‘ Let your hopes, not your hurts shape your future’ Martin Luther King, Jr
It’s time to letting go of whatever that give us pain, hurt, sadness, anger, regrets and guilt as the year comes to an end.
Grateful that another 365 days are approaching to renew ourselves with positive energy, change, optimism and peace which may uplift us in this life’s journey.
Wishing to all my lovely, fellow bloggers, may this New Year 2025 bring immense happiness, peace and favorableness to all of us.
Today’s world is full of negativity and uncertainty where change is inevitable. Not all changes are comfortable. But faster, we accept, the sooner is the liberation and reconciliation process. Never lose the sight of hope and faith in the Supreme because it is this light which will lead us through the journey, no matter how hard it may be.
On this auspicious occasion, may the Supreme enlighten our hearts and fill our minds with happiness and positivity by strengthening the human bonds within family, friends and community.
Happy Diwali to all my dear readers with lots of love and luck. God Bless 🙌
1. The human body in which each of us lives is made up of around 37 trillion cells, to be precise. And every day, about 1-2 percent of the cells are renewing. So, exactly after 90–100 days, a new “me” appears. We remain so busy with our routine lives that we hardly acknowledge this fact, and many of us are not even aware of it. So, ‘change’ is the constant tune, not just within the universe but also within us.
2. Now that we understand that our bodies undergo transformation on a daily basis, So, the question is: how does this self-renewal occur? Let’s go back to our past a little bit. The human body develops from the human embryo, which is fertilized by an oocyte and a sperm cell. This embryo is made up of stem cells. The stem cells are the basic cells (undifferenciated cells) of the human body, which, through the process of mutation and transformation grow into different cells like nerve cells, bone cells, muscle cells, blood cells and so on. Throughout our lifespan, these stem cells undergo cell division and keep replicating; that’s how self-renewal happens.
3. Under normal physiological self-renewal processes, different cells in the body have differing rates of cell division. So, the replication process of various tissues, organs, and blood cells in the body has a different time frame, like the skin epidermal cells, which can take around 10–30 days, whereas a bone cell takes 3 months, or a hair grows about 1 cm in one month, and so on.
4. Though our body is constantly changing due to the continuous self-renewal process through different cell cycles like shedding the old skin cells, renewal of intestinal cell lining, and growing hair or nails on a routine basis, this isn’t a simpler process. The human body is still very complicated and has exceptions. Some cells, such as those in the brain (cerebral cortex), eyes (such as lenses), and heart, do not change from birth to death.
5. But then, why is self-renewal important and must be maintained? Under normal physiological conditions, stem cells have two functions: proliferation and differentiation. Though stem cells have a natural proliferative capacity throughout our lives, disease conditions can affect their physiological self-renewal ability and behavior due to factors such as damage or an unhealthy lifestyle (obesity, lack of physical activity, smoking, or a poor diet).
6. A lack of an appropriate environment within the body or poor maintenance of the human body might eventually lead to the exhaustion of the capacity of stem cell proliferation, which causes premature aging or tissue atrophy. With aging, stem cell activity, tissue regenerative and haemeostasis is significantly declined.
7. Sometime, due to the unhealthy environment within the body, mutations lead to aggressive stem cell division without going through the natural cell differentiation process. This can lead to abnormal tissue growth or cancer in the body. Therefore, the physiological process of stem cell division and the natural stem cell behavior can be affected by four disease conditions, like degenerative, metabolic, cardiovascular, and inflammatory conditions.
8. Regenerative medicine and therapies have arisen as a result of the discovery that defective self-renewal mechanisms in the body are the root cause of malignancies and abnormal cell proliferation. Many disorders are being treated with regenerative medicines based on stem cells. Recent years have seen a significant increase in the use of stem cell treatment to treat a variety of diseases like cancer and disorders including type 1 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, Parkinson’s, burns, osteoarthritis, by regenerating cells, repairing tissues, and transplanting organs.
9. The fact about regenerative medicine is that, though it has helped many patients around the world, the cost of treatment is quite high as the procedure is complicated and the failure rate is high. Human stem cell treatment requires culturing human stem cells in a laboratory setting for a longer period of time, which is quite difficult.
