If youve been following the filming of the new Sex and the City reboot, And Just Like That, you will have noticed that a handful of Carrie Bradshaws signature sartorial choices are making cameos. The Fendi baguette bag, the blue velvet corsage, the black studded belt. And, last Thursday, Sarah Jessica Parker gave fans on Instagram a hint that the iconic tulle and white ankle boots she favoured so heavily in the original series would be making a comeback.

One thing has changed though a bag. More specifically, a plain old canvas carry bag from NPR the very worthy, intellectually hip National Public Radio service, where, it is rumoured, Carrie may have her own podcast.

Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw on the set of And Just Like That. Credit:Getty

Its also been rumoured that Mr Big loses his fortune, which might explain the dip into a work freebie. But with a younger, more diverse writing team on board for the new series, it might be that Carrie, ever the fashion pioneer, has woken up to what even Princess Catherine has made a habit of tucking the more ostentatious sections of ones wardrobe away in favour of plain old high street threads.

By choosing a canvas tote you show that you care, says Daiane Scaraboto, Associate Professor of Marketing at Melbourne University, adding the inclusion of one is most definitely a statement on conscious consumption.

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The responsibility to solve the worlds wicked problems the climate crisis, for example, has been increasingly pushed on to consumers, she says. Individuals then feel they should make right choices when it comes to consumption, and a canvas tote is one of the most widely spread symbols of eco-friendliness.

Many luxury brands and consumers are now developing a discourse that luxury is sustainable because it has quality; it lasts, and it can be resold. I think we will see a mix of both in the post-lockdown world: canvas tote bags and designer bags. What is interesting is that these can happily co-exist and their choices be justified with the same rationale.

By choosing a canvas tote you show that you care.

If the tote that Sarah Jessica Parker has held on to in no less than three different scenes, isn't her own bag and is instead a bona fide prop it will be the perfect anti-fashion symbol for these times. The tote is traditionally a grocery bag, and the shops are, quite literally, the only place to be right now.

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And just like that, a tote bag enters the Sex and the City universe - Sydney Morning Herald

There are two pandemics happening right now, a medical one and an information one. Both wildly destructive to our health.

We have been inundated with a massive wave of information since the Delta outbreak in Sydney began. Every intricacy about each vaccine, stay-at-home orders for every region, government grants. The next day more explosive intricacies and details about the vaccine, new stay-at-home orders, new government grant analysis.

Information overload is becoming dangerous.Credit:Istock

Then we have every person weighing in on all of this on social media. About 6000 tweets are posted onto Twitter every second. Thats 350,000 tweets a minute or 500 million tweets a day. COVID NSW has been trending for weeks, full of tweets devoted to giving us even more information, opinions, criticisms about COVID-19. The same thing is happening on Facebook, Reddit, WhatsApp, websites and blogs. The list goes on and on.

We are mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted from information overload. The problem is that that exhaustion can encourage us to step out of the mainstream news and seek out simpler information and solutions. Ive been told multiple times by friends and colleagues lately that they have stopped listening to The News, stating that its too much and that theyre losing hope.

Hello misinformation, fake news and conspiracy theories! Posts on WhatsApp, Messenger, Facebook present extreme yet easy to understand solutions. Such posts are everywhere and because we are information-tired they are becoming our quick-fix, go-to place to keep up to date.

Think of the information landscape as a layered cake. The bottom layer is the real and fact-based information that we find on the Service NSW website or from reputable news platforms. This, however, is squashed by layers and layers of opinions, conspiracy theories, unfounded information and lies that enter our field of vision every time we go online. Its appealing because it is easy to understand, theres not too much detail and it is written to convince us.

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The problem is all this content sits alongside each other when we see it online, and its difficult to differentiate one layer from the other. We are highly vulnerable right now, our faith in authorities is waning and, as a result, we can make some poor decisions based on unfounded, non-fact-based content.

Ive been studying our engagement with technology for over 15 years and I see our digital lifestyle much more clearly than I ever have. With all the good that technology offers, the information-overload/misinformation nexus is a defining feature of the digital age, and we have to shape our practices so that we stay healthy despite this. By we, I mean us as individuals, but also the government and other places we need to get the facts from.

