Some people have labeled the international spread of the COVID-19 virus Coronageddon, which is a very scary and frightening thought. In fact, yesterday it was announced, The global coronavirus outbreak has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization which expressed increasing concern about the spread of the disease and alarming levels of inaction. (Sky News)

However, during times of an international health crisis sometimes fear and fear of the unknown can become a larger crisis then the pandemic. Peoples fight or flight mechanism becomes activated; yet theres nowhere to go and no one to fight.

One of the best remedies to reduce widespread fear from escalating out of control is to seek accurate knowledge and information about the virus. I recommend you check with World Health Organization, http://www.who.int, or the Centers Disease Control And Prevention http://www.cdc.gov, which are reliable sources that provide daily updates every 24 hours along with all the pre-emptive steps you can take to limit your risk of exposure to the virus. Status updates on the severity of the disease and global actions that are being taken to limit it from spreading are happening on an hourly basis.

Here is some basic information that is documented on the CDC website that may help you grasp and understand the trajectory, scope and magnitude of the virus.

The CDC is responding to an outbreak of respiratory disease caused by a novel (new) coronavirus that was first detected in China and which has now been detected in more than 100 locations internationally, including in the United States. The virus has been named SARS-CoV-2 and the disease it causes has been named coronavirus disease 2019 (abbreviated COVID-19). Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that are common in people and many different species of animals, including camels, cattle, cats, and bats.

More cases of COVID-19 are likely to be identified in the United States in the coming days, including more instances of community spread. Its likely that at some point, widespread transmission of COVID-19 in the United States will occur. At this time, there is no vaccine to protect against COVID-19 and no medications approved to treat it.

The WHO has recommended the following, All countries should increase their level of preparedness, alert and response to identify, manage and care for new cases of COVID-19. Countries should prepare to respond to different public health scenarios, recognizing that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to managing cases and outbreaks of COVID-19. Each country should assess its risk and rapidly implement the necessary measures at the appropriate scale to reduce both COVID-19 transmission and economic, public and social impacts.

In the interim, we must care for ourselves and our loved ones and do our best to stay mentally and physically healthy. Here are six (6) tips on how to develop a behavioral maintenance regimen that will help you calm your levels of fear and anxiety in dealing with all the known and unknowns about the virus.

6 Tips to Stay Calm and Mentally Healthy

1. Pay close attention to the evidence. This includes knowing who is at risk. The elderly and those with compromised immune systems are particularly vulnerable. Finding preemptive ways to prevent the virus from spreading is critical and a civic responsibility to save the vulnerable groups, not because the virus is a death sentence.

2. If youre not showing symptoms of illness, face your fears and continue to live your life. Fear begets fear and isolation begets more isolation. Stocking up on food supplies and toilet paper as if the world is coming to an end is a catastrophic fight or flight response. Follow all the protective measures the CDC has recommended to safeguard yourself and your family from contracting the virus.

3. Make a conscious decision to avoid listening to a group think mentality which could fuel paranoia and get the best of you. If youre in situations where all anyone is talking about is the virus, take a break. Dont over-saturate your brain. Thats when your thoughts would tend to careen away from evidence-based thinking and into fear-based thinking. Limit your intake of media coverage to once a day for a brief amount of time, if necessary.

4. Dont let people pleasing behaviors get in the way of following whatever you believe is the best way to handle yourself during this time. Be your own person, act responsibly and go about your life safely and practically. Avoid letting the noise of other peoples behavior, opinions or choices infiltrate yours.

5. If youre being tested or diagnosed and are self-isolating or being quarantined, you may develop feelings of loneliness, depression, and/oranxiety about being cut-off from your normal life routines, friends and family. Dont stop communicating. I recommend that you stay in touch with your loved ones and co-workers and maintain social contact with them via the phone, texting or FaceTime.

6. If youve contracted the virus and feel well enough, figure out how to make use of your down time. Try to catch up on a task youve been meaning to get to such as organizing photo albums, closets or drawers, read a book, binge watch your favorite TV series or clearing out spam from your email files. If you have a creative hobby, indulge. Its important to keep your brain entertained in a multitude of ways (productive, creative) during a very challenging time.

Remember, this is a new virus and there is no vaccine to protect against COVID-19 and no medications approved to treat it. Exercise commonsense, self-quarantine if applicable, practice social distancing, follow the all the preventative steps and instructions that have been recommended and avoid panicking at all costs. Remain extremely cautionary and respect the Corona virus poses serious ramifications and threatens our ability to sustain our lives in the way were accustomed. It requires us all to act responsibly and protect each other.

Continued here:
Taking Critical Steps to Social Distance and Self-Care to Help Stem The Spread of the COVID-19 Virus - Thrive Global

When you think of being self-aware, you may have flashbacks to self-help books and guided meditations. But would you even consider how self-awareness can affect communication with the people in your life? Would it dawn on you that your ability and willingness to know yourself can improve your ability to know others?

If youre stuck in the perception that communication is all about what you say, youll miss out on how self-awareness can affect communication.

It rarely occurs to most people that listening is the most important part of communication. If youre all ears and no talk, what kind of communication is really going on?

A lot, actually especially if the listening starts with yourself.

And this is what self-awareness is all about. Its not a chapter in New Age spiritualism or a state of mind achieved only under hypnosis (although hypnosis can help).

Awareness is the ability to be conscious of the experiences and stimuli that ultimately determine how you take in and process information. What you think, believe, and sense is a reflection of what is already dwelling and stirring within you.

There are three parts to this internal experience: your thoughts, your emotions, and your bodily sensations.

Thinking, as you would imagine, is connected to the mind, while sensing is connected to the body. Intersecting the two is feeling the emotional component that can be affected by your thoughts, but isnt always logical.

Self-awareness is your ability to recognize and separate these different experiences so you can address each for what it is.

