Falta de exposición al sol causa miopía en el este de Asia (BBC)

La falta de acceso a la luz del sol ha contribuido a un significativo aumento de la miopía en niños de las ciudades del este de Asia.

Los científicos de la Universidad Nacional de Australia encontraron que hasta 90% de los escolares egresados en zonas urbanas son miopes.

Agregan que los niños de esas ciudades pasaron la mayor parte de su tiempo en casa, estudiando, viendo televisión y jugando en sus computadoras, en lugar de haber estado expuestos a la luz solar por lo menos tres horas diarias para estimular la producción de dopamina, una sustancia química que previene el desarrollo de la miopía en niños.

En los países africanos, sólo entre 2% y 3% de los niños sufren de miopía.

Fuente: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mundo/ultimas_noticias/2012/05/120503_ultnot_miopia_este_asia_jgc.shtml

Being bilingual 'boosts brain power' (BBC)

Learning a second language can boost brain power, scientists believe.

The US researchers from Northwestern University say bilingualism is a form of brain training - a mental "work out" that fine-tunes the mind.

Speaking two languages profoundly affects the brain and changes how the nervous system responds to sound, lab tests revealed.

Experts say the work in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences provides "biological" evidence of this.

For the study, the team monitored the brain responses of 48 healthy student volunteers - which included 23 who were bilingual - to different sounds.

They used scalp electrodes to trace the pattern of brainwaves.

Under quiet, laboratory conditions, both groups - the bilingual and the English-only-speaking students - responded similarly.

But against a backdrop of noisy chatter, the bilingual group were far superior at processing sounds.

They were better able to tune in to the important information - the speaker's voice - and block out other distracting noises - the background chatter.

'Powerful' benefits

And these differences were visible in the brain. The bilingualists' brainstem responses were heightened.

Prof Nina Kraus, who led the research, said: "The bilingual's enhanced experience with sound results in an auditory system that is highly efficient, flexible and focused in its automatic sound processing, especially in challenging or novel listening conditions."

Co-author Viorica Marian said: "People do crossword puzzles and other activities to keep their minds sharp. But the advantages we've discovered in dual language speakers come automatically simply from knowing and using two languages.

"It seems that the benefits of bilingualism are particularly powerful and broad, and include attention, inhibition and encoding of sound."

Musicians appear to gain a similar benefit when rehearsing, say the researchers.

Past research has also suggested that being bilingual might help ward off dementia.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17892521

Anger Management Techniques

Recently, we posted on how to deal with angry customers. In this post, we continuing our series on dealing with anger. – This time, how to reduce our own anger

In this post, I would like to consider some more suggestions for resolving problems of anger

Short Term

Anger is a sudden emotion that can flare up and take us by surprise. In this immediate time period it is most powerful. When we feel overpowered by anger it is important to try and delay our response. If we try to remain detached, even for a moment, the force of the anger will start to dissipate. Then it becomes easier to view the issue objectively.

• When anger takes us by surprise, it is helpful to do some deliberate exercises that take our mind away from the anger. If we breathe calmly, slowly and deliberately, this will definitely help reduce the impact of the anger. Even just counting can help. All that happens is that we are forced to think of something else and this on its own reduces the power of our anger.

In the Long Term, if we can’t get rid of underlying anger and resentment, we can try these techniques.

Don’t Take Life Too Seriously

“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,”

- William Shakespeare

In life, people will do stupid, irritating things, if we expect perfection from others, if we expect our life to be free of problems we will always be doomed to disappointment. Life is too short to harbour grudges and anger against people.

What is Gained, What is Lost?

Nursing anger towards others is a guaranteed to make us depressed. But, does it help change the situation? The point is we need to be wise, if we are angry and miserable we gain nothing. If we nurse anger and are unable to get rid of it, it will be ourselves who lose out. If we can detach from anger, if we can move on, then we can regain our inner happiness. Wanting to be peaceful, is the most important step in actually achieving it. If we realise the benefits of dealing with our anger, we will make persistent efforts to get rid of it.

