pandemic | Ascension Lifestyle

05 Mar 2024
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How to Live In Less Fear

Have you been feeling more fearful lately? Between a lingering pandemic, news of global warming, divisive politics, and beyond, there are plenty of things that spark fear in us these days. And while it doesn’t sound “cool” to admit that, yes, you’ve probably been afraid of something over the past few years, experts stress that fear is a perfectly normal emotion — and one that is even helpful in some situations.

“Our threat response is responsible for keeping us and all species alive,” explains Margee Kerr, a University of Pittsburgh sociologist who studies fear. And sometimes fear can even be a little fun. Kerr has found that activities like riding a roller coaster have benefits. “My colleague and I found that those who chose to go through a haunted house experienced an improvement in mood, which was related to experiencing the attraction as more thrilling, scary, and intense,” she says. And people who challenge fears, like jumping out of a plane when petrified of heights, are likely to feel better about themselves afterward.

It’s normal to turn on the news and get a little revved up. Or to have a conversation about a current event elicit a fear response. But when fear becomes constant, it may be doing more harm than good. “When fear and worry get stuck in the ‘on’ position, it can lead to chronic stress that can affect sleep, weight gain/loss, your immune system, and potentially lead to heart disease,” warns Andrea Dindinger, a licensed marriage and family therapist in San Francisco.

Here are some expert-backed tips on how to live with less fear.

Recognize how your fear is holding you back

“You cannot hang on to the darkness of today if you want to embrace a brighter tomorrow,” says Dr. Cindy Trimm, the author of The Rules of Engagement for Overcoming Your Past: Breaking Free From Guilt, Rejection, Abuse, and Betrayal. The problem with fear, she says, is that it makes you stay in place. “We hide out at home when we should be reaching out and embracing new experiences. We stay in bad relationships when we should be moving on to better ones. We make other people a priority when they have made us an option,” explains Trimm.

Talk it out

“None of us are meant to do it all by ourselves,” says Paul Conti, MD, the author of Trauma: The Invisible Epidemic: How Trauma Works and How We Can Heal From It. “When fear begins to take its toll, reach out to family members, friends, and any mental-health care services or other organizations in your community that you trust.”

Just like therapists who specialize in marriage and family therapy, there are experts who can help you tackle fears, phobias, PTSD, and other anxieties. “Treatment modalities include everything from cognitive behavioral therapy to a variety of medications, exposure therapy, and lifestyle adjustments,” says Kerr.

Reduce your exposure

“It’s easy to stoke the fires of fear; it’s a lot harder to put them out when they’re raging,” says Conti. Know your limits when it comes to media exposure, stressful conversations, and negative thought patterns. And don’t be afraid to set boundaries for yourself and with others. If you have a friend who only wants to talk about the pandemic, and you feel yourself needing a breather, be honest. Ask if she wouldn’t mind changing the subject to something more uplifting instead, like the latest show you both watched.

Be curious

Take small steps toward facing your fears. “Continuing to find ways to challenge oneself that involve pushing boundaries can help a person learn about themselves and gain a sense of confidence in their abilities (physical and mental), which in turn can work toward improving skills of resilience,” Kerr explains. And that resilience can help you become better equipped to cope with turbulent times. So, if you’re afraid of dogs, don’t force yourself to run up and pet one. But maybe try stepping into a park where a dog is a mile away, on a leash, and sit with that feeling. Move up from there.

Have compassion for yourself

Nicole Catenazzi, a life coach and the creator of the Fearless Heart Method for Living Bravely, challenges people to examine their fears with compassion. Ask yourself questions like “What is this fear protecting me from?” and “What is this fear preventing me from?” “This can help you decipher whether your fear serves you or constrains you,” she explains. Once you understand fear’s effects, you may become more apt to challenge it. And go easy on yourself. Everyone deals with fear in some capacity — from humans to chimpanzees and even insects!