Think about the last heated argument you had with someone the kind of argument that left you feeling out of control, flushed, confused, exhausted. Can you remember what you thought, felt, sensed? Or did it all run together and intensify an already intense situation?

Did you find yourself saying things without thinking first? Tossing around accusations and assumptions as if they were facts? Perhaps not being able to distinguish what was coming from within yourself from what was coming from the other person?

Most importantly, did you find it difficult to listen deeply listen to the other person? If you were asked to repeat what the other person said and to express understanding of it, would your mirroring be accurate? Or would it reflect your personal experiences, biases, feelings, disappointments?

Self-awareness is the antidote to this internal flooding. Especially in situations of conflict, it isolates and identifies your internal filters. It helps you to know what is actually happening inside of you. Am I projecting my own thoughts onto this person? Am I feeling a specific emotion like anger or sadness? Is my body giving me signals like numbness or flushing?

Go back to that heated argument and try to remember things that were said and reactions to them.

Phrases like I feel like you and you never/always/dont are land mines when it comes to effective communication. They muddle the internal experiences of thoughts, feelings, and sensations, leaving the speaker confused, the listener defensive, and the situation more intense.

Imagine now how that argument would have sounded if you were able to separate the components of your interior experience.

What if you had been able to recognize your sadness as a feeling and your assumption of lack of love as a thought? And what if, instead of saying, I feel like you dont care about or love me, you spoke with clarity out of your self-awareness? I feel very sad, and what I am making up in my mind is that you dont love me anymore. Is that true?

By recognizing the components of your own inner life, youre far more likely to take ownership of it.

I feel like you is really a side-door introduction of a thought an assumption, an accusation. But feelings are feelings they arent always logical and they dont need to be justified or defended. They simply are.

Thoughts, however, are the seat of our judgments, assumptions, and biases. They are closely connected to our beliefs, which form a frame of reference for how we see the world.

If you want to understand how self-awareness can affect communication, you need to understand the distinctions and interrelations between these interior players.

And, just as importantly, you need to accept responsibility for that inner experience that only you have. Its up to you to identify it for what it is and then express it clearly, authentically, honestly, and compassionately.

The deep yearning within any relationship is to feel heard deeply, soulfully heard and understood. At its purest level, all communication is an outreach for this satisfaction.

But we are not mind-readers, no matter how close we may be in our relationships. So its incumbent upon each of us to listen deeply listen to what accumulates and stirs within ourselves.

Then and only then can we hope to communicate accurately what we long to have safely, lovingly reflected back to us.

And in that reflection lies the hope of resolution, healing, and moving forward.

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Originally posted here:
How Self-Awareness Can Affect Communication With Anyone In Incredibly Positive Ways - The Good Men Project

Operations at all Michigan Secretary of State offices will be limited to critical services that must be done in person over the next three weeks to help stem the spread coronavirus.

From Monday to April 6 all 131 branch offices will only offer services for transactions that must be conducted in-person and only by appointment, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson announced Friday. Walk-ins will be asked to make an appointment, for the same day if available.

"The goal is to eliminate any potential crowding in our offices, and thereby support the work of Governor Whitmer and her administration to protect the health of all state employees and Michiganders," Benson said in a news release.

The types of transactions available in-person at branches during this three-week period will be limited to:

During the three-week period the number of appointments available will be increased, and same-day appointments will continue to be available. Services will also continue to be available online, by mail and at new self-service stations across the state, many of which accept cash. Saturday branch services will be suspended but weekday hours will be expanded as follows:

All existing appointments, including those not for the three limited transaction types, will be honored. Those who have appointments scheduled for noncritical services are asked to consider canceling them to make the slot available for someone else. Before scheduling an appointment, residents are strongly encouraged to use online, self-serve kiosk and renewal-by-mail options.

The Department of State will also lift the restriction that requires demonstration of insurance to renew driver's licenses.

"Some people may not be able to conduct their business with us before their transaction expiration date," Benson said in the release. "We will waive late fees during this period, and we have notified Michigan State Police of our change in operations, and asked that they convey this information to local law enforcement."

Appointments can be made at Michigan.gov/SOSAppointments and by calling 888-SOS-MICH.

Read the rest here:
Michigan Secretary of State limiting branch operations to critical services over 3-week period - Crain's Detroit Business

The rapid spread of the novel coronavirus has had a devastating impact on the music industry, particularly when it comes to touring. Concerts around the globe have been either canceled or postponed, leaving bands, their crew, venues and its staff and countless others without a source of income for an undetermined amount of time. Your bands need you more than ever and here's how you can help support.

The "That's Not Metal" podcast has created aGoogle Spreadsheet, listing over 100 artists who have had to either postpone or cancel their tourdue to growing concerns over the coronavirus pandemic that is currently shutting down industries of all sorts. Accompanying this ever-growing tab of artists are links to their respective merch stores.

With touring as the primary source of income for these artists, their livelihoods have been hit especially hard at this time.

That's where you come in even if you're just paying $1 for a song on Bandcamp, absolutely any amount will contribute to a greater whole. Now is the time to snag that limited edition vinyl or picture disc you've been eyeing for a couple months or to add a new hoodie to your wardrobe. If you're gonna be sitting at home for the next couple weeks, some sweatpants or gym shorts might not be a bad idea either.

Again, head here to check out all the options.

If you don't have any cash you can part with at this time, you can still make a difference. The Google Spreadsheet is open to anyone to edit, so if there's a canceled or postponed tour you don't see, go ahead and add it in along with a link to the bands' merch stores.

The rock and metal community has always been oneof unity and support. Now is the time to make that more evident than ever.

Stay safe and always follow the World Health Organization's best practices to restrict the spread of the coronavirus. With your diligence, hopefully these bands can get back on the road sooner than later.

