WSU student Mike Chan exercises next to a new therapy light in the Student Recreation Center. He believes therapy lights, currently being placed in high traffic areas on the Pullman campus, will help people combat the winter blues and improve mental health. Photo by Sarah Page, Division of Student Affairs.

By Steve Nakata, Division of Student Affairs

The cold weather and shorter days during winter months can leave even the best of us feeling tired, cranky and unmotivated. With that in mind, students, faculty and staff at Washington State University Pullman have been working on a variety of ways to improve mood and mental health.

Many people are familiar with what is known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a type of depression that is related to seasonal change. The Mayo Clinic warns that symptoms can start out mild and become more severe as the winter season progresses.

Even if one does not have full-blown SAD, the shorter days can have a noticeable effect on mood, energy, and motivation, said Ellen Taylor, associate vice president for Student Engagement. Our students have expressed that this is a concern of theirs, so we want to address this aspect of student mental health this year.

The Division of Students Affairs, working with the Graduate and Professional Student Association (GPSA), have planned two days of workshops this week that will get the WSU community moving and reenergized, as well as encourage you to focus on self-care through mindfulness and creative expression.

Beginning tomorrow, Jan. 28, at 5 p.m. in the Student Recreation Center, there are a variety of different activities to participate in from rock climbing, yard games in the pool, a fitness class, to dodgeball, painting, and enjoying mocktails and healthy snacks.

The following evening, Jan. 29, at 5 p.m., people can explore mindfulness as a technique for restful sleep, the art and craft of storytelling, and how to cook foods high in vitamin D. The evening will culminate with dinner, dessert, storytelling and stand-up comedy. All activities on Wednesday evening take place in the Elson S. Floyd Cultural Center.

We will give you tools to help you be present in the moment, calmer, less stressed, and kinder to yourself, said Veneice Guillory-Lacy, GPSA executive vice president and member of the planning team. With physical fitness, people tend to forget that exercise helps us feel more energetic, mentally sharp, sleep better, and makes us feel better about ourselves. It is important that you take care of yourself holistically through mind, body and soul.

Event details, times and locations for all Winter Blues Busting activities can be found on the University Recreation website.

To help deter symptoms of SAD, 14 new therapy lights are being installed across campus. Locations include the Compton Union Building (CUB), Student Recreation Center, Chinook Student Center, Terrell Library, the SPARK building, Todd Hall, and Smith Center for Undergraduate Education (CUE). Cougar Health Services has therapy lights available as well. Future locations might include dining spaces and residence halls.

The idea for purchasing and installing therapy lights came from student Melissa Torres, an at-large senator for the Associated Students of Washington State University (ASWSU). She helped draft and lobbied for a resolution that was recently passed by ASWSU.

It shows how one student with an idea, who ran for senate, turned it into something that will benefit students across campus, said Quinton Berkompas, ASWSU president. It is the essence of why we get involved with student government.

Light boxes simulate natural daylight and activate hormones that improve energy, mood, and sleep. They also help our internal body clocks regulate daily sleep and wake patterns. To use them effectively, people should sit 10 inches away from the light for 30 minutes, preferably in the morning or early afternoon so sleep patterns wont be disrupted.

When it comes to SAD or any mental health concern, receiving professional counseling is often a vital piece to assessing, diagnosing, and treating the symptoms. Access to mental health services is top of mind for students, faculty and staff.

Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) within Cougar Health Services has streamlined the process for students seeking same day counseling. Previously, students had to drop-by the clinic and wait for an available counselor. Now they can make a same-day appointment by calling CAPS as early as 7:45 a.m. This allows students to schedule a time that wont conflict with classes or work and avoid potential wait times.

Next month the WSU community will have opportunities to learn from Dior Vargas, a self-described Latina, feminist, and mental health activist. A resident of New York City, she is the creator of the People of Color and Mental Illness Photo Project, a response to the invisibility of people of color in the media representation of mental illness.

On Feb. 26, Vargas will conduct several workshops tailored for students, faculty and staff before delivering a community-wide keynote address at 7 p.m., in the CUB Senior Ballroom. Her speech, followed by a book signing, will be livestreamed. More information about the workshops and Vargas will be shared closer to the events.

Follow this link:
Bust the winter blues with a high dose of self-care - WSU News

Toledo, OHIO (WTVG) - Do you feel like January will never end and that Spring is simply a season many moons away? Turns out, you are not alone. In fact, the past six days marks the longest stretch of overcast skies since January of 2015 in Northwest Ohio.

For many, it's simply winter in Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan but all of the days without sunshine can cause you to feel blue or searching for smile.

