Have you hugged someone today?
I am a hugger…. you know the kind that hugs friends, family, children, colleagues etc. Well so far I think I have managed to refrain from startling strangers with hugs but who knows someday you might find me on a street corner offering free hugs 
After all, everybody, needs a spot of brightness in their day.
Have you had a hug today?
There’s a hindi movie where the hero goes around giving patients in a hospital big bear hugs – “jadu ka jhappi” – the magical tight hug that makes people feel so much better. I liked that phrase “magic hug”, in fact I would hug my son all the time and tell him that I am trying to squeeze the juice out of him and then we would have a competition on who’s losing more juice depending on who’s hugging harder. Those are moments that make a whole life time worthwhile.
There is a saying by Virginia Satir, a respected family therapist, “We need four hugs a day for survival. We need eight hugs a day for maintenance. We need twelve hugs a day for growth.”
Studies have shown that there are psychological, physiological and spiritual benefits to hugging. Benefits range from lower stress level by reducing the production of cortisol to an increase in production of oxytocin, serotonin and dopamine, the hormones that are primarily responsible for feeling content, happy, relaxed, loved. So if you are trying to be happy and relaxed, then besides the meditation and the prayers, I would certainly recommend getting as much hugs as possible
So tell me, have you hugged today???
Related articles
- http://niwali.com/blog/the-physical-and-emotional-benefits-of-hugging/
- http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-benefits-of-hugging.html?page=1
- http://www.thirdage.com/mental-health/the-health-benefits-of-hugging
- http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-5756/10-Reasons-Why-We-Need-at-Least-8-Hugs-a-Day.html
- Ministry of Hugs (mightyinspiration.wordpress.com)
- Free Hugs: New Orleans Man Is A Love Machine (wgno.com)
- One New Yorker’s Response to Saturday’s Anti-Gay Murder: A Free Hug Session! (gaymarriageusa.wordpress.com)
- Hugs For You (dkrambling.wordpress.com)
I need to get me one of these
If you can figure out what this picture is…… my next blog will be on why ALL of us need it
Comment away people… lets see how wild our imagination can get.
R.I.P
My phone just committed suicide! I know it’s been ailing but every time it croaked, I took it to the doctors to get it all patched up and working ok again. I knew it was in trouble, all the signs were there. I knew that my phone was depressed because every once in a while it would hang and refuse to work. But you know you could hit the reset or just take out the batteries, recharge it and it would be back to work again, so I wasn’t really worrying too much about that.
Today though I guess it reached the end of its patience. It has been in service long enough. It has seen me through heaven and hell. It has held my hand in the dark, lighted my way through dark alleys. It kept me company through the long nights, playing me songs and ruminating through memories as we checked out the pictures we have taken over the years.
I don’t know what I would do without my phone. I mean how would I know what time it is when I wake up in the middle of the night? or keep track of my appointments? I don’t even remember any of the phone numbers I regularly used cause I figured it was all stored in there anyway.
It breaks my heart to admit that it had reached the end of its rope. It must have, right?I mean why else would it consider doing any of the following?
And then to actually choose to dive bomb into a bucket of water right out of my hands????
Who does that? Who in their right mind dives into a bucket of water and proceeds to sink right to the bottom, messing up their screen with pools of water floating around inside it? And then that water finds it way into the inners and it just completely short-circuits everything. Now nothing works. I have tried emergency CPR. I have shaken it vigorously to try to get out as much water as possible. But I guess it was too little, too late. Its gone.
Now I know the fastest way to get over anything is to get moving. Only now I need to figure out which newer model I should get next without sounding like a total idiot at the store tomorrow.
that would be me tomorrow
p.s. If you a self-styled Phone guru, leave me a suggestion below on which phone to get next. Or you can simply tell me which phone model you use and why I should buy the same 
p.p.s. Its functionality over beauty for me. I don’t care what the phone looks like as long as I can call, text and listen to music.
This is What Happens When a Billionaire Loses a Bet
Back in 2010, billionaire Sir Richard Branson and AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes made a bet. Sir Richard and Tony each wagered their Formula 1 racing teams (then Lotus Racing and Virgin Racing) would finish ahead of each other in their debut season, and that the loser would serve as a female cabin crew on the winner's airline.
Tony's team finished two spots above Sir Richard's in the final 2010 rankings and on May 12, 2013, Sir Branson honoured his bet, adorning make-up, a pair of high heels and freshly shaved legs.
I was all cheesed out until I saw 2 guys in labor pain
Mother’s day brought out all kinds of emotions in all kinds of people. While some were genuinely touching tributes, some were just too cheesy to go down easy. Then there were the messages that people sent by email, inboxing messages for mother’s day. It was impossible to escape from. Frankly I was so full from so many revolting, commercialized, overly sensationalized messages that I had to completely go off from it in order to recover from the overdose.
