19 Years and Above

The report also inspects the financial standing of the leading companies, which includes gross profit, revenue generation, sales volume, sales revenue, manufacturing cost, individual growth rate, and other financial ratios.

The report also focuses on the global industry trends, development patterns of industries, governing factors, growth rate, and competitive analysis of the market, growth opportunities, challenges, investment strategies, and forecasts till 2026. The Mindfulness Meditation Apps Market was estimated at USD XX Million/Billion in 2016 and is estimated to reach USD XX Million/Billion by 2026, expanding at a rate of XX% over the forecast period. To calculate the market size, the report provides a thorough analysis of the market by accumulating, studying, and synthesizing primary and secondary data from multiple sources.

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The market is predicted to witness significant growth over the forecast period, owing to the growing consumer awareness about the benefits of Mindfulness Meditation Apps. The increase in disposable income across the key geographies has also impacted the market positively. Moreover, factors like urbanization, high population growth, and a growing middle-class population with higher disposable income are also forecasted to drive market growth.

According to the research report, one of the key challenges that might hinder the market growth is the presence of counter fit products. The market is witnessing the entry of a surging number of alternative products that use inferior ingredients.

Key factors influencing market growth:

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To summarize, the Mindfulness Meditation Apps market report studies the contemporary market to forecast the growth prospects, challenges, opportunities, risks, threats, and the trends observed in the market that can either propel or curtail the growth rate of the industry. The market factors impacting the global sector also include provincial trade policies, international trade disputes, entry barriers, and other regulatory restrictions.

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Mindfulness Meditation Apps Market 2019 Break Down by Top Companies, Countries, Applications, Challenges, Opportunities and Forecast 2026 - Cole of...

Motivational and Spiritual speaker Brahma Kumari Shivani or Sister Shivani says that the vibrations around the world have turned negative with the escalating coronavirus pandemic. People are stressed and there is a wave of panic among them with the alarming rate of COVId-19 cases. She says that while feeling stress and panic is normal in this situation, one needs to control the mind and send positive energy to the surroundings. She says our mind should not be dependent on what is happening outside but should deal with what is happening inside. If a person is able to control his mind, he can fight any battle.

BK Shivani says that all religions preach the same thing in different languages. It is important that we live our religion in the time of COVID-19. She also explains that every person responds to the situations differently but it is our moral responsibility to take care of our minds in order to not create problems for others and also take care of the people around us. This makes life worth living and gives strength to fight every situation.

She explains that whatever happens on the earth is because ofthe deeds of human beings. She says our deeds play a major role in determining our present as well as the future. There is no point living in the past. she stresses that what we have done in the past is already done and cannot be changed but what matters is how we change our deeds for the present and the future of mankind.

She says we create our own thoughts and work accordingly during eating, sleeping or working. She suggests taking out one hour in the morning for ourselves and do spiritual study to fill ourselves with positive energy daily. She says that a mind cannot work without getting charged up with good thoughts in the morning. She also encourages to devote time to meditation in order to relax the mind and lead a healthy life

Watch Sarvadharm Sammelan on India TV, where 20 eminent Dharm gurus of the country are talking about the role of religion in the time the coronavirus pandemicThese Mahagurus also talk about the ways one should follow to fight the COVID-19 infection.

Fight against Coronavirus: Full coverage

See more here:

Brahma Kumari Shivani suggests meditation and spiritual study to deal with stress during COVID19 - India TV News

If you had told me a week ago that I would not only spend money on a sleep and meditation app, but that I would spend SEVENTY dollars on one, I would have laughed. Like, a lot. But here we are a week later and $70 shorter.

Ive been in the market for a calming app for months now, ever since Ste dropped this little piece on us, as part of my efforts to improve my digital and personal wellbeing. Ive already knocked off a bunch of subscriptions (step one), with step two aimed at improving my sleepless nights and anxiety.

