my dearest reader,
i am happy to announce my blog's relocation to WORDPRESS as i found it more blogger-friendly. you can see me at:
http://empoweringall.wordpress.com
please visit my new blog "EMPOWERING ALL" and shower your blessings in the form of posts, comments and feedback!
i shall consider it a privilege and an honour !
seeking all your continued patronage!
i leave behind my gratitude to "Blogger" for having launched my blogging interest here two years ago and for re-launching it a month ago.
bye bye and see you all soon at Wordpress "Empowering All"
Blog Archive
Monday, December 10, 2007
Poll - Casting vote on my page
i have seen number of clicks to my page everyday, but hardly any comments. very few write comments to a post and others just visit, silently read the post and go away. i thought that it might be becoz of people not having enough time / patience / expressive ability / or whatever. so i thought of inserting this page element of a "poll" wherein visitors can easily click on simple answers like 'yes' or 'no' and leave. but even that seems to be a flop - have not received a single answer :((
dear visitor, please cast your vote in the polls, that i keep changing every few days. i appreciate your time and interest.
hope u will turn my :(( into :)) soon.
dear visitor, please cast your vote in the polls, that i keep changing every few days. i appreciate your time and interest.
hope u will turn my :(( into :)) soon.
Sunday, December 09, 2007
shift????
everybody seems to be shifting from blogger to wordpress. i have visited a few wordpress blogs and find it attractive with more features. (i do not know if grass is greener on the other side?!) i have even created a new blog there by the name "empoweringall" after my counselling centre's name "empower" where i have my private practice. but am not too sure if i should shift at this point of time when my blog here is slowly picking up readers.
hey reader, what says thou?
hey reader, what says thou?
Saturday, December 08, 2007
Peace
"what is 'peace' according to you?", somebody had sasked in the VOY forum.
I answered - peace is ACCEPTENCE.
Accepting oneself with all the shortcomings glaring at you.
Accepting others with their shortfalls.
Accepting the differences and not confronting them, but celebrating them.
Accepting what one has got in his/her life without grumbling.
Accepting with gratitude.
It is very difficult to develop this kind of acceptence but it is not an impossibility. It only requires strong determination to change our attitude and outlook towards life. It can be practiced. It can be perfected.
What do you all say? What according to you is 'Peace'? Please give your answers so that we can all be educated with other perspectives.
I answered - peace is ACCEPTENCE.
Accepting oneself with all the shortcomings glaring at you.
Accepting others with their shortfalls.
Accepting the differences and not confronting them, but celebrating them.
Accepting what one has got in his/her life without grumbling.
Accepting with gratitude.
It is very difficult to develop this kind of acceptence but it is not an impossibility. It only requires strong determination to change our attitude and outlook towards life. It can be practiced. It can be perfected.
What do you all say? What according to you is 'Peace'? Please give your answers so that we can all be educated with other perspectives.
Friday, December 07, 2007
Women’s Obsession with Body Image
Women have always been very conscious about their looks and appearance and have always looked forward to receiving admiration from others – both men and women. This desire was induced in them by Nature so that they could attract the male attention and unite with them in order to procreate and continue the existence of their species. So it has an evolutionary significance.
But in these days of media’s bombardment about the ideal figure that a lady should have in order to be admired by all, the craze for hour-glass-figure has reached obsessive levels. Young girls are starving themselves to death in order to make that unrealistic figure theirs. Girls are going on crash diets to lose those, not extra, but very necessary pounds. In order not to be left behind even women are joining gym, aerobic classes and even dance classes. Fine, they are exercising themselves to burn all those extra pounds, burgers and pizzas that they are tempted to eat. They can be healthy exercises as long as they are supplemented with nutritious food. But many, in their enthusiasm to acquire “Aishwaryarai” figure, go on indulging in unhealthy dietary practices that make them lose vital nutrients from the body, exposing themselves to various disorders like migraine, irritable bowel syndrome and even hormonal imbalances. Many get into psychological depression as they fail to fit into those jeans or own those glamorous vital statistics!
