Demystifying Relation between Food and Stress

Courtesy: Google Images

Courtesy: Google Images

Long back,I have read the research on the connection between the food and stress levels which reports that the intake of food is positively correlated with stress levels. Recently, i begun to appreciate this research. Not only this, to accentuate further, during the high stress levels, I also observed that my affinity towards junk food increases. I prefer more of the pizza and pastas, KFCs and Mcdonalds depspite of the fact that they are nothing more than the junk causing the loss of both health as well as wealth. But when i feel calm and at peace with myself, i avoid the junk food and prefers simple and healthy food. 

Today, I was feeling very stressed in the afternoon due to improper sleep, work load and simple as usual relationship issue. As I entered in the canteen, there is a strong uncontrollable urge to eat Chicken Biryani. These days I am also trying to avoid non vegetarian food but today after a long time, urge was very strong. I realized my soul  was looking for the instant gratification and that is why I feel the urge. I knew well in advance that eating Biryani will not going to provide any gratification or reduce any problem but on the contrary, it will make me more sluggish and sleepy and effect my productivity. But the problem is that when you are feeding the negative energy in you, it gets boost. I remember a very nice story. Please read it below. I have to look it at the google to find the exact wordings and preserve the courtesy. 

Once an old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life.

A fight is going on inside me, he said to the boy. It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil – he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.This same fight is going on inside you and inside every other person, too. The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, which wolf will win? The old Cherokee simply replied, the one you feed.

But inspite of all this, I thought nothing is going as expected so let me love myself more by feeding myself with Biryani and I give in. As soon as I finished it, I am finding it hard to stand and walk and my eyes find it difficult to remain open. It is 5.30 pm now and 5 minutes of joy the biryani gives me is far less than the efforts I poured in my work. But I know myself, Instead of getting any lessons from it, I will again repeat this again as this had happened before many times. Such is nature of the mind. We knowingly make mistakes. 

In the meantime, I also arranged the plan of beer today. Although,  drinking on the first working day of the week is the rarest thing in my life but still I will go out today as it is Tuesday, we had holiday on Monday this time. No need to mention any relation between alcohol intake and stress level as it is self evident.

Some points to remember to have a happy life

It is not that I am claiming myself some guru or what but believe me in these challenging times, keeping in mind the following points will definitely help.

There are not my original points but sort of compilations of different talks and speeches I have came across and which i modeled as per as my convenience. Coming back to these points is what I do when i feel low. 

1. You cannot change anybody but yourself. Instead of complaining about anything or everything, you can work upon yourself to always maintain your calm simply because you cannot change anybody else but definitely work on yourself.  
2. Always have the attitude of gratitude and feel blessed for all what we have instead of complaining about what we don't. Always remember there are millions of people who dream of living our life. If you are still not convinced, have a look on handicapped people around us and thank god. You must have heard a quote, "I always complain about my old shoes unless I saw the person without legs." Courtesy- Anonymous
3. Never complain instead confront problems with smile because only our reaction is under our control and not everything.
4. This world is very friendly place to live and god want all of us to do the best in our lives. 
5. Trust people openly no matter how many times you are hurt because  Out of every 10 cases, you will get a person for life in 7 cases and may feel hurt 3 times. Everybody is like us and nobody really wants to hurt anybody. It is just the circumstances which make people do such things. Sometimes, we also hurt others. 
6.  Appreciate nature. For me, nature is a biggest source of inspiration for me. Feel the wind, plants, waterfalls, tress, everything around us and you will be amazed to think that we take so many things for granted. Sun, Trees gives their heat, light and shade to everyone without any prejudice and as well with detachment. Such should be the nature of the mankind. 
7. Don't think too much. Just believe in your capabilities. Try to live in present. When life is not getting your way, always think that life has some better plan for you and which is of course better that your path as it is planned by god itself.  
8. Try to take care of your health because in order to live a life fully, you must possess good health.

Writing after long time

21 June2012

Writing something after long time is not an easy task especially when you are working. In college, I wrote so many blogs with average of 8 blogs every month but after college ended in April,2012, not a single  blog was written. It was not that I am not having time but it is because after college so many changes had taken place in my life that every time, I plan to write something, the idea of sharing so many things discourages me and as a result, I ended up in some other activity. 

I got engaged with Chhavi Aggarwal, one of my classmates in school on 17^th April. Please don’t confuse it with a love marriage, the question many people asks when they came to know we are from the same class. I always told them, if I knew her so closely in school as I know her now, I will definitely be fall into love with her. She is beyond my imaginations and I am very lucky to have her as my wife. 

My joining in corporate was from 21^st May in Bangalore. We made the best use of 1 month and met around 13, 14 times. We went everywhere in Saharanpur we thought of going before I left my home for job.