While doing my own research, I kept seeing suggestions for Calm. And because the internet knows all, I then started getting ads for it. I ignored them for a while, but then one ad had Eva Green reading a bedtime story. Ive been obsessed with her voice ever since rewatching Penny Dreadful and this was the tipping point for me.

Its hard to explain the disappointment I felt when I realized that most of the Sleep Stories from celebrities like Eva Green, Matthew McConaughey, Nick Offerman, and more are not only behind a paywall, but a $70 a year paywall at that. Begrudgingly, I signed up for the trial and set a reminder to cancel it before the seven-day trial ran out.

Ive never been good at falling asleep and white noise and other calming sounds have never done it for me, but MY GOD, these stories have both help calm me and improve my actual sleep. Im also not a fan of ASMR, but after listening to people read me stories in the most calming voices ever, maybe I need to give it a second chance.

There are plenty of other things in the app from what I can tell, including Disney piano tracks, daily meditation lessons, and more. Im excited to try these out in the future, but right now Ive only been using it at night for sleep purposes.

Now, do I recommend that everyone go out and drop big money on this app? Absolutely not, but with a seven-day trial, its absolutely worth trying it for yourself. If you are interested in trying it out for yourself, Calm is available on both Android and iOS.

Stick around for part three, as I work on my growing reading list by using apps like Audible.

What do you think? Is Calm something you could see yourself using? Do you have any other suggestions? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to ourTwitterorFacebook.

Read the rest here:

I never thought Id spend $70 on a meditation app but here we are - KnowTechie

If you find yourself having persistent negative thoughts, chances are that you may develop dementia in the future. According to a new study, people showing pessimistic thinking patterns may have a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease -- a condition that affects memory and other mental functions. In this study, repetitive negative thoughts were linked with two Alzheimer's features: a decline in mental abilities and an increase in harmful brain proteins that causes the degenerative disease. More than five million Americans are living with the condition. By 2050, this number is projected to reach nearly 14 million, according to the Alzheimer's Association, a non-profit organization.

"We expect that chronic negative thinking patterns over a long period of time could increase the risk of dementia. We do not think the evidence suggests that short-term setbacks would increase one's risk of dementia," lead author Dr Natalie Marchant from University College London Psychiatry, said. "We hope that our findings could be used to develop strategies to lower people's risk of dementia by helping them to reduce their negative thinking patterns," she added. Earlier studies have suggested that depression is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. In this study, scientists set out to understand the connection between mental health disorders and dementia. The team studied 350 people over the age of 55 to understand if thinking patterns associated with depression and anxiety could put people at higher risk for dementia.

The volunteers responded to questions about negative experiences. They asked whether they mulled over the past and worried about the future. Along with measuring signs of depression and anxiety, the researchers also tested mental functions such as memory, attention, spatial cognition, and language. Additionally, they also looked at scans to check for harmful brain proteins linked to Alzheimer's disease: amyloid and tau deposits.

Brain scans showed that pessimistic people are more likely to have the two dangerous proteins deposits in the brain. These people also experienced more declines in memory -- among the earlier signs of Alzheimer's disease. Further analysis showed that people suffering from depression and anxiety were more likely to experience the impairment, thereby supporting previous studies on the topic.

"We propose that repetitive negative thinking maybe a new risk factor for dementia as it could uniquely contribute to dementia", Dr Marchant said. The study underlines the need for mental health care. Fiona Carragher from Alzheimer's Society, said: "Understanding the factors that can increase the risk of dementia is vital in helping us improve our knowledge of this devastating condition and, where possible, developing prevention strategies." She added that the link between repeated negative thinking patterns and both cognitive decline and harmful deposits was interesting. "Mental health could be a vital cog in the prevention and treatment of dementia; more research will tell us to what extent," she noted.

Next, the researchers will explore solutions to repeating negative thinking. According to the study co-author, Dr Gael Chtelat from the Universit de Caen-Normandie, mental training practices such as meditation might help promote positive thinking. The researchers will now study if mindfulness training or targeted talk therapy, could reduce pessimistic thoughts, and thereby reduce the risk of dementia.

