, digital marketing has many benefits that can change how your business reaches and attracts your target market. With our digital marketing training courses, you can learn how to use digital marketing to create a steady stream of new customers and sales every day, regardless of your product, price range, or market. Our team will help your business reap the many benefits of digital marketing by providing various effective services such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), PPC Management, and Social Media Management.

10 Benefits of Detoxing the Body

Your body is miraculous. It helps you do everything from eating delicious foods and driving to work to walking around town and laughing with your friends. In the midst of all these activities, your body is exposed to hundreds of thousands of toxic chemicals a day. 

After years of housing harmful toxins, you might start to notice some mild side effects like foggy thinking or skin problems. If these toxins aren’t eventually cleared from your body, they could damage your internal organs or lead to disease.

To save our bodies from these toxins, detoxing our bodies is extremely important. Here are some of its benefits.

1. Boosts Your Energy

Detoxing empties your body of things like sugar and caffeine which is known to deprive your body of energy. Thus, it fills your body with stable energy that keeps you fresh throughout the day. This is usually one of the first changes you will notice as soon as you start following a detox plan.

2. Supports your Internal Organs

As detoxing is essentially the removal of toxins, it gives all the internal organs associated with this important task a much-needed rest. You might not be able to believe but despite the continuous working of your organs, your body still has a number of stored up toxins that can be removed by a detox.

3. Helps with Weight Loss

It’s easy to see how a detox diet would cause you to lose weight in the short term, but a healthier way to look at it would be to establish long-term eating habits, and rid yourself of unhealthy habits. Many times it is the drastic reduction in calories and rapid weight loss that is focused on, especially in the media. But these short-term results won’t last if you don’t make it a point to replace bad foods with good, and use your newfound energy to exercise more and be more active overall.

4. Stronger Immune System

Detoxing will allow your organs to focus on other tasks, such as protecting your body by absorbing some vital nutrients faster. This will give a boost to your immune system.

5. Improves Skin

A healthy diet is the prime step of any skincare regime. Simply follow a detox diet and you will start seeing results. Also, many detoxes contain a sauna element, by which you can sweat out the toxins which are clogging your pores.

6. Better Breath

Along with fixing your health, the removal of toxins will also improve your breath. Detoxing helps the digestive system to function better which will remove some of the causes of bad breath. Initially, your breath may get worse because your body will gradually adjust to the detox routine. However, once your body is in tandem with the change, it will be a lot better than ever.

7. Clearer Thinking

Detoxing not only benefits your body physically but also enables a clearer and better memory. It calms your mind and removes all other negative impacts associated with unhealthy habits.

8. Healthier Hair

The accumulating toxins don’t let some essential nutrients reach the follicles, thereby depriving them of the healthy shine. These toxins also result in dry, brittle, broken locks. Detoxing will thus help you flaunt healthy, shiny hair and also increase its growth.

9. Anti-Aging Benefits

Though getting older is in itself a natural and beautiful thing, we don’t want the outward signs of aging to catch up with us. Detoxing can help you escape the evident visible signs of aging. Removing the toxins lessen the skin damage which is associated with growing old.

10. Improves Sense of Wellbeing

When you detox, you feel good, and when you feel good, good things happen. Detoxing is often used strategically to lose weight or to start a new diet plan, but really there’s no better reason than just to feel better. When you set the stage for wellbeing, you are going to improve all areas of your life, and you should see better relationships, better productivity at work, and a newfound or renewed zest for life.

Is It Good for Certain Conditions?

In certain medical conditions, detox diets could be harmful. There is no research showing they improve blood pressure or cholesterol or have a positive effect on the heart. For people with diabetes, it may be quite dangerous. Any diet that severely restricts what you eat could lead to dangerously low blood sugar if you take medicine for diabetes.

The exception would be a detox diet that just focuses on clean eating. This approach could be great for anyone living with high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, and even heart disease.

Detoxification (detox) has many benefits, however, diets which limits the intake of important nutrients and protein may do more harm than good. Consult a dietician to know more about what’s best for your body.

SOURCE(S)

https://www.credihealth.com/blog/advantages-of-daily-detoxification/

Being Kind

9 Ways To Be Kind To Yourself - What It Really Means

My articles have often been about behavior and actions that have a negative impact on people and how there needs to be change and improvement with it. During these times, I have also put out how important it is for oneself to look after themselves. Sometimes, it tends to be lost or overlooked with the main topic. Therefore, today my article is entirely going to be about how it is important to be kind to ourselves.

Importance of Being Kind to Oneself

Every day as a child through our growing years, we learn how important it is to inculcate good manners into our lives. We learn how we should help others, are kind to others, not be rude to others, and so many more things. We learn how our actions can have a consequence on others. We become more aware of the right treatment towards other people. We understand the importance of being good to others. However, what we fail to learn is how our actions and behavior have a consequence to ourselves as well. Therefore, the right kind of reinforcement to ourselves is also very important. We must consider ourselves as our friends so that we learn to be kind and positive to ourselves. We have often heard it is important to look after ourselves first and then other people. It is in the same manner that we first are nice and kind to ourselves and then to others.

Let me ask all the readers out there, would you call your friend rude or harsh for no reason and constantly keep complaining and taunting them? Of course, you would not do something like that. Then why do it to ourselves? How fair and equal are we being to our bodies and mind? These are some of the questions that we need to ask ourselves when we are so harsh and bad to our minds and body. Nobody needs to go through the pain and suffering even if we inflict it on ourselves. We should be proud of our bodies and mind no matter who says otherwise or what happens. Being kind to ourselves is the first step forward and betterment of society, community, and the world.

