Vipaasana

  For thousands of years, people have adopted the ancient practice of Yoga to enhance their physical and mental well-being. Its foundation is the idea that the body and mind are interconnected, and it has its roots in India. The Sanskrit word " Yuj ," which means "to connect or join," is where the word " Yoga " originates. A common definition of  Yoga  is the fusion of the mind, body, and soul. It is a comprehensive technique that incorporates breathing exercises, physical postures, meditation, and mindfulness. The fact that  Yoga  helps to increase strength and flexibility is one of its key advantages. The physical positions, or asanas, help to increase flexibility while also stretching and toning the muscles. Injuries can be prevented and posture can be improved as a result. Yoga  provides a lot of advantages for mental wellness as well. Stress and anxiety can be lessened by practicing meditation and breathing exercises. Additionally,...

What is a Patriarchal society? Even though the actual definition of patriarchy is that the male is the lead role in decision making in a family, it goes much beyond this to mean in a broader sense of male domination .  How is patriarchy manifested and propagated in a society? Societal norms and mores. Prevalent cultural norms. Having more male Heroes and Gods in our mythology. Egoistic male attitude learnt in early stages of life. Primary and secondary socialisation factors. Objectification of women in advertisements. Over emphasis of a man as a lead role in films. Lack of sex education. Denial of basic human rights to those other than men. Exploitation and violence. Child marriage Female genital mutilation Unwanted pregnancy Treating women as one's own property Lack of bodily autonomy What is Bodily Autonomy? Usually referred to women, even though applicable to men and LGBTQ community, bodily autonomy is the agency and power of a person to make a choice about one's body wit...

Content Credits: Tejus R S  Edited and organised by Sriroop B k Could we have managed COVID better? Yes.  What does rise of COVID cases in second wave indicate? The crisis shows lacuna in terms of intelligence, listening, priority, data forecasting, planning, decision making and execution which are Fundamental Management practices that one should possess for effectively handling the pandemic. Facts to be understood: The country spends just about 1.26% of its GDP on its public healthcare system which is much lower than countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh which spend close to 3%. National Health policy 2017 recommended the central government to spend 2.5% on health and states to spend 8%. Hardly any state is allocating the required funds for public health. WHO prescribed Doctor to Patient ratio is 1:1000 i.e. one doctor for every 1000 patients. India stands at 1:1456( Economic Survey 2019-2020 ) and is even 1:10000 (National Health Profile 2019) in some parts of the coun...

 Yes, depending on your age, severeness of the disease and your willingness to recover from the disease, lifestyle diseases can be treated and cured over a long period of time. What are lifestyle diseases? Also called " Civilisational disease " or " Non-communicable disease" or "Culturogenic diseases" , they are not infectious and do not spread from one person to another. They are unique to each individual. These diseases can include High blood pressure, Hypertension, Diabetes, Stroke, Cardiovascular Diseases, Atherosclerosis, Obesity, Internal organ damage, Cancers, Parkinson's disease, Autoimmune Diseases, Alzheimer's Disease etc. How are lifestyle diseases acquired? Lifestyle diseases are acquired mainly from the way of lifestyle that we follow.  Unhealthy diet, no exercise, smoking, alcoholism, drug addiction, irregular sleep, chemicals in food, excessive medicine intake, lethargicity, depression, sadness, anger issues and the like will accumul...

There have been a shift towards a digital economy in the recent past. Cryptocurrencies are among those digital transitions.  What is a Cryptocurrency? It is a digital currency which uses cryptography. What is Cryptography? It is a technique of protecting the information using codes so that only the intended user will be able to extract and understand the information. What is the technology that Cryptography uses? Cryptography uses blockchain technology. What is blockchain technology? It is a technology which uses a technique called digitally distributed ledger.  A ledger is nothing but a record of any transaction.  Normally one centrally controlled ledger is used to store the information of all transactions. But in blockchain, multiple decentralised ledgers are used to store the information, i.e. each information is stored at the same time at different places on different computers. What is the advantage of blockchain technology? Since a single piece of information i...

 A question lingering in the minds of many, "Can lifestyle affect health?" Answer: Yes, IN A HUGE WAY. What is lifestyle? Lifestyle is literally the way in which a person lives right from waking up to sleeping back again including both. It includes all the activities that we do daily and how we do it.  Eg: Waking up and sleeping times, food habits, exercise habits, etc. What affects our lifestyle? Money : This is one of the biggest factors that affect our lifestyle. It can even change a person's attitude! Usually as income increases, people tend more towards materialistic lifestyle. Simplicity becomes rare. Everything is easily available and hence value for other humans and generally the world decreases. Although there are a few exceptions to this, money plays a huge influence on a human's mind. Culture : In quite a few cases culture also plays a huge role in influencing lifestyle. It can have both positive and negative effects.  Eg : Fasting if done correctly by unde...

You might have heard about the word cognition from time to time in your circles. Ever really wondered what it is? What is Cognition?  Cognition is the process of THINKING which entails LANGUAGE, REMEMBERING, REASONING and INTELLIGENCE. LANGUAGE  is the process by which we will acquire information. REMEMBERING  is the process where we learn to store the acquired information. REASONING  is a process where we make logical conclusions about the stored information. INTELLIGENCE  is a process where we connect the gaps by adding creativity to the information. In further stages of life cognition can include PERCEPTION, EVALUATION and JUDGEMENT. When does cognition start? It was believed widely that children develop the ability of cognition only when they start learning a language, but today it has been proved that right from birth, an infant starts cognising the world around it. Can cognition be improved? Yes, cognition can be improved. Brain has a characteristic called...