I am a medical professional who is an enthusiastic writer. I enjoy writing about health, inspirational thoughts, beliefs and trust about life, healing, happiness. Our life is what our thoughts shape it. My intention of writing is to help readers, moving each day with new thoughts, new strengths en route to enhancing life and better health. I am also a mom and a wife.
I have been nominated for Sunshine blogger award for the third time. Yes, I am still not bored. I am simply loving it. Though not a real award, it feels great to be acknowledged by your fellow bloggers. I have been nominated by my fellow blogger Kacha of https://journeythroughlife591163021.wordpress.com. A big thanks to her.
Her blog is about her candid journey through depression and burn out and how she has struggled and overcome it. The beauty of her blog is that she has been very openhearted, unpretentious and honest. I hold great regards and earnest appreciation for her.
Now to speak of the Award: Here are the rules
Rules for the award
• Thank the person who nominated you and provide a link back to their blog so others can find them.
• Answer the 11 questions asked by the blogger who nominated you.
• Nominate 11 other bloggers and ask them 11 new questions.
• Notify the nominees about it by commenting on one of their blog posts.
• List the rules and display a Sunshine Blogger Award logo on your post and/or your blog site
Her questions :
1 If you could, would you turn back time?
No, I wouldn’t. I try living in the present moment and take each moment as it comes. There is no point in thinking about the past or worrying about the future. 2 What is an expression you use quite often?
Nowadays, I try smiling very often. 3 What is your favourite fairy tale?
Now, as an adult, I am too realistic. But, yes during childhood, I love the stories of Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Snow White and seven dwarfs. 4 What is the trait you are most proud of?
I try being kind to all, as much as practically possible. 5 Where do you find inspiration for your blog?
My inspirations are very instinctive. 6 What languages do you speak?
I am an Indian living in The Netherlands. So, English is the common language I communicate mostly. At home with family, I speak my native Indian language including Hindi. 7 What do you dislike most about blogging?
I thoroughly enjoy blogging. There is nothing that I don’t like. 8 What subjects in a conversation are so boring to you that you could fall asleep standing?
I find the technology conversation a bit boring.
9 What do you love to talk about?
I love life to the fullest. So, I love talking to people, their experiences, emotions, problems, joy, sorrow, everything about life 10 Do you have habits that can be considered as a little out of the norm?
I love and read about spirituality very often. I keep listening to spiritual talks. 11 Which trend needs to stay in 2019?
The only trend that is going to stay the longest is “Back to basics”. Be it health trends, food trends, lifestyle trends, going back to basics is in.
As for my nominations, I love and have great regards to all my followers, readers and fellow bloggers. So, I don’t like picking out some names leaving the rest. So, anybody, whoever likes to do this award, you are most welcome and appreciated🙏. You can take the same questions given by Kacha as above.
Physical fitness is not enough. A state when you are physically light and look fit but emotionally drained and heavy. This is not a healthy state of affair. Therefore, give yourself another chance every day to grow, build and improve yourself and present the world with the best version of yourself.
7 ways of Daily emotional fitness program :
1. Attitude: Take life as it is. Take each experience at each moment like it. Analysing and overthinking makes it good or bad.
2. Breathing: It is important to do deep breathing ( around 10 times) both morning and evening. Deep breathing calms down the brain and relieves us from tension and stress.
3. Creativity: Every day, learn, create, understand new things, new ideas. This way, we create new neural pathways. Memorizing new things, old lessons do refreshes the memory too.
4. Laugh: Laugh as much as you can. Laughing not only lighten up the mood but also releases happy hormones and keep stress in check.
5. Forgive yourself and another: Forgiving yourself often is important because it reduces the emotional baggage that you carry for something or the other. Forgiving others is equally important because we don’t know what the other person is going through.
6.Maximum Nourishment: Try eating healthy every day. Eating healthy not only influences your physical health but also your mental wellbeing.
7: Be grateful: Last but not least, being grateful for everything you have. Being grateful for every moment and every breath, I live. Being surrounded by people whom I love. And, there are a lot more reasons to be grateful for. Acknowledge them.
