Why Our Food Makes Us Fat?

Posted on May 26, 2013 by SafariComic

Reality shows are now a daily feature on TV. One of them is named ‘Secret Eaters’ and it is aired on Channel 4. The participants to the show are putting on weight, and they wonder why. Most of them claim that they eat healthy, and some even go running to burn fat. Therefore, undercover investigators are following the participants in order to discover what went wrong with their diet.

It happens that the people under scrutiny indulge in several snacks during the day and sometimes at night, alongside eating large portions at lunch and on occasions when food is plentiful. While viewing the show, I recognize myself a few years ago. What is striking is that people are unaware of eating that much.

Some participants think they eat healthy, yet they unknowingly pile up the pounds. So what’s wrong with the food we eat? The following facts shed light on our troubled relationship with food:

1 – Food Prices and Politics

In 1971, Richard Nixon wanted to be re-elected President of the United States. The big issue at that time was the rising food prices which especially affected low-income families or the majority of voters. Nixon commissioned Earl Butz, an academic who had close ties with the farming community of Indiana, to look at ways of bringing food prices down. Butz came out with the idea of producing corn on massive scale to make flour to feed cattle and to supply restaurants and households with oil for frying needs. Large scale production made food cheaper.

2 – Economic bonanza

Some U.S. farmers became millionaires, selling to supermarkets and even exporting abroad. A multi-million food-industry was born. Soon, farmers were overproducing and a solution had to be found to eliminate the surplus of corn.

Butz travelled to Japan where fructose corn syrup or glucose-fructose was developed. This new innovation was a cheap way to extend shelf-life as well as making food taste sweater. The overconsumption of fat and sweat would ultimately create another multi-million dollar industry, offering diet products. According to the show ‘Secret Eaters’, the diet industry is now worth two billion pounds in the U.K. alone.

3 – The effects of processed food on our bodies

Corn allows for the production of feed that makes cattle fatter, and fries dipped into corn oil are also fatter. So are Big Macs lunches in restaurants! Fat has been branded responsible for an increase in heart diseases and the food industry has turned to the production of “low-fat” food.

The problem is that if we take the fat off food, we also take the taste away. The solution is to inject fructose-glucose or sugar into food in order to preserve the taste. The bad news is that sugar is hedonistic and a major factor for the increase in heart diseases and diabetes. I remember buying boxes of pizzas at the supermarket and returning for more. I realised then that I was becoming addicted to their yummy flavour.

Processed food tastes nice, is plentiful and really cheap. No wonder what we tend to eat large portions and snack frequently. TV advertising even encourages snacking at the workplace and on the street.

4 – The link between obesity and industrial technology

Would we eat pizzas, French fries and cakes every week if we had to prepare them? With our busy working lives, we probably would not. The processing of food on industrial scale has drastically increased our consumption, in making food ready to eat and available around the clock. A study carried out by Harvard University has linked the possession of microwaves (80 % of the U.S. population and 66 % in the U.K.) to obesity.

In recent years, efforts have been made to display calories-count information on food packaging. The daily recommended intake is around 2,000 calories for women and 2,500 for men. But it is difficult to keep calories in check when food is cheap and plentiful, and we are constantly tempted.

5 – Welfare problem and how to avoid obesity

We can put on weight easily indeed, without noticing it until it becomes a health problem with high blood pressure for a start. Being overweight has also psychological consequences: our self-esteem gets lower. We find then comfort in yummy food, and the weight problem turns into a vicious circle, with attempts at sliming relapsing into more eating. People who undergo a gastric bypass surgery are likely to try diets such as WeightWatchers before.

Now obesity costs the NHS a lot, and health expenses might eventually outweigh the benefit of providing jobs in the food and diet industries. Then, we’ll see tight regulations in food production and the ban on certain processing. History repeats itself: we’ve seen cigarettes being advertised everywhere, and now sellers must keep them out of the consumer’s view.

For the time being, becoming aware of the problem is a first great step to prevent our bodies from being overweight. QUANTITY food must give way to QUALITY food.

Sources:
David M.Cutler, Edward L. Glaeser and Jesse M. Shapiro, Harvard University ‘Why Have Americans Become More Obese?’ – Journal of Economic Perspectives, Volume 17, Number 3, Summer 2003, p. 93-118 http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/jesse.shapiro/research/obesity.pdf
Cathy Newman ‘Why Are We So Fat?’- National Geographic magazine http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-body/fat-costs/
Jacques Peretti ‘Why our food is making us fat’, The Guardian, 11 June 2012 http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jun/11/why-our-food-is-making-us-fat

How to Save Money and Help Our Natural Environment

Posted on April 24, 2013 by SafariComic

As I strolled down the street, I saw a grey polystyrene tray of red tomatoes popping out the bin. The wrapping was intact! Was it one of those deals when we get two for the price of one? Or is there anything else that drives us to overspend?

