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The HUAWEI MatePad T 10s 64GB: the ideal tablet for families

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Once considered a tool dedicated to the on-the-go businessperson, smart tablets have now evolved beyond specialist workplace equipment to become a mainstay within the family home. Designed as an affordable, high quality and durable tablet, the HUAWEI MatePad T 10s is ideally designed to meet the whole family’s entertainment and educational needs.

The HUAWEI MatePad T 10s runs on an octa-core Kirin 710A processor, allowing seamless switching between your social media, multimedia and other apps. And for the first time, the novel App Multiplier enables the user to split one app into two windows for easy viewing. Alongside this, supported by the latest version of Huawei’s Android-based operating system EMUI 10.1, the HUAWEI MatePad T 10s is a great way to access all your music and movies on its 10.1-inch Full HD 1920 x 1200 display. Alongside powerful dual loudspeakers, the HUAWEI Histen 6.1 surround sound feature, Harman Kardon tuning, and long-lasting 5100mAh high capacity battery, the whole family will relish the truly immersive audio-visual experience this Huawei tablet provides.

The students and learners in the family will be happy to know that they can say goodbye to harsh, glaring blue screens, as the HUAWEI MatePad T 10s uses an in-built Low Blue Light eye protection feature, swapping the discomfort of harmful blue light for warmer, softer tones designed for reading. While working on the HUAWEI MatePad T 10s, whether brushing up on your vocabulary using a study app, writing up homework, or reading an eBook, limiting harsh blue light exposure can help ensure a better night’s sleep and establish a steadier sleep cycle.

The HUAWEI MatePad T 10s is built to be used on the go, with a Micro SD slot allowing external storage of up to 512GB. Teenagers and young children in particular can enjoy  enormous download and storage potential to bring multimedia entertainment with them wherever they go. What’s more, with a premium metal body and shock-resistant glass, this tablet can handle every kind of challenge that family life throws at it.

For the youngsters in the family, Kids Corner is an exciting feature that turns your HUAWEI MatePad T 10s into a creative, educational and entertainment companion, keeping children engaged and stimulating their creativity with four simple pre-installed features – the camera, voice recorder, multimedia player and painting tools. Kids Corner issues 6 kinds of protective pop-up alerts to ensure that children use it in the safest possible way, both in terms of their posture and their eye health, for example when a child is holding the device too close to their eyes. Parents also have full control over their children’s access to particular apps from AppGallery, as well as being able to limit times and intervals of use of the HUAWEI MatePad T10s.

This new tablet is also equipped with Huawei Share, which can transfer photos, videos and other files between Huawei devices at speeds of up to 150MBps, all without using a single bit of data. The HUAWEI MatePad T 10s promises an exciting array of inclusive multimedia and essential features for all the family and, thanks to its large storage and quality build, it can be enjoyed anywhere by anyone.

The HUAWEI MatePad T 10s’ combination of immersive entertainment, powerful productivity, long-lasting battery life, elegant industrial design, and an attractive price point, the HUAWEI MatePad T 10s is definitely a device to consider, which can satisfy all of the family’s digital needs.

Available in Deepsea Blue, the HUAWEI MatePad T 10s, with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage, can now be purchased for just R4,499 from the Huawei Store (Online) or Incredible Connection. The HUAWEI MatePad T 10s is also available from MTN, Vodacom, Telkom and Cell C on a 24-month or 36-month contract. The tablet comes with a free flip cover valued at R699.

TIGER BRANDS CULINARY DIVISON PARTNERS WITH BACARDI HOLIDAY CLUB FESTIVAL AS THE OFFICIAL FOOD SPONSOR

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Johannesburg – This past weekend South Africa’s favourite Kitchen companions KOO, Crosse& Blackwell Mayonnaise and Mrs Balls hosted their first ever festival as the official food partner at the all-inclusive Bacardi Holiday Club Summer of Love edition, which took place the on the 4th – 6th of March 2022.

The #SummerOfLove edition of the festival treated music lovers to a range of exciting talent from Kwaito legends such as Trompies, Khuli Chana, DBN Gogo and many fan favourites who graced the stage with memorable performances that had the crowd chanting for more.

To add to the experience, the heritages brands KOO, Crosse & Blackwell Mayonnaise and Mrs Balls came together to provide festival goers with a unique food experience at the one-of-a-kind KOO KLUB, exclusively curated for festival. This was a perfect opportunity to showcase some delectable meals and versatility from the Tiger Brands South Africa  staples, that left festival goers spoilt for choice.


“As we head into festival season, need to ensure that we maintain the traditions by connecting with our innate love for music over good food and shared moments. It seems we are nearing to what we may deem as normal times again and with that transition, we at Tiger Brands want to be at the forefront of bringing back the love of compelling collaborations and unity with the Bacardi Holiday Club. The partnership with the Bacardi Holiday Club property presented a lovely opportunity for us to offer meals with some of our favourite Tiger Brands products, ensuring that our brands remain culturally relevant and top of mind in our to food enthusiasts, while recruiting new consumers.” Said Edna Maphita Tiger Brand Culinary Marketing Director

The festival would not have been complete without some of Mzansi’s most well-known digital content creators from actor and TV presenter, Tebogo “Caddy” Tsotetsi and Tik Tok sensation Mandisa Jakavula, to name but a few.