Persistent detachment.

If we make a desire to detach from our anger, we may get frustrated because our first efforts fail. Despite a wish to be free from anger and frustration, we find it keeps coming back. It is like a bad habit we need to get out of. We may not succeed with our first, second or third effort but, if we persistently ignore our anger, eventually we will be successful. Never be dispirited if we feel anger for no good reason. It is a passing emotion that we can choose to ignore.

Empathy

This might appear difficult, but, if we are angry with a person / group of persons we can try to see the problem from their perspective. This doesn’t mean we need to agree with them, but what we are trying to do is to appreciate why they behave like they do. Sometimes the behaviour of others appears incomprehensible. But, maybe if we had the same upbringing, we might have a similar perspective on life. If we can do this we blur the edges between absolute right and wrong. This empathy and sympathy is the first step to appreciating that they be just trying their best. When we try to understand and sympathise with others it will definitely lessen our anger and feeling of separation. Anger is a problem because it gives us a very partial understanding to any problem.

Smile

If you can smile at your enemy / problem, half the power disappears at once.

Maybe these things will not work for all situations. But, if we are honest often we can become angry for relative trivial offences. Perhaps someone said a sharp word, drove badly or was generally inconsiderate. But, it is not the end of the world. Some people feel anger can help, but, I don’t agree. Anger gives us an unbalanced outlook, we become blind to a neutral perspective.

Source: http://www.srichinmoybio.co.uk/blog/life/anger-management-techniques/

Seven Steps to Inner Peace

Inner peace is the most valuable thing that we can cultivate. Nobody can give us inner peace, at the same time it is only our own thoughts that can rob us of our inner peace. To experience inner peace we don’t have to retreat to a Himalayan cave; we can experience inner peace right now, exactly where we are. The most important criteria is to value the importance of inner peace. If we really value inner peace, we will work hard to make it a reality.

These are some suggestions for bringing more peace into your mind.

1. Choose carefully where we spend time.

If you are a news addict and spend an hour reading newspapers everyday, our mind will be agitated by the relentless negativity we see in the world. It is true, that we can try to detach from this negativity. But, in practise ,we will make our progress easier if we don’t spend several hours ruminating over the problems of the world. If you have a spare 15 minutes, don’t just automatically switch on the TV or surf the internet. Take the opportunity to be still or at least do something positive. The problem is the mind feels insecure unless it has something to occupy it. However, when we really can attain a clear mind we discover it creates a genuine sense of happiness and inner peace.

2. Control of Thoughts.

It is our thoughts that determine our state of mind. If we constantly cherish negative and destructive thoughts, inner peace will always remain a far cry. At all costs, we need to avoid pursuing trains of negative thoughts. This requires practise. – We cannot attain mastery of our thoughts over night. But, at the same time we always have to remember that we are able to decide which thoughts to follow and which to reject. Never feel you are a helpless victim to your thoughts.

“If you have inner peace, nobody can force you to be a slave to the outer reality.” - Sri Chinmoy [2]

3. Simplify Your Life

Modern life, places great demands on our time. We can feel that we never have enough time to fulfill all our tasks. However, we should seek to minimise these outer demands. Take time to simplify your life; there are many things that we can do without, quite often we add unnecessary responsibilities to our schedule. Do the most significant tasks, one at a time, and enjoy doing them. To experience inner peace, it is essential to avoid cluttering our life with unnecessary activities and worries.

See: Benefits of simplicity

4. Spend time to cultivate inner peace.

Every day we spend 8 hours a day to earn money, can we not find time to spend 15 minutes to cultivate inner peace? No matter how much money we earn, it cannot bring us inner peace, but, if we spend 15 minutes on meditation and relaxation techniques inner peace can become a possibility. Meditation does not just mean sitting still for 30 minutes; in meditation we seek to experience a state of consciousness which is flooded with inner peace. To experience this inner peace we cannot allow any thought to enter into our mind. True inner peace occurs when we can transcend the world of thoughts.

