With the onset of COVID-19, we were forced to stay indoors and work from home while our children were required to be homeschooled. Thiscan be challengingto both parents and children giventhe lack of resources and creativity. Fortunately, a number of educational apps and programs are now available to keep our kids stimulated and always ready to learn.

Homer app Photo: learnwithhomer.com

Homer is aproven early learning program that provides the best educational start possible. It offers personalized, funand proven learning products for kids ages 2-8 to help build confidence, masteryand a love forlearning. Homers learning experts have crafted the Homer Method to support parents in delivering knowledge, personal developmentand motivation for lifelong learners.

Homer is the product of parent company BEGiN, an award-winning education technology company that creates engaging and effective learning products to bring the highest quality education to young children everywhere.A New York City-based company, it leverages the best talent in technology, educationand entertainment to create learning programs that cultivate the critical skills children need to succeed in the future. Its team is deeply committed to its members and their children that continually develop a portfolio of early learning products that supportlearning everywhere.

Homer app bundles Photo: learnwithhomer.com

Part of Homers essential early learning program, the Learn & Grow app takes kids on a personalized learning journey that boosts their confidence and grows with them.

It features lessons and activities personalized to age, interestsand skill level for kids ages 2 to 8, plus playful learning across subjects: reading, math, social-emotional learning, creativityand more, to build learning confidence. The app also features ad-free, kid-friendly navigation for independent play and is designed by experts, backed by researchand tested by kids.

Homer has teamed up with Fisher-Price to giveits members the best in learning and play, delighting little learners in games, storiesand songs as they build foundational skills. It is ideal for younger children up to age 3. It lets your children learn through play that teaches ABCs, colors, shapesand more through fun activities led by familiar characters.

The app is expert-designed to support your child through the early stages of learning and development that grows along with your child. It is kid-safe, offering ad-free, thoughtfully-curated content for safe digital learning and play.

These hands-on learning kits bring lessons to life. Homers very own learning experts designed The Homer Method to teach skills in the best format for kids to learn. Homer Explore Kits expand on the skills your child is building with the Learn & Grow app, giving them a chance to apply what they're learning in real life.

Your children will discover ABC Island, where curious critters love to learn. This activity kit lets your childs imagination lead as they build literacy skills through play. This is best suited for children ages 3-6. It developsskills like Letters & Sounds, Language Development, Early Writingand Self Expression.

Each kit includes:

The kitwelcomes your kids to Sumville, where numbers rule. This numbers kit practices math strategies through play to help your child build math confidence. This is best suited for children ages 3-6. It develops practical skills like Numbers & Counting, Operations & Manipulatives, Math Confidence and Self Expression.

Each kit includes:

This kit brings your child to the Feelings Forest where ups and downs are part of the journey. This kit lets your child learn social-emotional skills through play to help him or her practice for real life. This is best suited for children ages 3-6. It develops skills like Identifying Feelings, Self Awareness, Social Skillsand Self Expression.

Each kit includes:

Homer's positive feedback from real parents Photo: learnwithhomer.com

What we love about Homer is that it is very affordable. At just $9.99/month, you can personalize your child's learning journey and build confidence so that he or she is ready for school and life.

Whats even better is that you can explore the program without any costs with their FREE 1-month trial! So what are you waiting for?

Make your childs learning journey memorable andfun with Homers 1-month Free Trial here.

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Homer Learning App Review 2021: Price, Features And Free Trial - International Business Times

Mantra Health, Floreo, Daybreak Health, Mindset Health, XFERALL, Move This World, and Tiatros

One of the most exciting parts of every Vator event is the startup showcase; we'vebeen showcasing some of the most promising startup companies for many years now, and we've identified some very successful companies early on that have gone on to raise big funding rounds.

At this year's Future of Behavioral and Mental Health event, held on Wednesday, we had seven extremely promising companies present, and they ranged from startups tackling mental health gaps in education and in teens, to those working with HR departments and hospital transfer workers.

The showcase was emceed by Mark Goldstein, Chairman at UCSF Health Hub. Joining us as judges were Kevin Lynch, investor at MGV, and healthcare executive Nico Arcino.

Daybreak Health, a company thatspecializes in providing online counseling services specifically for teens, helping to stabilize their mental fitness.

"We look at the 10 million teens in the US alone that are struggling with mental health needs and that was pre-pandemic. During the pandemic, there have been reports that 50% of parents have reported new or growing needs from their teens with regards to mental health. So, that's the problem we're trying to solve at Daybreak Health,"said Alex Alvarado, CEO of Daybreak.

The company identified three main problems withadolescent care:one being that access looks really different for families.

"The most important thing to understand about access when you're working with teens is that parents have to engage. And, unfortunately, right now, we're in a situation as a society where parents are a little bit behind on the educational awareness curve when it comes to mental health for their teens. And that's the first thing that we need to solve in order to get teens the care they need," he said.

"In addition, funding for adolescents looks totally different than the adult market, and we've heard from a lot of great folks today that are going after the employer space and that doesn't really work when you're trying to reach teens."

Second is the lack of family-centered care models, as opposed to all of the care models for single individuals or adults. And, third, that the adolescent care ecosystem is fragmented, even more so than the adult ecosystem.

"As an adolescent, you might be getting care at school, you might be getting care from your pediatrician, which is most of the time where parents are going to start, you might then go to a therapy office and you might also get referred to a psychiatric office and all of those are not going to be working or coordinating together," saidAlvarado.

To solve these problems, Daybreak is building a digital mental health clinic for adolescents, which includes three layers:family awareness and education, family-centered counseling services, and then medication management.The company offers free classes for parents, as well as digital assessments for teens and parents. The family-centered counseling services include a personalized counselor match, evidence-based treatment plan and measurement based care.Parents are given coaching, and family therapy when its needed.

The company is also solving this through it's go-to-market strategy, which involves building community partnerships.

"I talked about that fragmented ecosystem in adolescent care; it's really, really important to integrate and work well with where kids are already getting their care today, whether that's at the school, whether that's with pediatrics. So, we've built partnerships in both of those areas," said Alvarado.

The second part of that strategy is around how the company is paid, which is different from how adult care is covered.

"It's not just private insurance, it's not employers, you really have to think about public funding, school districts, and Medicaid. 40% of kids are on Medicaid in the United States, and so you really can't build a solution without going down that route and that's the direction Daybreak is heading, building on the great school partnerships that we've built in the early days."

Ultimately,Alvarado said, the mission at Daybreak "is creating a world where every young person benefits from mental health support." Floreois a companybuilding virtual reality tools for people with autism.

The idea for the company came when the son of CEO Vijay Ravindran begandisplaying developmental delays, which led to a diagnosis for autism and then thousands of hours of behavioral therapy to build social and behavioral skills.

"Along the way, a magical thing happened: when he was six, he saw me with an Oculus DK2 and a Samsung Gear VR headset and decided to try it out. His first experience was magical. He started pretend playing for the first time, and that was the moment Floreo was born," said Ravindran.

Floreo create clinically designed therapy content in VR, and delivers that to mobile virtual reality headsets. The company pairs that headset with a coaching console for supervising adults, enabling therapists, special educators and parents to step into active therapy, seeing what the child is sitting in VR, providing coaching and recording data. The coaching console can run either in-person or remotely, as a telehealth application.

"We've built a proprietary process for rapidly creating VR therapy content: we can create new lessons in less than three weeks, and we have used that to create a large catalogue of over 175 lessons that span early social skill development, life situation training, including safety, and emotional regulation content," saidRavindran.

Floreo's first study showed quantified improvement in eye contact after five weeks of intervention, and the company has a partnership with NIHs National Human Genome Research Institute, which is using the platform to co-develop a set of ADHD interventions that will be researched and be available next year.The company also has Medicaid approval today in Maryland, DC, and Wisconsin and is in conversations with a half dozen other states to expand its Medicaid reimbursement.

"As a platform, weve built an ability to create and mix and match content, and part of the investment in the next two years in our product roadmap is a studio product to enable any other organization to be able to take existing therapy lessons as templates, customize those, and build out new areas, including new health indications that we might not be in today," said Ravindran.

