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Mindfulness

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Mindfulness is the practice of being fully present and engaged in the current moment, without judgment. It involves paying attention to your thoughts, feelings, and sensations in a non-reactive way. By focusing on the present, mindfulness helps reduce stress, improve emotional regulation, and enhance overall well-being.

Mindfulness Techniques 

  1. Breathing Exercises: Focus on your breath. Inhale deeply through your nose, hold for a few seconds, and exhale slowly through your mouth. Repeat this process, paying attention to the sensation of breathing.
  2. Body Scan: Lie down or sit comfortably and close your eyes. Slowly bring your attention to different parts of your body, starting from your toes and moving up to your head. Notice any sensations, tension, or discomfort without trying to change anything.
  3. Mindful Walking: Take a walk and pay attention to the sensation of your feet touching the ground, the movement of your legs, and the rhythm of your breath. Notice the sights, sounds, and smells around you.
  4. Mindful Eating: Eat a meal or snack slowly, paying full attention to the taste, texture, and aroma of your food. Notice how your body feels as you eat and savor each bite.
  5. Loving-Kindness Meditation: Sit comfortably and close your eyes. Silently repeat phrases like “May I be happy, may I be healthy, may I be safe.” Then extend these wishes to others, including loved ones, acquaintances, and even people you find challenging.
  6. Gratitude Journaling: Write down three things you are grateful for each day. Reflect on the positive aspects of your life and the people who bring you joy.
  7. Mindful Listening: When talking to someone, give them your full attention. Listen to their words, tone, and body language without planning your response. This practice can improve your relationships and communication skills.
  8. Guided Meditation: Use apps or online resources to follow guided mindfulness meditations. These can provide structure and support as you develop your practice.

Which of these techniques would you like to try first?

Hi Tech Con-artist

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Con-artists targeting older individuals to take over their property or wealth as they get old usually happens within family or sometime by a friend.

Below is an incident where it happens using technology by person who you have never met or do not even know.

Two days back I came to know of an individual who was kept almost in a hostage using technology and HiTech Cons where trying to empty the elderly persons hard earned money kept for his old age. It all started as below so please read and be careful about this type of emails.

Fishing – An email (Bait) comes in stating the person is been charged $500 for a service the person never used with Paypal. With the email subject stating it as a payment processed. Content of the email is about the reason for the payment made with a fake number to call Paypal (Fake) customer support to correct it.

As soon as seeing this the individual calls the number in the email and here is where it starts.

Member 1 pretends to be Paypal (Fake) employee and takes the call. Starts the apologizing process how it has happened by mistake and (Fake) Paypal would refund the money immediately and is going to be connecting the call to a person who will takeover this issue serious and will refund the money immediate.

Member 2 who pretend to initiate the process and tells the person he is going to be sending a link to initiate the refund process. As soon the person clicks the link your system (computer) is under their control. Now, they also show a popup and make you type $500 to initiate the refund. When the elderly type the amount they add additional few more “0”s to it to make it look like he or she typed $50,000 instead of $500. Another apology (this time from Member 2) happens and this time they want to help you in refunding the $49,500 which now you owe them. Now Member 2 makes it look like it is a fault happened when the elder person typed and make it look like it is the elderly person’s fault. Now he wants to help the elder fix it so he transfers the call to the Senior Tech Con – Member 3.

Member 3 comes as a savior now and starts talking as if he is there to help you in fixing your mistake and talks very friendly and keeps the elderly engaged in the call. In the meantime since they have already taken control of the system a team in the backend (not sure how many) is studying all your other browser to learn about you and bank accounts if any as they know you have your passwords are saved in it or you have kept the browser open.

They ask the elderly person to login to their own bank as if they are going to help them to transfer the excess money wired by accident from fake Paypal and now they have access to their bank account also.

They make you open a “Notepad” and they type the wire details for a bank in Hong Kong where they want you to send the money to resolve the issue with fake Paypal payment. They ask you to turn on the printer to print wiring details for you and they want you to call the banker to do a telephone wire request. They suggest on what need to be told if the banker asks the reason for the wire transfer request- “I am very sick and this money has to go out as it is for a real-estate deal which is very urgent”

Luckily in the incident I have narrated above someone intervened and stopped the progress.