The Best Metal Song of Each Year Since 1970

See the original post:
All These Bands Had to Cancel Tours: Here's How You Can Help Them - Loudwire

There is a revealing moment in Isabel Hardmans book where the author, a political journalist who lives with post-traumatic stress disorder, joins a forest therapy session. The therapist encourages her to connect with herself and experience nature better. Hardman wanders through the wood and finds a small hornbeam, which is twisting up towards the light, struggling to make its way in the shade of a mature oak. She is attracted to its shape, admires its bark, and draws parallels with her own life: how long it takes to heal and grow, how the scars we gather can still be beautiful like the zig-zagging trunk of this young tree. She reaches up and snaps one of its twigs: the tree is dead.

Serves me right for being so dreadfully whimsical, Hardman writes. There seemed to be no neat life lesson here, nothing youd want to write on a fridge magnet or share on social media. Id come here hoping to connect with myself, and instead Id been drawn to a tree that was secretly dead.

It is a valuable lesson in Hardmans The Natural Health Service, a practical and self-aware account of the relief from mental illness to be found outside. Hardman, and the many people she meets, identify respite, recovery and resilience in walking, running, cold-water swimming, gardening, forest bathing, birdwatching, botanising, horse riding and caring for pets. The common denominator is what Hardman calls the great outdoors, that plangent, hearty Victorian-sounding cliche. But as she shows, other species and their ecosystems can be rebellious medics. At times, the natural world resembles the magic mirror that undercuts Snow Whites stepmother: rather than reflecting back ourselves, it is alive with its own agency, a challenge to our narcissism.

The Natural Health Service is one of a rapidly growing forest of new books that examine cures found in nature. This winter alone has brought the publication of The Wild Remedy by Emma Mitchell; Losing Eden by Lucy Jones; Rootbound by Alice Vincent; and Wintering by Katherine May. One of last years unexpectedly prominent books unexpected because it was rejected by publishers and crowdfunded via Unbound was Bird Therapy by Joe Harkness. Just as trend is followed by takedown, so this spring sees a potential debunking in the form of Natural: The Seductive Myth of Natures Goodness by American philosopher Alan Levinovitz.

The idea that human health can be salved by nature has been around for as long as we have regarded ourselves as a species apart from other living things. It truly arrived in Britain with the Romantics, for whom prosperity enabled a more reflective and worshipful relationship with the landscape that others had to toil in for a living. Keats and Byron loved swimming; sea-bathing was an upper-class health fad that inspired the first seaside resorts. The popularisation of natures healing power peaked after the industrial revolution, when later Victorians were beset by fears of the all-conquering machine. Fresh air, exercise and healthful hobbies, from collecting butterflies to finding fossils, were prescribed in much the same way as GPs today are experimenting with prescribing nature to patients. Hardman reminds us of the prescience of Octavia Hill, the social reformer and co-founder of the National Trust in 1895, who campaigned to save urban land for city parks. London commons that could make developers fortunes had greater value as outdoor space, Hill argued: To my mind they are even now worth very much; but they will be more and more valuable every year valuable in the deepest sense of the word; health-giving, joy-inspiring, peace-bringing.

In Losing Eden, Jones shows that, ahead of todays scientists, even Florence Nightingale was aware of how green space and plants can assist recovery from physical illness. In 1859, Nightingale wrote that when she had been ill, her recovery quickened after she received a nosegay of wild flowers. The nurse noticed in her patients that there was most acute suffering when [the] patient cant see out of the window; Jones and Hardman both cite a more modern scientific study by Roger Ulrich who examined the records of 46 patients recovering from gall bladder surgery between 1972 and 1981. Some patients were randomly assigned a hospital bed with a view of deciduous trees; others a view of a brick wall. Those with a view of trees had shorter post-operative stays, took fewer painkillers and had fewer minor complications. And yet 40 years on, hospitals are run as sterile environments without plants, as Levinovitz notes in Natural: An entirely unsuperstitious take on natural healing would recognise the importance of being around life of facilitating hospital garden walks, say instead of systematically excluding it.

As the climate and extinction crisis quickens, so there is a rush for a literary cure. In Britain it began with Richard Mabeys Nature Cure in 2005. In many of the most popular recent examples of nature writing, other species and wild places have played a healing role for bereavement in Helen Macdonalds H Is for Hawk, and alcoholism in Amy Liptrots The Outrun. Nature Cure (briefly) details Mabeys mental breakdown after completing his magnum opus, Flora Britannica, and the succour he found by forgoing his childhood home in the Chilterns for the bleaker plains of south Norfolk. When I ask Mabey if he regrets being midwife to the nature cure subgenre, an emphatic yes spills forth. I feel slightly guilty about the title, which was my idea and it was very euphonious, but I quite soon began getting letters from people saying they loved the book but that it was not much to do with nature curing me. If a pedantic scholar counted the paragraphs that were to do with the illness, it probably amounts to about six pages, he says. Really its a book about encountering and adapting to a quite new landscape, which you could say was a post-cure experience. Mabey had to reach a certain stage of recovery to write Nature Cure. As he, Hardman and other nature cure writers emphasise, they can be too ill to leave the house to imbibe the healing wild, and too ill to write, too.

Its wonderful when it occurs; people in distress find that encounters with the natural world do restore them, says Mabey. But two things concern him about the concept of a nature cure. Im worried that its become mooted as a kind of panacea green Prozac. And if theres anything wrong you just go out and look at the pretty flowers and youre going to be marvellous. Thats a tall order if the natural world is in a state of crisis with the insect apocalypse and British songbirds collapsing all around us. There is also a danger that therapeutic nature becomes another way in which nature is reduced to service provider. The foregrounding of us being the centre of attention, the central agents of change and growth, all form part of a mindset that I think is obsolete. We need to rethink where we stand in relation to all these other organisms and what the transactions are between us, and stop saying they are all for our benefit, even though most of them probably are.