"We believe we're building an essential indispensable tool in the era of teletherapy."Mindset Health helps manage chronic health issues like irritable bowel syndrome and anxiety with app-based hypnotherapy.

"Stress, anxiety and depression, not only do they have a mental health impact, but they impact many aspects of our physical health, from amplifying the perception of pain to decreasing immune response and triggering diarrhea and constipation. If you're sick, but you have a positive mindset, your brain is likely to produce chemicals that will boost your body's ability to heal itself; think of the placebo effect," saidAlex Naoumidis, co-founder and co-CEO at Mindset Health.

"On the flip side, negative expectations and mental health conditions can prevent the brain from producing these chemicals, as well as changing how you perceive your symptoms and discouraging healthy behavior."

While hypnosis not a therapy in and of itself, it can makes therapies, like CBT and guided imagery, more effective. However, it's been largely overlooked due to outdated misconceptions and a lack of access to qualified practitioners, as well as a lack of affordable options. Naoumidis likened it to where meditation was seven years ago, "except its focused on health outcomes for specific conditions."

"Hypnosis is uniquely suited for mobile app delivery because even in person, its an audio therapy, which allows users to self manage their condition at home whenever they need, for 10% of the cost of in-person therapy and accessible without a prescription."

Mindset isstarting with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a chronic gut-brain condition that affects between 25 and 45 million Americans and causes symptoms like diarrhea, constipation and pain. It's a condition that has no cure, and most people rely on elimination diets to treat it. Mindset has built anapp called Nerva to specifically target people with IBS and it includes adaily program of hypnosis-based guided imagery, education and breathing exercises that can help people with IBS self regulate their symptoms and address the miscommunication between their gut and brain.

The company plans to build out similar apps for other underserved health conditions from menopause to depression, sleep, and chronic pain.

Were going to be making hypnosis-based therapies accessible for a billion people who have access to a phone, but not good healthcare," Naoumidis said.Mantra Healthis a digital mental healthcare company designed for all university students.

While it's well known that university students are going through a mental health crisis, "whats less known is how colleges and universities are really failing to meet the demand of mental health care for college students," saidEd Gaussen, co-founder and CEO of Mantra Health.

A survey that came out from the Journal of Adolescent Health in 2019 showed that the rates of anxiety and depression amongst college studentshave doubled over the last 10 years . Another one that came out last year shows that 24% of college students are on some kind of a psychiatric medication over the last 12 months, and during the pandemic, one out of four young adults had contemplated suicide during the pandemic.

"What universities are trying to do is, unfortunately, is not enough and they're struggling to provide the care that students need, while the waitlist at the counseling centers can be as long as a semester, and providers are really difficult to hire at the counseling centers, especially in rural areas. So, universities are now moving towards this short-term therapy model, where the available care for students is being reduced and then they get referred out to the community,"Gaussen said.

"With that broken experience and urgency and need, we think there's an opportunity to build a very large digital mental health practice that's entirely focused on the university student population"

To solve this, Mantra has built software called the Collaboration Portal, which allows schools to refer students into Mantra. Students can pick providers that best match their needs; they can interact with providers through video visits and 24/7 messaging.

"One thing we're able to do, as well as deploy on campus, is integrate the campus resources so that we're able to refer students back into in-person services if needed, and its something thats extremely customizable at scale with the universities. We've also built a lot of psychoeducation content, especially when it comes to medication management, to remove the scaries around getting on meds for students that need it," saidGaussen.

Today, the company is deployed on 26 campuses with over 180,000 students enrolled; it has been growing especially fast thanks to COVID, where campuses had to shut down and look for digital solutions overnight.

Mantraworks with payers, including Aetna, Cigna, and Blue Cross, and that will allow the company to increase its market size and make it so it is not necessarily reliant on the university sales cycles and budgets to work with schools.

"We use that as a way to remove some of the financial burdens that the schools have and accelerate the adoption of our program."XFERALL is a mobile application that automates transferring critical care, mental health, and substance abuse patients.

"We have created a behavioral health patient transfer network. So, our use cases are addressing patients in a crisis who are presenting into the ED, who have been assessed, who need to be placed in an inpatient behavioral health setting, whether voluntary or involuntary," saidNathan Read, CEO at XFERALL.

"Right now, when that occurs, hospitals pick up the phone and they start calling behavioral health hospitals. A lot of them just blast faxes out to all the behavioral hospitals in their region. And there's a whole back and forth process of phone calls and faxes that takes place just to accept these patients. National average for placing these patients is eight hours of boarding time in an emergency room, which has a significant cost to the sending hospital."

To solve for this, XFERALL hasbuilt a mobile app that replaces all of the phone calls and faxing, and allows a sender to put in a request that then broadcasts out to the intake departments at qualifying receiving hospitals, and allows them to communicate electronically. The goal isto reduce ED overcrowding, to divert patients from even presenting to the hospital EDs, diverting behavioral health patients from jails, improving access to behavioral health patients in a more effective way, and making sure they're getting the appropriate level of care.

"We're doing that by creating a network of senders and receivers, allowing senders to communicate with one or more receiving hospitals simultaneously. The app clinically matches the patient's needs so a sender will go in and answer a very basic set of questions about the patient. We've built a national database of all the behavioral health receiving hospitals and all of their capabilities and services, and no longer does that sender need to know what each hospital services provide, the application automatically matches that," said Read.

This becomes especially important as new behavioral health hospitals open, or they create new services; for example, if they have created a new program, they don't have to spend money marketing and sending business development out to educate everyone in the community that they now have a new program. Also, the senders don't need to know, since the app does that for them.

"For the senders, we're dramatically reducing ED boarding time, we're reducing harm events for patients and employees. These patients who present ED are high risk to harm themselves, they harm the nurses, physicians and others. We're establishing a transport system of record to help them keep up with regulations, we're tracking their transfer patterns and we're helping divert patients from the ED," Read said.

"For the receiving hospitals, we're improving their intake operations, helping them build better relationships, we're making it easier for their customers to send them patients. We're giving them data at their fingertips, real-time so that they can manage their business, and look at the market as a whole and determine if they need to add certain services because there's a market need. "

The app can only be accessed an authorized user, so employees of a hospital, law enforcement, first responders, or community workers. The product was launched in early 2019 in the panhandle of Texas, and the company now hasa significant presence in Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth. It launched in Georgia in March of last year, just as the pandemic hit, and in Washington DC a couple months ago.

"We're in small community hospitals, as well as large health systems. In a case study of 17 hospital Systems in Houston, their average median time to place patients was nine hours; by January 2020 it dropped to 2.5, so thats 1,200 hours saved a month, which has a real dollar amount to their health system with savings."

Move This Worldisa social emotional learning program that provides PreK-12 students, educators and families with multimedia experiences empowering students to navigate the rapidly-changing realities of their world.

"Like many of us who are parents in the pandemic, we're playing an increasingly active role in our children's education. Pre-pandemic, this was a problem where we had chronic absenteeism and suspensions, incident reports of conflict and violence. Cultures that were conducive to learning. But this has all been further exacerbated by the pandemic; if you weren't prioritizing mental health or social emotional wellness pre-pandemic, you certainly don't have a choice now. It's right in your face and right in your living room," saidSara Potler LaHayne, CEO of Move This World.

"Social emotional learning is the process through which we explore and cultivate self awareness, self management, relationship skills, social awareness, and responsible decision making. These are the critical life skills that help all of us succeed in school and work and in life."

Move This World supports preK through 12th grade students through short form, evidence-based, multimedia, to help kids and adults identify, express, and manage their emotions.The company has over 1,000 multimedia assets.

"The best analogy for this might be eight minute abs, but for social emotional learning, or Peloton but for social emotional health. The same way you, as a yogi, might pull up a short yoga video as you may not be confident in how to move through your yoga class, teachers and parents who arent mental health professionals have this contained and structured support to allow their students to identify, express and manage their feelings, unpack their emotional backpacks, and then move through it so that we can build a more resilient culture wherever we are, whether that's in the classroom, at home, or our entire district," said LaHayne.

