Attention all daughters!

And their families, near and far. I implore you to read the following piece so that you may all be better at forming beautiful relationships with your beloved mothers.

https://www.google.com.pk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/jan/22/menopause-mother-family-oestrogen

boy in striped pajamas (movie review with spoilers)

5/5 stars

Its sad but i liked it because of how perfectly it is executed even though its a sad movie. the movie has a warmness to it. its not cold even though the events are anything but. it is about the holocaust and the inhumane actions of the Nazis; anyone found to have opinions contradictory to those of  the governments' was considered "enemy of the state" and these "enemies" were dealt with accordingly, which i presume meant that they were treated just like the jews were treated.
That is, given a chemical shower (hydrogen cyanide mixed with water [you can google the effects this combination has on humans and its horrifying]) and then burned later on in addition to the deleterious conditions the jews were supposed to embrace and live in. The smoke from the chimneys of the places where these humans were burned wafted and engulfed the surrounding area which was the country side where they did these atrocities.

The movie begins with this line:

A child only knows how to love and have fun, before the dark hour of reason strikes. No matter how idiotic the reason may be.

I have included stills from the movie where my heart was tugged at all the corners and I was overwhelmed with feelings I cannot describe.

...

This is when this child called Bruno who is the son of the Nazi soldier entrusted with the inhumane work to supervise the extermination of the jews.

He is told that his father is an important soldier who works for the country so that people can be safe.

Bruno knows nothing about what is happening in the world. He is a child. 

At this point he thinks he has found a farm where he thinks there might be children he can play with.

This is the soldier who literally barks at the little jew because he had been eating something. He was just eating. (There is more. You will need to watch the movie.)

This is when Bruno and the little jew called Shmuel have become friends and are on their "mission" to find Shmuel's father but are incredibly confused because something is going on. They are supposed to take a shower.They are scared too.

This is when Bruno gets caught up in the crowd of jews because they are herded by Nazi soldiers into the "shower room". Bruno dies. So does Shmuel.

This is Bruno's soldier Dad who's just found out what has transpired.

This is the shower room. 

As the camera zooms out, you can see the jews' work clothes hanging. All of the workers are in that shower room. 

Pakistan Day.

This is the day when the idea of a separate country for the muslims was born in the minds of thinking, pondering muslims of the subcontinent. Therefore, this day is an important day for all pakistanis.

According to what I have read and know, muslims weren't rightly treated. There was animosity between the two major populations of the subcontinent: that is animosity between Muslims and Hindus, who were all living in one place, which was known as the Indian Subcontinent.

I guess both these groups of people were creating troubles for each other regardless of who had started the trouble, any trouble, first. People from both these groups were suffering equally. But I have an inkling that the muslims were suffering the most. So I guess it was a magnificent idea, indeed, to think of owning our very own separate land to call home.

Today I am relieved with the thought and realisation that I am living in a country where the conditions are such that one doesnt need to worry about getting persecuted by Hindus or any other group for that matter.

The idea was announced at the place where now the unique Minar e Pakistan stands proudly. It was built to mark this important time in Pakistan's history.

Yesterday, I was watching the events of the Second World War on National Geographic Channel. As I sat there watching the events unfold, the sufferings, the innumerable deaths and other atrocities, mostly unthinkable, my heart grew utterly sad and fearful. Young men and their families died in horrible ways, while the leaders made speeches and grinned at the cameras. My heart ached for the suffering population.

Then, I sat there thinking of how hard our pakistani army and the rival army fought and so many casualties resulted because of that.

I do believe that the leaders should have thought in a sane way, not been selfish. They could clearly not maintain peace between the heterogeneous groups of people living in one place and they should have realised that human life was more important and that this huge population of muslims should be given a part to practise their religion and culture. What was so difficult to understand? :@

What was it that was stopping these dimwit politicians at that time? Are you little children, fighting over toys?! "No, I wont give this choochoo train to you because its MINE and it doesnt belong to you even if someone gets killed!!!"



War.

There is more damage done, in all aspects, than gains.

I think people who are most adamant at waging war should be the ones taken into jail on the account that how did they even think of warring when clearly a lot of things could have been settled through talks.

If a country must war, it must be for self-defense and nothing else. The main aim must be to protect the greatest number of living things as possible. Not the other way around. 

In the words of Edwin Starr, 

"War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!"