In an insightful essay on nature cures, Richard Smyth quotes the poet Polly Atkin, who is diagnosed with chronic illnesses Ehlers-Danlos syndromes and genetic haemochromatosis, a metabolic disorder that leads to a toxic accumulation of iron in the body. Like Mabey, Atkin has misgivings about this literary blossoming. There is very little published work that points out how problematic it is largely because the people who understand the problem are mainly those with incurable conditions and theyre often too busy being incurable to write books about nature, she says. More importantly, mainstream UK publishing is so attached to the nature cure narrative that it cant imagine another story to tell about how we relate to the world around us.

The stage is set for a debunking of the literary nature cure but in Natural, it never quite arrives. At the end of the book, despite Levinovitz taking smart aim at the snake-oil salespeople of late capitalism those selling expensive natural remedies, natural cures for cancer, or loudly advocating wholly natural childbirth, sex or sport he concludes that there is something innately glorious about the non-human natural world.

Im worried its become mooted as a kindof panacea if theres anything wrong you just go out and look at the flowers

What Levinovitz critiques is what he sees as a religious attitude towards nature. An appeal to natural goodness with unnatural as its evil twin is among the most influential arguments in all human thought, ancient and modern, east and west. In fact, every human-made object is extracted from our planet; everything is natural. Levinovitz argues our veneration of nature is dangerous, citing former South African president Thabo Mbekis desire for Aids patients to take beetroot and other natural treatments. What Levinovitz does is help us to identify the propagandists, bigots, demagogues, and marketeers who wrap their rhetoric in the mantle of whats natural.

When it comes to making money from nature, the small, poorly renumerated band of writers proselytising for its health benefits do not enter Levinovitzs line of fire. While H Is for Hawk will long stand as a literary classic, nature cure writing has taken a practical turn. Hardman and Harknesss books are squarely self-help. Their qualities include brutal honesty and generous advice. Both authors, alongside others such as Jones and Mitchell, make clear that while time in the natural world has ameliorated their mental illnesses, so too have antidepressants and talking cures. These writers dont succumb to the requirement for a happy ending either: no one suggests they are cured.

We might wonder if a writing cure is also part of their wider recovery, but it is not always so. John Clare, who died in 1864, has long been the most notable nature writer with mental health problems. The Northamptonshire farm labourer, whose superb poems made him a literary sensation in the early 19th century, could be considered both evidence for and against the theory that nature makes us well. Did he only fall ill once embraced by literary London, psychically uprooted from his rural heartland? Or was he ill despite surrounding himself with nature? A country life is no guarantee of mental wellbeing: depression is a major problem in modern farming; plenty of farm workers endure it.

There is an echo of Clares experience in Harknesss account of life since the publication of his debut, Bird Therapy. I will never write about nature again, says Harkness bluntly. He has been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder and generalised anxiety disorder mild medical terms for the crippling anxiety that Harkness vividly describes. After an attempted suicide and a breakdown, he began walking and discovered the exhilaration of encountering birds. Of all the therapies Ive tried, he writes, nothing has had the prolonged and positive impact that birdwatching has. He spotted that the requirements of birdwatching matched the five ways to wellbeing devised by a project endorsed by the charity Mind: to connect, to take notice, to give, to keep learning and to be active.

As Harknesss profile grew on social media, he decided to write a book, receiving high-profile endorsements, including an incisive foreword by the naturalist Chris Packham, who declared it an exceptional publication because it would save lives. Eight months on, Harkness recognises that his book has brought positive things: his honesty about mental illness has encouraged others to reciprocate. He has been told by readers that it has indeed saved their lives. Unfortunately, the online platform that enabled him to promote his book also damaged him. The more open I was on social media, the less people engaged with me. If youre already struggling with self-esteem, it is hell to be on it. The only way I could deal with it is not use Twitter any more, he says.

He has also shed his illusions about the guild of nature writers. He imagined this literary world would be an inclusive salon for the free exchange of ideas about nature and mental health; instead he found a workplace, a competitive market with a lot of emphasis on product and what youre selling, where people become very focused on themselves. One nature writer, he says, told him that Bird Therapy only sold well because of Packhams foreword. Harkness, who is a special educational needs co-ordinator working with vulnerable young people, says he is so glad that writing is not his job. His post-book cure has been to remove himself from social media and literary backslapping and simplify his birdwatching regimen. I dont drive to birdwatch any more. I walk from my house. Im under no pressure to see anything exciting. Ive stopped commodifying it. I just think of being out where I should be. Whenever I do that Im really thankful for it. Nature is not there to make me feel better. Its something we can use to help us but ultimately we have to be there for it as well. And weve got to make wholesale changes to how we live.

Most nature cure books, both literary triumphs and practical manuals, are overwhelmingly about us. Perhaps we should catch more glimpses of other species as we look into the mirror? Mitchells The Wild Remedy, a diary of a year with severe depression, throws welcome attention on natural medicines the thrilling dash of a sparrowhawk, or the cosy sight of ladybirds clustered together during winter in a knapweed seedhead. She recreates her encounters with other species around her home in Cambridgeshire in paintings, sketches, photographs and cabinets of curiosities. But, she says, Im not using my garden and the wood beyond my cottage as a sort of green Tesco, burgling myself some green serotonin and dopamine. Its much more of a two-way relationship. Mitchell, like Harkness, initially connected via social media with readers and others who lived with mental illness. She is not always well enough to visit a nearby wood every day. When she does, she monitors, observes and records the wildlife, and relays it to her audience. A biologist by training, Mitchell hopes her writing and art enlighten our increasingly urban society. Im trying to use the place where I live as a source of education for people who may not know what cherry plum blossom looks like This is coming into flower, go and see if youve got it on your patch, she says. Awakening readers to other species around us is a gift to those species, and it is bequeathed by almost every nature cure writer.