Let me ask all the readers out there another question. How often have you called yourself useless or worthless just because you did not do what you had thought in mind or had a minor inconvenience? Each individual will have a different number of instances but will surely have one. This shows how we are not kind to our bodies and mind. The body and the mind constantly work and produce several information and thought and yet face backlash when something small goes wrong. We often forget to credit ourselves for the amount of work and energy we put in every single day. It is high time we start being grateful for the things we have. Here I do not mean things like money, power, clothes, etc. What I am referring to is our mind, body, health, our ability to think, our ability to understand things, etc.

The most unfortunate thing is that today everything has become a competition among human beings. In this process, we have completely forgotten to look after ourselves and be there for ourselves. We expect our bodies to act like machines and work extra almost every time. To reach the impossible expectations we make our body and mind suffer so much that in the end, it all becomes itself. The standard idea of being thin is beautiful makes us to go such extremes with our body and mind. We do not provide the energy and nutrition for it to function healthy and at the same time expect it to work the extra amount without and source to function. Even though we want to eat, we stop ourselves from eating just so that we look thin. This is just one of the most common instances that are here about how we are not kind to our bodies and mind. Many more things need to change so that we can live in peace with ourselves and who we are as individuals.

4 Benefits Of Being Kind To Yourself | Power of Positivity

How to be kind to ourselves?

There are so many ways one can be kind to themselves and make peace in the right way with who they are as individuals. These are some ways that I can think of. If there are more than you can think of after reading this article make sure to inculcate and speak about it as much as you can.

  1. Rewarding and thanking ourselves: One of the most common yet the most important ways you can be kind to yourself is by rewarding and thanking your body and mind. Let me give you an example. Suppose you have been studying hard for your exams the entire night before and you finish your exam and come back. You need reward and thank your body for working so hard by eating and sleeping the right amount. You should give your body and mind to relax and freshen up before you sit with your exams. This is one of the instances there are many more that we experience in our daily lives.
  • Do not punish yourself: There is a belief among people that only if they punish themselves will they be more productive. This is completely not true rather just a thing to justify negative things that are present in society. Let me use a similar example. Suppose you have worked hard for your exams but you did not do your exam well. If you do not give your body, mind enough amounts of sleep and nutrition, sit, and study for the next exam without relaxing your body and mind then it means you are punishing your body and mind even though you have done your best. This is not right and should change as an individual and as a community.
  • Do not compare yourself: This has become a common problem behavior among people, which needs to change. It is way beyond time that we realize that we human beings are very different not just physically but also mentally and emotionally. We human beings have different capacity levels, which makes us so unique from one another. If everyone is the same then what is the difference between the robots and us? Though this sounds like a very cliché question, it is something we must think and ponder about.
  • Never change yourself because of the negative things people say: One of the most crucial things in being kind to yourself is about never making any changes in yourself that are good just because people say otherwise. Let me give an example. If you are, a sensitive person and people keep telling you that you need to stop being sensitive and need to change yourself for any reason and you do it, then that is not being kind to yourself. You need to believe in yourself and stand for who you are and there is nothing wrong with that.

I can go on and on about how important it is to be kind to yourself and the different ways that you can be too. However, I also think it is important for people to think about this, realize on their own, and do it because they want to and not because they read about it in an article. This needs to come from the within and towards yourself on your own.

To conclude, with a beautiful quote by Anita Moorjani where says, “Transform your world by transforming your internal state. Start by learning to let go of negative self-judgment, and replace it with positive and loving thoughts about yourself. Be kind to yourself, and watch the external world change.”

References

  1. Google searches for images and quotes.

Should student’s textbooks be replaced by notebook computers?


We don’t have to stop using textbooks, each has its pros and cons, and they are better suited to a given situation. We just have to use them in a healthy way, mostly electronic devices that are more likely to get someone added.

We must understand that this can and cannot be replaced, it mainly depends on the person who uses the electronic device and what applications are used. Students should be aware of the potential dangers of using these devices and how to avoid them. Computers should not replace textbooks because the use of computers reduces concentration, increases learning costs, and creates physical health problems.

With so many distractions, using a computer to study has a negative impact on students’ ability to focus on their work. Computers give students a lot of freedom, allowing them to deviate from a lesson planned by teachers, or even access sources with incorrect information. Students with below-average reading skills may find it difficult to keep up when they have to read everything from a textbook.

However, in order to learn effectively, textbooks must always be at the center of a student’s academic journey. Textbooks play an important role in a student’s learning process over the course of many years. Textbooks provide students with a way to learn about physics and help them process information in a way that is easier than on a screen. Each chapter of the textbook builds on what students have learned before so they have all the information they need to understand what is being taught.

Textbooks are limited in what they can offer students beyond the text and images on the page, and tablets offer users the ability to take notes and highlight without ruining the next student’s textbook. Students can easily avoid reading and analyzing text on their own because they can quickly look up passages in e-textbooks and search for answers online. Students are used to finding information electronically rather than manually reading textbooks. But Notepad makes it easier and easier for them to find the information they need, and they can get help with Google Search to find the answer.

You mean, students are willing to carry any outdated textbooks with them if they want to bring a computer or laptop and keep the details they need. The increasing use of tablets in place of printed textbooks will also help students have “light backpacks.” The tablet also offers a built-in dictionary, so students can easily look up words they don’t know without leaving the textbook. There are thousands of educational and instructional apps on the tablet, so teachers can tailor student learning to individual style/personality rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

As the popularity of tablets grows, many schools are debating whether to move from textbooks to tablets or introduce a personalized program on one computer that all students in the district can use. As tablets become more popular, many schools are debating whether to switch from textbooks to tablets and are also introducing one-on-one (one device per student) programs in their districts. Since everyone is always holding some sort of tech gadget in their hands, the idea that tablets are replacing textbooks in schools makes sense to a lot of people. Our society revolves around technology, so if we replaced textbooks and notebooks with laptops, students would be more motivated to complete their schoolwork because they are using something more modern instead of old and boring books.