War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
War, huh, yeah
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it again, why'all

War, huh, good god
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing, listen to me

Oh, war, I despise
'Cause it means destruction of innocent lives

War means tears to thousands of mothers eyes
When their sons go to fight
And lose their lives

I said, war, huh good god, why'all
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing say it again

War, whoa, lord
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing, listen to me

it ain't nothing but a heart-breaker
(War) friend only to the undertaker
Oh, war it's an enemy to all mankind
The point of war blows my mind
War has caused unrest
Within the younger generation
Induction then destruction
Who wants to die, ah, war-huh, good god why'all
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing
Say it, say it, say it
War, huh
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing listen to me

it ain't nothing but a heart breaker
(War) it's got one friend that's the undertaker
Oh, war, has shattered many a young mans dreams
Made him disabled, bitter and mean
Life is much to short and precious
To spend fighting wars these days
War can't give life
It can only take it away

Oh, war, huh good god why'all
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing say it again

whoa, lord
What is it good for
Absolutely nothing listen to me

it ain't nothing but a heart breaker
(War) friend only to the undertaker
Peace, love and understanding
Tell me, is there no place for them today
They say we must fight to keep our freedom
But lord knows there's got to be a better way

Oh, war, huh good god why'all
What is it good for you tell me
Say it, say it, say it, say it

huh good god why'all
What is it good for
Stand up and shout it nothing

Magic in this World? You gotta be kiddin' me bruh/sis.

Yep di doodle do I do believe there is magic in this world.

I think:

Expecting Magic Like a Child = Taking a Leap of Faith

Expecting magic (as a child does so often in his/her life), is like taking a leap of faith and getting into things.

On this very blog right here, I wrote a piece on "jealousy", likening this human emotion to that of a fictional ugly jellyfish. (See link here: http://webmq.blogspot.com/2015/10/gotta-have-no-room-for-jelly.html )

I feel like some kind of magic occurred in this world the moment I began describing this jellyfish because some time later, I am scrolling through my facebook newsfeed and I come across this news saying that they have found a jelly fish living in the deepest, darkest parts of the ocean!

I was like: whhhaaaaat??!!!

This is the digital drawing I made of my fictional, jellyfish:



This is what came up on my news feed:





Here is a link to that news:

The Mariana Trench is the deepest part of the ocean, and the jellyfish was discovered floating 2.3 miles beneath the surface (3,700 meters). Scientists believe the creature is part of the genus Crossota, a group of jellyfish that are oceandrifters for all phases of their lives.Apr 29, 2016

Eerie Jellyfish Found Floating Miles Beneath the Ocean | Time

time.com/4312405/beautiful-jellyfish-mariana-trench/

I had written that blogpost in 2015, I manifested this jellyfish in 2016.

*mind=blown*




So is this true, "what you think, you manifest"?
This is the magic I am talking about bruh/sis.

Zen.

As I am growing up and have to "adult" more and more, I feel like I dig "Zen" more and more in life.

I think that is because, my mind has become preoccupied with a lot of things. And now my mind tries to find peace in the simplest of things, as simple as sitting down to drink water, gulping it down, feeling it swirl in my mouth, looking at the water.

I don't know where this Zen has come from but oh Lord, am I so grateful for it. *sigh of relief*

going superficial.

I feel like as we grow up into well-formed adults, we start going superficial. By that I mean, we stop going deep. Like we used to as teenagers.

When I was in my teens, most of the time I'd find myself overthinking stuff, trying to find meaning in life things and events, analysing stuff, picking up something in my mind and twisting and turning and rolling it in my "brain-fingers", observing things, reflecting on situations and life phenomenons; thinking about conversations, 'was I right to say this thing? How is the other person feeling? I hope she/he ain't mad at me.".
(All of this could easily be the ramblings of an anxious mind. I don't know.)

I didn't exactly have to try. This would just go on in my mind throughout the day.

The point is, I feel like we stop feeling that much as we grow up. It could be because of mental exhaustion. In my case, anyway. I feel like my mind doesn't bother to think as deeply as it used to as a teenager. It bothers me. Now, I have to make a small conscious effort to reflect on things, to evaluate my actions.

And I believe that it is crucial if you ever want to live in harmony with other people and species.

It is easier for the followers of Islam. We are required to reflect and ponder over things in our obligatory prayers. We are required to make dua (to pray) for fellow human beings. We are supposed to do it. Because if we stop doing this, I believe we lose a little bit of humanity from our existence, that we become less of a human, and more of... something else. Something nasty. Something repulsive. Something weakest.

I'd never want that to happen to me.

tbt.

Throwback Thursday to when I never did shit like Throwback Thursday.

A Wonderful Feeling. A Relief!

It is a super dooper and an absolutely wonderful feeling when I see females supporting other females.

My mum, my cousins, my friends, ma mates, ma babes, ma folks and my paeps (hahaha! read this in a nicki minaj way), all of these females support the female that I am and I do not know and cannot imagine what I'd be without these females in my life, like seriously!