Prevent the silent onset of chronic kidney disease. Here’s how

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Kidney disease is an irreversible illness that affects 10% of people across the world, and up to 1 in 8 people in South Africa. This World Kidney Day – on 10 March – let’s really appreciate these vital organs and make sure we’re living in a way that promotes our kidney health. “By the time most people become aware that their kidneys are failing, they will already have lost 50% of their kidney function” The kidneys are a pair of bean-shaped organs found at the back of the body at about the level of the waist. Each kidney holds thousands of filtering units. As our blood moves through them, they filter waste products and extra water out and these are released in our urine. Paediatric nephrologist Professor Errol Gottlich says: “Kidney disease is silent, meaning it often develops without any noticeable symptoms. By the time most people become aware that their kidneys are failing, they will already have lost 50% of their kidney function. “Kidneys also balance our fluid levels ensuring we don’t become over-hydrated or dehydrated. They normalise electrolytes and blood pressure, assist in calcium metabolism and prevent anaemia.” “Our kidneys are essential for a normal, healthy lifestyle. The kidneys fulfil many roles, the most important of which is excreting toxins out of the body in the urine.” – Prof Gottlich also heads up Discovery Health Medical Scheme’s Kidney Care Programme, which is designed to ensure the best quality of care and life for medical scheme members on chronic dialysis. Paediatrician Dr Nokukhanya Ngubane-Mwandla adds, “The kidneys have multiple important functions in the body, including controlling acid-base homeostasis, water and electrolyte balance and blood pressure. They also produce certain hormones important for production of red blood cells and bone mineralization.” – Dr Ngubane-Mwandla is the recipient of a 2020 Discovery Foundation Sub-specialist Award and is using this support to work towards improving the lives of children with congenital and acquired renal pathology. Here’s how you can look after your kidneys Taking care of your kidneys is as simple as leading a healthy lifestyle. Professor Gottlich recommends that people do the following: • Ensure regular exercise. Exercise for 30 minutes, five days a week. Even brisk walk is an excellent form of exercise. • Eat a balanced, healthy diet of unprocessed, fresh foods with no more than a teaspoon of added salt per day. • Regularly check and control your blood sugar. • Regularly check and control your blood pressure. • Drink an appropriate amount of fluids. Your doctor will explain how to adjust your fluid intake if you have kidney, heart or liver disease. • Don’t smoke as smoking slows the flow of blood to the kidneys. • Don’t take over-the-counter pain or anti-inflammatory pills regularly. Long term, frequent use of medicine, like Ibuprofen, can harm your kidneys. • Get your kidney function checked regularly if you have any of the ‘high risk’ factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure, a family history of kidney disease, and being overweight or obese. A silent disease: What damages kidneys and how? Discovery Health’s data show that around 75% of renal (kidney) failure is a result of diabetes or hypertension (high blood pressure). Data from the National Kidney Foundation mirrors this with up to 65% of kidney failure in South African adults being attributed to hypertension and up to 25% due to Type 2 Diabetes.” “Uncontrolled diabetes can damage the blood vessels in your kidneys and can gradually decrease the functionality of this vital organ. And untreated high blood pressure experience damage to their kidney tissue as a result of blood vessels being exposed to a higher than normal blood pressure,” adds Professor Gottlich. – Other causes of kidney disease include living with HIV and other infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, and structural abnormalities. Dr Ngubane-Mwandla adds, “There is also a relatively high incidence of kidney problems among South African children. Some of these problems are congenital, which means that children are born with them, but several conditions are caused by malnourishment and gastric issues.” This passionate doctor adds, “It would be great to implement screening programs at schools or at primary health care facilities – in particular to ensure blood pressure and urine screening – to detect the early onset of kidney disease, especially those born prematurely, at a low birth weight or who have a family history of kidney disease.” The National Kidney Foundation notes that up to 80% of chronic kidney failure may be preventable, making it vital to keep up regular screening checks that will identify signs of chronic diseases like kidney disease and others, as early as possible, in adults and children alike. Catch the onset of kidney disease early on – simply screen! The good news is that, for most people, screening for kidney disease can be done as part of regular health check-ups. “It’s really as simple as going to your primary healthcare provider and doing a screening test for high blood pressure, blood glucose levels and kidney functionality,” says Professor Gottlich. “Essentially, your urine is an easily accessed window to your kidney health. A dipstick into the urine sample will show markers of possible kidney health issues.” Treating chronic kidney disease Once a person has chronic kidney disease, they will need to undergo chronic dialysis (an average of three sessions per week), explains Professor Gottlich. Patients may either undergo: – Peritoneal dialysis, which uses the lining of their abdomen to filter the blood inside their body. – Haemodialysis, which uses a dialysis machine and a special filter, called an artificial kidney or dialyser, to clean the patient’s blood. “In addition to dialysis treatment, it is critical that patients live a healthier lifestyle and take prescribed medicine to control blood pressure, improve anaemia and bone health,” adds Professor Gottlich. Chronic kidney disease is a complex illness that is expensive to treat. – In 2021, Discovery Health paid out R1.5 billion in kidney treatment related claims for about 3,000 members – of which 0.6% was for members under the age of 18, reflecting the way in which kidney disease affects children too. – Interestingly in 2020 Discovery Health paid out a slightly higher R1.6 billion in claims from about 3,500 medical scheme members for kidney treatment. The 14% drop in members claiming between 2020 and 2021, shows the decrease in screening and treatment for kidney disease and other chronic treatment over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is due to the fact that people have stayed away from healthcare facilities out of fear of exposure to COVID-19, due to stay-at-home measures imposed to curb the spread of infection, and also due to the redirection of resources in healthcare towards COVID-19 care, especially during peaks of infection. Organ donation a lifesaver for people who live with kidney disease “The most ideal therapy for chronic kidney disease is a kidney transplant,” says Professor Gottlich. “However, there’s been a significant decrease in organ donors over the past two years because of COVID-19 and very few kidney transplants have been done during this time.” Dr Ngubane-Mwandla adds, “There is a great need for organ donation and transplantation for kids too, particularly for those children treated in the state sector. Until transplanted, these children must stay on a chronic dialysis programme. Some, we transition to haemodialysis which is both costly and needs regular visits to the hospital so really affects and defines a child’s life. The sooner a child in need receives a kidney transplant, the better for the child and their family.” One organ donor can save seven other lives. Your heart, liver and pancreas can save three lives and your kidneys and lungs can help up to four people. And, one tissue donor can help up to 50 people by donating their corneas, skin, bones, tendons and heart valves. – Sign up to be an organ donor – Organ Donor Foundation of South Africa. References National Kidney Foundation of South Africa Paediatrician puts spotlight on kidney conditions in South African children Discovery Health Medical Scheme Kidney Care Programme Organ Donor Foundation