Our mind is illusional. Whatever, we think and perceive is our own derived illusion. It’s our biggest friend and at the same time can be our biggest enemy. Therefore, a common quote says ” You may die a hundred deaths without a break in the mental turmoil “ Our mind makes up everything that happens in our life – good or bad, big or small, ugly or beauty, sad or happy, success or failure, it ‘s all within this thing, called mind. So, how do I control this thing ‘mind’ and remain focus on my goal and life purpose?
Understanding the mind, and its content is very important and fundamental. What makes our thought world? How do thoughts are generated? We build up mental impressions through the different inlets of this outer world. The inlets can be : *Five senses: sight, hear, smell, touch, taste
*Memory: That has been built up over the years of this outside world experience, right from the day we were born.
*Activity: That we perform , habituated and do throughout the day.
We create thought by an idea backed with emotion. Through different inlets, we build up thoughts as our mental content every day. We generate, perceive, analyse, process and ruminate our entire thought world. So, we keep doing the same mental activity of thinking, analysing, ruminating every day. The thinking pattern doesn’t change. So, does our behaviour and habits. It is uninterrupted, a never-ending process which we may not be even aware. According to Yoga Psychology ( Yoga Sutras), our thought world mainly depends on mental fluctuation (Vritti) and thoughts (prataya). The mental impulses (vritti) are created through the different inlets like the senses, memory, activity which inturn create mental impressions generating thoughts (prataya). This is the reason, when we are in a positive , vibrant environment, surrounded by positive people, we generate positive, beautiful, creative thoughts. But, when we surround ourselves with negativity, we generate negative thoughts of guilt, anger, pain, hurt, jealousy and so on.
Normally, what happens, when we centred our mind for a particular activity, at the office or home. There are endless distractions. Okay, we try to control the distraction or cut down to some extent, but still mental fluctuations and wondering thoughts continue to distract us. This is because the memory continues to generate unstable thoughts in an unstable mind.
Therefore to manage our mind, we need to control our mental fluctuation and thoughts. The only way to control them is through a concentrated mind. A concentrated mind can be achieved through the power of attention. The power of attention is our very own property (which arises from self) which we can achieve by practising and training our mind. It is a steady power of awareness which is created at our own will. It is the only capability that we can learn to develop for mind control. Whereas, the mental fluctuations (impression) and thoughts are greatly influenced by our outer world, the external distractions. They are not completely within our control.
The different states of mind depending on the power of attention can be defined as *Ordinary mind: When both the mental fluctuations (vritti) and thoughts (prataya) are unstable. The mind is rather restless distracted, jumping from one thought to another.
*Focused mind: When there is less mental fluctuation (stable vritti) but thoughts are still wobbly (unstable prataya). This is the learning mind.
*Concentrated mind: When both the mental fluctuation (vritti) and thoughts (prataya) are on the same line, stable enough. This is the highest level of attentive mind.
*Meditative mind: When the vritti and prataya are concentrated at the same point, on a similar goal. That is the mind is concentrated at one point say, your attention is entirely on your breath or a point of focus. That is when both mental fluctuation and thought are at the same point. This is the highest level of concentration.
The power of attention is similar to a focused beam of light where all your energies are focused. With this power of attention, you can learn, achieve, complete tasks and attain success in whichever areas of life you want to. That is the reason, we should always learn to perform an activity or task one at a time. So, we give our full power of attention. Handling multiple tasks all at a time can be like a scattered beam where all your energies are distributed. You can be able to do some while some are left undone. Your mind will keep fluctuating and your attention span will be variable and unstable.
So, how do I learn to achieve a concentrated mind with the ultimate power of attention? How do I control my mind, my inner thought world, daily? How do I focus my mind on one activity at a time? How do I take charge of myself? This is a self-learning task, an ongoing process. Two comprehensive ways:
1. To achieve the power of attention, two important things matter the most : Awareness: Being consciously aware all the time. Feeding our thought world and thought process with positive, constructive and creative thoughts.
