The Art of Cooking!

Cooking is not a duty. It is an art. Those who have understood this have always cooked scrumptious food. I used to work for a software company and cooking was a duty for me. I have always whined about cooking and never was happy to cook. Now that I quit my job, I have no other option than to cook. Initially, I was lazy and always complaining.Time went on and nothing changed. I had to cook! Finally, I decided to make cooking a delight. I tried out various recipes and finally found that cooking is an art!

Most of my friend's moms are great cook. They cook both breakfast and lunch in less than 45mts. I used to wonder how they do it. When I asked about this to one of my friend's mother,she said without any hesitation,"I love to cook and Challenge myself daily to cook a dish which is more delicious than what I cooked yesterday!". Wow! I never thought people take part in these kind of challenges. She also gave me few tips which I will be sharing with you.

Do you know you can talk to your vegetables and fruits? I didn't, till I met my old school friend. She used to be the fun and freaky one. But now, She is a mom of 2 kids and an awesome cook. She told me an interesting news about vegetables. If you talk to the vegetables while you are cooking them, you get a very delicious food cooked. The taste of the food you prepare completely depends on your mood. Have you ever wondered why the same dish you cooked last week was more delicious than what you cooked today? Taste does depend on your emotions. When you are happy, the radiations from your body are positive and they make the food taste great. When you are dull,angry or not feeling well, your body produces negative energy which in turn spoils your food. Taking all these into consideration, we must have a clear mind when we start cooking. Think about food and how delicious it is going to taste after you prepare them. This will surely help to crown you as a great cook.

Now let us go for the tips and tricks in cooking. These are very useful for working women. These tips are generally for Indians. Others can change them according to their needs.

1. Cut your vegetables the day before and store it in an airtight container.
2. Cut your cilantro and curry leaves the day you buy them and store in a box so that you can use them whenever necessary.
3. When you start to cook, always place the rice first in the rice cooker. You can do other dishes when the rice is cooking. Guess what?After some days you will complete the entire cooking before the rice is done.(It takes 30mts to cook rice in the rice cooker)
4. Cut all vegetables that are required for that session's cooking at one time. By doing so, you can cook two dishes at a time and you need not worry about the ingredients.
5. Last but not the least, if you can, do sing while cooking. Music makes you feel happy and in turn helps your dishes to taste yummy.

There are a wide range of recipes in the web. I collect them and also share my own recipes in my blog Let Us All Cook!

Overcome emotions during pregnancy

One of the most random things to deal with for expectant mums, is the roller coaster ride of emotions during pregnancy. These emotions are sometimes very difficult to control and usually come at us with no notice, so one minute we may be fine and relaxed, the next we might have turned into a wailing banshee.

Obviously this can be a confusing time, not just for us but our loved ones too. Our partners maybe looking forward to spending some time with their loving wives, only to be greeted by a tired and irritable women in her place. This is why it is worth taking some time to understand the different emotions during pregnancy and why it's important to stay strong. Clearly having some form of expectations is better than not being prepared for certain changes.

Probably the best way to deal with changing emotions during pregnancy is to keep an open, honest and constant dialogue with those around you. Our family is probably as confused or apprehensive as we are, try to take the time and describe how you are feeling, perhaps agree some exclusive "me time" where you do nothing but put your feet up. To read further do visit Pregnancy Wizard

Top 5 Ways to Combat Sadness

Life is so unpredictable and most of the time things happen against us.This is an article by Jeff Cohen to overcome our sadness and help ourselves to lead a better life.

One moment your face is beaming with a ray of happiness and then the next day you suddenly feel weak, with low energy, and unable to accomplish anything. If you are experiencing the latter, then you are suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
Long ago, the feeling of sadness was closely associated with changing seasons. The transition from summer to winter to spring leads to mood swings. A person switches starts off with a happy mood then becomes depressed and tense.
No person is immune from feeling sad, men or women, young or old, rich or poor, people will always experience sadness.