As humans reshape life on Earth, its hazardous to pin our wellbeing on the fragments of non-human life that remain

Last summer, an area of flowery meadowland in the wood near Mitchell exploded with life. The hot summer of 2018 must have produced a metric fucktonne of caterpillars she laughs: the following year there emerged hundreds of marbled white butterflies. The dose of dopamine was just off the scale. She filmed it for her social media followers. A few days later, in full flower, the meadow was scalped because of fears it contained ragwort, a flower that can in rare cases prove fatal to horses (and which landowners sometimes mistakenly believe they are obliged to control under an arcane injurious weeds law). An exquisite ecosystem was cut down at its peak. Alongside Mitchells enjoyment of this meadow emerged a deep connection with it, and a responsibility for it. My connection with this land is not as a commodity. This is not skincare I get from a beauty parlour. This is not a monthly subscription to sniff some dead-nettle flowers. This is something that has changed my ability to live with my depression, she says. In this case, she went into battle with her local council, at some personal cost Im a spokesperson for thousands of invertebrates because theyve got no voice, she says and succeeded in changing the cutting regime. The meadow wont be cut again this year until the flowers and invertebrates have finished flowering and flying.

Mitchells experience also reveals that in the Anthropocene, an era in which humans are reshaping all life on Earth, it is hazardous to pin our wellbeing on the fragments of non-human life that remain. Lucy Joness Losing Eden is a passionate and thorough exploration of the growing scientific evidence showing why humans require other species to stay well from a diversity of microbiota in our guts to a diversity of species in nearby green space. But she is aware that the medicalisation of nature also demonstrates that we still see ourselves as takers and overseers, the authority figures, rather than being on an equal footing with the rest of nature. Just as Mabey wonders if we can extract wellbeing from an environment we are traducing, so Jones considers the 21st-century challenge posed by ecological grief. Is the epidemic of mental illness in wealthy western societies in part because some part of our spirits [is] afflicted by the mass burglary humanity has committed on the Earth? Jones writes. I know that I feel rotten and out of sorts when I am selfish or hurtful to the people around me. The ecopsychologist and activist Chellis Glendinning diagnosed western culture as suffering from original trauma caused by our severance from nature and natural cycles. She noted that the symptoms were the same as PTSD: hyperreactions; inappropriate outbursts of anger, psychic numbing; constriction of the emotions; and loss of a sense of control over our destiny.

The Earth is our home and we are making ourselves homeless. Jones quotes the farmer-thinker Wendell Berry: We are involved in a kind of lostness in which most people are participating more or less unconsciously in the destruction of the natural world, which is to say, the sources of our own lives. Perhaps some of our lack of awareness, Jones thinks, is an instinctive denial of death; just as we block out our own mortality, so too we pretend our compulsive consumption is not hastening the premature end of our species enjoyment of the planet.

As Jones argues, despite all our writing about nature, we still lack the language to bring its jeopardy our jeopardy to the forefront of our troubled minds. Western consumption has made the planet ill, and now we are patients too. Grief and mental illness can be introspective and paralysing or they can inspire action. Which path will we as individuals, societies and as a species choose?

View post:
Can nature really heal us? - The Guardian

Everyone wants to be happier. We overthink the process the way we think about what to have for brunch. It doesnt have to be that hard.

I spent much of my life being incredibly unhappy. This unhappiness was shown through arrogance, entitlement, rage, poor judgment and cruelty towards other human beings.

I wasnt a bad person. I was just unhappy because nobody showed me what I could do to fix myself rather than walk through the world smashing every good situation to pieces with my fists and blaming everybody else for it.

In my late 20s, I started to turn things around. I focused on small things I could do to experience tiny increases in happiness.

The changes seemed insignificant at the time. After five years of experimenting with these changes in thinking, my approach to life is different. It can be summed up with this thought:

Move away from tasks, people, and events that continually rob you of happiness. It was subtracting unhappiness first that laid the foundation for everything that followed. Here are the five tiny shifts in thinking to gradually increase your happiness levels.

People carry a lot of drama around with them. They cant wait to dump it on somebody who is happy to accept it on their behalf.

Let them dump their sh*t elsewhere. Do not make drama dumpers your problem.

The way you do this is to care less about other peoples drama and stop playing a part in their circus. Their drama looks like this:

There is so much drama in society and you can escape it by exiting out the stage door and getting back to reality.

See Setbacks as Free Harvard Business Degree

A business degree at a university like Harvard costs thousands of dollars. People get into debt for years just to get one.

What if I told you that a major setback will teach you more than a degree?

Setbacks teach you the following:

Now tell me, would you like a degree or life experience that gives you the greatest learning of all? A giant setback is like getting a free Harvard Degree.

Seeing setbacks as having a degree-sized price tag helps change your thinking. The thinking that comes from seeing setbacks as valuable helps you on the days when you want to be anything but happy.

Happiness is a habit and setbacks will test how strong your happiness muscle is so you can grow it.

Every idea I have, my brain tells me its stupid. When you have an idea and judge it, all you do is sabotage it. Sabotaging your ideas stops them from coming to life and that takes away a piece of your happiness.

Accepting your ideas and letting them through is huge. It goes beyond backing your ideas to backing yourself. When you back yourself, you win more and learn more, and that brings about increased levels of happiness.

You realize you can win at life when you apply yourself and respect your ideas even if at first they may sound stupid in your own head.

The quality of your ideas is subjective, so stop judging them and subtracting happiness in the process.

Getting into public speaking made me feel like vomiting. It was my biggest fear. I felt exposed and open to critique.

The first time on stage, I had visions of public vomiting and a front-row audience wiping the chunks of my breakfast off their faces as I stood there humiliated.

What made me happier was to change my thinking. I nowwelcomethat vomit feeling. That vomit feeling is a representation that Im not just playing it safe and sitting in my PJs every day waiting for an inheritance cheque.