But guess what I run into?
A shared video of 2 guys who get a Doctor to induce labor-like pains to prove that women are patsies and grossly overstating the amount of pain felt during child-birth. Details of how labor pain is similar to the pain of fracturing 22 bones at the same time has been floating around on the internet in the aftermath of Mother’s Day. But these guys decided to challenge that theory. I mean seriously who would be stupid enough to go through that level of pain and still have more than ONE child? Right?
So we get 2 guys in a hospital gown, strapped down and psyched up about experiencing labor pain. More than the guys, I was busy checking out the reaction of their wives. The looks and smirks were priceless 
About half way through, the wives were high-fiving each other and I was laughing so hard in my office that my colleagues walked in to check what’s going on with me funniest 3 minute video yet.
Go check it out at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=39c_1368515756#Yvmo4fsE218CIJ1J.01
Related articles
- Guys Experience Labor Pains For, I Guess, Mother’s Day (videogum.com)
- Want To See Two Guys Go Through Labor Pains? (webpronews.com)
- Men Experiencing Labor Pain (todaysmama.com)
- Sunday Funnies: Two Dutch men simulate labor pains (NSFW) (thehumanracehorses.com)
- Watch men learn what childbirth feels like (dailydot.com)
All Women Are Real Women
The more I explore body image and society, the more rotten layers I find to peel away. Here's my latest discovery: I hate hate hate that the phrase "real women" is being used to describe ladies who are larger or curvier. "Larger or curvier than whom?" you might ask. Exactly. (Bonus points for your good grammar.)
Phrases like this pit us against one another, even if their original intent was positive.
Food Security Video
A short take on the work we are doing to improve Food Security in Bangladesh. The hospital featured here is ICDDRB (more info at http://www.icddrb.org) and more information on the laboratory featured here can be found at the FAO site for Food Safety Project at http://www.bdfoodsafety.org.
Spread the happiness
Spread the happiness
Happiness is a ray of sunshine that can warm you in the coldest of days. Like the wet kiss of a puppy that make you giggle. Like a small child whispering, I love you, it can leave you toasty warm right down to your toes.
“10% OF HAPPINESS is a result of your income, 50% can be attributed to your genetics and developmental factors, and last 40% is simply your own dispositions’ and outlook on your day-to-day life situation’s.”
If you are a regular reader, then you know by now that I love Paulo Coelho’s writings and follow his blog. This writing that I came across today was just too good to not share
8 things to do every day that will make you happier
by PAULO COELHO on APRIL 3, 2013
excepts from te post by Barking up the wrong tree
1) Thank someone
First thing in the morning, send an email thanking or praising someone. Research shows this can brighten your day.2) Spend money — on someone else
Harvard professor Michael Norton, author of Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending, talks about this in this video
3) Give 5 hugs
In a one-of-a-kind study, students at Pennsylvania State University were assigned to two groups. The first group was instructed to give or receive a minimum of five hugs per day over the course of four weeks and to record the details. The hugs had to be front-to-front (nonsexual) hugs, using both arms of both participants; however, the length and strength of hug, as well as the placement of hands, were left to their discretion. Furthermore, these students couldn’t simply huge their boyfriends or girlfriends half a dozen times; they had to aim to hug as many different individuals as possible. The second, the controls, was instructed simply to record the number of hours they read each day over the same four weeks.
People assigned to give or receive hugs 5 times a day ended up happier than the control group. From Sonja Lyubomirsky’s book
4) Do stuff you’re good at
People who deliberately exercised their signature strengths on a daily basis — those qualities they were uniquely best at, the talents that set them apart from others – became significantly happier for months.
5) Do 5 little nice things for others
…individuals told to complete five acts of kindness over the course of a day report feeling much happier than control groups and that the feeling lasts for many subsequent days, far after the exercise is over. To try this yourself, pick one day a week and make a point of committing five acts of kindness. But if you want to reap the psychological benefit, make sure you do these things deliberately and consciously—you can’t just look back over the last 24 hours and declare your acts post hoc.6) Create something to look forward to
One study found that people who just thought about watching their favorite movie actually raised their endorphin levels by 27 percent. Often, the most enjoyable part of an activity is the anticipation. If you can’t take the time for a vacation right now, or even a night out with friends, put something on the calendar—even if it’s a month or a year down the road. Then whenever you need a boost of happiness, remind yourself about it.
7) Spend time with friends
Having a better social life is the happiness equivalent of making an extra $131,232 a year:
There is substantial evidence in the psychology and sociology literature that social relationships promote happiness for the individual. Yet the size of their impacts remains largely unknown. This paper explores the use of shadow pricing method to estimate the monetary values of the satisfaction with life gained by an increase in the frequency of interaction with friends, relatives, and neighbours. Using the British Household Panel Survey, I find that an increase in the level of social involvements is worth up to an extra £85,000 a year in terms of life satisfaction. Actual changes in income, on the other hand, buy very little happiness.
