Technical Write-Up – Stress Management
Cover Story – Rain Water Harvesting
Artists’ Corner – Painting
Under the Lens – Photographs
Journal - Love is divine whenever it is love,
but it is very rare that love is love
Poem – Human Being
What’s Cooking – Bread Pudding
LOL – Sardar Jokes
Story Time - The Woodcutter Story
Take action quickly when "cracks" start to appear.
A lot of research has been conducted into stress over the last hundred years. Some of the
theories behind it are now settled and accepted; others are still being researched and
debated.
During this time, there seems to have been something
approaching open warfare between competing theories and
definitions: Views have been passionately held and aggressively
defended. What complicates this is that intuitively we all feel
that we know what stress is, as it is something we have all
experienced. A definition should therefore be obvious... except
that it is not.
Definitions
Hans Selye was one of the founding fathers of stress research. His view in 1956 was that
"stress is not necessarily something bad – it all depends on how you take it. The stress of
exhilarating, creative successful work is beneficial, while that of failure, humiliation or
infection is detrimental." Selye believed that the biochemical effects of stress would be
experienced irrespective of whether the situation was positive or negative.
Since then, a great deal of further research has been conducted, and ideas have moved
on. Stress is now viewed as a "bad thing", with a range of harmful biochemical and long-
term effects. These effects have rarely been observed in positive situations.
The most commonly accepted definition of stress (mainly attributed to Richard S Lazarus)
is that stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that "demands
exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize." In short, it's
what we feel when we think we've lost control of events.
This is the main definition used by this section of Mind Tools, although we also recognize
that there is an intertwined instinctive stress response to unexpected events. The stress
response inside us is therefore part instinct and part to do with the way we think.
Fight-or-Flight
Some of the early research on stress (conducted by
Walter Cannon in 1932) established the existence
of the well-known "fight-or-flight" response. His
work showed that when an organism experiences
a shock or perceives a threat, it quickly releases
hormones that help it to survive.
In humans, as in other animals, these hormones help us to run faster and fight harder.
They increase heart rate and blood pressure, delivering more oxygen and blood sugar to
power important muscles. They increase sweating in an effort to cool these muscles, and
help them stay efficient. They divert blood away from the skin to the core of our bodies,
reducing blood loss if we are damaged. As well as this, these hormones focus our
attention on the threat, to the exclusion of everything else. All of this significantly
improves our ability to survive life-threatening events.
Not only life-threatening events trigger this reaction: We experience it almost any time we
come across something unexpected or something that frustrates our goals. When the
threat is small, our response is small and we often do not notice it among the many other
distractions of a stressful situation.
Unfortunately, this mobilization of the body for survival also has negative consequences.
In this state, we are excitable, anxious, jumpy and irritable. This actually reduces our
ability to work effectively with other people. With trembling and a pounding heart, we can
find it difficult to execute precise, controlled skills. The intensity of our focus on survival
interferes with our ability to make fine judgments by drawing information from many
sources. We find ourselves more accident-prone and less able to make good decisions.
There are very few situations in modern working life where this response is useful. Most
situations benefit from a calm, rational, controlled and socially sensitive approach. In the
short term, we need to keep this fight-or-flight response under control to be effective in
our jobs. In the long term we need to keep it under control to avoid problems of poor
health and burnout.
Introducing Stress Management
There are very many proven skills that we can use to manage stress.
These help us to remain calm and effective in high pressure situations, and help us avoid
the problems of long term stress. The first of these articles shows you how to keep a
stress diary – an important technique for understanding the most important sources of
stress in your life.
Warning: Stress can cause severe health problems and, in extreme
cases, can cause death. While these stress management techniques
have been shown to have a positive effect on reducing stress, they are
for guidance only, and readers should take the advice of suitably
qualified health professionals if they have any concerns over stress-related illnesses or if
stress is causing significant or persistent unhappiness. Health professionals should also be
consulted before any major change in diet or levels of exercise.
Raghunanda J
1. Over medium heat, heat milk just until film forms over top. Add butter, stirring
until butter is melted. Cool to lukewarm. In a bowl take some portion of milk and
soak the bread pieces in it.
2. Combine sugar, eggs, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Beat with a mixer at medium speed
for 2 minutes. Slowly add milk + bread mixture.
3. Take cake moulds or cooker bowl (Aluminum preferably). Add one teaspoon sugar
and 2 spoons of water to the mould and keep it on the stove and spread equally to
get caramel base. Once it is cool, add the milk mixture to this pan.
4. Sprinkle with raisins if desired. Cook it in a cooker by adding little water but
without putting the weight (just like Idli) for 15 minutes.