Here are five helpful tips that can help you combat sadness:
1. Soak up the morning light.

2. Avoid too much alcohol or caffeine.

3. Get regular exercise.

4. Eat lunch outside.
5. Eat foods containing the amino acid trytophan.

To Read more about this article do click here.

How to overcome Homesickness

In this busy world most of us are away from our family for improving our career opportunities.Not all are attached to family, but I bet all will feel nostalgic at some point during this journey.Homesickness is not an emotion for us to be ashamed of.You must feel proud that you are associated with a wonderful family and you miss their love and affection.Here is an article on how to overcome homesickness.Hope this is helpful for a lot of people out there missing their kith and kin.

Sometimes you just want to get away. Your older brother and his friends are constantly camped in front of the TV, your baby sister won't stay out of your room, and you want some time to yourself.

But when you get it - maybe at a friend's house for an all-weekend DVD marathon or on spring break at Disney World - you're surprised to find yourself missing the chaos at home a bit.
What's that all about? Believe it or not, you're feeling homesick.

The Deal With Homesickness
When you're homesick, you might feel nostalgic for familiar things like your family, friends, pets, house, or neighborhood. You can miss something as simple as your bed or the tree outside your window.
Homesickness isn't only for kids: Practically everyone feels homesick from time to time, even adults. Teens might get homesick when they leave home for the first extended period of time, like during a vacation with a friend's family or a summer job as a camp counselor. Going off to college is another common trigger.

Why Do I Feel This Way?
Familiar surroundings, people, and routines provide people with a sense of security and comfort. In a new place, you may find yourself missing the comforts of home and loved ones. Those homesick feelings are completely normal.

Tips for Dealing With Homesickness
Luckily, homesickness is usually mild and doesn't last long. And there are things you can do to make sure it doesn't spoil your fun.
Try a trial run.

Bring something that reminds you of home.

Call home when you can.

Do something you enjoy.
Talk to a friend, ideally someone who's going through the same experience you are.

Write in a journal.
Stay active.

Review your expectations.
Talk to an adult.

Almost everyone has felt homesick at some time. Remember that there's a good side to homesickness, too: It means you have family and friends worth missing and a place you want to return to when your adventure away from home is over. To read more do visit http://www.kidshealth.org/

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence (EI), often measured as an Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ), describes an ability, capacity, or skill to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of one's self, of others, and of groups.

Emotional intelligence tests are very effective tools that can help people demonstrate how aware they are of their own weaknesses and character traits.Although most people claim to be knowledgeable about all aspects of their lives, they are often clueless as to their emotional intelligence. Additionally, it is easy to point out the character flaws and weaknesses in other people but people generally fail to look deep inside themselves to find the flaws within.

It is so important for people to have and to be aware of their emotional intelligence but it is very rare to find someone who actually is.Emotional intelligence in conflict situations can help people deal with struggles and difficult situations in life but often people lack the insight to see inside themselves. An emotional intelligence assessment and exercises can help people get the proof they need to become more self-aware so that they start working on self-improvement.

These tests give guidance as to what specifically needs improvement or which traits need to be acquired to make the person improve and become better. When people are given a clear direction about what they should be working on, it makes self-improvement much less of a daunting task. Being aware of one’s emotional intelligence helps people lead more productive and more fulfilling lives and it can help them have better and stronger relationships.

Emotional intelligence exercises can help people deal with challenges in life and with daily interactions and relationships, making life better and more fulfilling. Emotional intelligence means that people will be able to detect the emotions and feelings of himself and of other people.
Having this skill is very effective in allowing people to know how to deal with many situations in life, such as during conflict. Understanding the other person’s side and viewpoint can help avoid conflict or can help end a disagreement with both parties feeling assuaged and cared about.

Even though emotional intelligence can be learned about by reading, special emotional intelligence exercises can help people work on acquiring this asset in a more tangible and real way.Respecting others is an effective emotional intelligence exercise because it allows on to put himself in another person’s position. It also helps reduce conflict and makes a person more understanding.