‘Subliminal Influence at the Supermarket’

Most of the time, we visit the supermarket on autopilot. Our heads, or rather our conscious minds are filled with things to do when we get home, and kept busy analysing the events of our days. But the subconscious mind has recorded two things, convenience and bargain, and now we unconsciously seek them. Constant advertising both on TV and the street is largely responsible for that imprint in our subconscious. The subconscious runs automated skills like those we learnt repetitively in order to be able to drive a car. These automated skills free our limited conscious minds to deal with immediate matter.

Aside from automatic responses, we tend to be more influenced by our environment when our conscious mind focuses outside the present moment, whether in the past or the future. In the 1970s, Wilson Bryan Key who lectured and wrote about subliminal manipulation in advertising mentioned that he once ordered clams in a restaurant while dining with friends. He chose clams despite his dislike for those shellfish. When we focus on a conversation, then we tend to forget what’s happening around us. How many times do we let someone else decide for us? You get the idea: our absent minds let the supermarkets guide our shopping and those large retailers are pretty good at this.

Despite the economic slowdown, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons are still taking healthy profit margins. These profits are largely due to subliminal influence which operates on our minds. Subliminal means beyond the threshold of consciousness.

First, goods are displayed around the supermarket in such a way that our eyes have nowhere to rest. Second, big bulks of items that are placed at shelf ends, appear like limited special deals to grab on the spot. Third, most expensive items are frequently placed on shelves at the consumer’s eye level. The shopper in a hurry will grab them first. Buy-one-get-two offers are also there. This may explain why we end up buying more stuff than we wrote on our shopping lists.

Wastage of Money and Energy

To get back to the tomatoes, we may buy vegs and fruits and let them rot in the fridge because we either over estimated their shelf-life, we were dining out these last days, or we feared we wouldn’t have time to shop the next day. Whatever our reason for overspending in foodstuff, our crazy working life schedules are often the culprits.

There are also problems tied to the global market. Fruits are dispatched green to avoid spoilage. They may take ages to ripe and when they eventually do, they are just as good as the bin. Each year, tons of fruits and vegs are wasted in the UK alone. These fruits and vegs required water and fertilizers. Yet tomatoes are now produced around the year under greenhouses which may be using gas heating.

Furthermore, food wrapping presents a dilemma. On one side, wrapping protects food and even extends its shelf-life. On the other side, wrapping goes to the landfill after only one use and once there, it does not rot away. The lack of air and moisture in modern landfills seem to prevent bacteria from degrading the materials. Only 5 % of plastic material is currently recycled in the UK.

So what’s the solution to save us money and reduce our environmental impact? The ideal would be a more local and seasonal market, but could we revert to eating tomatoes only five months a year?

Local grocers are essential to our streets in order for us to shop on a daily basis at any time. Frequent and quick shopping saves us from wasting our money and reduces our environmental impact. Big supermarkets realised this and they have been opening convenience stores at a fast pace, in areas where there used to be independent grocers who sold more seasonal fruits and vegs.

We can’t stop the food industry from growing vegs outside the natural seasons, and globalisation from letting exotic food come in, but we can make sure that we don’t waste the food we buy. Local convenience stores might help reduce the wastage.

Sources:
Ted Winder ‘Subliminal Influence at the Supermarket’, Jan 4, 2013 http://anewtake.com/2013/01/subliminal-influence-supermarkets-1/
‘Food Packaging Wastes and Environmental Impacts’ http://www.greendustries.com/unido.pdf – retrieved Apr 20, 2013

Our Thoughts Make Our Reality.

Posted on March 26, 2013 by SafariComic

Thoughts are the energy which animates our lives. Everything in the material world around us started with a thought. Yet most of the time, our thoughts are unproductive and even disturbing. Mastering our thoughts is key to our well-being and success in life.

1 – Learn to control your thoughts.

Thousands of thoughts may fill your brain every day. Some are positive, other are utterly negative. These negative thoughts can severely affect your mood and ability to act in casting doubt and fear in your mind.

As a result, you may take poor decisions and miss opportunities because you doubt of your ability. Negative thoughts also destroy any good work previously achieved, sabotaging your chance of success.

Therefore, it is essential that you limit the incoming thoughts to the positive ones.

Meditation helps.

Sit upright on a chair in a quiet room where no one can disturb you.

Close your eyes, and try to think of nothing at all for a few seconds. Repeat this exercise several times, ideally for 15 minutes. It’s difficult, but if you practice this every day you will manage to extend your stillness to 15 minutes and drastically limit the number of thoughts.
After a few days practising the above, try to ban every negative thought from your mind in replacing it with a positive thought.