5. Keep it in the fridge for sometime before serving.]
Nagashree
Ladakh "land of
high passes” that
lies between the
Kunlun mountain
range in the north
and the Great
Himalayas to the
south through the
lens of Chandru.
If we do not start it today, definitely there will be no water for tomorrow. A man can live
100 years without love but not without water. This is to enhance natural resource and
conservation of water source. This helps us to improve groundwater level in earth.
Though the earth is made up of 70% of
water only 2.5% of water is sweet water
and drinkable. So, the source for sweet
water is earth and rainwater. To help
improve sweet water source measures
to be taken to conserve and help
improve the groundwater resource.
Initially when we started bore-wells most of the areas we used to get water around 100 to
200 feet approximately, but now the ground level water has gone deep and deep to the
level of 500 feet and still some areas we don't get water and this forces us to go beyond
this level. There are so many bore-wells get abandoned without water. This shows that
the ground level water is drying up.
Nowadays, people have started recycling
used water in apartments in areas like
Bangalore. So, to avoid such scenario we
have to start today to conserve and
preserve rain water religiously. There are
methods to conserve the rainwater in small and large area with proper planning.
Types of rain harvesting:
Small scale
Large scale
Conservation methods:
Sand Filtration
Aquaponics in small scale
Aquaponics
If we are starting in large scale when we form the layout provision for rainwater collection
through small channels to be made and there should be some area dedicated to rain
water collection. By measuring the area of layout, we can plan on the area of water
collection.
To start this with a layout with an area of 5 acres that has at least 80-100 houses, with
proper plan harvesting can be implemented. If we plan integrated rainwater collecting
system for this layout; we have to dedicate some area of land, like a small pond or
enclosed collecting system. This water can be used only when it is more than what the
collecting area is, if not, can be left as it is to enhance ground water level.
In rainy season if we use rain water we can curtail the use of board supplied water. So,
there will be water for tomorrow.
Let us start implementing the idea of rain water harvesting.
Bheemaprasad
Love is divine whenever it is love, but it is
very rare that love is love
Many things pretend to be love; many things bear the mask of love: jealousy,
possessiveness, domination, ego trips, and power politics. There are a thousand and
one things which can pretend to be love, which have the sugar coating of love. It tastes
sweet in the beginning, but soon the bitterness appears. It looks like nectar, but with
experience it proves to be poison. But then it is too late and you are entrapped. It is
easy to get into something, it is very difficult to get out, because your life becomes
invested, entangled, intertwined.
And those things which pretend to be love have a few benefits too, a few advantages.
They give safety, security, comfort, and they promise you all kinds of things in the
future. Those promises are never fulfilled, those goods are never delivered, but for the
moment those promises are enough to keep you hanging on. Those promises go on
like carrots hanging in front of you, and you go on moving, hoping for the best, but it
never happens.
Whenever love is love it is divine, and whenever love is not love it is very evil; it is just
the opposite, it is very devilish. And out of a hundred, ninety-nine point nine percent it
is not love. Hence the world is in such misery, in such hell.
To know love, to know true love, is to know God; that's why I say love is divine. It is
enough to know love, then God will be known automatically; there is no need to search
and seek God. And one cannot search and seek God because one knows not where he
is, what he is. His address is not available, or there are so many addresses that you may
get confused. You will never be able to decide which address is the right one: the
Hindu, the Christian, the Mohammedan, the Buddhist...
There are three hundred religions on the earth and at least three thousand sects. If you
listen to all of them you will simply go crazy. It will take thousands of lives to listen to
all of them and all that they have been pouring into humanity's mind. And it will not
bring any clarity; if you had any in the beginning that too will be lost.
But love can be understood because it is something natural. It is not invented by the
priests; it is not fabricated, manufactured, by the theologian; it is not something that
philosophers have inferred.
It is something natural in you; it is part of your energy. It can be discovered without any
help from the outside.
One just has to remember a few things: beware of jealousy, beware of possessiveness,
and beware of domination. If you can beware of these three enemies, sooner or later
you will find the real love...
Because real love knows nothing of these three and if these three exist the real
remains hidden.
And once you have tasted the real then there is no problem; you will never be deceived
by the unreal. To know the real as real is enough: the unreal is finished with, finished
forever. It can pretend only in the absence of the real......
Minaz
Not Christian, Muslim or Jew
Not Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi or Zen.
