Research shows that inflammation is often the root cause of major diseases in the body. Learn how to defend yours from it daily and with ease.Inflammation is the health buzzword of our time. It's linked to just about every ailment and disease, and to countless diets promising to reverse it. But what causes the condition, and can we really quell it?

6 Lifestyle Changes You Can Make to Protect Your Body Against Inflammation

The real culprit is chronic inflammation, an ongoing immune response triggered by stress, processed foods, poor sleep, and other modern-day menaces. Essentially, your body is pumping out white blood cells to protect you from perceived threats. (Acute inflammation, on the other hand, is a helpful, temporary influx that helps heal a paper cut or fight a cold.)

Chronic Inflammation Culprit

Persistently heightened levels of white blood cells and their by-products (like cytokines, proteins that can trigger inflammatory reactions) can damage tissues and organs and impair immune function, says Christopher D'Adamo, Ph.D., director at the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. That damage can outwardly manifest in symptoms like skin rashes and persistent joint pain, fatigue, or digestive problems—and contribute to diseases including cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's, and depression.6  Changes You Can Make to Protect Your Body Against Inflammation

Damage Caused by Inflammation

The occasional scoop of ice cream is A-OK, but too many high-glycemic foods (treats and snacks with lots of added sugars and refined carbs) can cause your blood sugar to rise and fall rapidly after eating. Oxidative stress can also ensue, which is when unstable free radicals outnumber the body's antioxidant defenses and contribute to cell and tissue damage, sparking inflammation.

1. Avoid Excess Sugar

Colorful, Aromatic Foods Are BestThese helpers, which include flavonoids and carotenoids, are abundant in deeply pigmented, aromatic foods like citrus, berries, tomatoes, red cabbage, broccoli, dark leafy greens, parsley, garlic, ginger, dark chocolate, turmeric, and tea.

2. Consume Foods That Fight Inflammation

When bad bacteria (including potentially harmful pathogens like E. coli) are disproportionate to good ones, we can develop gut dysbiosis. This condition lets harmful substances (toxins produced by gut bacteria) to leak from the intestines into the bloodstream, which can cause chronic inflammation throughout the body.Anything from saturated fats to stress can drive this process, but plants help undo it.

3. Care for Your Gut

Opt for polyunsaturated and monounsaturated (from fish, nuts, seeds, avocados, and olive oil) rather than saturated (common in fried foods). In high quantities (more than 13 grams a day, for most people—think a bacon cheeseburger), the latter may decrease the diversity of beneficial microbes in your gut, priming you for a flare-up.

4. Eat Superfats

Working out causes normal, short-term bouts of acute inflammation (which help your muscles repair and grow), but it can also have net benefits over time. A study found that just 15 minutes of strength training a day led to changes in the gut microbiome associated with higher levels of short-chain fatty acids and reduced inflammatory markers. Exercise also helps you maintain a healthy weight, which is important because excess fat tissue releases pro-inflammatory cytokines.

5. Move More

Quality shut-eye helps your body regulate cortisol, the fight-or-flight hormone secreted in response to stressful events to boost alertness and prime you for physical activity. When it flows unchecked, it may increase inflammation. Stress also often leads to poor eating habits, compromised immune function, and digestive issues—all of which contribute to chronic inflammation.

6. Get Quality Sleep

“Reduce inflammation to treat the root of many issues. If your gut isn't working right it can cause so many other issues.”-Jay Woodman

Inflammation Quote

food

Food

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

health

Health

How to Protect Your Body Against Inflammation

There are two types of thinking, one is fast and the other is slow. Each type of thinking is its own system with individual abilities, limitations, and functions. The main difference between the two is that fast thinking requires little to no effort to operate, whereas a conscious effort is necessary for slow thinking to work. For example, you would use fast thinking to solve the problem “2 + 2 = ?” and slow thinking to fill out a tax form.

The Characters Of The Story

This distinction becomes very important when we realize that attention is not unlimited, and when you go beyond the budget you have, you will fail. This is why you can only do multiple things at once when they are relatively easy and undemanding tasks, such as speaking to a passenger while driving on an empty road. However, you would not attempt to have a conversation while making a turn onto a busy road as you need to focus your attention on driving.