15-minute neighbourhood trend on the rise across SA

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The ’15-minute neighbourhood’ concept may not be new, but since COVID-19 hit our shores it is certainly a trend that has had new life breathed into it within South Africa’s property market. Add to that the current spike in fuel costs and you have the perfect conditions for this lifestyle trend to grow and flourish. Rainmaker Marketing’s Director, Stefan Botha, whose award-winning agency specialises in the property sector, shares his insights about why SA is experiencing this growing property trend.

There is no question that convenience is key and the work from home trend due to COVID-19 has caused most consumers to opt for lifestyle and comfort when choosing their home. This alone probably explains the increase we have seen first-hand over the past two years in developments across South Africa that offer consumers work, schools, entertainment and important shopping amenities on their doorstep.

The concept of living 15 minutes away from everything, or within walking distance, is thought to improve one’s quality of life which according to our National Residential Property Trends for 2021 has become a number one priority for consumers since the pandemic. This concept of “living locally” is something that has been spoken about for years but seeing it being unpacked and this vision being realised in a growing number of instances has brought new life to many areas in KwaZulu-Natal, Johannesburg as well as in Cape Town. All our existing research and observations from the market support the fact that, in general, people will trade size for security and location every day of the week – especially if they can enjoy greater recreational benefits within close proximity of where they sleep.

The concept of 15-minute neighbourhoods stems from the 1920’s where it was made more popular in 2019 in Paris. I believe other parts of the world like South Africa are now adopting this preferred living arrangement due to two major factors. The first being “hyperlocalisation” as a result of Covid-19  where people are understanding the importance of community and are wanting to avoid the hassle and escalating costs linked to transport, as well as climate change. The current increase in fuel costs as of March 2022 in South Africa, is only going to further cement this need to live, work and play within a smaller perimeter.

Take for example the newly launched WATT CLUB in Durban’s CBD where work, life and play are central to the offering for consumers who will save on transport costs and time choosing to live in this beautiful sanctuary situated in a prime location. Johannesburg has also recently seen HQ Sandton, a new residential development launched in the heart of Sandton, that is set to meet the demands of consumers wanting to live and work in Africa’s richest square mile but with an affordable price tag. Cape Town’s successful launch of Station House Sea Point that has over 15 lifestyle amenities built into this luxury development that achieved R310 million in sales in under 3 months, is also testament to the fact that “hyperlocalisation” is undoubtedly here to stay and is no longer exclusive to Europe.

Furthermore, in places like Durban Central and Umhlanga Ridge Town Centre – developers are seeing the need for people to live in well established, amenity rich areas; areas supported by a precinct management. This movement was reinforced in a recent property webinar that I facilitated where Sandton Central’s Precinct Manager, Elaine Jack drew reference to the fact that the pandemic highlighted the live-work-play concept and that Sandton’s vision has revolved around the notion of a 15-minute neighbourhood. According to Elaine, they have been actively trying to encourage the residential property market in Sandton so that people can now live near their places of work and have quick and easy access to the places they like to play.