Some cope by heading outdoors for fresh air, others to the gym or even some self-care at the spa.

Massage Green Spa on Monroe Street has an infrared sauna. The sauna claims to help boost immunity, reduce stress and fatigue and help with muscle cramping.

"The heat is the main benefit of it and on the colder days it helps with muscle pains which you see a lot of in the winter too," says Kelli Wolf.

The constant clouds have others on the search for sunshine out of state.

"People just want to get out of town," says Sarah Rosenberger, a travel advisor with Central Travel.

In the past few days Rosenberger has spent time booking getaways for people to Mexico, the Caribbean and Florida ahead of spring break. Others want to leave immediately on the search for sun, surf and sand.

So if you are struggling to smile without sunshine there are some fun options to tide you over until Spring or you could just simply embrace the grey days of January knowing warmer weather will come.....someday.

See the rest here:
Coping with the longest stretch of overcast skies since 2015 - 13abc Action News

Windows 10 will last you a good, long time, but you need to know some facts.

Windows 10 has been around for five years, but it's only now that Microsoft's support for Windows 7 is dead and gone that the question arises: How long will Windows 10 last before Microsoft replaces it with Windows 11 or whatever comes next?

Luckily, we know the answer. Microsoft has a long-established Fixed Lifestyle Policy for many of its products, which begins when a product is released and ends when it's no longer supported. Knowing these dates can help you decide when you want to update, upgrade to a new device, or make other changes to your software or machine.

Now playing: Watch this: Windows 10: Try these hidden features right now

2:51

For each version of its OS, Microsoft offers a minimum of 10 years of support (at least five years of Mainstream Support, followed by five years of Extended Support). Both types include security and program updates, self-help online topics and extra help you can pay for.

Windows 10 was released in July 2015, and extended support is slated to end in 2025. Major feature updates are released twice a year, typically in March and in September, and Microsoft recommends installing each update as it is available.

The latest Windows 10 version to come out was the November 2019 update, which added some new productivity features, like the ability to create events directly from the Calendar flyout on the Taskbar, without having to open the Calendar app.

Here's how Microsoft breaks down its updates:

* Windows 10, version 1703 for Enterprise, Education, and IOT Enterprise editions were released on April 11, 2017. ** Serviced for 30 months from release date per policy updated in September 2018.

Some people have hesitated to make the Windows 10 upgrade, as several bugs were reported in earlier versions. But Microsoft has slowed down its update schedule, giving the company more time to test, pause updates, and disclose problems.

Your experience updating to Windows 10 should be fairly smooth at this point, and will let you take advantage of Microsoft support. This is particularly important for the security of your device -- without Microsoft's security upgrades and patches, your computer is at greater risk of malware taking hold through a loophole.

We recommend upgrading to Windows 10 as soon as possible. However, if you're still running Windows 7 and don't want to upgrade,these 7 Windows 7 security tips will help protect your laptopuntil you make the switch.

To start your upgrade, you could buy and download Windows 10 through Microsoft's website for $139. But you can try this free method, too. While Microsoft technically ended its free Windows 10 upgrade program in July 2016, CNET has confirmed as of January that the free update is still available for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 users.

Check out our step-by-step guide on how to upgrade to Windows 10 free. Once you've upgraded, you can also check out 11 easy Windows 10 tricks you didn't know about.

Now playing: Watch this: How to take Windows 10 screenshots

2:04

If you're a Windows 8.1 user, extended support for that OS will end in January 2023.

For more Windows 10 help, we show you how to customize 13 Windows 10 settings to your liking, and six simple security changes that all Windows 10 users need to make.

More:
How long Windows 10 will last before you need to replace it: 3 facts to know - CNET

Author Jenna Lisa Lobos provides 52 tips to help readers change physically, emotionally and spiritually in 'Love Your Body Love Your Life'

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Jan. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ --Former radio host and author Jenna Lisa Lobos recently published her book: "Love Your Body Love Your Life: 52 Tips That Will Radically Improve Your Health." This expansive self-help book establishes a road map for readers to find confidence in their own skin. With tips to take care of their inner body (physically, emotionally and spiritually), this book helps transform readers from the inside to change how they face the world outwardly.

Developed as a guide that doubles as a memoir, "Love Your Body Love Your Life" includes Lobos' own transformative journey of letting go of negativity in her life and developing a deeper, more intimate connection with herself. With a focus not only on physical changes but also on emotional and spiritual changes, this book helps to foster monumental, authentic growth into the lives of those who read it.