Family or friend Con-artist usually take few years to lure a elderly person but here they are keeping hostage of the elder person for 4 to 5hrs. The elderly person almost gets into a duress state (Stockholm syndrome) that the elderly want to resolve the issue asap so they could be relieved out of the problem. During the whole conversation the elder person is made sure not to call or talk to any other person at home. They are doing this by repeatedly saying “I am here to Help you as I am a honest person” “If I do not solve this problem I will loss my job”

Con-Artist once happened in person now has started using technology to their advantage and now have become smarter. If you have elders at home please make sure to talk to them about this so they are aware of this sought of criminals who need to be in jail.

  • First step they will put you in a weak spot
  • Pretend to help as soon as they feel you have started to believe them
  • Make you feel you did something wrong
  • Make you feel guilty of a mistake you did not do
  • Showing a way how to help them
  • Lure them and make you do what they want you to do

I am not a professional writer and the above content is done for awareness.

Telemedicine

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I was catching up with a friend of mine earlier in the day who happened to have her very first telemedicine consultation with her primary care physician today.   So out of curiosity, I ask her how was her experience and what was her opinion on telemedicine in comparison to her regular office visit?

She reported that it was more convenient as now there was no huge wait time like while visiting the doctor’s practice and a person didn’t need to be physically present at the office to see the doctor; but when rating the personal connection during the visit, she said office visit was better.

So what went wrong with this new mode of consultation called as Telemedicine?

During the conversation, the doctor was almost all the time occupied with computer entering data into it and failed on the facetime and eye contact that we are used to and so much expect.

Why does this matter?  Patients need this eye contact from their physicians while they are trying to explain their health issues to get assurance that their concerns are being heard. When this personal connection is lost, the patient feels like their issues are not heard and the patient is not confident or content with the treatment plan given to them without making any reassuring eye contact.

Is it a healthy practice? Definitely not. As disconnection would lead to the patient not being able to engage with their providers with confidence which results in loss of comfort and care.

The patient feels the doctor is more involved in filling their EHR documentation than listening to what the patient has to say.

EHR documentation takes a major chunk of a physician’s time in a practice, but what is the point in having the best documentation when patient engagement is lost?

Let us say if the doctor gives the full facetime and does the reporting after the visit or at the end of the day, will the provider be able to recollect the relevant and vital information from the visit to be fed into the EHR?

Vital signs recording and blood work, what happens to this? – Do come to our office to get this done. Next question would be then why need this telemedicine consult?

There are apps available for recording the vitals of a patient, but these come at a price where the question would be whether the patient would have to pay for it or is covered under patient’s medical insurance?

My friend’s virtual visit with her physician lasted 25 minutes and there was a co-pay of $75 charged to her credit card.  So, are people ready to pay this price for a virtual visit???

  • How long is it going to take for Telemedicine to change into an acceptable healthcare practice model?
  • How successful is it going to be in long run?
  • Will adaptation change on what can be expected?

Manoa Hiking- What I learned

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Location: Honolulu, HI
Length: 1.5 miles
Difficulty: Easy-Moderate
Duration: 1.5 hours
Elevation Gain: 554 ft

Covered with huge trees, the Trail Hike looked adventurous. It rained on the day of hiking. Hence I was informed that the trail was going to be slippery and I have to be careful. As it was drizzling, I decided to buy a cap and had my left knee braces in place to hold my weak knee.  The guide provided us a walking stick and a poncho as a rain coat. I began my walk. This time my wife decided to stay back which left me with no choice but to do it all alone from the beginning to the end.

Walking amidst green forest, that too in drizzling was fabulous. But the pathway was not flat nor it had the side metal rail to hold on. Walking in such a scenario seemed the major challenge for my hiking this time. I wasn’t also aware of the distance and inclination I might have to face during the walk. I did take it as a challenge. As usual, the walk was fine at starting but things started changing once the climbing was onset.  It was impossible to segment my path due to huge trees and plants on the way. I had no clue about when to stop but decided to run a mind clock to have a halt at every 5 minutes whenever I could find a place to stop in the narrow path.

Bored of walking alone, this time I decided to do a small study to find out how people would answer to a person (Totally a stranger) like me when I ask them questions like, “Am I almost there?” “Do you think I could make it?” I picked 4 different race to get the answers at a different interval who where all returning back.  I am not going to reveal which answer belongs to which race but chances are there you might guess right. This has nothing to put any race down or one better than the other but just to see how the cultural behavior pattern varies from different culture while responding to a stranger.

