“Samundar humesha special raha hain na Bombay ke liye? I guess I can see why. Iss sheher mein jahan har waqt sab kuchh badalta rehta hai, bas ek samundar hi hain jo nahi badalta. Humesha yahin rehta hain.” We can all hear Aisha from Wake Up Sid saying this as we unwind by Marine Drive and enjoy the sunshine. Even if your “Aisha moment” doesn’t materialize, a cup of chai can still put things right.
At the Bandra Bandstand, you may chat with your loved ones while taking in the most beautiful scenery. You could also ascend the Kanheri caves for breathtaking views. A nocturnal drive on the Bandra Worli Sea Link is all that is necessary for the weather. You manage to find basic comforts in a world that seems to be moving swiftly all around you. The city also has a number of lakes where you can stroll around.
Kodaikanal
Are you someone who finds pleasure in Maggi and paneer pakora weather? There aren’t many things more serene than strolling through verdant forests while it rains and listening to birds you’ve never heard before, so for me, this is connected to a lot of memories of camping with my family and friends and trips to hill stations.
In Tamil Nadu, Kodaikanal is referred to as the “Princess of Hill Stations.” Due to the weather, July to September is the best period to visit Kodi. Through the airports in Madurai or Coimbatore, where buses and vehicles are readily available to provide connectivity, it is conveniently reachable. Kodai Lake, the jewel of the hill station, is an excellent location to search for waterfalls to hike to with ethereal beauty.
Coorg
Coorg is known for its breathtaking natural beauty and welcoming surroundings. The location has advantages for everyone, whether it’s a family vacation or a gathering of friends. The place is perfect for thrill-seekers as it offers adventure sports like river rafting. Book a guesthouse on a coffee plantation to wake up with a coffee breeze.
We compared three smartphones – OnePlus Nord 2T | Poco F4 | and Moto Edge 30 on the basis of their design, performance, and the d camera. We gave points to each smartphone depending on their place in the respective category. Check out the video to see who wins.
Whether it is in relationships, work, family, friends, or a big tub of ice cream, we are all, essentially, seeking joy. Ruskin bond famously compared happiness to an exclusive butterfly that must never be pursued but only savoured for the brief time that it touches you. If there is any universal truth to that, then why do some people seem significantly happier than others?
The subject of happiness has been researched for years, time and again, by geneticists and psychologists. Philip Brickman and Donald T. Campbell, two such brilliant psychologists, introduced the concept of the ‘hedonic treadmill’ to the world in 1971. The hedonic treadmill is the idea that humans return to a stable level of happiness despite any major or minor fluctuations in their external environment.
More recently, Mark Manson, author of the book ‘The Subtle Art of not giving a F*ck’, re-introduced the idea by suggesting that happiness remains a seven, for almost everyone, on a scale of one through ten. Depending on life events, which may be positive or negative, the number will be higher or lower, respectively, but only for a brief time.
If there is a happiness set point, who and what determines that? Contrary to Manson’s more generic theory, psychologists have discovered that each of us has a unique set point determined up to fifty percent by our genetic makeup. The other forty percent is attributed to an internal state of mind, and the remaining ten percent to external circumstances. This means that almost half of our capacity to feel and experience joy is pre-determined.
In the same way that some of us are blessed with light eyes, freckles or naturally auburn hair, some of us are bestowed with a higher potential to lead happier, more emotionally satisfying lives. So, then, what about the rest of us? Are we doomed to lead less gratifying lives if we don’t win the gene lottery?
The baseline level of our happiness is an amalgamation of genetics and a range of other things: the environment we grew up in, the environment we choose to live in, our personalities, the age and stage of our lives, our expectations, and desires, to name a few.
What accounts for the other half is a spectrum of factors that are largely within our ability to influence. Our genetics predispose us to have certain characteristics, and while that is inevitable, it doesn’t take away from the power we possess to shift, mould, and re-direct our lives in any way we desire.
So, you could be someone who is genetically prone to being more anxious and neurotic than others, but you could override that predicament by making different choices on a day-to-day basis. One way you can do this, for instance, is by reaching out to a therapist, a friend, or a family member you trust. Venting out thoughts and emotions is an effective way to lighten your being. Journaling, committing to spiritual practice, and cultivating a creative hobby are other ways to ease an anxious mind.
A deeply fulfilling life is the result of giving back just as much and even more so than you receive. Volunteering for causes that you are passionate about, or finding work that sparks joy within you, is a wonderful way to enrich your life with meaning and profound experiences. Our genetics provide a blueprint, but they are not the outcome of our lives set in stone. In fact, genes respond and manifest in coherence with our individual actions and behaviours. So, please don’t underestimate the potency of free will, as you acknowledge the crucial role of genetics in shaping us as we are.