Focus on what you can control; surrender to what you can’t

While you can’t control everything, Dr. Therese Rosenblatt, a psychologist in private practice in New York, says there are steps you can take to mitigate parts of your fears. “Say you have a fear of Covid. What you can do with that fear is to face it long enough to make a plan to do whatever we can to minimize the risk of contracting it and to minimize the severity if you do get ill,” she said. Thus, she challenges people to direct their energies to things they can control, like getting a vaccine, following mask guidelines, eating and sleeping well, and avoiding large crowds. “Beyond that, we must accept the parts we cannot control, to live one day at a time, and to be present in the moment,” she said.

Identify the difference between real fear and perceived fear

Real fear, says Shirin Eskandani, a Brooklyn-based life coach, is the type of fear we have before going down a dark alley. Perceived fear, on the other hand, is what we most often experience day to day with our worries about the future and stresses in our lives. “A great way to figure out which is which is to get clear on what each fear feels like in your body, and what thoughts you have when you’re in the two different states,” she explains.

Try breathing in on a count of four and taking a four-count breath out. “This allows us to create a little bit of space between our worry and reality so you can figure out whether what you’re scared of is real or perceived — because so often at the mere sign of fear, we go into fight, flight, freeze, or faint,” Eskandani adds.

Put your fear on trial

When you feel afraid, tune in to what you’re thinking. Examine those thoughts and, as Jose Ramirez, a licensed mental-health counselor in Fort Lauderdale, suggests, put them on trial. “Look at the evidence to determine whether there is some truth to them or if it’s mainly unhelpful thinking,” he suggests. If the fear is rooted in truth, then there may be something you can do to improve them. But if you realize it’s just unhelpful thinking, Ramirez says this awareness can help quiet them down.

Practice grounding yourself

If you’re hit with an overwhelming surge of fear, do something to ground yourself. “Often taught to people who experience PTSD or dissociation, grounding can help you snap out of your head and into your body,” says Ramirez. Try this simple technique: Use your senses. Notice a few things you can see, taste, hear, feel, and smell. Really dive deep, and let the things you are noticing take over. “This will bring your awareness to your body and your physical surroundings and help you get out of your head a bit,” Ramirez explains.

Original article here

23 Aug 2023
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You’re Never Too Old to Regain Lost Muscle. And You Can Do It at Home.

Pandemic life had a way of revealing our weaknesses. For those of us of a certain age, I mean that literally. If you are feeling like certain household activities — toting groceries, hoisting children, moving furniture, carrying laundry — are more difficult than they were in the past, you aren’t alone. And you aren’t imagining it.

This isn’t a new phenomenon; it just wasn’t until the 1800s that many of us lived long enough to experience this decline. For me, it started a few years ago, when I noticed that lifting an air conditioner, carrying a child up to bed or bringing in a load of firewood seemed harder than they once did. I summoned excuses for each difficulty (“Darned kid gained 20 pounds today!”), but now, at age 54, I’m ready to concede: I simply can’t lift as much as I once could.

Starting sometime in our 30s (the data aren’t precise), we lose up to 8 percent of our muscle mass per decade, a decline called sarcopenia, along with up to 30 percent of our strength and power. This leaves us weaker, less mobile and — especially after we cross age 50 — more vulnerable to injury from falls and similar accidents.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Men and women can regain some of that lost muscle mass and, importantly, stay strong enough to enjoy youthful activities well into their winter years, experts say. The key is strength training.

“I have people who start in their 60s, 70s and even 80s,” says Jordan Metzl, a sports medicine physician at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. “Building and maintaining strength is one of the most important things you can do at any stage of life, and it’s extremely important after age 50.”

Why? Strength training improves your “economy of movement,” Metzl says, meaning the amount of energy you expend to complete a task, and it “offloads joints, so you can do the same amount of work with less pain and lower risk of injury. You’re essentially getting more juice out of your muscles.” Metzl is personally vested in this quest: He has run 35 marathons and competed in Iron Man triathlons, and he says he aspires, even as he approaches his mid-50s, “to keep going forever.”

But what if your marathons are measured in Netflix episodes or you just need to jump-start an engine that’s been accumulating rust for years? Again, you’re not alone, says Dixie Stanforth, associate professor of instruction in the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Kinesiology and Health Education.