The study is published in Alzheimer's & Dementia.

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Persistent negative thoughts may increase risk of Alzheimer's disease but meditation may help, new study shows - MEAWW

9 June 2020

The last time you went for a walk outdoors, how engaged were you in the surroundings? Were you scrolling through social media, replying to a WhatsApp message and listening to a podcast episode, or were you truly taking in the sights, sounds and experiences around you?

What are meditation walks and why should we be doing them?

Taking a walk outdoors can work wonders for your mental and physical health during lockdown, but to truly embrace the benefits, experts say we must bring our body and minds in sync.

Known as 'walking meditation', this type of mindfulness in motion is about more than just getting from A to B. Rather, it's an opportunity to clear your mind of any internal worries, by hyper-focusing on the rhythm of your steps and tuning in to what's going on around you.

What is walking meditation?

Also know as 'kinhin', this type of peaceful practice is part of several forms of Buddhism that involve movement and periods of walking between long periods of sitting meditation.

If you struggle with traditional meditation, taking your practice outside gives you an opportunity to harness your awareness and focus on the present, rather than being distracted by internal thoughts, worries or fears.

Proponents often perform a 'body check' while walking, noticing how every area of their body feels as they move from foot to foot. Alongside this, it's important to tune into what's going on around you, whether that's passing cars in a city, or birds tweeting in the countryside.

"Taking mindful moments for yourself whilst exercising is important to help get perspective on your thinking," says Sarah Romotsky, director of healthcare partnerships at Headspace (headspace.com).

If, like many, you're struggling to focus on work at the moment, Romotsky says it's a great tool for improving your concentration and kick-starting your creative mind.

"By incorporating mindfulness into exercising, we can help ground the mind, let go of negative thoughts, and manage the mind-body connection. Regular meditation trains and re-programmes the mind to be more open and less reactive."

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Nature time Enjoying the peace, and serenity of nature is essential for keeping your mind clear. Getting in touch with nature is like a "detox" for your mind and soul. It keeps your head clear. I always leave my phone at home, and like to enjoy my own company. I use my walks as a meditation, becoming intensely alert of my surrounds, the sights, the smells the sounds. Do you enjoy your own company too? Or are you afraid of it? And for how long can you be on your own, alone with yourself, before you become uncomfortable with that "aloneness"? The thing is, when you go for a walk with a friend, you actually create even more noise to add to your already cluttered head. Conversation takes you away from nature & it's harder to notice your intuition, that inner voice that has the solutions to all of your circumstantial problems, if you're still enough to listen! Have you noticed this too? Tell me your insights ??

A post shared by BODY MIND ‍ SOUL (@door2raw) on Jun 7, 2020 at 11:48pm PDT

Alongside this, meditation can also enhance empathy, increase your attention span and help you to sleep better at night.

"It's also scientifically proven to help alleviate stress and increase happiness," Romotsky adds. "It allows you take a step back from stressful situations, pause the mind and feel better in the moment."

How can you do it at home?

Although it's called a walking meditation, Romotsky says that doesn't mean we're walking around on autopilot or with our eyes closed.

"Instead, walking meditation is mindfully walking using a meditative technique, with eyes open, and at a pace that suits you, with our attention on the immediate setting around us."

She adds: "Try meditating by focusing attention on the environment around you, taking in all the sights, sounds and smells particularly those you would not normally notice.

"Whilst moving, your attention should be focused on the act of doing and the sensations your body is experiencing. This can prevent distracting and stressful thoughts, helping you to refresh the mind, and tune into the rhythm of the body."

It's also common for people to first do a sitting meditation in a private space, using an app like Headpsace, and then take their meditative state outdoors on a walk. This is a great way to ease yourself into the practice.

"If you can't get outside right now, moving around your house, room by room , can also be an effective mode of physical and mental exercise.

