Life Tip: How not to get sick.

Everyone's body is different. This method has worked for me for many years, but it may not work for you. Please do not attempt this if you are pregnant, have a weak heart or are prone to losing consciousness. I cannot be held responsible for any ill effects that, however unlikely, may occur. I suggest always doing the following with a buddy, never alone.

We all know that feeling, you know the one I'm talking about, it's evening time and your joints start to hurt and you can feel your temperature rising. Yup, you are getting sick. Tomorrow it's going to be high fever, headache, and god knows what else. Getting sick isn't fun and it usually leads to missing work, school, or any plans that you have have for the next few days . Well I'm here to tell you that it's avoidable. I have discovered a method that works for me to avoid the horrid next few days of suffering, not getting out of bed and general pain associated with getting ill. 

Personally I start to feel the early effects of a cold or flu in the evening. Whenever these early effects, joint pains, low fever, headaches, and general misery kick in I immediately switch to prevention mode. First step is to pop 1-2 pills of Tylenol, Nurofen express, or any other fast acting pain, headache and fever relief. I then generally wait the suggested relief time, usually 15 to 30 minutes. Once I can feel my fever is dropping I go and do a few 5 to 10 minute sessions in a dry sauna. It has to be a dry sauna, after some extermination I came to the conclusion that wet saunas are not as effective. You literally sweat the illness out of you. Lay down, don't move, talk or do anything else, just let the sauna do its work. Personally 2 sessions of about 8 minutes work fine for me. If you are new to sauna it might be difficult to sit through 8 minutes of 80c plus degree heat, but try. At the very least do 3 sessions of 5 minutes each.

Go to bed shortly after your last session. If all goes well you will wake up the next morning feeling fantastic. Now I realise that not everyone is fortunate enough to have a sauna in their home but many of you should have a spa, gym or sports centre nearby and those almost always have a sauna, even if its poorly advertised. Most importantly: enjoy the experience! Saunas have tons of health benefits and should be used often!

A few things to remember: 

If your fever does not go down DO NOT attempt this. Your body heats up because its working to rid you of the infection. Adding extra heat on top of an existing fever is not a good idea!

If you have never been to a sauna before always go with a friend. Your body may feel weird in all that heat, stay as long as you can, but don't force it. If you start to feel uncomfortable leave immediately and take at least a 10 minute break before going back in. It may take time for your body to get used to it.   

Nikita's Words of Wisdom

Good news everyone! (high-five to those who got the reference) I have decided to create a sort of on-going post of things I find relevant to our lives. Little tips, hints, and guiding phrases that I either heard, read, or created myself. I hope you find these interesting, thought provoking and useful. Don't forget to comment with some of your own favourites and I may just add them to the list!

For Everyone:

1. Follow the three Rs: 1. Respect for self 2. Respect for others 3. Responsibility for all your actions.
2. Learn the rules so you learn how to break them properly. 
3. Open your arms to change but don't let go of your values. 
4. Live a good, honourable and full life. Then when you get older and look back you will be able to enjoy it a second time.
5. Share your knowledge, it is a way to achieve immortality 
6. Have more than you show, but speak less than you know.
7. Don't expect others to respect you when you don't even respect yourself.
8. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one;s lifetime. (Mark Twain)
9. Nothing is permanent in this world, not even our troubles. (Charlie Chaplin) 

For Relationships:

1. If you want your relationship to work, you have to check your ego at the door. This isn't about kowtowing, capitulation, or co-dependence; it's about the humility to grow. 

Relationships

In this post I generalise quiet a bit, please keep that in mind when you read it. I don't think that everyone everywhere is like this but in my experience many are. As always, what I want to do is provoke thought, discussion and realisation. Enjoy and don't forget to drop your own thoughts and opinions in the comments. 

99% of us will, at some point in our lives, have a relationship. It is, after all, the natural order of our existence. We naturally seek affection and comfort in another, be it a member of the same or opposite sex. Unfortunately for some strange reason we all tend to over complicate this most basic human need. Despite what men say about women and vice versa it is EVERYONE'S fault. As I sit writing this on a beautiful Tuesday morning in a cafe in Coven Garden there are 10 pairs sitting around me. All are in different stages of their relationship. Some are clearly just getting to know each other, others have obviously been together for a long time. What is evident in almost all of them is that there is a definite interest in the other. Maybe it's the fresh London air, Coven Garden atmosphere or the sunshine but I don't understand why it cannot be like this all the time, for everyone.