The assets provided by Move This World are meant to be experienced, so it's not likeconsuming content in the same way of watching a TV show. Instead, students are meant to get up and move.

"We're connecting our mind, body, so when I'm stressed or when I'm anxious, what's happening? My heart's racing, my palms are sweating, my stomach's in knots, and being really able to connect that visceral psychosomatic experience through techniques from expressive arts therapy. So, we shake our stress, we tighten and release our muscles, we focus on our breath, we embody our feelings, and that looks a little bit different for younger students,"LaHayne said.

"There's a little bit more play and music and movement, but older students are also embodying and playing and using techniques like free writing and group poetry to explore their emotions in deeper ways."

Move This World has impacted one and a half million students to date, over 2,500 school communities. It is currently working in 89 districts and has currently implemented programs in 38 states in the US.

We are in a moment in time that we're experiencing as educators, as families, as citizens, recognizing that if we don't have the foundational skills to identify, express, manage emotions, and move through conflict and move through challenges and unexpected things, like a pandemic, not much else matters.

Tiatros provides tools for HR departments and benefits groups to better manage mental health challenges.

"Tiatros makes it possible for the first time for millions of people to access highly effective and portable mental well-being and social services. Our multidisciplinary team of expert clinicians and technologists collaborated with thought leading providers and employment benefits, workers comp, and health insurance experts to create a versatile platform where millions of people can access services that rigorously adhere to the latest evidence-based, psychotherapeutic and social learning practices," saidKimberlie Cerrone, founder and CEO of Tiatros.

The platform uses technology enabled high-impact community interaction, where users engage with their peers, working asynchronously but together, sharing experiences and practicing social skills and behaviors.

"This uniquely social approach to mental well-being is a critical innovation because loneliness and social isolation are epidemic now, and they're deadly," saidCerrone.

The company's clients include provider systems, the American Heart Association, and Fortune 500 companies, including Salesforce, whereTaitros showed that it reduced stress-related physical symptoms by over 30%, which immediately reduced Salesforces healthcare provision costs as a self insured employer.

"We also empirically documented sustained behavioral changes that correlate with increased productivity, higher employee retention, more effective teamwork, and increased innovation across their workforce. That's why Salesforces CFO and President of HR made a value-on investment driven decision to roll out Tiatros services to their entire global workforce a year ago."

Another client is Metro National Public Schools, which piloted Tiatos last year. Over 94% of the over 220 pilot users completed the entire Tiatros program, and 100% of them materially increased their mental and physical health. This led the teachers union asking for Tiatros to be added to their insurance plan as a 100% paid benefit.

"Were prioritizing integrating Tiatros services into chronic disease treatment protocols to address, for the first time, the economic impact of comorbid chronic and mental health conditions on a population health scale. We've partnered with the American Heart Association to integrate Tiatros into diabetes, heart disease, obesity and stroke plans," saidCerrone.

"Our first jointly created program for cardiac rehabilitation was successfully piloted at UCSF. Our UCSF collaborators wants us to roll this program across the statewide University of California health system this year."

Tiatros' social approach to mental well-being is designed to meet users where they are today, and guides them towards their personal growth and health goals.

"Everyone works at their optimum level of emotional depth, preferred pace, and schedule on the Taitros platform, choosing the specific interventions, content and tools that will help them achieve their own mental health goals and strengthen their mental well being. This is how we achieve mental and physical health improvements across diverse user populations that are consistently comparable to expert in-person services,"Cerrone said.

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Meet the companies that presented at the Future of Behavioral and Mental Health startup showcase - VatorNews

As life has come to a standstill this past year and weve been forced to forgo events, offices, restaurants, activities, and even time spent with family and friends, many of us have felt sad, anxious, uncertain and insecure. Perhaps angry, too, which is a normal response to such unique circumstances. Yet anger is not only harmful to our physical and emotional health; it can also manifest itself in harmful verbal or physical aggression.

Nonviolence, the first principle in the practice of yoga, gives us a healthy way to handle anger and thrive in trying times such as the present. Known as ahimsa, the Sanskrit word for noninjury, the concept of nonviolence as a way of life was codified in the Yoga Sutras, an ancient text compiled by the Indian philosopher Patanjali thousands of years ago from even older traditions.

In principle, nonviolence means an absence or lack of violence. But in practice, it means consciously avoiding or abstaining from causing physical and psychological pain to any living being. Or, to look at it as the renowned leader most associated with the practice Mahatma Gandhi did, observing nonviolence requires actively choosing peaceful behavior in the midst of conflict.

In fact, Gandhi made ahimsa famous when he followed it in practice, not only employing nonviolent resistance for freedom from British domination and social justice but also making it a way of life in everything he did right down to following a vegetarian diet.

Martin Luther King, Jr., who was inspired and deeply influenced by Gandhi, gave voice to the concept when he noted, Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.

Being nonviolent means cultivating qualities such as compassion, empathy and kindness within yourself and with the people you interact with daily. This makes nonviolence a way of life.

It means engaging in practices that support you when negative emotions get the better of you or escalate to violence. These include various forms of yoga, meditation and nonviolent communication, a way of listening to hear your own deeper needs as well as those of others and reacting compassionately through speech. It focuses on solving disagreements rather than merely ending them, and like yoga and meditation, it is a technique to decrease anger.

Decreasing anger and embracing nonviolence is especially important for anyone who is a business leader, especially in creative fields dependent on collaboration and innovation. While traditional leadership theories typically dont focus on nonviolence, many leaders from business ethicists to executive coaches for major companies to CEOs believe practicing this approach can boost collaboration, productivity, innovation, focus and job satisfaction.

Perhaps the most famous case in point is Satya Nadella. When he took over as Microsofts CEO in 2018, he passed out copies of the 2003 book Nonviolent Communication by groundbreaking psychologist Marshall Rosenberg to his entire senior leadership team with instructions to read it. Many believed this helped him transform Microsofts culture from cutthroat to creative.

Of course, every leader wants their company to be a place where innovation and collaboration will thrive. Getting there means conquering anger, the emotion that underlies hostility and outrage. It can not only lead to violent behavior, but its also bad for our health and overall demeanor because anger can make us physically sick. It sends stress hormones throughout our bodies that can do significant damage to our immune systems over time.

But there is a solution: Instead of denying or ignoring anger, it should be dealt with immediately. As a yoga teacher and therapist, Ive taught many clients in creative fields how to neutralize inner hostilities, break through their anger and move on. Below is one of the most expedient and effective practices Ive developed to help anyone creatives and business leaders included transform anger into healthy emotional growth and practice nonviolence as a way of life.

The Rolling Stone Culture Council is an invitation-only community for Influencers, Innovators and Creatives. Do I qualify?

One of the skills that distinguishes star performers in every field from entry-level workers to leaders in executive positions is the ability to be self-aware. Research in the Harvard Business Review suggests that people who see themselves clearly are not only more confident and creative but also have a wide range of positive qualities that make them better leaders. This includes making sounder decisions, building stronger relationships and communicating more effectively.

Yet senior executives often dont give self-awareness the credit it deserves, psychologist Daniel Goleman maintains. His groundbreaking classic Emotional Intelligence showed that people who are self-aware can assess their emotions honestly and are well suited to do the same for the organizations they run.

Being able to neutralize negative emotions and transform them into positive ones is a quality that drives good leadership. Ive found this simple anger management practice an easy way to start:

Sit down, and be silent. Tune in to your body, and focus your attention on your breath.

Take a minute to observe any sensations in your body. Emotions cause physiological changes, so focus on your body, and look for any feelings of agitation or tension.

Think about what youre feeling, and label it.

Consider if its something you dont like feeling or thinking.

Once you identify your feelings, clarify them further by asking yourself why youre uncomfortable, unhappy or angry at the moment.

Investigate these feelings. Recognize why you feel the way you do, and acknowledge your anger.

Then ask yourself if anger is the best emotion for you to feel.

Once you discover the root causes of your anger, you can consider a way to redirect these negative feelings and make a choice to find a better way to feel.

