MY VISION

Students Not Educated in First Two Years of College

2011-02-25T04:54:00.000-08:00

A study entitled Academically Adrift: Limited Learning in College Campuses from researchers of New York University and University of Virginia says that a substantial percentage of college students fail to learn important skills in their first two years in college.

Culling their data from more than 3,000 respondents with 3.2 and over GPAs from unnamed universities and colleges across the US, the researchers say 45 percent of students don’t learn critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing skills that are necessary in learning and future employment.

The researchers say confusion on what comprises critical thinking, as well as increased social responsibilities in on-campus organizations or off-campus part-time work are partly to blame. They noted that students who study alone and have heavier course loads typically excel more than their more complacent counterparts.

Women’s Waistline Impacts Paycheck, Study Reveals

2011-02-25T04:50:00.001-08:00

It appears society’s media-driven standard on what are ideal physical appearances also plays a significant role even in economics, as a new study printed in the Journal of Applied Psychology says thinner women often get bigger paychecks than their heavier counterparts. Inversely, the study found that muscled men get bigger paychecks compared to their skinny and leaner-than-average mates.

The study says skinny women gets $16,000 more a year on average compared to women of bigger girth, while lean men receive $8,000 less than their muscled counterparts.

Experts decry the pervasive practice of evaluating people primarily on the basis of appearance, which media has fostered for years with its unceasing emphasis on beauty and good looks in programs and advertisements.

10,000 treated in hospital for being dangerously fat as admissions rise TENFOLD in a decade

2011-02-25T04:47:00.000-08:00

The number of patients needing urgent treatment because they are overweight has risen tenfold in the last decade.
Official figures published today reveal the scale of Britain’s obesity crisis.
Some 10,571 patients were admitted to hospital last year because doctors feared they were so fat that their health was in immediate danger.

Obesity crisis: The number of dangerously fat people being treated in hospital has risen tenfold over the past decade

A further 7,214 needed weight loss surgery and an additional 1,450 were put on some form of anti-obesity drug.
The problem appears to be far more serious among women, who account for 80 per cent of obesity-related hospital admissions and operations, even though levels of obesity between the sexes are similar.
Experts say this is because women are more self-conscious about their bodies and are likely to press doctors for treatment or surgery to help them slim.
But it does not explain why they are four times as likely to be admitted to hospital with obesity-related conditions such as breathing or heart problems, which implies more women are dangerously overweight than men.

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The figures published by the NHS Information Centre probably represent only a fraction of the growing toll of obesity on the health service.
They do not take into account numbers referred with heart disease, strokes, type-2 diabetes or high blood pressure, which are all caused by people being dangerously overweight.
Obesity is estimated to cost the NHS around £4.2billion a year, the majority incurred by treating related illnesses.

Figures show that 8,074 women and 2,495 men were admitted to hospital last year with breathing difficulties, heart problems, organ failure and other conditions directly caused by obesity, a rise of 30 per cent on the previous year.
A further 5,762 women needed surgery last year – including gastric bypass operations and gastric band fitting – compared with 1,450 men.

The number needing some form of operation rose by 70 per cent last year even though many health trusts have started restricting procedures because they are so expensive.
Gastric bypass operations cost between £8,000 and £14,000 while a band is less expensive, usually priced at between £5,000 and £7,000. Almost a quarter of adults are obese – around 24 per cent of men and 23 per cent of women.
But more than 60 per cent are classified as either obese or overweight and figures are expected to rise sharply over the next decade.
Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said of the figures: ‘They will prove to those who wish to dismiss the severity of the obesity crisis just how bad it is, and the rise in surgery is particularly revealing.
‘The present government cannot be held to account for obesity as it exists today but it must be held to account if its policies are not better-focused to tackle it from now on.’
A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘We need a new approach to tackling obesity.
‘That is why the Coalition wasted no time in publishing a public health white paper last year.’

5 Simple Steps To Enhance Your Happiness

2011-02-25T04:33:00.000-08:00

If you want to be happy, be. ~Leo Tolstoy

We have all been hearing and reading so much about Happiness.
How to find happiness? How to be Happy?
This is not going to be one of those articles where I tell you how to find happiness…

Why? Simply cause I believe happiness is within each and every one of us. We need not look for it elsewhere. We don’t need to search for happiness, because it can never be found!

How do you really find something that isnt lost in the first place??

Happiness can be self controlled and enhanced through certain practices. A large portion of being happy comes from our own power to change. Change is usually a good thing, especially, if you’re in a dormant not-going-anywhere kind of situation.

So today I will give you 5 simple steps/practices that will enhance and improve your happiness quotient:

Be Grateful:
Write letters of gratitude to people who have helped you in your life. Maybe it was something small or something big…but write that letter. Email or Text the gratitude note or letter. Its my guarantee, you will experience a lasting and increased sense of happiness. But you wont know till you try it!
Be Optimistic:
Everyday before you go to bed or while you meditate, visualize an ideal future for yourself. For example-living with a loving and supportive partner or finding a job that is fulfilling. You can visualize whatever you want and describe that vivid image in a journal entry. After doing this for a few days: one- the universe will start positively aligning things for you, two- you will have an increased feeling of well being.
Count Your Blessings:
Practice writing down three great things that have happened to you over the week. You might have met someone nice or might have bought something new. You being alive and breathing is a blessing too. You living and experiencing this wonderful life is a blessing too. Write it down and see the heightened state of euphoria you feel after you do. You will start noticing blessings you didn’t even know you already had!
You have strengths, Use them:
Take time to think about your strengths. You might be loving, giving, nurturing, helping, a good friend, a good person, a good host/hostess, great at your job, great with kids…the list is endless. Identify your strengths and then make use of these in your daily life. Everyday will become a blessing you will want to write about in your gratitude journal.
Commit acts of kindness:
Helping others also helps ourselves. Donate some time or money to charity. Better still be kind, help and assist people in need. Watching another person smile because of something you did, is the best feeling in the world! You will miraculously feel your worries vanishing, only to be replaced by a heightened soulful sense of happiness.

Simple, isnt it?

Now go ahead and gently introduce these practices in your life. You deserve every ounce of happiness you can garner from this wonderful life.

You live but Once!

Now its your turn…Do you have any practices to share, which have helped you enhance your happiness quotient? Please share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.