Commit to Quit Tobacco – Happy World No Tobacco Day

Every year on 31^st May, World No Tobacco Day is celebrated. The initiative is taken up by World Health Organization… This year the theme is “Commit to Quit”.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_No_Tobacco_Day

https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-no-tobacco-day/world-no-tobacco-day-2021

Normally people start Smoking & Drinking at the young age due to various reasons discussed earlier in my previous post King's Habits

After few months or years, it will become a habit…

Let us now understand the terms Habit, Habit formation & difference between a Bad Habit & Addiction from this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habit

Habit is a routine of behaviour that is repeated & occurs subconsciously… After so many repetitions habits are formed… it varies from individual to individual… If a habit has an undesirable pattern either to self or society, it is called a bad habit.

This is still at the psychological level… This can be treated by replacing the similar stimuli and increasing the willpower. With solely willpower also, one can easily quit a bad habit.

But if the bad habit is still continued, the physiological/neurological system  gets tuned to the stimuli. Then it becomes an Addiction. Here it becomes difficult to the addicted person though he or she wants to quit the bad habit with full will power as the physiological/neurological system won’t co-operate…These are called withdrawal symptoms… If we forcibly quit the habit, the withdrawal symptoms may increase & may damage the health… some people again restart the habit & go to previous state or worse state – This is called Relapse…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relapse

To avoid relapse or withdrawal symptoms, we need a help of a psychiatrist/psychologist to guide these addictive persons to come out of these in a healthy way…

After understanding these basic concepts, now let us go for my thoughts….

Smoking kills – This we would have seen many times just before the movie an ad comes… It says tobacco consumption in the form of smoking may cause lung cancer and chewing tobacco may lead to mouth cancers etc…

I say the source of several fire hazards is smoking… The ignition source for fire can be a match stick or a cigarette or beedi whatever in the workplace, industry or petrol bunks or any place where they are strictly.

This, as using tobacco is a health & fire hazard most of the companies have gone for No Tobacco policy and banned the use of Tobacco.

The other important aspect of smoking is it greatly affects the persons around… Passive smoking has a huge affect on the health of the people who are continuously exposed to it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_smoking

So the ill effect is airborne… So it becomes a social responsibility to avoid smoking in public as the smokers are damaging the health of the passive smoking.

By reading these lines immediately you might have made the analogy with the COVID-19, airborne, mask , social distancing etc. Exactly you are right. Smokers should be treated similar to the corona spreaders. They should also feel the responsibility to avoid smoking in public areas and this save the passive smokers. Everything is in Our Hands.

One more important connection is there between smoking & corona… Already the capacity & health of lungs might have been compromised with the smoking habit and just imagine this corona virus is also attacking the lungs further to an extent that  the oxygen saturation levels are dropping so drastically that several people are quitting this world…

So just decide… Quit Tobacco or you will Quit the World soon…

Quit smoKING to be the real KING.

 

 

 

Buy Wisely Using ‘Unit Price’ Comparison

Earlier Sundays used to be Fundays with a lot of shopping in malls & entertainment. But due to lockdown, all that has gone now… Now the purchases are through online… Anyways, whether it is a normal purchase or online purchase of FMCG goods, some factors influence the purchase decision… So we should understand those factors & act accordingly.  Let us discuss one of those now…

Earlier in good olden day, all the FMCG goods were packed & sold following uniform weights… such as 100gm, 200gm, 500gm or 1Kg etc…. uniform volumes such as 100/200/500ml/1lt etc…. We never used to see 110gm or 270ml etc…. But now a days, we see different weights or volumes of FMCG products… This is creating the problems for the normal customers to compare the prices and is impacting the purchase decision of several consumers. Let us take an example

One beverage let us say apple juice,  1lt price is Rs100/- for Brand-A, where as for Brand-B it is Rs95/- but the weight return on the pack is 900ml. If someone does not observe properly, it appears that the Brand-B is cheaper compared to the Brand-A. But the actual fact is Brand-B is costlier.  If we see the per litre price of both brands, Brand-A is Rs100/-, Brand-B is 95*1000/900 =Rs105.55/-. If Brand-C is 110/-

Here we should introduce the term Unit Price… It is the price of the product per unit or per kg or per gm or per ml or per lt etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_price

So the price comparison & analysis is greatly affected by the weight of the product/volume also. But unfortunately, most of the customers don’t consider it because of several reasons…

1.       Lack of awareness

2.       No scope to evaluate in normal retail outlets

3.       Very tedious & time taking job

4.       With the apprehension that the savings will be very minimal in comparison to the efforts made for the analysis

5.       So many other factors we can add on

As cited above, there is a need to increase the awareness of the customers. The research shows that using unit price concept has helped the purchasers to save around 17-18%.