By letting yourself fully feel your negative or angry feelings, you can make a choice to transform them into positive, affirming emotions. Properly channeled, they can become the power behind your emotional growth.

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How Creatives Can Neutralize Negativity and Cultivate Growth - Rolling Stone

MORRISTOWN, N.J., May 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --Have you ever skipped an event because of a skin imperfection that made you feel self-conscious? If so, you're not alone. A new survey from the No.1 doctor and pharmacist recommended scar brand, Mederma, has found that more than half of Americans would skip events altogether (pre-pandemic) instead of going through the hassle of dealing with skin issues and insecurities. In fact, three in five respondents agreed that their skin has a big impact on their self-confidence and mental health.

In honor of Mental Health Awareness month this May and the brand's new "You Are More Than Your Scar" campaign, Mederma is revealing the ways in which perceived physical skin imperfections like acne scars, surgical scars and stretch marks, can affect mental health, self-confidence and anxiety.

"When we were creating our new 'You Are More Than Your Scar' campaign, it was inspiring to see that every scar has a story, and more importantly, people often fight silent battles with their marks and scars," said HRA Pharma America, President, Bradley Meeks. "This survey has shown that skin insecurities affect everyone and feeling confident in the skin you're in has a connection to mental health."

While the survey of 2,000 American adults revealed that skin imperfections have kept people from seeing family, going to birthday parties and even weddings, the survey also uncovered that some respondents already embrace their scars or have started to accept their insecurities proving we are more than our scars.

Check out the Mederma "You Are More Than Your Scar" survey results below and what they reveal about Americans and their skin insecurities.

Americans' Top Skin Insecurities

Mental Self-Care Takes A Backseat

Skin-Esteem

Skin Positivity

Price of Clear Skin

Taking Cover

Celeb Skin Wishlist

Mederma understands how Americans feel about scars and stretch marks that leave a mark, which is why the brand's new "You Are More Than Your Scar" campaign strives to remind people that they are more than their skin imperfections. Alongside the new campaign, Mederma has also unveiled new packaging design across their entire suite of products that is currently rolling out on shelves.

For more information on Mederma, visit http://www.mederma.com or on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

MethodologyThis 2021 survey was commissioned by Mederma and conducted online by OnePoll with a panel of 2,000 Americans (general population). The respondents were 18 years and older and results were split by age, gender and region.

About MedermaScars are a visible part of our past. Whether there's a meaningful story behind them or not, we don't always want them on show. The prying questions, the retelling of the same tale; or much worse the silent judgment.

At Mederma, we believe we all are more than our scars our lives go deeper than what one can see on the surface. That's why Mederma Scar products contain a UNIQUE TRIPLE ACTION FORMULA that doesn't just sit on the surface, but penetrates beneath the skin to visibly reduce the appearance of scars.

SOURCE Mederma

http://www.mederma.com

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New Survey Finds Skin Insecurities Have Major Impact on Mental Health - PRNewswire

The need to address harassment in field campaigns is growing more urgent. A new workshop provides scientists with a broad set of tools to create more inclusive, safe, and functional field teams.

Field-based investigations are an integral part of university-based research programs in the geosciences and frequently take scientists to near and far corners of the globe, from populated urban environs to remote wilderness areas and all types of locations in between. As a result, scientists find themselves in situations that can be both empoweringallowing them to succeed in challenging environments through synergistic teamworkand intimidating, such as when unfamiliar surroundings or conditions push comfort zones or when ones colleagues in the field pose unexpected or unwelcome hazards.

Organized studies and anecdotal reports alike suggest an uncomfortable reality: that sexual and nonsexual harassment during field research campaigns is a significant problem. In a survey of field scientists at all levels and from 32 disciplines, Clancy et al. [2014] found that roughly 70% of women and 40% of men have experienced harassment during fieldwork and that about 25% of women and 6% of men have been assaulted during a field campaign. The cumulative result of this prevalent harassment and discrimination is significant damage to research integrity and a costly loss of talent from academia [Marn-Spiotta et al., 2020].

Although harassment prevention training is becoming more prevalent on college campuses, few such programs are tailored to the unique circumstances of fieldwork.A report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine [2018] revealed that harassment and gender discrimination in academic workplaces can lead to declining motivation and productivity, interrupted or deficient learning, and loss of expertise from science and academia. The reports authors concluded that organizational climate is the most important factor in determining whether harassment is likely to occur and recommended that organizations strive to create diverse, inclusive, and respectful environments that combine antiharassment training with programs aimed at civility and culture building.

Additional studies suggest that field-based harassment often coincides with challenges and stresses common to many fieldwork situations, including intense working environments, social and physical isolation, difficult physical conditions, and differing social and scientific cultures [John and Khan, 2018]. Although harassment prevention training is becoming more prevalent on college campuses, few such programs are tailored to the unique circumstances of fieldwork.

We recently developed a risk management workshop for field scientists (RMWFS) in academia, adopting established methods from outdoor education. RMWFS is intended to educate these scientists about strategies that recognize the importance of emotional safety and inclusivity and that reduce harassment by promoting respectful, equitable, and discrimination-free environments in the field.

These topics are covered in a series of three modules, described below, and are delivered using active learning techniques, scenario-based role-playing, and discussions meant to empower and prepare participants for different situations encountered during fieldwork.

RMWFS has been offered twice so far, in 2019 and early 2020, each time comprising three 3-hour modules held over the course of a month at the University of Colorado Boulder (CUB). A total of 36 participants have completed the course: 17 from a single research institution in the 2019 series and 19 from various organizations across CUB in 2020. Modules were team taught by pairs of instructors, most of whom had backgrounds that combined academic and outdoor education experiences.

In addition to covering risk management regarding objective hazards common to field campaigns, such as bad weather and treacherous terrain, RMWFS focuses on developing knowledge and interpersonal skills that can help scientists prevent harassment and mitigate conflict situations in isolated field environments.

To advance the goals and learning outcomes of RMWFS, participants, whether full field teams or individuals, are trained on the following topics and skills:

Additional tools delivered through the workshop include methods to deliberately build positive group culture and support programs, techniques for de-escalation and bystander intervention, and the appropriate use of assertiveness and empathy around difficult conversations.

Debriefing is an especially critical tool for field researchers because unsafe or exclusive spaces often result from, or are exacerbated by, inadequate communication and group awareness. Debriefs provide explicit venues for daily, open communication among team members, and workshop facilitators have modeled different forms that debriefs can take depending on the situation (e.g., formal versus informal, brief versus long, group versus one-on-one) throughout the modules.

The first workshop module in RMWFS focuses on the backdrop of traditional field risk management topics, including those involving physical hazards like rockfalls, swift water, weather, and more (i.e., objective hazards), and how individuals or teams interact with those hazards given their level of competency and self-awareness (i.e., subjective hazards).

Decisionmaking in a group environment is a subjective hazard and is often the skill upon which successful risk management hinges.Decisionmaking in a group environment is a subjective hazard and is often the skill upon which successful risk management hinges. In the workshop, several all-group activities are geared toward learning about different decisionmaking tools for varying field scenarios. In one of these activities, for example, participants work through a series of scenario-specific questions intended to support situationally appropriate decisionmaking in the field based on the urgency of a situation and the level of group buy-in needed to move the team through the situation.

These considerations may, for example, guide a group to try to reach consensus among all participants or to opt for a more efficient, directive method. In the field, a team could use this approach as a real-time decisionmaking tool for, say, route selection, considering that team members may have different comfort levels traversing steep, loose terrain.

Although a particular terrain navigation decision may seem like an isolated transaction, group communication and decisions facilitated by processes like this question sequence often set the tone of group culture in the field and can have positive or negative feedback on group culture. If decisionmaking is poorly managed, individuals can be left feeling disenfranchised or unsupported by the group, which may lead to later conflicts or problems. If done well, however, individuals are more likely to feel valued and bolstered, thus likely improving group morale and productivity.