While I was reading this, I realized that if students actually use computers instead of textbooks, this could lead to students visiting social networking websites or just other websites that are not recommended in school, such like gaming websites or even inappropriate websites. places. As you can see, the concentration of students would be significantly reduced due to the use of a computer instead of a textbook. On the contrary, it can be assumed that these students who did not use computers as textbooks were probably much more focused and could concentrate and understand the concept contained in the school textbook. Many high school students would agree that using laptops would be easier, more functional, and more efficient than using textbooks and laptops.

Second, if students use laptops instead of notebooks, workbooks, and textbooks, they will be more focused and organized in class because our generation prefers modern technology over old, boring and used ones that aren’t even updated Information textbook. .If students have access to textbooks instead of textbooks, workbooks, and textbooks, they will be more focused and organized in the classroom because our generation prefers modern technology to old, boring textbooks that aren’t updated with new information. Most high school students agree that writing from textbooks is easier, more effective, and more effective than writing from textbooks and notebooks.

With tablets for teaching in schools, students won’t have to learn from old and outdated textbooks, especially in ever-changing areas of study like computer science. With tablets for teaching in schools, students no longer need to learn from old and outdated textbooks, which is especially important for frequently changing fields of study, such as computer science.

Firstly, the amount of paper each school uses each year is killing many trees, and if we continue to use textbooks and paper instead of laptops, we will lose many trees, which will lead to even more air pollution and may deprive many habitats. animals. Therefore, based on these facts, it is recommended to replace textbooks with laptop computers, as this will make work more relaxed and, at the same time, increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the functioning of researchers and home students around the world.

In a school environment, if computers or tablets are used and controlled appropriately, they can greatly improve student achievement. The tablet is more convenient in studying for students. Increased use of tablets instead of printed textbooks could help lighten school backpacks.

In addition to notebooks and binders, students should also bring pencils, pens, and spare paper. What I mean is that students are less willing to carry around any outdated textbooks and instead want to take a lighter notebook where they can store all the information they need. Textbooks usually cost about a hundred dollars or more, but information quickly becomes outdated and schools have to raise more money to buy up-to-date textbooks.

With portable computers, textbook publishers and teachers will be able to more easily edit and update information in electronic copies of texts. Now laptops are designed not only to easily download the latest updates on certain topics, but also to allow students to learn new information without having to buy new books every time.

Using a laptop, students can use computer-based tools such as Microsoft Office documents, Google Docs, PDFs, slide presentations, and infographic tools. They may have up-to-date information, and using laptops is much cheaper than buying expensive books.

Styling And Beauty Tips

With expert advice and care tips from a couple of plant experts, we’ve identified 15 beautiful plants that will thrive in even the least plant-friendly places. Getty Images Shine up your look with these in-depth beauty tips drawn from over 75 years of Women’s Day magazines. If you’re out of eyeliner or don’t know how to wash your bathing suits, the following fashion and beauty tricks will make your life easier.

Rip your new shoes by putting on a pair of thick socks, then put on your shoes and blow dry your feet over medium heat for a few minutes. Also, apply a heat protectant setting spray to damp hair to protect the hair. Let your hair dry by sitting in the sun or use a hair dryer – the heat will lighten the strands.

If you often use straighteners and curling irons, spray a heat protectant spray on your hair before styling. Always start with a primer as it helps smooth the skin and creates the perfect base for the rest of your makeup. It will help to apply an even, smooth pencil to the mark the first time. Use a moisturizing body lotion every day and try applying it to damp skin (as this ensures maximum absorption).

The oil can prevent the penetration of surfactants (found in shampoos and other hair care products) that can damage the hair. Constant shampooing will make your hair dry and your scalp will produce more oil to compensate for the loss of moisture. Instead, use dry shampoo and tie your hair into a braid or ponytail when it gets a little thicker. Also, be sure to protect your hair from moisture (rain will definitely ruin your mane) and touch up your hair in the morning with a hairdryer and a round brush.

To keep your hair looking lively, use a sea salt spray or thickener before drying. For quick root coverage, use a dry shampoo spray to color your hair. If you don’t have this product on hand, use eyeshadow (the shade closest to your hair color) for a quick fix. Dip the angled makeup brush into the mascara brush and apply to the lids like a liquid eyeliner.

Blend with your finger or a cotton swab, then apply to the skin as a regular moisturizer. Do not apply moisturizer to your face, as it will take 10 minutes or more for it to absorb into the skin before your face is ready for makeup. Using too much of this product occasionally throughout the day will make your skin look chapped because you’re just layering your makeup on top of other makeup. Take good care of your hair after coloring and use color-protecting shampoos and conditioners to prevent further damage to your color-treated hair.

When your hair is 60%-70% dry, you can blow dry your hair from the roots with a blow dryer. For long-lasting curls, make sure your hair is completely dry before you start using the curling iron. Use a root makeup remover for quick styling, followed by hairspray.

So your jeans will last longer, and the color will not fade as quickly. Constant application of nail polish will make them brittle and brittle. For a perfect nail polish application, apply petroleum jelly to the nail cuticle with a Q-tip and your fingers won’t look dirty.

Getty Images Getty Images 7 of 75 Add shine to your hair Always rinse out conditioner (which should be applied to the ends) with cold water to seal cuticles and enhance shine. Jupiterimages Getty Images 3 of 75 Comb your hair from root to tip Comb your hair from root to tip every night.

It will also help prevent dandruff and other irritating conditions of the hair and scalp. The conditioner will soften the hair on your legs, making it easier to shave (and make your skin silkier). Rinsing your hair with beer helps restore moisture to the strands, while using vinegar will increase light levels.

