David Green's Blog: Huffington Post blog about The World of Spies, Wealth Creation & Yoga - Posts Tagged "wellbeing"
Huffington Post blog: Changing The Money For Nothing Culture
It's just not right that a person who works and pays tax, earns less than someone on unemployment benefits. This anomaly was highlighted recently in the Daily Mail when 50 jobs remained unfilled in Worcester where unemployment is high. One potential applicant didn't bother to apply because the government paid him more not to work.
The benefits debate is gathering real momentum in the UK. Should the unemployed do something in return for taxpayer's support? Surely the answer is yes. But if governments condition our unemployed to expect money for nothing, then the result is obvious. There is no incentive to find a job. Any smart person will take money for nothing.
Unemployed people need to be reminded that they are valued, useful and are needed. Everyone is good at something and everyone can contribute. Policymakers need to create the opportunities - not animosity or vacuous promises. Initiatives don't count unless they are delivered. Surely a sense of responsibility needs to be imbued well before young people become unemployed.
Forget the politics, good old fashioned hard work and enthusiasm leads to financial reward, satisfaction and high self esteem. It's the law of karma.
Prince Charles, a great role model for the young, has announced a new scheme called Step Up To Serve which is a call to arms to inspire our youth many of whom are unemployed. Brilliant in principle, but will it be adequately funded to create a meaningful difference to the underlying issue which is really the government's problem to solve? Also, do we ever stop to think that our young people cannot always be blamed for their lack of education and the environment in which they grow up which influences their attitude to work?
Work is Worship
Work ethic alongside education should be gently introduced at a very young age.
I grew up in a family where we were taught that extra pocket money required something in return. My father was self employed, so we were given mundane tasks like stuffing envelopes from a young age and had holiday jobs. This conditioning helped me to realise that with hard work everything was possible - effort and sacrifice puts food on the table. If on the other hand, I had grown up with 'work shy' parents, the odds are that I would have followed that pattern instead.
Getting the best out of young people is also a middle class problem. It's too easy for young adults to ride on the backs of their hardworking parents expecting continued hand outs without breaking sweat. Parents naturally want to help their children, but 'free' money is never as valuable as money earned after a hard day's work.
Some will say that it's not easy for a young person to get a holiday job. Well that just isn't so. Take Christina, a hairdresser from Glasgow. She has raised her son Jack on her own whilst running a business. Her work ethic has rubbed off on him - at just 13 and has shown a talent for cooking. Jack is now being trained by a top chef at weekends who has taken him under his wing because he wants to learn, works hard and displays a good attitude. Surely these are the key ingredients to success. Can you imagine how great a chef he is going to be by the age of 21?
Yoga Could Be The Answer
Yoga is a practical science which can be applied to our lives. It is not just sitting cross-legged chanting OM.
There are three main paths of yoga which prevail in our daily activities:
Karma yoga: The Path of Action - through our actions we can be useful to society in our work;
Jnani yoga: The Path of Wisdom - as we learn and experience more, we become wiser and
Bhakti yoga: The Path of Devotion - through serving and caring, our love, acceptance and tolerance increases for others.
Meanwhile mudras, which are normally represented by symbolic hand gestures, have great significance in daily life also. Many who practise yoga put the forefinger to the thumb but few know the significance. It means bending the ego with humility and surrender. Both governments and the unemployed need to be humble and support each other.
Those who don't work, demonstrate another type of mudra with the flat palm facing upwards. This mudra can represent a plea for help and not just money. Then there is the mudra of putting two hands together, normally when welcoming someone, which signifies the symbol of unity. In this context the government should be signalling togetherness with the unemployed - we will help you but you need to help yourselves by helping others.
Policymakers need to be mindful of the unemployed by introducing properly funded schemes and education while showing proper respect to the employed.
Values need to be instilled and nurtured by example and not force fed. Future generations will then never expect something for nothing again.
David Green is a retired entrepreneur, experienced practitioner of Kriya Yoga and is the author of a new book, The Invisible Hand: Business, Success & Spirituality, which shows that material success and spiritual success are bound together. www.the-invisiblehand.com
The benefits debate is gathering real momentum in the UK. Should the unemployed do something in return for taxpayer's support? Surely the answer is yes. But if governments condition our unemployed to expect money for nothing, then the result is obvious. There is no incentive to find a job. Any smart person will take money for nothing.