The second module focuses further on building a positive culture among field teams, which is the backbone of a safe field environment for every team member. The framework presented in RMWFS requires several elements: creating a high-functioning and inclusive team, recognizing the group behavior that can lead to unsafe spaces, embracing leadership as a shared responsibility, and fostering shared experiences and cultural knowledge. Discussion topics in this module include team communication strategies, positive masculinity (using a position of male privilege to empower others), and self-awareness of how ones strengths, limitations, and values may unconsciously affect the group. Activities in the module demonstrate how to foster desired outcomes.

In the culminating activity for this module, for example, groups develop a PFCC or code of conduct specific to their fieldwork and circumstances. Such efforts are most effective when there is a high level of buy-in from all participants. Yet discussions about codes of conduct can be challenging when there is a lack of full participation or when especially loud or strong opinions dominate the conversation. Considering this challenge, instructors demonstrate how to facilitate discussions around specific behaviors and norms needed for individuals to feel safe, engaged, and empowered.

This process may start with each team member anonymously writing descriptions of an actual space where they feel comfortable and growth oriented and one where they feel limited or threatened. These attributes are then shared on a whiteboard, where they serve as prompts for further discussion and the beginning of the groups PFCC document. The specific character of the discussion depends on the nature of the group and its fieldwork site and time frame.

Mitigating interpersonal risk within field teams requires calling out and stopping behaviors that lead to toxic group culture, disenfranchisement of team members, and lost productivity.If a full field team is present at the workshop, the results of this session can be immediately implemented to develop a draft code of conduct for the team or to begin a team discussion that will shape a PFCC. In turn, these documents can serve as baselines for group culture expectations in an upcoming field season.

The final module of RMWFS was developed in conjunction with ADVANCEGeo, a partnership of organizations focused on addressing exclusionary practices in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) settings through bystander intervention training programs, and it concentrates on skills for mitigating interpersonal risk within field teams as an observer, leader, or victim. This mitigation requires calling out and stopping behaviors that lead to toxic group culture, disenfranchisement of team members, and lost productivity; it also requires bystander intervention and managing interpersonal conflict through allyship to recover safe spaces.

After reviewing historical data related to harassment in the geosciences to provide context for the various shades of harassment and exclusivity, the crux of this module is practicing several intervention strategies. Intervening is a naturally uncomfortable space for many people and feels more confrontational in real time without thoughtful preparation. The training in this module is intended to help people develop familiarity with the different approaches through role-playing and to empower participants to use these approaches in the field.

Participants divide into small groups to practice techniques for de-escalating interpersonal conflict through a variety of fieldwork-relevant scenarios ranging from subtle and perhaps unintentional microaggressions to clearly offensive behaviors. In one example scenario, we workshopped responses to intervene against language demeaning to women among an all-male subgroup of a field team, even when members of the subgroup do not perceive that what they are saying is demeaning. We explore both formal multistep resolution approaches and simpler models like using allyship with offenders, and we reinforce concepts of self-awareness and communication raised in the first module. Practicing such interventions led to larger discussions of group culture and the toxic effect that even unintentionally disparaging language and word choices can have.

The RMWFS program was designed to be customizable to meet the needs of different groups and to be adaptable on the basis of the skill sets of individuals involved while still fostering broader team development. Topical scenarios are selected for their applicability in training skills and approaches relevant for particular hazards that pertain to field sites (e.g., blizzard conditions in alpine or arctic environments) or group dynamics (e.g., a culture of sexual innuendo or advances within a male-dominated remote field team isolated from larger support systems).

While keeping the workshop content consistent, we ran the first workshop with all participants from a single research organization, whereas the second workshop was open to individuals from research clusters and organizations across CUB.

Physically and emotionally unsafe field environments are typically rooted in inadequate leadership, and leadership in field expeditions is a shared responsibility of every team member.The challenge for a single person or a small group who participates is to get their full research or field group to buy in without everyone having attended the workshop. Yet these individuals have subsequently reported bringing the energy and tools they learned back to their respective groups, facilitating the broader reach of the workshop content across campus. One participant, for example, shared with us that their entire research group participated in bystander training as a direct outcome of this persons participation in RMWFS. Another modified the field safety plan and code of conduct module to implement as an exercise in their undergraduate field methods class.

Complete team participation in the workshop is preferred, because physically and emotionally unsafe field environments are typically rooted in inadequate leadership, and leadership in field expeditions is a shared responsibility of every team member, not just the most senior individuals. Participation of senior scientists signals to other team members that a positive culture is important, it sets a tone of equity, and it can help reveal blind spots in interpersonal skills not uncommon to seasoned academics. Furthermore, engaging students and younger scientists as well as women and people of color in culture building early on within field teams empowers these individuals and perpetuates best practices going forward.

Prior to both workshops to date, participants completed surveys and shared their fieldwork experiences and workshop expectations, allowing the instructors to modify content to meet participants needs and to select appropriate scenarios and examples. We followed up by distributing daily and final reflection surveys to all participants and held follow-up interviews with a subset of participants and instructors. Twenty-seven participants provided responses (74% identified as female and 26% as male; all but one identified as Caucasian).

Only half the respondents said that their teams had field safety protocols or a code of conduct in place prior to the workshop. About a third of respondents reported that they had experienced harassment in the field, reinforcing the need for the type of training provided by RMWFS. After the workshops, all but one respondent said their participation was worth their time, and all respondents said they felt better prepared for their upcoming fieldwork season. Participants highlighted the significance of learning about allyship and described how the workshop exercises had sharpened their awareness of mental health challenges, such as isolation during fieldwork and navigating subtle harassment, that team members might face. Participants also frequently mentioned the workshops positive and safe environment for sharing experiences and opinions, learning different perspectives, and role-playing.

Meanwhile, instructors agreed that discussions about group dynamics, leadership, and codes of conduct were especially powerful during the workshops and that the scenarios highlighted were authentic and effective ways to engage participants. They suggested that in future iterations, it would be beneficial to break large full-group scenarios (e.g., an Arctic all-camp polar bear response incident) into multiple scenarios that relate specifically to small teams to make them even more realistic and to increase the focus on team communication issues.

Ongoing workshop development is focused on creating new in-person and online modules that can be adapted for individual research groups and larger research centers. These modules and materials can serve as the basis not only for future RMWFS presentations but also for similar workshops aimed at reducing harassment and increasing inclusivity in fieldwork and, ultimately, at improving retention of talented researchers in geosciences and other STEM fields.

The RMWFS workshop was developed at the Earth Science and Observation Center (ESOC), Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado Boulder, in partnership with ADVANCEGeo. Funding was provided by a NOAA Cooperative Agreement with CIRES (NA17OAR4320101ESOC) and a National Science Foundation (NSF) workshop award (N1928928). Please contact ESOC to learn more.

Clancy, K. B. H., et al. (2014), Survey of Academic Field Experiences (SAFE): Trainees report harassment and assault, PLoS ONE, 9(7), e102172, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0102172.

John, C. M., and S. B. Khan (2018), Mental health in the field, Nat. Geosci., 11, 618620, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0219-0.

Marn-Spiotta, E., et al. (2020), Hostile climates are barriers to diversifying the geosciences, Adv. Geosci., 53, 117127, https://doi.org/10.5194/adgeo-53-117-2020.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2018), Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 312 pp., Natl. Acad. Press, Washington, D.C., https://doi.org/10.17226/24994.

Alice F. Hill, University of Colorado Boulder; now at New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research/Taihoro Nukurangi, Auckland; and Mylne Jacquemart, Anne U. Gold, and Kristy F. Tiampo ([emailprotected]), University of Colorado Boulder

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Changing the Culture of Fieldwork in the Geosciences - Eos

In March 2020, still early in the pandemic, I opined that for introverts quarantine can be a liberation. I was extrapolating from personal experience and historical examples. And many other pundits had a similar hunch. But we were speculating before we had empirical data. Now that such information is available, what does it say?

By and large, the research shows that I was wrong. But I couldnt be happier because what the evidence actually says is that the truth, as usual, is more complex, more subtle and more interesting.

The studies published since the outbreak agree that personality plays a huge role in how we do or dont cope with difficult situations such as lockdowns. Obviously there are other factors as well, from age (the young suffer much more from depression and anxiety) to employment (no job, no cheer) and, well, infection. But personality determines how we greet our lot in life. And its the combination of several traits that shapes resilience.