2 – Overcome your fear.

Negative thoughts foster fear. We always fear of not having enough money, love, of failing in our work … Then we stress and worry, with disastrous consequences for our health and relationships.

The truth is that most of our fears will never realize. They are figments of our imagination, a mere anticipation of what might happen in the future.

In order to suppress the fears that may freeze your progress in life, learn to live in the NOW.

I suggest you read this excellent book ’The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment’ by Eckhart Tolle.

I applied myself the principle of living in the present, and effectively removed unnecessary stress and worries from my life.

The careful selection of our thoughts allows clarity and peace of mind. This is the basis to develop creativity, and creativity allows us to bring in our lives the changes we desire.

Why Are We Angry?

Posted on February 6, 2013 by SafariComic

Anger is the emotion that spurs us to act. Some people say that anger is a normal emotion, that there is nothing wrong. Others argue that anger is bad. This emotion or e-motion, energy in motion is a natural physical response to any event that challenges our understanding and capability. Anger may be the ‘fight’ or ‘flight’ of the body when facing a threat. Anger can make life miserable when it’s uncontrolled. The word ‘anger’ seems similar to the German word ‘Angst’ meaning ‘fear’, and anger is often triggered by fear indeed. Fear is False Evidence Appearing Real.

Anger needs to be recognized, accepted and channelled from a painful emotion into positive energy that can increase our well-being and improve our lives. This article explores what makes us angry and how we can channel anger. It takes also a look at our egos, primary sources for anger.

Dealing with our emotions

We can go angry for various reasons, especially when we have strict rules about what seems right or wrong to us. Our level of tolerance regarding the infringement of these rules is reflected in the intensity of our emotional burst out.

One can get annoyed, others may burst into rage because someone did something without consulting them, someone hurt their feelings, or their partner at home let the meal burn out in the oven. Anger can amplify and turn into rage with, sadly, fatal consequences in some cases. Why? Angry reactions cause pain for both the person concerned and their loved ones.

The harm done to others creates feelings of guilt and frustration, as those under attack tend to move away from their aggressor. The communication is broken, and as a result more negativity fills the angry person’s mind. This can be a vicious circle that may lead the angry person to loneliness and then depression and physical diseases may manifest.

We grew up in a society where the display of emotions or feelings is discouraged. We have to keep smiling, even when we’re crying inside. Anger is a strong warning that something has to change in our lives. The initial signals have been ignored (repelled emotions) possibly since childhood. The lack of recognition of a feeling builds up into anger and even rage. It’s like the dam that contains waters from a river; it’s trying to control what should be running freely.

Anger results from repressed emotions. Lack of praise and various traumas in childhood which have remained “hidden from sight” may be at the origin. Whatever we experienced earlier in our lives, we can’t change the past but we can find a way to turn our anger into an asset. For instance, someone who nearly never received praise but was often scolded like me may set up challenges for themselves in order to prove their ability. Others may pass their frustration onto binge drinking and excessive eating to comfort themselves.

When channelled into positive emotion, anger can spur our determination to make changes in our lives. For example, Colonel Sanders who founded KFC restaurants is said to have been angered by the meagre pension he received and decided to go for business when aged 66.

In some cases, the emotion of anger is so strong and destructive that it might be a good idea to attend a class in anger-management. Here are some ‘Strategies to Keep Anger at Bay’ by the American Psychological Association: http://www.apa.org/topics/anger/control.aspx?item=4

We need to let the river of life or the energy circulate freely in our bodies. Angry states reveal an accumulation of energy that needs to evacuate, like the volcano. Intense pressure in deep ground makes the volcano erupt and sometimes explode.

Yet our energetic field might be similar to a battery in which energy circulates between the negative and positive poles. The negative emotion of anger may serve us when it is transformed into positive. The following sayings might suggest this: ‘There is no rainbow without rain’, or ‘Opportunity is found in threat’.

Slaves of our egos

The ego is our artificial personality that was shaped in childhood. From an early age onwards, we have been influenced by cultural beliefs that dictated what we should think, how we should behave, and even who we should be. Consequently, your ego is your social mask that hides your true personality.

A shallow personality, the ego strives to keep up with changes that occur in our lives. The ego clings to anything for its survival. For example, you may refuse to move closer to your work, because you’ve been living in this house for many years, even when moving would cut considerably your travel time and expenses. When others try to convince you, you might get upset or even angry. The mind or ego still prefers the comfort zone. Yet over the long term a feeling of frustration might build up.

