• Beautiful sunset over the horizon between mountains
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    Not all hours in the day are equal—your focus and momentum rise and fall. However, if you find the sweet spot where your brain is at its best, you’ll do more in less time. It’s important to understand your energy cycles for optimum productivity. If you learn this, you can leverage one of the prominent ...
  • Two people in hospital room. One in bed. The other sitting next to the bed. Flowers out of focus in front.
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    Obtaining quality sleep is a challenge. Factor in alarms, excessive noise, artificial illumination, and people waking you up, the idea of getting any shut-eye sounds impossible. Bodies need rest and an opportunity to reset. In the hospital, it is paramount to recovery. Hindrances Hospitals hinder relaxation due to functioning as a 24-hour workforce. Patients are ...
  • Empty green coffee mug on a brown wooden table with a person's hands holding a phone
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    Over the past six years, I have studied Turkish. As time passed, I became busier and left it behind. I recently got back into it. Learning a language and maintaining it is difficult, but it’s rewarding and beneficial in many ways. With both personal and professional advantages, being fluent in languages other than your own ...
  • parents walking on the beach with their child. View from behind. Walking towards the water.
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    Humans communicate using words, actions, body language, tone, inflection, and volume. Small people may not be receptive to all these nuances. To them, spoken word is the gold standard. They are unable to appreciate sarcasm, puns, and figures of speech. What we articulate to children is what they believe. Cross Signals Youngsters receive conflicting messages ...
  • Kishen and Wasim meet for the first time in Pakistan
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    Mummy has no clue that her first cousin, Kishen Arora, has been residing in San Diego for years. Bhaboji’s (mom’s mother) youngest brother is his father. Over time, his older brothers left India to travel across the continents. Kishen and his spouse, Bonnie, travel back to the old country. They have been going back and ...
  • Two kids playing in airport. One running and one doing a handstand.
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    Flying with little humans can be challenging. Delays, waits, lines, quiet voices, and nowhere to go, makes my patience grow wary. Traveling adults experience anxiety and tension with getting to the airline on time, progressing through security, and keeping track of baggage. Add bothersome kids to that mix and it is chaos. Being a military ...
  • A 1920 black and white photo of my grandparents with two of my mother's older siblings
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    I am three and a half at the time of  Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination in Delhi. Blurry images linger. Daddy and his friend, Mr. Diwan Chand, visit the cremation site. I tag along. It’s a few days later but the crowds are jostling each other. Daddy’s friend is carrying flowers and I watch him drape a ...
  • Woman in black dress sleeping on stairs.
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    When does a grown-up learn to express themselves in a manner acceptable to society? Imagine me, a 33-year-old, enters a coffee shop, and screams, “I WANT COFFEE.” I continue to shout, “I WANT COFFEE” for 15 minutes. Fellow coffee drinkers scoot further away from me, in case I am mentally insane. Others stare, mouth agape, ...
  • Girl is blue dress sleeping on coach surrounded by stuff animals.
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    The photo above is of my daughter sleeping. Yes, she is half on the couch, half standing, and fully snoozing. I have several pictures of my little ones in surprising slumber stations. When they are in bed and I check in on them later in the night, I giggle because kids can doze like contortionists. ...
  • Girl in black dress standing between multiple mirrors reflecting herself.
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    Kids seem to have a bottomless pit of questions.  “Mommy, do you like it?” “Daddy, look! Is it beautiful?” “Did I do a good job?” “I made it for you.” Youngsters seek positive affirmation from their parents starting from the moment they are born. Erik Erikson, a renowned psychologist, identifies eight stages of psychosocial development ...