Control Stress by Breathing

1. Sama Vritti or “Equal Breathing”
How it’s done: Balance can do a body good, beginning with the breath. To start, inhale for a count of four, then exhale for a count of four — all through the nose, which adds a natural resistance to the breath. Got the basic pranayama down? More advanced yogis can aim for six to eight counts per breath with the same goal in mind: calm the nervous system, increase focus and reduce stress, Pacheco says.
When it works best: Anytime, anyplace — but this is one technique that’s especially effective before bed. “Similar to counting sheep,” Pacheco says, “if you’re having trouble falling asleep, this breath can help take your mind off the racing thoughts, or whatever might be distracting you from sleep.”

2. Abdominal Breathing Technique
How it’s done: With one hand on the chest and the other on the belly, take a deep breath in through the nose, ensuring the diaphragm (not the chest) inflates with enough air to create a stretch in the lungs. The goal: Six to 10 deep, slow breaths per minute for 10 minutes each day to experience immediate reductions to heart rate and blood pressure, McConnell says. Keep at it for six to eight weeks, and those benefits might stick around even longer.
When it works best: Before an exam, or any stressful event. But keep in mind, “Those who operate in a stressed state all the time might be a little shocked how hard it is to control the breath,” Pacheco says. To help train the breath, consider biofeedback tools such as McConnell’s Breathe Strong app, which can help users pace their breathing wherever they are.

3. Nadi Shodhana or “Alternate Nostril Breathing”
How it’s done: A yogi’s best friend, this breath is said to bring calm and balance, and unite the right and left sides of the brain. Starting in a comfortable meditative pose, hold the right thumb over the right nostril and inhale deeply through the left nostril. At the peak of inhalation, close off the left nostril with the ring finger, then exhale through the right nostril. Continue the pattern, inhaling through the right nostril, closing it off with the right thumb and exhaling through the left nostril.
When it works best: Crunch time, or whenever it’s time to focus or energize. Just don’t try this one before bed: Nadi shodhana is said to “clear the channels” and make people feel more awake. “It’s almost like a cup of coffee,” Pacheco says.

4. Kapalabhati or “Skull Shining Breath”
How it’s done: Ready to brighten up your day from the inside out? This one begins with a long, slow inhale, followed by a quick, powerful exhale generated from the lower belly. Once comfortable with the contraction, up the pace to one inhale-exhale (all through the nose) every one to two seconds, for a total of 10 breaths.
When it works best: When it’s time to wake up, warm up or start looking on the brighter side of things. “It’s pretty abdominal-intensive,” Pacheco says, “but it will warm up the body, shake off stale energy and wake up the brain.” If alternate nostril breathing is like coffee, consider this a shot of espresso, she says.

5. Progressive Relaxation
How it’s done: To nix tension from head to toe, close the eyes and focus on tensing and relaxing each muscle group for two to three seconds each. Start with the feet and toes, then move up to the knees, thighs, rear, chest, arms, hands, neck, jaw and eyes — all while maintaining deep, slow breaths. Having trouble staying on track? Anxiety and panic specialist Dr. Patricia Farrell suggests we breathe in through the nose, hold for a count of five while the muscles tense, then breathe out through the mouth on release.
When it works best: At home, at a desk or even on the road. One word of caution: Dizziness is never the goal. If holding the breath ever feels uncomfortable, tone it down to just a few seconds at most.

6. Guided Visualization
How it’s done: Head straight for that “happy place,” no questions asked. With a coach, therapist or helpful recording as your guide, breathe deeply while focusing on pleasant, positive images to replace any negative thoughts. Psychologist Dr. Ellen Langer explains that while it’s just one means of achieving mindfulness, “Guided visualization helps puts you in the place you want to be, rather than letting your mind go to the internal dialogue that is stressful.”
When it works best: Pretty much anyplace you can safely close your eyes and let go (e.g. not at the wheel of a car).

While stress, frustration, and other daily setbacks will always be there, the good news is, so will our breath.

Curled from- http://healthland.time.com

SEE WAHALA - IT'S NOT LEGAL FOR A LADY TO DRIVE IN SAUDI ARABIA

Saudi traffic police have fined several car owners after six women were found defying the kingdom's male-only driving rules, a Saudi daily reported on Wednesday.The fines in Eastern Province coincide with a campaign called by women's rights activists to challenge the ban on women driving in the conservative Islamic kingdom late next month.Traffic police issued fines totaling 5,400 riyals ($1,400) for allowing "an unqualified person to drive", al-Sharq newspaper reported, quoting an acting police spokesman."The cases were stopped near the beach and in uninhabited areas that are still being developed," Major Mansour.  al-Shakra said. "They were driving for fun and not to learn how to drive."No laws explicitly ban Saudi women from driving, but citizens must use locally issued licenses. These are not issued to women, making it in effect illegal for them to drive.