This sentiment is most definitely echoed with a development such as HQ Sandton, where it offers facilities such as a rooftop garden and bar, a restaurant, a gym, and the actual development is situated in prime location – all walking distance from Sandton City Mall, The Gautrain and 5 minutes from the M1. Even with a development in Durban like Umhlanga Arch that has become a trendy tourist and local hub, you’ll find many business people from all over Umhlanga walking in. Its prime location, being close to some of Durban’s biggest corporates, allows the development to draw in many people to live, work and play.

With 15-minute neighbourhoods, homeowners and investors are weighing up the costs of this convenient arrangement with home price, travel costs, etc. dictating what in the long run will be deemed as most cost-effective. Based on our National Residential Property Trends survey for 2021, we can confidently say that location is a key driver for property growth. The closer people are to everything they need, the better.

Another rising trend is mixed-use developments, because they cater to the growing desire for convenient, appealing, and sustainable areas where people have everything they need “on their doorstep”. The idea that your area, your space, allows for everything you could need ticks the box of people getting their precious time back. From an investment perspective, buying into these developments within such neighbourhoods and central urban spaces is an attractive option because the demand for rental is so high.

The 15-minute neighbourhood vision is definitely making itself at home in South Africa and I believe we’ll also see more of an uptake of this trend in 2022 and beyond on the international property scene as well. Locally I think we’ll see more urban and inner-city renewal happening with developers like Homii leading the charge with the WATT CLUB being the first of many developments to be rolled out nationally that looks to reactivate underutilized spaces, and appeal to consumers’ desires to improve their quality of life while reducing traffic, mitigating their carbon footprint and minimising unnecessary time normally spent travelling. This aligns to a growing trend seen nationally around the conversion of retail and commercial opportunities within key business districts in order to satisfy the demand for those wanting to enjoy the benefits of live, work and play within safe, walking proximity. 

FAMILY AND NEW FRIENDS GATHER TO HARVEST NERO

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The only vineyard of its kind on African soil

Harvest! It’s happening at a vineyard near you!!

Forget sipping cocktails on the strip in Camps Bay, forget turning up under the Jozi skyline, picking grapes in a vineyard in the Winelands and then watching them get crushed in a press and aged in a barrel to make beautiful red wine – that’s where it’s at this season!!

A bunch of special friends and extended family did just that last week when they gathered at the Bosman farm in Wellington to pick Nero, a one-of-a-kind grape grown exclusively by them in South Africa, with partner actor/producer Thapelo Mokoena of Bakoena Brands (Pty) Ltd.

Jumping onto ‘bakkies’ armed with secateurs and a basket, then zooming up into the vineyard under a bright summer sun, the group started the harvest under an oak tree (as one does!) with a sabraged glass of Loose Cannon, the Bosman Cap Classique.

Thapelo Mokoena and his wife Lesego Mokoena

Then it was all hands-on deck as the group scavenged for the heavy bunches of dark red grapes, learning all about optimum ripeness and vineyard management from winemaker Natasha Williams. Then back down the mountain to the cool cellar to see the grapes being sorted, destemmed and crushed, and a quick trip past fermenting tanks, before gathering in the 270- year-old barrel cellar where Natasha explained what winemaking was all about: “People like to debate whether winemaking is an art or a craft, but it’s actually a story. Each barrel tells a different story, and my job is to blend these individual stories together to give a holistic picture of the terroir. And terroir is not just the soil, the microclimate and the slope, it’s also about all the people along the way who have helped form the wine’s ultimate story. A winemaker has to listen carefully and respect the contribution of each component.”

Every year the Nero grapes have been harvested by Petrus Bosman and his family, but since joined by partner Thapelo and his wife Lesego Mokoena, over the past few years, this year a few special people joined in too.

It was a special occasion, because these are special grapes and here’s why: At the dawn of the 21st century, climate change started rearing its frightening head, and farmers started worrying about the sustainability of their crops as the world threatened to become hotter and drier. Always one for a challenge, Petrus Bosman visited the island of Sicily where grapes thrive in the hot, dry climate and are planted in volcanic soils, very similar to the conditions on their farm in Wellington. There he found the Nero d’Avola grape which seemed un-phased by heat and desiccation, producing the luscious fruity wines for which Sicily is famous.

So he brought a few cuttings back to the farm, only 2 survived, but eventually they were able to propagate enough to plant a vineyard after which began the laborious process of certification and in 2014 the first vintage of the first South African Nero d’Avola was produced. Since then, Natasha has been involved in every vintage, working diligently to refine the Nero wine into something that honours its Sicilian history, but also tells the story of African resilience and passion: “Making wine is a journey, it’s a marathon not a sprint, because the wine speaks, and you have to listen to it and then help it express itself. It’s a sensitive, humbling process.”

