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.

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.

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

You are enough. Thats something we dont hear often enough and something we hardly ever say to ourselves. We look to others to measure our lives instead of looking at our life and being grateful for just being here at all.

Right now, as you read this, you are enough, but what does that mean? It means that without defining yourself by your job, your address, your physical shape or anything else that you are good enough, a perfect example of you.

For a moment Id like you to ask yourself something.

Can I accept myself as I am, today? Pause and reflect on that question. What I mean is do you feel content in yourself or when you think about it does your attention fall like a shadow on something about yourself that you think makes you unhappy or that youd like to change?

Theres nothing wrong with you if there is something youd like to change, improve or get rid of. In fact that kind of self-critique is essential in the process of learning more about who you are, how you relate to others and the world and most importantly, how you see yourself in terms of how you value yourself.

Wanting to be better, wanting to improve doesnt mean theres anything wrong with you now, just that youre becoming aware that there is potential to live in a way that will ultimately, with work and patience, bring you to a point where your baseline for happiness is much higher than it is today.

Every old habit you learned that doesnt help you now to be happy is up for examination. If you can accept those old habits and live comfortably without them affecting you or others then they are simply to be accepted.

If you see that they actively contribute to your unhappiness though, then they need to be changed or asked to leave. This is Acceptance in action again, the simple practice of looking at everything through the lens of accept it, change it or leave it behind.

The following guidelines are just that, guidelines, but if you start to use them youll soon find that youre living life more happily and are more self-aware and self-confident not just muddling through days carrying things that you would be better off letting go so you dont waste energy on them.

1. Live consciously. Be aware of your life, dont let it be a blur. Experience it with self awareness. Be present. Slow down during your day for long enough to remember what lunch tasted like or what inflection was in a friends voice or how a flower really smelled. This habit allows us time to see ourselves clearly. After all, if you dont have time to look inside how will you ever know if theres a better way to be?

2. Accept yourself as you are and then make choices about things you want to and CAN change or improve to live consciously and peacefully. You cant change your eye colour but you can change your old habits for better ones that help you now. Dont compare yourself or your life to anyone elses either because thats not your life, its theirs, accept it.

3. Notice where you can take responsibility for your life so that it doesnt just happen to you, you happen to it. This is your life and as such you have the final say in how you live it. You may feel powerless to change anything but you really arent. Let go of anything preventing you from reaching for all of lifes potential.

4. Be true to your values in every situation, even if thats hard to do. Personal integrity outweighs crowd mentality. You have to be able to live with yourself before you live with anyone else. Being known as someone who lives in a way that places integrity front and centre will cause people who value that trait to be drawn to you, filling your life with people who will only want good for you.

5. Live knowing that your purpose is simply to live and experience life, then find a purpose in life that focuses your attention and pursue excellence in that patiently and relentlessly, just not to the exclusion of everything else. Finding something to focus on properly allows you to gain new perspectives on how the world works and new ways for you to experience it, growing your horizons all the time.

6. Live in harmony with your conscience. That voice will steer you to the right action and peace. This is self-explanatory I hope! If it doesnt sit right with you then its not right for you. Its your soul telling you that this is one of those times that you cant accept something so it has to go!

These things grow your ability to practice The Art of Acceptance, the way you live in the moment and knowing real inner peace. These are the things I have learned over the past few years that have taken me from broken to content, from the edge of losing life to living one so full that I can spend time sharing what Ive learned with you. If you do the same in a way that works in your life, you will reap the same rewards. Its not about following anything I say slavishly but rather finding a way to put these simple, universal truths into practice in a way that fits your life best for you!

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In an alternate universe dreamed up by executive producer Lindy West, the series finale of Hulu's Shrill would feature a double weddingno, a triple wedding, with humans, dogs, and horses alike making their way to the altar. But when news reached Team Shrill that the third season would be the show's last, midway through the process of filming eight episodes in Portland, the season finale soon became the series finale. It doesn't feature a animal wedding, but somehow, it's exactly the right swan song for the groundbreaking comedy about gender, body image, and what it means when women own their power.

