How to Avoid Over-eating

Some people in the world are suffering from malnutrition, but more people are getting sick through over eating. Over-eating has two aspects - more of intake, and lack of physical activities. Both lead to the same outcome - more of fat deposition in the body.

Most of the persons are tied to their work through prescribed schedules, so can do little about making changes in these. So, the only alternative left is to change eating habits - quantity-wise as well as quality-wise.

I have experienced two reasons for over-eating - ready availability and lack of mental engagements. Both of these occur when I am at home and enjoying free moments from work.  For this reason, house-wives are more prone to over-eating than other types of people. Many times, food is readily available but I miss it for having no free moments from reading, writing, gossiping, thinking, sleeping etc. Although,this is not a good practice but still is much better than overeating. Right solution for these maladies is to have fixed schedules of eating whenever possible. these schedules must have in-between intervals of 4 hours, as far as possible.

At most of the homes, food is available at most of the times for various reasons, particularly when you depend on readily eatables from the market. To cut down on over-eating, don't buy any readily eatables from the market, except fruits. Fruits do little harm to body even when taken in more than desirable quantity. Other readily eatables available in the market are mostly baked products and confectioneries.

Bakery products mostly made from refined cereals, fat and sugar get digested faster than what body can utilize, so add to additional fat in the body or sugar in the blood. High level of sugar in the blood may lower blood pressure also through dilution of the blood. Eating these needs vigorous physical activities just before or after eating.

Confectioneries are always rich in sugars and some of them have good amount of fat also. Ideally speaking, most of foods have enough of built-in sugar in them or get converted to sugar by the digestive system, so no one - except those tired of physical activities, needs to eat any sugar products. Tea, coffee etc. also add sugar content to body in normal courses.  

With all this, it is apparent that depending on home-made foods made from coarse and whole grains are the best options well-being of the whole family. Porridge, whole-grain-cooked  pulses, raw vegetables used as salads, steamed seasonal mixed vegetables, and fruits are the best sources of nutrients our bodies need. These get digested slowly, get assimilated wholly by the body easily, and most importantly don't allow one to look for something for eating every now and then.  

Since the genesis of the problem is mostly at home, solution must also be searched at the same place. Kitchen gardening is the best option one can follow at any time. This also keeps you interestingly engaged mentally as well as physically to keep you distracted from getting attracted by the food available at home.       

Why do We want to be Socially Related

Family relationships are forced on us but social relationships are not forced but still we want to have them. This started when some wandering humans decided to stay at a fixed place for all times and facing the climatic changes. This enhanced their needs which could not be fulfilled by individual's isolated efforts. So, the decided to distribute work among themselves and the exchange the goods so produced to fulfill their needs. This is the primary reason why humans want to have social relationships.

The above related story dates back t about 2600 years and though its practices are still continued through our subconscious minds without any special efforts by us. Apart from this, we have invented more reasons and ways to be socially connected. One such reason is that we want to show our best and hear about it from others. This may be called as exhibitionism which is in-built in all of us naturally. It may be our physical characteristics or mere mental exercises. Earlier, this was limited to direct contacts, then extended to writer-reader relationships, and now exploded to online socializing.

Related to both the above factors, the third reason for social contacts is economical wherein every one wants to be economically satisfied through business with others. Career progression is also a business wherein one sells his/her time to another person in need of it. Even the economy is improved to look richer, healthier and happier in the eyes of the rest.

Instinct of procreation is yet another important reason for having social contacts out of the family as it was socially banned to have sexual relationships within one's family. For this, every person wants to look sexually attractive to others to enhance his/her chances of finding a compatible mate. In such a relationship, age plays the most important role, others factors being social status and intellectual compatibility.

Business of fashion is flourishing on this desire to look sexually attractive to others. And this business is also promoted through socializing. Thus, every cause of social relationships is connected to all other causes of it.  

Composition of Rainbow of Happiness

A person feels happy when he get contentment from the circumstances and events related to him.Like other aspects of life, happiness also has two faces - individual and social.

1. Individual Pleasures
Individuality of a person need growth and development for which he/she needs to remain pleased with his/her circumstances. Some important factors are -

• Health : The first and the foremost condition of happiness is individual's good health. With this only, he/she becomes capable of enjoying pleasures of life.
• Family : Sexual satisfaction is as important for happiness as food and water.are for survival. Institution of marriage is the key for this factor of happiness. So, a compatible spouse is a must for leading a wholesome wife through giving rise to healthy children. With advancing age, charm of love is gradually replaced by respect, affection and care available through children
• Economy : Every one needs a regular flow of money, in the form of hard-earned income, to be happy. Even accumulated wealth is no substitute for regular earnings 
• Comforts and conveniences : Happiness is not wealth but balanced use of it in getting comforts and conveniences of life. So, every person needs facilities of transport,  electricity, communication, etc. to be contented. This requires overall development of the place of residence of the person. This is where governance enters into the lives of persons to make them happy.  

