Latest news with #meditation
Times of Oman
a day ago
- Business
- Times of Oman
Newly built "mini-great wall" in Nepal becomes major tourist attraction
Sailung: A scaled-down replica of the Great Wall of China built on the foothills of the Shailung, by Shailung Rural Municipality, has been gathering tourists in recent times. In the Tamang language, 'Shai' means one hundred and 'Lung' means hillocks, as one can view 108 hillocks in this area has always been an attraction for tourists. Adding to the attraction, the rural municipality has now built a replica of the Great Wall of China. The local body initially had prepared a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the construction of the 950-metre Great Wall from Kalapani to Dafedhunga, but only 500 metres have been constructed. "I am feeling pleased and enjoying the view around here in Shailung, it was a dream to come here (Shailung) and see the mini-great wall. I was planning for this trip since three years and have been able to complete it now when the meadows are green," Badri Acharya, a tourist trekking around the Shailung hills, told ANI. Shailung, a centre of attraction for tourists due to its natural scenery and beauty, has been attracting tourists in large number. As per the official figures, the number of tourists visiting the area is increasing for meditation, study, research and exploration. As per the information provided by Sanjeev Neupane, the chief administrative officer of Shailung Rural Municipality significant number of tourists are seen on Fridays, Saturdays and holidays. Approximately 20,000 individuals visited the Great Wall on Nepali New Year Day in April this year. "The construction of the mini-great wall by the local body here is commendable. Shailung on its own is a tourist place, tourists used to come here, but the construction of the mini-great wall has added more fragrance to it as it will boost the tourist flow," Thakur Acharya, another tourist in Shailung hills, told ANI. The new tourist attraction was developed through joint funding from the federal government's Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, and the Shailung Rural Municipality. As per the official, the federal government provided 70 per cent of the budget, and the rural municipality bore 30 per cent of the construction costs. For the initial phase of the construction of the 500-metre Great Wall, a contract was awarded for NRs. 49.415 million. Tourists are required to walk along the half-kilometre stretch of the Great Wall to experience what the horizon looks like to reach Shailung, which lies at the border of Dolakaha and Ramechhap with an elevation of 3,200 meters above sea level.
Sky News
2 days ago
- Health
- Sky News
TikTok's new initiative to stop teenagers' late-night doomscrolling
TikTok will now show teenagers guided meditation sessions if they're scrolling past 10pm. It is part of the company's attempt to mitigate some of the mental health problems associated with social media, as Big Tech faces increasing pressure to prioritise young people. Now, if a teenager uses TikTok after 10pm, their feed will be interrupted by a meditation exercise aimed at promoting better sleep. If they choose to ignore that prompt, TikTok will later show a second, full-screen prompt that is harder to dismiss. It will also be available to adults using the short video app, but will be switched on by default for under-18s. When testing the feature, 98% of teenagers kept the meditation experience switched on, according to TikTok. The company also announced an initiative to give advertising space to mental health charities on the app. There are growing calls for companies like TikTok to better protect their young users. 1:11 In the UK, companies will be fined or even banned from July if they don't take measures to stop harmful content appearing on young people's social media feeds. Under Ofcom's new rules, they will also have to make it easier for young people to report content or complain and sites that show pornography or self-harm content will have to properly verify their users' ages. In Australia, under-16s are going to be banned from using social media from December. "We want our kids to have a childhood and parents to know we have their backs," said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese after the ban was approved by lawmakers. Meta and Snapchat also introduced new measures to protect young people online in recent months, with Meta introducing restricted Teen accounts and Snapchat making it harder for young people to be contacted by adults on their app.