“Most people are professional sitters,” she says. As a result, many muscles in the front of our bodies — namely our hip flexors and chest muscles — become short and tight. That shuts off signals to their corresponding anterior muscles — the glutes and upper back — to keep working, so those areas become weak and inhibited. All the sitting we’re doing at home could be making things worse.

The first thing to do if you’re starting or resuming strength training, says Stanforth, a 60-year-old personal trainer and “avid athlete,” is to target major muscle groups, especially the glutes and back.

“Glutes are tremendously important, because they activate the ‘rear chain’ of the body and can produce a lot of power for movement,” Stanforth says. Rear chain muscles are critical for posture, balance, running, jumping and — yes — lifting heavy things. To strengthen those muscles, Stanforth says squats, rows and leg presses are all good, because they engage the core and require movement in multiple joints.

She advises strengthening front-facing muscles (chest, abs, biceps and quadriceps, for example), but also devoting extra time to stretching them because of how tight they become in our daily, deskbound lives. “Many people might consider a 1:2 ratio of exercises” — that is, double your strengthening time for rear-chain muscles — “but all of the major muscles [including biceps, calves and triceps] should be trained.”

And, before you even ask: Just about every exercise you can do in a gym you can do at home — albeit with some modification. Homebound strength exercises that don’t require equipment include squats (with or without weight); chair dips; pushups; pullups; planks; lunges; burpees; and step-ups. If you have canned goods or empty milk or drink containers (a gallon of water weighs approximately eight pounds), you can use them for strength training.

Both Stanforth and Metzl recommend building muscle by performing a high number of reps of a lighter weight — i.e., one you can lift at least 15 times before failure, the fitness term for can’t . . . do . . . one . . . more.

Data show that straining to perform fewer repetitions of much heavier weights greatly increases the risk of injuries to cartilage, tendons and ligaments, without offering much benefit over lighter weights. A 2017 meta-analysis of 21 studies, published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, found that people who engaged in strength training regimens for at least six weeks, performing exercises to failure, showed similar muscle cell growth regardless of whether they did high reps of low weights or fewer reps of heavy weights.

“Fatigue is fatigue no matter how you get there,” Stanforth says. “I recommend [sets of] a significant number of reps — 15, 20, 30 — and you’ll see all the gains that you would with heavier weights.” Encouragingly, studies also show that you’ll reap most of the gains from just one set of each exercise, so you can safely skip the oft-recommended second and third sets.

As for how often to train, the weekly guidelines for generally healthy people age 50 and older aren’t any different from those for other demographics: Strength train two to three days, engage in aerobic activity at least five days at moderate intensity, or at least three days a week at high intensity, and perform a stretching routine at least two days a week.

Metzl takes this up a notch by incorporating high-intensity interval training, or HIIT — short, punishing bursts of activity usually lasting 30 to 90 seconds with recovery breaks in between. “I do HIIT with people in their 70s and 80s,” he tells me. “We all change over the decades, but I don’t want people to be afraid of intensity.”

In fact, Metzl says, people should be increasing intensity as we age to “better stimulate all the cells in our bodies.” He cited a 2017 study published in the journal Cell Metabolism that showed that high-intensity training significantly improved how the body converts macronutrients into energy. But, he said: “For some people, a sprint is intense. For others, it’s walking up the stairs.”

For those who can perform them, Metzl suggests burpees, jump squats and lunges, which he says deliver full-body functional training. “Burpees utilize every muscle in your body. They’re high intensity and tremendously effective.” And, Metzl says, you’ll still reap a benefit from burpees if you opt to step — not jump — your feet back when dropping into the push-up position at the nadir of the exercise.

Stuart Phillips, director of the Physical Activity Center of Excellence at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, says that older people who regularly strength train can expect to see significant gains in strength and power, but not necessarily muscle mass. Still, the benefits of a training regimen — and the extended period of physical independence that comes with them — should be enough to motivate us all, he adds. “It’s about quality of life, and that’s not a function of muscle mass, but of strength/power.”

And, as Stanforth says, “exercise is better than any drug” in sustaining bone and countering the increased risk of osteoporosis that comes with age. “It helps tremendously. But we do have to be smarter about how we apply the dose as we age.” So, do it right, and we’ll feel stronger, and smarter for it, every day — and have one less thing to worry about.