Season Three finds Aidy Bryant's Annie Easton newly energized after breaking up with her deadbeat boyfriend in the Season Two finale. Annie is juggling men, balancing new challenges in her work as a journalist at The Thorn, and feeling more liberated than ever, but she hasn't got it all figured out just yet. The final season throws myriad roadblocks in her pathsome from external forces, like a fatphobic doctor who recommends weight loss surgery, and some from her own internal compass, still imperfectly calibrated when it comes to negotiating her own white privilege and self-hatred. In one episode, Annie is held to account when her story about a community of white separatists goes viral for all the wrong reasons; in another, she sabotages a blind date with new beau Will, only to realize much later that internalized fatphobia is standing in the way of her own happiness.

"Shes floundering, but shes growing," West tells Esquire. Bryant and West spoke with Esquire by Zoom about negotiating fatness, finding the right ending, and saying goodbye to Annie.

Esquire: In the first season of the show, we see Annie become more daring; in the second season, we see her follow the momentum of where her new boldness takes her. How would you describe her path during season three?

Lindy West On How South Park Led to Alt Right

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Lindy West: In Season One, Annie started to identify what she thought she wanted. In Season Two, she overshot and flailed a little bit. Season Three feels like Annie saying, Ive got this. I know what I want. I know what Im doing. What follows is this very grown-up moment of discovering that nothing is simple; its actually a lot harder than she expected. Maybe she doesn't exactly know what she wants, and maybe she's not as evolved as she thought that she was. Its one thing to get to a point where you're able to say, "I don't hate myself. I have ambitions, and I deserve good things." But that doesn't make you a magically evolved, mature person overnight. Its a real growing pains kind of season. Shes floundering, but shes growing.

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ESQ: In Season Three, Annies career is on the rise. She knows the stories she wants to write and the stories she doesnt want to write. Her worldview is challenged when she writes a tone-deaf article about a group of white separatists, then receives pushback not just from the internet, but from people of color in her life. Why was that a place you wanted to take Annie?

Aidy Bryant: Part of what we wanted to look at was how focusing on your own journey, your own experience, or your own career goals can blind you to other peoples realities. You think, Im here trying to do goodisnt that enough? It's actually not. You have to look at the wider world. From a character growth perspective, I like how Annie learns that youre not always the hero. You're not always the victim in a situation. Annie felt like, People are pigeonholing me into writing about fat stuff, so that gives me carte blanche to go and do other things. It doesn't.

LW: I think it's just another manifestation of thinking you're ready and not being ready. Annies like, This is what I want in my career. I want to move into more serious journalism. I want to be taken seriously. But she doesn't have the life experience and the professional experience to recognize that, fundamentally, maybe she's not the right person to write that story. Even if she could write it responsibly, should she be taking it on at all? It feels very true to life. Annie is confronted with the fact that shes actually still a new writer, and she doesn't know what she's doing.

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ESQ: To your point about growing pains, one of the hardest things about growing up is recognizing when we're wrong, then doing the hard work of apologizing and atoning. It was powerful to see Annie learn those hard lessons in real time.

AB: Thats a place where I feel we only got to show part of what we wanted Annie to do. We had other ideas about next season, where Annie takes on more responsibility at the Thorn. But I do think shes really listening in a way that she hasnt been in previous seasons, and thats a big moment of growth for her.

ESQ: Contrasting Annies arc with previous seasons, it was so heartfelt to see her reckon with self-hatred this season. I found her apology to Will so moving, when she says, "I was only thinking about myself and how embarrassed I'd be, that if anyone saw me as part of a pair of fats, theyd think we were together because that's what we deserved. It struck me in that moment that Annie of Season One wouldnt have had the self-awareness to get this radically honest with Will. How did Annie of Season Three get to this place?