Women who have defied the rules in the past have also faced charges of organizing political protests, which are also prohibited in the monarchy, where there are no political parties and the only elections are for city councils. A group of Saudi activists last week called on women to get behind the wheel on October 26 to challenge the ban. At least two similar campaigns in the past two years have failed to bring change, with the authorities detaining several women and making them sign pledges not to drive again. Saudi Arabia is a conservative monarchy backed by religious scholars. It upholds an austere form of Sunni Islam and gives wide powers to clerics who dominate the judicial system and run their own police squad to enforce religious morals. King Abdullah has pushed some cautious social reforms in Saudi Arabia, including efforts to bring more women into the workforce and to give them a voice in policy making by appointing them to the advisory Shoura Council.

Curled from DUBAI (Reuters)

THE MAN WITH A NOSE ON HIS HEAD

Despite his perhaps bizarre appearance, a man in China who is growing a new nose on his forehead is the beneficiary of a rather common nose reconstruction technique.The man suffered damage to his nose and an infection after a severe car accident, and the infection had eaten away at the cartilage in his nose, making it impossible to for doctors to fix his original nose. Instead, the team decided to grow the man an entirely new nose on his forehead.

But despite its extreme appearance, this method is not that different from plastic surgery techniques used all the time, said Dr. David Cangello, an attending plastic surgeon at Lenox Hill Hospital and Manhattan, Eye Ear and Throat Hospital in New York. "I would call it a different take on principles that we commonly use in reconstruction," Cangello said.

Forehead nose
The man's doctors placed tissue expander, which create space to stretch the skin, under the man's forehead, and created the rough shape of a nose, probably using screws and plates. They then harvested cartilage from his ribs to fill in the nose. Once the nose is ready, they will rotate the entire assemblage — skin, blood vessels, cartilage and all — and move the new nose to where his current nose sits.
That is only slightly different from current methods of nose reconstruction, Cangello told LiveScience. Though reconstructive surgeons would also put tissue expander under the forehead skin to stretch the skin enough to cover the new nose, they would place the nose differently.
"We typically take the cartilage from the rib, and we put it right where the nose structure would already be, and we bring the skin flap over it and cover it," Cangello said.
Afterward, the doctors suture together the skin flaps of the forehead, which will usually leave a small scar. 

Key blood vessels
Though it may seem like a patient might prefer to grow a new nose on a different part of the body that could be more inconspicuous, there are good reasons to use forehead skin. "We like to use similar tissues to reconstruct organs within the same area," Cangello said. The forehead is also enervated with blood vessels that nourish the tissue transplant, so the surgeons don't have to disconnect and reconnect those vessels to place the nose in its correct position. If the doctors were to grow the nose on a forearm or a leg, for instance, they would have to undertake a laborious microsurgery to take the blood vessels that feed and drain the transplant.

Better nose?
The man still seems to have a nose that, at least in pictures, looks fairly normal. By contrast, his replacement nose is pretty large. "To be honest, the little nose that he has almost looks more in harmony than what they have on his forehead," Cangello said. But the new nose should shrink once it's in place, he added. It's also possible the researchers needed to replace the man's current nose because he had trouble breathing  properly. "Whenever we perform a reconstruction, there are two things in mind," Cangello said. "It's not just form, but it's also function."

Curled from Yahoo

CALL FOR OKONJI IWEALA SACK WELCOME BUT…

If it were to be other person(s) than a Nigerian politician that calls for resignation, i would have said 100times without blinking. People rely on her antecedents at the world bank, but forget that even me will do better taking there (world bank), because the system there will always checkmate and put my toes on the right track. Haven't you heard of our so big above the law Nigerians behaves lawfully when they travel abroad or you do think they don't wish to cut corners? They do, but for the fear of the system over there, they hold their peace until they return back to this near lawlessness state, where integrity, openness, equity, transparency, justice and respect for others has taken leave of absence.

How do one juxtapose this, weeks after she has shouted to the high heavens of how well the economy is doing only to return and be shouting the Nigerian state is going into bankruptcy. The same overhead cost has been in place, which she claimed is eating the economy and is still in place. So, i wonder how can same overhead cost eats up the economy at some point and at other point blossoms it. Thank God there's always natural check and balance, except Nigeria is in another planet, dollar has been the measure for economy of countries. When a country's economy rises it gains in currency as it appreciate while dollar decreases, but ours has been steady rise in dollar, which automatically translate our economy is nose-diving.

