Friday 27 December 2013

Everyone is special....

Long long ago in a rainy tropical forest lived Ella the little elephant with her mother Bella .Their days were filled with love and laughter.Elle the baby elephant also had a secret worry which she has always kept hidden from her mother.She secretly envied her friend Gemma the giraffe for her tall physical appearance.She always wished she is tall and had long neck like  Gemma.she admired the way Gemma elegantly reach for the tall trees.

It was a festive time in the forest.The whole forest was sparkling with delight,tingling with excitement and bubbling with laughter.The forest was filled with cheerful radiance and sweet aromas of festive goodies.Mummy elephant Bella could sense that her baby is feeling little under the weather.She approached her softly and queried" what's the problem my sweet heart".Baby elephant Ella cried " mummy I wish I had long neck and tall like Gemma Girraffe" Mummy elephant gave Ella a big cuddle and said " Every one are beautiful in their own ways God creates each one with their unique specialness,we should always count the positives in us"."Allright mummy" Ella nodded unconvincingly .
Mummy decided she had to explain this in a very convincing way to her daughter.

The next day Bella took Ella on a day out around the Woods. Ella was excited to see all the crispy colourful leaves and their crunchy feel.Bella carefully queried Ella" you see varied leaves of various colours ,yellow,green,orange,pink and red,which one of them do you like". Baby Ella said excitingly " no mummy I love all of them each one is beautiful in their own way".Now the mom queried caringly" does that not struck a chord with us too,We are all are also unique,special and beautiful in our own ways albeit our varying shapes,height and colours.

Ella now understood it fully ,felt happy for her own uniqueness and gave her mom a big fluffy cuddle.She whispered in her mom's ears " I love you mom". Bella replied back " I love you too my daughter". They lived happily ever after.

Sunday 22 December 2013

Build the bear workshop- my little pony Fluttershy product review

*views are my own

We recently been to build the bear workshop at our local area to buy a Christmas gift for my 4 year old that she could cherish and rememBEAR.She is a great fan of my little pony shows in TV so we thought a fluffy friend would make her a great Christmas gift.

She was deeply enticed by the cheerful colours and delightful displays of the fluffy friends.

She choose an yellow Fluttershy to make and cherish without much trepidation .

She cherished all the moments from filling the furry animal with sponges to adding a wishful heart,to adding the bubblegum aroma for the furry animal.( I would upload the photos soon).Its really a time worth spending.

The quality was good and they are undeniably a keepsake toy.

The only flip side being my daughter is now asking for  another pony from the workshop a pinkie pie or a rainbow dash to keep company for her Fluttershy ,hope a magical Santa could make her wish come true...!!!.



Wednesday 4 December 2013

One in four- could that be you

Despite its theoretic appeal the Cliché-‘one in four get a mental health illness’s yet to translate to reality. Who is the one that’s affected, could that be you, me, one of your family member or a friend, the answer is anyone may be affected. If mental illness is so common then why is there so much discrimation against mentalillness? Discrimination may take many forms; let’s take some examples from recent portrayals in Media.

 

To jump or not to Jump:

Few days ago when I was driving through M25 listening to my radio ,I was Intrigued to hear about the M42 incident where a man was trying to take his life by jumping off the bridge and finally was rescued by the Police and detained in hospital safely. what intrigued me about this incident was though majority of public were empathic there were some cold tweets by some people asking the man to jump fast, there would not have been such backlash if everyone realise that this man is some one else brother or father or son and they share the same sentiments about their loved ones as us.

Attraction: Asylum:

 

The ongoing tug of war with Thorpe park defying to rename it’s offensive “Asylum attraction’ (where customers are chased by ‘patients’) despite a petition backed by many signatories. We all are very much aware that mental health patients are not scary; they are a vulnerable lot-studies show that people with mental illness are five times more likely to be assaulted than average and more than 50 times more likely to kill themselves than someone else.