"While walking around in your home, be sure to check in with your body and how it feels. Is it heavy or light, stiff or relaxed, and how are you carrying yourself? Tune into what's going on around you in your surroundings."

See original here:

What Are Meditation Walks And Why Should We Be Doing Them? - FemaleFirst.co.uk

Meditation Chime Market 2020

This report studies the Meditation Chime Market with many aspects of the industry like the market size, market status, market trends and forecast, the report also provides brief information of the competitors and the specific growth opportunities with key market drivers. Find the complete Meditation Chime Market analysis segmented by companies, region, type and applications in the report.

The major players covered in Meditation Chime Market Ehome, TreeWorks Chimes, Woodstock Wind Chimes, Czmusic, Andoer, Thy Collectibles, Stargoods, Wearika, ClearChime, Tosnail, Jive, Ammoon, Ladnis, and Yibuy

The final report will add the analysis of the Impact of Covid-19 in this report Meditation Chime industry.

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Meditation Chime Market continues to evolve and expand in terms of the number of companies, products, and applications that illustrates the growth perspectives. The report also covers the list of Product range and Applications with SWOT analysis, CAGR value, further adding the essential business analytics. Meditation Chime Market research analysis identifies the latest trends and primary factors responsible for market growth enabling the Organizations to flourish with much exposure to the markets.

Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers

North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)

Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)

Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)

South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia etc.)

Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)

Research objectives:

To study and analyze the global Meditation Chime market size by key regions/countries, product type and application, history data from 2013 to 2017, and forecast to 2026.

To understand the structure of Meditation Chime market by identifying its various sub segments.

Focuses on the key global Meditation Chime players, to define, describe and analyze the value, market share, market competition landscape, SWOT analysis and development plans in next few years.

To analyze the Meditation Chime with respect to individual growth trends, future prospects, and their contribution to the total market.

To share detailed information about the key factors influencing the growth of the market (growth potential, opportunities, drivers, industry-specific challenges and risks).

To project the size of Meditation Chime submarkets, with respect to key regions (along with their respective key countries).

To analyze competitive developments such as expansions, agreements, new product launches and acquisitions in the market.

To strategically profile the key players and comprehensively analyze their growth strategies.

The Meditation Chime Market research report completely covers the vital statistics of the capacity, production, value, cost/profit, supply/demand import/export, further divided by company and country, and by application/type for best possible updated data representation in the figures, tables, pie chart, and graphs. These data representations provide predictive data regarding the future estimations for convincing market growth. The detailed and comprehensive knowledge about our publishers makes us out of the box in case of market analysis.

Table of Contents: Meditation Chime Market

Chapter 1: Overview of Meditation Chime Market

Chapter 2: Global Market Status and Forecast by Regions

Chapter 3: Global Market Status and Forecast by Types

Chapter 4: Global Market Status and Forecast by Downstream Industry

Chapter 5: Market Driving Factor Analysis

Chapter 6: Market Competition Status by Major Manufacturers

Chapter 7: Major Manufacturers Introduction and Market Data

Chapter 8: Upstream and Downstream Market Analysis

Chapter 9: Cost and Gross Margin Analysis

Chapter 10: Marketing Status Analysis

Chapter 11: Market Report Conclusion

Chapter 12: Research Methodology and Reference

Key questions answered in this report

What will the market size be in 2026 and what will the growth rate be?

What are the key market trends?

What is driving this market?

What are the challenges to market growth?

Who are the key vendors in this market space?

What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?

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Impact of COVID-19 Outbreak on Meditation Chime Market to Witness Astonishing Growth With Ehome, TreeWorks Chimes, Woodstock Wind Chimes, Czmusic,...

For many people, even before coronavirus began, meditation was a great way to try and find some balance. And now, during the pandemic, even more of us are turning to it as a coping mechanism, to help reduce stress and anxiety.

If youre keen to try, its easy to get started, say experts.