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The other pandemic threatening our health: online misinformation - Sydney Morning Herald

By Scott Dust 5 minute Read

For decades scholars have debated the relative importance of cognitive intelligence (IQ) versus emotional intelligence (EQ) to workplace performance. Research shows both are helpful. However, in the era of COVID-19, my bet is on emotional intelligence playing a much stronger role.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and regulate emotions in ways that help us think more clearly and work with others more effectively. Such an ability is a superpower for managing uncertainty and ambiguitysomething everyone is experiencing these days.

For example, many employees are being asked to come back to the office. This is causing employees to adjust their routines and deal with vague and constantly changing COVID-19 policies. Some are adjusting to a completely remote work environment. Others are still trying to figure out what exactly a hybrid work environment entails. Worse yet, some are unemployed and fighting through Zoom-only interviews. These experiences are emotionally demanding and necessitate conversations with others that require tact and empathy.

In research with my colleagues at Miami University, weve found that emotional intelligence might be particularly well-suited for dealing with work-related challenges. In our 2018 study published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, we asked 157 undergraduates to complete a well-validated, ability-based emotional intelligence assessment. We then contacted them in a follow-up survey more than 10 years later, when these same individuals were adults with full-time jobs.

From our research, we found that the higher employees were in emotional intelligence, the more likely they would overcome one of the biggest challenges of their work-lifeemployment gapsbreaks in employment that are either involuntary (like a termination) or voluntary (like a gap used to care for family).

Specifically, we found that employees higher in emotional intelligence were not only more likely to get back on their feet, but also to find jobs that aligned with their skills, within organizations that aligned with their values. This is important, because person-job fit and person-organization fit relate to a host of beneficial outcomes, such as job satisfaction and employee performance.

Prior work has focused on why emotional intelligence improves performance in the moment. This is too narrow. Work success is a marathon, not a sprint. Your cognitive intelligence might help you solve a problem quickly and efficiently at any one point in time. Emotional intelligence, however, is a long-term game. Success is more likely when one properly manages moment-to-moment emotions and interactions with others over a long period of time, which eventually facilitates future success.

To help illustrate this point, consider another study published by my colleague, Dr. Joseph Rode, and his team, in the Journal of Vocational Behavior. The study investigated whether emotional intelligence was related to long-term salary; a popular indicator of objective career success. In this study 126 undergraduates completed an emotional intelligence assessment, and were then surveyed more than 10 years later. As expected, emotional intelligence was strongly associated with higher salaries, even after controlling for cognitive intelligence factors like IQ and grade point average.

Even more interesting is why this seemed to happen. Individuals higher in emotional intelligence had higher salaries because they had at least one mentorsomeone who holds a senior position (and not necessarily their manager) that takes an active interest in developing the individuals career. This signals that the reason emotional intelligence is important for success is that it helps people navigate work by seeking out the support of others, something that is emotional and psychosocial in nature.

In work environments where volatility and change are ever-present, performance becomes more of a long-term endeavor. Its about staying afloat and keeping the long-term goal in mind by artfully taking up resources. This suggests that during the era of COVID-19 employees should be considering several emotionally intelligent approaches to work. Along those lines, outlined below are some of the key elements of emotional intelligence and descriptions of how they relate to the current work environment.

Self-awareness entails recognizing your emotions and how they are connected to your thoughts and behaviors. This might be especially important with dealing with burnout, which is at an all-time high. You cant operate at your full capacity if youre not realistic about the degree to which you are emotionally exhausted.

Additionally, as organizations begin implementing new policies on working in the office, from home, or some combination of the two, its important that you are aware of how this affects you. You are responsible for maximizing your work while maintaining your sanity given your unique needs, tendencies, and preferences.

Further, other awareness is important. Other awareness entails recognizing the emotions of others. This manifests as being more empathetic, such that you recognize the needs of others. It can also manifest as being attuned to the sociocultural dynamics of situations.

Were in a phase of work where work-home balance has taken a back-seat to work-home integration. Give others the benefit of the doubt about their energy and availability; be empathetic and work hard at having transparent and authentic interactions. Additionally, tread lightly on conversations about COVID-19, as not everyone will agree on the best way forward. Opinions vary widely on several issues, such as when and whether its safe to return to the office and whether or not to get vaccinated.