The guests got to taste the 2021 vintage directly from the barrel, and then enjoy more of the previous vintages, and other Bosman wines, over a loud and lovely lunch served in the cellar that stretched long into the late afternoon. Amongst them were so of Thapelo’s industry friends: Master Chef’s new judge Chef Zola Nene; Jamie-Lee Domburg of the Expresso Morning Show; actress Nicole Madell; presenter Katlego Maboe; actress Tarryn Wyngaard; winemaking student Kari Masoleng; actor and funny guy Sobantu Nqayi with his lovely lady Amron Siebritz; and model Imaan C Mac Quena, to name but a few.

“What a memorable experience for all! It changed each harvester’s view of wine, from a simple liquid in the bottle, to a rich and intricate story of people and nature working together for the best possible outcome,” said Mokoena. “The day also reminded us of the value of sharing with friends and family and celebrating our connection to each other and to the land we love so dearly.”

Petrus and Thapelo have their sights set on introducing this special varietal to every corner of Africa and beyond. “We’re conquering the world one bottle of Nero at a time.”

5 hindrances to self mastery

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When we start a new journey, in which we set up certain goals there are certain obstacles of that journey that will be new experiences. Those new experiences will challenge us in ways we may not be familiar with, but to truly get to the end of the journey we will have to go through those obstacles. Which will have plenty for us to learn, the trick is to understand that these hurdles will evoke certain emotions and will lead to us feeling confused and lost at times. Which is all part of the game/journey those mistakes and failures we make become our true lessons, This is the part of a concept known as “failing forward”.

Therefore with every lesson learnt we become a step closer to our true goal, there might be circumstances that will distract us from our journey. Those are understood in certain stages but for this piece we focus on 5 hindrances to self mastery.

Sensual Desire

The way I like to see sensual desire is through timing because, the process of timing things makes it easier to know when it is the right time for certain pleasures and when it is the right time for focus and determination. In an essence we should not divert from our mental practices for too long, as this leads to us going down the rabbit hole and losing track of our focus. The desire to be stimulated to forget certain problems or just escape our environment for a second because, facing those problems is too much to handle. The idea of diverting from our goals for a long period of time will affect our progress and eventually our pleasures will become our main priority. A form of addiction taking too much time from our actual work. We start to spend time on things that don’t bring us value. From our work ethic and using that time to sooth our desires. Just like any other addiction. Goals eventually seem impossible, diluting passion into something of a task, so we spend time on our pleasures instead. Some may say the key is to allocate very little time to our pleasures until, after completing all our tasks for the day/week/month/year, by using our pleasures as a reward system to our passions instead.

Ill will/Aversion

The process of moving forward in life without healing better understood as a process of bottling up our emotions, it may seem like a good idea until one day when we’ve reached our limit and we unleash all those emotions on the wrong person, resulting in situations where we find ourselves hurting someone else or ourselves. The idea of avoiding your problems is that it is nothing but a temporary fix and does not particularly resolve the issue. Only way to resolve an issue like that is to address it head on as; anger, fear and insecurities are part of the game of life and need to be dealt with compassion and understanding, in order to heal.

Dullness/Heaviness

This part is largely common and experienced by most. The feeling one gets of self doubt and just really being unable to see any positive outcome happening in our life. We usually experience a deep state of negative thought, when we’ve hit our level of self awareness of not feeling well mentally. Leading to an attempt of interpreting and processing our depression. We create our own suffering and it truly is difficult to get out this state in life and takes a lot out of us, to be able to overcome this state. Usually the trick is to truly treat this situation just like “quick sand”. The more we try fight the situation the faster we sink, so the best option is usually to approach this situation calmly and allow ourselves to feel what we are feeling and start processing ways to overcome this. Understanding what we are feeling and why we are feeling this way, where it stems from, leads to the key of how and what is the best way to move past that state. Mainly who can be around us to help.

Restlessness

We all hate the process of working for something, but love the finish product. We envision ourselves being successful but hate the fact that we not there yet and feel like we are not really going to make it so we quit or start to find ways to distract ourselves from completing the tasks at hand. Challenges will always be part of the journey. The idea that a person is impatient stems from comparing ourselves from other peoples accomplishments, feeling like time is no longer on our side. The desire to want to be great but not feel any suffering. Comparing dilutes a clear vision to what we must do to succeed. Finding ways to boost our inspiration from surrounding ourselves with like minded people and also finding things to do to help keep, us inspired and focused.

Sceptical Doubt

This part of any journey is quite interesting, this is the point where we feel like we are not ready to be in a certain position, so we use all our fears to delay the process of growth. The fear of failure, sacrifices we might need to make in order to reach a certain position becomes too big of an ask, for various reasons we tell ourselves it is not worth it, usually because it takes us out of our comfort zone.

The idea is to build a certain sense of resilience, where we trust our intuition in order to get us through a level of uncertainty we might be feeling / experiencing. This is usually when the vision to the end of our goal seems very unclear and we feel like its too overwhelming for us to even attempt to go on.

