Becoming Your Stellarself

Everything You Need to Know about Plastic Surgery

There are a lot of misconceptions about plastic surgery, especially about the part about making people look fake or artificial. The formal term, cosmetic surgery, removes the notion of artificiality and instead gives you an idea of the procedure’s benefits that revolve around either cosmetic or corrective. I can say that not all of the patients who undergo the various procedures are after cosmetic benefits. Sometimes, they’re more into corrective benefits. The procedure corrects the way they look and would allow them to have better self-confidence and self-esteem. If a woman finds herself with low self-esteem because she’s wearing big glasses, what can she do? If a man has a big nose but can’t do anything about it, what can he do?

The following surgical procedures are the most popular choices for men and women and are geared towards corrective benefits rather than cosmetic.

1. Tummy tuck can also act as a corrective procedure apart from its cosmetic nature. When women give birth, the abdominal muscles are stretched so the abdomen ends up flabby and worn. This gives it the impression that the abdomen is riddled with fats. A tummy tuck procedure can reduce the presence of fats in the abdomen area and tighten the abdominal muscles, giving your abdomen a flatter and firmer look.
2. Chin implants and rhinoplasty are two plastic surgical procedures that can enhance the facial features, particularly the chin and nose. This is more focused on correcting the features and enhancing it at the same time. Some people find it difficult to breathe or suffer from poor self-esteem due to their nose, while there are those that are insecure about their chins.
3. Lasik eye surgery is a procedure that corrects vision by burning off the corneas of the eye. When a cornea is defective, it’s not able to deflect light properly so the end result is people’s visions are blurry or they cannot see something that’s close or a distance. This is an outpatient procedure that will take a couple of hours to do and a few weeks to recover properly.
4. Breast augmentation and reduction are two surgical procedures that focus on correcting and enhancing the breast size of women. Reduction is intended for overly large breast sizes that cause discomfort while augmentation is more cosmetic in nature due to its uplifting benefits, so to speak.

If you’re going to consider cosmetic surgery, you need to talk to your doctors about the potential risks and benefits. You will undergo a lot of testing to determine your eligibility for the procedure. It will also determine how fast you will be able to recover after the surgery. 

What’s in a Name? – The Effects of Wrong Names

Have you ever felt that you were given the wrong name by your parents, or that you wished you had cooler names? For some of us, we’re lucky to be given the right names, like Adrian Smith or John Jones, or anything that sounds remotely Western. In the Eastern world, anything that sounds remotely Eastern is also more preferred than Western names. But due to the modernization of culture and its subsidiaries like marriage, we are now living in a world where East meets West literally.

But how does a name affect a child? Does it have an impact the moment it’s given to him or her? To some extent, it does have an impact and believe it or not, there are kids who are being bullied for the sake of having a terrible or whiny-sounding name (like Todd or Teddy). Having an Eastern-sounding name can also trigger mild forms of racisms in children, as they may be indoctrinated in the wrong beliefs. It’s not so much as being racist, but as bearing the blunt of being a person with a weird or awkward sounding name.

For example, if I am a Westerner living in China, having a name like John Joseph Smith would make me an alien living in a strange planet or a chicken living in a coop full of turkeys. An Easterner living in a Western city would feel the same way, if he or she has an Eastern-sounding name. The language barrier would probably make it difficult for children to bear Western names to live in another world, like someone from the USA who migrated to a non-English speaking Asian country, or any other country. When this happens, your child will have difficulty blending in or to find a sense of belongingness due to the difficulty of his or her name. During the height of terrorism after the 9/11 incident, I recall one story. In our neighbourhood, I recall a child whose parents were Muslim, but they were born and raised here. The child, I think was barely around 7 years old, was the object of ridicule and bullying due to his Arabic name (Ibrahim Omar). He was bullied so hard, that his parents had to relocate to another neighbourhood. They too were the objects of bullying and ridicule during that time. I can’t blame them. They lived in a society where people judge other people based on their names.

 

But Western children will not always find a bully-free environment even in a Western country. Again, having a weird name that sounds out of place will always be a cause for bullying. Even to this day, we still wonder if we’re given the wrong names by our parents because of the fact that it rolls off other people’s tongue awkwardly or that it’s very difficult to spell and/or pronounce. So parents should think twice about naming their children after household appliances, Actors/Actresses, or even someone from a fantasy book like Lord of the Rings.

Safe Weight Loss – Facts and Truths You Can’t Do Without

Mirror, mirror on the wall

Weight loss is a journey that’s riddled with frustrations; looking in the mirror and still seeing the same flab in your arms, belly or legs after following a strict weight loss diet or program for weeks can be disappointing for some and I believe that you feel the same way too. The sad truth is not every diet scheme, exercise program or even the most popular calorie counting scheme can help you lose weight.

Let me point some facts and truths behind effective weight loss and ridiculous weight loss schemes:

What you need to avoid

 

1. Weight loss pills – Weight loss pills are never safe, no matter how natural the ingredients are. Why? Because you’re taking in different natural ingredients that you don’t even know how your body will react.
2. Calorie counting diet plans – Calorie counting is a very unnecessary diet plan which a lot of so-called weight loss experts and celebrities promote. Our bodies need the right amount of calories to do the things we do, from work to exercise to any activity; cutting down on calories can have adverse effects like increased fatigue and stress and higher weight gains.
3. Diet plans that tell you what not to eat – Specialized diet plans that tell you to avoid the food that your body needs like carbohydrates and protein are complete lies. Our body needs the proper combination of fat, protein and carbohydrates to promote weight loss, not by avoiding one of them.