"'Love Your Body Love Your Life' started as a blog and newsletter that I developed as I was growing my organic skincare line," Lobos said. "I wanted to help readers change their lives from the inside with health and wellness tips that were easy to follow and encouraged their inner beauty to rise to the surface."

Along with the 52 tips that Lobos includes in "Love Your Body Love Your Life," she also has her own beauty ritual which is a daily practice that readers can easily follow. It is broken down into "morning," "during the day" and "evening" practices. There are also bonus tips for beautiful skin and a recipe for a green smoothie for readers to continue to focus on their physical health.

"Love Your Body Love Your Life: 52 Tips That Will Radically Improve Your Health" By Jenna Lisa Lobos ISBN: 978-1-4525-1664-6 (softcover); 978-1-4525-1665-3 (electronic) Available at the Balboa Press Online Bookstore, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

About the author Jenna Lisa Lobos is a certified health practitioner and the founder of BeautyMarkOrganics. She is the former host of Love Your Body Love Your Life Radio Show featured on iHeartRadio. She recently launched her podcast: Jenna Lisa. Her goal is to help women heal themselves from the inside to the outside. She works primarily from the teachings of B.E.S.T. (Bio-Energetic Synchronization Techniques). Also, she is certified under Touchstone for Life. To learn more, please visit her website: http://www.jennalobos.com/.

For Interview Requests & Review Copies, Please Contact: LAVIDGE Phoenix Krista Tillman 480-648-7560 ktillman@lavidge.com

SOURCE LAVIDGE

See the rest here:
Learn How to Heal Your Beauty From the Inside Out With New Self-Help Book - Yahoo Finance

28 January 2020

Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP

To print this article, all you need is to be registered or login on Mondaq.com.

Eric Benson (Associate-White Plains) is listed among the contributors to the "Self Help Asylum Guide: Seeking Protection in the United States," published by the Refugee and Human Rights Clinic (RHRC) at the University of Maine School of Law and the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, in collaboration with the Penn State Law in University Park Center for Immigrants' Rights Clinic and Thrive International Programs. The guide provides information to assist individuals who are applying for asylum pro se or without the assistance of an attorney. The immigration legal system is complex and navigating it on one's own behalf can be challenging. This guide seeks to aid the increasing number of families and individuals that want to apply for asylum.

Read the Guide.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

POPULAR ARTICLES ON: Immigration from United States

See the rest here:
Self Help Asylum Guide: Seeking Protection In The United States - Mondaq News Alerts

Jan. 29, 2020, 6:17 PM UTC

Evan McGonagill, 31, had a very different vision of her life.

She imagined that shed be living in Philadelphia, where she was building a career in university library archives. She planned to climb the ladder in her field and then perhaps go to graduate school.

But a visit to her mothers house in Boston changed all of that.

[My mother] had always been the record keeper in the family. She had done everything with our finances, said McGonagill. But when I visitedI was knee-deep in papers in two rooms. It was just a sea of scrambled records.

McGonagill didnt know that her mother, who and in her 70s, had been suffering from major neurocognitive disorder, a precursor to Alzheimers. Her mother had been forgetting to pay bills. Debt collectors and scammers were calling.

McGonagill decided to live with her mother for a few months to get her on track. A few months turned into several when her parents had to divorce, sell their house and move into different apartments.

The end of the caregiving never came. Its been two years since McGonagill moved in with her mom in a Brighton, Mass. apartment, and her fathers health is now fading, too. She schleps them both to appointments and manages her mothers medications and the household.

McGonagill let her job grant expire and didnt seek further employment in Philadelphia. Shes held a rotating set of odd, flexible gigs while her parents insurancethankfullypaid for their medical and assistive care. In turn, McGonagill has had to put her career on the backburner.

Ive never had a moment to get myself to set up in a different professional network, McGonagill told Know Your Value. Ive been in survival mode for two years, putting out fires constantly, moving my mom from the house to an apartment, hiring someone else to help. Its been full-time.

McGonagills situation is very common. Northwestern University found that up to 80 percent of older adults are cared for at home by family. More than half of caregivers are also employed.

And according to the National Alliance on Caregiving, 60 percent of caregivers are women, but the proportion of men who caregive (40 percent) is rapidly growing.

Get the knowyourvalue newsletter.

Since 1993, the U.S. has mandated that employers must grant 12 weeks of unpaid family leave. However, this protection only affects companies with 50 employees or more (so, 60 percent of the workforce) and the majority of caretakers cannot afford to take this time off. Six states - Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Washington state and Washington D.C. - currently mandate some paid family leave.