Not from any religion or cultural system
I am not from the East or the West
Not out of the ocean or up from the ground
Not natural or ethereal
Not composed of elements at all
I do not exist, ‘am not an entity
In this world or the next
Did not decent from Adam and Eve
Or from any other Origin Story
My place is the Placeless
A trace of the Traceless
Neither body nor soul
I belong to the beloved
I have seen the two worlds as One
And heard that One Call and only know
The First, The Last, The Outer, The Inner
Only that breath breathing
HUMAN BEING
Imran Ali Khan
Call Centre Girl: Sir, just dial 123 to know current bill status
Sardar: Stupid, not CURRENT BILL, MY MOBILE BILL.
Friend: I got a brand new Ford IKON for my wife!
Sardar: Wow!!! That's an unbelievable exchange offer!!!
Teacher: Which is the oldest animal in world?
Sardar: ZEBRA
Teacher : Why?
Sardar: Bcoz it is Black & White
Judge: Don't U have shame? It is d 3rd time U R coming to court…
Sardar: U R coming daily, don't U have shame?
Question: "Should Women have Children after 35?"
Smart Sardar Replied: "No! 35 Children R More than Enough!!"
Sardar attending an interview in Software Company.
Manager: Do U know MS Office?
Sardar : If U give me the address I will
go there sir.
Sardar got one sms from his girl friend: "I MISS YOU"
Sardarji replied: "I Mr YOU”!
After finishing MBBS Sardar started his practice. He Checked 1st Patient's
Eyes, Tongue & Ears By Torch & Finally Said:
"Torch is okay"
Sardar1: Oye, what will happen if electricity is not discovered?
Sardar2: Nothing, we must watch TV in candle light.
Shashi Kumar
This is a short story which I often relate to before I start forming an opinion
about someone in particular. I hope this would give you an insight as to how
our thought process changes when we allow our mind to think the way we
want to.
Once upon a time there was a poor man whose
livelihood was to cut wood in the forest and sell it in
the market on a daily basis; his axe was his prized
possession. He used to run his household with this
meager income. It was a routine for him to pick his
axe, go to the forest, cut wood, sell it in the market,
and rest in the evening.
One day, as he was stepping out of his house, he noticed that his axe was
missing. He searched and searched but could find it nowhere. He was sad and
depressed because without the axe he would not be able to earn a single paisa.
Finally, he borrowed some money from his well-wishers and bought a new axe,
but the grief of losing his axe started bothering him every day.
He started to recollect where he might have lost the
axe: on the way back home, was he robbed, or what
else?? He finally came to a conclusion that he had
placed the axe at home where he always used to and
that somebody had stolen it. Once he had formed this
perception, he started thinking about who could have
done it: a thief or someone who he already knew. Then
he remembered that every day his son’s friend comes home to play.
“Hmmm…..he could have easily picked the axe!” he thought. The woodcutter
started to believe that the boy was the thief and as each day passed he was
very sure that the boy had stolen the axe.
“Enough of it!!” one morning he thought, “I am going to catch hold of this boy
tomorrow and get my axe back.” With a feeling of relief he went to the forest as
usual. After working for a while, he had his lunch, and settled down for his
afternoon siesta. He made himself comfortable under the shade of a tree,
placed his axe in the hollow of the tree, and slept. After a short while, he woke
up and started getting ready to leave for town. As he bent down to pick up the
axe from the hole, to his surprise he found two axes.
“Oooops!!!” he said to himself, “I kept my axe here the other day and forgot to
pick it up.” He was overjoyed to get his axe back, and then thought about the
boy whom he had misperceived to be a thief, and now that it was his own
mistake of misplacing the axe, the perception changed right away to the boy
being innocent which was the truth.
In our daily lives we tend to be prey to this kind of perceptions - we start
forming opinions about people who are our friends, family, colleagues, and
relatives. It is important before we form a perception about an individual that
we deliberate for a while why their actions seem different than it used to be - is
it solely because our perception has changed?? Perception can be dangerous; it
might seem as though the individual is bad though he is not and sometimes the
other way round.
Some Gyaan from internet
Person perception has both positive and negative aspects. One of the strengths
of person perception is that it allows people to make judgments very quickly.
Realistically, you simply do not have time to get to know each and every person
you come into contact with on an individual, personal basis. Using person
perception allows you to make decisions and establish expectations of how
people will behave in certain situations very quickly, which allows you to focus
on other things.
The problems with this technique include the fact that it can lead to errors and
as well as stereotyping. Imagine that you are getting on a bus, but there are
only two seats available. One seat is next to a petite,
silver-haired, elderly woman, the other seat is next
to a burly, grim-faced man. Based on your
immediate impression, you sit next to the elderly
woman, who unfortunately turns out to be quite
skilled at picking pockets. Because of person
perception, you immediately judged the woman as
harmless and the man as threatening, leading to the loss of your wallet.
So, think twice before you form an opinion about somebody in your life….
Sharath K