When using shampoo, dilute it in half a cup of water and use it to wash your hair. Choose a sulfate-free shampoo, as sulfates can irritate and dry out the hair cuticle. Beauty Photo Studio Getty Images 13 of 75 Choose Your Shampoo Carefully If you dye your hair, look for shampoos and conditioners that are sulfate-free and free of harsh detergents.

Thinkstock 15 of 75 Beautiful Brows Soften skin before pinching by dabbing with a cotton swab dipped in warm water or cream. Westend61 Getty Images 16 of 75 Pluck in the direction of hair growth with tweezers. Lena Clara Getty Images 19 of 75 Straight Brow Hair To keep your brows unruly, apply hairspray to an old toothbrush, then comb your brows up and down.

Use tape under your eyes to catch any deposits and keep the color away from your cheeks. Also make sure to wear them correctly, with the waves facing down so your hair stays in place. “Be light on your bronzer and make sure your neck is the same color as your face.

You may like the warm, bronzed skin you get from sunburn, but this will lead to sun spots, wrinkles, and discoloration later on. Make sure the toner is alcohol-free so it doesn’t dry out your skin. To keep your hair color vibrant longer, use shampoos and conditioners designed for color-treated hair.

Coloring your hair in a salon has a number of advantages over having it done in the bath, as professional stylists usually do trials to make sure you get the exact color. Those suffering from sensitivity and hair damage should try a “scalp detox” to cleanse the skin without stripping it of its natural oils, according to Lin. Eugene Davis, celebrity hairdresser, suggests using an avocado oil hair mask. To make the perfume last longer, apply a small amount of Vaseline to the skin where you will be spraying the perfume.

For makeup that lasts all day and night, use a make-up fixer, such as a setting spray. According to makeup artist Kelly Bartlett, this will help the product fully absorb each wipe, starting with the one you use next. Just outline the lips as usual and then fill them in with color. Because exfoliating lips is the key to flawless lipstick application, you won’t want to skip this step of your beauty routine.

If you don’t give your body time to recover, your skin won’t look fresh and radiant. If left uncleaned, dead skin cells can make skin look dull, dark, bumpy, and dry.

You can get makeup brush cleaner from a pharmacy or beauty store, or just use shampoo and conditioner to clean your brushes like you would your own hair. To tame frizzy hair, spray a small amount of hairspray on your toothbrush and then use it to comb through frizzy strands.

Yoga And Mind Healing

Yoga becomes a healing practice once one is exposed to existence. When you practice yoga from the perspective of awareness or presence, your mind begins to calm down and become more connected and present. The more often you consciously practice yoga, the more calm and mirrored your mind and heart will become. Once you get out of the way, life naturally rebalances the mind and body.

To access mindfulness during yoga practice, focus on your breath, not thoughts, feelings, emotions, or maybe even pain. If you try too hard and your mind starts holding your breath, you may end up not hearing what’s going on in your body. When you begin to breathe deeply and focus on your postures, you reduce anxiety.

Meditation at the end of most of the practice can help retrain the mind and body to relax. When we energize the body through yoga and other means, the physical and emotional qualities corresponding to this frequency are also energized, as is our consciousness. Therefore, yoga can promote the healing process and help a person experience symptoms with more focus and less stress. Regular yoga practice can reduce stress levels and inflammation throughout the body, promoting heart health.

According to research analyzed by Harvard Medical School, yoga practice can help reduce symptoms associated with serious mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Scientists have found that regular yoga practice helps reduce the amount of cortisol, a hormone associated with stress and depression, in the body. In another study, subjects who practiced yoga twice a week reported “marked and significant” improvements in stress, well-being, and fatigue. In one of the studies mentioned above (related to anxiety), subjects who practiced yoga also experienced a statistically significant reduction in depression.

Yoga and meditation can relieve tension and stress while strengthening the mind and body. The benefits of yoga and meditation can improve recovery outcomes and help build lifelong sobriety behaviors.

For many people, the practice of yoga involves simple yet powerful meditative movements that anyone can do. Various styles of yoga combine physical postures, breathing techniques, and meditation or relaxation.

In recent years, it has become popular as a form of posture-based exercise that promotes better control of the mind and body and improves well-being. While it is now a popular form of exercise and meditation, this has not always been the case. Story Share on Pinterest Yoga has long been helping people achieve mental and physical balance.

DISCUSSION Quickly emerging in the Western world as a discipline for bringing mind and body together in unity and harmony, yoga, adopted as a way of life, improves physical, mental, intellectual and spiritual health. According to the National Institutes of Health, scientific evidence shows that yoga promotes stress management, mental health, mindfulness, healthy eating, weight loss, and quality sleep. As part of your daily routine, yoga will most likely make your body more toned, leaner, and stronger.

In addition to these yoga benefits, researchers have also found that yoga poses may have some unexpected benefits to our metabolism, allowing them to improve body shape and help with weight loss. Research shows that yoga can have an invigorating effect on mental and physical energy, improving fitness and reducing fatigue. Aside from the physical benefits, one of the biggest benefits of yoga is how it helps a person deal with stress, which is known to have a devastating effect on the body and mind.

Yoga, which includes meditation and breathing, can help improve a person’s mental well-being. Yoga and meditation promote physical and mental health, improving recovery outcomes. There are many tools used in the recovery process to achieve this goal, and yoga and meditation can help achieve this both at the beginning of recovery and throughout the journey. Yoga is an ideal practice as it combines the healing of all aspects of the body.