Meanwhile, 43 million Americans work as unpaid family caregivers, according to the AARP. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine found that 8.5 million caregivers are caring for a high-needs adult, meaning the adult has dementia and/or they need help with two or more daily self-care activities, such as bathing or dressing.

The same study found that caregiving is rarely short-term; 70 percent of caregivers surveyed had been in their positions already between two and 10 years. About half of caregivers do so out of obligation, be it cultural or due to specific family issues. Caregivers are likelier than non-caregivers to suffer from anxiety, depression, social isolation and financial loss.

As a result, there are a lot self-identification problems, said C. Grace Whiting, president and CEO of the National Alliance on Caregiving. What the research has said is people resist self-identifying as caregivers because its more like a second job than a true vocation. Theres a concern that the caregiving relationship is going to take over your life and replace other identities you have that are important to you. Then of course, theres the existential worry that your family member is dying.

In Vermont, Cathy McWilliam, 59, has been a caretaker for multiple elder members of her family for seven years. A hairstylist, McWilliam always imagined opening a salon of her own after her kids left the house. Her caregiving schedule, however, meant that she needed to continue her track of freelancing with a flexible schedule.

Im self-employed, and I can control my own thing, McWilliam said. But I always thought Id have my own building and the whole dream.

McWilliam said that she has suffered mentally and physically from being on-call 24-7 for her mother, who has dementia.

I wake up with heart palpitations, panic attacks, arrhythmia, said McWilliam. Im more forgetful.

Until the RAISE Family Caregiving Act passed in 2018, there was no official federal language around unpaid family caregiving. Priorities of the act include improving financial security and workplace issues for families, respite care options, and family planning throughout the U.S.

However, the law is in its infancy. The data is difficult to collect, according to the NASEM study, due to murky definitions of caregiving and a lack of official metrics. Caregivers are still not officially recognized by the U.S. health care system, thereby denying them rights to resources or information about the dependent.

According to Whiting, the lack of education and cultural discussion around caretaking means that many people are often caught financially and logistically unprepared.

Id love to see us get to a place where we talk about caregiving as a normal part of our lives, said Whiting. Having conversations early and often about what does it look like, asking If youre 80, mom, what do you want your life to look like? People are uncomfortable talking about it at first, but the more you talk about it the more its destigmatized.

In the meantime, more companies are open to remote, flexible employees. Sue Bhatia founded the staffing agency Rose International, which places thousands of contingency workers or project-based workers into jobs, ranging from $12 to $300 an hour. Rose International connects employers with potential contingency workers and negotiates their rates and flexibility. Women make up 65 percent of her workforce.

There is a huge demand for skilled workers, Bhatia said. Because of this huge demand, employers are willing to work with people who have a good skill set and soft skill set, its hard to find people who are eager to change and learn, so employers are more flexible in that regard. People can relate to a lot of these caregiving situations, and because of that, they're flexible. Humanization is happening

Bhatia said she placed one IT employee who had to take her mother to chemotherapy treatment frequently. This woman would bring her laptop and work while her mother underwent the treatments, Bhatia said.

As long as the persons good, its in everybodys interest to be flexible, said Bhatia. Mostly people who contingent workers are experienced. Theyre there because their skill set is unique and hard to find...Anyone who is a self-learner and can learn things themselves, take a couple of courses online - there are ways to gather skill sets. especially if people are ready to take responsibility for their own career.

Mary Pembleton is a rare person who made full-time caregiving work as a job. She was studying nursing when her grandfather fell ill. Due to his veteran status, Pembleton was able to get paid as a full-time caregiver for him, while also staying home with her children. After he passed away four years later, Pembleton started pursuing a writing career. She published a story about caregiving in the New York Times.

Im a natural caregiver and I love it, so it actually worked out quite well, said Pembleton.

Pembleton suggested carving out time for yourself and your own family in order to get through the harder times. Whiting said that caretakers should turn to support groups in hospitals, through specific agencies like the Cancer Society, or online. Exercise self-care, and a positive attitude wherever possible, Whiting said.

Make sure you have plenty to celebrate as a family, so that when you have a tough day, you can withdraw a happy memory from the emotional bank so to speak, so you can say this is a really hard day but I love my mom and weve done happy things recently, Whiting said

Whiting also argued that there is a very bright side to caregiving that we often ignore.

Theres so much out there about the challenges of caregiving, you just think thats a drag. Theres a richness there, of being able to celebrate someone and take care of someone you love...to be there with someone through these difficult situations, Whiting said. Its not just the drudgery of it. Theres a compelling human need to caregive.

