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Body Image: More Than Being Fit For Others

DISCLAIMER: This article has a psychological focus and will thus include citations from various published journals of psychology and various websites that offer knowledge and statistics about the topic. How many times did you look at yourself in the mirror before leaving the house today? How many times did you fix your hair, or change your outfit to look just right? How many times have you bailed out of plans because of a terrible zit? “Body image” is how we perceive our bodies. It is our emotional attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of our own body. It can either be positive or negative. A positive body image means being able to be happy and comfortable with your body. A negative body image involves having real or imagined flaws in the body which leads to distress and can also affect everyday functioning. “Body image” as an issue isn’t new, to researchers or even laymen. Many have fallen prey to having a negative body image and ample amount of research has been done to dig deeper
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We are More Important Than the People We Deem Important

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Many a times, we arrive at situations that compel us to think if people around us would approve of our decisions. Will Nikki like the way I've wrapped her birthday gift? Will Dev like the way I've done my hair today? The 'Nikki's and 'Dev's of our lives govern our resultant behaviour and it's quite strange how we belittle ourselves and let others affect our thinking. Isn't this a form of loose neocolonialism? Aren't we slaves of other people, not physically but mentally? Shouldn't Nikki notice the effort you've put in wrapping her gift? Shouldn't Dev like you for how you are as a person and not how you've worn your hair? We give others so much from our share of power that we forget what it's like to take decisions independently without thinking of others for once. We have forgotten what social autonomy is. And we become so dependent on others that when they leave, it shakes up our entire being. The whole life you've b
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We set our own league for ourselves

Picture this: a lanky boy with spectacles has hots for the most popular girl at school with lustrous, shiny hair, amazing figure and perfect, tanned skin. What’s the first thing that comes to mind? That she’s out of his league. Another thought: isn’t it true that when we face a cumbersome task or a task we’re unfamiliar with, we say that it is out of our league? Is there a league for some people while not for others? Who sets these leagues? Do we find the league where we fit in or does the league find us? Can we be a member of more than one league? Well, let me tell you this. WE set our own league for ourselves. Our thoughts and actions define who we are. Our likes and dislikes, preferences, perspectives. We choose our company. We are capable of controlling our life’s outcomes. We fall in love with people and no two people however much in love can be in the same league despite of being soulmates. Maybe that’s what makes human beings so different from one another. Despite of be
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The Horrors of the Blue Whale Challenge

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Irkutsk Oblast, Siberia: Yulia (15) and Veronika (16) are currently sitting in front of their computers.Yulia sees the date on the lower right corner of her computer. Sunday, 26th February 2017. The day has arrived. After 50 days of anticipation, it has finally arrived. Yulia and Veronika's fingers tremble as they click "accept" on the screen with their wrists slit and covered in dried blood. If you look closely, you'll see the angry gashes along their pale white skin. The incisions representing a whale.  Yulia goes onto VK and types in her last message - "End."        Veronika does the same and writes her last message as "Sense is lost... End." Both of them decide to meet outside a 14-storey apartment building close to their homes. With a sense of finality, they plunge simultaneously to their death from the roof of the same building. In 2013, more than 100 teens committed suicide in Russia and the government authorities were rendered c
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World Environment Day

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When the teenagers today are busy playing Piano Tiles or tweeting or stalking somebody on Facebook, I took out a little time to write this. I would've been doing the same had I not been galvanised by something that I read on Twitter yesterday. And you would ask why. Why? I'm not sure. Do I plan to motivate you? Maybe. Do I plan to talk about something of sobriety? Definitely. This is something that is heart wrenching for me. We constitute maybe two percent of the Earth and yet we want to be the masters, the hegemons of it. We think of ourselves as the Creator. "We have not inherited this planet from our ancestors, rather borrowed it from our future," and other stimulating quotes like these go in vain. We made these quotes yet we don't abide by them.  How many of you know it is the World Environment Day today? Are you saying 'yes' because you read the title of this article a while ago? Until yesterday, I myself wouldn't have known about it too.
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