Self-regulation entails being able to manage your emotions in ways that are healthy and situation-appropriate. You are able to separate stimulus from response such that you can choose to respond to stimuli in ways that are most appropriate.

Keep in mind that everyone handles change differently. If you are lower in tolerance for ambiguity, for example, learn how to self-regulate and manage your emotions so that they dont cloud your judgment. Relatedly, if there are return-to-work- policies that you disagree with, its important to control emotionally charged reactions that might result in decisions you later regret.

Relationship management entails knowing how to develop and maintain good relationships, communicate clearly, inspire and influence others, work well in a team, and manage conflict.

When work gets challenging, we tend to become more self-interested as opposed to collective-minded. Keep in mind that team success tends to trickle down to individual success. And, your colleagues are your primary source of coping resourceswhether it be for social support or through collaborative problem-solving.

Work is not a never-ending series of Rubiks Cubes that need to be solved. If it were, cognitive intelligence alone would be fine. Instead, todays work environment is more like being stuck inside an escape room experience with your teammates, but with vague instructions and blindfolds. Cognitive intelligence cant hurtbut if the chaos of the past year continues, emotional intelligence will become increasingly paramount to success.

Scott Dust, PhD, is a management professor at the Farmer School of Business, Miami University, and the chief research officer at Cloverleaf, an HR-tech platform that helps organizations create amazing teams.

Excerpt from:
EQ and returning to work - Fast Company

illustration-of-spiral-arrangement-in-nature-golden-ratio-concept-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg

Consciousness, as a concept, is so easy to experience and so hard to define. Or explain. The most popular current theory of consciousness is Integrated Information Theory (IIT), pioneered by neuroscientist Giulio Tononi and championed by Allen Institute neuroscientist Christof Koch. For the purpose of discussing IIT, science writer Mike Hogan works with this definition:

Consciousness for purposes of this theory is defined as self-awareness or the Central-Identity; the inner-voice that allows your brain to talk to itself, an awareness that you exist, the rationalization of your own relevance to that existence, and an awareness of the cause and effect of your actions in regard to yourself and your environment.

But now, how does IIT account for consciousness? On that view, it arises from the mathematics of our universe:

Integrated Information Theory is based on mathematical concepts such as the Golden Ratio (or the irrational number Phi ), which because of its prevalence in the geometry of the natural world, from the formation of flower petals and galaxies to hurricanes, is sometimes called the divine proportion; in its most basic explanation, the Golden Ratio, is derived from a sequence of numbers that follows a pattern where each successive number is a sum of the two numbers preceding it

Seen this way, Hogan suggests that consciousness emerges from the activity of the brain as a whole the way a nation state emerges from a variety of cultural components.

Similarly, as J. Scott Turner points out in Purpose and Desire: What Makes Something Alive and Why Modern Darwinism Has Failed to Explain It, a hive mind emerges in a termite colony from the collective behavior of the termites. It is not in any one termites brain nor in a special place in all of them. A hive mind can only be understood as an emerging process.

In other words, the basic idea is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

In recent years, IIT, first proposed by Tononi in 2004, has been pitted against another leading theory, Global Workspace Theory (GWT) defended by Stanislas Dehaene of the Collge de France in Paris According to GWT, the theory of Bernard Joseph Baars that suggests that consciousness involves the global distribution of focal information to many parts of the brain. Pam N., Global Workspace Theory, Psychology Dictionary.

Whats quite interesting about IIT is its panpsychist character. Its champion Koch is explicit about that:

But who else, besides myself, has experiences? Because you are so similar to me, I abduce that you do. The same logic applies to other people. Apart from the occasional solitary solipsist this is uncontroversial. But how widespread is consciousness in the cosmos at large? How far consciousness extends its dominion within the tree of life becomes more difficult to abduce as species become more alien to us.

One line of argument takes the principles of integrated information theory (IIT) to their logical conclusion. Some level of experience can be found in all organisms, it says, including perhaps in Paramecium and other single-cell life forms. Indeed, according to IIT, which aims to precisely define both the quality and the quantity of any one conscious experience, experience may not even be restricted to biological entities but might extend to non-evolved physical systems previously assumed to be mindless a pleasing and parsimonious conclusion about the makeup of the universe.