While your two types of thinking often split the labor between themselves well, they can clash when an automatic reaction (fast thinking) comes into conflict with an intention to control it (slow thinking). A universal example of this is trying not to stare at an oddly dressed couple in the same room as you. Sometimes, these clashes are caused by cognitive illusions. An example is experiencing a strong attraction towards someone with a history that forms a negative pattern. The good news is, these illusions can be overcome.

1.	Learn what dilated pupils mean. When your pupils are dilated, it means that you have focused your attention on something and find it interesting; maybe you are looking at an attractive person or even trying to solve a difficult math problem.2.	Learn what constricted pupils mean.When your pupils are constricted, it means you aren’t all that interested in what you are looking at; maybe you are looking at an average-looking person, or the math problem you were trying to solve was too difficult and you have given up.

Learn to identify if someone is interested.

Major New York Times bestseller Winner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award in 2012 Selected by the New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best books of 2011 A Globe and Mail Best Books of the Year 2011 Title One of The Economist's 2011 Books of the Year One of The Wall Street Journal's Best Nonfiction Books of the Year 2011 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Kahneman's work with Amos Tversky is the subject of Michael Lewis's The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds In the international bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, the renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning our next vacation—each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions. Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Winner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and selected by The New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best books of 2011, Thinking, Fast and Slow is destined to be a classic.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

books

Books

Major New York Times bestseller Winner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award in 2012 Selected by the New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best books of 2011 A Globe and Mail Best Books of the Year 2011 Title One of The Economist's 2011 Books of the Year One of The Wall Street Journal's Best Nonfiction Books of the Year 2011 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Kahneman's work with Amos Tversky is the subject of Michael Lewis's The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds In his mega bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, the renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The impact of overconfidence on corporate strategies, the difficulties of predicting what will make us happy in the future, the profound effect of cognitive biases on everything from playing the stock market to planning our next vacation—each of these can be understood only by knowing how the two systems shape our judgments and decisions. Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, Kahneman reveals where we can and cannot trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking. He offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and our personal lives—and how we can use different techniques to guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble. Winner of the National Academy of Sciences Best Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and selected by The New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best books of 2011, Thinking, Fast and Slow is destined to be a classic.

Daniel Kahneman (born 5 March 1934) is an Israeli-American psychologist and winner of the 2002 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, notable for his work on behavioral finance and hedonic psychology.With Amos Tversky and others, Kahneman established a cognitive basis for common human errors using heuristics and biases (Kahneman & Tversky, 1973, Kahneman, Slovic & Tversky, 1982), and developed Prospect theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979). He was awarded the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in Prospect theory. Currently, he is professor emeritus of psychology at Princeton University's Department of Psychology.

Daniel Kahneman

Thinking, Fast and Slow

<ul><li>Individuals who set time-bound goals and begin weekly progress reports urge their peers to achieve 40% more than those who do not.</li><li>Keeping a journal raises the likelihood of meeting goals by 20%.</li><li>According to participant studies, most people performed better when their goals were important and challenging.</li><li>Only 3% of people who set written goals with specific techniques achieve ten times more than those who do not.</li><li>According to Gallup, only 41 percent of Americans make new year's resolutions.</li><li>According to a poll, 35% of people who begin New Year's resolutions abandon them within a week.</li></ul>

Key Writing Down Goals Stats

It is essential to have dreams. Setting goals to achieve those dreams is even more critical.Understanding the difference between objectives and dreams, on the other hand, is a great place to begin.Understanding the differences between these two concepts will help you achieve your objectives more effectively!Unfortunately, many individuals assume that simply thinking or dreaming about something beautiful is enough to make it come true.Goals and dreams are not synonymous.People frequently confuse them, but they are not the same. To keep on track, it is vital to understand the distinction.

Goals vs Dreams

Key writing down goals statistics: Individuals who set time-bound objectives and start weekly progress reporting to encourage peers to achieve 40% more to

productivity

Productivity

timemanagement

Time Management

23 Writing Down Goals Statistics, Facts and Trends in 2022

It may seem normal, but not nice, to experience at least some pleasure when misfortune befalls a rival.New research contrasts a new emotion, "happy-for-ness" with schadenfreude(a German word combining the words harm and joy), envy, and sympathy in response to success or failure in others.By understanding your own tendency to engage in social comparison, you can move past your negative and into more empathetic reactions to others.