Will: Self-training and developing a restrained impulse towards worthy goals, purposeful life.
2.Control of thoughts:
*Exposure to right kind of thoughts: Feeding the mind everyday with right kind of thoughts. Reading good books, being in a positive, good company, surrounded by positive vibrations.
*Right behaviour: Good conduct, right behaviour pattern influence thoughts and emotions. That means reframing our cognitive abilities. Correcting our behaviour patterns as on when required.
*Right lifestyle and habits: Maintaining a regulated lifestyle and habits will greatly influence our mind. You cannot have a stable mind with an unstable lifestyle. *Purposeful life: Working towards a specific goal, understanding and working towards a meaningful life. Developing a stable mind through meditation and prayers. This cannot be achieved overnight. It is an ongoing, self-learning process. You and I have to keep working on it daily.
Thanks for reading.
Blessings and much love to all 💐
References: Science of Focus by Pravrajika Divyanandaprana (Vivekavani)
Who doesn’t like to see a smiling face as soon as you wake up in the morning? Seeing someone smiling at you at home, office, travel everywhere you go simply lift up your mood. In fact, it is the easiest way to boost your mood, health, longevity, coping up with success, setbacks, and challenges in the life journey.
10 magical facts of smiling :
1.Endorphins: Not just a genuine smile, even if it is not so genuine, a smile can help the release of endorphins which can relieve the body from stress and pain. The natural release of endorphins helps in reducing everyday stress and anxiety. Therefore, keep smiling throughout the day, it will keep you away from stress. It will help you to keep your mood elevated.
2.Social health: We are always attracted to smiling, happy people. It…
My Heartiest wishes to all of you for a grand Christmas and a very Happy New Year !! Wishing you and family, health, happiness, prosperity and peace ✌️
Beliefs are a certain pattern of thinking in our brain that must have been perceived and ingrained in the course of our lifetime. It is a way of making sense and understanding the world around us, the people, behaviour, perceptions, facts, realities. Beliefs can be on our faith, religion, things, people and the world in which we live. Based on our beliefs, we assume something or someone as good or bad, whether something is worthy, acceptable or achievable. The mental representation of our beliefs makes us create our boundaries and limitations concerning every aspect of our lives. It is these subconscious mind beliefs which autopilot our day to day life, career path or choices, or the life journey itself.
Since the time of human evolution, certain thinking pattern has been carried out as strategies to learning, simplify things or conceptualized certain experiences, facts or perceived realities. The perceptual beliefs are mainly based on sensory experiences. That is how beliefs keep moving from one generation to another. As the child grows up, his whole personality and belief system start moulding and developing based on his parents, his experiences, environment in school, college and other authoritative figures. Whether true or false, facts or distorted, the person already grows up with a set of a belief system which helps him undertake his life journey. Since our beliefs are rooted deeply in our subconscious mind, our mind will constantly look out ways and means to prove them right. This is what the subconscious programming does. Every action, behaviour, habit, the emotion of our’s are all based on our belief system.
Beliefs are not necessarily based on truth. They can be based on distorted facts or can be misconstrued or can be simply mistaken beliefs. They can be negative or self-limiting beliefs. Many of our beliefs are based on observations, what we think, hear or see the physical world around us. So, as we start learning more and more, a wider understanding of this world, opened up to a great sea of knowledge and Science, we realise that some of the beliefs which we have been carrying, holds no truth in them. They are just false beliefs. But in spite of knowing clear information about the fact, we still hold onto such beliefs, unable to change them. They are so much ingrained in us and are difficult to change.
Certain examples of common disempowering beliefs, some of us may have like I am not good enough.
I am not lucky enough. I have to achieve a certain level of success to be happy in life. I cannot trust the people around me. I am not attractive enough. I cannot lose weight. I am not good at public speaking. I am not a happy person.