Our egos are ready to jump at their attackers when they feel threatened. The ego has a strong sense of what’s right and what’s wrong. The mind that houses the ego, tends to either generalise or delete the information it receives. Thus we say “You’re ALWAYS late”, or “You’re NEVER on time”. The mind has deleted the times when the person was on time! This fact is another cause why we may get angry.

Yet when our ego rules, our self-esteem keeps a low profile. Do you like yourself? Do you often feel guilty, vulnerable? Can you look at yourself in the mirror without wincing? If the answer is No, Yes, No, you’re likely to have a low self-esteem. Don’t worry, apparently 80 % of us have a low self-esteem. Yet most of us live in fear… of being found out, of not having enough money or else, of being left alone…

A low self-esteem means experiencing the emotions of neediness, helplessness, greed, envy, jealousy… These impulses create anger and wars, as the ego tries to keep things as they’re in a constantly changing world! Indeed our egos might convince us that things are as they are and we CAN’T change them. As a result, we feel jealous when someone gets a new car or else. Our mind doesn’t encourage us to seek ways of getting the same things. It only projects our frustration. That’s why we need to ‘think outside the box’ and connect with our inner selves, the gate to unlimited possibilities. Various meditation techniques, including yoga and reiki are used to do this.

How to increase your self-esteem

Be aware that confidence doesn’t go hand by hand with self-esteem. For instance, you may be able to speak to an audience. Yet you spend time thinking thereafter of the mistakes you might have done in your speech.

You deserve to be treated with love and respect. Yes, you do! Embrace this belief.

Bear in mind that other people spend their time judging themselves first, as they have a low self-esteem themselves. So don’t be afraid of being judged.

Remember that there are no right or wrong answers, unlike what we were taught at school. There are often several ways of doing the same things. You only have to choose the way that serves you best.

Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. We all do! Mistakes show us what we still have to learn. So take the lesson, and move on.

For more ideas about the way you can boost your self-esteem visit: http://www.mind.org.uk/mental_health_a-z/8061_how_to_increase_your_self-esteem

To sum up, most of us experience anger whatever the form it takes, from small annoyance to rage. The emotion of anger stresses that we need to acknowledge our feelings and make the necessary changes. Whilst the change is delayed anger builds up like the magma in the volcano.

Anger is repelled energy that has to evacuate. We can turn anger into creativity if we use it as a spur to act. Also, anger is linked to our self-esteem that we can improve.

Oups!

Posted on January 18, 2013 by SafariComic

We’ve been lost in translation during migration to a new host.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

How to Keep Up with Your New Year Resolution?

Posted on January 6, 2013 by SafariComic

deers at sunset

The New Year is the opportunity to enhance our life. Yet the promises we do to ourselves remain just promises that evaporate into thin air if we don’t take action now.

Basically, an idea needs to be crystal-clear and delimited by a deadline for completion in order to become an object. Every achiever in life will tell you this: you need to set a plan with Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Revisable and Time-based goals (SMART).

To get where you want to be the SMART way, your goal must be clear in your mind, and realistic. For instance, there is no benefit in attempting to learn three lessons in a foreign language each day, only to drop the course after just one week!

A short lesson a day or half a big one is an achievable target. There are days when our family and work obligations demand our attention. Then we need to re-schedule our learning plan. I take learning a language as an example, because it does illustrate well the principle of setting goals in my opinion. I personally found useful to take a short course to discipline myself to get things done. It’s a matter of getting into the habit of being pro-active.

How to get yourself moving?

1 – Start with questions

What do you want to change in your life?
How can you do it?
What do you really want to change?
Why do you want to change it?
What would be the best outcome?
How will you feel when you reach your goal?

2 – Build up a positive mind

Challenge your fear of change by weighting inconvenience and benefit. For example, when you move house packing is annoying and stressful. However, the move will bring you closer to your work/family and reduce your travel expenses. If you visualize the outcome and its benefits, then the problem disappears.

FOCUS ON THE SOLUTION, NOT THE PROBLEM

You’re your best friend, and the only one who can really change your life! The solution is inside you, not in the others’ opinion of what you should be doing, or what is best for you.

3 – Set Goals with a Reward for completion

Use a To-Do list to plan each day step in the completion of your goal.
Reward yourself each time you reach your target with a treat. Celebrate your achievement to create a sense of worthiness and fulfilment. Changing a habit takes time and determination, but overcoming procrastination is a real success in itself.

Happy New Year!

Keep It Simple This Christmas And Enjoy While Spending Less

Posted on December 23, 2012 by SafariComic

Christmas Candle

Christmas time is at our doorstep again! We’re now busy planning our end of year parties, and shopping around to find gifts for the whole family. Preparing for the wonderful Christmas party is expensive because it has to be lavish, to dazzle us and our loved ones. We need the beautiful and natural fir tree. We need the turkey. We need luxury crackers. We need a lot of deco, food, wine, and the best presents we can find…That’s what we think! But what do we know exactly about Christmas? Has Christmas always been celebrated this way? I decided to dig up a bit for more information…

XMAS RECAP

Where Christmas come from?