Its a representation of living life and being prepared to forward hurl the contents of my stomach for an opportunity to challenge myself.Challenging yourself will make you feel happier.

Over the last six years, I have used social media to subtly change my thinking each day.

I have chosen a few people I adore and created social media posts admiring them and sharing their learning. I have chosen to speak like them, act like them, respond to messages like them butnotbe them.

This involved hunting down quotes, pictures, and videos that helped me to admire them and portray their ideas. At the start, I was a complete rip-off like those 1980s self-help scammers.

After a while, all the inputs needed to publish on social media changed my thinking.

Instead of becoming the people I admired, I unconsciously took what they taught and spat it out in my own way while adding my experience to the process. What resulted was a fusion. There were parts of the people I admired and parts of myself.

The practice of fusing these many mentors together with my own self produced an entirely different human being.

I replaced all the selfishness, fakery and ego, and transplanted their good traits like humility, kindness, and empathy into my brain.

Its not a finished project by any means and Im still perfectly broken on some days but none the less, social media gave me the role models and traits to build a new self on. The process has made me a better person who is happier and healthier.

Social media is a strange tool but it is fantastic at changing your thinking over time and you can use it to your own advantage.

These are not necessarily the usual strategies and recommendations youll find in your typical How To Be Happy And Love Yourself type article. They are weird and thats why they are wonderfully powerful at the same time.

Want to be happier?

Make tiny adjustments to your thinking by caring less about other peoples drama, seeing setbacks as being worth a lot of money, not allowing yourself to judge your own ideas, by feeling like you want to vomit more (aka vomit moments), and turning social media into a weapon you can leverage to adopt the traits of those you admire.

Change your thinking with a few small tweaks over time and it will add to your happiness levels.

This article originally appeared on Medium.

See more here:
Want to be happier? Here are 5 tiny shifts in thinking to help - Ladders

Coronavirus! Yes, its a serious situation, and yes, it deserves your vigilance and attention.

But the constant spring of information, precautions and warnings, whether its straight from the CDC or some recirculated, dubiously-sourced post on Facebook, can take a real toll on your mental health.

When does caution become overreaction? When does staying informed cross the line into, well, too much information?

The good news is, there is a happy medium between willfully ignoring the biggest story in the world right now, and going into a full-on panic. Here are some tips. Think of it like hand-washing and social distancing, but for your brain.

There is a ton of information out there. The challenge is trying to determine which information is accurate. says Lynn Bufka, Associate Executive Director for Research and Policy at the American Psychological Association. She suggests taking control of your intake through the following steps:

A pandemic is a rather abstract villain, so it may help to sit down and really consider what specific threats worry you. Do you think you will catch the coronavirus and die? The fear of death taps into one of our core existential fears, says Bufka. But you have to think about what your fear is, and how realistic it is. Consider your personal risk and how likely it is that you will actually come in contact with the virus.

And, even if your greatest fear is realized and you or someone you love does fall ill, you may not have really thought about what comes next. Yes, you may get it. Yes, you may need treatment. But in all likelihood, hope is still not lost. We tend to overestimate the likelihood of something happening, and we tend to underestimate our capacity to deal with it, Bufka says.

Of course, you could have other, more practical fears. Some people may worry about what would happen if they were moved into self quarantine, or if theyre not able to work. Theyre wondering if they would have access to groceries or childcare, says Bufka. Again, people have greater abilities to manage hardships than they think they do. Think about a plan. Consider options if you cant telework. Do you have savings? Do you have support? Being prepared for your fears will help keep them in scale.

READ MORE: Allergies, the flu or coronavirus? Heres the difference

Since action can allay our anxieties, you may want to also consider what you can do to help others who may be more affected by the outbreak than you. Service workers, medical workers, hourly workers and people in the restaurant or entertainment industries may have their livelihoods paralyzed or have to put themselves in disproportionate danger. It will be important for us as communities to think about how to support these individuals whose lives are going to be disrupted, Bufka says. How can we even this burden and support those who have less options?

After all, most of the precautions put in place to help stall the spread of the virus arent just for you, as an individual. Theyre intended to keep entire communities and vulnerable demographics safe. Doing the same with your own time and care can empower you to see the real effects of the situation, rather than your abstract fears.

People are going to talk. But if you want to run to a friend to discuss the latest outbreak cluster or your familys contingency plans, try not to create an echo chamber. If you are overwhelmed, dont necessarily go to someone who has a similar level of fear, Bufka says. Seek out someone who is handling it differently, who can check you on your anxiety and provide some advice.

If you cant seem to get a handle on your thoughts, professional help can be an option. It doesnt need to be a long-term thing, Bufka says. It means you can get some guidance for this specific situation.

In short, dont get so wrapped up in thinking about the coronavirus that you forget the essential, healthy practices that affect your wellbeing every day. In times of stress, we tend to minimize the importance of our foundation when we really should be paying more attention to it, Bufka says. Make sure you are:

Practicing mindfulness, meditation, yoga or other forms of self care can also help center you in routines and awareness, and keep your mind from wandering into the dark and sometimes irrational unknown.

Finally, dont let guilt be your anxietys unwelcome companion. You are allowed to worry or feel bad. When discussing how to talk to children about the coronavirus, health experts told CNN people should acknowledge a childs fear and let them know their feelings are valid. Surely, you can afford yourself the same compassion. The key is to work toward understanding and contextualizing your fears so they dont keep you from living your healthiest life.

See the rest here:
How to keep coronavirus fears from affecting your mental health - KTVZ

Photo: Michail Petrov/Fotolia

More and more people will have to privately fund their residential care after the government froze the capital thresholds that gatekeep access to public funding for the 10th consecutive year.