How Our Sense of Fairness Influences Judgments About the "Fortunes of Others"

The idea that you should feel bad when someone else encounters a loss or other form of misfortune is hammered into most people’s sense of moral responsibility. Little children may shout with joy when they win a family board game, but this ignoble reaction ordinarily becomes less and less acceptable in anyone over the age of 8 or 9. As adults, you may still experience this sense of delight when you’ve vanquished your opponents, but you know that you have to hold back on expressing it openly.

Hold Back The Victory Shout!

Feeling happy at the expense of someone else’s losses is an emotion that psychologists refer to as schadenfreude, a German word combining the words harm (schaden) and joy (freude). Although this is a common enough emotion, is it inevitable that people take pleasure in the harm that befalls others? Perhaps you hear that a small electrical fire destroyed your neighbor’s kitchen. Isn’t it likely that you would feel sympathetic toward them rather than triumphant?

A Pleasurable Feeling At Others Expense

<ul><li>Social comparisons are at the heart of people's emotional responses to other people's (mis)falls</li><li>If the person you're comparing yourself to unfavourably has a desirable outcome, you'll experience envy.</li><li>You'll feel sympathy because you can "look down" at the other person without feeling threatened by their superiority over you.</li><li>At the other end of the spectrum, you will feel what the German authors call "happy-for-ness" when you don't see someone as having qualities more desirable than your own.</li></ul>

Comparisons Are Natural

A plethora of studies have shown that individuals do not like inequality, also known as inequity aversion.The farther away someone's relative rank moves from your own, the worse you will feel.Emotional reactions to other people's successes or failures exist on a sliding scale.You'll feel envious of a winner, then, who ranks higher than you in some way, as this individual threatens "not only comparative concerns but also self-esteem".

How Fairness Plays A Part

<ul><li>When you see someone get what you would like to have, such as the opportunity to join that outdoor gathering, ask yourself why this matters so much.</li><li>If you feel that your upward social comparison process is being set into motion, you can then start to bring it back down to erase your inequity aversion.</li><li>Feeling joy in other people’s misery doesn’t have to be an inevitable outcome of the social comparison process. By understanding the full dimensions of the FOE model, you can move yourself toward the fulfilling end of the emotional continuum.</li></ul>

The Bottom Line

How our sense of fairness influences judgments about the "fortunes of others."

loveandrelationships

Love & Relationships

Do You Bask in Other People’s Misfortunes?

Just like running exhausts our muscles, focused attention many days in a row can make decision-making hard and willpower beyond low. What you need is to give your brain a rest from effortful concentration and stress without becoming bored. There are many ways to approach this, such as engaging in hobbies. Yet, according to science, the best way to rest your brain is to spend time in nature.

Effortful concentration can exhaust our brains

When we spend time in nature, there is always something fascinating and beautiful for our attention to move toward, but nothing that demands our full focus. This state of meandering that can revive an exhausted brain is known as soft fascination. Recent research found that walking through a local park or spending some time observing a stream physically quiets the brain.

Soft fascination

Everything You Need to Start, Run and Grow Your Business in Africa

mindfulness

Mindfulness

entertainment

Entertainment

The Science of How to Use Nature to Reboot Your Exhausted Brain

Naming hopelessness is the first step to our well-being. "I am lost." Saying how you feel connects you with your narrative instead of the jumble of despair and judgments about feeling despair. Where do we find hope? In essence, it is within us and between us. When we share our hope with others, we give them hope, and they provide us with hope.

Acknowledge hopelessness

<ul><li>Honour your feelings of hopelessness without being consumed by them. Don't deny uncomfortable emotion, but welcome it like a guest, not a permanent resident in your mind.</li><li>Remember that compassion for ourselves isn't often our first instinct.</li><li>No judgment. Your feelings are expected and not a sign of failure or weakness.</li><li>Humble goals. No act of hope is too small.</li><li>Find little pivot activities, be it watering the plants, or listening to music.</li><li>Hope without proof. Hope is moving forward in life and oneself without the certificate guaranteeing "x will happen." </li></ul>

Ways to respond to lostness and hopelessness

Acknowledging hopelessness can unlock the hope within.

Finding Hope in Hard Times

Journaling is the most simplistic form of writing. You can call it a method to convert your thoughts into writing.Actually, you will be writing down your thoughts, problems, goals, or plans in a paper/digital notebook.