Below are the responses i got from 4 different individuals from 4 different race.

  1. First Person – With a big smile – “You are almost there, worth the hike to see the fall…keep going…”
  2. Second Person – This person felt I was about to ask a question so decided to see somewhere else and walked off, I was standing there with no answer.
  3. Third Person – With no friendly smile, “You are more than half way, then there will be a steep walk and then you will get close to the falls”
  4. Fourth Person – Gave a harsh look and asked “What?” When I repeated my question the answer was “You still have 75% more to go.”

Single trail, four different persons and four different responses

  1. Encouraging, Friendly
  2. Leave me alone attitude
  3. Accurate, detail focused but did not express it in a friendly way
  4. Harsh, I am a celebrity leave me alone attitude

Fun part of my hike was finishing the trail by seeing the beautiful water falls. I think, if I missed any of the following points, who knows, how tough my hike would have been!

  • Organizers Suggestion to take a walking stick for support and a poncho for being safe in rain – Expert opinion
  • My preparation with knee braces and a cap to avoid the rain – Preparation
  • Even though it was a mixed type of responses, an approximation on how close I am to my destination did help the progress – Random opinion on progress

Diamond Head Hiking- what I learned

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Location: Honolulu, HI
Length: 1.6 miles roundtrip
Difficulty: Easy-Moderate
Duration: 2 hours
Elevation Gain: 990 ft

The trail started around 5:30 am. After parking the car, my wife and I decided to do the trail together and take it slow as our sons decided to walk fast.

One knee in pain, with knee braces and with no exposure to hiking I started the walk. At one point of the trail, I was able to see the Title whole path and it was so steep when looked from the bottom. The first thing struck my mind was “I am in no way going to make it, should I quit it now or after a while”? Since I needed my walk for the day, I decided not to quit and started my walk with my wife.

“You can’t make it” screamed my mind. I walked, and the destination extended far and far the more I walked. My concerned wife asked me if we should go back and added flavor to my decision of “quit and go back”. The first part I decided was to remove the flavor, so I told my wife why don’t you walk fast and join our sons, when I could do it slow and in worst case I will halt. She too felt that’s a good idea and started her walk.

I sat in a spot and glanced at the destination which was like a Himalayan peak now. Now the question was, how can I do this with a painful knee? A great idea came in mind, how about using a milestone process in place and see! Here it is distance to be covered and not time. I decided to split the track into 4 segments. As I Finish each segment, I will go for a small halt to relax. I also decided to use the metal trail to hold and move so I could use my hand as well for my walk.

All these played a role in me being able to complete this task

  • Making sure I had my knees held on place firm with my knee brace. – PREPARATION
  • Allowing my wife to move forward so I don’t get into the comfort zone – AVOID COMFORT ZONE
  • Splitting the trail into segments – STRATEGIC PLAN
  • Utilizing the metal trail bar to move with my hands –MAX UTILIZATION OF TOOLS

Well, the journey was slow and delayed, but I am proud I was able to do it. The result was I wanted to do more, and I had gone for the next one in two days.

Movie against Islam- Reactions by some good doctors

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My Question: Totally agree it is insane and not good act to insult any religion. Why is it whole America brought into picture for a weird extremist group of people behavior? I don’t think this movie was produced by US government and it did not even get permission to even go in theater in US and this guys used youtube to release the movie. In what way America is involved in this? I am little confused. This guy who produced is a fraud and people behind are some religious extremists. Some idiots make a movie-> uses a free channel to take it live. Guy who did it will be hiding somewhere.

These are some great answers from my Muslim doctor friend.

Reaction:

Dr. Imthiaz: ” firstly RESPECT for ur commet secondly i am also now confused Dear Dinesh….coz i think google inc is from USA right !! then y r they not removing ….if so literate guys are concerned with other religious sentiments………also feel pity THE AMERICANS cant trace this guy…funny man….”

Dr. KV Imthiaz: “What the U.S.should do is take stern action against this gang; which it should have done immediately, before so much things would have happened.Freedom of speech is not a license to blasphemy.The movie has a lot of very very bad language + scenes which is unpardonable.It is made with a real motive to cause disturbance in the world at a time when the U.S.is going to the polls.This plot should be probed in detail and the guilty brought to book without delay so that atleast then the U.S.can show the Muslim World that they are really concerned about this matter.”

