Hunting in 2015 – a blot on humanity by Urvashi Gandhi

It is really sick and disheartening to hear about the recent wanton killing of the lion Cecil. One of the most beautiful lions of Zimbabwe has been killed by a doctor (somebody as literate as that). I happen to, and I think we all should, take this incident as a little serious happening in the year 2015. Our country had banned the animal hunting way back in 1972 but our society still has some 

psychologically sick people who would wantonly hunt down animals for pleasure or perhaps, pride.

Hunting has been an age old tradition of our heritage, belonging to the times of kings and monarchs. The dead animals were displayed and wooed the king’s sense of his own valor, chivalry and his sense of ‘manliness’. But even then, our country had emperors like Asoka who condemned and did away with such a thoughtless pastime. Centuries later, here we are with another case of such a pursuit of satisfaction of one’s pride! It is even hard to imagine how can a civilized-someone impress his own sense of self by killing animals, who cannot speak, do not have any archers or bows or cemented houses to protect themselves.

Walter Palmer, the dentist who has done this honorable killing, hired a professional hunter Theo Bronkhorst to do this noble act (I don’t have words for these men and their actions and all that can justify my anger most closely is irony, just the way hunting in 2015 is oxymoronic).

I am nothing but sick hearing of this incident and I don’t really feel anger but disgust and hurt at such a show of sadism by someone belonging to the profession which people refer to as godliness in this sinful world, a doctor. 

Go the natural way – Cure through Sunlight

Our cosmetic show rooms are flooded with a range of sun screens. With varied levels of SPF the markets offer, we never come to even think that these potions could actually be poisons for our skin. I eagerly want to tell all of you that we need to get rid of the habit of drenching ourselves in these sun block potions. This may be surprising for you that screen screens protect us from Ultra Violet radiations when it is only one of the nine frequencies which the sun light emits. The others are infrared and the seven spectrums of visible light and each of these comes with its own healing powers!

Another not-so-helpful thing with these sun screens is that it prevents the UV rays from creating Vitamin D in our bodies. Vitamin D is an essential which helps in improving bone health, is anti-cancerous, supports immune system, helps in loosing fat, prevents dementia and bone aging and so on. So with these multitudes of sun blocks which our market is flooded with has manifested itself in the Vitamin D deprived generation that we are creating.

Sun light is good and natural and so, a limited exposure to it is good in multiple ways that include:

• It helps combating with breast cancer by making the disease go into remission even in terminal cases.
•  It kills bad bacteria and disinfects wounds.
•  It helps in recovery from skin disorders like acne, eczema, psoriasis, etc.
•  It converts high cholesterol into steroid and sex hormones and a lack of it will lead to vice versa, conversion of hormones into cholesterol.
•  It boosts immunity by helping increase the production of White Blood Cells called lymphocytes.
•  It boosts stamina and fitness by increasing oxygen content in the blood.
•  It can cure mild depression.
•  It boosts growth and height, especially among babies. The more exposure to sunlight which infants get, the better their heights are.

Cleanse and cure your body through water therapy

There is nothing more refreshing than a glass of cold water after a day of hard work, which melted down in work and sweat. A thing as simple as water is also as miraculous and take me literally when I say that! This ordinary blue water can have amazing therapeutic effects, correcting a range of illnesses, from pain to constipation to cancer.

The treatment through water is called water therapy and is traditionally known as Usha Paana Chikitsa. Drinking water right when you get up in the morning on an empty stomach cleanses the body system and purifies the internal system. It cleanses the colon which helps the body produce haematopaises (new blood). 

This helps the body restore and cure ailments, while helping the body absorb more nutrients from the food.A surprising result of a Japanese medical society has found out that water therapy can help in a 100% cure of the diseases like bronchitis, arthritis, epilepsy, tuberculosis, diarrhea, meningitis and many other. From taking a day to a month, the therapy can cure ailments from constipation to cancer.