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Quieting The Noise: The Surprising Leadership Power Of Daily Meditation
Shekar Natarajan is the founder and CEO of As a CEO, I spend most of my time making high-stakes decisions. I must balance a barrage of variables with a lot of unknowns. In high-pressure moments, the most valuable thing I can access is clarity. And the most reliable way I have found to create clarity is through meditation. This is not about wellness trends or personal transformation. It is about sharpening your ability to think, act and lead when it counts. Over the last decade, meditation has become one of the most important leadership tools I rely on. It has helped me make better decisions, inspire others in times of crisis and recover faster in moments of stress. My meditation journey began in 2015 when I attended a 10-day silent Vipassana retreat. Ten days with no speaking, no email, no phones. Just 10 hours of silent meditation every day. Your back aches, your knees hurt. On day three, you want to cry. On day four, you want to just pack up and leave. But by day seven, something shifts. The silence begins to reveal what's really going on beneath your waking consciousness. By day 10, you begin to understand how often your mind interrupts itself. You begin to understand yourself. Since then, I have returned to that practice several times. In 2017, after a period of personal and professional exhaustion, I spent 28 days at an Ayurvedic retreat in India. My mother had just emerged from a medical coma. I was still processing the loss of my father. I needed space to think and reset. I left behind everything, including my phone. By day four, I had energy again. And with that energy, I started painting. What began as a simple desire to learn how to draw eyes turned into hours of uninterrupted creative focus. I studied watercolor, acrylic and traditional Indian goldwork painting. The untapped creativity that was swirling in my busy brain now had an outlet and, as a result, my mind grew still, my attention exact. The combination of meditation and art gave me both discipline and expression. I have kept the practice ever since. Every nine months, I take time away to reset. Two weeks of uninterrupted mental clarity. No meetings. No noise. No decisions. And when I come back, I am sharper and ready for the uncertainties that are part of everyday life. During Covid, that clarity made a difference. While many companies paused, we moved quickly. Our team was being asked to shut down distribution centers. I took my five-day-old son and met with the governor of Kansas to make the case for staying open. I laid out a plan to protect our teams, support local businesses and serve the community. We stayed open. At the same time, I started writing daily notes to our associates. Honest, reflective and grounded in reality. Those notes spread through the company. People waited for them. That connection was only possible because I had created space to reflect each day. Courage is not about public displays or bold statements. It is about being willing to act when the path is not certain. Meditation gives me the ability to hear my own voice clearly enough to trust it. That kind of conviction is not noisy. It is quiet. But it is powerful. Most people say they do not have time to meditate. In my experience, you cannot afford not to. Meditation does not need to be sitting in silence for hours. It simply means creating intentional space for focus. I practice meditation in three ways. I start each morning with 20 minutes of meditation. I paint when I need a creative outlet. And I carve out time during the day to read, think and work on the problems that matter most. No multitasking. No distractions. Just clean, focused thought. These habits help me sort the signal from the noise. They help me see what matters. They help me act with less hesitation and more resolve. We talk a lot about physical health in leadership. Mental hygiene deserves the same attention. You cannot lead clearly if your mind is cluttered. You cannot make hard decisions if you are too exhausted to think. Meditation trains your mind to slow down. It teaches you to observe instead of react. Over time, that becomes your default. It also wakes up your intuition. As a leader, you are rarely working with perfect information. Often, you are making calls based on what feels right. Meditation helps you learn the difference between gut instinct and fear. It makes your decision-making more consistent and more courageous. This is not a soft skill. It is a performance skill. In a world full of pressure and speed, silence is a superpower. When everything demands your attention, the ability to be still is what sets you apart. Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
Entrepreneur
5 days ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
This Meditation App Helps Busy Entrepreneurs Find Balance
Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you'll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. A survey by FasterCapital discovered that 32% of entrepreneurs include meditation in their busy day. Given how stressful entrepreneurial life can be, it might be time to join them if you're not already meditating. Harmony helps you unlock some calmness right from your smartphone, and a lifetime subscription to their premium plan is yours for $99.99, half off the usual price. Bring more clarity to your day with guided meditation If you want to tap into your inner calmness, there's now an app for that — Harmony gives you access to personalized meditation and self-hypnosis sessions so you can take a break from the hustle and find peace. With an entrepreneur's busy schedule, it's important to make sure you're taking a little time for yourself, and Harmony makes it easy to add into your daily routine. Harmony challenges you to listen to one of its free hypnotic meditations for five days in a row and see how you feel. You should experience deeper sleep, less tension and anxiety, and more focus, helping you achieve your entrepreneurial goals faster. It's won awards at The Dot Comm Awards and the Best App Ever Awards, and is even recommended by U.S. doctors for self-care on HealthTap. Millions of users already love the app, and it has garnered an impressive 4.8 stars on the App Store and 4.9 stars on the Google Play Store. This app was created by Darren Marks, an expert hypnotherapist with over 20 years of experience. It incorporates dual vocal delivery, where suggestions are delivered through both ears to enhance your hypnotic experience, and brainwave entrainment that syncs with your brain rhythm. Take time for yourself with a Harmony Premium Plan lifetime subscription, now just $99.99 (reg. $199.99) for a limited time. StackSocial prices subject to change.