 

What you need to do

 

1. Exercise – Exercise will always be the key to safe weight loss, no matter how intense it is. Your diet should complement your exercise program and not the other way around. it will not only help you achieve a flatter and leaner stomach, but you will also be improving your body’s health and condition on a holistic level. An hour of walking a day can already so much good than wasting that hour on a bar or coffee shop.
2. Eating right – Diet doesn’t mean cutting down on your food intake; but rather diet should be the amount and combination of the food you eat in order to promote weight loss; food like lean meat, fish, raw nuts and fruits and vegetables can help you lose weight and build muscle without purchasing any supplement.
3. Adjust to your body’s needs – Our bodies react differently to weight loss; some of us may require to eat less while others may eat more in order to lose more. Your body needs to be healthy in order to lose weight safely; risking your health in order to lose weight is never a good idea that’s why it’s important for you to adjust to your body’s needs when it comes to rest and nutrition intake.

 

These 3 simple steps are all that you need to do in order to lose weight properly and safely. Don’t get carried away by the flashy weight loss products and diet schemes because a safe weight loss program will never risk your body’s health and put a hole in your wallet.

 

 

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Understanding the Pain behind an Aching Tooth

Understanding the Pain behind an Aching Tooth

I'm writing this post cause I had really bad tooth pain in my last trip to Canada and luckly I found the write dentist to treat it.

Toothache is a common dental problem experienced by people all over the world, regardless of age, gender, culture, and even lifestyle. Our bodies are wired in such a way that every system, from the nervous to the digestive, works and functions like other human bodies. This makes it easy for specialists like doctors and dentists to treat ailments. Toothache is a dental ailment wherein there’s pain being experienced within the teeth or jaw. Teeth are bones, so a compromised structure can be as uncomfortable as a cracked femur or tibia.

Toothaches are considered as a dental emergency by both regular dentists and emergency dentist Edmonton specialists. A toothache will not necessarily mean that the tooth or teeth are the root cause of the pain. Sometimes, there are other factors involved because toothaches can play as symptoms for bigger dental problems.

So why do we need to understand the aching tooth?

In order for dentists to work against this problem, you have to understand how toothaches are caused. First and foremost, toothaches are caused by a chipped, broken, or fractured tooth. For dentists, these are different conditions but they pose the same threat because it leaves the inner part of the teeth exposed to bacteria and even increased sensitivity to cold or hot food and pressure. For situations like these, the dentist will check the integrity of your teeth to see if there are signs of cracks or fractures.

Bacterial infection can also trigger toothache as bacteria will find its way through your teeth’s inner tissue and destroy it from the inside. This is a factor that’s consequent of a broken or chipped tooth.

Nerves and muscles are also found in your jaw and if it just so happens that a nerve or muscle is pressed up against the jaw, pain will be present and will echo through your teeth. This is often confused for as a toothache. An inflamed muscle or nerve will also have the same effect on your teeth. If there’s inflammation present in your jaw combined with a stabbing pain, there’s a chance that your toothache may not necessarily be a toothache. Luckily, dentists are equipped to help you deal with this as well, but they will recommend you to a specialist if things get worse. 

Elements of a Happy Life

What does it really mean to be happy?

Happiness is a construct that cannot be defined by words alone. It is felt. It is shared. It is given. It is taken. Martin Seligmann, the proponent and creator of Positive Psychology, defines happiness as having three parts – meaning, pleasure, and engagement. Pleasure is when we “feel good” about something. Engagement refers to being surrounded and interacting with family, friends, and the community. Meaning is the contribution of our strengths for a greater purpose. But for Seligmann, out of the three, engagement and meaning make the most difference in a happy life. Sonya Lyubomirsky defines happiness as “the experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one’s life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile.”

Based on these two definitions we take a look at two common factors: meaning and experience.

When we look at meaning, we think of it as something that involves a lot of sacrifice and selflessness. When we look at meaning from a Buddhist’s or Dalai Lama’s eyes, we see that it’s not about sacrificing the entirety of what we are reliant on, but rather sacrificing the need to put one’s self before others. I have counselled high powered executives in my years and they are miserable. One would’ve thought that a billion dollars in your bank account would not make people miserable, but they are. They spend on things to enjoy a fleeting moment of pleasure but without having engagement or meaning.

I remember one session wherein a franchise owner admitted to something missing in his life. He has a loving wife and 2 kids. When he came to me, he thought about the things that were missing from his life. We explored and when I asked him what he wanted to do before he became rich, he said that he wanted to go on an adventure. I told him to go do it. He brought his family to different countries and when he came back to me months after, he said that it was the greatest feeling that money could not buy. He has all the money that he needs (pleasure), he uses it to travel with his family to different countries (engagement), and he finds that being close to his family is the biggest adventure of all (meaning). To date, he and his wife are helping out missions in different countries. He not only travels, but also gives meaning to his life.

Experience is the sum totality of everything. When we are happy, we experience it ourselves. When we make others happy, we experience their happiness too. Those clowns that try so hard to make people laugh are more than just paid entertainers. They share the happiness that they give to kids and to their audience. They share in the moment when their audiences are laughing or smiling or even grinning.

I believe that happiness comes from the experience and meaning of things that do make people happy. When you give it to someone, it is given back to you in a bigger dose. The simple act of making someone smile can go a long way. 

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