Assume nothing expect anything

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The idea or concept of approaching anything in life whether in (business or a big move away from family) with a logical approach, is important. The approach of assuming nothing, by not getting your hopes up about what can or cannot work. This also applies to friendships, relationships, life lessons. It may help to assume nothing from anything or anyone, but prepare yourself to expect everything. This way you have a clear understanding and level of consciousness to be aware of anything unusual about a deal or contract you have to sign. What this helps is to be mindful about the decisions you make. Which teaches you to make sound decisions under pressure. We all know how life can get so overwhelming to a point that you become depressed.

Assuming nothing

The concept of assuming nothing is to create a way of being in which you are able to remove emotion in making critical decisions that could affect important decisions. Life can be quite humbling, leading you into situations you never expected yourself to be in. Planning your future hopes and dreams of having a particular life, but having to face the reality that some of those hopes and dreams may not come true. Depression is something that hits people hard on a daily basis. People are taught to work hard and to follow their dreams. However in reality certain hopes and dreams we have as we grow older, tend to show the fact that we taught from a young age to view the world a certain way. However, when it comes to how life really is we find it difficult to cope, which leads to many facing depression. Depression hits the best of us and we taught to just suppress those emotions and act strong. Sometimes the best option you have is to not suppress your depression but to pay attention to it and let your self heal, sometimes its best to talk about it with loved ones or a specialist. Sometimes you just need to have a day that is specifically designed for you to do things you feel like doing.

A factor that has helped me go through certain aspects of my life with a slight handling, is what I like to call “down days”, which is basically paying attention to me and my health. Paying attention to the food I eat and paying attention to my sleeping patterns and daily routines, working on my bad habits daily and finding good habits to replace those bad habits.

What I will say is that walking into rooms, making decisions on a daily basis like solving problems. I use a very peculiar approach pattern of thought, when it comes to how I present myself as I walk into rooms and how I make decisions. Which is that, I assume nothing and expect anything. By doing this I am allowing myself to be given the benefit of the doubt, by a certain situations. Furthermore by expecting everything I am eliminating any possible chance of having a certain high expectation and replacing it with a logical observation and understanding of that particular situation/moment. I am basically teaching myself to unlearn the fact that I deserve everything. Also I’m giving myself a clear mindset to see things with clarity in order to make the best decision towards a particular predicament I may be facing or the excitement of getting my hopes up before decisions are made. It allows me to manage my stress and it also as mentioned allows me to think logically and ethically about the decisions I make. this also feeds me the right energy to produce humility in my decision and analysis of things irregardless of the outcome.

This concept of assuming nothing and expect anything allows me to build a mindset that helps me narrow down the best decision without using ego or pride to make a decision. This particular process is similar to the concept of failing forward. Because in life things tend to move in a way which leads to you failing a lot. However failing is not necessarily a negative outcome, it is an opportunity for one to learn from their mistakes and to understand what went wrong by analysing what you could’ve be done different, could be lack of preparation, or how you communicate your product or idea.

Im not saying this will cure ones anxiety, but what it will do is allow yourself to not take certain situations into heart and to understand that life is filled with ups and downs, meaning not everything will go your way and that it is okay to be sad or angry from time to time, but its not okay for you to transfer that negative energy towards someone else because you bottled it up inside.

About Us

The Northern Business Review is a business community newspaper that provides a platform for businesses to market their products and services, as well as build their brand, but equally important the publication provides information, advice and topics of interest, including business, entrepreneurial, economic reviews and simple ideas to grow your business. The publication has a primary objective to “uniquely” represent businesses to a wide audience across the community as well as provide a media platform of business articles and information that affect, influence and uplift the business environment within our defined geographical and cultural community.

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The language of Colours

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NORTHERN BUSINESS REVIEW

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By Tshepo Leroy Dube

Colours evoke a sense of
feeling that can be described as a form of language, that is ideally used in
our daily lives to express certain emotions. The particular feeling one gets
when they are looking at a certain colour. How colourful nature gets, on a
spring morning when all the flowers blossom evoking a sense of good energy
around, as the sun shines. When a loved one dies, in certain cultures wearing
black for a few months as a form of mourning, until a cultural ritual is done
to cleanse your body from your loss to signify a clear path to a brighter
future and ready to move on.

  • Red: Passion, Love, Anger
  • Orange: Energy, Happiness, Vitality
  • Yellow: Happiness, Hope, Deceit
  • Green: New Beginnings, Abundance, Nature
  • Blue: Calm, Responsible, Sadness
  • Purple: Creativity, Royalty, Wealth
  • Black: Mystery, Elegance, Evil
  • Gray: Moody, Conservative, Formality
  • White: Purity, Cleanliness, Virtue
  • Brown: Nature, Wholesomeness, Dependability
  • Tan or Beige: Conservative, Piety, Dull
  • Cream or Ivory: Calm, Elegant, Purity

From
what you consider to be your favourite colour. To the common theme of colours
in your closet, to how Robots/Traffic lights communicate with us. Red means
stop, Orange means prepare to stop and Green means go. We are constantly using
colours to communicate on a daily bases certain colours used to indicate
specific signs others to define what we do, from police wearing blue and
medical doctors wearing white coats.