Here is the list of basic steps you need to follow for the water therapy:

1.      Drink 1.5 liters (5-6 glasses) of water every morning on an empty stomach.
2.      Do not take anything an hour prior and post the therapy.
3.      Try avoiding any alcoholic beverages the night prior to the morning of therapy.
4.      If drinking 1.5 liters of water suddenly is hard, increase the amount gradually or take it at                     intervals of a few minutes.

To sum down the benefits of water therapy, I would like to make the following points:

•  Helps in production of colon which helps in the absorption of nutrients
•  Boosts new blood production
•  Helps in fighting various diseases from stomach problems to tuberculosis to cancer
•  Helps in weight loss by boosting body metabolism
•  Helps in purging toxins from the body leading to glowing skin
•  Helps balancing body fluids and lymph system

Root out stress from your child’s life with Urvashi Gandhi

We live in an era where everybody is occupied in many things and where we ultimately end up finding ourselves is in the quagmire of stress. But as adults and as parents, we don’t often realize that our stress seeps down to the younger generations. The primary way of learning is through imitation and as children observe their parents’ lifestyle, what they learn is nothing better than being stressfully caught up by the tick-tock of the clock. And another thing with children is that often their tender hearts and minds may take minute things more seriously than what actually as adults might appear to us. So what becomes the need for every parent to fulfill is to make sure a right growth for their kids. 

Here are a few steps which parents should take heed of while raising the tender and impressionable minds for tomorrow:

• Motivate the kid to face his fears: Facing one’s problem is the solution to it. Running away from the problems only further contributes to anxiety as it offers no permanent solution to it. Make your child follow this simple truth from the very start and provide him the comfort level to share his mistakes.

• Arrange relaxing activities: Spend time with your child and arrange for some simple activities like painting, playing games or just being there for him. It would be better to keep it noncompetitive as it avoids the stress which the whole world is brimming up with. Children are already under the pressure and stress to beat others and win the race against their friends and competitors. So keep it simple and relaxed!

• Inculcate healthy sleeping habits: A good sleep is a map to healthy lifestyle. It not only refreshes one’s mind, but also significantly helps with fighting anxiety. You just have to inculcate the thought of going early to bed and early to rise, which will definitely make the kid very healthy and wise.

•  Promote optimism: Being positive solves half of the problems. The positive energy of staying calm and optimistic also boosts the stamina and fight with many other internal diseases. So it’s better to teach the children to be always positive and cherish the present moment.

So keep these points in mind while you raise those receptive minds and keep stress away from their lives, at least a 100 miles. After all, what we cherish the most is our kid’s smile and their laughter keeps us going too.

Color therapy: Balancing the wheels of our life

Color therapy can be very well described as an alternative therapy that aims at balancing the chakras in our body. The evidences of this therapy can be traced thousands of years back to Middle East, China and India. The underlying idea is that every color has a specific wavelength and energy attached to it. The most prominent colors are that of a rainbow i.e. VIBGYOR( Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red). These seven colors belong to seven chakras or energy centers of our body

•     Violet  à Crown Chakra
•     Indigo à Brow Chakra
•     Blue    à Throat Chakra
•     Green  à Heart Chakra
•     Yellow  à Solar Plexus Chakra
•     Orange à Sacral Chakra
•      Red     à Base Chakra

Understand the chakras as the hands of a clock. For a clock to run properly, every hand needs to run smoothly and in coordination with the other hands. So if the chakras are performing well, then that ensures good health (mental as well as physical). Failing this, a person becomes prone to diseases. Color therapy ensures that all the chakras or the energy centers work properly by balancing or re-adjusting the energies. This is done by applying appropriate color to the body in order to stimulate the chakra.