Original article here

15 Dec 2022
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In These Cities, Car-Free Streets Are Here To Stay

What happens when you close down a city street to cars? More people do non-driving things, like walking, biking, strolling, skating and frolicking in the space normally reserved for motor vehicles. Car-free advocates would say that as greenhouse gas emissions and traffic violence go down, happiness and connection go up — it’s hard to connect with your neighbors while ensconced in two tons of steel.

Despite the benefits, closing streets to cars can make some people, er — a bit upset. Opponents argue that businesses will suffer (despite evidence to the contrary), congestion will increase (not so, says CityLab) and disabled and elderly people will have less access to public space (there’s a column for that). Like any change that pushes back against car culture, car-free streets face significant challenges.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, cities around the world closed down streets to cars and opened them up for people. Over two years later, some of these experiments were so popular that they are here to stay. Here are four car-free streets that are still going strong or just getting started.

John F. Kennedy Drive in San Francisco

The people of San Francisco have spoken: Keep JFK Drive car-free. Historically, JFK Drive (now known as JFK Promenade) has been closed to cars on Sundays since 1967. When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down most of the city and put a premium on outdoor space for socially-distanced play, it made sense to keep the street car-free seven days a week.

As anyone who has biked, skated or rolled during an open streets event can attest — once you go car-free it’s extremely hard to go back. Making JFK Drive car-free not only increased walking and biking, it turned the street into a space for art, music, celebration and connection.

In April, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a motion keeping JFK Drive closed to cars, along with 40 improvements that would make the park more accessible to disabled people, seniors and others.

The 1.5 mile street in San Francisco’s famed Golden Gate State Park was then the subject of dueling ballot measures this month — Prop J would keep cars out and Prop I would reopen the street to motorized vehicles. Supporters of Prop I argued that permanently closing the drive to cars would exclude people with disabilities from accessing the park. In the end, voters passed Prop J with almost 60% voting “yes” and rejected Prop I with over 60% voting “no.”

Jodie Medeiros, who leads the pedestrian advocacy group Walk San Francisco, says car-free movement at JFK is critical to protecting pedestrians from vehicle traffic. “For two years, we have seen how much people not only love but really need this car-free space,” she told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Car-free JFK is all about our safety.”

According to San Francisco Recreation and Parks, visits to the park increased 36% since the closure, totaling nearly 7 million visits, while over 90% of the streets in the park are still open to cars.

Griffith Park Drive in Los Angeles

It started with tragedy: On April 16, 77-year-old Andrew Jelmart was riding his bike through Griffith Park when he was struck and killed by a speeding driver. While the park is a popular spot for hiking, biking and horseriding with over 50-miles of trails, cars often use it as a shortcut to avoid adjacent freeways. Los Angeles has long been known for its car-centric culture, but Jelmart’s death sparked a movement to make at least part of Griffith Park Drive car-free.

It might seem like a no-brainer that parks should be for recreation, rather than for drivers trying to get from point A to point B faster, but the tragic death of a cyclist drove the point home. By the end of June, the park announced it was temporarily shutting a stretch of Griffith Park Drive to cars. By Aug. 18, the change was made permanent.

As mobility advocates and writers have pointed out, most of the park is still open to cars — the section of Griffith Park Drive that is newly car-free is less than a mile long. However, city officials estimate that the closure keeps about 2,000 cars per day from cutting through the park, making it safer for people walking and rolling.

The city of L.A. has rarely moved this quickly to implement safety improvements for people outside of cars, even in the face of tragedy. In this case, it helped that the Department of Recreation and Parks has sole jurisdiction over Griffith Park Avenue, avoiding some of the public pushback that projects like this often face. In addition to the closure, the park has also announced new plans to curb speeding, calm traffic and improve cycling infrastructure.

34th Ave in New York City

Although not shut down to cars 24/7, one of the most successful car-free street projects is 34th Avenue (now known as “Paseo Park”) in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens, New York City. Currently, the street is car-free every day between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m, turning 26 city blocks into a de facto public park. With the newfound space, the neighborhood hosts a myriad of cultural activities, including yoga, dance, gardening, ESL classes and arts and crafts for kids.