Dr Megan Jones Bell, chief science officer at mindfulness and meditation app Headspace (headspace.com) says: Overall, Headspace downloads have doubled, with certain courses seeing an increase in users of over 1000%.

With regards to specific sessions, we have recently seen ten times the number of users starting our stressed calming meditation. Specifically in the UK, this has been a six-times increase. Our reframing anxiety home workout has also had a ten-times increase in the amount of UK users trying it out.

Meditation why now?

This is an unprecedented time for all of us. As the world collectively takes steps to safeguard physical health and wellbeing, its also important to take care of our minds, says Jones Bell.

During this challenging time, its normal to feel anxious and overwhelmed. While we work from home, we can get easily distracted from tasks and feel less motivation to be productive.

By being apart from family, friends and loved ones, our relationships with others may also feel strained. This stress is also exacerbated by the anxiety we may feel about what the future holds.

Mindfulness is proven to help people better manage difficult emotions by recognising these feelings and accepting that they are transient, helping you to let them go. Dedicating just a small fraction of every day to self-care can have a huge impact on our wellbeing, relationships, sleep, focus and productivity, adds Jones Bell.

Dominique Antiglio is trained in a type of dynamic meditation called Sophrology (be-sophro.com). She explains: This is a modern type of meditation, a practice for body and mind where we combine relaxation, breathing and body awareness work.

Antiglio has found a lot of beginners are coming to join her Instagram Live guided meditations during the pandemic. She encourages people to start the day with a practice instead of going straight for your phone, try meditating instead, she adds.

Shes also a fan of adding in stretching, so youre aware of your body, and any negative emotions which you can begin to work through.

Who can do it?

Mindfulness and meditation can be practised by anyone at any age, for any amount of time they want to spend on it, even if its for as little as three minutes a day, says Jones Bell.

You can also introduce meditation to children, which helps allow them to be present in the moment and free from any external thoughts or pressures.

Where and when?

While meditation can be done any time of day, the morning can be a good time, as it helps encourage the habit of mindfulness, releases feelings of fogginess and gives the mind clarity, and sets the day up on a positive note, says Jones Bell.

If you have outside space, that can be a lovely place to meditate.

You could start with just five minutes, says Antiglio. You can meditate standing, lying down.. if you breathe properly for five minutes a day, three to four times a week, itll start to add up to a transformation in your consciousness.

Finding quiet time can be tricky at the moment for some people, Antiglio acknowledges, particularly parents at home with children. But she suggests: Even if the kids are around, you can ask them to play for a moment and take five minutes. Theyll learn from that, seeing you breathing and closing your eyes youre setting a great example.

Get started today with this breathing exercise from Headspace.

1. After finding a quiet spot, close your eyes, and focus your attention to your breath.

2. Dont alter or rush it, allow it to continue at its own rhythm and simply observe the rising and falling sensation that it creates in your body.

3. Focus on the quality of each breath, asking without judgement: Is it long or short? Deep or shallow? Fast or slow?

4. Begin silently counting each breath: 1 as you inhale, 2 as you exhale, 3 on the next inhalation and so on, up to 10. Then start again from the beginning at stage 1.

5. If your mind wanders, dont worry, thats completely normal. Notice new thoughts, but then let them go, bringing your attention back to your breath.

6. Once you have completed 10 minutes, congratulate yourself, recognising how the process made you feel.

Visit link:

How meditation can help you cope during the pandemic - Enfield Independent

A woman practises yoga. Photo: Axel Schmies/Alamy Stock Photo

Chandan Padhan, yoga instructor at SwaSwara by CGH Earth, shares an asana and pranayama to help during the lockdown, for the fourth day of our series, #21DaysOfYoga. Ahead of International Yoga Day on 21 June, as many of us continue to stay indoors to help curb the pandemic, this series shares wisdom from the experts to help build a better yoga practice for all. SwaSwara, a 26-acre retreat in Gokarna, Karnataka comes with serene views of Om Beach and a blend of yoga, ayurvedic massages and activities from trekking to pottery to foster healing. Asanas, pranayama and meditation are all core yogic practices. Padhan shares an asana and pranayama below, followed by a dhyana yoga meditation led by Dr Cijith Sreedhar, Chief Medical Officer at Prakriti Shakti, Clinic of Natural Medicine by CGH Earth in Kerala.