Testing out commonalities in colour
communications leads to discovering, that most countries and cultures use same
colours to express the same meanings without even realising how colours are a
universal language. The colour GREEN is mostly associated with nature. RED
being the colour commonly used to communicate power or danger or love. ORANGE
regarded as the colour that signifies Energy,
Happiness or Vitality. Black is known to represent a more Mysterious approach,
Elegance or Evil look. The colour white has been seen as a more Clean, Pure and
Virtuous representation. Other colours such as BLUE represent Calmness,
Responsibility and sometimes Sadness hence the phrase Blue Monday or feeling
blue when one is under the weather or feeling down.

Fun Fact about Colours in Japanese
culture

Ever heard of the saying Japan Blue?
And wondered why? When foreigners were allowed to
enter Japan during the Meiji period (1868－1912),they were so astonished at the
fact that indigo blue was everywhere in Japanese towns that they called it
“Japan blue” Kimono, bedding, hand towels, noren–Japanese people would use it
for everything.

Indigo is a natural dye
made of fermented leaves of the indigo plant mixed with water. At first it was
used by aristocrats, but in the Edo period (1603－1868), all sorts of people
from common folk to samurai wore dyed clothes. Indigo-dyed clothes were not
only fashionable, but they also had three additional benefits: the fibre
becomes stronger after indigo dying, it has an insect repelling effect, and it
has a UV protective effect. Nowadays this colour is still used in a lot of
Japanese items, even blue jeans. https://kokoro-jp.com/culture/298/

When you enter certain
business fields you start to see how colours are important and also in certain
religious beliefs. In corporate life the suit blue is regarded as someone who
is trust worthy and responsible this can also be said as the reason for Police
being known to wear blue. Orange is a common colour known for energy, happiness
and vitality. Monks are known to wear Orange as a way to represent exactly
that, seeking happiness and having constant energy and not just any kind of
energy but the energy that can be received as peaceful and filled with Joy just
by being in their presence.

Many people in the
business field adapted the concept of colour importance. It could be stated
that in the past colours were used to differentiate the different rankings in a
certain company and also colours are used in places like restaurants such as
McDonalds chose the colour yellow as one of their main colours because that
colour represents happiness, joy. That also connects why their food is designed
to bring families together. 

Now that we know that
different colours symbolise different energies, it is easier for those who are
designing logos and starting new companies to understand that whatever they
pick from uniforms, to how their company looks colour wise. The colours need to
be communicating the right feeling, that speaks to their target market. You
want to make sure that the colours you pick make your customers feel safe
enough to want to use your services/product/goods.

your everyday life
…

miuc.org

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The Northern Business Review is a business community newspaper that provides a platform for businesses to market their products and services, as well as build their brand, but equally important the publication provides information, advice and topics of interest, including business, entrepreneurial, economic reviews and simple ideas to grow your business. The publication has a primary objective to “uniquely” represent businesses to a wide audience across the community as well as provide a media platform of business articles and information that affect, influence and uplift the business environment within our defined geographical and cultural community.

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hedonic treadmill theory

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By Tshepo Leroy Dube

“The hedonic treadmill, also known as hedonic adaptation, is the observed tendency of humans to quickly return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events or life changes.” wikipedia.

To understand hedonic treadmill a bit better I’m going to tell you a story, a story that contains a father and son. Daedalus known as one of the greatest architects to ever live in the greek mythology. He was famously known for being the key architect of how Crete looked and designing a spectacular labyrinth for King Minos of Crete. It is said the labyrinth was so cunning that those who entered could not find their way out. The only way out was with a magical clue that would assist you find your way to the nearest exit. One day it is said King Minos imprisoned Daedalus together with his son Icarus. While imprisoned in the tower it is said Daedalus would watch the birds that would fly by and study their aerodynamic ways of flying. This is, where he thought of the idea to craft wings from fallen feathers and wax. By doing this he understood he would be building a risky escape plan for him and his son. It is said that Daedalus spoke to his son Icarus before taking flight, stating to him that they should not fly too high or too low and to follow his lead in order to have a safe journey. As usual Icarus felt the need to not listen to his father, believing he new better and he could reach the sun. It could be said he could have been mesmerised by his feeling of flying, after being in prison for so long. Wishing to go as high as possible in order to reach the sun. It can be said that sun was the only thing besides the birds that Icarus could see, which made him dream about reaching the sun one day escaping, his anxiety could have played a major role in wanting to escape his reflection of earth and reach the sun. By not taking heed to his fathers warning, lead to Icarus’s wax wings melting and his feathers scattering, leading to him falling to his death.