Telegraph
5 days ago
- Health
- Telegraph
I spent a month improving my gut health to see if it would calm my anxiety
The phrases 'gut instinct' and 'trust your gut' are born from so much more than a metaphorical flutter in your stomach. In fact, they have roots in the ancient understanding of the gut as a centre of instinct and emotion, with the ancient Greeks believing that the stomach was the seat of emotion. The idea of 'gut feeling' refers to our enteric nervous system – a complex network of neurons that line the walls of the gastrointestinal tract. Sometimes called the 'second brain', this network has over 100 million neurons (which, by the way, is more than your spinal cord) and can sense, process, and respond to information without checking in with your actual brain. Which means that sometimes, your gut really does know what's up before you do. So here is my theory: perhaps, as someone with a high-functioning anxiety disorder, I have been going wrong all these years in treating my 'first' brain, when I should have been treating my second. Since my 20s, I've had a hypersensitive nervous system, with the full spectrum of anxiety symptoms to go with it; adrenaline spikes at the most inconvenient, incongruous times, racing heart, dizzy spells, spiralling thoughts, nausea etc. I've tried pretty much everything to manage it, from cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to hypnotherapy, meditation apps to anti-anxiety medication. Some things have worked better than others, but I have come to accept it's going to be an ongoing project, but I'm excited about my next tactic. But what does gut health have to do with anxiety? The connection between our gut and brain – otherwise known as the gut-brain axis – is a well-established but still evolving area of study, and recently it's been suggested that increasing your intake of probiotics – the live bacteria that help maintain a healthy gut microbiome – can significantly reduce anxiety symptoms, effectively acting as a form of nutritional psychiatry. It makes perfect sense when you understand that your gut bacteria can influence the release of the stress hormone cortisol, and a diverse and balanced biome helps produce mood-regulating chemicals like serotonin and dopamine. An imbalance can send distress signals to the brain, potentially fuelling anxiety. Naturally, I decided to test this theory out on myself, but I'd need some expert guidance in the form of registered nutritionist Jessica Shand, who would need a snapshot of my current gut health to get me started. What's happening in my gut? I took a StrideBiome test to establish a baseline for my microbiome. Stride uses advanced DNA sequencing to work out the diversity and balance of your gut bacteria (via an only mildly mortifying DIY stool sample), then produces a lab report with insights into which strains of bacteria you have and which you might be lacking. My results showed a few key imbalances, including low levels of anxiety-reducing strains Bifidobacterium and, most notably, a complete absence of Lactobacillus – another critical calming neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid-(GABA) -producing species that also helps to regulate cortisol, our primary stress hormone. Ah. So this might explain a few things. Armed with this knowledge, Shand helped me work out a gut-brain reset game plan. First up, supplements. She explained that not all probiotics are created equal when it comes to reducing anxiety. 'There are specific strains like the ones you're low on – Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Bifidobacterium longum – that have been shown in some studies to reduce symptoms of anxiety and improve mood,' she told me. 'Research is still ongoing and findings can vary on specific, but these strains in probiotics may help modulate the gut-brain axis by reducing inflammation, influencing neurotransmitter production such as serotonin and dopamine, and enhancing gut lining integrity, all of which are thought to play roles in emotional regulation and therefore anxiety.' What the expert says Shand suggested the Seed DS-01 Daily Synbiotic, a standout in the probiotic world. It combines both prebiotics (the fibres that feed good bacteria) and probiotics (the beneficial bacteria themselves) in a single formulation. This is important because it ensures the probiotics can survive the journey through my digestive system and reach my colon, where they can actually make a difference to support not just digestive health, but also mental wellbeing. It's designed to replenish those missing Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strains, boosting GABA production (a naturally occurring substance that's made by our bodies and helps promote relaxation and reduce anxiety) and regulating my cortisol response, therefore (potentially) helping to turn down my anxiety at its biological source. Translation: A science-backed shortcut to a more balanced microbiome, which, for someone like me, is wildly appealing. But it's not just about popping a daily pill. To truly support a healthy brain-gut axis, I need to create an environment where the good bacteria can thrive. That means making some dietary and lifestyle tweaks to set me on the best possible path. Having chatted honestly, Shand understands that I am not a card-carrying member of the Intensive Healthy Lifestyle Club, and so her advice is to make realistically achievable changes. To be sustainable, my habits need to be 'better than', rather than drastically overhauled, ie definitely not a strict overhaul that might add to my anxiety overwhelm. What aiming for 'better than' looks like 'Have the coffee! You're a mother of two young kids, just don't have it first thing in the morning as it will spike your cortisol levels,' Shand tells me. 