Scholars break down those traits into five main bundles. One is the aforementioned degree of extroversion how stimulating (or draining) we find social interactions. Another is openness how curious, inquisitive, adventurous and creative we are, for example. A third is agreeableness how helpful, optimistic and kind we are. The fourth is conscientiousness how organized, focused, prepared and disciplined we are. The fifth is neuroticism the extent to which we get moody, nervous, worried or unstable.

As far as introversion goes, the evidence certainly surprised me. One study of college students at the University of Vermont did find that introverts in lockdown reported improvements over time in their mood, whereas the extroverts said their mood got worse. But the extroverts were still in a better mood overall, thanks to their more cheerful default position.

Another study, of people from various ages and backgrounds, found that introversion was clearly associated with more loneliness, anxiety and depression during lockdown. I wonder whether thats in part because many introverts cant actually withdraw into solitude when theyre stuck with suite mates or family members. As one introvert joked on Twitter, This quarantine is not our dream come true. We have people in our house who NEVER leave.

But as a study published in January suggests, other traits appear to be more important than extroversion. In particular and rather unsurprisingly neuroticism was strongly correlated with more anxiety and worse depression. People who are worrywarts even in normal times are also at heightened risk of freaking out when a deadly virus is making the rounds.

Openness was also associated with increased anxiety, though not with depression. That surprised me. This trait includes abstract, creative and lateral thinking. Thats why, in last years column, I used Isaac Newton, an introvert who also had an unusually open mind, as an example of somebody who had stunning intellectual breakthroughs in quarantine. By the same token, perhaps, very open minds are also better at imagining all the things that could go wrong.

Being agreeable helped against both anxiety and depression, but not as much as you might think. Its possible Im speculating that agreeability mainly turbo-boosts the positive effects of that aforementioned other trait, extroversion. After all, its no good being a social butterfly, on Zoom or in your dormitory, if youre not also empathetic and kind. Its the quality, not the quantity, of human connections that comforts us in bad times.

The winner on the positive side of the ledger was clear. The more conscientious people were, the less anxious and depressed when stuck at home. This makes sense. People that score highly on this trait are better at hewing to routines that provide structure during endless days of working or studying remotely. I have a friend who never wore coat and tie in the office, but started dressing up in fancy, and rather eccentric, suits during lockdown. Looking sharp, he ascends every day to his attic to do productive and satisfying work.

Conscientiousness, or what we used to call self-discipline, also helps in every other way. It gets us on the yoga mat day after boring day, corks the wine bottle after the fourth second glass, and helps us meet our deadlines on the job, so we can keep it.

What I find uplifting about this research is that there are many individual paths toward resilience. For each trait, were all somewhere on a spectrum. With self-awareness, we can compensate for risk factors neuroticism, say and well be fine. Moreover, we still have recourse to some secret weapons the psychologists forgot to include in their categories. Even (or especially) in a macabre situation like a pandemic, humor is an option.

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First Published: Sun, May 09 2021. 08:13 IST

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Personality traits that help coping with lockdown in Covid easier now clear - Business Standard

Still looking for something special to gift mom? Ahead of Mothers Day, Italian luxury jewelry house Bvlgari has teamed up with the nonprofit organization Save the Children where ten percent of sales made in U.S. boutiques and online will be donated to the Arte di BVLGARI program. This extends Bvlgaris initiative of Innovating the Present for a Sustainable Future, to highlight the luxury brands commitment to a better tomorrow in fashion and beyond.

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The Arte di BVLGARI provides arts enrichment to children via community-based afterschool arts programs, helping them develop self-confidence, self-efficacy and self-awareness, while promoting positive youth development. Save The Children has famously provided aid children in conflict, war zones, and refugee crises from fleeing violence. The program partnership provides afterschool programs to the worlds most vulnerable youth while looking to experts and artists from the local communities to educate children on imagination and exploration in the arts in the U.S.

As part of the partnership, Bulgari has created a custom-designed pendant based off the house's iconic Bvlgari Bvlgari line. The Colosseum-inspired necklace of sterling silver, black onyx insert, and a ruby comes stamped with the logo of charity for an added momento. The 12 year old partnership is one of the most established programs for the arts donating over $100 million to charity through jewelry sales.

This content is imported from Instagram. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

If youre last minute shopping, consider spending this Mothers Day with an iconic piece of sleek glamour of the Serpenti while also helping a child in need. Click through to see all the offerings for Bvlgari's Mother's Day initiative.

Martha Hunt Dazzles as New Face of Bvlgari

Ambush Puts a Twist on Bvlgari's Serpenti Bag

Supermodel Moms and Their Model Daughters

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Celebrate Mother's Day with Bvlgari and Save the Children - CR Fashion Book

Its hard to find good news about Alzheimers disease. The dementia math has been pitiless for decades, especially as it applies to Alzheimers, which accounts for up to three-quarters of dementia cases. All over the developed world, elderly populations continue to grow as percentages of their national totals. In 2011, baby boomers began turning 65 at the rate of 1,000 a day in Canada, and 10 times that in the U.S. That means theyre currently turning 75 at the same rate, and moving ever deeper into their potential dementia years. Seniors make up 17 per cent of Canada now and by 2030 will be a quarter of the population. Huge strides have been made in their physical care, especially in cardiology, but those advances havent been matched in treating conditions that affect the mind. In short, more and more of us will live long enough to experience cognitive impairment. While some newer drugs have shown a modest reduction in the speed of Alzheimers progression, nothing coming down the medical pipeline promises serious relief.

READ:I am mine: This is what Alzheimers is like at 41

Boomers know the tide is rising, however much they may want to avert their eyes. And they know, too, that they, rather than their parents, will soon be the afflicted. British writer Robert McCrum wandered his country in 2017 talking to his boomer contemporaries about their thoughts on the coming passage of the largest generational cohort in Western historytheir ownfor his book Every Third Thought. He discovered likely the first generation even more fearful of what it sees as the living death of dementia than of death itself. The rise of personal autonomy to the highest of Western values has been the key element driving the legalization of medically assisted dying, because the negative side of that adherencethe raw fear and revulsion at the concept of losing autonomy, of the obliteration of self-awarenesscuts close to the bone. As Jay Ingram, then 69, noted in 2014sThe End of Memory: A Natural History of Aging and Alzheimers, Its shadow lies over us all.

The financial weight is already staggering. The value of unpaid dementia care provided by families approaches $60 billion annually in North America, just from income forgone by family members (read women) taking time off work to care for relatives. Add the costs of paid caregiving and the total tops $250 billion in the U.S. alone, says Jason Karlawish, a professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and a clinician at the Penn Memory Center. But money is not the only toll exacted by the disease, of course, as Karlawish discusses in an interview about his new book, The Problem of Alzheimers: How Science, Culture and Politics Turned a Rare Disease into a Crisis and What We Can Do About It.

The disease is hell on family caregivers, to the extent Karlawish says flat-out thatin terms of worry, exhaustion, depression, financial stress and narrowing of their own livesits the caregivers who have Alzheimers, as much or more than their ill relatives. New cases always begin with talking to the family, Karlawish says, rather than with patients, who consistently rate their quality of life higher than their caregivers do. Caregiving has been with humanity since humans became human, he continues. Its the story of Ruth in the Bible, caring for her mother-in-law, Naomi, but shes not described as a caregiver. Almost no one is before about 1980. What they do is all wrapped up in other words and other rolesmother, wife, nurse.

We add up caregivings economic costs, Karlawish says, flicking at the $60-million North American estimate, but we still dont value it. If we did, we wouldnt ignore caregivers foregoing college education for the grandkids because the money is being hoovered up for patient care, or simply sliding into burnout. Talking about this is where I get very angrymany countries, not just my own, have not stepped up to the challenge of helping peoplehelping familieslive with this disease. Our societies benefit from caregiving, and we should start thinking of it as part of the wealth of our nations. All that factored into the genesis of The Problem of Alzheimers, which Karlawish wrote partly to share what good news he had about Alzheimersand there is a nugget or twobut primarily to explore a new way of looking at the suffering it causes and the way we cope with it.