Started in the early days of the pandemic, the 34th Avenue open street project was organized as part of New York City’s Open Streets initiative. Volunteers from the neighborhood put out traffic barriers every morning and started organizing events, activities and games. This year, only 20 miles of open streets remain in the city, down from a high of 83 miles.

The city’s department of transportation says that the project has reduced traffic violence involving pedestrians by a whopping 41.7%. A study conducted by Streetsblog showed a dramatic reduction in all car crashes.

Although the project has sparked controversy in recent months, 34th Avenue is a testament to community organizing and the possibilities of a street centered on people, not cars.

Capel Street in Dublin

Capel Street is a popular retail and restaurant district in Dublin that went car-less in May, making it the longest car-free street in the country — but not without some pushback.

On the face of it, the street – since named one of Time Out’s coolest streets in the world – seems perfect for pedestrianization. Capel is home to such TikTok-famous eateries as Krewe, Bovinity and a secret Asian street food restaurant hidden in the back of a supermarket. A new report out of New York City has found that far from hurting restaurants, car-free streets actually increased business for restaurants enrolled in the Open Streets program. They saw a 19% increase in revenue over previous years, or almost $6 million total during summer 2021.

Capel Street’s car-free journey started gradually, with more space on the street dedicated to outdoor dining during the pandemic. Then, last year, Dublin piloted a program shutting down the street to cars during weekend evening hours for 17 weeks. A public outreach survey found that almost 90% of respondents supported making Capel Street traffic-free, saying that it “improved their experience” of the street.

While some businesses were opposed to the idea, Dublin city councilors voted this month to keep the street closed to motor vehicles.

Before the Pandemic

Even before the threat of a highly-infectious airborne virus pushed cities to begin getting serious about outdoor dining and pedestrianized streets, some cities were already working toward implementing car-free zones in their city centers. In Paris, air and noise pollution pushed Mayor Anne Hidalgo to institute several car-free days beginning in 2015. Reports by the Airparif association, which measures urban pollution levels, suggest that nitrogen dioxide levels fell by nearly a third on the Champs-Élysées, by as much as 40% along the Seine, and about 20% at the Place de l’Opéra, during a car-free day in September 2015. Now, the city plans to ban private vehicles from the city’s historic center by 2024, ahead of the Paris Olympics.

The success of the occasional car-free days in Paris also inspired a movement in São Paulo, Brazil. In 2016, Mayor Fernando Haddad announced a ban on cars every Sunday along the city’s iconic Paulista Avenue. The move has been welcomed, including by the local business owners who were initially skeptical: A 2019 study conducted by a group of local NGOs found that 86% of store owners supported the program. Indeed, many are encouraging the city to expand the ban to Saturday afternoons as well, to encourage more foot traffic and sales.

“With the closing for cars, people started to walk a lot more, to stroll around, and the sales on Sundays grew seven-fold,” one local bookstore manager told Next City. “It was the best thing that could have happened for us. Sundays are now, by far, our busiest days.”

Original article here

20 Dec 2021
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Why You Need to Protect Your Sense of Wonder — Especially Now

We may be slowly returning to our offices (more or less), but the strains of the pandemic are hardly over. As we enter a transitional stage after almost two years of trauma and strain, more than ever we need ways to refresh our energies, calm our anxieties, and nurse our well-being. One potentially powerful intervention is rarely talked about in the workplace: The cultivation of experiences of awe. Like gratitude and curiosity, awe can leave us feeling inspired and energized. It’s another tool in your toolkit and it’s now attracting increased attention due to more rigorous research.

As a physician and a psychologist, we have facilitated hundreds of resilience and well-being workshops both before and during Covid for the military, physicians, educators, law enforcement, and in the business world. Helping participants to explore, experience, and recall moments of awe is one of the key scientifically supported strategies we engage in during our workshops and it’s been rewarding to see our participants benefit and bring what they’ve learned to their own organizations.