“You cannot buy peace; you must know how to manufacture it within, in the stillness of your daily practises in meditation.” - Paramahansa Yogananda [2]

5. Be immune to Flattery and Criticism

If we depend on the opinions and praise of other people, we can never have inner peace. Criticism and flattery are two sides of the same coin. They are both the judgements of others. However, we should not allow ourselves to be affected by either. When we do, we feed the ego. We should learn to have confidence in ourselves. This does not mean we will love ourselves in an egotistical way, it means we value our real self and have belief in the good qualities that are part of everyone.

6. Be Active selflessly

Inner peace does not mean that we have to live a life of a hermit. Inner peace, can be felt amidst dynamic activity. But, this action should be done with selfless motives. When we serve others we forget our sense of self, and it is when we forget our limited self that we can have inner peace.

7. Avoid Criticising Others

If we want inner peace, we should feel that our inner peace depends on the well being of others. If we are indifferent to the feelings of others, then it is impossible to have inner peace for ourselves. What we give out comes back. If you offer a peaceful attitude to others this is what we will see return.

Source:  http://www.srichinmoybio.co.uk/blog/inner-peace/seven-simple-steps-to-inner-peace/

Sun Tzu - El Arte de la Guerra - Capítulo 7: Maniobras

Normalmente, en tiempo de guerra, el general recibe sus órdenes del soberano del estado. Durante el proceso de organización de las tropas y movilización de sus hombres, para convertir su ejército en una entidad armoniosa y colocarla en posición, nada es más difícil que el arte de maniobrar hasta posiciones ventajosas. Lo complejo del tema es convertir la ruta más intrincada en la ruta más directa, y distraer al enemigo con señuelos. Para lograrlo, debes ponerte en marcha después de que lo haga el contrario, y llegar al campo de batalla antes que él. Quien es capaz de hacer ésto muestra su conocimiento del artificio de la distracción.

La ventaja y el peligro son materias inherentes ambas al hecho de maniobrar para alcanzar una posición ventajosa. Aquel que pone en movimiento al ejército entero, junto con su impedimenta, persiguiendo una posición ventajosa, no la obtendrá. Si abandona el campamento y toda la impedimenta en la lucha por obtener ventaja, perderá todo su equipo. Si ordena a sus hombres realizar marchas forzadas sin armadura, sin detenerse día y noche, para cubrir el doble de la distancia usual en un desplazamiento, y cubriendo cien li en la lucha por la ventaja, es posible que vea como sus comandantes son capturados.

Los hombres más fuertes y resistentes llegarán primero, y los más débiles estarán aún atrás; así pues, si se emplea este método, tan solo la centésima parte del ejército llegará a su destino. En una marcha forzada de cincuenta li, el comandante de la vanguardia caerá probablemente, pero la mitad de sus hombres llegarán. En una marcha forzada de treinta li, solo llegarán dos tercios. Esto significa que un ejército en el que se deje atrás el equipo pesado, suministros, comida y equipajes estará perdido.

Aquel que no está de acuerdo con los designios de sus vecinos, no debe entrar en alianzas con ellos. Aquellos que no conocen las condiciones de montañas y bosques, desfiladeros peligrosos, marismas y pantanos, no pueden dirigir la marcha de un ejército. Aquellos que no emplean guías locales son incapaces de obtener ventajas del terreno.

La guerra se basa en el engaño. Muevete cuando sea ventajoso y crea cambios en la situación dispersando y concentrando tus fuerzas. Cuando entras en campaña, sé rápido como el viento; haciendo marchas normales, majestuoso como el bosque; en las incursiones y saqueos, feroz como el fuego; cuando te detienes, firme como las montañas. Si te escondes, sé tan insondable como las cosas más allá de las nubes; en movimiento, cae como el rayo. Para saquear una región, dispersa tus fuerzas. Cuando conquistas un territorio, defiende los puntos estratégicos.

Sopesa la situación antes de efectuar movimiento alguno. Aquel que domina el artificio de la diversión saldrá victorioso. Así es el arte de maniobrar.