Colors are absorbed by our eyes, skin, skull and the aura. The energy corresponding to a color affects on all the levels- physical, mental, spiritual and emotional. Every cell in our body requires light. So color therapy has a holistic effect on the body. Various ways can be used to employ the color therapy, for example, Hands on healing using color, Solarized Water, Light boxes/lamps with color filters, color silks. Color is around us everywhere. The nature boasts of colors, the red of the setting sun, the green of the trees, the brown of the soil and much more. But we tend to ignore the colors around us and devoid our life of various energies. Color therapy compensates for those missing energy patterns.

The most simplistic route to health: Exercise

“An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.”
― Henry David Thoreau

Exercise is defined as an activity requiring physical effort, carried out to sustain or improve health and fitness. Physical exercise is a rigorous, repetitive and effective way through which we can maintain our  overall health and wellness. Exercise should form an integral part of our daily routine as it has numerous benefits.  Not only does exercise tone your body, it strengthens your muscles, keeps your bones strong, relaxes you, induces better sleep , helps in attaining a stronger immune function and tames mood swings.

Recent studies have revealed that taking out time for exercise reduces physical and mental stress and boosts the body’s ability to cope with mental pressure and tension. Exercise helps in alleviating the level of physical fitness and improves one’s self-confidence. Due to the significant rise in smoking and drinking habits in teenagers, cardiovascular exercise is recommended to help them deal with addiction.

Working out also helps in sharpening of memory and brain power. It helps combat health conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart problems, depression, obesity and releases endorphins, which creates feelings of happiness and euphoria. Exercise boosts up blood circulation, flushes out the toxins and blesses us with a healthy skin and a clear complexion.

Fitting regular exercise into your daily schedule may seem difficult and a lot of extra work at first. But even ten minutes can bring out effective and positive results.

Friedrich Nietzsche said “All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking”. Who knows what great ideas you come up with during that run.. So get up and take a step towards leading a healthy lifestyle!!!

Not so milk-and-water way to lose those extra inches: A low-glycemic diet

Here’s a good news for all those out there trying to lose those inches so as to squeeze into their skinny dresses. Having resisted those pastas and muffins, here’s the next big thing which will help you lose weight and thankfully, it’s not a low-fat or low-flavour diet. It is a low-glycemic diet. A low-glycemic diet monitors the blood sugar levels which helps you shed weight. A low-glycemic diet selects those foods based on minimal alteration of circulating glucose levels. It is really important to balance your blood-sugar levels. 

For this, managing your diet is the key.

There are many advantages of a low-glycemic diet. Some of them are:

Better balance in blood sugar levels: Eating low-glycemic foods help in keeping the blood sugar levels under control. This reduces the need for insulin and thus, less hunger pangs.

Reduces the risk of diseases: A diet with low glycemic level reduces the risk of diabetes, coronary heart disease, gallbladder disease, and breast cancer. If the diet is rich in fiber, it’s even more preventive.

Increased level of energy: Low-glycemic foods take longer to digest and thus, provide a continued amount of energy for muscles. Starting your day with a low-glycemic diet is a very good idea.

Better stable moods: Depending on the kind of foods you eat, your mood rises and drops as fast as a rollercoaster. High glycemic diets often give you an immediate but short-lived high and the mood crashes immediately. Whereas, a low-glycemic diet would gradually boost insulin production, keeping blood sugar level in balance. This keeps your mood sunny and even all day long.

Here’s a list of food items which are low on glycemic levels:

üApple
ü  Baked beans
ü  Beans
ü  Whole grain breads
ü  Broccoli
ü  Carrots
ü  Salted cashews
ü  Cauliflower
ü  Celery
ü  Cherries
ü  Chickpeas
ü  Cucumber
ü  Green grapes
ü  Green and brown lentils
ü  Lettuce
ü  Mango
ü  Maple syrup
ü  Oatmeal
ü  Orange
ü  Whole wheat pasta
ü  Peach
ü  Green peas
ü  Brown rice
ü  Lentil soup
ü  Strawberry jam
ü  Sweet potato
ü  Tomato juice and soup
ü  Low-fat yogurt

So folks, go for it and lose those extra inches without having so much to resist!