Known facts about the origins of Christmas:
- Birth of Jesus Christ 2012 years ago
- In the night between 24th and 25th December

In truth no-one knows exactly when Jesus was born, but 25th December is unlikely! Some people believed it was on 6th January, others put it further in February, March or even April!

In 336 A.D. Constantine, the first Roman emperor who converted to Christianity chose 25th December as Jesus’s birthday. Before this, there is no evidence for any celebration of the Christ’s birth. Interestingly, 25th December fell on the winter solstice celebrations that spread over two weeks. Indeed, Constantine had interest in overlapping Christian and Pagan festivities in order for Christianity to be fully accepted by the people.

Why do we decorate a fir tree for Xmas?

The Christmas tree as we know it dates back to the Victorian period when Queen Victoria married Prince Albert, her German cousin. In Germany, there is evidence for Xmas trees back to the early seventieth-century. But the tradition of decorating trees for sacred ceremonies gets back to the Druids, centuries ago.

Before the advent of electrical decorations around 1970, small candles were hung on the branches. House fires were started this way, with sometime casualties.

A small fir tree sets you back £30 every year. When the tree starts drying, it loses its needles which can be a mess to clean. Today, it’s possible to buy a really good imitation fir that we wouldn’t suspect unless we touch it. This is a good way to get your family and friends amazed. Why not buying one of those imitation trees that you can keep over twenty years, and save the environment and your money?

Why do we eat turkey for Christmas lunch?

This bird comes from the American continent. In the 1540s the Spanish conquerors imported turkeys from Mexico to Europe. There, turkeys became widely traded around the Mediterranean Sea. Turkish merchants were particularly keen on the trade, hence the bird’s name. Turkey was served on wealthy tables like any other expensive importation.

Turkey birds became domesticated in England, and by 1585 they were eaten for Christmas in wealthy households. Around 1640 English breeds, the Norfolk Black and the White Holland were reintroduced in America (in the United States today).

In the twentieth-century, turkeys became associated with the working class. The meaty bird became cheaper than chicken by the pound, which was ideal to feed large families. Born in April, the bird was mature and ready to eat by Xmas. Wealthy English households came to prefer game and beef.

Today, eating turkey for Christmas lunch has become deeply entrenched in tradition. However this MUST-HAVE food for Christmas has pushed the price up. A small turkey of decent quality may set you back £40, and you could get four free range chicken for that price! Game has become affordable and available in supermarkets. Why not surprise your guests this Christmas with a venison dish or good roasted beef instead?

Why the Christmas party is so important to us?

It has been estimated through survey that 13% of the U.K. population are still paying debts from the previous Christmas. Why are some of us tempted to borrow money for a Xmas party? Is it a matter of ‘keeping up with the Joneses’? Are we using the Christmas illusion in an attempt to escape momentarily from reality and elude our responsibility?

What is the meaning of Christmas?

Jerry Webber, a blogger wrote:

“The perfect Christmas is not the one where we hide our heads in the sand, but rather the one in which we engage life-as-it-is with and for God”.
(http://onlyasojourner.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/christmas-illusion.html)

That’s nicely put! If you’re not a believer, you can replace God by Truth or Unlimited Power. It’s the same. The point is that Christmas is spiritual, and its magic resides in the bright candles and human friendship and love that is exhibited for Christmas. During the two World Wars that wrecked Europe, on Christmas eve English and French soldiers met their German enemies. They exchanged cigarettes, chocolate tablets and friendship.

Christmas is a time of peace, joy and love. So it doesn’t have to be lavish and expensive. The quality of Xmas depends only on how much human warmth and compassion with can share.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU!

Three Reasons Why We Feel Lonely and How to Avoid Loneliness

Posted on December 8, 2012 by SafariComic

lonely-man Around the world loneliness is present and could be on the rise, despite a fast growing global population. People seek employment in cities, sometimes far away from their village, and they find themselves disconnected from their love ones. Globalisation which brings the world closer together has also the reverse effect of isolating individuals.
Relationships are redefined: we need to be able to stay in touch with our family and friends, while connecting with a brave new world. We cope more or less with this challenge.