Link:
Caregiving, or career? The choice no woman should have to make - NBC News

Aurora has been given permission by California regulators to transport passengers in its self-driving vehicles,TechCrunch has learned.

TheCalifornia Public Utilities Commission granted Aurora a permit, which was posted on its website Wednesday, to participate in the states Autonomous Vehicle Passenger Service pilot. Aurora confirmed the approval.

This permit lets us give rides powered by the Aurora Driver and shows that were committed to being good partners to California and the Commission, an Aurora spokesperson said when asked about the permit.

The company didnt provide more details about when it might start letting passengers in its vehicles. And based on the companys focus, its likely this wont be a broad robotaxi service.

Aurora has never planned to operate a robotaxi service. Instead, it has focused on building the self-driving stack and working with partners to integrate into vehicle platforms. The Aurora Driver, as the company calls it, has been integrated into six vehicle platforms from several manufacturers, including sedans, SUVs, minivans, commercial vans and Class 8 trucks. These integrations are not commercially available.

Aurora, which has operations in Pittsburgh, Palo Alto and San Francisco, has a fleet of about a dozen self-driving vehicles that are used for testing on public roads. The company started testing its self-driving system in Chrysler Pacifica minivans and has said it will continue to grow this fleet over the next year.

Aurora attracted attention early on because of the pedigree of its three founders Sterling Anderson, Drew Bagnell and Chris Urmson who had led self-driving vehicle programs at Google, Tesla and Uber. In February 2019, the company raised more than $530 million in a Series B round led by Sequoia Capital and includes significant investment from Amazon and T. Rowe Price Associates.The monster round pushed Auroras valuation to more than $2.5 billion. It has raised more than $620 million to date.

The approval from CPUC is different than the permits issued by the California Department of Motor Vehicles to test self-driving vehicles in the state. Today, 65 companies have a DMV permit to test self-driving vehicles on public roads in the state.

Only four other companies, AutoX, Pony.ai, Waymo and Zoox, have CPUC permits. Zoox was the first company to receive a permit in December 2018.

The CPUC permit gives Aurora permission to use its self-driving vehicles to transport people. The permit comes with a few caveats. Companies issued the permits cannot charge for rides a rule that AV developers are lobbying to get changed and the vehicles must have safety drivers behind the wheel. Companies must also have the testing permit from the DMV.

Auroras permit, which lasts until January 2023, requires the company to provide reports to CPUC with information on total passenger miles traveled and safety protocols.

The rest is here:
Aurora can now give the public rides in its self-driving cars - TechCrunch

Theres nothing like a good nights sleep to give your body and mind what it needs to tackle the day.

In fact, according to a study by the Better Sleep Council (BSC), getting good shut-eye may even affect your financial health.

Data from the State of Americas Sleep study found that the best sleepers in America are those who plan ahead and are financially comfortable. It reports that good sleepers are nearly two times more likely to regularly save for retirement, unforeseen medical expenses, or both.

It does not surprise me that there is a positive relationship between good financial practices and sound sleep. I like to say that managing our money is an important self-care activity. Learning to manage our cash flow and investments and understanding the relationship between the two is important, Ed Coambs, a financial therapist in Matthews, North Carolina, told Healthline.

On the flip side, the study revealed that financially stressed people fall into the worst sleepers in America category. Of those self-rated poor sleepers, close to two-thirds are concerned about their financial future. More than half live paycheck to paycheck.

Sleep and stress enjoy a very bidirectional relationship. Obviously, its hard to fall asleep and stay asleep when youre stressed, but sufficient sleep provides us with resilience, and we can tolerate higher stress levels much better when were well rested, Terry Cralle, registered nurse and sleep expert at BSC, told Healthline.

We can approach financial issues better and step back and look at things in our life that may not be optimal and how to make them better, but we have to have sufficient sleep to do that, she said.

Once you put sleep at the top of your to-do list, Cralle says the following tips can help keep quality sleep a priority.

Cralle says our bodies crave consistency.

We always say children do better with schedules, and so do adults. When we have that consistency, we are more likely to get sufficient sleep. Your body knows what to expect, and you fall into a better rhythm, she said.

This means foregoing sleeping in on weekends.

We dont want to undersleep during the week and rely on sleeping more on the weekends because we dont know that the damage can be undone from undersleeping during the week, Cralle said.

BSC tip: Avoid staying up late paying bills. Pay them in the morning when youre more focused.

Although you might feel like youre too busy to fit in 8 hours of sleep, Cralle advises rethinking your view.

When we get sufficient sleep, we do more and do it better. So, you can say you have so much to do that you need to cut back on sleep, but thats the wrong way to think about it, Cralle said.

