by admin | Jun 4, 2022 | Mind
Fun Facts About The Brain
Being one of the most complex organs of the human body, the brain’s information we have is far less than the data we don’t possess. The anatomy and functions, while being heavily unknown as of now, are incredibly unique and fascinating.
The human brain always has shocking revelations and surprises for biologists and scientists, so here are some fun facts about the brain, which might leave a jaw-dropping impression on you as well!
15 Fun Facts About the Brain
- Weighing three pounds, the majority portion of the brain is fat (about 60%), making it the fattest organ in the body. With a firm yet jelly-like texture, it makes up about 2% of the body weight. Despite weighing so little in comparison, it does take up the most energy in the body, with almost 20 to 25% of the blood going straight to this organ.
- Sweat can end up in the shrinkage of the brain. It is because the brain is primarily composed of water, and dehydration will make it shrink. But how much exactly? Well, a solid 90 minutes of continuous sweating shrinks your brain to the same size as it would after a year of aging. However, this shrinking is temporary, and the brain regains its size after getting the lost fluids.
- You are seldom “thoughtless.” The brain typically creates 48.6 thoughts every minute. And the part of the brain responsible for daydreaming (the default mode network – DNM) remains primarily active. Therefore, daydreaming is way more common than you can imagine.
- Your brain remains unformed till you’re 25 years old. It develops from back to front, and the structure working on reasoning, the frontal lobe, etc., remains underdeveloped till that age.
- Your brain can store a significant amount of information and has unlimited capacity.
- We don’t remember things well when we’re older, mainly because of the brain’s inadequacy to clear out and filter the previous information to sort out the new data. However, we might end up remembering what we seem to have “forgotten” from a long time ago.
- The brain can communicate information fast. And by fast, according to research, we mean an impressive speed of 268 miles per hour, which is much better than the best computer humanity could create.
- The brain doesn’t die immediately. If the blood supply is cut off, it will take 8 to 10 seconds before it starts fading out. By stopping oxygen, it can last up to the next 5 or 6 minutes at most.
- The brain is primarily water (almost 2%). Therefore, as little as 2% of dehydration will affect your cognition drastically.
- We have all heard the myth that you only use 10% of your brain. It’s wrong. You use all of your brain in every single task you do, even sleeping.
- Well, the organ between your ears can light a bulb as well. Thanks to the 23 watts of power our brain generates.
- Intelligence isn’t a work of sizes. A bigger brain doesn’t make a more intelligent person. Men, generally, have larger brains, but the size of the hippocampus is more significant in women.
- Blood and oxygen are the fuels of the brain. The harder you work it out, the greater it will consume. And the consumption can increase up to 50%.
- Well, none of us can say we control our minds. Because, mostly, we don’t. Most of our decisions do not even occur in the conscious part of the mind (which makes about 5% percent of the total brain).
- You have two brains, one in your head and the other in your intestine, both containing neurons.
Conclusion
Apart from being difficult to understand, our brain has the most impressive functions and structures, etc.
Our fun facts about the brain will definitely provide you with an insight into how your brain rolls and help debunk some of the prevailing myths about the organ.
While these facts may sound surprising, there are many more still unknown to humanity, so…
Stay curious!
Resources
by admin | Jun 4, 2022 | Mind
Fulfilling Your True Potential
Living up to your true potential provides a distinct sense of fulfillment, and according to Aristotle in his book The Nicomachean Ethics, we all have the potential for greatness. Realizing that potential, he believes, is the key to living a truly happy and fulfilling life, even in your older years.
Nevertheless, fulfilling your true potential and being a high-performer is a matter of developing certain skills and mental traits. So without further ado, let’s have a look at what those traits and skills actually are, shall we?!
Self Awareness
If you want to know what your true potential hides and how to get there, you must feel at ease with who and what you are. Don’t pretend to be someone you’re not and don’t try to change yourself solely because others tell you to.
Instead, understand who you are and what you want to be… And if you don’t know, you should find out by doing things and analyzing yourself and how you feel doing them… This is the essence of self-awareness! Read, write, think, and speak. That is self-awareness: simply being aware of your thoughts and feelings. When you are self-aware, you automatically learn more about yourself. It all starts with awareness. No awareness – No knowledge!
Perseverance
Perseverance is inferred from failing and rising again. You cannot become resilient if you do not commit mistakes. Sometimes you work and you get nothing in return. For years, you work but do not see any outcomes. You get no acknowledgment, no money, and no rewards. But eventually, you start seeing the results you have long been waiting for. You get better at your job and get more confidence. You even start earning more. If this sounds familiar, consider this – if you didn’t persevere, you would not get any of those things.