Unemployed people need to be reminded that they are valued, useful and are needed. Everyone is good at something and everyone can contribute. Policymakers need to create the opportunities - not animosity or vacuous promises. Initiatives don't count unless they are delivered. Surely a sense of responsibility needs to be imbued well before young people become unemployed.
Forget the politics, good old fashioned hard work and enthusiasm leads to financial reward, satisfaction and high self esteem. It's the law of karma.
Prince Charles, a great role model for the young, has announced a new scheme called Step Up To Serve which is a call to arms to inspire our youth many of whom are unemployed. Brilliant in principle, but will it be adequately funded to create a meaningful difference to the underlying issue which is really the government's problem to solve? Also, do we ever stop to think that our young people cannot always be blamed for their lack of education and the environment in which they grow up which influences their attitude to work?
Work is Worship
Work ethic alongside education should be gently introduced at a very young age.
I grew up in a family where we were taught that extra pocket money required something in return. My father was self employed, so we were given mundane tasks like stuffing envelopes from a young age and had holiday jobs. This conditioning helped me to realise that with hard work everything was possible - effort and sacrifice puts food on the table. If on the other hand, I had grown up with 'work shy' parents, the odds are that I would have followed that pattern instead.
Getting the best out of young people is also a middle class problem. It's too easy for young adults to ride on the backs of their hardworking parents expecting continued hand outs without breaking sweat. Parents naturally want to help their children, but 'free' money is never as valuable as money earned after a hard day's work.
Some will say that it's not easy for a young person to get a holiday job. Well that just isn't so. Take Christina, a hairdresser from Glasgow. She has raised her son Jack on her own whilst running a business. Her work ethic has rubbed off on him - at just 13 and has shown a talent for cooking. Jack is now being trained by a top chef at weekends who has taken him under his wing because he wants to learn, works hard and displays a good attitude. Surely these are the key ingredients to success. Can you imagine how great a chef he is going to be by the age of 21?
Yoga Could Be The Answer
Yoga is a practical science which can be applied to our lives. It is not just sitting cross-legged chanting OM.
There are three main paths of yoga which prevail in our daily activities:
Karma yoga: The Path of Action - through our actions we can be useful to society in our work;
Jnani yoga: The Path of Wisdom - as we learn and experience more, we become wiser and
Bhakti yoga: The Path of Devotion - through serving and caring, our love, acceptance and tolerance increases for others.
Meanwhile mudras, which are normally represented by symbolic hand gestures, have great significance in daily life also. Many who practise yoga put the forefinger to the thumb but few know the significance. It means bending the ego with humility and surrender. Both governments and the unemployed need to be humble and support each other.
Those who don't work, demonstrate another type of mudra with the flat palm facing upwards. This mudra can represent a plea for help and not just money. Then there is the mudra of putting two hands together, normally when welcoming someone, which signifies the symbol of unity. In this context the government should be signalling togetherness with the unemployed - we will help you but you need to help yourselves by helping others.
Policymakers need to be mindful of the unemployed by introducing properly funded schemes and education while showing proper respect to the employed.
Values need to be instilled and nurtured by example and not force fed. Future generations will then never expect something for nothing again.
David Green is a retired entrepreneur, experienced practitioner of Kriya Yoga and is the author of a new book, The Invisible Hand: Business, Success & Spirituality, which shows that material success and spiritual success are bound together. www.the-invisiblehand.com
David Green's latest Huff Post blog: The Truth About Health: A Bitter Pill To Swallow
GK Chesterton, the great author who inspired Gandhi to end British colonial rule in India, observed:
"I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite."
There are 711 billion reasons why the pharmaceutical industry and the 'eminent' doctors that legitimise their products will disagree. According to HCAN, that's the mega profits in US dollars 'disclosed' in the 10 years to 2012 by the top drug companies. Like all great salesmen, they have found a way to make us reliant on their products even if we don't really need them.
Approved drugs, a bit like 'approved' banks, don't seem particularly safe or fit for purpose. Since the 1950s, over 56 approved drugs were withdrawn in Europe and the USA. In 2012, Glaxo was fined $3 billion for criminal and other offences including apparently bribing doctors to promote their products. Is this yet another industry which cannot be regulated or trusted?
Let's take statins or rather let's not. The latest 'doctors report' from the USA featured in the Boston Globe, recommends that 30% of the adult US population - 72 million mainly healthy people, should be prescribed with statins. Apparently 15% are already. The FDA highlights the possible side effects of statins: memory loss, diabetes, liver damage and muscle injury. Not exactly a glowing endorsement. The Telegraph reports that the UK is considering these findings. I hope that our doctors follow Dr Malhotra who told the BBC that a Mediterranean diet including olive oil, nuts, fresh fruit and vegetables, is almost three times as powerful in reducing mortality as taking a statin.