I would like to mention here two psychological disorders called “anorexia nervosa” and “bulimia” that can afflict young women and middle aged women. In “anorexia nervosa”, people starve themselves to lose weight and become pencil thin that can be disastrous to their physical and mental health. In “bulimia”, people go on an eating binge, unable to hold back temptation to eat and then they purge themselves of all the eaten food by either vomiting or through loose stools as a result of taking laxatives. Both the conditions have very serious repercussions on the body organs and they can become fatal.
I agree that all of us desire to look ‘prim and propah’ with ideal figures. But let our dreams be realistic according to our height n weight, age and our health conditions. Meet a dietitians and find out how much you are overweight or underweight and make suitable dietary changes and life style changes to bring about the look that you desire. Also let us remember that it is our inner beauty and strength that adds sheen to our looks and not our figures and fineries. Let not our obsessions kill us - physically, emotionally or spiritually.
But in these days of media’s bombardment about the ideal figure that a lady should have in order to be admired by all, the craze for hour-glass-figure has reached obsessive levels. Young girls are starving themselves to death in order to make that unrealistic figure theirs. Girls are going on crash diets to lose those, not extra, but very necessary pounds. In order not to be left behind even women are joining gym, aerobic classes and even dance classes. Fine, they are exercising themselves to burn all those extra pounds, burgers and pizzas that they are tempted to eat. They can be healthy exercises as long as they are supplemented with nutritious food. But many, in their enthusiasm to acquire “Aishwaryarai” figure, go on indulging in unhealthy dietary practices that make them lose vital nutrients from the body, exposing themselves to various disorders like migraine, irritable bowel syndrome and even hormonal imbalances. Many get into psychological depression as they fail to fit into those jeans or own those glamorous vital statistics!
I would like to mention here two psychological disorders called “anorexia nervosa” and “bulimia” that can afflict young women and middle aged women. In “anorexia nervosa”, people starve themselves to lose weight and become pencil thin that can be disastrous to their physical and mental health. In “bulimia”, people go on an eating binge, unable to hold back temptation to eat and then they purge themselves of all the eaten food by either vomiting or through loose stools as a result of taking laxatives. Both the conditions have very serious repercussions on the body organs and they can become fatal.
I agree that all of us desire to look ‘prim and propah’ with ideal figures. But let our dreams be realistic according to our height n weight, age and our health conditions. Meet a dietitians and find out how much you are overweight or underweight and make suitable dietary changes and life style changes to bring about the look that you desire. Also let us remember that it is our inner beauty and strength that adds sheen to our looks and not our figures and fineries. Let not our obsessions kill us - physically, emotionally or spiritually.
*********************************************************************************
I was inspired to write this after I read a post in Ruhi's:
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
WHO ARE WE ???
Dear friends,
Now & then some of my friends are driven to raise existential questions to which there can be, it seems to me, no easy answers ; but only counter-questions !
WHO ? **
-------------
May be we are piles of life-files
Are we not
Into the niches of which
Are nuzzled DNA's
Of needs, moods, ' quality time '
Even turns of events unanticipated
Meanings
Virtually bytes of all being
That we merely reinvent
Tools to cut & paste, links
To standalone sites, infinite ;
With which we could mess around, risk
Would not risk, choose not ---
Trumped by a, say, wily workmate
By a natural desire overpitching
a la some politico-mythic belief
Or chivvied by a dated f-in-law
Into a post-family network ---
To search, reclaim, recreate
Organize the ' string ' dimensions
Of life ?
Or just like that Should we --
who ? -- exit ?
Whereto ?
--- S. Guru dutt / Dec 4, 2007
------------- 00 ---------------
** Comment / criticism would be gratefully received -- sg
This post is by Dr. S.Gurudutt. MBBS ( B' lore Univ ) , Mental Health Counsellor, Prasanna Counselling Centre, Bull Temple Rd, Bangalore / Fridays & Saturdays / 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm . Consultation at PCC is absolutely free . He can be contacted over email also:
Monday, December 03, 2007
WORLD DISABILITY DAY
3rd December is celebrated as World Disability Day all over the world to spread awareness about disabilities to people and sensitize them about various issues of disabled persons.