AB: I'm glad you liked that scene, because I would say that's probably one of my favorite scenes of the whole series. It was really intense to film. That take in particular wasnt fully scripted. The director said, "Aidy, why don't you do a take that's improvised with these ideas, but put it in your own words? It was this very visceral feeling. Yes, Annies having growing pains, but I think she's also taking almost a bigger step back to look at how her own self-hatredhow its turned out onto others, and how it stops her from being happy. I think there's a tragedy in this season that she meets Will in the second episode, but doesn't have that thoughtful conversation with him until the sixth episode. I really loved that it takes her that long to wake up and see her part in her own fatphobia. Thats an internalized feeling thats really hard to turn off.

Shrill

LW: It was really important to us to make sure that we weren't putting out this false idea that accepting your body or gaining confidence is a finish line you can ever really cross. Its a practice. It's an ongoing process that you have to work at every day. On a lot of days, you backslide and fail. We didnt want to say, Annie had her little journey in Season One, and now she's a fully actualized person who loves herself every day and never has problems. She's still super fucked up. I certainly still struggle with my body, and Ive been talking about my body professionally for a decade. I think it really serves the story beautifully, but its also really grounded and really true. She's not a healed person; she's a healing person. That healing is probably going to go on for the rest of her life.

ESQ: I thought it was so rewarding to see her go through the healing with Willto have that conversation at the beach where they're joking about his swim shirts and the various ways they've each experienced internalized fatphobia. We've seen her discuss her body image with Fran in previous seasons, but to go through it with a male partner is such a departure.

LW: I think men's relationships with their bodies are really under-explored. Men are under-served in that arena. So much body positivity stuff is geared toward women, and I really liked getting to have a fat male character in this season.

AB: I thought it was cool that, in contrast to her other relationships, Annie and Wills relationship starts on this really raw and honest conversation about how they see themselves and how they see each other. That's their foundation rather than just some bar hookup. It's like the most romantic thing in the world.

ESQ: Toward the end of the show, you go into flashback mode, taking us back to the very beginning of Annie and Fran's friendship. Why did the end of the show feel like the right time to go back to the beginning?

AB: When we were writing and filming this season, we didn't know it would be the end of the show. I wish I could say it was a huge, thoughtful thing we planned, but I do think it panned out naturally. At this point, we're really far away from the Annie of the pilot, where she's super self-conscious and not standing up for herself. I think it's a nice reminder that where Annie and Fran are now is so far from where they started in the pilot, but even further from where they started as a pair of friends. I think it really tees up the true final moments of the series, because it shows how much these two have encouraged each other to find their own confidence, find their own voices, and go after what they want. They did that side by side from a very early point. I think their relationship really is the heartbeat of the show.

ESQ: In the last episode, Fran and Annie wonder if theyre too dependent on each other, and if the intimacy of their friendship is holding them back from experiencing adult intimacy with other people. Where do you come down on that? Are they onto something, or are they all wet?

LW: When I was in my teens and in my twenties, I certainly had codependent relationships with my platonic friends. We couldnt be apart; we had to talk to each other all day, every day. The dream was just sit in a bed together and watch Alias on DVD seventeen days in a row. I look back on that fondly, not in a toxic way. It's just part of the process. Is any part of the process objectively bad if it's moving you onto the next thing?

Fundamentally, especially given where we ended, even though it was kind of accidental, there's nothing wrong with centering platonic love. It's a really powerful and important thing. It's a deeply vital tether to who you are. I think people can get really lost in romantic relationships; heterosexual women especially are conditioned to erase themselves, and to be what men want them to be. Fran and Annie really hold each other together in a way thats very grounding. You can tell that the friendship is a touchstone for both of them; it keeps them grounded in who they are, and thats really important.

AB: I agree with you. I think its something all the people in our writers room identified with. For me, I had a best friend who I lived with for years in college. We did everything together. The first time I kissed my husband in front of my apartment, I ran into her room and woke her up. She was screaming for me from her bed. Then eventually, I moved in with my boyfriend, and those moments evolved. That doesnt mean she and I arent still friends, but it changes. It changes because you're giving more of yourself to a different person. I don't think it's necessarily like a toxic thing. I think a recalibration or evolution of a friendship.