Writing
We’ve all felt a need to vent and express ourselves in an attempt to get our point across. Writing, on the other hand, can assist you in actually achieving this. When you write things down, you become more conscious of your choice of words. This implies that your writing will be more insightful, concise, and elegant than your speech. Improved writing leads to improved thinking. Better thinking leads to improved communication.
Better communication translates to improved career outcomes. So write, write, write! Whether that means writing your goals and plans down, or simply doing creative writing.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is more about being a mindful person than it is about meditation, yoga, or Buddhism. A mindful person is in command of their emotions and thoughts. He/she is as solid as a rock. Someone on whom others can rely. However, achieving that inner peace takes a lot of practice. You might think that you will never be able to fully master this skill. You can, however, improve your control over your thoughts by practicing.
The essence of the mindfulness practice lies in being able to recognize recurring patterns and taking conscious decisions at the moment of their occurrence, that is contrary to that automatic reaction.
Productivity
It is important to understand that the more present you are, the more desire you have for improving your life. And you can improve your life by working on the things you like. Thinking about achieving your goals will not do anything real for you. Evolve into a person who is productive every day. Don’t continue to waste it by watching TV, hanging out with the wrong people, or engaging in any other mindless, mundane activities.
Make the most of your time.
Leadership
Leadership is all about motivating people and helping them reach their full potential. This can be done by teaching others to have autonomy and focusing on themselves. When you fix your own problems and become a strong person you can rely on, you help others more. When you are able to do this, you inspire others to do the same. It is only the selfish and narcissistic people who want to make people dependent on them…
Leaders believe otherwise!
Final Thoughts
If you’ve started doing something, do it to the best of your ability or don’t do it at all. That is the quickest way to realize your full potential and it’s also the most difficult. That, however, should come as no surprise to you. If you don’t succeed the first time, learn from your mistakes and remember Henry Ford’s words: “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” – Henry Ford
by admin | Jun 4, 2022 | History
François Vidocq
The Enchanting Tale Of The French Sherlock Holmes François Vidocq is one of the people with the most exciting life stories. He was an inspiration for more than Sherlock Holmes, with writers like Victor Hugo, Edgar Allan Poe and Honoré de Balzac basing some of their characters on this criminal turned private detective.
This is his story.
He was born in France in 1775 in a region called Arras. The family had a total of six children wtih François falling in the middle. He had a raudy adolescence, during which he cemented himself as a great fencer. A skill which would come in handy later. His first arrest is an interesting story. At the age of 13 he stole some of his parents’ silverware to try and sell it and was later caught and detained by police.
After spending two weeks in prison, he was released but even before that, he suspected that his father was behind the arrest in an attempt to teach him a lesson.It turned out the young boy was right – his father did contact and work with the policemen. Just one year later, François ran away from home and tried reaching the Americas. The plan he made was unsuccessful and so he ended up joining a traveling circus to make ends meet.
After trying different jobs in the show and hearing that the circus is near his hometown, he came back to his parents, begging for forgiveness. He wound up staying in Arras until 1791, when he joined the French military force. One year later, the young man was promoted to corporal but during the ceremony, he challenged a superior officer to a duel.
The older man refused, so Vidocq hit him, an action so outside the law it could have gotten him the death penalty, which is exactly why he deserted and joined a different regimen. Soon after that, however, Vidocq went home and got married. He was 19 years old at the time and married because of a pregnancy scare.
When he found out not only that he wouldn’t have a kid but that his wife was cheating on him, he left. The Frenchman spent some time in Brussels under the alias “Rousseau” where he met some interesting characters but decided the place wasn’t for him and moved to Paris. There, he fell in love with another woman, Francine, who left him soon after they started dating.
François beat both of them, for which the soldier sued him. This is how Vidocq was sentenced to three months in prison again. While inside, he was accused of assisting in the forgery of another inmate’s papers and had to stand a second trial. During this time, Vidocq broke out multiple times thanks to Francine but was always caught after a little while.
On one of his escapes, Francine caught him with another woman, and after he was brought back to prison, he was told she was found with multiple self-inflicted knife wounds but was still alive. Because of his behavior, the police moved him to a few different prisons, from all of which he tried to escape, and he succeeded in gaining his freedom in Brest.
François disguised himself as a sailor and was apprehended weeks later by policemen because of a lack of papers. He made up a fake name, and while they were checking his story, the police put him in a prison hospital. He escaped from there too, this time by stealing a nun’s clothes, and was found some months later and brought to a different prison.