It is very essential for us to understand that there is ABILITY in disABILITY. We need to recognize those abilities in a disabled person and help him/her to maximize those abilities and help them to overcome the disability. All that is required from us is to shift our focus from their disability to their abilities. We are all very well aware that each one of us has certain handicaps. But with various strategies we overcome them and lead a productive life. For example, many of us have vision problem. But we do not allow that to hamper our daily activities. We use spectacles and go about with our work. But if we forget to carry our spectacles with us, we realize what a handicap it becomes to read or write. Many of us are handicapped by our inability to effectively communicate with others or by our inability to remember important things. But we somehow manage to overcome them and still get on with life.
But there are more severe handicaps like blindness, deaf and muteness, mental retardation, cerebral palsy, autism etc that pose a real challenge to people afflicted with these conditions. They require more serious interventions and training to cope up with the handicaps and overcome them. They do not need our sympathies, but EMPATHY! Empathy is the ability to transport ourselves into their minds and understand their feelings and pain and offer encouragement and support to overcome the difficulties.
Friends, I request all of you to cultivate that sensitivity to understand their position, look for the hidden abilities in them and encourage them to bring out their potentials and provide opportunities to lead a productive and meaningful life. They are not disabled, but are DIFFERENTLY-ABLED. Each one of us has a social obligation to lend a hand to improve their quality of life. I hope you are all with me in this cause.
It is very essential for us to understand that there is ABILITY in disABILITY. We need to recognize those abilities in a disabled person and help him/her to maximize those abilities and help them to overcome the disability. All that is required from us is to shift our focus from their disability to their abilities. We are all very well aware that each one of us has certain handicaps. But with various strategies we overcome them and lead a productive life. For example, many of us have vision problem. But we do not allow that to hamper our daily activities. We use spectacles and go about with our work. But if we forget to carry our spectacles with us, we realize what a handicap it becomes to read or write. Many of us are handicapped by our inability to effectively communicate with others or by our inability to remember important things. But we somehow manage to overcome them and still get on with life.
But there are more severe handicaps like blindness, deaf and muteness, mental retardation, cerebral palsy, autism etc that pose a real challenge to people afflicted with these conditions. They require more serious interventions and training to cope up with the handicaps and overcome them. They do not need our sympathies, but EMPATHY! Empathy is the ability to transport ourselves into their minds and understand their feelings and pain and offer encouragement and support to overcome the difficulties.
Friends, I request all of you to cultivate that sensitivity to understand their position, look for the hidden abilities in them and encourage them to bring out their potentials and provide opportunities to lead a productive and meaningful life. They are not disabled, but are DIFFERENTLY-ABLED. Each one of us has a social obligation to lend a hand to improve their quality of life. I hope you are all with me in this cause.
Saturday, December 01, 2007
WORLD AIDS DAY
December 1st is celebrated as World AIDS Day to spread awareness to people about the disease AIDS and how people can help prevent it, how we can reduce the stigma attached to it through disseminating information.
I thought I would take this opportunity to explain to my readers what exactly AIDS is and what HIV is and what people should know about this malady.
HIV is a virus – Human Immuno Deficiency Virus – that reduces the strength of the immune system, the defense mechanism of our body to fight diseases. An analogy would be how a nation is exposed to enemy attack if its defenders, the army, become weak.
AIDS is Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. The HIV starts attacking the body’s immune system cells. You have all heard of white blood cells in our body that are the fighter cells against diseases. One type of such fighter cells are CD 4 T-cells. Normal CD4 counts in adults range from 500 to 1,500 cells per cubic millimeter of blood. As HIV virus start killing these CD 4 Cells, their number starts reducing in the body making our body vulnerable to catching infections very easily. Once this count decreases to a level of about 200 cells or less, the person is said to be suffering from AIDS.
It may take years before a HIV infected person becomes an AIDS patient. It sometimes takes 10 to 15 years for the disease to manifest fully. Till such time, the person may not even be aware of the infection. The virus resides and spreads through body fluids like blood, seminal fluid in men and vaginal secretions in women.
The HIV virus spreads through sexual contact between two persons, one of them being infected. outwardly the infected person may look as normal as anybody else. we would not know their background or sexual habits. Hence it is extremely dangerous to have sex with an unknown person or to have one night stands or to have multiple sexual partners. Since social stigma is heavy upon this issue, many a times, the infected persons would hide the fact from their partners and stealthily spread the disease. HIV can spread through infected blood transfusion or sharing of injectable needles among drug abusers or it can transfer to a new born child from an infected pregnant mother, either before delivery or during delivery or through breast feeding.