2. Social Pleasures
Humans are social animals and social life of a person is as important as individual life. Social life is composed of mainly three factors available through society and for society-

• Reputation : Respect in society is the most important aspect of social happiness which is acquired through respecting others in the society. This barter deal has no beginning or end but operates from one generation to the other in the family. With adequate care, it grows and may get marred through bad deeds of te individual.
• Education: Education of an individual provides him/her a relative place in the society. It is available from one's society and causes growth of personality of the individual.  .
• Justice : Logically, if every one is right, there exists no need for an institution of justice for any body. But, individuals have lusts also making them undisciplined and inflictive of troubles to others through exploitation in various ways. This distortion of personality of some in the society requires a well-oiled and functioning judiciary in the society. So, this becomes an essential function of governance of the society.  

In time frame, the happiness has three elements - performance of the past, present achievements and prospects of the future.Past performances of ancestors of a person provide a good support for social happiness if his/her present is not tarnished. This is what is known as effect of previous births of the person, widely confused with life before birth and transgression of soul. This distortion is created by evil minds in human society for misguidance with a purpose of exploiting others.

Present deeds of a person overshadow his/her past if these are not compatible with the latter. So, the present may add or subtract happiness from individual's life. The present deeds make or mar prospects of happiness of next generations of the person and the society in general.        

Familial and Societal Relationships

There is a wide gap between perceptions of a person's family and his/her society, and accordingly the person is required to adjust his/her behavior every now and then while moving back and forth between family and society. This gap is ushered in because the individual's family life need to be free while his/her social life need be disciplined. Ideally, even free family lifestyle must be in coherence with social disciplinary norms, so that the person need not to readjust him/herself while shuttling between family and society.

The family of a person has two components - wife/husband and all others including parents and children. Why do I put husband/wife separately from all others? Because, wife/husband relationship is an evolved relationship and keep on changing with circumstances, while those with others, like parents and children, are naturally forced on the persons. Therefore, wife and husband can depart and say that they no more have a relationship. But nobody can ever say that he/she is no more a child of the parents, or that he/she is no more a parent of the children. So, wife/husband relationship is societal while those with other family members are genetic or natural. For this very reason, many animal species have no fixed husband/wife relationships but all have parent/child relationships at least for some time until maturity of the off-springs.

The humans decided to live at fixed places and forming societies, or to become social, with a principal aim of distribution of work among themselves due to growing range of products and services needed by them, wherein every one was unable to produce everything to satisfy his/her needs.

Within the parent/child relationships, there exist genetic symbiosis making the relationship easily maintainable but in a societal relationship, there exists no such natural linkage making it difficult to maintain. Therefore, more compromises become necessary in the society than those in the family. A husband/wife relationship being a societal relationship, its maintenance need a lot of compromises on both sides.

All societal relationships warrant every individual to follow social disciplinary norms. Here, I stress on norms, and not on social customs and traditions. Norms are naturally evolved in a society so that nobody in the society appears to be abnormal. Conversely, social customs and traditions might have been artificially imposed on the society through distortions in norms which need to be checked and reset every now and then. Particularly, in countries which have been slave for thousands of years, selfish rulers and social leaders enforce customs and traditions on the society to serve their own narrow ends at the peril of individual values of the persons. Ideally there must be no gap between social norms and customs and traditions. 

Since, basis of societal relationships is distribution of work which forbids exploitations in the society and makes every relationship of give-and-take type. So, no body has a right to get anything without giving due in exchange. This is applicable to husband/wife relationships also but not on parents/children relationships.        

An Ancient Way of Skin Care

In the whole of humanity, everyone is engaged in impressing others with one's features through psychological attraction. For attraction, face of a person is the first representation of him to the outside world and the next representation is his/her skin which is a part of face also. Face can not be changed but of course, it could be made a smiling and welcoming face to attract others.

Skin gets unattractive with advancement of age affecting overall health and well-being of the person. Its maintenance at optimum level had been felt desirable since ancient times. An ancient Indian sage Patanjali began his famous 'Yog Sutra' with a prescription for skincare. Its first sutra is

योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोध: तदादृष्टू स्वरूपे अवस्थानम

which means - 'To resist aging effect on skin, apply a coat of moisted Sorghum flour on the skin, let it dry there for about half an hour and then wash'..  

In India, such a practice is called 'ubatan' and is done by applying gram flour mixed with oil on the skin because the Sorghum's use as a skin rejuvenator was not known so far. This is the first time that this new knowledge has been discovered by the author of this blog and published.

But there is a rider to be taken care of. Sorghum was used in ancient times as a human food but that practice is now very rare. It is now grown as a green cattle-feed only.  For this application, new varieties have been developed which are different from the ancient ones in many characteristics. The new varieties have not yet been tested for skincare purposes. So, it is advised that only original variety be used for the application on skin.