Today, I reminisced how difficult it was for me to leave on 18^th May . Holding her hand first time, proposing her, giving red roses to her,  saying ‘darling’ to her first time are the moments very closed to my heart and now sleeping at night without listening to her voice became impossible. I am not writing this post to impress her or something like that but just to warm up myself before I return to my blog in a full-fledged manner.

Besides this, presently I am in Hyderabad. Last 1 month is sort of transition and I felt like I am in a travelling job but I enjoyed. Actually after spending 3 weeks in Bangalore which is about Induction, I got the project in Hyderabad. It is only yesterday that I have shifted in my 3 bhk flat which is I am sharing with 2 more guys. Finally, I unpacked my luggage after 1 month and was surprised to see many things which I almost forgot. 

My marriage is planned in November. Besides, there are lot of things like planning Honeymoon, shopping.

I will return to this post as soon as I get the time. Let it be published as saving it again in the draft will serve no purpose and also it lost its meaning after sometime.

Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata by Devdutt Pattanaik

Jaya : An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata, is a beautiful condensed story of our great and one of the longest epic  written in very simple and easy writing style by Mr. Devdutt Pattanaik, Chief Belief Officer of Future Group. Devdutt had managed to hook the reader throughout the novel by his art of storytelling. It is my first read of the Devdutt and I am looking forward to read more novels.  I have already buy Myth = Mythya. I came to know about him in our Management class of Organization behavior by our faculty. 

I would say it a must read if you have never been introduced to Mahabharata. It is good for the starters who sometimes shy away from the book considering it very long. Even if you have watched the serial on Television, it would be a good read. The best part about it is that it includes a lot of small regional stories which are not included in the other similar novels or TV serial. And also, the scope for the confusion is minimized by mentioning the different beliefs systems or different stories in the different parts by mentioning it explicitly. Also, it entails a lot of information through bullet points which are at the end of every chapter. In my case, as soon as the confusion arose, I referred the bullet points and it was solved. 

I have also read the Great Indian Novel by Shashi Tharoor which is about comparing the epic with Modern India. Different characters like Gandhi, Nehru, Bose are compared with different characters of Mahabharata.

The part of Mahabharata in which Krishna gave the Geeta was bit short in the novel but that is okay as that was complete book in itself. One of the best dialogues I like is Krishna is wisdom and Arjuna is action and both of them are present inside us.

I am also planning to read the book on Mahabharata by Gurcharan das, the difficulty of being good.

To conclude, I would say you can read this if you are a starter or less than 30 as the novel is full of cartoons and pictures which are to impress the youth or attract the children but if you have really read Mahabharata 2,3 times by different authors, then I doubt if you will be moved.

Learnings of a Travelling Bag

Courtesy: Google Images

Some travelling tips, I would like to share with all of you as per as my recent experiences. Although, you will get lot of tips on web but these tips are bit different and shared to enhance the travelling experiences and apply to those only who are real travel freaks and who does not believe on planning and booking the things in advance but start without any preparation with not so big budget. And yes that is obvious one cannot follow such carefree attitude at all the places.

·         Never land anywhere after 7, 8 pm because you have to bargain very hard for accommodation then.  At such hour, you are in hurry to get the room so as not to waste the night and this is what the people take advantage of. We once went to Alibaugh at 11pm, everything was closed and we ourselves are not comfortable enough to look for a cheap cottage. We finalized the one quickly and ended up in paying extra money which we have saved if landed 2, 3 hours before.

·         Take risks and make mistakes because at the end of the day, everything would be fine. Go on wrong routes deliberately and enjoy these risks to the fullest.

·         Try to spend more time at less places than to spend less time at more placesè keep it inch wide and mile deep rather than mile wide and inch deep for the better understanding of the place and culture.

·         Break your journey: If your journey is more than 7, 8 hours at a stretch, you can always have the option of splitting the journey and cover more parts provided there are more tourist spots nearby. When we went to Goa from Mumbai, we stayed at Ratnagiri for 1 night which is a very good place and break our 9 hour long journey into 6 and 3. In this way, travelling is much more stress free and rewarding at the same time.

·         Concentrate less on photographs and more on experience:  This is personnel view because some people travel exclusively for capturing some amazing photographs. But some people even I had travelled with them never switch off their camera. It is good if you are capturing some statue or landscape or beaches but there is no point in posing yourself again and again in front of them and then asking people, please take 1 picture.

·         Prefer small group that cannot be sub grouped to avoid the conflict of ideas at small little things and also to avoid stress. When the group is small, you always have the options of saving a lot of unnecessary time wasting activities like follow ups, waiting and calling each other asking where are you, when you will come and so on. Believe me, so much time is saved in smaller groups. In large groups, even when you eat and drink at a Restaurant, it takes a hell lot of time.

·         Travel in Local buses or local vehicles there rather than your personnel car or radio taxi to enhance your experience and knowledge about the culture of the place.

·         Log off your mobile and facebook accounts to enjoy better instead of sharing every place you visit at facebook and then expecting comments.