Ladies: you make it so complicated for us guys. Many of you don't know what it is that you want in life and you, foolishly, allow that to transfer over to your relationships. You behave much like a traffic light, sometimes you are green other times you are red and on occasion you drop a yellow that, to put simply, mind fucks us completely. Be simple and straightforward with us, tell us what you do or don't want. Many of you, especially when you are younger tend to chase assholes. Leaving the kinder, gentler guys thinking they are somehow inferior. What's worse is that when the asshole inevitably breaks your heart you simple find another one just like him. Have some respect for yourself and find a guy who will respect you and care about you, not someone who will treat you like a piece of meat. What I have discovered recently is that many of you ladies have some sort of issue with saying no. I simply don't understand why you would agree to go on a date then postpone it 10 times hoping we get the hint. Just tell us no! It's less of a pain and hassle for everyone that way. If you end up in bed with someone you aren't attracted to simply because you couldn't say no, it's your own damn fault! Those of you who complain that you can't find a "decent" guy aren't being open enough. Try new things, go out on a date with someone you wouldn't otherwise date. Who knows, you might realise you have a totally different "type". We live in a world where women scream for equality, yet you still behave as if its the 17th century and men still have to "court" you. Approach a guy if you like him, start a conversation. Sometimes we are shy and don't really know if you are willing for us to approach. Take the charge and make the first move yourself! Most importantly: stop playing games! If you want a guy to "chase" you then you are more interested in the game than the guy/relationship and you deserve neither. No matter how many bad relationships you have had or how bad your last breakup was it is never a good idea to swear off relations. All you are doing is lying to yourself. The next guy that you reject because you think you think it's a never ending cycle of getting hurt could be your soul mate. And if you continue to get hurt relationship after relationship then it's time to reevaluate the type of guy you date, or reevaluate yourself. Just because us guys don't always have something to say doesn't mean something is wrong or we don't want to be with you at that moment. I personally sometimes prefer to share silence, cuddle up on the grass and stare up into the sky rather than share meaningless words. Some of us are introverts, some extroverts and some are somewhere in the middle. Find an approach to him and you will discover that no matter what sort of person he might be there is almost always something that is interesting and intriguing about him. It might take time, but its there, trust me. In the bedroom it's not all up to the guy, you need to put in effort too otherwise it becomes a one way street which inevitably comes to a dead end. 

Gentlemen: lets face it: from roughly the age of 15 all we think about is sex. It's not our fault, it's how we are biologically programmed. But that doesn't mean we fully give in to our primal instinct and treat women as disposable assets. Women deserve respect, kindness and attention. If you aren't ready for that than you shouldn't be in a relationship in the first place. Stop being assholes, it doesn't make you "cool" when you pick up and drop girls like gloves. Be honest, talk about your feelings. Girls are generally overly emotional and we are under-emotional. Try to meet somewhere in the middle. If you remain cold and don't show any emotion at all your relationship will end very quickly. Pay attention and look after yourself. Just like you judge girls on their looks they will judge you as well. Trim your nails, go for a run once in a while,wash your cloths, shower for gods sake! Don't take your date to McDonald's, try to be romantic and thoughtful. Friends are important but so is your girlfriend, make time for her or else she will stop making time for you. Lets face the truth here: we don't all look like Brad Pit or David Beckham but we all have your strengths; use them. Make yourself interesting through intelligence, charisma and experiences. Be funny, girls love to laugh. In the bedroom it's not all about you, in fact it's more 25% about you and 75% about her. Pay attention to what she likes and what gets her going. Don't go straight for the finish line if you haven't ran the marathon yet. Take your time, it's more about the journey than the destination. Most importantly: show that you care. 