The upper capital limit above which people must fund their care in full will remain at 23,250 from April 2020, while the lower limit, below which people receive full public funding subject to them foregoing much of their income, stays at 14,250, a circular issued by government today said.

The upper limit has fallen by 4,500 in real terms since 2010, pushing more and more people into self-funding, said Simon Bottery, senior fellow, social care, at the Kings Fund.

The effect is that publicly funded social care is being denied to more and more people, he said.

Bottery added: Though social care has other, more urgent, issues to tackle right now this matters because it affects people directly they have to pay for themselves, rely on family or go without and as a symbol of a wider policy indecision that has beset social care for too long.

The government also froze the personal expenses allowance the weekly sum that publicly-funded care home residents are allowed to keep from their income for the fifth consecutive year, at 24.90.

The minimum income guarantee the minimum weekly income that people receiving publicly-funded care outside a care home must be left after charging was also frozen for the fifth year in a row.

The Department of Health and Social Care annual circular on charging for care and support says that the lower and upper capital limits will remain at 14,250 and 23,250 respectively in 2020-21, meaning that individuals with less than 14,250 in assets (in most cases, including their home) do not have to pay for their residential care from their assets.

Their fees are paid by their local authority, though such individuals must contribute to this from their income including most state benefits and pension income but excluding any earnings so long as they are left with a weekly personal expenses allowance (PEA) of 24.90 per week. This allowance could be used to pay for items, such as toiletries or reading materials.

The PEA has remained at this level since 2015.

If an individual has assets worth more than 23,250, the upper capital limit, they must pay the full cost of their residential care without help from the council.

A person with assets between the capital limits must pay what they are obliged to from their income, plus a means-tested contribution from their assets (calculated as 1 per week for every 250 of capital between the capital limits).

Capital includes buildings, land, savings or shares, but the regulations around charging and financial assessment specifies that certain assets are disregarded, such as those derived from a personal injury award.

Where a person owns their own home, this is generally taken into account when they are admitted to a care home as a long-term resident, unless the property is occupied by certain loved-ones or relatives.

For people receiving care at home, the minimum income guarantee, the minimum weekly amount they must be left with after charging, remains at 2015 levels. The amount an individual receives differs dependent on their age and whether they have dependent children, are a lone parent or are in a couple.

See the article here:
More care home residents will have to self-fund as means-test threshold frozen for 10th year - Communitycare.co.uk

CHARLESTON March is the 15th National Problem Gambling Awareness Month. Nation-wide efforts during this event are designed to increase awareness of the effects of problem gambling in the lives of individuals and families, and let communities know that there is help available.

Fifteen percent of Americans gamble at least once a month, and 4 percent meet the criteria for Problem Gambling. The risk is two to three times higher for youth. An estimated 6 percent of American college students have a gambling problem.

Signs of a gambling problem include gambling for higher and higher stakes to get the same level of excitement, lying about and hiding gambling, repeated unsuccessful attempts to cut down or quit, gambling to try to recover losses from gambling, jeopardizing or losing significant relationships or jobs due to gambling, having to borrow or steal or rely on others for financial help due to losses from gambling, being irritable when trying to cut down or stop, and gambling when feeling distress. Often friends and family members become aware of the problem long before the problem gambler admits to themselves or others that there is a problem. Friends and family members often feel worried, angry, afraid and betrayed by the gamblers behavior. They try to find a way to control the gambling and cover the debts, and their efforts are unsuccessful or only temporary. This creates incredible stress for family members and friends.

Read more:
Hour House to provide help for those with gambling addiction - Journal Gazette and Times-Courier

Fans leave the Golden 1 Center after the NBA basketball game between the New Orleans Pelicans and ... [+] Sacramento Kings was postponed at the last minute in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday, March 11, 2020. The league said the decision was made out of an "abundance of caution," because official Courtney Kirkland, who was scheduled to work the game, had worked the Utah Jazz game earlier in the week. A player for the Jazz tested positive for the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

For those impacted by it, both within and outside the sports world, understanding and managing the physical health and prevention side of the novel coronavirus outbreak currently facing our world is the obvious top priority. All should take great care and follow the latest guidelines set out by the CDC, Johns Hopkins and other top health resources to keep themselves and their families safe from coronavirus and the resulting COVID-19 condition.

For many, though, from athletes and other staffers with professional sports teams to ordinary citizens, theres another important health area to consider here as well: Mental health.

With large chunks of the country either mandating or strongly suggesting social distancing and other similar themes and resulting postponements or full-on cancellations of leagues like the NBA, NHL and numerous college athletics the mental health landscape will be changing for millions of people in coming days and weeks. Those used to certain levels of social interaction will be without them. Some worry about risks like cabin fever or other forms of anxiety, especially in people already prone to issues in these areas.

What follows is a question-and-answer session with Dr. Scott Goldman, Director of Performance Psychology and Identified Team Clinician for an NFL team and a regular contractor in the NBA (these teams must remain anonymous for confidentiality purposes).

Dr. Goldman, who has spent decades on the mental health side of the sports world, including multiple top-tier leagues and teams, provides insights into how professional and collegiate sports organizations are managing the mental health side of the outbreak. He also offers a glimpse into the mental health fields collective response to the growing crisis and how ordinary individuals might cope effectively.

(Note: This interview has been edited for quality and clarity. This information is not intended to serve as medical advice or treatment for any person. Those seeking medical advice or treatment for any condition related to this outbreak should contact their medical providers.)

Q: Can you recall a situation in your career that remotely resembles this current one in terms of mental and psychological impact across such a wide population?

Dr. Goldman: The closest that I can think of off the top of my head is 9/11. I was a practicing psychologist in New York City during that tragic event.

Q: While the practical elements in this situation will obviously be very different from 9/11, are there similar themes you can carry across to this event, particularly its impact on professional and college sports organizations?

Dr. Goldman: There are a couple things I think are worth elaborating on. This is different than 9/11, for sure, for a lot of different reasons.