The one unqualified positive aspect Karlawish wants to stress can best be summed up as this: as bad as things will get over the coming decade, they wont be as bad as once feared. The number of dementia sufferers will necessarily grow because the population as a whole will age, but the increase will come at a slower pace than predicted. The consistent story across multiple large studies across different nations says the risk of developing dementia is declining, says Karlawish. And the reason is the reverberating effects of a host of interventions, most of which werent done with the intention of reducing the risk of dementia, but which now we realize have done just that. Those interventions centre on access, he saysto health care, education and opportunity. That is just one of the many parallels Karlawish sees between Alzheimers and COVID-19, which has inflicted disproportionate suffering on disadvantaged populations. Both diseases, he says, tell a story thats really about social care in early life that leads to better health in later life: our past is telling us something about what our future could be like, if we would be willing to listen to it.

READ:To a grandmother with Alzheimers: Perhaps slowly forgetting me is good for you

The other major news in Alzheimers carethe arrival of a reliable pre-mortem testrepresents both promise and peril. The story of the biomarker transforming Alzheimers disease is inspiring, says an enthusiastic Karlawish. When I was a medical student you couldnt diagnose Alzheimers before a patient had dementia or even then be sure until after death, when autopsies revealed the telltale presence in brains of amyloid plaques and tau tangles. But now testsexpensive and controversial for that reasoncan show the amyloid build-up before much impairment has set in. We can visualize the disease as a pathology before patients even have a memory problem, Karlawish continues, and that is a revolutionary shift in defining it.

Its also a minefield of ethical quandaries. One of the physicians patients responded to her positive amyloid test with crippling anxiety and said she wished shed never met Karlawish. Another, faced with the test news and self-aware enough to realize she was increasingly struggling with the brain games she used to monitor her condition, committed suicide. Many patients asking for the test have declared that they, too, would monitor themselves and, when the time came, would take their own lives while they still could. Most move imperceptibly into the disease without further mention of suicide, according to Karlawish, although family members remain acutely mindful, adding to their stress. And many people leave written instructions for assisted dying that most legal systems will not follow once the writer is judged mentally incapacitated.

That leads to one of the thorniest dilemmas in medicine, discussed in The Problem of Alzheimers through the lens provided by Margot Bentley, who died in an Abbotsford, B.C., nursing home in 2016. Bentley, a nurse who had worked in dementia wards, was a resolute believer in personal autonomy and death with dignity. A quarter century before her death, she wrote a living will, setting out her wishes not to be kept alive by heroic measures or artificial meansincluding nourishment or liquidsshould she ever fall into a medical condition that seemed to demand them. In 1999, Bentley was diagnosed with Alzheimers; by 2005 family care was no longer possible and she went into a nursing home; by 2011, she was reliant on spoon-feeding and no longer able to speak, move or recognize her family. Bentleys daughters decided it was time to honour their mothers wishes.

The nursing home refused, because staff believed that Bentley wanted to eat, and thus that she wanted to live, regardless of what she might have declared years before. Their evidence: Bentley often closed her mouth to main-course foods but opened it for sweet deserts. For the care workers that was a choice, an action of personal agency; for Bentleys daughters, it was an automatic reflex and not their mothers wish at all. Faced with the proverbial hard case that makes bad law, courts agreed with the home, and it was another five, wrenching years before Margot Bentley passed away.

Intention or reflex, the written words of Margot then, or her silent actions now? asks Karlawish rhetorically. We make too much of a dichotomy between the person before and the person now, he says. And, in our own fear of losing ourselves, we are too inclined to set them aside as not even human anymoretrapped in our gruesome Gothic metaphors, we describe them as vegetables or zombies. We need to see the minds in people who cant express themselves the way they used to, because theres something still going on within them. Both our fear and the black-and-white thinking that turns us away from the effort to understand, he continues, arise from caregiver exhaustion and stress, itself arising from a society that says your family is on its own, financially and otherwise.

Karlawish is not claiming to have solved the problem in his books title, or even to assure readers that Alzheimers will be solved someday. In fact, evidence is growing that there is more than one path to the condition. Many Alzheimers patients exhibit pathologies beyond the well-known amyloid and tau build-ups, including vascular lesions and damaged TDP-43 (a protein that controls how cells read their DNA). Alzheimers may well turn out to be as multi-pronged as cancer and, like cancer, an end-of-life issue that will mark humanity as far into the future as we can see. There will be advances in treatment for both ills, but there may never be a magic bullet cure for either.

What Karlawish wants to see is an acceptance of reality that propels a massive social investment in carean investment that starts early enough to cut dementia incidences and is large enough to share the burden when it nevertheless arrives. I think Alzheimers is testing us on how to think about our own time left, he says, and especially how to care for each other. Yes, active personal self-determination is vital, but it can only unfold within a society that really allows people to determine their lives. Were only as good as that, only as capable as the world around us lets us be.

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The problem of Alzheimers: Caregiver exhaustion and a minefield of ethical quandaries - Maclean's

By Brendan Keegan 4 minute Read

Being confident in the workplace (and yes, a virtual conference call qualifies) is a fundamental building block for a long and successful career in most industries, but its easier said than done. Even for people who are blessed with natural confidence, there are plenty of work-related circumstances that can see it deteriorate.

A work environment thats competitive, a bad boss, potential downsizing, or finding yourself at odds with the values that your employer embodies or tolerates can all be sources of doubt and uncertainty that can trigger a confidence drop.

You can fix that by invoking the power of a single, very special technique: Just take a moment and remind yourself of your personal vision.

A personal vision is nothing complicated. Its a clear, concise articulation of what you believe is your purpose.

Some people seem to lead their whole lives with a built-in personal vision that theyve never questioned. You know, those people who become world-class experts at something because they never quit practicing it long enough to wonder if they were on the right path.

A lot of athletes, artists, and musicians come to mind, probably because they feature prominently in the collective social awareness, but it can apply to anyone. Elon Musk became one of the worlds most successful entrepreneurs, for example, by applying his personal vision across multiple industries and domains. Other people who want to be doctors, parents, or teachers, succeed at making those dreams their reality by keeping their personal vision close, often without even realizing it.

Dont worry, those people are the outliers. Most of us struggle with identifying a clear sense of purpose in our lives or careers, and that may be because were trying to find it instead of realizing that it must be created.

A personal vision isnt created in a vacuum, its an answer to a question. The first step in defining your vision is putting the question into actual words.

Theres not just one question to be asked, of course. There are many, and asking a number of them is likely to help you orient yourself in the landscape of what matters most to you. Some of the things that you can consider in formulating your queries are what impact you want to make, what kind of state you find desirable, and what type of person you aspire to be.

These are some examples of questions that may help you identify what you value and lead you toward your personal vision:

Asking these questionsand again, they dont have to be these exact onesmight not give you a clear picture of exactly what your next steps should be, but the answers will help shine a light on the things that matter to you most. This exercise of cultivating self-awareness will put you on the path to a well-defined vision. That might look something like this:

It doesnt really matter what your vision is, as long as its something you can break down into actionable steps and achievable short-term goals. Keeping it short will help you commit it to memory. Its also helpful to write down your vision and put it somewhere you see it often, for instance, on your desk, bathroom mirror, or refrigerator.

Achieving your personal vision will take dedication and hard work, like anything good in life. It requires taking the time to break it down into exact, actionable steps and then really committing to following those steps. Dont stress yourself out over them. Its okay to take a day off. And if you ever start to feel yourself losing focus, just take some time to remind yourself of your vision.

If youre going to use your personal vision to shore up confidence in the workplace or in other dynamic situations, it obviously must be something that gives you a sense of confidence. Heres where a little Catch-22 may come into play. For the anxious among us, even the prospect of committing to one vision may induce a downward spiral of self-doubt.

To solve this apparent paradox, you have to create your personal vision fearlessly and dont worry if it changes. Its entirely possible that your sense of purpose will evolve in response to where life takes you. However, that shouldnt stop you from committing to what you feel is valuable today. Throw yourself into it, believe in it, and become it.

