INSAF

The 7 Deadly Emotions of Caregiving By Paula Spencer Scott , Caring.com senior editor Nobody would ever choose a smiley face as the perfect symbolic emoticon for a caregiver. Caregiving for an ailing loved one is just too stressful -- often triggering damaging emotions that can not only undermine your good work but harm your health, as well. Here's how to cope: Caregiver emotion trap #1: Guilt Guilt is virtually unavoidable as you try to "do it all." What causes guilt : Guilt stems from doing or saying what you believe is the wrong thing, not doing what you perceive to be enough, or otherwise not behaving in the "right" way, whether or not your perceptions are accurate. Caregivers often burden themselves with a long list of self-imposed "oughts," "shoulds," and "musts." A few examples: I must avoid putting Mom in a nursing home. I ought to visit every day. I shouldn't lose my temper with someo...

Mahabharata, the great epic of the Bharata dynasty, is not just a saga of war teems or a material of philosophical and devotional values. It is a tale that inspires awe and wonder, and is a true amalgamation of do’s and don’ts that can be related to every aspects of our day-to-day life. Take a look at the six workplace lessons than can be drawn from this epic tale ascribed to the sage Vyasa, as listed on the Economic Times, based on the inputs of Devdutt Pattanaik, Chief Belief Officer, Future Group. 1. Don’t Be A Bhishma At Work: Bhishma (Devavrata), the eighth son of Kuru King Shantanu and Goddess Ganga, is depicted as a noble figure in the popular versions of Mahabharata. Yet most people wonder why he met a sorry end in the hands of Arjuna, pinned to the ground, suspended between the heaven and earth and unable to move his limbs. As per the Hindu mythology and old Vedic ashram system, a man is supposed to enter vanaprasth ashram, i.e. retire, once his son has a son of his...

Mother's Day is this Sunday. While some people are racking their brains to think of the perfect way to show their love and appreciation for Mom, a group of distinguished women recently flipped that script and wrote about the most profound gift their own moms gave to them. Their essays are collected in the new book  What My Mother Gave Me: Thirty-One Women on the Gifts That Mattered Most. The book springs out of editor Elizabeth Benedict's personal experience. The last gift she received from her mother was a black wool scarf, embroidered at each end with yellow, pink and blue flowers. "She bought it at the assisted-living facility where she lived. And as soon as I began wearing it, people started commenting on how beautiful it was," Benedict tells  Tell Me More  host Michel Martin. "And after she died, I wore it all the time in the winter. And I was literally confused by how I could feel this attachment to the scarf and having felt so much distance from my mot...

- -by Shilpa Jain , Original Story , May 08, 2013 At Shikshantar, we are trying to support the shift from a money-dominant globalized culture to a more small-scale, relationship-focused culture.  My grandmother never went to school, she never knew how to read or write, and she was such a wise and brilliant woman. She was incredibly creative, could come up with songs and dances and games right on the spot. She had tons of practical knowledge on herbal remedies and healing practices, and she was the most environmentally conscious person I know. Nothing ever went to waste; she would always make something out of anything. For her, everything was connected, and all life was important, from the ants, to the dogs, to the cows, to human beings. Because of her, I started asking about and looking for more of that kind of grounded knowledge. My activism has always been defined by what’s doable rather then what are we ...

Kathryn Schulz is a journalist, author and public speaker whose freelance writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, The Nation, Foreign Policy, and The Boston Globe, among other publications. She is known as world's leading "Wrongologist". She was a 2004 recipient of the Pew Fellowship in International Journalism (now the International Reporting Project), and has reported from throughout Central and South America, Japan and the Middle East.  Let us hear what she says: We all want to be right. It's so gratifying to be right and it tells us the superiority of our thoughts and skills. All the fights which happen had been on the point that "I was so much RIGHT". It's gratifying to be right but its liberating to have the freedom to be wrong. When we get into the circle of being right and to be proven right we are imprisoned inside that circle. Being wrong makes us feel frustrated and low because somewhere it tells ...

" As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others." -Audrey Hepburn   Gratitude uplifts and opens up your way of thinking. I can restore a sense of appreciation and optimism,energize your spirit, and renew your perspective. When you take the time to really feel gratitude, even for the challenges you face in life, your outlook can shift, and even help you find solutions. How often do you really allow yourself to truly experience gratitude? Not just the common courtesies as we move through our daily lives- but the deeply held belief - the offer you make to share your sense of awareness of what someone else has done for you? This rich, shimmering quality has the power to affect your emotions and change the way you feel, and value the people in your life.  

Shared Words, Shared Worlds --by Naomi Shihab Nye, May 03, 2013 After learning my flight was detained 4 hours, I heard the announcement: If anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any Arabic, Please come to the gate immediately. Well—one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there. An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress, Just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly. Help, said the flight service person. Talk to her. What is her Problem? we told her the flight was going to be four hours late and she Did this. I put my arm around her and spoke to her haltingly. Shu dow-a, shu- biduck habibti, stani stani schway, min fadlick, Sho bit se-wee? The minute she heard any words she knew—however poorly used— She stopped crying. She thought our flight had been canceled entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for some major medical treatment t...

The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.    ~Fyodor Dostoyevsky Finding something to live for. It’s so true. Everyone needs to have a purpose in life, and as we age, that need doesn’t dissipate. As we reach our golden years, perhaps it even grows in importance. Study Pinpoints Connection According to a paper published last year in the Archives of General Psychiatry , having a reason to wake up in the morning might be even more critical than we imagined. Rush University Medical Center researchers have identified a correlation between life purpose and cognitive decline in individuals already showing biological changes indicative of Alzheimer’s Disease . Over the course of this study, the subjects with a greater purpose in life showed up to a 30% lower rate of cognitive decline than those scoring lower on the life purpose scale. Finding a Purpose Even during the late stages of Alzheimer...

There are more than 733,000 elderly people living in assisted living communities across America, and that number will exponentially increase as the baby boomer population reaches 65+ in record numbers each day. Interestingly enough, many common elderly ailments seem to overlap, according to a new government study. With age comes normal aches and pain. This is just plain common sense: our bodies start to wear out as we get older. And when lifestyles changes occur—such as retirement, injuries, loss of a spouse, etc— daily activities and stimulation can be affected. This is when atrophy can take place. Stress can be a catalyst for sickness, as well. Any time a person’s sound mind and body are interrupted, which is common with normal aging and life changes, these types of negative influencers can affect someone’s health. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, Alzheimer’s disease , high blood pressure and heart disease are the three most common chronic...

  Latest Recommendations For most women, especially after menopause , taking a calcium supplement with vitamin D to prevent osteoporosis is as routine as brushing your teeth. Now studies are showing that there is no proven fracture prevention at daily doses of up to 1000mg per day of calcium and 400 international units (IUs) of vitamin D . More specifically, the guidelines published by the USPSTF ( U.S. Preventive Services Task Force ) state the following:  Current evidence shows no proven benefit for premenopausal women or men to take combined vitamin D and calcium to prevent fractures.  In healthy, postmenopausal women, there is no proven benefit for taking calcium at doses of less than 400 IUs of vitamin D and less than 1,000mg of calcium. For healthy, postmenopausal women taking higher doses of calcium and vitamin D than the ones listed above, there is no sufficient evidence balancing risks and benefits. Not only are studies inconclusive on the ...