Get Into Sh*t

Despite the fluctuating anxiety within me and the fact that my work demands constant interaction with people such as my patients, my bosses, the administration above me, my superiors, I have to be present, both physically and mentally, be regular, be consistently articulate and try not to blabber, be right to the point, and be professional yet bear a friendly demeanor no matter how hard the person in from of me is.

I believe that the aforementioned is an essential part of a good doc's life. And I am totes fine with it.

I feel like the more I am beginning to interact with all the different kinds of people, the lesser anxious I seem to be getting.

Which is good!

In order to maintain this streak, I need to always be in practice of meeting and interacting with new people no matter how awkward the circumstances.

This is something I'd tell my old self:

Keep getting into shit no matter what. You'll only become stronger.

And if I am getting hit with that all too awful overthinking bandwagon, then I have just one thing to say to myself. "Read the last post on your blog." ☺

Before I Forget.

I want to write a few things down here, before I forget.

Now:

I feel like I have reached the age where I do not give a shit as to what other people think of me.



Sometimes, my mind does get infiltrated with shit like what other people think of me. But I believe now that this flaw of mine has come a tad more in my control now. Thank God for that! Phewp!

I must mention here that I took more than five years (make it 10 years) to reach this freedom-like phase of mine. And I gotta tell you. It. Feels. Wonderful.

Like I have said before, I do revert to the old habit of mine, processing the negative comments and getting myself totally worked up over them, tiring myself in the end and causing considerable loss of precious time in my life. It is an awful, awful phase and I don't ever would want to wish it upon anyone in this world.

I want you to know, my dear reader, that we all know deep within our hearts that every single thing is temporary on this planet. Every thing is bound to end: relationships, food, water, your favourite pet or pets, you. But one thing that remains with you until your death is your ability to breathe.

Your breathing won't desert you. If your mechanism of breathing stops, you stop and then you needn't worry about anything.

My advice?

Make breathing, and most importantly prayers your best friends. 

Then:

I absolutely gave shit as to what other people thought of me. About 99% of the time, my mind would be infiltrated with this nonsense. I was extremely anxious, had really low self-esteem and self-confidence. I would easily be discouraged by a handful of negative criticism, and I'd take a decade to come out of the smelly chasm of negative thoughts.

If there is one thing that I'd like to tell my old self, it is that:

Be ruthlessly honest with yourself for yourself. 

The latter that I have written is for my own good. I MUST NOT LIE TO MYSELF. It is only going to give me excruciating pain in the future if I continue to lie to myself. I must be sincere to myself. This is a lesson that I have learned in all the life I have lived up until now.

I must not feel bad or guilty, or shy away from asking something I do not know. Ask that sincere, i-really-want-to-know-and-learn-about-it question with all the confidence in the world. In a profession such as mine, it is my right to know.

A Message to my Country.

If there is one thing I had to say to the citizens of my country, Pakistan, it would be:

FEAR ALLAH.

Enough said.

Syria Bleeding. And Others Persecuted.

I am going to say only one thing to all the leaders and politicians out there:

Where there's will, there's way.

Enough said.

Prayers made me.

It is true. I have come to the conclusion that prayers have made me who I am today.
In a world where in order for an anxious person such as me to survive, I believe the following has helped me cope with everything in my life:

1. Prayers.
2. Continuous, incessant counselling by your support system (in my case, I had my family.)
3. Prayers.
4. Appointments with the Psychiatrist (who prescribed me anxiolytic and antidepressant.)
5. Prayers.
6. Sessions with my psychotherapist.
7. Prayers.
8. Travelling to a place I felt most relaxed (in my case, it was my second family who lived in the city next to ours.)
9. Prayers.
10. Continuous, non-stop self-counselling.
11. Prayers.
12. Following a holistic diet plan.
13. Prayers.


There is a concept of "Heart Rate Variability" in our medical studies, where it is concluded through years of research that the greater variability in your heart rate, the better your health will be. I ave just recently come across this concept and it makes sense to me because of the following reason.

The other day I was studying for my Obstetrics exam; the topic that I had in front of me was CTG which is cardiotocograph and it is a graph that shows how the fetus is doing inside the mom's womb. One of its components was "Fetal Heart Rate Variability". Our book said that if a fetus's heart rate variability decreases, it indicates that the fetus is in trouble! Which means that the fetus is not getting enough oxygen, which if left unmanaged, will ultimately lead to fetal death. :'(

I was awestruck.

The reason I have mentioned this little nugget of information here is that,

Change is important in order to keep your heart rate variability intact and you going.