What is Journaling?

6 Methods of Journaling:There are many methods of journaling depending upon their purpose. In this article, I am going to list 6 of those methods which I currently use, or have used previously.If you already got a notebook or a note-taking app that you use for your regular journaling, you can apply the following methods in that. You don’t need a separate notebook for this purpose.Following are the six journaling methods:

6 Methods of Journaling:

Every day, we read an article or watch a video from which we learn something. And we want to remember it so we can apply it in our life. But nine out of ten, we forget about it in just a few days.Writing down what you learned that day saves your learning in the long-term memory of your journal, and ultimately in your mind.I adopted this method a month ago, and since then, I have been continuously writing my learnings, two or three times per week.Simply, give a heading ‘What I learned Today’ and underneath that, write the thing you learned that day.

1. What-I-learned-Today Journal:

Morning Pages are three paragraphs of writing ideally done first thing in the morning.This means, start your day by writing three paragraphs of stream-of-consciousness writing, without worrying about any grammar rules.This method of journaling was given by Julia Cameron in his book The Artist’s Way.Now, every entry of my journal starts with Morning Pages. I write what’s on my mind that morning. Now, I don’t stare at a blank page anymore.Writing a full article is hard. But writing just three paraphs is not hard, especially when it isn’t about something specific.

2. Morning Pages

As the name suggests, a dream journal is used to record your dreams.Every time you wake up from a dream, write down what you saw. Be sure to write as early as possible because we tend to forget most of the details of our dream within a few hours from waking up.I know it feels weird writing your dreams, especially the creepy ones that you don’t want to remember. But I have observed that by writing down my dreams, I can see a pattern in my thinking. Because dreams are said to be the result of what’s going on in your subconscious mind.

3. Dream Journal

If you are worried about a certain thing, a mind dump journal is best for putting your chaotic mind in order.Not just for worries, you can also use this method for dumping your overwhelming thoughts and your craziest ideas.A mind dump journal helps you clear your mind by letting out your thoughts and ideas. It’s like decluttering your mind.Just get a pen and a paper, or open your note-taking app and start writing your ideas, thoughts, or any worries right now. Set a timer of 10 to 20 minutes and start writing.

4. Mind Dump Journal

A bullet journal is very famous these days. It planning tool which combines your calendar with your to-do list and your long and short-term goals.<ol><li>A future log to write your future goals and plans</li><li>A monthly log to track your monthly goals</li><li>A daily log for keeping track of your daily tasks. It’s basically your to-do list.</li></ol>A bullet journal has many benefits. On one hand, it helps you visualize your daily and monthly goals. On the other hand, it gives you a sense of accomplishment when you complete your tasks.

5. Bullet Journal

Whenever you feel discontent with life, writing down the three things you are grateful for can help you realize “you are blessed with so many things that you take for granted”.\When writing a gratitude journal, don’t just list the names of things. Instead write down the reasons why you are grateful, for that specific thing.Like just writing ‘I am grateful for my laptop’ is not going to make you grateful for your laptop. It’s better to write ‘I am grateful for my laptop which has helped me write articles, which other people read and learn from them’.

6. Gratitude Journal

There are many methods of journaling depending upon their purpose. In this article, I am going to list 6 of those methods which I currently use, or have used previously.

writing

Reading & Writing

problemsolving

Problem Solving

Not Sure What to Write in Your Journal? Start Here

Having kids showed me how to convert a continuous quantity, time, into discrete quantities. You only get 52 weekends with your 2 year old. If Christmas-as-magic lasts from say ages 3 to 10, you only get to watch your child experience it 8 times. And while it's impossible to say what is a lot or a little of a continuous quantity like time, 8 is not a lot of something.

Continuous vs. discrete perception

If you find yourself thinking that life is too short for something, you should try to eliminate it if you can.

When I ask myself what I've found life is too short for, the word that pops into my head is "bullshit."If you ask yourself what you spend your time on that is bullshit, you probably already know the answer.Unnecessary meetings, pointless disputes, bureaucracy, posturing, dealing with other people's mistakes, traffic jams, addictive but unrewarding pastimes.

We spend a lot of time on "bullshit"

One heuristic for distinguishing stuff that matters is to ask yourself whether you'll care about it in the future. Fake stuff that matters usually has a sharp peak of seeming to matter. That's how it tricks you. The area under the curve is small, but its shape jabs into your consciousness like a pin.

