A complete, self-tested guide to habit change for smart snacking
When the pandemic hit last year and the sudden changes in the kind of life we started living, most people’s mental health was affected. Like everybody else, I was affected too. However, I found my solace in snacks. Tired? I snacked. Happy? I snacked. Sad? I snacked. Bored? I snacked. Have to deal with something? First snack. Snacking helped me cope with the loss, the helplessness, and to some extent, even the guilt. If anything, I became a habitual snacker.
I snacked all the time — before the meals, after the meals, along with the meals, in between the meals…
The Pygmalion effect and how it affects our mindset
“The visions we offer our children shape the future. It matters what those visions are. Often they become self-fulfilling prophecies. Dreams are maps.”
I always loved listening to stories — big or small, happy or sad, realistic or fairytales — as long as there was a moral to it and kept my mind preoccupied. Every night by the bedside, my father would tell my sister and me stories that we already heard before. He had a habit of repeating stories because we had already exhausted his sources and perhaps even his memory.
However…
“Why is it that when one man builds a wall, the next man immediately needs to know what’s on the other side?” ― George R.R. Martin
“Why is it that when one man builds a wall, the next man immediately needs to know what’s on the other side?”
― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
I always read the end of the book before I start the story.
No kidding. I cannot help it. It’s the same with any movie or series. I cannot help but watch the end before I start watching the show. That’s why I never start reading or watching any show before the series is complete, and I know, for sure, how it ends.
That’s why I watched Iron Man’s death…
But you don't listen
“We have, as human beings, a storytelling problem. We’re a bit too quick to come up with explanations for things we don’t really have an explanation for.”
— Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
Every time I opened my favourite YouTube channel, I would see advertisements, one after another, about the writing MasterClass. I guess, Uncle Google always keeps his goggles on — snooping on my wants and needs— only to dangle those in front of my eyes like a piece of red cloth thrown in front of a bull. After painfully watching the writing MasterClass advertisement…
Our ancestors were more badass than we assume
As unbelievable this may sound, the humans that inhabited Earth thousands of years ago were not dumb. They did not just eat bananas and swing from one tree to the next. If anything our ancestors were smart and brave. Living in the wilderness sharpened their survival instincts. They knew when to fight and when to let go of the urge and live in peace. Our ancestors and their cousins were sophisticated, intelligent, and hard-working.
1. They owned inbuilt pesticide beds
Ancient humans didn’t have one of those fancy mattresses you own, but they were very clever in putting together a comfortable place to sleep on. Archaeologists…
Or was Tut ‘tomb alone’?
Ancient Egyptians enjoyed a unique history given the mystery they lived with daily. Everything about them was mysterious — from their bizarre rituals and practices to their mysterious tombs where they buried their dead and were even governed by infamous mysterious rulers.
The discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb is one of the startling findings of the previous century. This young Pharaoh came into power in 1324 B.C. when he was only nine years old. He ruled for ten years and suddenly died at nineteen. However, Tut was not that much revered by his people like the other ancient Pharaohs.
Egypt was not a matriarchal society but wasn't a patriarchal one either
During the fifth century B.C., when the great Greek society expected their women to stay at home and take care of the house, Egyptian women freely participated in trade and businesses. They were equally paid for the work and were given legal rights that were not available to women anywhere else in the world at that time. In a society where Cleopatra, Hatshepsut, and Nefertiti were the ‘Pharaohs’, nothing less can be expected.
Egyptian women were allowed to take care of their legal affairs on their own. Unlike the ancient Greek women, they didn’t need to have any male representation…
The story behind the French general’s historic loss
The French general turned Emporer, Napolean Bonaparte, was one of the greatest military generals to ever live in History. That is what makes Napoleon’s defeat at the hands of the Duke of Wellington in 1815 a historical one.
The rise of Napoleon
Napoleon’s rise in ranks came during the French revolution during the late 1790s. He became the first French consul in 1800, and a couple of years later, he successfully established a new system of French law — the Napoleonic Code. Another couple of years later, he was appointed as the French Emporer. His vast empire stretched from the River Elbe to Italy…
The story of the black woman who rose from enslavement to became LA’s real estate tycoon
Bridget ‘Biddy’ Mason was born to a slave family in Georgia on the 25th of August, 1818. Like any other slave born at her time, she did not get to enjoy her childhood. She was enslaved at birth. When Bridget turned eighteen, she was gifted to a young Mississippian couple, Robert and Rebecca Smith, as a ‘wedding gift’. The several families she worked for changed her beautiful name Bridget to ‘Biddy’. Her life was not unique. Every slave from the South was treated similarly. They were brought, sold, or gifted — treated like property devoid of human rights.
However, Bridget’s…
Their incessant love for cats ultimately led to their downfall
Egypt was perhaps the first civilization that took cats as pets. Over 10,000 years ago, the Egyptian civilization was among the first to domesticate wild cats. Back then, people would regularly spot cats roam their agricultural fields to steal a mice or two. When the farmers would get bored, they would rub the back of these pretty little wild creatures and offer them scraps that lay around. Those were the first cats to be petted by humans.
However, the kind connection the ancient Egyptians had with their cats was not like the one you and I have with our cats…