Stop over complicating it. Take it day by day. Don't start swearing eternal love 10 days into a relationship. Don't start thinking about your next 20 years together, rushing things is almost never a good idea.  Keep your relationship private. It's no one's business but your own what's happening between you and your other half. Don't fight on Facebook, don't change your relationship status to "it's complicated" every other day. Be honest, there is no worse feeling then to be lied to by someone you care about. If you no longer have feelings for him/her tell them straight. It's better to end it now than to stretch it out and and make the both of you suffer longer. If you don't feel wanted or cared for talk about it, if that doesn't help then finish it and move on; there is absolutely no point in beating a dead horse. 

Ladies, we aren't all assholes. If all you see is assholes then its time to start looking elsewhere. The less assholes you date then less assholes there will be in the world, they will simply die out. Guys: treat women in much the same way you would treat your mother. At the end of the day it's up to you to decide who you want to date but think about giving everyone a chance, you never know what could come of it. It's might just be the relationship that lasts for the rest of your life. 

Rant: Education

Recently I saw an interesting Youtube video which actually brought upon me finally creating this blog so I can aimlessly rant at the internet with the hopes that one day, someone may actually read this.

Education. A topic that should be at the top of all our discussion lists. After all it is today's children that will lead the next generation. It will be up to them to make the difficult choices that we have, so far, been unable to make. Yet, for some reason totally arcane to me, our governments spend more money and time focusing on military, transportation and welfare than they do on our future. How can we as a society justify spending more money on Welfare than on Education. Seriously.....Welfare...We are literally spending more money paying for the housing of chavs than we do securing the future of our children. And don't worry, I'll get to chavs, chav-likes and their effects on society soon enough (in another post). I'm not saying that there shouldn't be Welfare funding, there definitely should (because not all Wellfare spending goes to 15 year old mothers who got pregnant because they want a free house). But should we be spending more money on our anti-social, young parent youth than on the youth that can actually make a difference in our future? I think not!

Albert Einstein once said: "Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live is whole life believing it is an idiot." He makes a striking point that, so far, we have all ignored. The world is constantly evolving yet our schools have been focusing on the same style of teaching for the last 100 years. The material has changed, the approach has not. How can we teach our children to live in the 21st century when we educate them as if they were still in the 19th century? How can kids deal with today's problems when they are only taught about problems of the last generation? Schools should be an ever-changing and evolving environment that follows the latest technological and social innovations. We should be teaching our children what is important now, rather than what was important when the curriculum was first created.

Schools should focus on identifying each child's strengths and weaknesses. Marcus might be a gifted writer, Camilla could be an extraordinary mathematician and John might be a exceptional artist but if they are sat there all studying the effects of Shakespearean literature on modern day writers then only 1 of 3 is getting something beneficial from the lesson. A child's traits should be identified early and incubated. Teachers must create a fire within a child with their teaching methods to make kids wants to learn rather than force them to through the ever looming exam and test. Education must be something that every child strives to accomplish rather than something they are forced to endure. The worst thing about all this is that its all within our reach. Exciting ways to educate our children are all around us. Look at Vsauce, MinutePhysics, SmarterEveryDay; these are just the tip of the iceberg. They all make learning interesting, fun, and exciting. This is what our teachers need to strive to be like.

We need to ditch the grandfathered styles and materials and focus on educating our children with the skills and knowledge that will help them build a brighter future. With the economic crisis currently floating over all our heads we should teach our kids about money, finance, budgeting, living within one's means. With increased tensions between races and religions we should be educating our children about cultures, societies and how to overcome differences and co-exist. We should be teaching kids on entrepreneurship so that they can go out into the world and try to make it a better place rather than focusing on what Joseph Conrad meant in Heart of Darkness. So many things are lacking in our society yet we do not strive to teach our children the things we did not or could not learn. We fail to correctly use the tools we lacked as children to better the lives of our own children and thus our world.

We lack many things things in our education system. We waste time on pointless subjects (Latin: I'm looking at you UK) instead of focusing on things that matter now. We pay our teachers miserable salaries when we should be fostering a competitive environment where only the truly best can be granted access to the mind of our next generation. I hope that someday, hopefully sooner rather than later, our children will wake up in the mornings and jump out of bed excited to learn about the next chapter in whatever book they find fascinating; be it art, physics or history. Rather than focusing on the lesson, teachers need to be focusing on what is truly important: the students!