LG Electronics (LG), one of the leading consumer durable brands, is bringing its lineup of new upgraded Gram laptops. Ultra-light, ultra-portable and boasting exceptional performance and long battery life, the new upgraded models continue the brand’s legacy of go-anywhere computing convenience. Stylish designs with additional new features have made the laptops faster and even more powerful.
The diverse lineup includes four exciting new models with 16:10 aspect ratio screens: LG Gram 17 (model 17Z90Q), LG Gram 16 (model 16Z90Q), LG Gram 16 (model 16T90Q- 2in1), and LG Gram 14 (model 14Z90Q). With more screen space than most laptops’ 16:10 displays, the latest LG Grams can display more information at once. The new anti-glare panels further prevent screen reflections during the day or outdoors while the full HD IR Webcam transforms the video conference experience.
To cater to the most demanding users’ needs, LG Gram laptops are Intel® EvoTM Platform verified, powered by a 12th Gen Intel® CoreTM with i7 processor with faster LPDDR 5 RAM and NVMe Gen 4 SSD unlock high processing speed. LG Gram models 17Z90Q and 16Z90Q feature 80Wh high-density batteries to ensure longer periods of use between charges, giving users the freedom to roam around while still staying connected.
LG Gram 17 and 16 feature a high resolution of WQXGA (2560×1600), and LG Gram 14 features WUXGA (1920 x 1200). The new displays are ideal for both entertainment and work, delivering stellar picture quality with vibrant, accurate colours, excellent contrast and sharp details with a wider angle. The four-sided super-slim bezel design enhances viewer immersion and adds to the premium product’s sleeker, more sophisticated appearance. The DCI-P3 99% (Typ.) Wide Colour Gamut brings content to life, providing a more precise, colourful and detailed display on a big screen.
The all-new LG Gram laptops feature the latest AI sensing technology like Face Login, LG Glance by Mirametrix and AI Noise cancellation. The AI-based reactive software helps the users by protecting privacy, and boosting productivity as it maximizes convenience while minimizing user actions.
The new upgraded LG Gram comes with a more intuitive UX for easy use. LG has introduced fresh and original wallpapers with trendy and attractive colours, making the display more appealing. As part of LG’s efforts toward environmental protection, the LG Gram comes in with recyclable packaging material.
Providing a big-screen experience without sacrificing portability, the flagship LG Gram 17 boasts a large 17-inch screen while only weighing 1,350 grams. Equally transportable, the new LG gram 16 and 14 tips the scales at just 1,199 grams and 999 grams, respectively. With LG’s ultra-narrow bezels and a hidden hinge design, all four models achieve an impressive screen-to-body ratio (STBR) of 90 per cent.
All four variants feature ThunderboltTM 4, which can be used to transfer, charge, and display data simultaneously, and has USB 4 compatibility. The device is charged using a USB C port.
The full metal body made from magnesium alloy used as aircraft material is lightweight and strong. Its durability is tested by passing the demanding MIL-STD-810G military standard of durability and reliability.
Commenting on the occasion, Hak Hyun Kim- Director- Home Entertainment- LG Electronics India said, “LG Gram has been designed to maximize consumer usability. The new models with additional features like facial recognition and noise cancellation aim at transforming the user experience. We provide our customers with the latest cutting-edge technology to enhance their lifestyle. We believe this new 2022 LG Gram lineup will set new standards in user experience, and we are confident our customers will love it.”
Sharing his views on the launch, Mr. Akshay Ahuja – Director, Consumer Electronics, Amazon India said, “We are happy to launch LG’s new and exciting range of LG Gram laptops during the much awaited shopping event – Amazon Prime Day which is on July 23 & 24th this year. I am confident that our customers will appreciate the best-in-class features the laptops have to offer. At Amazon we continue to build a strong portfolio in the laptop category providing customers with a vast selection, unmatched value, fast and reliable delivery and a great shopping experience. Amazon Prime is designed to make your life better every single day. Prime offers the best of shopping and entertainment. Go to www.amazon.in/prime to join Prime today!”
The new range of Gram laptops will be available both online & offline channels. LG Gram’s new range will be priced starting at INR 94,999 in India and will be available in three sizes 14inches, 16 inches and 17 inches.
Fashion is an industry that spans the world and inspires people to find their voice and approach. However, it is crucial to consider the tremendous environmental impacts of fashion on our planet. From Fast Fashion declining the lifespan of garments to trends taking over social media, consumerism has increased, and the industry desperately needs sustainable practices.
Reusing, recycling, renting and thrifting to increase the lifespan of garments is essential in the fight to tackle the existential threat of risen carbon footprint and climate change. It is time to hit the brakes on fast fashion and mindless shopping and work towards creating a fashion industry that supports ecological practices and addresses overconsumption.