LW: If anything, I feel the opposite of what Fran and Annie fear. It's not that my friendships held me back from my romance. Now that I'm married, I have to remind myself how to have friends. Life does get so mired in your own household. I just like their friendship so much.

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ESQ: Thinking about the intimacy of their friendship brings us to the end of the series. In a way, it strikes me as an ending without end. Annie's journey to confidence, self-love, vulnerability, successnone of that is a finish line she can cross overnight. I like leaving her in the balance. I know you didnt plan this as the final moment of the series, but what about it seems right and proper as an ending?

AB: In some ways, Im almost happier with this ending than I would be if we had really planned one. We may have felt self-imposed pressure, or pressure from the network, or that impulse to say, Pop the champagne bottle! These girls landed perfectly, and everything is great. That girl boss moment may not have been authentic. Where it lands is a more realistic place, which is, Were so much better than we were. We've grown so much, but we still have a lot of growing to do. Self-worth and self-confidence are not a finish line. It's a balance that changes every day.

I think part of a fat woman's experience that we really captured is that a lot of the time, you're not thinking about the fact that you're fat, but an exterior force reminds you. Youre going to continue to encounter those moments or people who push against your own inner voice. How do you handle it? How does it affect your self-worth? Ending with the two of them together, saying we still have more to doit's a really realistic approach to the series as a whole, to land on that moment.

Hulu

LW: I'm also really happy with it. I think it's a more interesting and complex place to end than to say, And for the finale, were at Annie and Wills wedding. Actually, its a double weddingFran and Em are getting married, tooand Bonkers is marrying the horse. Id love that, but it feels much more real this way, as though weve winked in and out of these people's lives, because real life doesn't have a narrative arc.

That said, I do think the narrative arc is nice. We end up where we started, which is with this beautiful love between Annie and Fran; that's inspiring and not going anywhere. I also think that not tying everything up with a big bow lets characters keep living in a way that a more formal finale doesn't. Youre just stepping back out of their lives. In my brain, their lives go on, and all of these characters are still out there working at the Thorn. There's something sweet about it.

AB: Even in editing, we asked ourselves, Should we end on the final moment of them saying something to us? Or should we end on the moment of them saying, What do we do now? We just fix everything. I think we felt exactly what Lindy is saying. We want to keep them going rather than have a beautiful funeral for them.

Hulu

ESQ: Looking into the future of a post-Shrill TV landscape, what do you hope Shrill's long-term impact will be? What do you hope it makes possible for other shows?

AB: The one thing Im most proud of, and that I hope becomes more normal, is showing a fat character with a healthy, normal, sexual life, and a dignity in her own sexuality. I feel really proud of that. I hope there's less cartoonish fat sex. Its been interesting, even doing press for the show. This is a tiny example, but Ive talked about what happened in the first episode with the doctor and the gastric bypass surgery, which I felt we wrote about in a thoughtful, nuanced way. Its something that happened to both me and Lindy. Ive definitely seen that piece of it reduced to headlines like, Aidy Bryant's Doctors Say She Needs Weight Loss Surgery. Theres something devastating about that to me, because, wow weve done all this work, and this is still sometimes how fat bodies are talked about. But Im really hopeful, because we continued to bring this conversation that's been happening for years and years and years to a wider television audience, and even to the entertainment industry itself.

LW: I would also love to see fat actors get roles that aren't about being fat, where it's just a character on a show who has a story. We took a lot of care to make sure that Annie has a much bigger life than just the story about her relationship with her body. Aidy and I have talked about this a lot, just between the two of us. You feel so flattened into this one aspect of your existence, and you don't get to be a full person because you are a fat person first. Its very, very, very exhausting to not get to be a human being who is more than a body. Even when people are being respectful about your body or sensitive to the dangers of anti-fat medical bias, its still centering your body. I dream of a post-fat world.

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Shrill Season 3 Series Finale Explained By Aidy Bryant and Lindy West - Esquire

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. Obviouslythere 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.