While you are sheltering in place, practising yoga can be key to enhancing your health and well-being, as it increases vitality and appreciation of lifes wonders. Ardha Kati Chakrasana makes you supple and brings balance to the bodys energies.

Remember to breathe in, breathe out, and begin with a smile on your face.

The name Ardha Kati Chakrasana is derived from the Sanskrit words ardha meaning half; kati or waist, and chakra or wheel. We bend and form a half-wheel or half-moon posture with our arm and waist stretched fully towards the side. The arc formed in this asana relaxes both sides of the body, eases the flow of breath, removes stiffness in the thighs, hips and waist and improves flexibility. It also relieves pain in the lower back and tones your abdominal muscles, besides trimming excess fat from the waist.

Please do take some time out to engage in self-care amid the chaos and uncertainty. Daily practice helps you realise the benefits of yoga and ayurveda, which we can really use during these trying times. Follow the step-by-step guide to the half-moon pose in the video below, guided by Chandan Padhan, yoga instructor at SwaSwara, Karnataka.

In times of uncertainty, its hard to keep the mind calm. Pranayama has been practised in India for thousands of years. It uses breath to calm the mind and body, reducing stress and anxiety, and increasing vitality.

Nadi Shuddhi Pranayama, or alternate nostril breathing, has been proven to have numerous benefits ranging from improved concentration to reduced negative thoughts. It helps strengthen the lungs, improve blood circulation and maintain normal blood pressure. It also reduces the formation of free radicals and cellular injury in the body. Join SwaSwaras Chandan Padhan in the guided practice below.

When we look at traditional yoga texts, there is a clear difference between concentration and meditation, says Dr Cijith Sreedhar, Chief Medical Officer at Prakriti Shakti. The sage Patanjalis text Yoga Sutras explains the eight steps of yoga as yama (abstinences), niyama (observances), asana (postures), pranayama (breathing), pratyahara (withdrawal), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation), and samadhi (absorption). What is the difference between dharana and dhyana? Concentration is a single flow of thought. It is not a thoughtless state of mind; your conscious mind is active. It is helpful to reduce the mental processes from which stress arises, but it is not equal to the state of meditation, which is thoughtless. Dhyana yoga is an active process; you govern your prana and help your mind reach a thoughtless state. In this modern world, our stress is often a physiological response to our thoughts about a problem and its imagined dangers. We need to reverse that physiological arousal and calm your body, which can be attained only by avoiding unnecessary thoughts. Remember that the body can heal itself only when you are relaxed. We developed this method of meditation by understanding the real concept as per traditional yoga. Once you learn the technique, you can practise it regularly and gradually improve the feeling of thoughtlessness everyday.

See the article here:

21 Days of Yoga: The asana, pranayama and meditation that will help you through the lockdown - Cond Nast Traveller India

Lead story - The future of hands-free commerce - is COVID-19 the catalyst?

MyPOV: Overseas travelers to the U.S. have noted that the U.S. is taking its sweet @ss time not exactly out in front on contactless commerce. But is that finally changing? As Chris notes in Is COVID-19 the catalyst for tapping into a contactless payment revolution in the US?:

In contrast, figures out this week in the U.K. from U.K. Finance... revealed that 80% of people made a contactless purchase in 2019, up from 69% the year before. That is, of course, pre COVID-19, which is likely to prompt a further uptick.

Industry giants see an opening. Stuart picks the story up in Tracking contactless - how Visa and Mastercard are planning for a COVID-19 bump for hands-free digital commerce. Health needs and CX converge:

Leaving the public health implications to one side, a shift to contactless tech also provides financial services providers and retail merchants with a better customer experience.

