If there is one thing common in all of us, it is the flaming urge to be happy and satisfied in life. Whether a crying baby, an insecure teenager, or a responsible family person, we all seek something that would comfort us. But the question is: Are we looking for happiness in the right place? Trinlay Rinpoche, an accomplished meditator and scholar, said that the real source of happiness lies in the clarity of thoughts. External factors can only be pleasurable as long as we are happy from the inside. According to Buddha, meditation trains the mind to “not dwell in the past or contemplate about the future.” It lets the mind settle in the ‘now’ and allows us to see the beauty of the present. This article is an effort to understand why meditation works so well and how we can resort to its benefits for becoming a better version of ourselves. A Look at the Benefits of Meditation Meditation establishes a secure connection between our internal and external worlds. It awakens the body and ...

  Yoga is a spiritual, mental and physical practice that has been around since ages. With time, people have discovered a number of health benefits associated with yoga. Yoga does more than burning calories and strengthening muscles, it is a workout which involves both body and mind. This International Yoga Day start a good habit and promise yourself the following health benefits: • Improves posture Working for long hours on a desk could not only hurt your spine but also make you feel tired at the end of the day. Practicing certain yoga asanas could help you in improving your posture and also prevent pain in your neck and lower back. • Increases flexibility When was the last time you wished you could easily touch your toes which bending forward? Well, practicing yoga could help you in that. Yoga can not only help you in increasing your flexibility but also let you perform complex asanas. • Builds muscle strength Yoga could help in strengthening weak muscles of the body. It helps in ...

  What Is Carbon Pricing? The phrase put a price on carbon has now become well known with momentum growing among countries and business to put a price on carbon pollution as a means of bringing down emissions and drive investment into cleaner options. So what does it mean to put a price on carbon, and why do many government and business leaders support it? There are several paths governments can take to price carbon, all leading to the same result. They begin to capture what are known as the external costs of carbon emissions – costs that the public pays for in other ways, such as damage to crops and health care costs from heat waves and droughts or to property from flooding and sea level rise – and tie them to their sources through a price on carbon. A price on carbon helps shift the burden for the damage back to those who are responsible for it, and who can reduce it. Instead of dictating who should reduce emissions where and how, a carbon price gives an economic signal and pollu...

  In 2016, nearly 200 countries signed up to the Paris climate accord, which set individual targets aimed at preventing global temperatures from rising above 2C this century – and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5C or less. Despite such promises, many countries are still not on track. Some of the globe’s biggest emitters – the US and Russia – have either left or not yet ratified the treaty. As mass strikes united the globe in its fight against our climate crisis, we look at what some of the countries with the largest stake in our environment are either doing – or not doing – to save our planet. The US Since Donald Trump’s administration took office, the US president – who famously called climate change a “hoax” – has done plenty to reverse his predecessor Barack Obama’s pro-environmental policies. Mr Trump has often pursued the interests of industries such as coal and car manufacturing at the expense of the environment in his pursuit of jobs gr...

Walking is a form of exercise that can significantly improve your physical and mental health. Not only can it extend your life and prevent disease, but it can also boost your energy and mood.  In addition, studies show that if you walk regularly and quickly enough, it could be the only aerobic exercise you need to keep your heart and lungs healthy.  It's also accessible, easy, and free. So if you're one of the 47% of adults who don't meet the CDC's Physical Activity Guidelines for aerobic activity, then walking is a habit worth pursuing and keeping.   Here's seven research-backed health benefits of walking, as well as how fast, long, and regularly you should walk to reap them.  1. Burn calories and lose weight  Walking increases your heart rate, causing you to expend energy and burn calories just like other forms of physical activity such as running, swimming, or cycling. How many calories you burn depends on how fast you walk, for how long, the terrain, an...

  The UK has been one of the world's top destination countries for migrants for much of the last century. As a result, the UK is a vibrant, multi-ethnic country where an important share of the population was either born abroad or has migrant parents or grandparents. While many of the outcomes of this demographic change – from British reggae, the legendary Birmingham Balti and the writings of Salman Rushdie – are celebrated, diversity in the UK has also been met with prejudice. The Migration Observatory's new briefing on Migrants and Discrimination in the UK considers what factors affect whether people feel discriminated against, and how this compares to high-income EU countries. The UK has a long track record of dealing with xenophobic and racial prejudice. In 1965, the British parliament passed the first Race Relations Act to protect newly arrived migrants from South Asia and the Caribbean from discrimination. Britain was one of the first countries to pass anti-discrimination ...