The Dangers of Loneliness

Loneliness is likely to be responsible for the increasing rate of depression. The World Health Organisation has even predicted that by 2020, depression could be the second cause of mortality in the world. (Psychologytoday.com –Oct 16,2012- ’10 Things Happy People Do Differently’ by Paula Davis-Laack). The support of family and friends is essential to many of us who feel overwhelmed by today’s fast-paced and robotic living. High properties prices in town force many people to commute to work. There is often pressure at work, and many return home tired with an ‘empty soul’. Loneliness may seriously erode our happiness, leaving us even powerless to rule our life, a sure sign of depression.

Reasons and Remedies for Loneliness

Practically, we are not lonely but we FEEL lonely. It’s a state of mind! I experienced loneliness myself and started acting upon this predicament when I realised it would lead me to depression. We may feel lonely in the middle of a crowd, because we don’t feel connected to any other human being.

Loneliness is a matter of CONNECTION. We experience more or less three levels of connection: physical, emotional and spiritual. Therefore, we might recognise the following three main reasons for loneliness:

1 – Physical: Disconnection from family and friends, because we live far.

Real job opportunities are found in large cities. There, one can normally expect better money and a higher standard of living. In the countryside, many people mostly scrap a living. This is widespread belief, not always true, which does apply in Europe and Africa to my knowledge, and elsewhere in the world.

As human beings we crave the comfort that familiar surroundings may provide. We feel part of a family whose cultural background shaped our childhood. Our culture taught us what is good for us, the right things to do and those we should avoid doing. When we move away, our cultural references or benchmarks tend to evaporate. For instance, we have a family lunch on Sundays with roasted chicken, a nice cake and a lot of talk. What a contrast we find ourselves alone in a big city, with not even an oven to roast the chicken!
How to keep physically connected to your family and friends?

‘Man is a social animal’. Our mind requires constant validation from our peers in order to define ourselves or our ego within the society in which we live. We can share our joy and problems with our kin and friends, but strangers might not care. It’s a matter of CONNECTION!

Try to stay in touch with your tribe as much as you can through phone, internet chat. It’s not rocket science per se, but the longer we stay without getting in touch the more likely we are to feel lonely. Even when we don’t see the person we still hear their voice, and the sound vibration creates the link. (Remember, we are all made of energy and matter.)

Plan your visits. It’s a wonderful way of making time go faster, breaking it into chunks. The further far of your family you are, the most planning we be required. You need to book for your holiday at work, as well as your flight to go home. While you’re planning, you’re anticipating being with your family and friends. It gets you closer to them, as I found myself.

How many times a year can you afford to visit them, once, twice, more… or less? Let’s say you can visit them for summer holiday in July/August and Christmas if you live far. Once you plan and book your holiday, you’re already there in thought, and the big day when you reunite with them gets there quicker.

2 – Emotional: Can you feel comfortable amongst strangers and trust them?

This may be a difficult thing to do, for trust requires knowledge. While working abroad, your connecting points there are your flatmates or neighbours and your colleagues at work. You share something in common with these people, either housing and neighbourhood or work where you’re likely to spend most of your time.

Get along with colleagues or flatmates with whom you share a common interest. It could be a cooking session, a class after work in yoga, foreign languages or else. It might be a class attended outside work. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune and meeting other people is stimulating, boosting the immune system as well as the enthusiasm.

However, going out merely for a drink is likely to leave you in psychological tatter once you return home. A drink-session is often a vain attempt to escape reality, and responsibility. They return in strength the next day!

Trust other people on small things first. For instance, when you lend a pen to a colleague it might give you an idea of their trustworthiness if they don’t return it back. Real trust can build progressively through little transactions.

Trust requires knowledge. The negative feelings caused by loneliness can be turned into a positive attitude of observation of the surroundings. You put then yourselves in the skin of the impartial observer, and can learn this way about human behaviour. When we’re visiting a place with friends we hardly pay attention to our surroundings and miss the details.

BY BEING ON OUR OWN, WE BECOME SELF-SUFFICIENT IN LEARNING FROM OUR ENVIRONMENT AND OPENING OUR MIND TO NEW PEOPLE, CIRCUMSTANCES AND OPPORTUNITY FOR PERSONAL GROWTH. The more we learn about people, the better we can decide to trust or not. In thinking this way, we can get along with loneliness.

3 – Spiritual: How can loneliness help us find our life purpose?

Feeling alone and lost is certainly the best recipe for depression. Yet it is also the best opportunity to find our real self: who are we? What is our passion? Silence is required in order to access our inner personalities. Many of us fear loneliness, because we also fear finding out who we really are! And finding out our true personality means accepting our condition and get along with it. Yet acknowledging a situation is the first step in taking ownership for your life. You then assume the responsibility for your destiny, and stop blaming others for your misfortune.