After just a few months in this location, he escaped with the help of a prostitute. After some smaller adventures, Vidocq moved back to Arras in 1800. He spent some time being a merchant, but his past caught up to him. He was arrested, informed of his divorce, and sentenced to death. François filed an appeal, and while waiting for a retrial he fled again and lived outside the law for four more years.
In 1809, when he was caught again by the police, he offered them a peculiar deal – to become their informant. It was hard to refuse such skills, so the French officers agreed. He was put in La Force prison as a spy and started giving information to the French chief of police – Jean Henry – about everything. Unsolved crimes, fake identities – all sorts of information was passed through thanks to this new role.
It was because of a job well done that the chief gave the recommendation for François to be released. In order for it not to look suspicious to the criminal underworld, the release was staged like an escape. Being obligated to Henry, Vidocq kept on working for the police. Using disguises as well as his notorious fame, he managed to get information about both crimes that were already committed and those that were only just planned.
He was so good at his job that in 1813 Napoleon signed a decree establishing an entire state police force of which François was the leader. A large part of the employees were ex-criminals like himself. Being like-minded to those who he was catching, Vidocq was a master at his new official job.
In just one year – 1817 – he was involved in 811 arrests. Although he was considered a wanted man for a long time after he started working for the police, this all changed when king Luis XVIII officially pardoned him that same year. Soon after, he remarried, but both his wife and mother died just four years later.
Because of political changes in France, Henry, who was still his immediate superior, retired. A new and very conservative chief was employed with whom François didn’t get along. In 1827, the 52-year-old criminal turned policeman resigned. After yet another marriage, a couple of years, a failed business, and a robbery, which he solved for the police, Divocq was again appointed chief of his police department.
However, there were many rumors that he was a part of the robbery he solved, and a lot of the people working in the force did not approve of his methods, namely that he worked with ex-criminals. After just two years, François resigned again, and the department was reestablished without agents with criminal records. In 1833 François opened the first detective agency, almost entirely staffed with ex-convicts.
From 1837 he constantly quarreled with the police, and at some point, they even confiscated more than 3 500 files and imprisoned him. Because of unsound evidence, he was later released. He wrote several small autobiographies during this period, and after that, it was time for yet another change. After a few similar run-arounds, the political situation in France changed again, and François started working for the new authorities.
His job was the surveillance of Napoleon Bonaparte. Not long after though, the country’s laws and staff changed again, and François, already old, decided to retire. He went to jail one last time in 1849 for fraud, but the charges were dropped. His living situation took a turn for the worse, and he lost the majority of his fortune in bad investments and had to live in rented accommodations.
He got sick from cholera, and although he consistently beat it for the first three years, his condition deteriorated tragically in 1857. He died in his home in Paris at the age of 81. The location of his grave is still unknown. The tale of François Divocq is an example of a life that is fascinating and full of adventures.
He didn’t abide by the law, which got him in a lot of trouble, but it also built skills that were extremely valuable for him later on in life. There is a lot that can be learned from people like him, both seen as cautionary tales and inspirational stories. Regardless of the point of view you choose, one thing is sure – his story is definitely interesting.
by admin | Jun 4, 2022 | Massage
Foot Massage
Foot massage or foot reflexology has a Chinese origin. It dates back to more than 3,000 years ago and is used in the prevention and cure of many health ailments. Some in fact say foot massage dates back to ancient Egyptian times due to archaeological findings in cave drawings in Egypt.
The principle of foot massage rests in the premise that the meridian network connects all tissues, organs and cells in our body. Each organ in the body is connected to a specific reflex point on the foot through the intermediary of nerves. A trained foot massage therapist is usually called a reflexologist or zone therapist. A reflexologist can put pressure on different meridians or energy lines on the sole, top and side of the feet to determine the cause of illness.
By using pressure to these reflex points, the foot massage is good for stimulating the activity of internal organs, and to improve blood flow and lymph circulation. Thus, the top to bottom well-being of a person can be made through the feet.
The principles of foot massage is not usually in congruence with western allopathic medicine. Western medicine merely sees the foot as a body part comprising of bones, ligaments and joints.
However, foot massage is fast gaining much popularity and acceptance as an alternative health treatment. In fact, over recent years it has become regularly the number one requested holistic therapy amongst complementary treatments s recorded by a number of complementary societies.
Fans of foot massage believe it can cure not only colds and minor ailments, but more serious ailments as well. These ailments include liver dysfunction, constipation problems, chronic headaches, skin allergies and much more. Like most Oriental medical techniques, foot reflexology is a holistic treatment. It concentrates on treating the whole person rather than just the symptoms of one particular ailment.