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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 theyrestuck 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 betterat 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 fourthsecond 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.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story: Andreas Kluth at akluth1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nicole Torres at ntorres51@bloomberg.net

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

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The Personality Traits That Make Lockdown Coping Easier - Bloomberg

The General Assemblys Education Committee likely finished up its work for this legislative session and approved a final flurry of bills prior to its April 6, 2021 deadline for approving and advancing bills out of committee. Here is a summary of the bills approved by the Education Committee (which now await action by the full General Assembly).

TUITIONING OUT ELEMENTARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

S.B. No. 1036 (An Act Authorizing Boards Of Education To Pay Tuition To Another Board Of Education For The Purpose Of Enrolling Its Elementary School Students In Such Other School District) would allow a local board of education to pay tuition to another school district for sending its elementary and middle school students to that other school district (in lieu of the sending board operating its own schools for the grade levels involved). Currently, a local board of education that does not maintain a high school has that authority with respect to high school students.

EMERGENCY ACTION PLANS FOR INTERSCHOLASTIC AND INTRAMURAL ATHLETIC EVENTS

H.B. No. 6534 (An Act Concerning Emergency Action Plans For Interscholastic and Intramural Athletic Events) would require each local or regional school district and private school to create (commencing in the 2022-2023 school year) an emergency action plan for responding to serious and life-threatening sports-related injuries that occur during interscholastic or intramural athletic events. Each plan must include, among other things, a listing of the staff responsible for implementing the plan and the procedures to follow when a student sustains a serious sports-related injury (or suffers a cardiac or respiratory emergency). The plan would have to be distributed, posted, reviewed annually, updated as necessary, and rehearsed annually by the staff responsible for implementation.

MINORITY TEACHER RECRUITMENT AND DIVERSITY

S.B. No. 1034 (An Act Concerning Minority Teacher Recruitment And Retention), would require the State Department of Education to 1) establish a minority candidate certification, retention or residency year program, 2) develop a plan to assist school districts in promoting the teaching profession as a career option to students in high school, and 3) develop and require school district personnel responsible for hiring educators to complete a video training module relating to implicit bias and anti-bias in the hiring process (and also include such training as part of the teacher in-service program). The bill would require alliance school districts to partner with the operator of such a residency program for purposes of enrolling minority candidates and placing them in such districts as part of the program; after the successful completion of the program by the candidate, the district may hire such a candidate. Ten percent of any increases in alliance school district funding would be allotted to such minority recruitment and residency programs.

H.B. No. 6620 (An Act Concerning The Right To Read And Addressing Opportunity Gaps And Equity In Public Schools), would require (commencing July 1, 2023) local and regional school districts to implement a reading curriculum model or program for Grades Pre-kindergarten through Five that has been approved by the Center for Literacy Research and Reading Success. The Center for Literacy Research and Reading Success, which is to be established by the State Department of Education, shall approve at least five reading curriculum models or programs to be implemented by districts; such models or programs shall be 1) evidenced and scientifically-based, and 2) focused on competency in the five areas of reading (Phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary development, and reading fluency, including oral skills and reading comprehension). The bill would require districts to notify the State of the model or program that they have selected and allows for waivers from the State. The bill provides that the State Education and Resource Center would provide technical assistance to school districts for professional development and in-service training related to the teaching of black and Latino studies courses.

CURRICULUM AND GRADUATION REQUIREMENTS

S.B. No. 1033 (An Act Concerning The Inclusion Of Computer Science And Financial Literacy As Part Of The High School Graduation Requirements), would, as its title suggests, mandate that the nine credit STEM graduation requirement include computer science and at least one credit in financial literacy.

H.B. No. 6619 (An Act Concerning The Development Of A Kindergarten To Eight Grade Model Curriculum), would require the State Department of Education (in collaboration with the State Education Resource Center) by January 1, 2023 to develop a model curriculum for Grades Kindergarten through Eight that may be used by local and regional boards of education.