Once we take responsibility for our life, we don’t need the constant approval or validation of our actions by our peers any more. Our self-confidence is building once we take the lead in our life. Loneliness is either a flight or fight situation. When we attempt to escape using alcohol for instance, we produce resistance and the problem gets bigger and bigger until it explodes in our face and ruins our life. When we accept our situation, then we get along with the flow of life and flourish because WE TAKE ACTION TO IMPROVE OUR CONDITION.

Of course, self-acceptance may come after a bumpy ride, at the end of a road ambushed with moments of self-doubt and discouragement. But keep opening your mind and heart to the outside world. Visit places, museums watch documentaries on TV, read self-help books, take classes, do everything that may help you find your life purpose, your passion.

Eventually, you get there and you realise that even if no one calls or visits you today, you’re not alone! You can always go out and meet new interesting people. Well done, you did a great thing: YOU TOOK LEADERSHIP OF YOUR LIFE and opened the door to NEW OPPORTUNITIES!

In conclusion, we need to feel connected and we couldn’t live in absolute isolation without losing our sanity. Loneliness is the feeling of disconnection that emerges with the necessity to re-evaluate our life whenever we’re living away from loved ones. In other cases, may have difficulty in engaging with other people, or we lack direction in life and feel ‘lost’. These situations correspond to the three levels of disconnection: physical, emotional, and spiritual.

We might be affected by one, two or by the three levels altogether.
Whatever our circumstances, it’s essential to keep in touch with our families and friends and to be open to the outside world at the same time. Loneliness should be turned into the opportunity to appraise our life in order to find our purpose. It might take time but the outcome is our ultimate wellness and the leadership of our life. Priceless!

Healing or toxic? The Truth about Natural Remedies

Posted on November 21, 2012 by SafariComic

medicinal-herbs

We instinctively seek natural goodness when the stress of modern life makes us loose our healthy balance. We often assume that Mother Nature can only be good to us. In some cases, we even believe that natural remedies can cure us miraculously, once our health has been damaged beyond repair.

Indeed, nature has the answer to many of our health problems. Yet we need to know when and how to use natural remedies. They should be used as preventive or complementary medicine only, whilst researchers explore their potential for the treatment of serious diseases.

Three Harmful Sets of Belief about Natural Remedies

Though the belief that we can heal may contribute effectively to the healing process itself, herbal remedies in their raw form have limited effectiveness. The following kinds of belief are likely to do more harm than good.

1 – The same herbal treatment can be prescribed to anyone – WRONG.

There are natural ingredients that are not suitable for sufferers with a pre-existing pathology. For instance, garlic is generally acknowledged as healthy. But in case of HIV garlic may interfere with the treatment, possibly due to its ability to thin the blood. (ScienceDaily –Aug. 9, 2011- ‘Buyer Beware: Herbal Products Missing Key Safety Information’)

In the last decade, health shops have emerged on the high street, and the sales of natural remedies and complementary foods are booming. However, an enquiry led by researchers from the University of Leeds revealed the lack of legislation for natural remedies. Most of the health products on offer (93 %) don’t contain any safety information. Since April 2011, a new European Union law aims at regulating the sale of herbal products.

2 – Natural herbal remedies may substitute some medical treatments – WRONG.

We may believe that natural remedies can replace a normal medical treatment. For instance, malt vinegar may relieve itching effectively, and it can be also used to disinfect light wounds. However, in case of itching due to eczema or even allergy a medical doctor should be consulted as soon as possible.

It seems that there is a gap between traditional and modern medicines. Traditional medicine is often referred to as ‘alternative’ medicine though it is generally accepted as complementary to modern medicine. It is advisable to let your doctor know of any complementary herbal medicine you’re taking alongside your treatment, for some remedies as garlic mentioned above might interfere with the treatment.

3 – Inherited beliefs with no evidence to support them

Perhaps these beliefs are the worst of all, because they both endanger the individuals concerned and their environment. A recent study by the University of Miami scientists has revealed the presence of neurotoxins in shark fins. (Science Daily – Feb. 23, 2012 –‘Neurotoxins in Shark Fins: A Human Health Concern’) Shark fins are an Asian delicacy. This taste is possibly fuelled by the belief of improved health and fertility, as with rhino horn and tiger bones.

This is the sad case of a belief that both brought the shark population, essential to the balance of marine ecosystems, to the edge of extinction, as well as endangering human health. Post-mortem of patients who died of Alzheimer’s and Lou Gehrig Disease revealed a high concentration of neurotoxins in their brains. The same amount of toxins has been found in shark fins, which has suggested the possibility that the consumption of shark fins might significantly increase the risk of Alzheimer’s and Lou Gehrig Diseases. These incurable diseases destroy progressively the nervous system.

An Ayurvedic doctor in India, Dr Satya Narayana stresses that we should seek medical advice before using herbal remedies for health issues. Ayurvedic is an ancient science of organised medicine in India, and it has become the backbone for many natural health centres in the West.