This is true in the context of finances, too, she adds.

Sleep deprivation has a lot of psychological effects on us. When sleep-deprived, we dont have good judgement, take risks, and have poor decision making, which can impact your finances. Think about how casinos dont have clocks, because the more tired we get, the more risks we take, Cralle said.

The phrase sleep on it is old advice but good advice.

BSC tip: Consider setting up automatic payments to save time on paying bills.

Cralle says you should stop using screens at least an hour before you go to bed because the blue light from screens disrupts sleep. Additionally, noise and lights from shows are meant to be stimulating.

Cutting back can be done gradually.

I understand theres a transition time and we need relaxation time before sleep. I suggest swapping something for screen time. Do you like coloring or knitting or reading or puzzles? Save something you enjoy for bedtime and reward yourself with it, she said.

BSC tip: Avoid online banking before bedtime to eliminate screen time.

Talking about finances at night is setting yourself up for failure, Cralle says.

Any conversations at night about stress-related issues, such as finances, wont get you anywhere. When we are sleep-deprived, we are acting like someone who is intoxicated. Were not thinking straight, and we have to approach these topics in a rational, logical, reasonable manner, and thats with sufficient sleep under our belts, Cralle said.

BSC tip: Save talks about paying bills, debt, and saving for your childs college fund for the morning.

Taking measures to keep out light and noise and maintain an ideal sleeping temperature can help ensure you get a good nights sleep. Cralle says investing in a comfortable sleep surface is the best measure you can take.

I like to say the mattress is the most important furniture in the house, Cralle said.

BSC tip: Visit BetterSleep.org for tips on how to create the ideal bedroom for sleep.

While Coambs agrees that getting adequate sleep can have a positive effect on your financial situation, he says other behavior changes are needed.

He notes the best way to improve your financial situation is to understand what underlying issues stop you from making change.

When I work with clients around financial anxiety, I am inquiring about their personal experiences with money, especially ones from their childhood. Early childhood experiences with money often set important and foundational ideas about money. Our self-concept is developing right alongside our understanding of money, he said.

When people take time to reflect on their experiences with money from childhood, Coambs says they can start to identify forgotten money messages that turned into rules about how to manage money.

He uses the example of a grandpa giving his grandchild a $100 bill for their birthday while sternly telling the child, Dont blow it all in one place.

The child hears the fear, intimidation, and implied shame of blowing it, and it starts a foundation of financial anxiety of blowing it with money. Likely there are more than one of these experiences, but it is [these] subtle but important experiences that build our financial templates, Coambs said.

Changing financial patterns involves more than making a budget or setting savings goals.

It is to increase our money awareness and the way that we experience money. Without changing our relationship to money, it is going to be very hard to make and maintain these other health-promoting behaviors of budgeting, saving, and investing, Coambs said.

At a deeper level, he says if you have underlying issues with your self-concept, which can be negatively affected by inadequate caregiving during childhood, then its necessary to work on understanding and healing your sense of self.

We have to let go of simple understandings of money to get to the more complex and dynamic elements of our financial lives, Coambs said. Working with our financial lives is a slow and sometimes disorienting process that in time improves our quality of life.

Cathy Cassata is a freelance writer who specializes in stories about health, mental health, and human behavior. She has a knack for writing with emotion and connecting with readers in an insightful and engaging way. Read more of her work here.

View original post here:
How Financial Stress Affects Your Sleep Quality and 6 Ways to Fight It - Healthline

IN MEMORIAM

In recent decades, there has been a concern that psychiatry has been following a bio-bio-bio model rather than the traditional bio-psycho-social one. The passing of some elder psychiatrists in the past year demonstrate that loveand psychiatry and psychiatristscan be many splendored things, as the song goes. Here are some models to prove that point.

An Alter Ego: James Newman, MD

Although I did not know Dr Newman, even though he worked in my hometown of Chicago, I almost felt I was reading what my own obituary might be when I learned of his death at the age of 77 on November 1, 2019.

His career was devoted to community psychiatry and, in particular, he worked in the behemoth Cook County health system. He started, as I did, by going into military service after training, in his case the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana. After he came to Chicago, he tried to practice eclectically, the way I was trained too, using medication, psychoanalytic principles, and what is now called cognitive behavioral therapy. As research has always confirmed, he knew even without it that the therapeutic relationship came first.

Knowing the importance of community and the psychiatrist being active in the community, he was also an activist for social justice issues ranging from anti-war activities to more humane treatment of immigrants. Close to his death, he joined a rally for addressing climate instability.