VIRTUAL LEARNING AND PANDEMIC RELATED ISSUES

S.B. No. 977 (An Act Concerning Virtual Learning) would require the State Department of Education to develop uniform standards for the provision of virtual learning in public schools (including use of virtual learning on days of inclement weather). The bill would also require the Department to conduct a comprehensive audit of the virtual learning programs provided by school districts during the COVID-19 pandemic and to develop guidelines for training educators in the provision of virtual learning through in-service training and professional development programs. The bill provides that virtual learning would count towards annual school session and hour of instruction requirements for school districts.

H.B. No. 6556 (An Act Addressing Issues Created By The COVID-19 Pandemic On Public Education In Connecticut), which was then referred to the Appropriations Committee and would need further action by it before further consideration during this legislative session, would require the State Department of Education to collect and evaluate student performance data on the state-wide mastery examination for the purpose of identifying and measuring the existence and severity of learning loss and student disengagement in public schools as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department would then develop learning loss and student disengagement mitigation strategies for use by school districts (including but not limited to in-school interventions and opportunities for small group instruction, tutoring services for individual or small groups of students, expanded afterschool and summer academic instruction and enrichment programs, and community-based learning pods). In addition, the bill provides that the Department shall provide resources and technical assistance to school districts to extend the school day or school year for the purpose of increasing student learning time and addressing the immediate academic needs of students who have experienced learning loss. The bill would require alliance school districts to offer summer learning programs following the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years in order to mitigate the effects of student learning loss. The Department would establish a grant program to support such programs. The bill provides that for the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years, substitute teachers would only be required to hold 1) at least an associate degree if such person will be in the same assignment for more than ten school days, or 2) a high school diploma or its equivalent if such person will be in the same assignment for ten or fewer school days.

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING

H.B. No. 6557 (An Act Concerning Social And Emotional Learning), which was then referred to the Appropriations Committee and would need further action by it before any further consideration during this session, would require each local and regional board of education to administer a universal mental health and resiliency screening to all students for the purpose of identifying students in need of interventions and support, with such screening provided over the next two school years to include a stress and trauma assessment related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The bill would also require school districts (within available appropriations) to maintain the following staffing ratios for mental health and social-emotional support staff: 1) At least one school counselor, social worker, and family therapist for every 250 students in the district, 2) at least one school psychologist for every 500 students in the district, and 3) a paraeducator to student ratio recommended by a nationally recognized organization with expertise in paraeducator effectiveness. The bill would require each school district to develop and implement a comprehensive school counseling program, in accordance with state guidelines and provide proactive social-emotional instruction to develop student competencies in self-awareness, self-regulation, social awareness, relationship skills and decision-making skills.

The bill would require the State Department of Education to establish a state-wide social-emotional support program that provides support and assistance to school districts for mental health, social-emotional, behavioral support, trauma support and special education programs and services. The bill would also require the Department to develop student social-emotional learning standards for Grades Four through Twelve. Additionally, the bill would require the Social Emotional Learning and School Climate Advisory Collaborative to convene a working group to review and make recommendations regarding the state bullying/school climates statutes and the inclusion of restorative practices in safe school climate plans, along with providing technical assistance and support to school districts in adopting and implementing the Connecticut Model School Climate Policy.

The bill would require that mandatory memoranda of understanding for school districts with school resource officer (SRO) programs include a provision that requires SROs to complete the same social-emotional learning and restorative practices training provided to the teachers and administrators of the school. The bill would additionally require that the principles and practices of social-emotional learning and restorative practices be integrated throughout the components of teacher professional development plans and programs; the statement of educational goals of school districts would need to include goals for such integration of principles and practices of social-emotional learning and restorative practices.

H.B. No. 6399 (An Act Concerning The Centers For Disease Control And Prevention Youth Risk Behavior Survey) would require the Department of Public Health to administer the Connecticut School Health Survey to students in Grades Nine through Twelve, provided that the Department receives funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for such purpose. The survey shall be based on the Youth Risk Behavior Survey developed by the CDC and administered to students in those high schools randomly selected by the CDC. The Department would provide guidelines (including on matters of student privacy and parental consent) for districts regarding the administration of the survey.

Stay tuned for more.