Modern science is unlocking the secret of natural remedies in order to find efficient treatments for life-threatening diseases. There is goodness in plants and scientists are proving it through their research. However, the good nutrients have to be extracted before they are concentrated into pills. For example, scientists from Cardiff University have been researching the benefits of the species of Frankincense Boswellia frereana for the treatment of arthritis conditions. Arthritis is the breakdown of cartilage in joints, leading to the need for surgery in later age, such as hip replacement (Science Daily – Aug.4, 2011 –‘A Wise Man’s Treatment for Arthritis: Frankincense?’).

Other scientific studies of natural remedies have explored the benefit of liquorice for anti-diabetic treatment. Using cutting-edge processes, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin managed to extract substances from the liquorice called amorfrutins that reduce the blood sugar (ScienceDaily – Apr. 17, 2012 – ‘Liquorice Root Found to Contain Anti-Diabetic Substance’).

Another study led by researchers at the University of Chicago Medicine has explored the potential of a substance found in honeybee hives for the treatment of prostate cancer. Bees use a resin called propolis to patch holes in hives. The substance Caffeic Acid Phenethyl Ester or CAPE is extracted from this resin that has been used for centuries as a natural remedy for various conditions. CAPE has been tested on mice (animal testing is controversial, I admit) with positive results (ScienceDaily – May 4, 2012 – ‘Behive Extract Shows Potential as Prostate Cancer Treatment’).

In conclusion, natural remedies may be good to us. Modern science is proving it. However, the personal use of some natural remedies may require specialist knowledge. Some plants might be toxic, provoke allergies or interfere with existing medical treatment. Some complementary foods that are often believed to be good for health, like shark fins, might also be a health hazard as well as depleting the natural environment.

Natural remedies are only good when they both benefit us and our environment. It’s a matter of balance: we listen to our bodies and take care of our environment that provides us with the nutrients for our good health. And only a deep understanding of nature through scientific research can deliver the full potential of natural healing properties.

You Are What You Think: Why Vibe is so Important

Posted on November 21, 2012 by SafariComic

sunset-waves

Whilst we get along with our lives we hardly think of the importance of our thoughts, except when we need to take important decisions. Yet the thoughts we have determine our present and future conditions. Billionaire Donald Trump stresses that we have some 50,000 thoughts a day, so we better get great ones. In short, we need to think big. Big thoughts are constructive, leading to personal growth and life enhancement.

The whole concept of life is energy in motion, e-motion. In the universe, raw energy slows down to form matter. Hence, galaxies and planets are born. From the macro world down to the micro one, the pattern repeats itself. Thus our thoughts are energy that slows down to create matter, the realization of an idea.

The creative process is made of thoughts that are expressed with words. And these words either turn into action or they remain “empty”. Shallow thoughts are those that keep coming up our minds, in an irritating way. We call them worries. They might be also thoughts triggered by fear that displays a drama or even a disaster script.

Such thoughts are exhausting us, wasting our energy. The trick is to be able to channel our thoughts towards a desired goal. ‘What you think is what you become.’

The Law of Attraction does apply to thoughts. Thoughts are vibrations that are part of an invisible network of vibes, or psychic matrix. In this web, thoughts attract their likes. This sympathetic resonance is experienced in music. When there are two pianos in a room, and when the note C is played on one of them, then the sound is heard on the second piano too.

Our inner energies or emotions follow the rule of sympathetic resonance. For example, when we enter a room where people argued we can feel the tense ambiance. The stress is projected to us and we respond accordingly. We tend to mirror each other’s behaviours: love attracts love, anger calls for aggressive or defensive response… Like a pebble thrown into a peaceful pond, our thoughts produce waves that affect our surroundings.

Our feelings are transmuted into vibrations, our vibe, that we can learn to manage in our best interest. For centuries, Hinduism and Buddhism have done exactly this, through the development and use of mantras or short incantations. Each mantra represents a set of vibrations or sound wave that aims at achieving a specific result. For instance, the mantra “shrim” or “shreem” is used to accumulate abundance. The result may vary from health and well-being to an increase in financial wealth, depending on the sayer’s purpose.
Mantra is “the Yoga of the Mind.” Why not try Kundalini yoga to set your vibe to well-being and success in life?

Further reading:
‘All about Vibes and Vibrations’ – article pub. Aug 13, 2009 – Times of India – http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-08-13/holistic-living/28173365_1_vibes-water-body-vibrations

Thomas Ashley Farrand – ‘What is a Mantra and How Does it Work: A Selection from Healing Mantras. –http://www.sanskritmantra.com (I can’t find the text source anymore!)