The Criminalization of Persons With Mental Illness: H. Richard Lamb, MD

Dr Lamb is another community psychiatrist who died recently. He focused on different areas than Dr Newman, reflecting the diverse opportunities within community psychiatry. His career was mainly in academic psychiatry and, reflective of that, he was a prolific writer. He attemded Yale Medical School and became a Professor at the University of Southern California where I had my internship year.

He, early on, by the 1970s, recognized the unexpected negative major side effects of deinstitutionalization. He wrote and talked about the ensuing criminalization of persons with mental illness and homelessness due to inadequate resources in the community. For this work, he received many awards, including the Arnold L. Van Ameringen Award in Psychiatric Rehabilitation from the American Psychiatric Association in 1998.

A Protean Author: Theodore Isaac Rubin, MD

I only came to know the work of Dr Rubin a year ago when I was asked to edit the upcoming book on Anti-Semitism and Psychiatry for Springer International. In researching what previous psychiatrists had written, I found Dr Rubins book, Anti-Semitism: A Disease of the Mind - A Psychiatrist Explores the Psychodynamics of a Symbol Sickness (1990, Continuum). Nothing major was written about the subject in ensuing decades, probably because it was erroneously assumed Anti-Semitism had disappeared.

I later found out how wide-ranging his psychoanalytic interests and writings were. He definitely got up from his chair to go out into society. He wrote the novella Lise and David, which was adapted in an Academy Award-nominated movie about teenagers in love in a therapeutic school. He became a public figure on TV and wrote not only a variety of self-help books, but also about his own shortcomings, such as The Thin Book by a Formerly Fat Psychiatrist. So much for the old psychoanalytic recommendations to be anonymous! He died at the age of 95.

A Father of Psychopharmacology: Donald Klein, MD

We go from the psychoanalyst Dr Rubin to the psychopharmacologist Donald Klein, MD, who died at the age of 80 on August 7, 2019. Actually, Dr Klein appreciated psychodynamics too. Anti-Semitism came up in a different way in his life, reportedly limiting his possibilities to get into medical school. He first had to get into a graduate school for a year before being accepted. Perhaps that graduate program in biochemistry and physiology was a blessing in disguise, paving the way for his conclusion that some psychiatric problems could be treated with medication rather than the psychotherapy of the 1950s.

He recognized and appreciated the unexpected surprise that a so-called antidepressant could help anxiety. He then looked backward to see if the effectiveness of medications could be dissected into something common which underlined different symptoms. He wrote not only for other psychiatrists, but for the public and patients.

The Challenger: Richard Green, MD, JD

Dr Green was an early force for homosexual and transgender rights, in and outside of psychiatry. It was also a surprise to many that he did so though he was heterosexual. So much for the common assumption that it always takes one to one know one, whether that is in regard to sexuality, gender, ethnicity, or illness. No, it takes great empathy, curiosity, and a heart of compassion. He was one of the leaders to remove homosexuality from the APAs diagnostic manuals.

Later in his career he even added a law degree in order to help address adverse laws for those being discriminated against. (Given that my father and sister were both lawyers, I also toyed with the same idea, but never pulled it off.) He participated in a case against the Boy Scouts to bar a homosexual man from becoming an assistant scoutmaster; in a case to prove that lesbian mothers should have custody rights; and that gay men should be able to co-adopt children.

Dr Green extended child visitation rights to transgender people and he was an early advocate for them. I learned much from his work when I became a medical director for a clinic specializing in transgender patients. All these barriers and more that he attempted to remove were eventually torn down.

He was also a prolific writer in all his causes, culminating in his last book: Gay Rights, Trans Rights: A Psychiatrist/Lawyers 50-Year Battle (2018). He died on April 6, 2017 at the age of 82.

Cant Help Falling in Love: Marta Muller, MD

As I was finishing these eulogies, I serendipitously, and unfortunately, heard of another, right here in my hometown of Milwaukee. Maybe that fit Dr Muller's early life, hiding and moving from one place to another as a child survivor of the Holocaust. She had a Jewish mother and Christian father.

She eventually came to Milwaukee to be one of the three women in the medical school class at Marquette, the predecessor to the Medical College of Wisconsin (where I spent the last part of my career).

Perhaps also not surprising, given her early years, she specialized in the treatment of trauma. Impressively, she focused on inner city youth well before this became a city-wide project in Milwaukee and other cities. Her goal was to desensitize these youth to help them cope. She also organized support groups for traumatized families, such as those of loved ones killed by Jeffrey Dahmer, and also worked to with the Milwaukee Bucks to reduce the stress of shooting free throws.