Awe and Its Benefits

University of Michigan psychologist Ethan Kross defines awe as “the wonder we feel when we encounter something powerful that we can’t easily explain.” Often the things which bring us awe have an element of vastness and complexity. Think of a starry night sky, an act of great kindness, or the beauty of something small and intricate. During your workday the colors of the leaves outside your office or an act of sacrifice by a colleague could prompt a similar feeling — especially if you are attuned to it. In the United States and China especially, experiences of awe are frequently related to the virtuous behavior of others: an act of dedication, skill, or courage.

Cultivating experiences of awe is especially important and helpful now as we renew our energy and make plans for a more hopeful future. That’s because beyond physical effects like tingling and goosebumps and a lowered heart rate under stress, awe also affects us emotionally. One experimental group, when asked to draw pictures of themselves, literally drew themselves smaller in size after having an awe experience. Such an effect has been termed “unselfing.” This shift has big benefits: As you tap into something larger and your sense of self shrinks, so too do your mental chatter and your worries. At the same time, your desire to connect with and help others increases. People who experience awe also report higher levels of overall life satisfaction and well-being.

Let’s look more closely at the effects on stress and resilience. Experiences of awe are associated with lowered levels of reported stress and recent experimental research suggests that this may be a causal relationship: That awe can actively help reduce stress. Recent research using fMRI has also shown that experiences of awe, such as watching awe-inspiring videos (compared to neutral or pleasant videos) decreases activity in the brain’s default mode network (DMN), which is associated with self-focus and rumination. The result is decreased mental chatter.

Awe’s benefits extend beyond stress relief, however. Research has shown that experiencing something bigger than us helps us transcend our frame of reference by expanding our mental models and stimulating new ways of thinking. This can increase creativity and innovation, and facilitate scientific thinking and ethical decision-making.

It also helps us build relationships. Though feeling awe frequently happens in solitude, it draws us out of ourselves and toward others and inspires pro-social behavior like generosity and compassion. Some scientists theorize that it has evolved to aid group cohesion and provide survival advantages. For work groups experiences of awe can lead to increased collaboration, team building, and social connection.

There are many ways you can cultivate experiences of awe during the course of your workday.

For Individuals

A simple and powerful way to experience awe if you can step away from your desk is to take an “awe walk.” Take twenty minutes to wander and be curious and observe the everyday beauty around you, even in a familiar place like your yard or neighborhood. In our workshops, this instruction helps people to notice others, as well as places and things they might typically rush past — a bee flitting from flower to flower, for example. Afterwards our participants report feeling inspired, calmer, and better able to focus.

Even better, take an awe-seeking walk in a natural landscape. Research shows that walks in nature, compared to urban environments, have a greater positive effect on our mood and well-being. Nature is an immersive experience of growth and resilience; it can be a powerful source of wonder and awe. Nature’s rhythms also remind us that we are a part of the natural world, and we too are enduring. A CEO of a Michigan technology company one of us (David) has collaborated with schedules frequent bike rides through a landscape of trees and water. Doing so, he feels a part of something larger than himself as well as a boost to his energy and resilience.

If you can’t step away from your desk, take advantage of the wonders at your fingertips on the web. Several studies have shown that videos can stimulate awe. Perhaps you’re inspired by award-winning documentaries such as Free Solo, Planet Earth, or the recent Oscar winner My Octopus Teacher. Let Amanda Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb” give you goosebumps. The harmony and complexity of music can also elevate and inspire awe. Create your own personal “awe playlist” of videos or music and when you’re feeling stuck spend a few minutes being drawn into what you’re seeing and hearing. You can also invite moments of awe by asking the simple question “What’s beautiful here?”

Another option is to tune into news sites that spread good news — acts of kindness, generosity, and perseverance. Keep a file on your computer of stories of the goodness, benevolence, and decency of the human race. Tap it when you are feeling overwhelmed or depleted and want to be elevated. A simple story of one person making a difference can inspire others around the world.