'Drinking it after a protein-rich breakfast is more beneficial as the food intake primes the body and blunts the harsh impact of the caffeine.' This I can do. Even better, swap out the second or even third cup for a Sixways Hormone Balancing Decaf. ('It contains maitake functional mushroom plus inositol and vitamin B6 to support blood sugar balance and hormonal health, and I promise it doesn't taste of mushrooms!') A probiotic-rich diet isn't a million miles away from what I was eating before, but having a solid awareness of what I was consuming, and why, made me much more motivated to stick to it. A lot of the meals and recipes she suggested are already what I like to eat, just with some gut-loving substitutes. Shand advised me to incorporate a variety of plant-based, fibre-rich, and fermented foods into daily meals. Think kimchi, sauerkraut, kefir, miso, and live yogurt, (the fermentation produces natural probiotics). Plus prebiotic fibres (the food that good bacteria thrive on), including garlic, onions, and bananas. My usual turkey mince bolognese is good, but a lentil ragu is better for an extra dose of fibre, supporting my digestion and therefore the growth of beneficial bacteria. A potato and spinach curry can be upgraded to a chickpea and cavolo nero, prebiotic one. Both, by the way, are delicious, comforting, hearty – just good, in all senses. So, for the next few weeks, I committed to this gut-reset protocol: Take probiotic supplements on an empty stomach. Eat more (delicious) probiotic-rich food. Cut down on (but not avoid entirely – see above) known gut disruptors like processed foods and alcohol, which can kill the good bacteria I'm trying desperately to cling on to. I struggled with this last step more than I'd like to admit, such is the constant battle of the overly anxious. Shand suggested swapping a mid-week wind-down glass of wine for Motherroot, a sort of sweet-spicy, alcohol-free alternative that actually supports digestion and stabilises blood sugar with a ginger and apple cider vinegar blend. I mix it with soda and actually love it for an after-kids bedtime treat. Also, just the idea that I am putting something good into my body rather than the guilt of another glass of wine does wonders to relieve my morning-after anxiety all on its own. It's not an immediate switch flip, but I stuck to the protocol for three solid months, and as the days turned into weeks, I started to notice subtle but significant shifts in my mood. The first, most notably, at a time when I'd feel the most overstimulated anxiety spike that would present as extreme impatience. Attempting to get my kids out the door so I could make the right train to get me to an important (therefore bonus anxiety-inducing) meeting on time. It was a subtle shift, like a small presence of kindness that allowed me to reason with myself, reason with my kids and extinguish the bomb threat that would've made the whole schedule meltdown. It could also have been the better sleep, which is another notable change. And so it continued. More often than not, mornings felt less like waking up with anxiety as my first involuntary thought, and more like a gradual stretch into the day. The daily urge to doom-scan and look for the things going wrong in my life (it sounds ridiculous, but will be familiar to anyone with anxiety) felt less prominent. I found myself approaching potentially stressful situations with a bit more patience and less catastrophic thinking. The verdict It wasn't always easy to stick to, and yes, I strayed back to the mid-week wine every so often when my resolve slipped. The hardest part is going out with friends because when presented with a menu that someone else is cooking, I will always be driven to order by my heart rather than my gut. And my heart invariably desires the most delicious, usually unhealthy thing. But Shand encouraged me to remember I'm going for 'better than', not gut perfection, so I decided not to let this cause me anxiety in itself. The benefits quickly outweighed any motivational negatives. Interestingly, my gut itself seemed to be responding too. Without getting too graphic, my digestion felt more 'efficient' and my bloating – a near-constant, very unwelcome guest – significantly reduced. While I'm not suggesting that a few spoonfuls of sauerkraut will cure anyone's anxiety disorder, the cumulative impact of the probiotic plus these small changes has been surprisingly profound, perhaps key to this particular project. It's hard to ignore the psychological lift that comes from simply feeling better in your own body and choices. I feel more resilient, a bit more hopeful, and at times when I'd previously noticed otherwise, have a kind of mental clarity. Of course, this is an ongoing journey rather than a magic bullet – it's never going to be as simple as popping a pill and waking up panic-free. Before I'd done this deep dive on my gut health, I knew – like most of us – that alcohol and eating junk food were causing spikes in my anxiety. I'd have a few glasses with friends on a Friday evening and wake up to either a full-blown panic attack or a traitorous guilt. But what this has taught me is how significant small, subtle and consistent dietary changes can be in improving your gut health and anxiety. The challenge becomes making these regular habits. Building a healthy gut is a long game; a mix of the right supplements, diverse plant fibres, fermented foods, and stress management techniques is a constant work in progress. Still, the idea that I might be able to influence my mood from the inside out – to literally feed my happiness – is a compelling one. There's something incredibly empowering about knowing I can influence my mental health whilst improving my overall health, since for me this experiment was about finding a more holistic approach that addresses the root causes rather than just the symptoms. And the logic, the science behind it, helps to act as an anchor too. For now, I'm trusting my gut – in the truest, most biological sense of the phrase – and am optimistic that this approach might be the missing piece in my personal anxiety puzzle. And if nothing else, my digestive system is certainly grateful.