Let us say we have 4 brands with 4 different weights & prices. We have to calculate for all the unit price and compare. This is for one product. If we want to purchase several, just imagine how much tedious and impracticable it is… Thus, we are bound to make a mistake in the price assessment, comparison, and analysis & finally purchase decision.

The only way to go about is to either go for standard uniform weights like in olden days or to get the information about Unit Price. As the product manufacturers are cleverly doing it, the purchasers should also be smart.

1.       If the products to be purchased are less in number, please do the unit price analysis to compare.

2.       Visit the supermarkets where we have the Price as well as Unit prices both are displayed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_price_information_in_supermarkets

3.       Please use the online purchase websites/apps which give the unit price information beside the price. A famous online purchase app gives Unit price within the brackets just beside the selling price.

 

Thus, think twice, buy wisely after comparing the unit prices of the products especially FMCG products.

Happy Sunday… Happy Shopping…

Interoception & Introspection – Happy Buddha Purnima

The first full moon day of vaisakha in lunar calendar is celebrated as the birthday/enlightenment day/death day of Gautham Buddha, the founder of Buddhism.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha's_Birthday

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism

The moment we think of Buddhism, or Gautham Budhha’s teachings, Mindfulness meditation technique comes to our mind. It is very famous all over the world… Extensively used by many psychologists integrating it to therapy…

Please go through this to understand ithe basics about mindfulness…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness

Here if we see an interesting term is introduced – interoception – the sense of the internal state of the conscious or unconscious body. This basically talks about the brain sensing the physiological status or feel of the body. This is used in mindfulness to be aware of our breathing, body scan, focus on surroundings- sounds etc. This is how the mental state of the body can be controlled by using the physical state of the body… This clearly explains how both r interconnected.

Now it is very interesting to understand introspection… we all know it that introspection is looking inwards or knowing thyself or self analysis or self awareness. If we observe, it is almost synonymous to interoception. But there is a difference… Introspection is the porcess of observing one’s own thoughts and emotions. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introspection#:~:text=Introspection%20is%20the%20examination%20of,the%20examination%20of%20one's%20soul.

It is more about the mental state of mind. Whereas interoception is related to physiological state…

Please go through the following to understand about these two…

https://alliancechampions.com/interoception-introspection-intuition-and-longevity/#:~:text=Interoception%20%E2%80%93%20The%20sense%20of%20the,the%20need%20for%20conscious%20reasoning.

https://journals.aom.org/doi/10.5465/AMBPP.2012.11470abstract

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-020-01318-5

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301051114002294

After understanding the difference between interoception & introspection, as we can’t separate the psychological process from the physiological process, let us have an integrated view at both the things supporting the mindfulness meditation process.

Mindfulness meditation involves interoception as we try to focus on the breathing or sensations etc.(physiological). At the same time, we are observing the deviations & thoughts and are trying to consciously but not forcibly bringing back the attention… this is how we are introspecting ourselves and integrating it to interoception, to achieve the mindfulness meditative state.

Kabar Zinn’s famous Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) technique uses mindful eating of a raisin which is a combination of both psychological & physiological processes and an integrative & holistic approach.

Apart from Mindfulness, another greatest contribution of Lord Buddha to the world is in the form of his teachings… U might have already come across so many wonderful & inspirational quotes & slogans from Buddhism. The ethics & discipline are the main pillars of Buddhism… This is how Buddhism is beyond the boundaries of religion… it is a way of life… guiding us how to live in present and be mindful about whatever we do… it gives us the true inspiration & motivation to be mindful at each & every moment of our lives …

Be Mindful always…