Being aware of the names of feelings can help one identify his emotions so that he can channel them more effectively. Another exercise is learning how to take the energy that certain emotions bring. For example, one who feels anger should use emotional intelligence exercises to help him deal with the energy that the anger brings. Once the energy is directed elsewhere, for example into a productive activity, he has used his emotions in as industrious and constructive way instead of allowing it to have destructive effects.

An essential aspect of emotional intelligence tests is that it allows people to become much more self-aware and they can therefore become more responsible for their own actions. This means that instead of blaming others for his mistakes and for things that go wrong in life, a person with emotional intelligence will look internally and will find his own flaws and will work on them.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/

How to control anger

1 Give Yourself Permission to Express Anger.

Our society does not allow us to express strong emotions. We are taught to hold in our emotions from the earliest age. This can have a profoundly negative effect on our overall health. It’s not wrong to express anger, fear, sadness, rage. In fact, it is healthy to release these emotions regularly. What’s wrong is when we hurt someone in the process. It is preferable to find safe ways to dump the negative feelings.

2 Combine Mental and Physical Effort.

Mental therapy alone may be extremely helpful for anger release, but it can only take you so far. Similarly, the physical act of doing exercise can help many people let off steam, but it may not remove deep-seated anger. The most effective process is when you can combine both the mental and physical effort. This is when you do a particular physical activity along with the mental intention of releasing the anger. Please see the next step for specific examples of how to combine the mental and physical effort to help release your anger. In each example, don’t just pound pillows, or rip paper, but REALLY FEEL the heavy anger emotion with it’s full intensity WHILE you do the physical activity. This is so important and will assist you to finally RELEASE the anger energy so that it won’t come back. You may have to do the process repeatedly because it releases layer by layer and it is doubtful that you will get to all of it in one session. There are many studies recently showing that doing this type of activity can MAKE someone more aggressive. This is a complicated issue. Let’s say that the type of people who hold in their anger their whole life NEED to learn to become more aggressive in order to become balanced. It is important to learn how to not be a doomat and have people walk all over you. It is important to speak up for what you believe and not take garbage from everyone. So, indeed, if this behavior makes a person RELATIVELY more aggressive, it is in the vein of becoming whole, and that is a good thing! If you are already an explosive person who throws temper tantrums and becomes violent, then this approach is not appropriate. This recommendation is more appropriate for the “quiet anger” that a person keeps inside for many years. This is the anger that causes physical illnesses, sleep disturbances and other stress-related conditions. Getting the anger out in these cases is extremely therapeutic.

3 Never Hurt Others in the Process.

Give yourself the opportunity to express anger in a safe way, without hurting anyone else. Most people will benefit by having a private room to pound pillows with their fists or legs, or with a plastic bat. Some people may prefer ripping pages of paper, screaming, throwing plates (old ones). Many people find it helpful to use anger-release music as a stimulus or catalyst for this process. Remember, NEVER hurt yourself in the process and never aim your anger literally at another person. What is important here is your expression of the negative emotion, NOT who receives it. If the anger (or other emotion) is traced to a specific individual, some people have found it helpful to have a symbol of this person at which they can direct the anger. This could be an enlarged photocopy of a photo on a piece of paper which you then scribble-over, tear, burn, or otherwise destroy. Be open to discovering your own dynamic anger-release method.

4 Totally Let Go, Without Hesitation.

It is also important to suggest that if you feel the need to express yourself in any of these ways, that you either are totally alone so that you don’t feel inhibited, or that you are in the surroundings of a group of people who are supportive of this type of activity. If you don’t have a private room in your house, maybe you can find a secluded area, where no one will hear or see you — even the inside of your car may work. (Don’t do any of this while actually driving!)

5 Strive to Forgive.

The final step in maintaining anger-release is to truly forgive the person who wronged you as well as to truly forgive yourself.