10. The market is flooded with products that promote cell regeneration, anti-aging, and longevity. The lofty claims made by these items are still quite dubious. But it is true that some supplements do work to improve health, lower inflammation, and increase immunity. But in the end, having a healthy diet, getting enough sleep, a calm mind, and exercising regularly is all that’s necessary for good health.
Self-care is a priority and not selfish. The simple reason is if I don’t care about me, how can I care for my loved ones? If I don’t cater to my emotional and physical needs, then how will I cater to other’s needs?
But, then, in reality, you are driven by your responsibilities, to push yourself more and more. There are personal, professional, family, societal pressures and commitments which makes you push yourself to the extreme limits to fulfil all the demands and responsibilities. In the process, you forget yourself and do not even realise that you have your share of emotional and physical needs to be taken care of for your overall wellbeing.
Realisations come very late when we are knocked down by chronic stress, complete burnout or end up in a diseased state. Therefore, self-care daily is very important for both physical and mental wellbeing.
Scientifically speaking, there are several areas and dimensions of self-care.
Here, I have tried giving 4 small different steps towards self-care.
1.Spend some ‘me’ time alone: Everyday, give yourself a few couples of minutes to cut off from the routine grind and the hustle-bustle. This is your ‘me’ time entirely. Do whatever you enjoy doing, go for a short walk in nature, practise a hobby or listen to a piece of music. Meditate and observe your emotional feelings and acknowledge them. Understanding and acknowledging your both positive and negative thoughts are important so that you can let go of unwanted thoughts. Remember, thoughts are always associated with your feelings and experiences. Always, love and praise yourself for what you are and how far you have come in this journey. In self-care, self-love is important.
2. Control your stress level: Understand that when stress persists, your cortisol level shoots up. This adrenal gland hormone not only increases your blood sugar level but also elevates inflammation in the body which is responsible for various diseases like heart diseases, diabetes, obesity, cancers. So, when you feel you are at stress in the day, take a break. Practise relaxation like breathing exercises, stretches so that cortisol comes back to balance. Another simple way of letting stress go is to practice mindful moments, being present at the present moment. Sit quietly and notice your breath for some time. Feel the wind, air, smell around. Engage yourself in imagery exercise like walking down a beautiful forest, walking down a sandy beach, hearing the sounds of waves.
3.Practice gratitude: In the daytime, practice gratitude several times, being thankful for your existence, for your loved ones around, and for a beautiful life you have. These moments are important because whenever you feel gratitude and joy, there is a release of endorphins and serotonin which are happy hormones and which are necessary for your physical and mental health wellbeing.
4.Physical health: Lastly, as we all know, self-care remain incomplete if we do not care for our body. Eating healthy, routine exercise, sleeping well are essential steps towards physical wellbeing. For the normal wear tear of the body, giving enough rest helps in the healing and repairing process.
Today instead of writing a health post, I thought of motivating myself with my self-motivating spirit. I am passionate about writing and will keep writing.
Some days are just bad. They are experiences and learning, that’s all. I don’t have to be sad but instead, keep pushing myself forward. I have to keep reminding myself that not every day is a good day, that’s just the way, it is.
I still love myself strong. I love my positive attitude towards life and my hard disciplined life. I like both the good and bad side. I, turn cranky sometimes, but that’s ok. As soon as I realise, I am back to my normal self.
People judge you everywhere at home, work, society and everywhere you go. But you don’t have to change just to get people’s approval. I would rather be myself and let people accept me the way I am. That would give me not just pleasure but be surrounded by people who will make me feel great and positive.
Daniel Goleman, the author of “Working with Emotional Intelligence” do influence me with these self-motivational elements.
Personal drive: My self motivating drive, to keep going, my desire to achieve, and improving myself day after day. Keep driving myself to meet standards. I also read other bloggers’ posts which encourages me to sharpen my skill.
Commitment: Keep focussing on my goals, both personal and professional goals. It’s good to dream big so that I have every day to look forward and keep pushing myself.
Initiative: To look for the right opportunities to work upon. I am a little bad and hesitant in taking initiative. But I am surely working on it in both personal and professional life.
Optimism: yes, optimism and keeping a positive attitude are an ingrain in me. I love pursuing goals even if setbacks, challenges keep coming my way.
Self-image literally means one’s personal view of oneself in regard to physicality and personality traits. Psychologically, it’s our ‘self scheme’ our own information of different traits that we perceive about ourselves that are already stored in our memory.