And when youre feeling a bit unsure or unsteady in yourself or your career, just take a moment to focus and say: Right now, my personal vision is . . .

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Do this one thing to instantly boost your confidence at work - Fast Company

Awareness is knowledge of oneself and surroundings and self-awareness are the ability to see oneself clearly and objectively through reflection and introspection.

The intuitive mind is a Sacred Gift (Picture Supplied)

Research shows that self-awareness has a direct impact on how we think, feel, act, as well as how we react to our thoughts, feelings and actions. If we have the conscious knowledge of our own character, feelings, motives and desires, then this level of internal understanding may just be the most powerful tool we can have in our life.

One of the drawbacks of living in our hectic, fast-paced society that equates external achievement with self-worth, is that we lack connection with our own bodies and have lost touch with our inner self.

Many of us have a clue who we are our inner self remains hidden behind an outer facade that we create, an effort which is externally directed.

Yogic Science offers a systematic approach to internalise and be connected with ourselves.

Reason for self-awareness

Increased self-awareness has the potential to enhance virtually every experience we have, as it is a tool and a practice that can be used anywhere, anytime, to ground ourselves in the moment and, realistically evaluate any situation.

There are well-researched benefits to the practice self-awareness: (1) It can make us more proactive, boost our acceptance, and encourage positive self-development (Sutton, 2016) (2) It allows us to see things from the perspective of others, practiceself-control, work creatively and productively, and experience pride in ourselves and our work as well as general self-esteem (Silvia & OBrien, 2004) (3) It leads to better decision-making (Ridley, Schutz, Glanz, & Weinstein, 1992) (4) It can make us better at our jobs, better communicators in the workplace, and enhance our self-confidence and job-related wellbeing (Sutton, Williams, & Allinson, 2015).

Sacred Gift

Albert Einstein said: The intuitive mind is a sacred Gift, and the rational mind is a Faithful Servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.

Our intuition is the gut feeling that tells us if we are on the right track.

Think about it, has our gut feeling ever really been wrong? When our self-awareness game is strong, we know that it is our best bet to trust what our intuition is telling us about decisions, situations and people. According to renowned psychologist and author Daniel Goleman, self-awareness is also a necessary building block for emotional intelligence.

How do we inculcate self-awareness in our lives?

An article in The Harvard Business Review noted that only 10-15% of the people studied display self-awareness, although most of us believe we are self-aware (Eurich, 2018).

The path to healthy and happy living is through self-awareness (Picture Supplied)

Inherent Learning

The Sanskrit word Svadhyaya (self-study) like many, has a richer history than cannot easily be captured in English. The first part of the word, Sva, means own, self. The second part, Dhyaya means to study, to contemplate, to think on, to call to mind.

Thus, it translates as to study ones own self.

In the ancient Vedic scriptures, self-study is considered an inherent part of our learning, and is quoted as, Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the Self.

The cap and lower self

In many pieces of writing regarding the practice of Yoga, when we see the wordself, written with small s, it refers to ourselves in this physical form, our ego, and who we consider ourselves to be on a daily basis. When we read the word Self with a capital S, this refers tothetrue self,Atman, orthe Divine, Eternal Consciousness within all of us.

The small self is mostly concerned with survival, which usually entails getting what it wants in all situations. It judges, criticises, fears, conditions, doubts and is essentially the cause of theChitta Vrittis,or fluctuations of the mind. By paying attention to, or studying our self, we become more aware of the things that hinder our thinking and also those which serve us and bring us closer to that process of uniting with the true Self.

This quote by Lao Tzu conveys how important self-awareness is for us: Watch your thoughts, they become words; watch your words, they become actions; watch your actions, they become habits; watch your habits, they become character; watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

The SWAN Method

Just as we use SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats) within our businesses, we can use SWAN analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Aspirations & Needs) to gain a better understanding and acceptance of ourselves. We get empowerment by understanding and discriminating between our strengths, weaknesses, aspirations and needs.

We may not think about these qualities. Yet, at every moment they are active in our lives and dictate who we are. If we dont understand ourselves at a deeper level, then what is the quality of our existence? If we wish to direct, control and guide the subtle expressions of our personality, awareness has to be extended into these areas.

Types of weaknesses

These strengths and weaknesses are physical, mental or spiritual.

The strengths can be willpower, compassion or anything that can be applied positively and constructively in life, traits which help us evolve and grow. Weaknesses can be a lack of mental clarity, tension, and other such traits which sometimes overshadow the strengths or positive aspects of our life.

The challenge therefore is to improve the awareness of our strengths, as these can be applied constructively to overcome our weaknesses, which unfortunately we rarely do.

We need to accept our shortcomings and take the time to learn from rather than dwell on them. Our aspirations and ambitions may be external in relation to family, society, fame and status. How can we shift these to become more internal, such as wanting to be a more compassionate person?

We also have our needs, which are physical, emotional (such as relationships), mental (such as satisfaction) and spiritual. We can reflect on how to reduce our material needs to make our life simpler.

SWAN Meditation Practice

Sit comfortably in a meditation position, keeping spine, head, neck, shoulders straight and in alignment. Gently close your eyes. Then, become aware of your whole physical body from head to toe. Allow the entire body to relax in this position. Become aware of the natural breath, settle into a rhythmic breath and feel the whole body becoming calm and still.

As you hone into the space directly in front of your closed eyes, bring your focus to one aspect of SWAN (say strength), and pay attention to the top 3-5 attributes that come to you easily of their own accord. Similarly, become aware of the top 3-5 strengths that you want to develop. Continue in the same zone and try not think of any one particular trait.

Is there a strength that comes to your mind?

If yes, this will be your best strength. If nothing comes to mind, let it be, it may come in a subsequent reflective session.

The Om Mantra

Now move onto visualising a small, steady, brightly burning candle flame just in front of your closed eyes, and chant the mantra Om, or a mantra of your choice three times. Slowly come back into the physical space and body. Move your fingers, stretch the body, release the posture and open your eyes.

Carry on this practice to visualise your weaknesses, aspirations and needs.

Meditation is the first step to identify our SWAN, followed by self-reflection. We may find that as our minds are restless, we move from one of our SWAN traits into the next at an incredible pace, so fast that we are unable to differentiate between our strengths, weaknesses, aspirations or needs.

Life is full of trials, and Yoga is a lifelong learning process about ourselves and so, we need to go slow and fully assimilate one aspect of our personality to derive benefit from this process. As a Sadhana (discipline or dedicated practice) for one month, pick up only one strength and cultivate it to the maximum, or focus in a month to overcome only one weakness. Use these monthly reflective sessions also to update your SWAN attributes as you will continuously gain better personal insights.

As Swami Niranjanananda aptly summarises, Ultimately, through the practices of SWAN meditation, a stage of integration is reached wherein the different levels of the personality -instinctive, emotional, mental and psychic, are able to function and coordinate harmoniously. The fragmented aspects of the human personality, which hinder and limit creative potential, are gradually unified and reinforced, creating more positive channels of expression.

Designing Yoga Practice

When it comes to designing a Yoga practice, its easier to picture doing seated forward bends and downward dogs than engaging with theYamas (Restraints)andNiyamas(Observances) these being the first two rungs on the ladder of classical Yoga.

Postures fit into a daily schedule and have beginnings, middles, and ends. But yogic attitudes such as cultivating positivity and contentment are more contemplative in nature and require a measure of truthful self-examination. As a result, they tend to fall off our practice map.

Perhaps it is time to dig a little deeper into the underpinnings of Yoga, Svadhyaya in the sense of studying ourselves in daily life involves taking our Yoga practice off the mat and exploring the nature of Yoga itself.

Amal Karl is Group Chief Executive of FxMed New Zealand, NaturalMeds New Zealand and RN Labs Australia and Director of other companies. He lives in Auckland. The above is the second of two article on the subject. To read his first article, please click here. The above article has been sponsored by

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Knowledge of the self impacts human thought and action - indiannewslink.co.nz - Indian NewsLink