Yoga can help improve balance, strengthen muscles, prevent injury, and calm the mind. Yoga should be considered as a complementary therapy or alternative drug therapy in the treatment of stress, anxiety, depression, and other mood disorders, as it has been shown to create a greater sense of well-being, increase feelings of relaxation, increase self-confidence, and improve well-being. body image, increase efficiency, improve interpersonal relationships, increase focus, reduce irritability and encourage an optimistic outlook on life. Yoga is recognized as a form of mind-body medicine that integrates the physical, mental and spiritual components of an individual to improve aspects of health, especially stress-related illnesses. As a powerful form of mind-body medicine, yoga approaches health holistically, recognizing that physical ailments also have emotional and spiritual components.

Health is not just freedom from disease, every system of the body must be in perfect balance and symmetry, which is what yoga does. The genius of yoga is that it keeps us in good physical, mental and spiritual shape. Yoga not only improves the overall quality of life, but also gives meaning to everything we do.

I encourage you to use the power of yoga to improve your mind and body and continue on your path to a healthier and more purposeful life. Develop a clear mind, a calm heart and a free body by combining the therapeutic methods of yoga with the principles of Chinese medicine. Using breathing, meditation, and channeling energy through mindfulness to reduce stress and tension.

Practice yoga every day and repetition will enhance the physical and mental health benefits, creating an even deeper spiritual connection. Yoga is a great way to improve strength, flexibility and balance.

To help you better understand the benefits of yoga, we’ve looked at the many ways your practice can heal the mind, body, and spirit. There is a growing body of research showing that yoga practice can help reduce many types of chronic pain. Other studies have shown that yoga can help improve sleep quality, improve spiritual well-being, improve social function, and reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression in cancer patients (18, 19). Many believe that yoga can also help relieve stress and improve mental clarity.

Yoga is often associated with meditation because it helps relax the mind and encourages participants to rethink. There is no doubt that yoga can fully develop a calm, stress-free mind and body when practiced from the heart and with sincerity. It also helps balance and integrate the mind, body and spirit, improving energy flow and stimulating the body’s natural healing process.

This holistic and powerful mind-heart approach to healing the body is explored through targeted yoga poses known to have beneficial effects on the body. We offer ongoing group yoga classes and private yoga therapy sessions with a focus on the health and wellness of the mind and body.

The Deadly Fashion Trends that Actually Killed People

Beauty is the subject of a magnificent exhibition of around 150 objects assembled in the British Museum—Defining Beauty: the Body in Ancient Greek Art. One quoted epigram from Socrates sums up the central idea of this show—”It is a disgrace to grow old through sheer carelessness before seeing what manner of man you may become by developing your bodily strength and beauty to their highest limit.” But as Ian Jenkins, a Senior Curator at the museum, argued in a talk at the preview, this exhibition is really about “the quarrel between art and philosophy”.

The definition of beauty has changed a lot with time. The feminine beauty ideal, which also includes female body shape, varies from culture to culture. The feminine beauty ideal traits include but are not limited to: female body shape, eyelid shape, skin tones, height, clothing style, modified facial features, hairstyle and body weight. From a very young age, women are raised to live up to unrealistic beauty standards put upon them by society. They are expected to be hairless all over their body, have to be slim with no tummy but big butt, smell like daisies and roses all the time, not have regular bodily fluids and gases, and be an all-around perfect Barbie. It is hard to live up to something so unobtainable especially starting at an age as low as three. Having a normalized yet extraordinary societal implication drilled into you as soon as you are out of the womb is and can be mentally and physically draining. Social media, magazines, newspapers, and even televisions tend to push high and barely achievable standards. You must look a certain way for society to at least acknowledge your “beauty” even when you have tried to mold yourself to please them. Even then there is always criticism behind it all. Women have to be slim but not too slim, thick but not too thick to where you have a tummy. Women can wear makeup but not too much because it would look like we are trying too hard. We can show skin but not too much because we would get shamed. It is considered weird or impolite for a woman to even have bodily gases. What can we do but try to love ourselves as is?

All these beauty standards are not modern things. These are going on from the past and today I am going to show you how women used to make their body beautiful by using the following “so called” beauty stuffs or hacks which were actually killing their body.

1) ORGAN CRUSHING CORSETS

The ideal of what a woman’s body should look like has changed dramatically over time and varies by culture. One of the most well-known historical attempts at changing a woman’s body shape, corseting of the waist to make an hourglass figure left lasting effects on the skeleton, deforming the ribs and misaligning the spine. Corset-wearing was common in the 18th and 19th centuries across Europe and across different socioeconomic classes. Women wore corsets to shape their bodies away from nature and toward a more ‘civilized’ ideal form. A woman would wear her corset for almost her entire life. Very young children were placed in corsets, as advertisements from Paris at the time mention sizing “pour enfants & fillettes.” Even in pregnancy, special corsets were made to fit a woman’s growing belly and, later, her need to nurse her baby. Side gussets or special snaps over the breasts, were used to accommodate their changing form while still allowing them to follow the fashion of the time. While scholars still debate the extent to which patriarchal control over women’s bodies and women’s own clothing choices affected corseting practices, it is clear that long-term use of these garments caused changes in women’s skeletons. By looking at the variation in corsets and their physical effects on the spine, and correlating those observations with age-at-death.

Corsets
The corsets crushing the organs inside

2) EATING TAPEWORMS TO LOSE WEIGHT

Individuals seeking to lose weight are constantly confronted with a variety of diets, supplements, and weight-loss regimens to choose from. Whether in magazines, on television or on the Internet, the consumer can be bombarded with any number of advertisements that claim to offer them the opportunity to lose weight with their products. However, individuals need to be cautious and well-informed when considering what products to use, as certain weight-loss marketing claims are not only misleading but also potentially detrimental to your health. The use of tapeworms for weight-loss purposes illustrates this risk. Sometimes the affected individual may notice a segment of the tapeworm in their feces. More serious complications can also occur in some individuals. Tapeworms rarely can cause obstruction of the intestines, requiring surgery in order to resolve the blockage. Infection with the pork tapeworm (Taenia solium) can sometimes result in a disease called cysticercosis, which occurs when the eggs of the pork tapeworm are ingested by humans. The larvae can then penetrate the intestinal wall and disseminate into the bloodstream to other parts of the body, leading to the formation of cysts throughout the body. These cysts can sometimes spread to the brain (neurocysticercosis), leading to headaches, confusion, seizures, and rarely, death.