But a so-called "contactless revolution" can widen the digital divide - not exactly the type of tension we need in the U.S. right now. Chris puts it well:

The challenge remains the extent to which digitally-excluded customers and the unbanked may find themselves living in a cashless society by default, perhaps locked out from being able to pay for some goods and services.

There are potential solutions to these problems, e.g. contactless payment cards bought with cash. As with most things tech, a good rollout calls for a thoughtful design.

Diginomica picks - my top stories on diginomica this week

Vendor analysis, diginomica style. It was a news blowout from collaboration economy darlings, each with their dilemmas and upsides:

Meanwhile, Derek's ServiceNow Knowledge 2020 coverage caravan rolls out, with the fun of a sit-down with quote machine and CEO Bill McDermott:

A couple more vendor picks, without the quotables:

Jon's grab bag - Neil examines the regulatory resistance to telemedicine in Telemedicine adoption amidst a pandemic - can we overcome the barriers?. Sooraj documents how a company avoided ransomeware by taking a wake-up call to heart in Aston Martin CIO - WannaCry pushed us into a cyber security refresh.

Guest contributor Simon Griffiths shares How to re-engineer business processes in uncertain times. Uncle Den opens up the digi-kimono, and details how (not) to make your core team nuts to deliver platform upgrades in record time in How not to drive users and developers crazy.

Genuine change is about action, not platitudes or P.R. festivals. Ergo, I enjoyed Jason Corsello's Diversity & The Future of Work We Can No Longer Sit on the Sidelines! Corsello has a similar ax to grind, and wants to see companies push for corporate change as well:

As leaders of people and organizations, those same executives can stand up to racism by the examples they create in their own companies.

Where to get started? That can be an excuse or a legit area of question. To counter this, Corsello runs through ten action steps, from addressing pay inequity to rolling out mentoring programs, a la Slack's "Rising Tides" for diverse, emerging leaders. I doubt any organization could give themselves a solid grade on all ten - including diginomica. We all have work to do, but it's the right work.

Honorable mention

Speaking of incredibly exciting developments in A.I. respect for the bruising lessons of tech history, I got a kick out of this weekend's discovery:

But hey, there's good news: A.I. has come a long way from 1972, making our workplaces so much better:

Speaking of the future, McKinsey got way ahead of themselves with this extravagant headline:

Without doubt, the most concerning whiff of the week: The May jobs report had 'misclassification error' that made the unemployment rate look lower than it is. Here's what happened. Thankfully, even after the three percentage point error, the news was still better than expected, but that's a market whopper nonetheless.

I need to leave you with a lighter headline than that. How about Bill Would Prevent the President from Nuking Hurricanes.

Not quite light enough? Okay, I'll revert to animals. How about this video of a pet cockatoo strenuously objecting, in many languages known and unknown, about a pending trip to the vet? See if that doesn't put a smile on your Monday. Catch you next time...

If you find an #ensw piece that qualifies for hits and misses - in a good or bad way - let me know in the comments as Clive (almost) always does. Most Enterprise hits and misses articles are selected from my curated @jonerpnewsfeed. 'myPOV' is borrowed with reluctant permission from the ubiquitous Ray Wang.

Continued here:

Enterprise hits and misses - contactless payments on the rise, equality on the corporate agenda, and Zoom and Slack in review - Diginomica

Sanctuary and serenity Mazandaran province, in northern Iran. Photograph: Angelo Andreas Zinna/Alamy

Revolutionary Guards pull a family off the road to check for forbidden items in their silver Buick; they find neither alcohol nor music but Gabriel Garca Mrquezs One Hundred Years of Solitude. After passing the copy around, they conclude that politically, it was not a dangerous book. The censors have been less forgiving of Shokoofeh Azars first novel for adults, which was banned in Iran, though many copies have been printed underground. It is now on the shortlist for the 2020 International Booker prize a first for fiction translated from Farsi.