Our Amnesty International poverty rate of this year is higher than that of last year, life expectancy of last year higher than this year, our unemployed rate has climbed its highest ever this year recording above 54m employable aged Nigerians unemployed. 10years backward, we used to have the high class, the middle class and the low class, but due to mismanagement, corruption and the inability of the government to provide or better create an atmosphere for growth, the gap has been stretched further, now we no longer have the middle class. The poor are now poorer and the rich richer.

The 2.5m jobs she claimed this administration has created, which I am yet to see but can only as every other Nigerian read on the pages of newspaper. Where are the jobs, is it an invisible jobs or sit at home kind of? In Agriculture they are using as a measure of jobs they created, I am yet see, read about a person who stated farming as a result of government support.

Almost all the farmers we have been farming before this administration, exception of few new ones who has joined not because they have received money or farm land from the government but out of there savings have been able to raise enough capital. The only thing the FG has done, which i acknowledged as a good move is the pronouncement of support in the areas of seedlings and fertilizer, of which the farmers are still crying foul that none has reached them. So, if people calls for her sack, i am well in support as she has done nothing but paper indices equal to lies, which has done nothing in anyway to better the economy of Nigerians.

Author; Uche Ifeanyi (The sun Publishing Limited)

Is privatization the best option?

According to Wikipedia, privatization "Primarily, it is the process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency, public service or public property from the public sector (a government) to the private sector, either to a business that operate for a profit or to a non-profit organization. It may also mean government outsourcing of services or functions to private firms, e.g. revenue collection, law enforcement, and prison management

To we laymen, privatization is simply the handing over of public property to an individual. On paper, this is the best way to manage utilities and infrastructures. We also heard it is the best way to manage businesses as the buyer will manage it better since it is now his source of wealth. But what we laymen want to know is "how where these entities privatized"? Who is doing the buying?

From water, to power and now roads, every public/ government facility is been sold out all in the name of privatization. In some areas it has proved the best option but can we vouch that it is the way forward in the nearest future especially with the way the process is being managed? In Nigeria, only the likely faces buy everything. The same names are head over and over again acquiring public utilities and no one seems to be talking about it. From Power privatization, to refineries, to roads etc. the same people are seen penning their signatures to these utilities. What then happens to the public? Does this mean the general masses do not have control over things they can demand from their government? We pay taxes to the government, what will they be used for if all these utilities/ infrastructure and now owned by individuals? All these make one to believe in a wider conspiracy to mortgage our future in the hands of certain individuals.

Have we ever bothered to know the long-term side effects of these privatizations? Here are some which I believe affects us; the majority

1. Since these infrastructures are now in the hands of certain individuals, there is high probability that these services might become worse overtime. This is due to the fact that the owners know they have the power to do what they like with these infrastructures being that it is their business. Nobody can actually hold them accountable because it is their business. For example telecoms have gone wide but service provided gets worst by the day.

2. Like what we are seeing in the power sector, despite poor performance, cost of services/ goods will go up overtime. This is because there is little or no competitive good/ service to compete with them.

3. As they are now private entities, you cannot hold them for poor performance. It is their business so if you do not like it, find someone else. In this case, there is no "someone else" but them. You cannot hold a business owner accountable for his business.

4. The most overlooked aspect of privatization is workforce. The staff of privately managed firms are subjected to every and numerous inhuman conditions and since there are no jobs out there, people are made to work under extreme conditions. If managed by the government, there are laid down criteria for promotion and working conditions which is absent in public companies.

5. Once privatization is carried out, it is very difficult to reverse the policy. This is because those involved might have had various commitments with the buyers.

Note here that I am not disputing the fact that if managed well, privatization may be the best option but in the Nigeria of today privatization might end up being our doom. When government officials take bribe to award some companies, when individual and selfish interests come before the good of the nation, when people in-charge of the  privatization process have huge interests in the entity they are to privatize, then, we know that doom is not far. this is why privatized companies are getting worse than they were before they were sold.

For privatization to work very well in this country, the market should be open and fair. Take for example PHCN power generation and distribution companies. Except for very few areas, power distribution elements (wires & transformers) have already been installed by the government. If possible, multiple organizations should be able to manage the same area. In that way, consumers will be able to choose the source of their power. This will also help in regulation of cost. Also, government officials and their organizations' are to be exempted from any privatization process. If possible, foreign consultants should be hired; through a transparent process, to coordinate the process.