No wonder, too, that she died on Christmas Day, 2019, at the age of 78. At her memorial service, Elvis Presleys song, Cant Help Falling in Love is played.

Final thoughts

In these six portraits, we hopefully illustrate more of the many splendors of psychiatry and to love what these particular psychiatrists accomplished in their lifetimes. Of course, there are many others. Let us know if you come up with anyone else: Write us at [emailprotected].

Disclosures:

About the author

Dr Moffic is an editorial board member and regular contributor to Psychiatric Times. He was a tenured Professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin until he retired in 2012. Since then he has functioned as a private community psychiatrist providing pro bono services locally, nationally, and internationally. Currently, Dr Moffic is focused on four major advocacy initiatives: physician burnout, climate instability, Islamophobia, and Anti-Semitism. He is co-editor of Combating Physician Burnout: A Guide for Psychiatrists, with Sheila LoboPrabhu, Richard F. Summers, and Sheila Loboprabhu.

Read more from the original source:
Psychiatry in All Its Splendor - Psychiatric Times

Don't let sadness overwhelm you.

If you struggle to achieve authentic happiness, you're not alone. Everyone feels bad sometimes, but it's important to learn how to feel better and actually understand why you feel like you can't be happy.

The key to a true pursuit of happiness lies in practicing self-care and that means more than occasionally getting a mani-pedi. It's how you practice good mental health and protect your emotions.

RELATED: How To Totally Master The Art Of Being Happy In 6 Steps (Or Less!)

Today, lets talk about how to feel better, right away, without having to book a trip to Tahiti or win the lotto.

Whether youre going through a rough spot in your relationship, going through a breakup or you just want to shake off a case of the blues, you may be struggling to feel better.

Here are 3 simple tips to help you feel better fast so you can feel happy again:

Looking at the wall when youre racing a car will lead you to slam right into that wall. The first step in becoming happier and lighter is to notice your emotional starting point.

I speak from experience when I say that feeling fear, doubt, and lack will wreck everything you care about. If you start allowing fear into your relationships, you will ruin everything.

Thats why the first step after youre aware of a negative emotion is to allow the emotion and then talk yourself down. Whether something has happened to trigger it or not, talk yourself through the negativity.

Your life goes where your mind goes. Same with your relationship. If youre constantly afraid theyre going to leave you, youre going to act unattractively and youll drive them away.

If youre going around thinking about how unfulfilled youre feeling or how youre not getting your needs met, guess what youre going to get more of the condition of not having your needs met.

Just like when you buy a blue car and suddenly youre seeing them everywhere. We can get metaphysical and woo-woo about this or not, but its a truth whatever you focus on, youll get more of.

But youve got to start catching yourself before you can change it.

RELATED: Have Everything You Want Except For True Happiness? These 3 Tips Can Help You Get There

If your default emotions are negative, youre going to get more negativity and lack. Instead, start looking forward and think about what you really want.

So often in life, you're just reacting, not thinking about how to have a peak experience of any kind, or considering what you actually might want.

You have a thought or feeling and just go with that rather than actually stopping to logically consider what you want and where you actually want to go. Something happens, we feel hurt and we try to move away from that hurt. Or we do something, it doesnt feel the way we expected, so we run.

This reactive position might get us temporarily away from pain, but its a sidebar path that doesnt have a goal attached. Instead of acting, were reacting.

Instead, move your focus to achieve that, rather than whatever fleeting feeling youre having at the moment. If youre feeling unfulfilled, dwelling on that is counterproductive. Want to feel fulfilled? Do fulfilling actions. Move toward fulfillment instead of away from a negative feeling.

That leads me to the next point. Since wide-sweeping change is usually not a one day process, youll have to stick with this.

Think about going to the gym. If you want to get fitter or stronger, you cant simply look at a picture of a fitness model and say, That, snap your fingers and have it appear, right?

Its the same with feeling better. Reward yourself for maintaining a positive mindset while youre having that mindset.

Back to the gym example, if you darken the door of the gym and show up, be excited about showing up.

Make the success about showing up. If you keep showing up, you add to the chain and build self-esteem around what youre trying to improve.

RELATED: 5 Small Things You Can Do To Make Your Job More Enjoyable & Be Happier At Work

Elizabeth Stone is a dating and personal development coach. Find out more by getting yourself a free copy of her book, Why Men Lose Interest and free daily (almost) email series.

This article was originally published at Digital Romance Inc. Reprinted with permission from the author.

View original post here:
How To Be Happy Using Psychological Self-Care Activities That Will Help You Feel Better Fast | Elizabeth Stone - YourTango