More importantly, brands must adopt ethical practices, use eco-friendly packaging, and strive to be more sustainable to defend the planet and help consumers in their slow fashion journey. Throwing a spotlight on three homegrown indie brands that are socially and environmentally responsible and will help you build a greener wardrobe.
Okhai offers handcrafted apparel created by rural artisans across the country. These artisans are gifted with the skill to craft exquisite designs, and the pieces transcend trends by giving classics a fresh twist. Embroidery, patchwork, and mirror work emphasize handloom and are a vibrant expression of culture. The brand has helped improve the economic conditions of women artisans.
Ritu Kumar believes in slow fashion and uses soybean and banana fibres to create her signature crafts and embroideries. The brand is rooted in sustainability and is devoted to reducing its carbon footprint by using natural fibres. The collection celebrates bandhini, aari work, geometric patterns, florals, patchwork, and dyed prints with a promise to stay true to their vision of transparency.
Bareek is a sustainable and green menswear brand specializing in light and breathable clothing. Bareek strives to lessen its impact by using handwoven fabrics such as khadi and handloom cotton and ensures that each piece is sourced mindfully and responsibly. The fabrics increase the longevity of the pieces and promise modern, sensible use and reuse of the collection. The heritage crafts such as jamdani and ikat are their bestsellers.
You can’t help but feel joy when scrolling through your Instagram feed full of zingy colours and vibrant pieces, precisely what Dopamine Dressing does! As we emerge from the pandemic and break free from isolation, we drench ourselves in neons and hot pinks to brighten our spirits and feel upbeat. With the return to normalcy, the world is celebrating in cheery Fuchsia hues and bold corals.
Dopamine dressing is dressing to find happiness in clothes. With fashion being the perfect vehicle for self-expression and inspiration, dressing to boost your mood and feel good is the current trend. This trend has taken birth in a generation obsessed with breaking the monotony and making a statement, and what is a better way to stand out than to sport eye-catching colourful outfits?
Millennials believe in dressing for themselves and steer away from external validation. This freedom of celebrating a unique style of expressing emotions is a dopamine trigger. Clothing has a more profound impact on our mood than we think. In fact, it can lead to increased confidence and pleasure. The rise of colour in fashion is steeped with meaning.
Neons are definitely the new Black. Fashion’s embrace of celebrating personal style and playful dressing has made wardrobe a powerful means of communication. Mass brands like H&M and ONLY have included bold hues like neons, glowing scarlets, shimmer, and a plethora of bright colours in their collections to keep up with the latest fashion trends, focusing on spreading optimism and happiness.
Dopamine dressing isn’t all about dressing up in colours, prints, textures, and hues but rather pieces that make you happy and uplift your mood. It could be an oversized T-shirt or your favourite joggers. There are no rules and regulations: it’s all about using clothing to induce joy and pleasure! The happiness hormone is not just associated with flashy colours but is about fashion which brings you a better mood.
Our Top Dopamine Dressing Tip:
Get creative, get out of your comfort zone, wear what truly excites you, and don’t feel afraid to add a pop of pink or look like a disco ball!
Self-care is no longer a luxury but a burning necessity.
What is it all about?
It is an awfully personal process of finding what triggers and nourishes you. While the internet is saturated with information and self-care hacks, it is imperative to understand that self-care is most useful and functional when personalized. It is about finding your love language to be more loving towards yourself. To help you get started, here is a short quiz you can take: https://5lovelanguages.com/quizzes/love-language
This is, obviously, not the only way you can find what truly makes you feel loved and appreciated. A method that I often use is journaling. A practice of regular self-reflection keeps you attuned to your constantly changing needs and wants.
Knowing your love language makes the process much simpler and more defined. For instance, the way in which I like to be shown love is mainly through quality time. In self-care terms, I could spend more quality time with myself by starting a diary and writing about my day or romanticizing my life a little by watching the sunset and listening to my favourite songs.
The question you can ask yourself: What can I do to nourish my mind, body and soul in a very specific way to who I am? If this is still an intimidating concept to wrap your head around, it’s okay. We got you.
The five forms of self-care:
This broad concept can be narrowed down to comprise the following categories –
Physical Self-Care
The most basic and yet the most essential form of self-care. Taking care of yourself physically can start with taking a shower, hydrating yourself and ensuring that you get at least 8 hours of sleep every night. Depending on what your health allows, you can get intensive with your fitness routine, but if you are not someone who enjoys that, you can opt for a more relaxing way to pamper yourself by perhaps booking yourself a massage or stretching outdoors.
Emotional Self-Care
On a daily basis, we need an outlet for all the emotions we experience and a safe space to express ourselves. If you are someone with an artistic temperament, you could write poems, paint or play music to channel your emotions in a creative manner. If not, you could consider seeing a therapist every so often or dumping your thoughts in a journal to get rid of all that negative energy you may be harbouring through the day.