As we noted last month, thats MIT Reader in which Koch is expounding these views, not Levitation News and Views.

IIT may be part of a trend in science in which emergence and panpsychist theories are slowly replacing materialist and physicalist ones. On that view, the growing comfort with panpsychism in various venues is because materialism according to which the whole is merely the sum of the parts is increasingly doubted as an accurate description of the world we live in. Analytical philosopher Galen Strawson slowly moved from physicalism to panpsychism because it made more sense to hold that our consciousness is built up from that of electrons than that consciousness doesnt really exist.

Time will tell how significant the trend toward acceptance of panpsychism as a defensible science position is and what specific changes it introduces. But the fact that emergence and panpsychism are being mainstreamed is worth keeping an eye on.

You may also wish to read:

Why would a neuroscientist choose panpsychism over materialism? It seems to have come down to a choice between nothing is conscious and everything is conscious Materialism becomes incoherent when it requires us to believe that we only imagine we are conscious thats a basic error in logic.

Why some think emergence is replacing materialism in science. Materialism, in the form of reductionism, posits a world without novelty but that is not the world we live in. Philosophers and scientists who champion emergence over reductionism argue that the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

and

Quest for consciousness: A historic contest is announced. The two theories to be tested pit information processing against causal power as a model of consciousness. One side must admit it is wrong.

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Quick Facts on IIT (the Leading Theory of Consciousness) - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

A Texas Republican was mocked for admitting that people think he is the dumbest guy in Congress, after a speech also ridiculed for its stupidity.

On Thursday, Louie Gohmert stood in front of Congress and rambled on about college admission tests (SATs), Black Lives Matter campaigners destroying western-style families, and Democrat senator Bernie Sanders sending American billionaires to gulags.

We were doing better on our SATs until president Carter created a department of education, Rep Gohmert told the House, [and] when I took it I did very well, it got me into the honours program at [Texas] A&M.

Im sure that shocks people that think Im the dumbest guy in Congress.

Rep Gohmerts complaints about the department of education were afterwards ridiculed, because SATs scores, in fact, begun to fall before its creation in 1979.

According to statistics from PrepScholar, average American scores for maths and critical writing fell from 521 and 505 in 1974, to 512 and 498 in 1975 four years before Jimmy Carter, a Democrat, founded a department of education.

Joy Reid, a correspondent and TV anchor for MSNBC, wrote: Submitted without comment....

He's lying about the time frame of SAT scores falling so he's probably lying about his scores also, another critic wrote on Twitter, SAT scores started falling in the sixties at about the same time Gohmert was taking his.

Any grown ass middle aged man who still feels compelled to brag about his SAT score is indeed the dumbest man in Congress, added another.

If Louie Gohmert has the self-awareness to know that people say he's the dumbest guy in Congress, a Twitter critic wrote, does that make him no longer the dumbest guy? Or just the most aware dumbest guy?

Also on Thursday, the Texas Republican told Congress: I read last year that one of the basic goals of Black Lives Matter was to destroy western style families.

In fact, it removed a section of its website about "disrupt[ing] the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure., and according to PolitiFact, did not call for the destruction of western style families, but a move away from relying on it.

Rep Gohmert also accused the Democratic party and senator Sanders who has called for a tax on wealth of taking money from US billionaires to win, and then youll either go to a gulag, or youll be put to death.

The false allegations were also ridiculed, with a Twitter user writing: Louie Gohmert gets crazier every year. I'd say that you can't make this s**t up but he does it every time.

Read the original:
Gohmert admits people think he's 'the dumbest guy in Congress' in speech immediately mocked for its stupidity - The Independent

By Richard Baum, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles Failure of the 28 Bolsheviks

The revolutionary mass movement orchestrated by Mao Zedong and Zhu De in the Jiangxi Soviet Republic was a major concern for Chiang Kai-shek. He concentrated on terminating the communist threat rather than dealing with the military threat from the Japanese. By the mid-1930s, he was able to create a serious rift within the Communist leadership.