Emotion and decision - How are they related.

We make many decisions, and sometimes we are more or less logical about them. And it is arguable that all decision are, ultimately emotional.

Logical vs. emotional decision-making

Decision-making is a cognitive process where the outcome is a choice between alternatives. We often have different preferences as to our preferred, approach, varying between thinking and feeling.

Logical decision-making

When we use logic to make decisions, we seek to exclude emotions, using only rational methods, and perhaps even mathematical tools. The foundation of such decisions is the principle of utility, whereby the value of each option is assessed by assigning criteria (often weighted).

Emotional decision-making

There is a whole range of decision-making that uses emotion, depending on the degree of logic that is included in the process.

A totally emotional decision is typically very fast. This is because it takes time (at least 0.1 seconds) for the rational cortex to get going. This is the reactive (and largely subconscious) decision-making that you encounter in heated arguments or when faced with immediate danger.

Common emotional decisions may use some logic, but the main driving force is emotion, which either overrides logic or uses a pseudo-logic to support emotional choices (this is extremely common).

Another common use of emotion in decision is to start with logic and then use emotion in the final choice.

To read more on this topic do visit Changing Minds

Negative Emotions - Throw them away!!

The term "Negative Emotions" implies all those emotions which are negative in character. They prevent us from seeing and accepting the life situations naturally. "Negative Emotions" are primarily responsible for gradual declination or downfall of our normal thinking process, which is essential for our natural (unforced) survival, even in the struggle for existence!

Continuous accumulation of negative emotions within the mind for a longer period of time can pervert our entire persona and can badly hamper the health and happiness. At earlier stages, negative emotions get backdoor entry with stealthy steps and later on entraps the mind wholly, affecting the physical body badly. Behavioral Negativities --like fear, shame, guilt, arrogance, envy, jealousy, greed, phobia and many other like that-- are considered to be an expression of "Negative Emotions"

As said above, there are various ways of expressing negative emotions like jealousy, anger, envy, greed, sloth, shame, guilt etc. Even the pleasant things in excess like over-enthusiasm, passions, elations or even certain forms of love, can also generate negative emotions. Despite being of no use to us, negative emotions are tremendously powerful. They can debilitate our lives extremely quick. A life-long friendship may come to an end with few words; suspicion or doubting the moral character of partner may lead to divorce or make disastrous choices, because we are out to prove something.

Disturbance in thought pattern over a longer period of time affects the body systems and gradually causes imbalance in our energy system, which triggers a sequence of physiological activities (body) OR symptoms that ultimately culminates in ill-health. Simple things may also affect our psyche badly. A cold, a headache, a late night or a missed meal; is all enough to severely alter our behavior. We may be irritated by far less than usual. We may feel tearful even at the slightest pressure. This can be controlled if we could remember the limitations of our innate nature, as well as our innate capacity to alleviate the surge of reigning negative emotions, so as to face the life situations correctly.

Either in an impulsive passion as well as in a quiet manner, negative emotions can be expressed.

Rage, anger, arrogance, uncontrolled desire, and violence, as well as self-pity, melancholy, loneliness, boredom, dissatisfaction, inadequacy or envy are few of the most common examples of expressing negative emotions.

We should not fool ourselves that saying we do not want to stop being negative means we could stop if we wanted to. We have no control, and cannot choose not to be negative.

Giving up the behavioral negativity is part of the price we pay for awakening. We have to give up something if we wish to make space for something new in our lives. We can hardly be receptive to higher forces when we are busy in criticizing or quipping others. Purging Negative emotions from the core of psyche at proper timing is the most crucial decision. Well-balanced nature, and a rational or optimistic attitude towards life leads to positive self-image and in turn, satisfying relationships with friends and others. Please remember, your innate nature and general behavioral traits dominates your thoughts, feelings, and mental make-up that affect your overall life. Having emotionally balanced nature and pragmatic attitude help you make good decisions and deal with life's challenges at home and workplace. We cannot learn to swim if we fall in the sea during a storm. We must learn swimming in a calm water. Then perhaps if we fall in we'll be able to swim. Obviously, deal with negative emotions becomes easier when we see that our repertoire of negative emotions is quite limited.