 

Parity of esteem:

In essence, ‘parity of esteem’ is best described as: ‘Valuing mental health equally with physical health’.(Rcpsych report on Parity of esteem).Imagine you hurt your leg sustaining injury tomorrow, what would you do, go to A and E or GP and get it treated in hours, it’s as simple as that. But is that the same case if we have a mental distress, how many of us are brave enough to admit we are depressed and get the appropriate care, even if we take that extra mile to visit the doctor how many of us get the quality of care we deserve due tounderfunding of mental health teams. People with mental illness have 10 years less of life expectancy because of their poor physical health.

Bed cuts in Psychiatry:

I recently read in a paper that between 2011 and 2012,we lost at least 1,711 psychiatric beds. That's roughly 80 individual wards, or 9% of our beds. Not sure what are the figures with general medical and surgical bed by I don`t that will be this much. The basic truth is mental health is equally important as physical health and no health without any mental health.

 

Phil shaming:

I recently read an article in a newspaper about over prescription of antidepressant medications by doctors, we do come across many articles pertaining to weather we are over medicallinsing normal emotions and labeling patients with diagnosis. How can psychiatric diagnosis be a label, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia is a diagnosis same as diabetes or hypertension and not a label. While we agree that there are psychological therapies for mild and moderate form of depression, severe form of depression do need antidepressant and effectiveness of antidepressants are same as physical health medications.

The way forward:

Royal college of Psychiatrists has taken a number of initiatives to tackle the stigma and discrimination. The time to change initiative is one of the many examples. Also it`s producing various leaflets to create awareness among general public. What steps could we take ,each one of us should make it our top most priority to give the highest quality of care to each and every patient we treat. If we come across any deficiencies in care we should make it heard by appropriate professional agencies and do our level best to make sure our mental health patients receive the care they deserve-we need to be mindful that one in four could be our family member or friend.

People with mental illness are at increased risk of heart disease stroke and liver disease due to various reasons like lifestyle and side effects of medications. As junior doctors we are the future of NHS and health care andwe must act to ensure mental health is on par with physical health. If we tackle physical health of people with mental health problems we not only enhance their quality of life but also cost to NHS as said by Dr Martin Mcshane.

Monday 2 December 2013

Cyber Monday- few useful tips to be impervious to charm of credit cards

Hello shopping peoples,

Hope you all are making the most of this years cyber Monday shopping by being glued to your computer and making the most of flash discounts.The alluring charm of credit cards are undeneiy attractive but please by mindful of the aftermath of having a collapse on seeing the monthly credit card statement .

Here are a few useful tips to navigate through this period of intense temptation without causing much damage to our finances.

1. Be mindful when you shop

2. Always remember less is more

3.credit cards may have free transactions but not free cash.

4.focus on the task as distractions may lead as not being mindful in our shopping tasks.

5. Never buy anything that you need just because it's cheap.

Happy shopping peeps, have a great day

Sunday 1 December 2013

Clementines and gold coins

It's officially December today, exactly 24 days until Christmas , the count down begins.The time to jolly is here, it's time to come out of the social hibernation caused by the short and dark winter days.

I have baked my fruit cake today and we have taken our Christmas tree out to start decorating. My daughter has written her letter to the Santa with her Christmas wish lists which included a talking princess toy, a clementine , gold coins to mention a few. It's very interesting how kids learn the tradition at such an tender age.

Christmas is not only the season to eat, drink and be merry but also a time to spend time with our extended families.The therapeutic effects of handcrafting home made goodies is simply delicious.I am currently in a frenzy of buying,making, wrapping and hiding a sleigh load of gifts for family members.

There is also another side to the coin .Christmas is undeniably, a tricky time for living healthy, that irrestible urge to swerve the festive buldge also the emotions and difficult family dynamics which descends at Christmas time are also part and parcel of the festive time.

There is some useful points we could learn every winter time that would help us stay mentally and physically balanced.Its the art of forgiving and letting things go.

There is something incredibly honest about trees in winter , they are experts at letting things go,golden words said by Jefrey McDaniel . Let's let go of our pain and other unbecoming emotions and embrace the festivities with an unbound sense of joy and balance.