In 1930, a group of pro-Moscow Communists dubbed the 28 Bolsheviks were sent to take control of the Soviet government from Mao on Joseph Stalins orders. However, Chiang Kai-sheks continuous assaults on Jiangxi Soviet Republic led the Red Army to execute a hastily-planned escape to ensure their survival.

In January 1935, the retreating Red Army forces paused to rest in the town of Zunyi, in eastern Guizhou Province. There the Communist Party held an important leadership conference, in the course of which the pro-Moscow 28 Bolsheviks received a sharp rebuke for having failed to prevent the Red Armys defeat in the fifth annihilation campaign.

Their top leader, Bo Gu, was held responsible for the debacle and was removed from power. With that, the Autumn Harvest veterans assumed control of the party, with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai in overall command.

Learn more about rural misery and rebellion, 18421860.

By this time, Mao Zedong began to reveal his darker side, including his overwhelming ambition, manipulativeness, and ruthless nature. Not content to share power with Zhou Enlai, the ambitious Mao moved to undermine Zhous co-equal status through various strategies, including the use of blackmail.

Zhou did not relish a political showdown with Mao, and he volunteered to take a back seat. From that point on, Mao Zedong completely dominated Zhou, manipulating and intimidating him virtually at will, and assumed full control of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

Learn more about the hundred days of reform and the boxer uprising.

The escape of the Communists was known as the Long March and included 85,000 soldiers, 15,000 party and government officials, and only 35 women. With Mao now in charge of planning for the Long March, the Communists set as their final destination the city of Yanan in northern Shaanxi Province, some 800 miles to the northwest.

By the time the Red Army reached Yanan at the end of 1935, 13 months after they set out, the Communists had traversed nine provinces and crossed snow-covered peaks, raging rivers, and uninhabitable forests, from Western Guangdong to eastern Tibet.

Of the original 100,000 Long Marchers, only 8,000 reached their destination. The rest, more than nine-tenths of the original Communist force, had either been killed, taken prisoner, or had dropped out along the way. Having finally reached Yanan, out of reach of Chiang Kai-sheks Nationalist armies, Maos forces rested.

At the time the Communists were undertaking their arduous Long March, back in Nanjing, Chiang Kai-shek and his American-educated wife, Soong Mei-ling, were launching a New Life Movement.

Designed to foster a new spiritual awakening for the Chinese people, the movement drew from both Confucian and Christian moral traditions, accompanied by liberal political rhetoric drawn from Sun Yat-sens Three Peoples Principles.

The movement sought to create a new national consciousness based on the traditional Chinese virtues of propriety, justice, integrity, and self-awareness. It also stressed Christian values such as plain living, personal hygiene, cleanliness, and self-discipline.

Chiang once boasted that when properly implemented, the New Life Movement would lead to the social regeneration of China.

However, in reality, many of the precepts of the New Life Movement were essentially a reprise of failed Confucian traditions and were highly reflective of Chiangs own deepening right-wing authoritarian tendencies.

The movement offered no economic reforms to ameliorate the poverty of Chinas long-suffering workers and peasants, and no political framework to allow ordinary Chinese to participate in deliberating the important issues of the day. Indeed, at its core, Chiang Kai-sheks New Life Movement was an attempt to create an orderly, well-disciplined, highly regimented, conformist, and obedient society under patriarchal leadership.

This is a transcript from the video series The Fall and Rise of China. Watch it now, on The Great Courses Plus.

In 1932, in response to a growing Chinese patriotic movement to boycott Japanese goods, a shipload of fully armed Japanese marines came ashore in Shanghai. After a brief exchange of gunfire with Nationalist troops, the Japanese commander ordered an aerial bombardment of the city, followed by a full-scale ground attack on Shanghais defenders.

Three divisions of Japanese soldiers were committed to the battle, which ended in an armistice three months later. However, early in 1933, Japanese forces struck south of their Manchukuo stronghold, attacking Jehol Province, north of Beijing. Then, in the spring of the same year, they occupied a strategic mountain pass at the eastern terminus of the Great Wall at Shanhaiguan, less than 150 miles from Beijing. Soon, they moved into Hebei Province, south of the Great Wall.