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3) HOBBLE SKIRTS

A hobble skirt was a skirt with a narrow enough hem to significantly impede the wearer’s stride. It was called a “hobble skirt” because it seemed to hobble any woman as she walked. Hobble skirts were a short-lived fashion trend that peaked between 1908 and 1914. Hobble skirts were directly responsible for several deaths. In 1910, a hobble-skirt-wearing woman was killed by a loose horse at a racetrack outside Paris. A year later, eighteen-year-old Ida Goyette stumbled on an Erie Canal bridge while wearing a hobble skirt, fell over the railing, and drowned.

The Hobble Skirt

4) THE STIFF HIGH COLLAR

Not only women but men were also the prey for this so-called fashion trends. The detachable collar sound innocuous enough, but in reality it was a deadly hidden killer. Known as the “Vatermorder” (father killer), this collar was designed to keep the necks of men straight and, er, erect (you can guess what parallels they were attempting to draw there). This meant that they were essentially corsets for the throat. The stiff, high collar could easily cut off blood circulation and air supply, leading to death by asphyxiation at the slightest pressure or swelling, and there were even reports of the torture collars literally cutting through the neck of the wearer.

Father Killer Collar

5) FOOT BINDING

There’s nothing worse that a woman galumphing around the place with her normal-sized feet, is there? Well, something just had to be done. Foot binding was practiced by the Chinese for more than a thousand years, and is thought to have claimed the lives of more than a million women during that time. First, a girl of around four years old was treated to a nice foot spa of vinegar and botanicals. He toenails were then removed, her feet broken and bent in on themselves and wrapped in tight bandages. The broken and bound feet were highly susceptible to infection, and bits often dropped off due to lack of blood supply. If a girl’s feet were still considered too big, shards of broken tile were sometime inserted into the bindings to encourage the toes to fall off through infection. Death by septic shock was common, as was gangrene and broken bones from “falling off” bound feet.

Foot binding tradition from China

How Can Yoga Therapy help?

Yoga therapy meets people where they are, connecting them to their own innate healing potential. Yoga therapy clients report experiencing improved mood, decreased stress and chronic pain, and more. See a sample list of research articles on yoga therapy and yoga.

Women exercising in fitness studio yoga classes

One mechanism researchers have uncovered is yoga’s capacity to affect the nervous system by improving our ability to self-regulate. The practice uses methods that work via both the mind and the body, known in research as top-down and bottom-up regulation. Put simply, top-down regulation uses cognitive tools like meditation and ethical inquiry to affect the state of the body, whereas bottom-up regulation uses the body itself, through movement and breathing techniques, to change the state of the nervous system and to affect thoughts and emotions.

In short, the practice of yoga equips us with a comprehensive toolkit to help support regulation and resilience in the mind-body system. Yoga therapy is the specific use of these tools by a trained practitioner.

Click left or below to find out how individually tailored yoga therapy can help with

  • Chronic pain, including low-back pain, arthritis, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), and other types of pain such as that associated with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome
  • Mental health, including concerns like anxiety, depression, trauma and PTSD, insomnia, and others
  • Neurological issues and complications of stroke, multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s disease, and traumatic brain injury (TBI)
  • Support for illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease
  • Overall well-being (you don’t need to be sick or in pain for yoga therapy to have value!) and healthy aging

Ikigai: why is it Important?

I have been fascinated by the Japanese and their culture for at least ten years now and I have learned a lot from them. Some of the things I am most fascinated by about the Japanese are their longevity (the Japanese have the longest lifespans of any race in the world), the high importance they place on teamwork, social connections and social responsibility, and their incredibly healthy diets.

If you ask someone the reason why the average Japanese lives so long, the answer you will probably receive is, “because they have a healthy diet”. And that answer is mostly correct. But, as it turns out, there might be more to it than simply a healthy diet. It may also have to do with the fact that the Japanese believe in and adhere to something called “ikigai”, which loosely means “reason for being” or “reason for waking up”.

The Japanese take their ikigai seriously and this motivates them in many ways. It is somewhat akin to the word “passion” in English. It may relate to a person’s career or job, but it does not have to. In fact, only about a third of Japanese profess that their ikigai is related to the type of work they do.

Very often, the Japanese will cite social connections and responsibility as their ikigai. For example, the older generation is respected and highly appreciated. Their opinions and experience are valued by society and this allows them to feel a sense of purpose and responsibility towards others. In other words, their lives matter.

Unlike in the West where our passions mostly take into account what we love to do, ikigai also involves doing something that we love, but it also places a lot of emphasis on a group and fulfilling a role that benefits that group as a whole. Many Japanese are part of formal groups called “moai” and they consider their connection to these groups to be very important in their lives.

A fisherman’s ikigai might be to hone his craft so that he can help successfully feed his family, his moai, or the town, village, or city. A grandmother’s ikigai may be to impart wisdom to the younger generation. A traditional chef’s ikigai might involve preserving ancient recipes and passing them on so that every new generation can enjoy traditional Japanese food. A man who conducts the church choir every week might cite that as his ikigai.

Interestingly enough, a lot of research shows that the earlier a person retires, the higher the risk of an earlier death. This could have something to do with inactivity and being sedentary. It also could have something to do with losing one’s “raison d’etre”, or ikigai.