Dr. Aslam: “dear friends ! all are correct in their places and views.anyone who insults any other religion should be condemned ,as an individual only .it was really only Americans ( Christians ) who also made the great movie ”Message “. this movie highlighted and respected ISLAM thoroughly .likewise even some stupid brainless so called Muslims uttered bad views on ISLAM ( like salman rushdi ,khalida zia etc.)My vision is ‘i follow my religion as much as can ,and i respect all other religion and their followers ‘.so let all keep our relations intact and not let loose ears to loose and cheap works.it is said in Hindi..haathee chalei bazaar ..kutta bhonke..bow..bow…( elephant walks elegantly in the market ,and stray dogs bark ). I have close friends in all religions ..Hindus ,Christians , sikhs , .they all love me and i love them all .ALLAAH bless them all and me .aameeen !!”

Dr. Ramdas: “Lived in this country for a long time. And it is great to live here. Our forefathers wrote (“Invented”) a constitution that permits “Freedom of Expression!” Unfortunately they did not put limits! Long Long ago few crazies invented Religions! Unfortunately These Old Geasers did not know the meaning of TOLERENCE! American Constitution will never change even though there is room for adaption to the Norms of 2012! So is religions of Masses. Sad to see fanatic wings of Religions gives the whole religion a black Eye. I am not at all religious & strongly feel Religion was invented to divide people! Last part is a sort of Confession!”

Dr. George: “Religion was invented to create fear & control prople. also it tries to answer some questions like what is after life(i mean after death!)?Think about it: when we were living in the caves,we did not understand rain,thunder,eclipses etc;we attributed them as divine forces or god; when humanity became little bit more sophesticated there came a particular sect of people who claimed they can interpret the heavenly things, or even talking to god. we call them with many names preists,prophets,messaih,avatars etc. Believes do not have any rationals; for ex, If I am born & brought up in a chriatian family I beleive jesus is god;but if somebedy kidnapped me from the labour ward & if i was brought up in muslim family i would beleive allah is the god. so what i beleive is not upto me. But as an adult now, what i beleive is upto me provided I think rationally without any prejudice or bias.”

PN: This is not a blog to hurt anyone feeling so any response hurting either side will be removed. Certain persons or groups action cannot be held responsible on a country.

New Bus in India Olivia

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Transportation importance is really a must for India as people need to be able to commute and this kind of buses in India would help a lot. Do we have roads to take this bus? There comes Indian government in play– what is government going to do for this? It just reminds me of the 3 monkey statue “See no evil, Hear no evil and Talk no evil” would be our politician stand on this when it comes to Roads….

Can this buses last in Indian roads?

Politicians would suggest to remove the black window screen, replaced with a led flat screen with virtual image of Switzerland would be a great ride…..Travel in virtual world…..

Taxes on people making more than $250k and corporations

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Businesses started forming back-end offices in other countries due to not able to afford to have employees in their office here which in turn increased unemployment which affected the consumers (unemployed) to afford product or services.

Higher taxes on people making more than $250k and corporations

Is it like a fine for being successful or trying to create a corporation?

Is it like a indirect message now to all people making >$250k to move their money to some other countries to prevent getting fined with taxes?

We gave way to move businesses to other countries and now this Taxes will do the rest so all successful people will move out of this country at one point due to this tax abuse. Innovator and Entrepreneurs will also not form companies.

How good is to run your business in the cloud?

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http://www.apptivo.com

I always used to think having my own software apps  to run my business is better than using an online version of the same software. Price did not matter as i felt like I take control when i have my own software. I had them installed in my laptop and i felt like I am in charge and don’t have to worry of my information in the cloud. This all changed when my laptop got robbed just in front of my eyes and I stood there helpless and there went all my saved documents and my Accounting software which i had for almost 3 years.

The first thing I did is to have my accounting online software and also started using Apptivo for my business so I could store all my business related contacts, documents and they even have a free invoicing option which I could use to invoice my clients. All in one place and best of all, this services are free for me to use.

Check them out at http://www.apptivo.com as they have much more Apps which might be a good fit for your business and in this economy getting this kind of applications for free is not available anymore. Boost for businesses to take their operations to the cloud for free.

Running for Best in Education: The Brain for Entrepreneurs – The Frontal Lobe vs. The Amygdala.

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Running for Best in Education: The Brain for Entrepreneurs – The Frontal Lobe vs. The Amygdala..

 

Nice information.