Although not scientifically -but broadly- general negativities are classified as:

1.Teenagers Negatives
2.Childhood Negatives
3.Student Negatives
4.At Mental Level
5.At Physical Level

To learn more about these negatives do visit 'www.charminghealth.com'.

Managing emotions at workplace

Most of us do not want to face any kind difficult situations that may arise in our workplace.I bet you agree with me. We are pampered by our parents and we have been facing only happiness and things would happen the way we want them during our college and school days. But, after entering the new world called 'Workplace', we are forced to face the challenges and the difficulties that they offer. Almost 90% of us find it hard to master the emotional imbalance that we experience in our workplace.

Why is managing emotions an important skill today?

It's primarily because there's more of it now than in the past. Workers of all types are more likely to speak up for their own ideas or actions, rather than follow the dictating corporate chain of command. Conflict also sometimes arises as a result of unclear company goals, or when those goals aren't shared equally by all. Rather than working for a single common good, employees and managers seek individual goals, such as promotion, job security, experience, money. Also people with different attitude, culture and habbits work for the same target as a team.This also contributes a lot for conflicts, which in turn requires managing emotions.

Now let us get deep into how we can go about in managing our emotions in workplace. Knowing the importance of emotions, we have to give our atmost effort in controlling and mastering them.

Sit back and analyse what incidents/actions put you in a position where your emotions take control.Write them down in a paper. For example,

a.I get frustrated when Iam not recogonised for the work I have done.

b.I get angry when my team member does not complete the alloted work on time.

c.I feel like crying when my superior blasts me for a small mistake.

Let us analyse these 3 examples.We can put in similar approach for any kind of problem that we are likely to face in our workplace. In our first example, the emotion taken for discussion is 'Frustration'. This is the most common emotion that most of us undergo. There are two ways to approch this. First one... though we feel that we have done a good job, our boss might not be satisfied with our performance. He would have expected more from us and this would have lead in delay in our recogonision. This would be the reason most of the times. The best way to handle this scenario is to have a 'One to One' with our boss. Ask him/her to set your goals clearly.This would solve 70% of the problem. Also ask your boss to define his expections on you. You must make sure that you create a visibility for what you have done for the project/company.This ensures that your boss is aware of what you have been doing and makes you get noticed within your team. The second one is self recogonision. When you feel proud of what you have achieved you will not expect anyone to appreciate this accomplishment of yours.Your innerself will be your boss and will boost your confidence, productivity and your self esteem. If you practise the second method, you can easily control and manage your emotions.Most of us will prefere to go by the first method,though.

Moving on to our second and thrird examples. We can look at them together;as in one situation you are the boss and in another you are a team member.Same person performing both the roles will give a clear idea of how a boss thinks and how a team member thinks. When you come accross a situation like this, the best option is to look at that incident from a third person's view. DO NOT make the mistake of putting yourself into others shoe, in this case as a team member (in example 2) and as a boss (in example 3).This will surely add on to the problem and will never solve the problem. We are working as a team and we will obviously have different kinds of people with different attitudes. We will have a team member who is more proactive and do all the work before even telling him/her to do. However, we will also have members who needs driving. Knowing this we will have to handle the situation givin in our example 2 and 3. When you expect a behaviour from your subordinate, you must be aware that the same kind of behaviour will be expected from you. This thought will help you in managing your emotions.

We might face different situations in our workplace that ignites our emotions. But most of the time it will be only the emotions that i have discussed here. If we know the way to control and manage these emotions, we will be able to control and manage any other emotion that tries to dominate us in workplace. Hope this was helpful for you. Do drop in your suggessions at http://mindmanage.blogspot.com/