Dr. Robert Eckel, a University of Colorado cardiologist who worked on the new statin US guidelines added, "I don't like the concept of 'good foods' and 'bad foods, we really want to emphasize dietary patterns."
Really? Surely, good and bad food is not a concept at all. It's a reality and one we know only too well. Sugar, salt and unpronounceable additives in quantity are bad for us. Food oversaturated with fat is bad for us. Anything that causes toxicity including pills is bad for us. We can stop our intake voluntarily or we can blindly accept what big business sells us ready-made. For example, in a recent Newsnight, the President of Coca Cola didn't even blink when Jeremy Paxman revealed that a large cup of Coke contains 44 sachets of sugar. Dubious alternatives to sugar like aspartame are not the answer either.
Let's cut to the chase. Genes aside or the 'unknown', we don't need a doctor to tell us that we can reduce heart disease and other illnesses at a stroke without pills. How? By consuming less unhealthy food, exercising more and giving up or reducing tobacco, alcohol and drugs.
The truth is that reliance on pills allows us to keep our bad habits - music to the ears of the pharmaceutical companies. In the guise of prevention, they market their products to healthy people who are then too afraid to come off them. Allopathic medicine is no longer a last resort. Doctors, many of whom are overworked, have been conditioned to paper over the cracks by masking our problems with prescriptions instead of dealing with the underlying cause. This is frighteningly apparent regarding anti-depressants as covered in my recent blog.
The chilling dish served up cold, reveals that 600,000 people died of heart disease in USA in 2011 - about 25% of all deaths. Uncannily, over 30% of adults in the USA are obese. Odd that it's nearly the same percentage as those that die from heart disease. We don't have to be geniuses to see the connection. The percentages aren't much different in the UK.
A Message From The East: Ayurveda - The Science Of Life
We could all benefit by following the simple teaching of a great 19th century yogi from India called Lahiri Mahasaya. He advocated good health by having a stomach half full of food, one quarter full of water and one quarter full of air.
He also suggested that to enjoy a successful balanced lifestyle, we should spend eight hours per day hours working; eight hours relaxing; eight hours centred towards our spiritual practice.
Yogis observe the direct effect of food on the body and mind. Food and humans have three qualities in Ayurveda:
Rajasic is the quality that relates to activity, digestion and in its extreme, restlessness.
Tamasic qualities refer to relaxation and in its extreme, laziness and depression.
Sattvic qualities manifest when there is a healthy balance between rajasic and tamasic.
Depending on our disposition and the climate in which we live, garlic, onions, chilli, caffeine, salt, sugar and spicy food are rajasic. They make us restless - a main cause of our unhappiness and why many rush to the doctor. Insomniacs will find it helpful to reduce or stop eating these ingredients. Doctors say that garlic and onions are good for the body, but yogis know that they bring restlessness.
Milk, live dairy products, most fresh fruits and vegetables, seeds and nuts promote the sattvic qualities within us. Some example of sattvic herbs and spices are ginger, basil, turmeric and coriander.
Food that is overcooked, microwaved, preserved or frozen is tamasic. By changing our diet and drinking more water at room temperature, but not during or after 30 minutes of eating, we can alter our health.
Destiny is in our hands
By taking responsibility for our own health, we can avoid the biggest 'self inflicted' disaster of the 21st century.
Let us be cautious of 'professional' advice or short term 'remedies' and say no to the fixing of our problems through sugar and pills.
GK Chesterton sums it up perfectly: "I do not believe in a fate that falls on all men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act."
David Green is an experienced practitioner of Kriya Yoga and is the author of a new book, The Invisible Hand: Business, Success & Spirituality which shows how the spiritual wisdom of the East can be integrated into our busy lives and careers. www.the-invisiblehand.com
"I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite."
There are 711 billion reasons why the pharmaceutical industry and the 'eminent' doctors that legitimise their products will disagree. According to HCAN, that's the mega profits in US dollars 'disclosed' in the 10 years to 2012 by the top drug companies. Like all great salesmen, they have found a way to make us reliant on their products even if we don't really need them.
Approved drugs, a bit like 'approved' banks, don't seem particularly safe or fit for purpose. Since the 1950s, over 56 approved drugs were withdrawn in Europe and the USA. In 2012, Glaxo was fined $3 billion for criminal and other offences including apparently bribing doctors to promote their products. Is this yet another industry which cannot be regulated or trusted?