8) Before bed, write down three good things that happened today
Every night for the next week, set aside ten minutes before you go to sleep. Write down three things that went well today and why they went well. You may use a journal or your computer to write about the events, but it is important that you have a physical record of what you wrote. The three things need not be earthshaking in importance (“ My husband picked up my favorite ice cream for dessert on the way home from work today”), but they can be important (“ My sister just gave birth to a healthy baby boy”).
To read more go to the site here: http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2013/04/03/8-things-to-do-every-day-that-will-make-you-happier/
Related articles
- 8 Things That Will Make You Happier (lifestyledezine.com)
- YOU Can Manage Your Own Happy Meter (naturalbeautyatanyage.wordpress.com)
- Waiting to Be Happy Once You’ve Achieved a Goal? 21 Ways to Feel Happier Today. (lifehack.org)
- Happiness Inc. (nytimes.com)
- Happiness 101: Ways to be Happy (thisaimless.wordpress.com)
- A Very Big Thing (gyatoday.wordpress.com)
- How to Be Happy: 8 Ways to Feel Better About Everything (espikipbojonegoro3c.wordpress.com)
Continuous learning & why you should engage in it
I had to clean out my bookshelf and guess what I discovered? A bunch of certificates. There’s probably more than 50 there from various online courses that I have taken over the course of the last decade and probably more than a dozen of classroom trainings that I participated in. Each one of these were either professional or personal developments courses, directly related to the job that I was doing at the time or designed to provide me with the tools that I would need to take on more responsibility, authority in my work. There was a time that I listed ALL the professional courses that I have ever attended on my resume/CV, then came the time when it took up more than a page on its own and I started to leave out the trainings that were irrelevant to the position I was applying for.
Why am I talking about this?
Because this was something that ANYONE could have done. Over the last decade and a half I have changed more jobs (sometimes within the same company) and more industries (completely different & unrelated) than most people I know. I have also worked with a whole lot of different people and have worked under a lot more bosses than most people I know. A lot of my ex-colleagues ask me what is it that I am doing differently and honestly the only answer that I seem to come up with is that each of us acquires skill sets that can be translated into different jobs in different capacities.
How do you go about acquiring those skill sets?
By loving the job you are doing and wanting to be better at it. That was the primary reason I started on online courses. Most multi-national companies have a LOT of courses on their intranet. There are free online courses from all kinds of universities on all kinds of subjects. A whole depository of learnings, waiting to be acquired, just sitting there at your fingertip. Are you taking advantage of it?
Will the company you are working for pay you to do these courses outside of your working hours? No.
Will they directly lead you to gain promotions or more money? probably No.
So why should you do it? Because you can AND at the end of the day knowledge is something that no one can take away from you. Everything else is transitory.
You can lose your job, your house, money, family, relationships. Everything but what’s inside your head. Everything but what you internalize. The knowledge, the wisdom, the learning, hope, faith, dream … that’s just about all that is left when everything else can be stripped from you. No one can strip you of your character, its shaped over a lifetime and displayed in the choices you make, the language you use, the intonation of your voice, in your actions – conscious and unconscious displays of your inner self.
Am I better because I have more certificates?
I do not believe that I have a higher advantage at getting a job because I have more certificates. I believe that I am better because I am open to continuous learning. And I believe that we learn every moment we breathe. If it was about certificates, then I would’ve probably had them framed and hanged in either my office or my home, a testament to my qualifications. But I didn’t because those certificates were not the reason I chose to take those courses.
I see people talk about being dissatisfied with their lives, their work, career, family etc. But I see very few actively working on changing that. Who do you think has a better chance of changing their lot in this life? The endless whiner? Or the active solver? Which group do YOU belong to?
While the courses I have taken were open to all the employees of the companies that I have worked for, VERY few actually made the time to do those courses. They did not see any immediate benefits. People were interested in the class-room courses, specially when they were required in their performance appraisals, because they could make the direct link between that and their job. But they were not so interested in the courses that did not have direct correlation. They didn’t have the time, was under too much work pressure, etc. were the usual excuses. Funny thing is you would find these same people playing online games for hours after work, sometimes during work and on the weekends. They could have easily used that time to gain knowledge online but they didn’t. They chose to spend it instead on mindless games. Their priorities were obviously in the wrong place or maybe they were not prioritizing at all.
So what are you doing with your time? what are you priorities? are you helping yourself? or just whining?
Related articles
- Learn for Free with MOOCs (usnews.com)
- The Benefits of Taking an Online Course (tutoringtoexcellence.blogspot.com)
- Spiceworks online courses – it’s on like Donkey Kong! (community.spiceworks.com)
- Online Courses (leccoworkshop.com)
- Tens of thousands enroll in free, online UT courses (kvue.com)