Anxious people such as me, detest change in their lives. Keeping in view the above knowledge, anxious people need to get out more and stop caring what people around them think of them. Period. 😁


-End-

What Does Staying in the Present Mean?

I was watching the Divergent series and like most people, I found myself crushing big time on Tobias Eaton (Theo James).

Obviously, like most people, I ventured on the search to find his social media account so that I could follow him and get dreamy.




To my mild surprise, I found that Theo James did not have any social media account.
Obviously, I grew curious. :3 Again, I went on my search to find as to why he didn't have a social media account like many celebrities and high profile personalities. And I found why! :D

I was not disappointed. The following is what I found and liked, and I learned something good from what Theo James said here:

Theo James is a man of mystery.

Though his Insurgent co-stars Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort use social media to varying degrees, the 30-year-old actor puts a premium on his privacy. "I'm glad there's not much information," he says.

James avoids the Hollywood scene, and unlike Woodley, he's not the type to speak candidly about his passions in the press. "I don't think I'd want to share those elements of my private life," James admits.

Needless to say, as far as Twitter and Instagram are concerned, James isn't on board.

"I don't have it and I never will. Other actors I know are really good at it and they rock and roll it, but it's not for me. If I post a picture of us having a drink now and get loads of views or comments and stuff, then suddenly you're quite exposed and you're in a world of work," he tells Flaunt. "I just like being present."

Embracing the moment is easier said than done, but James does his best to limit his distractions. "I think people struggle with that now, being present in a time and place. There's a lot of talk about mindfulness now and that's about the ability to be present and not constantly affected by erroneous sources around you—that stimulus through a computer or through worries," James says. "It's about being fully present."

Being unplugged has helped James gain clarity in all aspects of his life.

Though it might be tempting to Google himself, the actor says, "Most of the information is completely useless and it's totally mind numbing, because it doesn't actually add anything to your sense of self. And interacting singularly with an interface—there's a limited amount of learning that can be experienced."

What's distracting James these days?

"I've been wondering that...because I have been really like 'I need to shift.' I do feel distracted," he says. "I don't know about you but I am just kind of consciously, recently just trying to f--king look at less."

Still, James admits he's looked at things about himself in the past. "Everyone says it is the cardinal sin, but you inevitably do it by accident all the time, or you may see it on a newsstand or whatever. You end up forming a perception of yourself based on other people's opinions; a perception outside your own self, which is a f--king mind f--k because you start perceiving yourself as something that you aren't," he says. To prevent those perceptions from shaping reality, he advises, "Read more. Read every time you go to bed, read in the day—because at least reading a book, you can't be distracted by anything else."

Read it here: http://www.eonline.com/news/626657/theo-james-explains-why-he-doesn-t-use-social-media

Accepting Thy Weaknesses? I Think I get It Now.

When I was a wee leetul baby, and I would be faced with situations that were tough, I'd find myself wondering what exactly does it mean when we say that accepting the circumstances around you, circumstances that you can't change makes it easier.

But now I am happy, relieved rather, that I have understood this concept to some extent:

Accepting (thy weaknesses) means knowing that you have all these weaknesses within you and when someone points those weaknesses out, either in person or in front of a audience, you don't feel bad about them because you have already come to terms with it, made peace with them as it is said.

You have told yourself that:
"I think it is time I face what my weakness is. I cannot take bad criticism well and I feel sulky for days on end thinking about those demoralising remarks."

Lets say someone points that out to you, they tell you: "You are unable to take bad criticism well, aren't you?"



And instead of getting defensive and saying rather indignantly, "Noo. I can take all kinds of criticism well and I just brush it off as if its nothing," and then adding a tangible quote to support your claim, "no one can hurt me without my permission," and then shooting a proud little smile towards the person in conversation with you (and at the same time feeling hurt because somebody caught you getting deflated over some negative remarks.)

Say: "Yes, that hurt me a little bit and I kinda know that these remarks put me in a bad place, but oh well, all I can do right now is try again and do my best,' this time shooting a humble little smile towards the person in conversation with you.

ok i know this isnt exactly a humble smile but i think u get it :P

I have found that one of the most difficult things that human beings face in their short time here on earth is coming face to face with their weaknesses. It is undoubtedly difficult to accept that one has weakness/weaknesses. Because, quite simply, good things are appreciated. Bad things, not so much. 'Having weakness' is considered a bad thing. And come to think about it, its not really bad. It is an indicator to your present self, indicating exactly where one stands. This indicator is a "pusher". And I don't believe that it is bad.

Having weaknesses is not a bad thing.

It is part of your entire existence. It is there to push you until you overcome it and become your beautiful self.