Other than the above modes, HIV does not spread through body contact like shaking the person’s hand or by hugging or by sharing bed clothing’s or even utensils in the kitchen. It also does not spread through mosquito bites or any other insect bites.
There are medicines that can control the progress of the infection, i.e., further spreading of HIV to other Cells. There are many people who are infected with HIV, but are on medication and who are leading a normal life. But they need to take extreme care of health and hygiene not to subject themselves to any kind of infections. We have even heard of cases of two HIV infected persons marrying each other and continuing the medication very strictly, thus improving the quality of their life. A person on medication needs to regularly undergo blood testing wherein a CD 4 cell count is done to monitor its number and also a load testing of the Virus in blood. The medicines are to be taken life long. The available treatment now is the Anti Retroviral Therapy or ART. The medicines are very costly and they are being distributed to the persons infected at a subsidized rate by our government.
Once the immune system becomes weak, there are many opportunistic diseases like, TB, Meningitis that affects the brain, Pneumonia that affects the lungs and oral candidiasis that attack the person’s body and that can lead to various complications in other organs too and thus an AIDS patient meets his death. As of now, there are no medicines that can cure AIDS.
You can browse the Net for further detailed information on HIV and AIDS. Please spread this awareness and help prevent AIDS.
.
I thought I would take this opportunity to explain to my readers what exactly AIDS is and what HIV is and what people should know about this malady.
HIV is a virus – Human Immuno Deficiency Virus – that reduces the strength of the immune system, the defense mechanism of our body to fight diseases. An analogy would be how a nation is exposed to enemy attack if its defenders, the army, become weak.
AIDS is Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. The HIV starts attacking the body’s immune system cells. You have all heard of white blood cells in our body that are the fighter cells against diseases. One type of such fighter cells are CD 4 T-cells. Normal CD4 counts in adults range from 500 to 1,500 cells per cubic millimeter of blood. As HIV virus start killing these CD 4 Cells, their number starts reducing in the body making our body vulnerable to catching infections very easily. Once this count decreases to a level of about 200 cells or less, the person is said to be suffering from AIDS.
It may take years before a HIV infected person becomes an AIDS patient. It sometimes takes 10 to 15 years for the disease to manifest fully. Till such time, the person may not even be aware of the infection. The virus resides and spreads through body fluids like blood, seminal fluid in men and vaginal secretions in women.
The HIV virus spreads through sexual contact between two persons, one of them being infected. outwardly the infected person may look as normal as anybody else. we would not know their background or sexual habits. Hence it is extremely dangerous to have sex with an unknown person or to have one night stands or to have multiple sexual partners. Since social stigma is heavy upon this issue, many a times, the infected persons would hide the fact from their partners and stealthily spread the disease. HIV can spread through infected blood transfusion or sharing of injectable needles among drug abusers or it can transfer to a new born child from an infected pregnant mother, either before delivery or during delivery or through breast feeding.
Other than the above modes, HIV does not spread through body contact like shaking the person’s hand or by hugging or by sharing bed clothing’s or even utensils in the kitchen. It also does not spread through mosquito bites or any other insect bites.
There are medicines that can control the progress of the infection, i.e., further spreading of HIV to other Cells. There are many people who are infected with HIV, but are on medication and who are leading a normal life. But they need to take extreme care of health and hygiene not to subject themselves to any kind of infections. We have even heard of cases of two HIV infected persons marrying each other and continuing the medication very strictly, thus improving the quality of their life. A person on medication needs to regularly undergo blood testing wherein a CD 4 cell count is done to monitor its number and also a load testing of the Virus in blood. The medicines are to be taken life long. The available treatment now is the Anti Retroviral Therapy or ART. The medicines are very costly and they are being distributed to the persons infected at a subsidized rate by our government.
Once the immune system becomes weak, there are many opportunistic diseases like, TB, Meningitis that affects the brain, Pneumonia that affects the lungs and oral candidiasis that attack the person’s body and that can lead to various complications in other organs too and thus an AIDS patient meets his death. As of now, there are no medicines that can cure AIDS.