While Western medicine promises speedy recovery of all unpleasant symptoms, foot massage therapy does not, nor should it. It can be slow and gradual but with longer lasting effects seeing as it aims to treat the root cause and not just symptoms. A series of visits is necessary to strengthen the body and to bring the body back to balance. It is important to see a qualified therapist who will have had many years of training and case studies as this will yield the best outcome.
An average session of foot reflexology in the US, can set you back as much as US$40-100. In the UK depending on where you are, the prices can be similar at 30 – 75 pounds per hour, Thus, foot massages over a period of time, can add up in terms of costs. But the benefits will add up too and most therapists will certainly do group booking discounts if you take out a course of treatment.
Naturally, for practitioners and believers of foot massage, the cost for good health is well worth it. The alternative would have been money spent in clinics and western hospitals for prescription drugs and perhaps, invasive surgery. Not to mention time away from working or doing those activities which you enjoy.
Your health is always a priority and foot therapy or reflexology is certainly one that I would highly recommend you try as it really has many great benefits and is wonderfully relaxing too.
by admin | Jun 4, 2022 | Mind
Fixed VS Growth Mindset
Your Mindset And Its Impact On You
We all intuitively recognize the importance of mindset. All of us can pinpoint certain moments or times in our lives where we repeat to ourselves that we have to believe that things can happen for us. Be it in life, relationships, business, and so on.
Mindset has been and is a very abused form of self-help and maybe the first frontier of getting things to happen. After all, mindset and believing that it can happen is the first step to ‘’it’’ happening. We all know people that seem to cruise through life purely on a base of self-confidence and belief in themselves and their skills.
Sometimes, we even find some people relying solely on belief and confidence and lacking in ability, but somehow still achieving results even on naked self-confidence. This speaks volumes about how important mindset truly is. There’s a tendency to go against the grain in terms of achieving unique results, and you might find it cliché and rather low-effort to be focusing on mindset.
After all, believing in yourself is a truism heavily regurgitated in media and self-help circles, so a lot of us have the inclination to be skeptical of a positive mindset in the efforts to be realists. However, it’s important to note all the instances belief and mindset were and are truly powerful factors of making changes and achieving results, or in some cases, not achieving anything.
Wars, religions, laws, and countries were all built and fought for thanks to a series of well-thought-out beliefs. No matter how overused, mindset is truly important for your life and the results you want to achieve. Recent research has recognized two distinct mindsets when it comes to people and has linked both mindsets to levels of achievement.
So, what are they?
The Fixed Mindset
Having a fixed mindset is a cocktail of different beliefs and biases, all pointing to a limited set of abilities. The fixed mindset is believing that all of our skills and talents are pre-determined and that no matter what you do, you’re limited. For example, a fixed mindset is believing you’re bad at math and never trying to see if you could improve simply because your belief is enough to negate you from trying harder.
The fixed mindset has a permanent residence in the comfort zone. It knows what it can and can’t do and focuses on achievements in the areas that it’s good at. This type of mindset employs extreme reluctance towards change and towards trying new things that may result in failure. If you recognize yourself having this mindset, try to see why you think the way you do and if this has something to do with the way you were raised or if someone told you what you are and what you’re not and you took it to heart.
If you find this has been your mindset and you want to change, there’s an alternative.
The Growth Mindset
The growth mindset is being passionate about learning. This comes with the acceptance of making a lot of mistakes. Mistakes, after all are data. People with the growth mindset use this data in order to become better. They’re not worried about immediate validation and results. Focused on learning, people with the growth mindset seek constant improvement and challenges even if that results in failure.
They trust the process and don’t crumble when meeting with failure. Another key factor in the growth mindset is the belief in change and adaptability. It’s not that you’re bad at math, it’s that you’ve never tried hard enough. Growing is about making small steps, sometimes falling, sometimes stumbling, but persevering nonetheless.
Conclusion
We need to remember that there’s nothing wrong with the fixed mindset, and it doesn’t need to be antagonized. There’s nothing wrong with building on a few select areas of your life. There’s also the possibility to overextend yourself with the growth mindset and to set your sights too high. It’s important to employ the right balance and embrace finding balance. Being confident but not pigeonholing yourself inside a set of beliefs.
Humans are capable of a lot. If you decide to delve further into your own mindset, remember to first focus on identifying your own biases and which camp you belong to, try getting some feedback from peers in terms of your strengths and weaknesses. And most importantly, know that you can choose and change your mindset.