The feeling of not being satisfied with what you have. The feeling of, whatever you may achieve or get is never enough to make you happy, so you constantly wanting more. This also means that people who feel like they need to get to a certain stage in their career or life to be happy, quickly learn that wherever they go they still face problems. The trick is to find happiness/peace irregardless of your circumstances or life situation, understanding that life is meant to be lived through all kinds of problems and that the key is to understand that the worlds filled with ups and downs.  The spirit of Daedalus is a strong key of what we could consider as the hedonic treadmill theory, as you look at his story of how he designed an amazing labyrinth for a king and that same king placed him in prison later on with his son. In prison Daedalus. Daedalus at his lowest could have easily given up but his strong will lead to him designing a master plan for his escape. His son Icarus on the other hand is the example of what happens when you don’t find a balance in your life, this state is known as the Icarus effect.

When you chase your dreams or set goals always make sure to expect the journey of reaching yours goals to have ups and downs, twists and turns, reason being that every goal set or dream chased, comes with challenges that will test your limits and sometimes you will want to give up.

So in closing the key meaning to not only understand, but to take from this thread is that you don’t need a miraculous life in order to be happy, happiness is a state of mind and not a place.

The myth of Daedalus and Icarus

The Hedonic Treadmill: From Consumerism …

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The Northern Business Review is a business community newspaper that provides a platform for businesses to market their products and services, as well as build their brand, but equally important the publication provides information, advice and topics of interest, including business, entrepreneurial, economic reviews and simple ideas to grow your business. The publication has a primary objective to “uniquely” represent businesses to a wide audience across the community as well as provide a media platform of business articles and information that affect, influence and uplift the business environment within our defined geographical and cultural community.

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If tress could talk

NBR Team Leave a comment

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WHAT WOULD THEY SAY?

Fun Fact About Trees

“Trees can live anywhere from less than 100 years up to more than a few thousand years. It all depends on what type of tree it is. In the United States, the tree with the longest lifespan is the bristle cone pine, which grows in the mountains of Nevada and southern California. A singletree can live up to 5,000 years!”

Trees are known to live for thousands of years longer than the people who plant them. In those centuries it would be interesting to know what the trees have seen and experienced the difference in temperatures and weather changes over the years. Different animals who have occupied or fed from the trees. The stories that trees could tell would be far interesting. To live so long could it be said that trees could tell us our journey as human and how civilisation took place?

Civilisation

If we were concious enough to speak to trees could they tell us their pain from watching their families being cut down daily for human benefits? Could trees tell us about their trauma from listening to their loved ones crying for help as their cut down. They could tell us about the toxic pollution they’ve had to endure as we create our chemical based factories and constant smoke over the centuries. They would tell us about the droughts and fasting they’ve experienced the stories they could tell us could help us reflect on our own evaluation.

Humans

The love, hate relationship trees would have with us humans, would be a very interesting factor or discussion. What do trees think of us, have we been good to them?  The knowledge we could learn, in order to rectify a lot of our errors. Think of the information they’ve passed down generation after generation, knowledge that surpasses human existence. The stories they’ve been told by their ancestors about life before humans. They could tell us about our development over the years to our current state of Homo Sapiens.

Extinctions

Plenty of animals and plant based creatures have gone extinct in the past few centuries, imagine the stories trees could tell us about such creatures how they lived and what they particularly like to do during the day and what they did in different seasons, how they seemed to feed and choose to eat and what caused them to go extinct, what could have been done to prevent such from taking place. What could be done differently to prevent the next animals from going extinct. Imagine the amount of time effort it would save certain  scientist to learn about certain things, not only scientists but also historians and farmers and garden lovers, so many could benefit from communicating with trees, would we be better humans if we could communicate with trees? Would we see things differently if we could take a slight glimpse into what trees have seen over the years?

Health

Imagine the health benefits we could get from different trees, the knowledge we could learn from trees about certain things that they have that could be used to cure diseases and cure illnesses and how we could prevent certain animals from dying not only humans but all living creatures.

Fun Fact About Trees

Some tree species — such as silver maple, green ash, sweet gum and black willow — are thought to be more tolerant to flooded soils than other trees like black locust, black walnut, tulip poplar, sugar maple and American beech.

Recovering From Disaster

Great Basin bristlecone pine

At roughly 4,800 years old, this Great Basin bristlecone pine is one of the oldest trees in world. Methuselah grows nearly two miles above sea level in California’s Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. It’s been in good company over the past several thousand years.

Fun Debate Topic

I leave you guys with a cool fun debate to have with your friends and family, on the endless possibilities of this question. IF A TREE FALLS IN THE FOREST AND NO ONE IS AROUND DOES IT MAKE A SOUND? Remember the more you ask questions about this and think outside the box the more interesting it will get.

For those interested to share their results after their Debate email me at tshepod@nsabasi-publishing.co.za.

About Us

The Northern Business Review is a business community newspaper that provides a platform for businesses to market their products and services, as well as build their brand, but equally important the publication provides information, advice and topics of interest, including business, entrepreneurial, economic reviews and simple ideas to grow your business. The publication has a primary objective to “uniquely” represent businesses to a wide audience across the community as well as provide a media platform of business articles and information that affect, influence and uplift the business environment within our defined geographical and cultural community.

@NsabasiNBR

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