You can browse the Net for further detailed information on HIV and AIDS. Please spread this awareness and help prevent AIDS.
.
Creative visualization
We all know that each one of us is a big bundle of energy. Our thoughts are a form of that powerful energy. And our thoughts are a mix of negative and positive thoughts. Negative thoughts are the thoughts that negate the good. Ex: “I am incapable of passing the exam”, “I am not good looking”, “My parents do not love me” etc. Positive thoughts are affirmations of good feelings, like; “People love me”, “I can be a leader”, “My friends respect me” etc. Negative thoughts drain all our energy and make us feel weak, whereas, positive thoughts energize us and prod us to move forward in life and achieve things.
For many of us, either of the two modes of thinking is deeply embedded in our personality. And it is found that people with positive thinking attract positive people and negatives attract negatives (much against the laws of physics!). This pattern is very much visible in our relationships. Of course, like about all other rules, this also has exceptions when positive people can form relationship with negative thinking ones and such relationships suffer a lot. So in order to make all our friendships and family relationships pleasant and happy, it is imperative that we cultivate the habit of thinking positively. It requires conscious effort on our part to change all our thoughts into positive mode. Believe me, it is possible.
Creative visualization can be practiced in order to see more and more successes in our life. All you need to do is to select a calm and peaceful place either inside your home or anywhere outside where there is no noise or any kind of disturbance (these days many meditation halls are available). Sit there, relax yourself completely, head to toe. You can keep giving auto suggestions to each part of your body to relax. Take deep breaths – deep inhaling and longer exhaling, all the while concentrating on your breathing. You can even play soothing background music if it can relax you better. As you are breathing, imagine you are deeply inhaling the positive energy present in the universe and exhaling all the negative energy out of your system. And slowly start creating the image of the successful event that you want to experience on your mind’s screen. Have total conviction that it is possible for you to achieve this. Imagine it in all vivid details - the event, the people in it, your excitement in that situation, how enthusiastically you are conversing with all the people around, how they are all reciprocating your joy and happiness etc. Bask in that glory for some time. And slowly wind up your creative visualization to its conclusion, take deeper and slower breaths and slowly open your eyes and bathe in that positive aura surrounding you for a little while more. And then get up and go about with your routine activities. Practice this at least once a day for about 15 minutes (more number of times would be more beneficial in attuning your mind to positive mode of thinking). You will very soon achieve success in your endeavour.
For many of us, either of the two modes of thinking is deeply embedded in our personality. And it is found that people with positive thinking attract positive people and negatives attract negatives (much against the laws of physics!). This pattern is very much visible in our relationships. Of course, like about all other rules, this also has exceptions when positive people can form relationship with negative thinking ones and such relationships suffer a lot. So in order to make all our friendships and family relationships pleasant and happy, it is imperative that we cultivate the habit of thinking positively. It requires conscious effort on our part to change all our thoughts into positive mode. Believe me, it is possible.
Creative visualization can be practiced in order to see more and more successes in our life. All you need to do is to select a calm and peaceful place either inside your home or anywhere outside where there is no noise or any kind of disturbance (these days many meditation halls are available). Sit there, relax yourself completely, head to toe. You can keep giving auto suggestions to each part of your body to relax. Take deep breaths – deep inhaling and longer exhaling, all the while concentrating on your breathing. You can even play soothing background music if it can relax you better. As you are breathing, imagine you are deeply inhaling the positive energy present in the universe and exhaling all the negative energy out of your system. And slowly start creating the image of the successful event that you want to experience on your mind’s screen. Have total conviction that it is possible for you to achieve this. Imagine it in all vivid details - the event, the people in it, your excitement in that situation, how enthusiastically you are conversing with all the people around, how they are all reciprocating your joy and happiness etc. Bask in that glory for some time. And slowly wind up your creative visualization to its conclusion, take deeper and slower breaths and slowly open your eyes and bathe in that positive aura surrounding you for a little while more. And then get up and go about with your routine activities. Practice this at least once a day for about 15 minutes (more number of times would be more beneficial in attuning your mind to positive mode of thinking). You will very soon achieve success in your endeavour.
This exercise can also be utilized even to forget the past bitter events in our life and to practice forgiveness.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Online driver education
Dr Adhiraj Joglekar, UK, has sent this info to all drivers using Indian roads.