As signalled by the nod to Garca Mrquez, the novel applies magic realism with a Persian twist to Iran after the Islamic revolution of 1979, focusing on one family destroyed by the upheaval. It opens in 1988 as a mothers grief-driven epiphany at the top of a greengage plum tree coincides with the execution of her son, hanged without trial and dumped in a mass grave in the deserts south of Tehran one of fifteen thousand people killed for their political beliefs in the 1980s, alone.

The youths 13-year-old sister Bahar had burned to death in a cellar when zealots stormed the family home in Tehran a mansion filled with Persian poetry, tar music and an uncensored library, from Rumi and Shakespeare to Sadegh Hedayats modern classic The Blind Owl. It is ostensibly the dead girls ghost who narrates how her bereaved parents, Reza and Hushang, her sister Beeta and brother Sohrab, sought sanctuary and serenity in the ancient forests of Mazandaran in northern Iran. As four guards and a mullah pursue them, Sohrab is removed in handcuffs, Reza abandons their forest home, and Beeta, grappling with delusions, morphs into a mermaid in the Caspian sea.

Azar deploys dreams and Persian folklore, from forest jinns to black snow, to mythologise a civilisation devouring itself

Footnotes proliferate: Azar deploys dreams and an encyclopaedic knowledge of Persian folklore, from forest jinns to black snow, to mythologise a revolutions decay and a civilisation devouring itself. The insatiable eight-year Iran-Iraq war, stoked with the flesh of child mine-sweepers, is poignantly evoked through orphan mothers who bury their sons with the small golden bells that are tied around childrens ankles so they wouldnt get lost. In a supernatural revenge fantasy, these ranks of cannon fodder join forces with the disappeared to vanquish the stonily arrogant Ayatollah Khomeini in his subterranean palace of mirrors, his corpse emitting the same stench that all dictators secrete in the end.

Some playful prose, as when Reza and a blue-eyed Italian backpacker find themselves high upon the enlightenment of love, suggests a Farsi Isabel Allende. But the main problem is an ill-conceived, and poorly controlled, teenage narrative (I was nothing but a delusional dead person) more reminiscent of magic realisms New Age spinoff a cloying genre that went global in the 1990s with novels such as Chitra Banerjee Divakarunis The Mistress of Spices. The plot itself suffers from blind alleys (an irrelevant treasure trunk); a premature climax (Khomeinis early nemesis); and a limp ending.

The author, who sought political asylum in Australia in 2011, has said she wrote the novel primarily for western readers. But, despite a catalogue of appalling events, we learn surprisingly little of the history behind the revolution. The shahs Literacy Corps is mentioned, but not his secret police. In place of the historical forces at work in Garca Mrquezs fiction, we have national myth. Bahars immolation is likened to the Arab conquest of Persia, when Islam ousted Zoroastrianism around the seventh century. The family persist in referring to this modern orgy of book burning and killing as the Arab invasion: They came and burnt, plundered, and killed. Just like 1,400 years ago.

The US-based translator, whose name the UK publishers have withheld for reasons of safety and at the translators request, has made a good job of sections. But, too often, it reads like a draft, tripping up the reader. Consider this description of a treehouse: It had a window facing the sunrise and a door facing its setting the suns setting, that is. Or this: Life is precisely that which she and others were prodigiously killing the moment itself.

In the most convincing section, set decades after the revolution, the bereaved father passes morality police and chador-clad women in Tehran, feeling alien in his own country. Detained, he writes a record of his life, investing desperate hope in the power of the imagination to transport him from the stale minds of his captors. Few would quarrel with such a sentiment. Yet to overlook the books flaws risks what South African writers under apartheid, eager for a robust critical response to their art, memorably scorned as solidarity criticism. It would also be regrettable if the claims made for this ambitious but uneven novel deterred even a few readers from venturing further into Farsi literature.

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar, translated by Anonymous, is published by Europa Editions (RRP 13.99). To order a copy go toguardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

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The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree review magic realism in Iran - The Guardian