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Opinion

Time is a strange thing. Einstein theorized that it is relative and, speaking for myself, this has never been truer than during the last year. Somehow the perception of time has been distorted in a way that recent events seem like forever ago, while something that happened years before somehow feels like it happened just last week. Strange times indeed.

On a daily basis, this pandemic-induced ebb and flow of moments and hours can throw us for a loop. Somehow an hour can appear to linger forever, while we simultaneously ask ourselves where did all the time go? For me, this is partly caused by a lack of familiar structures and routines that I spent a lifetime developing. As a result, it has become harder and harder for me to truly experience the now; To be fully immersed in an activity, be it work or recreation. It has become a challenge for me to be lost in the moment where I forget the world around me while being enthralled in an activity or thought.

But even without the added social complications of continued lockdowns we continuously struggle to hold on to our temporary experiences. After all, we live in an age where social media or other forms of digital entertainment encourage us to remove ourselves from our own present existence, either through a friends post or a click on the find out more button. Even while writing this column, I am constantly tempted to check my emails or to read up on the news. Something could be happening somewhere in this world that might be more interesting than what I am doing at this very moment. But dont worry, I decided to mentally stay with you for a while longer.

The concept of being more present in the now is not a new idea in psychology. Mindfulness practices have become popular tools for many, be it through meditation, yoga or other mental exercises. All of these methods try to engage us fully with our current experiences. Their aim is to separate us from habitual responses, such as mindlessly watching TV or surfing Facebook, and to bring us more into the current moment. We are so here, so engaged with what is currently happening, that we forget that we are actually separate from it. That experience is also often referred to as flow. The term flow was first coined in the 1970s by psychologist Dr. Mihaly Chentmihalyi while he was studying why people would give up material goods for the elusive experience of performing enjoyable acts. He focused on what it meant to be in the zone as opposed to being zoned out. He himself described flow as being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement and thought follow inevitably from the previous one, like playing Jazz.

There are many ways to describe flow, but ultimately one can distill the experience into the following core elements:

1) Concentration is focused and grounded in the present moment.

2) Action and awareness are merged

3) A loss of reflective self-consciousness

4) Ones subjective experience of time is altered

5) An experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding

In theory, these all sound like wonderful states of mind. In practise they can provide a deep satisfaction with a present moment. I am sure we have all been there: We are so lost in an activity (usually an enjoyable one) that we forget what time it is. Before we knew it, hours have passed, and we didnt even notice. We were truly absorbed by the now.

Wouldnt it be great if we could produce this experience on demand? I believe that board games can be a perfect starting point for flow. By default, playing a good game checks all the basics: They encourage us to focus on the present moment, they make us forget about ourselves and they reward us with a built-in experience. I would even go one step further and say that most games are created in order for us to experience flow. That is their whole point. They help us to focus our minds on the strategies at hand, or on the faces of the people we are playing with (focus in the present moment), and last but not least they provide fun (intrinsically rewarding). In addition, most board game enthusiasts will probably tell you that they dont really care if they win or lose. They just enjoy playing which brings us full circle to Chentmihalyis notion of doing an activity for its own sake.

We all have a part of our brain that is dedicated to self-awareness and thoughts about ourselves. That part can be particularly strong in circumstances of boredom, stress, worry or anxiety. On the flip side, it can be quieted when we concentrate on a task. I cant think of a better way to ground myself in the present moment than by pondering my next move during an enjoyable game with friends or family.

Usually, I end this column with some suggestions of specific games I recommend. This time I encourage you to pick up any game and to simply enjoy the experience for the sake of the experience.

As they say: Time flies when you are having fun.

Olaf Pyttlik is a Winnipeg board-game enthusiast and co-owner of Across the Board Game Caf. In a regular column, he looks at the renaissance of board games and shares games ideas for families and friends of all ages. Email him at olaf@acrosstheboardcafe.com.

Olaf Pyttlik Board Game Columnist

Olaf Pyttlik is a Winnipeg board game enthusiast and co-owner of Across the Board Game Cafe.

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Lose yourself in the moment - Winnipeg Free Press