Mantras for Positive Ageing
By the Guild of Service, Pippa Rann Books & Media
Fifty prominent Indians aged above 75 years share how to add to the years gracefully and lead a happy life in this book put together by the Guild of Service in its golden jubilee year. With a foreword from His Holiness The Dalai Lama, it has been jointly edited by founder chairperson V Mohini Giri and vice-president Meera Khanna. The first part of the book has contributions by leading researchers who remind readers that age is not debilitating but impactful.
In the second half, Dr Karan Singh, Fali S Nariman, Sunderlal Bahuguna, Kamala Bhasin, Tara Bhattacharjee, Margaret Alva, Sushma Seth, Mani Shankar Aiyer, Dr Syeda Hamid among others spell out their personal mantras to underline how positivity, faith and a zest for life aid in healthy living. Through interesting anecdotes, they talk about their physical, emotional, intellectual strength and stability, their growing-up years founded on certain values of healthy body, calm mind and good diet, and how these collectively help defy age-related health issues, remain optimistic, productive and energetic.
The Magic Mindset: How to Find Your Happy Place
By Preeti Shenoy, Harper Collins India
The self-help book filled with practical insights and advice on health and family relationships, tells the reader how to lead a purposeful life.
The book was born following the author’s struggle with grief after a personal tragedy. Her own experiences, combined with inspiring stories of others, form the crux of the book. The author agrees that it is not possible to look for positivity all the time. But once the mind accepts that happy solutions are not always available, the search for the proverbial silver lining after dark days, ends.
According to Shenoy, the mindset drives our perspectives, hope and emotions. The belief that a change is coming helps change our outlook towards life, improving our overall health, physical well being, mental strength and relationships with others.
Asylum: The Battle for Mental Healthcare in India
By Daman Singh, Westland
The perception of mental illness as a mysterious malady has to some extent ceased over the years what with science offering acceptable methods of diagnosis and treatment. In many countries, people with mental illnesses have the same rights as any other citizen and lead meaningful lives with dignity. The erstwhile days of forced confinement are gone and the spectre of shame and stigma has also reduced.
In India, according to Singh’s book, the reform in mental healthcare began in the early 20th Century when in 1900, over 1,000 persons were admitted to the asylums in British India. A few were brought in by family; one in four came over from jail and the rest were picked up from the streets. Their symptoms varied a great deal in form and degree. For the purpose of diagnosis, the symptoms were bunched into three types of insanity most reported — mania, melancholia, and dementia.
The author delves into the intriguing history of our mental healthcare to find out what prompted the mode of treatment and how care of the mentally ill evolved; how political events, especially the World Wars and the Partition, affected progress; and what changed when Indian doctors and administrators took over the management of mental hospitals.
How To Think: Understanding the Way We Decide, Remember and Make Sense of The World
By John Paul Minda, Hachette India
A thought provoking book that gets you thinking about thinking. In this era of big data, algorithms, AI knowing about how humans think, the author says it is more important than ever before to understand the sheer brilliance of the human brain. How the brain and the mind work, why we make predictable errors, how we remember things and make choices, the book is a comprehensive overview of one of the most complex organs of our body.
From his experience, the author, who is a psychologist, shares case studies to demonstrate the brain's involvement in thought, memory, emotion, touch, motor skills, vision, breathing, temperature, hunger, speech and every process that regulates the body. He explains if want to understand how people behave, we need to understand how they think. The book explains cognition and the links between the brain, the mind and behaviour and helps readers to become better thinkers, learners and problem-solvers.
Ready to Run: Unlocking Your Potential to Run Naturally
By Dr Kelly Starrett with TJ Murphy, Victory Belt Publishing
How can you unlock the athletic potential in you? Can you run faster and longer? Can running remain injury-free with improved techniques?
Dr Kelly Starrett answers several basic questions to quell doubts a modern runner could have. His mobility philosophy on the injury-plagued world of running, teaches 12 standards to prepare yourself. He lists the adverse effects of wearing ill-fitting shoes, excessive sitting time in the wrong posture which gives lower back problems, chronic knee injuries, and debilitating foot pain.
Read this book to tap your running potential, treat pain, accelerate recovery, prepare the body and pick up injury prevention habits