Sorghum grain is used for producing saccharine, an intense and concentrated sweetner for foods which it has naturally. Sugar is well known as an instant nutrition for human body. Moreover, Sorghum is very rich in Magnesium apart from vitamins and other minerals Magnesium is known to provides shine to fruits whose plants are fed with it. Thus, the magnesium of Sorghum shall surely provide lustre to the user's skin as advised above. .

Relationships through Social Media

Social media is bringing a great change to inter-personal relationships. This poses a challenges to those involved, as well as enriches them in multiple ways. In a personalized relationship, physical features of the person play dominant roles while in social media, it is the intellect of the persons which steer the relationship.

In social media, most of the contacts are one-time affair. They come into contact for a limited purpose of requesting visits to their blogs and fly off after that. Although, they are also marked as friends, they are just casual contacts. But even in such contacts who have eal intentions of staying in contact if they find the two are at the same wavelength of thinking. 

Most of the social media participants are bloggers who write their views, opinions, experiences, etc. on their respective blogs. The contents and the language both reflect on the intellect of the writers. This provides an opportunity to the readers to select a contact on the basis of the intellectual output of the writers. It is not necessary that only the established authors write good, many amateurs outperform many established writers and they must be appreciated.

A blogger can judge another blogger on the wavelength of him/herself to be and remain in contact. Reading the blog and commenting on the posts is a good and purely intellectual way of keeping in contact. This does not put any compulsions on any of the writer and the reader to respond as desired. Both remain free to be selective in their responses. Moreover, there are no personal remarks, so the interactions are purely intellectual which are enjoyed by both.

Sometimes a problem comes up when a reader of a blog expects reciprocation from the writer to read te blog and respond in the similar way.This condition of reciprocity is undesirable, nobody involving him/herself intellectually must ask for a reciprocation. Thus freedom is the key for developing a healthy and fruitful relationship of minds across the world.  . 

But there are many pitfalls of social media, the first and foremost is the spam messages which spoil the mood of the person opening his/her mail box. Internet marketers and those looking for just an income from the social media also add clumsiness to the online experiences. There is one more breed of irritants - loving messages from West African countries, supposed to be coming from 23/24 year negro girls. These are mostly spams and aimed at cheating those involving with such messages. But you get some nice photographs of young innocent and beautiful black girls through such involvements. Such photographs are used by the scammers to attract the victims to respond favorably.   

A Lesson from Haiti Disaster

On January 12 this year, Haiti, a Caribbean country was devastated by earthquake measuring 7.0 on Richter scale killing about 50,000 persons and rendering over 3 million as homeless. Capital city of Port-Au-Prince is ruined and the whole apparatus of the State is totally collapsed to cope up with the devastation.

This provides us an opportunity to learn some lessons afresh and to understand whether the Nature is rude to humans or we have been treading a wrong path called the development.

Nature has its temperature variation cycles on various parts of the Earth ranging from sub-zero to about 50 degree Celsius with both the extremes intolerable to humans. Seeing these variations, primitive humans used to move from one place to the other to be in tolerable temperature range. This humanity used to remain busy in seeking foods for survival as no agricultural work to grow foods was possible and no development of civilization was feasible.

Later generations of some human communities thought of staying at fixed places for all seasons of the year and growing foods for comfortable survival. To safeguard against temperature variations, houses were built and clothing to cover bodies were developed. With these, human life became comfortable enough to survive in seasonal furies of the Nature, considered to be the normal behaviors of the Nature. With these, developments in the fields of agriculture, housing and villages became possible and the humanity was a lot satisfied.

In these developments, it is noteworthy that the nature remains the same as before, and human developments wit regards to clothing and housing are in line with the natural conditions.

In its satisfaction, the humanity often forgets about abnormal furies of the Nature and goes for massive developments in urbanization wherein millions of people are settled in clusters of sky-touching concrete buildings. The capital of Haiti was an example of such a development.

As humans, we feel that the Nature is sometimes very rude to us and wipes out a lot of lives and properties in its furious mood. But for the Nature, all its furies are normal and governed by its cause-effect principle. Again, we the humans must order our development processes in line with the natural conditions. The Haiti experience dictates that the natural furies do not allow us to build huge concrete jungles and live in them.

In Haiti, had there been a large number of villages to accommodate the humanity instead of the capital city of Port-au-Prince, the devastation by such an earthquake would have been unnoticeable.

Here, we need to understand the fallacy of mass-scale urbanization which saves only on land area occupied by the people for their inhabitation purposes. Currently, whole of humanity is living on only 3 percent of inhabitable land area on the Earth. If we go for vast-scale rural developments, instead of mass-scale urbanization, the land area usage may go up to about 5 percent from the present 3 percent. The Haiti disaster forces us to ponder over the question - do we need to save on land usage at our peril?