Some people in the West compare ikigai to happiness, but the two are not synonymous. Ikigai refers to finding happiness and joy in the small, day-to-day activities rather than reaching some final goal that promises bliss. It encompasses finding meaning in the small things. In fact, a person’s ikigai gives them a reason for living even when they are unhappy or miserable in the moment. It is what Victor Frankl wrote about in his epic book, Man’s Search For Meaning. In other words, one can still experience his or her ikigai during times of hardship or suffering. It fosters resilience.

How to Find Your Ikigai

Simply put, your ikigai is where what you are good at, what you love, and what your values are, intersect. When all three of these factors are in line and congruent, it is likely that you have found your ikigai. Try to recall a time when you were doing something and were so engrossed in it that you lost track of time and forgot to eat lunch or dinner. This is often referred to as being in the “flow”.

When you pay attention to tasks that seem to “flow” to you, you will find your ikigai and even deepen your association with it. You will find your life to be more meaningful and enjoyable. Once you notice the things that have meaning to you, you must then take the additional step of incorporating more of those types of tasks into your life. In other words, it requires some action and will not just happen on its own.

This also involves eliminating some things that are not harmonious with your values, that you are not good at, or that you do not like to do. Of course, this does not mean that you can get rid of every single task or activity that you do not like (some people do not like to brush their teeth, but it needs to be done anyway). But it does reduce the amount of tasks that are meaningless to you. Some people delegate these “meaningless” tasks to others to create more time for the tasks related to their ikigai.

One important point to note is that, once you find your ikigai, it will help you see the bigger picture and make even some mundane tasks more meaningful. For example, helping others by conducting research and writing this blog is very meaningful to me. I often experience “flow” and lose track of time when I am writing a blog post. However, I have also come to see that proofreading and correcting my mistakes (not my favorite things to do) are necessary in order to create an article that my readers like and can benefit from.

Knowing what your ikigai is (you can have more than one, although I would be suspicious if a person had more than four or five) not only creates more happiness and meaning in your life, it also can help you live a longer and healthier life. It makes sense if you really think about it: a person is more likely to jump out of bed each morning with vigor if he knows that the tasks he has to perform will make him more proficient at it, happier, and make a difference in the world. Knowing your ikigai also increases the likelihood of you taking better care of your health because your life has meaning.

Knowing your ikigai can be one of the most rewarding things in a person’s life. What is yours?

ROLE OF YOGA IN BETTER HEALTH 

The Sanskrit word “Yoga” is derived from its root “Yuj” which means “to join” or “to unite”. What are the two things that join together? A jivatman (embodied soul) unites with the Paramatman (Supreme Self or Spirit). Although the jivatman is a face of the Paramatman, and in essence both are the same, the jivatman has become subjectively separated from Paramatman, or God.This union of jivatman with Paramatman, and the methods by which the union is attained, both are called Yoga. 

Yoga refers to that enormous body of spiritual values, attitudes, precepts and techniques which purify the mind and heart of a human being and enable him to realize his true nature, the Divinity within.

Importance & Benefits of Yoga

During this coronavirus pandemic yoga is the best thing to adopt as a lifestyle habit. It helps us build a strong physical, mental and spiritual health system. When combined with breathing and meditation, it acts as the best element to take care of our mind, body and soul. There are different forms of yoga that can help us to stay physically strong and mentally balanced. It could also be something you can motivate others in your family & social circle to do, as it could help them get through these times easily & healthily. Just like a normal walk in the park or 30 minutes of hard-core gym exercising, Yoga brings its own flavour and benefits to the table, which can be performed by people of all ages, and provides you with a holistic sense of health, which is especially required during these time.

Yoga offers physical and mental health benefits for people of all ages.

  • Physical Benefits of Yoga

1) Improves posture- Working for long hours on a desk could not only hurt your spine but also make you feel tired at the end of the day. Practicing certain yoga asanas could help you in improving your posture and also prevent pain in your neck and lower back.

2) Increases flexibility- When was the last time you wished you could easily touch your toes while bending forward? Well, practicing yoga could help you in that. Yoga can not only help you in increasing your flexibility but also let you perform complex asanas.

3) Builds muscle strength- Yoga could help in strengthening weak muscles of the body. It helps in toning which prevents frequent straining of the muscles.

4) Boosts metabolism– Yoga helps in retaining the vitality in your body along with keeping it fit. It motivates you towards healthy eating and improves the metabolic system of the body.

5) Helps in lowering blood sugar- Yoga not only helps in lowering blood sugar but also lowers bad cholesterol and boosts good cholesterol. It encourages weight loss and improves the body’s sensitivity to insulin.

6) Increases self-esteem– Practicing yoga would help you explore a different side of yourself. It would make you feel good about yourself and helps you take a positive approach in life.

7) Improves lung function– A lot of breathing exercises are said to improve lung function. Doing such exercises in a long run could cure respiratory problems. It also increases the capacity of your Lungs Open.

8) Helps you sleep better– Yoga helps in reducing stress and creates a routine which in turn makes a regular sleeping pattern. A relaxed encourages weight loss and improves the body’s sensitivity to insulin.

9) Increases blood flow– The relaxation exercises in yoga regulates blood to all parts of your body. Exercises such as handstand, helps venous blood from the lower part of the body to flow back to your heart, where it can be pumped back to the lungs to be oxygenated.

10) Keep diseases at bay– Yoga exercises have a beneficial effect on the immune system. It not only helps in destroying various viruses we catch during season change, but also boosts our immunity to fight off diseases.

  • Mental Benefits of Yoga

1) Relieves Anxiety– Many people begin practicing yoga as a way to cope with feelings of anxiety. Interestingly enough, there is quite a bit of research showing that yoga can help reduce anxiety.

2) Can Decrease Stress– Yoga is known for its ability to ease stress and promote relaxation. In fact, multiple studies have shown that it can decrease the secretion of cortisol, the primary stress hormone.