Merry Christmas folks, it's the season to be jolly.!!!.

Saturday 30 November 2013

Shared parental leave- potential benefits and pitfalls


Dads can share the parental leave with mother is the recent headline.A welcoming suggestion indeed. Sounds very idyllic in theoretical terms, but less cogent in practical terms and does require some time and efforts from our male counterparts to transform this wonderful motive from rhetoric to reality.

But have to say like any intervention or act that hit the headlines it comes with its own positives and pitfalls.

Firstly parenting and looking after a new born 24/7 is not a familiar territory for most men, they need to cram out of their comfort zone to sacrifice their career for some months and look after their new born, changing nappies and feeding them- not sure if many alpha men would be prepared to take on this challenge.

We all are aware of the beneficial effect of breast feeding that we even have breast feeding awareness week for the world to be aware of the essential benefits of breast feeding- if men were the share the maternity leave with mother it would be difficult to sort out this practicalities.
Blog- parental leave

What about the mechanisms of attachment formation in infants as first year of live is an important phase of attachment formation and if that's disturbed by shared primary care givers, may have an impact on their attachment and emotional development.

But please don't dismiss this enticing suggestion as preposterous here are the potential benefits;

1. Men will also do a fair share of weight bearing in child care so we could scale up our career ladder without big breaks.

2. Children develop a good attachment and relationship with both parents.

3. Women can let their hairs loose, foots up and enjoy their temporary break from the world of nappy changing.

At the end of the day, we have flexibility to choose and the one size does not fit all stays true here too, so we could manoeuvre our decisions based on our family dynamics and individual choices.
Looking forward for that wonderful time when women could break through our glass ceilings in our career ladder and could see more father and toddler groups in children centres.


Tuesday 26 November 2013

Stay in the present

Yesterday is a history
Tomorrow is a mystery
Today is present
Enjoy this present the most without letting your life slip away

Keep moving ..

Albert Einstein said many years ago   Life is like a bicycle to balance it well we need to be moving.

Metaphorically, problems to solution is not to run away from it but to Run

Keep running.increase your fitness levels.

Are we that much time poor that we can't even dedicate 15 minutes each day to motivate ourselves for a fitness activity.

This morning when I was sipping my daily cup of cappacino and reading The newspaper , was shocked by the alarmingly raising diabetic epidemic. Lets take small steps for our long term wellbeing, as prevention is better than cure, let's take a pledge today to increase our fitness levels by dedicating atleast 10 minutes a day for any kind of exercise like running, fast walking etc

Tuesday 8 October 2013

Powers and pitfalls of psychopathology

Today I was at the powers and pitfalls of psychopathology at the royal society of medicine, very intriguing presentations by various elite scholars. 

Thursday 26 September 2013

Macmillan cancer support coffee day

I am hosting coffee morning at my home this year in support of Macmillans charity.

I am fascinated by the great cancer support work done by this charity, so this is a small gesture that I could do to raise cuppa for a great cause.

The prevalance of cancer continues to increase and as a medical doctor I am well aware of the horrendous effect of cancer on the affected patients physical and psychological well being.No person should be let to suffer cancer alone and charities are doing great work in increasing awareness, providing psychological support to persons affected by cancer and their carers and many more.

Lets do whatever we can to support their great efforts.


My favourite quotes




Sunday 22 September 2013

Spicy chicken curry

It's very easy to do a tasty chicken curry with a rich blend of flavours

1. Heat oil in a pan and fry cinnamon , bay leaves and cardamom 

2. Slice two onions and fry them until golden brown along with the spices

3.pour a tin of tomato purée over this along with finely chopped garlic, ginger and some salt to taste

4.fry 500 mg of diced chicken along with this mixture and add 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder, I tsp chilly powder and corraiander powder

5.add water and boil it in a medium flame for 30 minutes

6, add corraiander and a teaspoon of garam masala before taking the pan off the fire

Serve with basmati rice and enjoy ..