Please spread the word
Almost 10% of the global road traffic accidents occur in India. Much of the world wide web is full of sarcasm & mocking of the indisciplined driving on Indian roads. Unfortunately in since 60 years since independence the authorities have failed to publish a National Highway code. Licences are given to anyone who can demonstrate an ability to use the clutch-accelerator, consequently the motoer driving schools teach just that and no more. Concepts such as - blindspots, principle of MSM, the tyre & tarmac rule, 2 second gap and most improtantly giving way are not known to the average Indian driver. This site http://driving-india.blogspot.com/ has been created with the purpose of providing driver education and training to all Indian road users. It is by far the most comprehensive website providing training in defensive driving. Learning simple road habits can make our roads safe and also free up congestion caused by traffic chaos. At present 17 driver education videos aimed at changing the driving culture on Indian roads are available. The video are unique in that the footage is real life action from streets of London. We have copied the Western habits: Replaced the dhoti with denim, high rise buildings for Indian cottages, burgers and coke instead of Indian breads and perhaps sugarcane juice. Surely we can copy the Western ways of travelling too. To watch the videos, interested readers may visit: http://driving-india.blogspot.com/
The videos cover the following topics:
Video 1: Covers the concept of Blind spots
Video 2: Introduces the principle of Mirrors, Signal and Manoeuvre
Video 3: At red lights, stop behind the stop line
Video 4: At red lights there are no free left turns
Video 5: The Zebra belongs to pedestrians
Video 6: Tyres and Tarmac (rather than bumper to bumper)
Video 7: Merging with the Main road
Video 8: Leaving The Main Road
Video 9: Never Cut Corners
Video 10: Show Courtesy on roads
Video 11: 5 Rules that help deal with Roundabouts
Video 12: Speed limits, stopping distances, tailgating & 2 seconds rule
Video 13: Lane discipline and overtaking
Video 14: Low beam or high beam?
Video 15: Parallel (reverse parking) made easy
Video 16: Give the cyclist the respect of a car
Video 17: Dealing with in-car condensation
Many thanks,
Dr Adhiraj Joglekar, UK
Please spread the word
Almost 10% of the global road traffic accidents occur in India. Much of the world wide web is full of sarcasm & mocking of the indisciplined driving on Indian roads. Unfortunately in since 60 years since independence the authorities have failed to publish a National Highway code. Licences are given to anyone who can demonstrate an ability to use the clutch-accelerator, consequently the motoer driving schools teach just that and no more. Concepts such as - blindspots, principle of MSM, the tyre & tarmac rule, 2 second gap and most improtantly giving way are not known to the average Indian driver. This site http://driving-india.blogspot.com/ has been created with the purpose of providing driver education and training to all Indian road users. It is by far the most comprehensive website providing training in defensive driving. Learning simple road habits can make our roads safe and also free up congestion caused by traffic chaos. At present 17 driver education videos aimed at changing the driving culture on Indian roads are available. The video are unique in that the footage is real life action from streets of London. We have copied the Western habits: Replaced the dhoti with denim, high rise buildings for Indian cottages, burgers and coke instead of Indian breads and perhaps sugarcane juice. Surely we can copy the Western ways of travelling too. To watch the videos, interested readers may visit: http://driving-india.blogspot.com/
The videos cover the following topics:
Video 1: Covers the concept of Blind spots
Video 2: Introduces the principle of Mirrors, Signal and Manoeuvre
Video 3: At red lights, stop behind the stop line
Video 4: At red lights there are no free left turns
Video 5: The Zebra belongs to pedestrians
Video 6: Tyres and Tarmac (rather than bumper to bumper)
Video 7: Merging with the Main road
Video 8: Leaving The Main Road
Video 9: Never Cut Corners
Video 10: Show Courtesy on roads
Video 11: 5 Rules that help deal with Roundabouts
Video 12: Speed limits, stopping distances, tailgating & 2 seconds rule
Video 13: Lane discipline and overtaking
Video 14: Low beam or high beam?
Video 15: Parallel (reverse parking) made easy
Video 16: Give the cyclist the respect of a car
Video 17: Dealing with in-car condensation
Many thanks,
Dr Adhiraj Joglekar, UK
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