Mental Self-Care
Albert Einstein said that we must feed our minds as often as we feed our stomachs. Consuming content that inspires you and elevates your consciousness is essential to taking care of your mind. You could start your day by listening to a podcast or reading a book while sipping a warm cup of coffee. Alternatively, you could engage your mind by solving a puzzle or learning a new skill. Learning a new language is often my favourite way of doing that for my mind.
Social Self-Care
Social Self-Care is all about a balance of establishing healthy boundaries and yet ensuring sufficient time for nurturing personal relationships. Avoid exhausting and overly draining yourself by learning to say no and taking the time to restore. This is an act of self-love. At the same time, if you feel like catching up with an old friend, making a plan to go out, or texting a family member, don’t hold back. Make an effort to reach out and connect.
Spiritual Self-Care
A personal favourite form of self-care includes the practice of meditation and yoga, among other things. Connecting with your spirit and the universe is a very individual pursuit. However, making an effort to discover that relationship and what it means to you is also an act of self-care. For me, spending time in nature, regularly self-reflecting, and practising gratitude is what feels most aligned with my soul.
To put it simply…
As with any relationship, what strengthens it, is a sense of trust. To build that trust within yourself, you must establish a routine and follow through. In any given moment, if you sit back and evaluate what it is that you truly want or need, and you make an effort to show up yourself, there can be no greater act of self-love. So, go ahead and indulge in some self-loving!
On my first day at the ‘Art of Living’ ashram in Bangalore, I met a recently graduated contemporary artist who was there for reasons not very different from mine. A general absence of distractions and an over-analytical temperament wreaked havoc on my mind for a while before I decided to do something about it. So, there I was, not knowing what to expect but desperate for some relief.
Why did a 20-year-old turn to a spiritual retreat to find relief from an anxiety-ridden mind? Well, because alcohol didn’t help. It did, for a brief while, before I was left feeling worse than ever. I learnt, very early on, that substance abuse was barely a lasting solution to what I was going through.
The artist, who was also my roommate, became a constant companion through those three transformative days at the ashram. Our schedules allowed for no spare time: we would start our days with yoga and follow that by attending lectures, interacting with people in the ashram, intensely meditating for hours, listening to spiritual discourses, and, sometimes, singing, dancing and praying in unison.
On the last day, after one of our meditating sessions, my friend/roommate came to me and said something that summarized just about everything I took back from this experience. Being a heavy smoker for quite some time now, she said that she had never experienced a high this intense and that she never expected to be able to live without it, let alone experience something that transcends it.
I had one reason that drove me to practice yoga, but by the time I left the ashram, I had many reasons to make it an intrinsic part of my life. If I had to lay it out simply, in three days, I was a happier person with more mental clarity and focused than I had ever known. I slept better, ate healthier, and most importantly, found a community of people who valued compassion, kindness and truthfulness.
Panoramic view of woman practicing yoga on background of evening mountains. Meditating female is balancing on one leg at sunset. Concept of balance.
The ancient Indian practice of yoga, mentioned for the first time in the Rigveda, is now a popular mainstream exercise for over 300 million people around the world. Surprisingly, it is even more widely practiced in countries like the USA, Canada, and Australia than in India.
With celebrities like Jennifer Aniston, Madonna and Mathew McConaughey famously declaring how yoga helped improve their wellbeing and reduce the crushing anxiety that is often a part of their public lives, this practice has a large following of people who seek some sort of inner peace, strength and joy.
As with any exercise, yoga, too, has physical benefits such as: an increase in flexibility, balance, strength, and stamina. Studies show that regular practice of yoga can aid in weight loss and improve cardiovascular health to a substantial degree. What sets yoga apart from all other forms of exercise is that it benefits the body, mind, and soul.
An article in Harvard Health Publishing suggests that yoga can improve cognitive brain functions such as learning and memory. Meditation can elevate brain chemicals, improving mood and decreasing stress levels. The Psychological Health Care blog illustrates how yoga can boost serotonin to promote feelings of overall wellbeing and happiness.
While there are several types of yoga that one can practice, what I find most enjoyable is that there are no stages to accomplish. There is no right place to start either. Yoga honors individuality and can be something that you turn to for a little inner calm when the world outside seems to be spinning too fast.
From what I have learnt from my days at the ashram, if you realize what it is that you are truly seeking, there is always a way to actualize it. As someone who is a product of a fast-paced, media-driven, and sometimes superficial world, I have felt its heaviness dampening my spirit, and I have found solace in an unexpected but profound place. As long as I am here, I will always have my breath to center me, my body to feel at home, and my mind to provide a heightened sense of awareness and deep inner peace.