Confronted with such audacious acts of Japanese aggression, Chiang Kai-shek temporized, ordering his outmanned troops to stand down and seek a cease-fire, rather than fight with the Japanese. But, anti-Japanese sentiment had been building steadily in China ever since the Japanese seizure of Manchuria, and in December of 1935 thousands of Chinese students demonstrated in several Chinese cities demanding that Chiang cease his vendetta against the Communists and instead create a national united front to resist Japan.

Learn more about the self-strengthening movement, 18601890.

Chiang Kai-shek refused to abandon his plan to wipe out the Communists and ordered an attack on Yanan. His best commanding officer, Zhang Xueliang had no intention of fighting fellow Chinese, Communists or otherwise. Ever since the Japanese militarists had assassinated his father, the Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin, the Young Marshal, as he was known, had been waiting to fight Japan.

When Chiang learned of the Young Marshals refusal to attack Yanan, the Generalissimo flew to the city of Xian, 100 miles south of Yanan, to confront him. But Zhang turned the tables on his commander-in-chief, kidnapping him in the middle of the night and holding him hostage.

The Young Marshals demands were simpleChiang Kai-shek must call off his planned attack on the Communists and form a second united front with the Chinese Communist Party, directed against the Japanese.

At first, Chiang stubbornly refused; but when his wife learned of his predicament, she flew to Xian and convinced her husband to agree to the rebels demands. And so, a second Guomindang/Chinese Communist Party, the united front, came into being in December of 1936, a full decade after the first united front had ended abruptly with Chiangs murderous coup in Shanghai.

After Mao Zedong took charge of the planning for the Long March, the final destination was the city of Yanan in northern Shaanxi Province.

The New Life Movement sought to create a new national consciousness based on traditional Chinese virtues of propriety, justice, integrity, and self-awareness.

Zhang Xueliangs demands were simpleChiang Kai-shek must call off his planned attack on the Communists and form a second united front with the Chinese Communist Party, directed against the Japanese.

See the article here:
Chaos in China: The Turning Point in Modern Chinese History - The Great Courses Daily News

As internal coaches, we are deeply embedded into Shopify's unique context and have developed powerful relationships with our clients and stakeholders. Our focus is on creating confidential, safe and catalytic learning spaces that empower our clients to bring the best of who they are to what they do. We play many roles to support client growth - helping them to increase their self-awareness, expand their ability to see and take different perspectives, increase their relational capacity, think more creatively and act more effectively to navigate through the issues and challenges they face on the way to delivering on our mission.

We are looking for coaches who have diverse life and professional experiences, are dedicated to the craft of coaching, committed to bringing their best selves, deeply curious and devoted learners, and team players. You will be working with highly intelligent, driven, and growth oriented people, which will challenge and grow your skill set. You will also have the opportunity to work both in 1-1 and team learning environments.

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Coach (EMEA) - remote job with Shopify | 165137 - The Business of Fashion

CHERRY HILL, NJ Happy weekend, Cherry Hill! As more local businesses and venues reopen and it becomes safer to gather in small groups, don't miss what's new on your Cherry Hill Patch community calendar. Here's a roundup of local events coming up in the area this weekend.

Wondering how you can get your event in the next roundup? You can add it to the calendar using this form. As always, it's free to post an event in your community. To reach more people, you can promote your event and share it nearby for $1 per day per community.

See more local events, or add your own, on the Cherry Hill Patch community calendar.

Editor's note: This article was automatically generated based on event information mainly provided by community members. Patch has not independently verified most of this information, always check with organizers to confirm posted events are proceeding as planned. Click on any event in the list for more details. You can also reach out to content@patch.com with any questions or other feedback about this article.

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This Weekends Cherry Hill Area Events - Patch.com

The world is fighting an invisible enemy at the moment which has not only taken numerous lives but also deeply affected the physical and mental health of people. As such, it becomes extremely important to calm down the body and mind and try to keep stress at bay. One of the ways to do that, as suggested by experts, is meditation.

The power of connecting with ourselves helps to take care of our mental health and physical health. One of the most important ways to achieve this is through meditation, which helps create awareness about our emotions, go beyond and understand ourselves more, said Shashank Lalwani, Mindfulness and Life Enhancement coach at Institute of Nutrition and Fitness Sciences (INFS).