Let's take statins or rather let's not. The latest 'doctors report' from the USA featured in the Boston Globe, recommends that 30% of the adult US population - 72 million mainly healthy people, should be prescribed with statins. Apparently 15% are already. The FDA highlights the possible side effects of statins: memory loss, diabetes, liver damage and muscle injury. Not exactly a glowing endorsement. The Telegraph reports that the UK is considering these findings. I hope that our doctors follow Dr Malhotra who told the BBC that a Mediterranean diet including olive oil, nuts, fresh fruit and vegetables, is almost three times as powerful in reducing mortality as taking a statin.
Dr. Robert Eckel, a University of Colorado cardiologist who worked on the new statin US guidelines added, "I don't like the concept of 'good foods' and 'bad foods, we really want to emphasize dietary patterns."
Really? Surely, good and bad food is not a concept at all. It's a reality and one we know only too well. Sugar, salt and unpronounceable additives in quantity are bad for us. Food oversaturated with fat is bad for us. Anything that causes toxicity including pills is bad for us. We can stop our intake voluntarily or we can blindly accept what big business sells us ready-made. For example, in a recent Newsnight, the President of Coca Cola didn't even blink when Jeremy Paxman revealed that a large cup of Coke contains 44 sachets of sugar. Dubious alternatives to sugar like aspartame are not the answer either.
Let's cut to the chase. Genes aside or the 'unknown', we don't need a doctor to tell us that we can reduce heart disease and other illnesses at a stroke without pills. How? By consuming less unhealthy food, exercising more and giving up or reducing tobacco, alcohol and drugs.
The truth is that reliance on pills allows us to keep our bad habits - music to the ears of the pharmaceutical companies. In the guise of prevention, they market their products to healthy people who are then too afraid to come off them. Allopathic medicine is no longer a last resort. Doctors, many of whom are overworked, have been conditioned to paper over the cracks by masking our problems with prescriptions instead of dealing with the underlying cause. This is frighteningly apparent regarding anti-depressants as covered in my recent blog.
The chilling dish served up cold, reveals that 600,000 people died of heart disease in USA in 2011 - about 25% of all deaths. Uncannily, over 30% of adults in the USA are obese. Odd that it's nearly the same percentage as those that die from heart disease. We don't have to be geniuses to see the connection. The percentages aren't much different in the UK.
A Message From The East: Ayurveda - The Science Of Life
We could all benefit by following the simple teaching of a great 19th century yogi from India called Lahiri Mahasaya. He advocated good health by having a stomach half full of food, one quarter full of water and one quarter full of air.
He also suggested that to enjoy a successful balanced lifestyle, we should spend eight hours per day hours working; eight hours relaxing; eight hours centred towards our spiritual practice.
Yogis observe the direct effect of food on the body and mind. Food and humans have three qualities in Ayurveda:
Rajasic is the quality that relates to activity, digestion and in its extreme, restlessness.
Tamasic qualities refer to relaxation and in its extreme, laziness and depression.
Sattvic qualities manifest when there is a healthy balance between rajasic and tamasic.
Depending on our disposition and the climate in which we live, garlic, onions, chilli, caffeine, salt, sugar and spicy food are rajasic. They make us restless - a main cause of our unhappiness and why many rush to the doctor. Insomniacs will find it helpful to reduce or stop eating these ingredients. Doctors say that garlic and onions are good for the body, but yogis know that they bring restlessness.
Milk, live dairy products, most fresh fruits and vegetables, seeds and nuts promote the sattvic qualities within us. Some example of sattvic herbs and spices are ginger, basil, turmeric and coriander.
Food that is overcooked, microwaved, preserved or frozen is tamasic. By changing our diet and drinking more water at room temperature, but not during or after 30 minutes of eating, we can alter our health.
Destiny is in our hands
By taking responsibility for our own health, we can avoid the biggest 'self inflicted' disaster of the 21st century.
Let us be cautious of 'professional' advice or short term 'remedies' and say no to the fixing of our problems through sugar and pills.
GK Chesterton sums it up perfectly: "I do not believe in a fate that falls on all men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act."
David Green is an experienced practitioner of Kriya Yoga and is the author of a new book, The Invisible Hand: Business, Success & Spirituality which shows how the spiritual wisdom of the East can be integrated into our busy lives and careers. www.the-invisiblehand.com