When were talking about the coronavirus and how people are managing it now, in a lot of ways you can look at the Kubler-Ross Stages of Grief. It applies in a lot of ways, because I think you can have strong emotions going in a lot of different directions. There can be fear, frustration, anger, depression. Across not just the pro level, but also at the collegiate level, there is a lot of change that was unexpected and unanticipated. And there are also a lot of unintentional consequences.

Think of a college player in the last year of college eligibility on a basketball team thats about to go to March Madness. Maybe this was the first time the team qualified. [This is] somebody who all of a sudden has had something taken away from them. Or a guy like Vince Carter who I dont know he might have just taken his last basketball shot.

Whats really interesting, being a sports psychologist, is dissecting whats the same and whats different [about athletes]. When youre thinking about working with athletes, sometimes its really important to remember theyre human beings like anyone else, they go through human experiences like anyone else. They laugh, they cry, they have partners, etc.

Q: How might self-quarantining and other forms of avoiding social contact compare to a player rehabilitating an injury away from his or her teammates? Might some of the same coping mechanisms be valuable to players now separated from their teammates and normal lives?

Dr. Goldman: Going back to whats the same and whats different about this special population, one element is they might actually have some familiarity with certain forms of isolation, like having an injury. When you think about the idea of adapting and being resilient, these are things that athletes are often conditioned for. Uncertainty and instability are common threads within a sports setting. So in some ways I think there is some conditioning that helps the players be robust.

But another element to it is not just the players, but starting to think about the coaches and staff. At the pro level, its not a nine-to-five job. Theyre on the road, long hours, long days, high levels of intensity. Now theyre being isolated at home, and for some people theyre having to re-calibrate to interactions on a more frequent basis with say, family, partners, husbands, wives. So it also becomes an interesting dynamic of interpersonal relationship.

Q: What kinds of outreach or programs might be realistic to keep teams connected and in good spirits during quarantine periods?

Dr. Goldman: One of the keys is communication. This is where technology becomes both a blessing and a curse we can use FaceTime apps, we can use technology like social media, and that can help us feel a sense of connectivity. The curse of that, though, is it can produce misinformation, or even a sense of feeling overtaxed or overwhelmed because its prevalent everywhere you go.

Even though the recommendation is social distancing to minimize the spread, its really important to feel connected to one another as best we can without being overly absorbed in the stress or the weight of it. Going back to, say, 9/11 as a reference, it was hard because it was something everyone was talking about, and it was on every channel. One of the things we recommended then is something Im recommending to the players and coaches and staff I work with: Its okay to turn the TV off from time to time and take a nice walk or a bike ride. Its alright not to be consumed about the virus 24/7.

Q: What kinds of techniques might assist players or other staffers with this balance and maintaining their mental health during this event?

Dr. Goldman: One thing I would recommend is, be mindful about misinformation. Unfortunately, were living in an era where its tough to trust the flow of information and certain sources. The CDC are constantly updating and providing recommendations for self-care, emotional and physical. So I think thats always a good place to go.

Another element is, you have to trust organizational leaders. These are incredibly intelligent people. Theres a lot of communication and decision-making as to what happens next. And again, this issue isnt static, its fluid. As things evolve, alterations will be made. Really what its about is knowing theres a plan, trusting that theres a plan.

Q: Both for athletes and the general population, what can you recommend to help deal with whats been termed as coronavirus anxiety?

Dr. Goldman: If you think about the construct of anxiety, anxiety is always about the future, not the present. Not whats happening now, what will happen. We dont worry about the test, we worry about the grade we get from the test.

The second rule [of anxiety] is its always about some kind of perceived catastrophe or horror, and the other element is ego threat. In this scenario, Id say its less about ego threat and more about perceived catastrophe.

One of the best ways to navigate around that is to be well-informed. Ask questions. Ask lots of questions. Ask questions of your medical providers; ask questions of the CDC; [athletes] ask questions from your team leaders. I think that helps minimize some of that anxiety.

Q: Some will understandably be concerned about the potential for cabin fever and related concerns during potentially long periods of social distancing. Can you provide any themes to assist individuals with this?

Dr. Goldman: [From what I understand], social distancing is not isolation (note: Dr. Goldman is correct here, and this Cleveland Clinic resource does a good job breaking down the differences between quarantine, isolation and social distancing). Not everybody is quarantined. Social distancing, by the definition being put out there, is six feet of distance and avoiding populated areas and events. Its not about isolation as much as it is about social distancing.

And again, the best weapon we have in our arsenal right now is all the stuff we already know to be true about good health: Wash your hands, avoid touching your face. Just the facts, I think, can help.

Q: Those who already undergo therapy may be worried about seeing their therapist in-person due to disease spread risks. Those experiencing new mental health issues related to the outbreak may have similar fears. What would you say to those in this position?

Dr. Goldman: Talking with peers, one of the questions is about licensure and ethical conduct. If youre licensed, say, in the state of Michigan, can you provide care for someone whose residence is in Wyoming? There has been what we call tele-health, whether that be through a video chat or a telephone call.

There are rules and regulations set up for tele-health therapy. [But recently], theyve begun to loosen some of these stringent rules. The community is responding in live time right now. Theyve made some concessions regarding some of the stipulations.

Something Im honored [to be part of] is a group called Big Sky, which is a group of licensed professionals in the pro space and the collegiate space. There are over 100 of us. Weve been dialogue-ing as a collective [during this incident], and discussing best practices.

Dr. Goldman was also kind enough to note that he recently sent his staff and employees of the team he works for a few resources, including basic anxiety coping measures. He strongly advises anyone dealing with anxiety or other mental health issues during this outbreak to seek similar resources.

Read more here:
The Mental Health Side Of An Epidemic: Conversation With A Leading Performance Psychologist - Forbes