How to distinguish stuff that matters

If life is short, we should expect its shortness to take us by surprise. And that is just what tends to happen. You take things for granted, and then they're gone.You think you can always write that book, or climb that mountain, or whatever, and then you realize the window has closed. The saddest windows close when other people die. Their lives are short too.

Life takes us by surprise

Cultivate a habit of impatience about the things you most want to do. Don't wait before climbing that mountain or writing that book or visiting your mother. You don't need to be constantly reminding yourself why you shouldn't wait. Just don't wait.

Cultivate impatience

Relentlessly prune bullshit, don't wait to do things that matter, and savor the time you have. That's what you do when life is short.

Prune bullshit.

I think that we tend to take many things for granted and one of them is time. Our life is way shorter than we might think, thus we should try to get the most out of it.

habits

Habits

communication

Communication

Life is Short

Alexandre Dumas (1802 – 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where père is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer. His works have been translated into many languages and he is one of the most widely read French authors. Many of his historical novels of high adventure were originally published as serials, including The Count of Monte Cristo. (Wikipedia)

The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre Dumas

Edmond Dantès is young, handsome and talented. Back home from a long voyage, he's set to become captain and marry his beautiful fiancée Mercédès.Edmond's really got everything going for him at this point. All he wants to do is serve his boss, respect his father, and love his soon-to-be wife. He's happy, and he has no idea that anybody might be conspiring against him.

Initial Situation

Danglars and Fernand – jealous of his success in business and love, respectively – conspire to get Edmond jailed for a crime he didn't commit – or, rather, one he didn't realize he was committing. Their scheme succeeds when Villefort, the assistant crown prosecutor, realizes he can further his career by playing along. Edmond is left to rot in jail.

Conflict

Edmond is driven mad – and nearly to the point of suicide – while in jail, but is saved thanks to a visit from his "next-door neighbor," Abbé Faria. With the Abbé's help, Edmond learns an incredible amount about pretty much everything, including how to find a huge amount of treasure on a desert island. Then he escapes.This whole sequence of events really changes the game. Not only does Edmond get out of jail, he gets limitless resources and a whole new identity as the Count of Monte Cristo. It's the beginning of a whole new narrative.

Complication

The Count of Monte Cristo is a study in suspense. From the moment Edmond gets out of jail, we're primed for some serious action, but it never comes. Even when his adversaries, the men he has sworn get revenge on, begin to die or go mad, we don't really feel great about it. The Count has spent so much time planning that, by the time he gets around to executing his plans, he's come to understand that something's seriously wrong…which brings us to the next stage.

Climax and Suspense

After his intervention in the de Villefort poisoning case leads Héloïse de Villefort to kill both herself and her son Edward, the Count realizes that maybe he's taken things a little too far. His attempts to save Edward fail, and he's thrown into a crisis of conscience. He subsequently allows Danglars to escape from Luigi Vampa with his life, though not before taking every last penny.The de Villefort incident disturbs the Count's plan and signals a great, if late, shift in the narrative, casting Monte Cristo's whole plan into a new and disturbing light.

Denouement

Monte Cristo convinces the suicidal Maximilian Morrel to put off ending his life. At book's end he reveals that Maximilian's lover, Valentine de Villefort is actually alive. Morrel is overjoyed, and the Count sails off into the sunset.Here, the Count is finally able to do something positive, to bring somebody "back to life," instead of driving them to suicide or madness. Leaving behind Valentine and Maximilian, he sets out to start fresh.

Conclusion

“All human wisdom is contained in these two words - Wait and Hope”-Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

Alexandre Dumas Quote

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

Helping you understand Plot Analysis in The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas - but, in a fun way.

The Count of Monte Cristo Plot Analysis | Shmoop

A nod of the <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_head">head</a> is a <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesture">gesture</a> in which the head is tilted in alternating up and down arcs along the <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittal_plane">sagittal plane</a>. In many <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture">cultures</a>, it is most commonly, but not universally, used to indicate <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consensus">agreement</a>, <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceptance">acceptance</a>, or acknowledgement.There are few exceptions with some countries swapping the meanings between nodding and shaking head: in Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Albania a single nod of the head up (not down) indicates a "no".

What country nods to say no?

Nod (gesture) - Wikipedia

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