Saturday 21 September 2013

Smoothie time

Time in and time again we speak about healthy cooking,I used to have one day a month as smoothie day where my food will only be smoothies,they are such wholesome food that we will not feel tired at the same time giving the digestive system a rest. A typical day on a smoothie diet looks something like this Morning mango banana smoothie Afternoon stawberry smoothie Evening pea smoothie Night nut milk Mango banana smoothie: blitz mango pieces banana pieces together with cocunut water in a blender Stawberry smoothie blitz stawberry with soya milk and vanilla essence Nut milk: prepared from blending pistachio,cashew nut and almonds

Friday 20 September 2013

Interesting night time read

Just came across this link in twitter before I doze off to sleep, yet another book to talk about the effect of unconscious , an enjoyable read indeed http://psychcentral.com/lib/subliminal-how-your-unconscious-mind-rules-your-behavior/00017855

New beginnings....

Learn from your mistakes of past and grow out of them, live in the moment, this moment is true so live it up fully


Perinatal conference at the Atheneum

Many of you in London may well be familiar about the Atheneum- the posh club and a medical hub.

Yesterday I was at a meeting in Atheneum. Quite thought provoking presentations by varied speakers.

The one that was very touching was a presentation by a service user about her personal experience with illness, the journey, the fight back and her altruistic work to the charity providing solace and support for women with antenatal and postnatal illness.

It's some time ok to be not ok , that's what any one going through a dark period in life need to understand and remember that their problem is temporary and this one too shall pass.

Over the following weeks I will start posting various links to support groups and resources to help people get through their illness.


Remember stress is an attitude

So free your mind from worry and anxiety, worrying is a waste of time it's not going to make your proems disappear

Thursday 19 September 2013

What can't be cured has to be endured

Any concept good or bad the quicker you embrace it quicker you can move it.




A Journey of thousand miles start with a single step


Look life from different angle it's your priced possession

Jeans for Genes day

Friday 20/09 is Jeans for genes day, it raises money for the charity genetic disorders UK.

I will be wearing jeans tomorrow and will donate a small amount to the charity, if we all collectively donate then our small drops could create an ocean.

Live is about living and letting others live.

Life is a journey

Destination maybe important but what's more important is to enjoy the entire journey, find joy in little things , appreciate the beauty in your child's smile, early morning sunshine , ever glowing river water with full of positive vibes , home made food , reading a good book, listening to a good music.. The list continues.

Be grateful for your blessings

Enjoy the situation when it is there

Wednesday 18 September 2013

Grass is greener

Grass is always greener on the other side until you appreciate the goodness in your life.The easiest route to unhappiness is to compare your life with others, we may never know what they have gone through.

Don't try to walk in others shoes it would not fit your life style.

Your life is unique and tailor made for you enjoy every moment and live your life is fullest.Appreciate the happiness in little things around you, the world is definitely a great place to live and learn if we stop seeing it with our dark tinted glasses.

Stop worrying and start living as worrying is definitely not going to solve any problems.

Thursday 12 September 2013

Life with smart phones

I start my day with meditation from headspace app, followed by a scroll through face book twitter email to be aware of world around me. I use navigation app to navigate through my way to work and read metro and other newspaper app in my spare time to keep me updated about the world around me. In the evening after spending sufficient amount of family time I revert back to my smart phone for logging on my calorie intake into fitness pal and running into map my run app,day is finished with yoga nidra app.

If something as small as a smart phone could become so indispensable , it makes us wonder how one habit could have a domino effect and lead to a series of habits.

Wednesday 11 September 2013

You are what your thoughts are so always be positive believe in better


Life is full of infinite possibilities , even the word impossible says I am possible


Don't worry Be Happy


Change is inevitable,suffering is optional

I always believe change is an essential part of human life.metaphorically life is a sea of changes.it is not the change that causes stress but how we react to it. I am a great believer in Mahatma Gandhi's quote- you may never know what may come of your action but if you do not take any action there is no results. A journey of thousand miles starts with a single step,so take that single step today and be the change you wish to be in your life.