However, when one sits down to meditate for the first time, it can get difficult to concentrate as the mind wanders and certain uncontrollable thoughts float out of the way. In order to combat this, here are some tips on how to begin meditating and build concentration levels, he told indianexpress.com.

Acceptance of thoughts

As humans, it is only natural for us to catch random thoughts when trying to concentrate while meditating or otherwise. However, one common mistake beginners make is shutting these thoughts and assuming they fail to meditate peacefully.

Instead of ignoring such thoughts, one should accept and acknowledge them and move back to concentrating on the meditation session. To achieve this acceptance, begin with setting small goals concentrate for three or five minutes and gradually, with practice, increase the meditation time, he suggested. Acceptance helps in gradually increasing the concentration level.

Visualise

Many people follow a certain guide to building concentration. It is helpful to discover oneself while keeping the mind occupied with a happy memory. Visualising fond memories for a minute or so helps to replace random thoughts and go back to the meditation session, said Lalwani.

Draw a shape in mind

Apart from overall development, meditation also helps in focusing on self-awareness. If one deviates from concentrating during meditation, an important tip is to pick a shape that you may like.

Imagine filling it up with a favourite colour and visualise a ray from the centre of the shape touching the centre of the forehead. This exercise helps collate all thoughts and release others and bring back the focus, opening the blockages in your mind, he shared.

Read the original post:
World Meditation Day: Simple tips to improve concentration - The Indian Express

Meditation is one of those things that many people do, but seldom do we hear about how others actually do it. So we decided to ask nine women in the wellness space to share exactly what apps, podcasts, books, and the like they use to meditate on a regular basis.

For me, I've also found some tools this past year that have helped me commit to my practice. Tara Brach's podcast and guided meditations have both centered me in times of deep anxiety and stress, and also taught me about radical acceptance, compassion, and self-love. I've also found that I really like to meditate with a Core "meditation trainer," which tracks my heartbeat and heart-rate variability to give me feedback about how my body is doing. I also love Mala Collective's meditation cushions, which support a healthy posture but also look pretty when I'm not using them (important!).

If you meditate, you probably have a favorite guide of some kind to help you go deeper, but it's always inspiring to discover new resources. We can't wait to check out some of these options!

Photo: Courtesy of Wilma Mae Basta

"My well-being is an eternal practice in staying grounded, cultivating self-awareness, and maintaining an open heart. It is always a balancing act. One tool I use to achieve this includes The Pocket Pema ChodronI meditate daily in front of a small altar, upon which sits my pocket Pema Chodron book, which includes impactful passages from her decades of writing. I read one page before each session. It gives me a focus for self-awareness throughout the day. It's also worth listening to her audiobooks. Her voice is comforting, she is lighthearted without being dogmatic, and the teachings she shares are so helpful, especially during the pandemic.

"Another tool I use is Relax Melodies. It has been said that I sleep like it's a jobit's my superpower. However, sometimes my sleep pattern is out of sync or other stressors upset my sleep. This app is amazing because I can craft my own blend of sounds that create my own unique adult lullaby, and I always drift off. My go-to sound is a thunderstorm with light rain.

"And one more tool is Insight Timer. I've been using this app for five or six years. It has helped me to level up my meditation practice. I use it mainly to customize my own style of meditation, but it also offers teachings and lessons from a myriad of practitioners from around the world. I love it."

Photo: Courtesy of Polly Roderick

"I have several outlets to help sever my mind from how manic life becomes. I find old-school jazz music super relaxing when I log off on a Friday night, as my weeks are so crazy. There is nothing like lighting a couple of candles, putting on a face mask, and listening to Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald!

"I often listen to meditation before bed if I feel a little anxious or manic. My favorite is Agapi Stasinopoulos. She is so positive and has the most calming voice. She talks of escaping to your own paradise. Mine is always visualizing drifting on a lake past a trickling waterfall. There's a warm breeze with birds singing as my fingers touch the surface of the water. It gently redirects my mind from my days full of stress.

"Affirmations are also very helpful. There are times when I really feel overwhelmed and out of balance. On those days I stop, take a few deep breaths, and I repeat my chosen affirmations: 'I am happy, I am healthy, I have a beautiful life.' Repeating this really helps!"