3) May Reduce Inflammation– In addition to improving your mental health, some studies suggest that practicing yoga may reduce inflammation as well.

4) Improves Quality of Life– Yoga is becoming increasingly common as an adjunct therapy to improve the quality of life for many individuals.

5) May Fight Depression– Some studies show that yoga may have an anti-depressant effect and could help decrease symptoms of depression. This may be because yoga is able to decrease levels of cortisol, a stress hormone that influences levels of serotonin, the neurotransmitter often associated with depression.

6) May Relieve Migraine– Traditionally, migraines are treated with medications to relieve and manage symptoms.

Conclusion 

Yoga is the medicine for nearly every problem. As you practice yoga, it does not only help you to improve your physical body but also helps in maintaining your inner peace and relaxing your mind. Thus, there is nothing that yoga will not help. Moreover, yoga is not just a one-day practice; it’s a lifelong commitment.

DRUG-ADDICTION: CAUSES AND REMEDIES

What is Drug Addiction?

Drug addiction is a complex neurobiological disorder, which affects a person’s brain and behaviour in a way that they lose the ability to resist the urge to use drugs. It isn’t just about illegal drugs like heroin and cocaine. You can get addicted to substances like medication drugs, alcohol, nicotine, marijuana and other legal drugs as well. Drug dependence usually starts with an experiment. Initially, you take drugs because you like the way it feels. You think it’s a one-time experience and you can handle it. Also, many people start using drugs as self-medication or to cope with stress. But repeated misuse of drugs physically changes how your brain works. It makes you lose self-control and messes with your ability to avoid the desire to take drugs. These changes in the brain can be long-lasting. People who are in recovery from drug abuse are likely to return to drug use even after years of being in recovery from drug addiction. This is called drug relapse.

Effects of Drug Addiction

Drugs are chemicals which affect the brain and body. Different drugs have different compounds and affect the human body differently. Effects of drug abuse also depend on the way you consume it. There are few ways a drug can be consumed, like injection, inhalation and ingestion.

If the drug is injected into the bloodstream, it works almost instantaneously. But when ingested, it takes time for the drug to get into the bloodstream. According to the WHO, around 31 million people worldwide have drug abuse disorder, and among them, 11 million consume drugs by injecting it.

Effect of Drug Addiction on the Brain

Here are some effects of drug addiction in your brain:

  • Altered brain functions
  • Loss of rational decision-making
  • Loss of self-control
  • Drug viewed as necessary to survival
  • Inability to feel pleasure without drugs

Effect of Drug Addiction on the Body

Here are some common effects of drug misuse on the human body:

  • Drug abuse damages the immune system and makes you vulnerable to infections.
  • It causes heart conditions, including abnormal heart rates, heart attacks and the collapse of veins.
  • Drugs cause nausea, abdominal pain and vomiting.
  • Some drugs increase the risk of liver failure due to the excessive strain on the liver.
  • Misuse of drug abuse causes permanent brain damage, including memory loss, and problems with decision-making and focus.

Social Effects

Apart from these, there are social effects of drug abuse that are also damaging:

  • Damaged relationships with family and friends
  • Losing job
  • Financial trouble
  • Sexual abuse
  • Accidents and injuries
  • Legal consequences (e.g. going to jail).

Causes of Drug Addiction

  1. Genetics – According to the National institute of the drug abuse (NIDA) genetics (the genes a person is born with) account for approximately half, or 50 percent, of a person’s risk for developing an addiction.
  2. Environment – Like with many other disorders, drug addiction is also largely environmental. A person’s surroundings – including family, friends, home and neighborhood – can all influence their chances of drug addiction in some way. .
  3. Development – Both genetic and environmental factors correlate with a person’s critical developmental stages. For example, when a teen uses drugs in adolescence (when the brain is still maturing), the risk for disrupting brain development is high. 
  4. Mental health disorders – When an individual is struggling with a mental health issue – such as anxiety disorder, depression, ADHD, or schizophrenia – he or she is more likely to get addicted to drugs.

Prevention From Drug Addiction

When it comes to prevention from drug abuse, there is no foolproof way. But you can certainly do some things that will help you protect yourself and your loved ones from becoming addicted to drugs.

  • Educate yourself – Learn about the physical, biological, and social effects of drug misuse. Evaluate the risk factors like losing a job, isolation from society, dropping out of college. No one sets out to be addicted to drugs, so be careful in thinking using a drug “just once” will not be harmful.
  • Learn healthy ways to cope with stress – Stress is one of the primary reasons that drive people to drug misuse.
  • In this fast-paced world, stress is inevitable – And sometimes to escape from stress, people turn to alcohol and drugs. In the end, this can make life more miserable and stressful. To avoid this, you should learn to handle stress without using drugs. Take up exercising, read a book, volunteer for a good cause, create something. Anything positive that will give you a sense of fulfillment and take your mind away from using drugs to relieve stress.
  • Develop close bonds with family – Research has shown that people who have a close relationship with their families are less likely to abuse drugs. A loving family works as a support system and helps you deal with your pressures in life. It helps you to keep a distance from addictive substances.
  • Choose your friends mindfully – Teenagers and young adults are easily influenced by others. Often they start to explore different addictive drugs to impress their friends and portray themselves as “cool”. Find friends who won’t force you to do harmful things or be okay with possibly facing rejection when you turn down drugs.
  • Develop a healthy lifestyle – There is no better prevention of drug problems than adopting a healthy lifestyle. Being active and fit makes it easier to manage stress. This, in turn, helps to reduce the urge to use drugs or any other harmful substances to manage stress.

These are some of the preventive measures one can take to avoid drug addiction. But if you already developed an addiction, it is advisable to seek professional help and treatment for your drug problem.