3 dimensions of self-image are :
My personal opinion on me
How do others perceive me?
How I want others to perceive me?
As a positive self image can be favourable, advantageous, a negative self- image can be self – hurting, low self- esteem, low self -confidence, self -critical and pessimistic. Interestingly, many people have both, more or less depending on the different traits they have.
5 ways to improve my self image in my everyday life.
1.Self – acceptance is important. Loving and accepting the way I am, will make life less complicated en route to the ups and downs of life.
2. Building a self – image realistically based on my strengths and limitations will increase my self- regard rather than based on idealistic views as nobody is perfect in this world.
3.It is important to keep a level of self – awareness to make a continuous effort to evolve as a better person to experience peace and happiness in life.
4.Whatever good things and success have happened in life so far, enjoy to the fullest, build up more positive energy and move ahead.
5.Every individual is unique. Never compare your success or failure with someone else. This will lead to shallowness and insecurities.
Chasing my material goals and success is good, but at the same time, experiencing my emotional state of self achievement and fulfilment is motivating.
Our body has the unique power and capabilities of self healing. No matter what you are going through, your body has the power, knowledge and wisdom to heal on its own. Its time to start exercising this ability…
The hidden truth about our own body is it has an innate capacity to heal on its own in all possible ways. Our body is not a single entity, in fact it is a community of 50 trillion cells which are in harmony and work through a single guiding voice, our mind. The mind and body has a natural homeostasis to keep us in a healthy state of being. The body does not go where our mind doesn’t take it. But then, why do we fall sick ? It is because due to our daily routine stress and a host of emotional and physical strain, this homeostasis is disrupted. Hence, comes the disease state ranging from common to severe illnesses. Therefore, our normal state of being is completely disturbed. So, when this happens, awareness of this state is our first intention.
Firstly , be aware of the internal or external factors that must have led to this imbalance. By simply being aware, we can slowly curb those factors from our life by conscious efforts. Slowly, we should try to restore back the natural balance in our mind and body, our natural state of being. Trying to focus on healthy choices in our routine life with a positive frame of mind. Once, this is done, our body starts healing on its own. Its spontaneously goes into a state of recovery. Though, this is not an easy task. Our belief to heal ourselves is the only driving force.
This is very unusual for an experienced medical professional like me to emphasise on self – healing. But, in reality , this is a genuine fact. Healing of any sort of illness happens when we believe that we can heal. Doctors and drugs can only facilitate the process. But the biggest problem here is that we don’t trust our mind and body. We don’t trust our abilities.
Subconscious mind
It has been in our subconscious mind that have been installed from our very childhood, if we fall sick, we need to visit a doctor, pop up a pill or need an external agent to heal. This has been hard-wired in our brain. So, every time, we feel unwell, we need some external agent to feel better. Above all, our mind is constantly nagged by a negative force, limiting beliefs, tons of garbage of wrong perceptions which we may not be even aware of. All these reasons clubbed together made us impossible to heal.
Healing becomes very difficult, not just physically but even mentally. In fact, even without any physical ailment, we tend to feel sick because of our mental state. So, the simple tip to lead a healthy physical life is to have a healthy mind. If we have a strong, healthy mind, any kind of physical imbalance can be corrected eventually.
In our daily routine life of physical exercise, activity, at least some quantity of time is required to slow down , to meditate and relax our mind. If not possible in the daytime, at least before going to bed or early morning before starting the day. At the end of the day, we know, life is beautiful and short. And we have tons of reasons to be grateful for being alive.
It is not happy people who are thankful…..It is thankful people who are happy.
Spend time with nature as much as you can…..nature itself is the best guide …..
Learn to be calm…. you will start loving the gratest gift call life.
Welcome to The 3 H : Health, Happiness, Healing, a unique blog here for you to explore.
The 3 H : Health, Happiness, Healing has added such value to my life, and I love having the opportunity to share my passions and thoughts with my loyal readers.
The foundation of a beautiful life is good health. It is also the basis of happiness. No wealth in this entire world can give you happiness or a sound health. It’s only a calm mind, inner peace and a disciplined life that make all the difference. Searching and learning life is all where the miracle process of life begins.
3H:health,happiness,healing 