Photo: Courtesy of Grace Okafor

"My favorite way to get grounded is actually listening and singing along to old-school music on Spotify or listening to meditative videos or songs on YouTube, like the sound of rain, while visualizing.

"Some people read books or listen to podcasts, but this is what I prefer. It works a lot for me and quickly gets me to a happy spot where I feel refreshed, positive, happy, and ready to go. I love listening to Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and Toni Braxton."

Photo: Courtesy of Niye Aniekan-Attang

"I am all about self-care, which keeps me feeling really grounded. When I have had a busy or stressful week, I look forward to self-care on the weekends. It could be as simple as using the Calm app for short meditations or as elaborate as giving myself an at-home facial, pedicure, and body scrub."

Photo: Courtesy of Chrissy Papetti

"The To Be Magnetic (TBM) Pathway membership has been my home base on my personal growth journey for years now. With TBM's Neural Manifestation process, fusing science and spirituality, I've reached new heights of radical self-awareness and, in doing so, have reclaimed my power over my reality.

"The TBM meditations, or 'deep imaginings,' have led me to uncover the root cause of what's held me back and stopped me from fully embracing my authentic self and manifesting what I desire in life. Through TBM's manifestation method, I've learned how to access the freedom that comes with releasing past patterns and rewiring my mind-body connection to be fearless in leading my most authentic life.

"And The Code of the Extraordinary Mind by Vishen Lakhiani has raised me to new heights on my personal-growth path. I may even dare to say that this book is a mandatory companion for anyone committed to living their best life on their terms. Lakhiani manages to extract wisdom from some of the world's greatest change makers, teachers, and thought leaders and synthesize it into digestible, powerful frameworks for anyone to use to transform their life.

"My favorite thing about this book is that it highlights how much of your own destiny lies within your own powerif only you understand the tools you need to shift your perspective on what's possible for your life. In an endless sea of surface-level, redundant self-growth books out there, The Code of the Extraordinary Mind differentiates itself by using cutting-edge science and spirituality to deliver practical methods for how to live a life that's truly extraordinary."

Photo: Courtesy of Jamie Leilani Pelayo

"The most life-changing book that I've read is Eastern Body, Western Mind by Anodea Judith, along with its companion workbook, The Sevenfold Journey, which includes meditation and body-work practices to help release energy blockages within the body, based on the teachings of the EBWM.

"I recommend EBWM to literally anyone and everyone who is interested in understanding how even the most mundane experiences can shape the stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves and the narratives that we form around the concept of our identity, which can result in deficient and excessive behaviors. Working with these tools has been personally liberating for me and very eye-opening, especially in how I approach raising young children with this awareness."

Photo: Courtesy of Ashley Wray

"Tara Brach is one of my favorite meditation teachers, and she often talks about radical compassion and self-love. Every Wednesday she hosts a donation meditation and lecture through Spirit Rock.

"I love using a guided meditation to help me focus my mind and energy. When I first started my practice, this helped me immensely. Our minds always tend to wander when we are meditating, and having someone lovingly hold you and guide you through is such a gift. That's what inspired our I Am Enough seriesa simple yet loving and effective meditation series to help guide you through your practice, whether you're just starting out or deepening your practice."

Photo: Courtesy of Nikita Mehta

"My favorite meditation is Dynamic Meditation by Osho, shaking and releasing before centering in silence. My favorite meditation book is Untethered Soul by Michael Singer, on the importance of removing past samskaras, blockages, and letting energy (shakti) rise from within. Both have helped me embrace radical honesty by choosing to show up for myself every day and be responsible for my joy and letting energy flow freely."

Photo: Courtesy of Nathalie Walton

"I spend a crazy amount of time meditatingit's my job to continually evaluate new meditations. I began my meditation practice in 2001 in an ashram in Thailand, and it's been wonderful to see the field of wellness blossom over time. I struggled to cultivate a meditation practice until I discovered Transcendental Meditation (TM). TM helped me deepen my practice and enjoy guided meditations on apps like Expectful.

"My all-time favorite mindfulness book is When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron. I also love investing in mindfulness retreats at The Esalen Institute and We Care Spathese are some of my favorite places to take a break from life and invest in my overall well-being."

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Tips & Tools for Mastering the Art of Meditation - Coveteur