These are some examples of subconscious programmed beliefs that we hold onto to be true. So, subconsciously, we will behave and act trying to proof or validate them, each time to be true. The realisation comes much later in life when we fail to achieve something, unable to achieve our goal, failed relationship, unsuccessful career path. Therefore, a real soul searching, self-awareness is required to identify our self-limiting beliefs which made us fail or difficult to achieve our full potential in whichever aspect of life, it may be.
Some simple ways, we can try changing our beliefs :
•Changing the old pattern of beliefs is not an easy task. You have to be completely self-aware. •Try putting down in a note because writing gives you a clear understanding of the mind. •Once identifying your self limiting beliefs, reframe them with an empowering positive belief like I am good enough to succeed or I deserve to be happy, no matter what.
• Then, startreminding yourself consciously every day with your new beliefs. Keep repeating because your subconscious mind learns by habit and repetition. It takes a long time. Reminding and repeating does create an impression in our subconscious mind and the outcome of our new beliefs will soon unfold.
We have 50 to 75 trillion cells in our body. Believe it or not, each of them has a nucleus which has a DNA strand of about 6 feet. Now, how such long length of DNA strand fit inside the small nucleus of a tiny cell. The DNA strand is wrapped around a cluster of proteins called the histones. Histones are like molecular spools. These molecular spools form the chromatin, where there are the sequencing of proteins. These chromatins form the complex structure of DNA, that is the chromosomes. There are about 30 million spools in each of the cells. So just imagine, how much of genetic material, we carry in each of our cells. The functional unit of DNA are the genes encoded in it. It is this genetic codes which tell the cell how to function and who to become. That is how a muscle cell differs from a neuron or a skin cell.
A magnifying glass focussing on a section of a DNA strand.
Epigeneticsmeaning above the genes.So, epigenetics are chemical tags that sit on the chromatin. Some epigenetic marks can condense the chromatic making the cell unable to read the genes underlying, in other words, they turn the genes off. Again, some epigenetic marks can decondense the chromatic making the cell accessible to read the underlying genes. So, then the genes are turned on. Therefore, these epigenetic marks are responsible for influencing our cell biology. So, in our body, though each cell has the same DNA, it is these epigenetic marks which instruct the cell to turn on or off the particular genes. This is how a muscle cell or a neuron function differently from a skin cell. Now, the question is when do the epigenetic marks laid down the information or instructions to the cells. Most of it occurs during the embryonic development inside the womb. Initially, when the embryo is only a few cells big, there are very less epigenetic marks on the cells, As the days pass by, the influence of environment slowly increases the epigenetic marks on the cells.
In a pregnant lady, the growing embryo inside her womb has been influenced by the food she eats, behaviour, her stress level, habits (like smoking alcohol). That’s how the epigenetic marks are laid on the chromatin of each cell. That is how the foetus genes are affected and also the long term health effect of the child. Even as the child grows into an adult, the habits, behaviour, disease pattern does not entirely depend on the hereditary genes. Researches have shown that the environment continues influencing the epigenetic marks of the chromatins.Throughout life, the genes keep turning on and off depending on the environmental choices, pattern or the kind of environmental responses, the person perceives.
We keep making choices on the perception of this world, thoughts, emotions, lifestyle habits, eating habits, stress responses and other environmental influences. Depending on all these choices, our body’s nervous system influences the chemical pathways (neurohormonal pathways) instructing the genes through receptor responses (some genes get turn on while some get to turn off) in different cells of our body leading to different changes that occur regarding health, ageing, longevity, diseases, stress levels and wellness. Improving our choices ( being in a positive environment), positivity, reducing stress levels, healthy eating, active physical life all can affect our genes greatly. Have an impact on our overall wellbeing ,can reduce disease prospects, or can make healing faster.
So, the concept of “we” being the victims of hereditary genes doesn’t completely hold the truth. We still hold our magic stick depending upon the choices we make. We are still the “masters” of the body in terms of our health and wellness. If you wish to know more about this topic, I recommend the book “Change your Genes, Change your life” Creating optimal health by the New Science of epigenetics. by Kenneth R. Pelletier
3H:health,happiness,healing 