For Managers and Teams

If you’re a manager, you can leverage the power of awe to help your team with its energy and resilience and to provide empathy and emotional support. Encourage your team members to share their awe playlists and create opportunities to share experiences of awe by starting meetings with questions like “What took your breath away this week?” or “What made you glad you’re on this planet?” (Contribute your own stories too, and share their impact on you.) In work one of us (Karen) has done with The Oklahoma City Thunder, leaders asked teams to bring personal photos that sparked awe and gratitude. At a team meeting, the photos were projected, and each person spoke about their photo and experience. Meanwhile the health system where David works offers voluntary noontime resilience webinars featuring awe. Individuals from disparate departments who’ve never met come together and share stories of awe in small group zoom rooms. The positive energy after each of these events is evident and elevating.

Managers should watch out for several potential missteps when creating awe experiences for their teams, however. First, what stimulates awe in one person can stimulate feelings of threat or danger in another — if someone with a fear of heights is forced to look at a vertiginous view, for example. Know your team well enough to understand where to draw the line. Secondly, as you encourage your teams to experience awe, keep in mind that it’s an addition and not a subtraction: Adding experiences of awe does not eliminate grief or anxiety; nor does it mitigate the need for teams to talk openly about the challenges they face and the support they need from leadership. It’s normal and healthy to experience a full range of emotions, especially in highly challenging times. It’s imperative that managers offer as much compassion and understanding as they can muster. Finally, don’t mistake intimidation for awe: We’re not talking about developing a cult of power around yourself as a leader — a very different approach which can do more harm than good.

We spend much of our time at work trying to stake our claim and make our voices heard. It can feel counterintuitive to engage in something that might stimulate feelings of “smallness.” But doing so through a positive experience of awe can, in the end, bring us that sense of grounding we’re searching for, along with a multitude of benefits — such as energy, inspiration, and resilience — for ourselves and for our teams.

About the Authors:

David P. Fessell is an executive coach, faculty associate at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, and a retired University of Michigan professor of radiology. He writes and speaks on positive psychology and emotional intelligence and is a graduate of the Second City Improv Conservatory.

Karen Reivich is the Director of Resilience and Positive Psychology Training Programs at the University of Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Center. She is the co-author of the books The Resilience Factor and The Optimistic Child.

Original article here

13 Nov 2021
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Steadfast

There is so much angst in the air these days that we may all be feeling more sensitive, exhausted or even more despondent than usual. So much so, that I feel a lot of folks are at the end of their tether, overwhelmed by the vast onslaught of confusing emotions and free-floating anxiety in the telluric atmosphere.

Steady, folks! Simply ignoring what is unfolding isn’t optional. However, grounding and staying centered in our core Being is a choice we do have, hour by hour, and day by day.

This past Wednesday there was an unusual astrological alignment. At the same time our planet has been undergoing a mid-level geomagnetic storm from more solar flares that erupted last weekend. On Wednesday Saturn and the Moon met up at 7 degrees of Aquarius, and Mars and Mercury joined up at 7 degrees of Scorpio. The Mars-Mercury gang was also opposed by Uranus retrograde at 12 Taurus. This configuration is as rare astronomically as it is astrologically. The message in it is this: “…when push comes to shove”, or “enough is enough”, or “I am tired of this s**t”, or even “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.”

The manifestations of this seemed to erupt in synchronous fashion globally, but were more focused in the USA, UK and Europe. In the days leading up to this strange square in the sky between Mars in Scorpio (“I’m going to get to the bottom of things, and you can’t make me do what I don’t want to do!”) and Saturn in Aquarius (“You must submit to the mandates or lose your job.”) various unions representing the police, firemen, teachers and health care professionals in the United States started court actions against forced inoculations. Of course, to suddenly try to force anything on these folks, after they’ve been on the front lines for 16 months without the need for such an experimental medical intervention does not make much sense. Nor does it make any sense to risk losing these dedicated people by coercing them into having to choose between their ethics (and perhaps medical or scientific knowledge) and their livelihoods. The video below is about an RN in British Columbia, Canada who is going through this exact scenario.

Here in the U.K., on the very morning of said weird astrological event, the government announced that all NHS and care home employees would have to be vaccinated or be let go. By yesterday morning 60,000 care home staff had been let go, and the care homes informed the National Health Service that they would be unable to accept any patient transfers from NHS facilities. That was standard practice during the early months of lockdown in 2020. Now it is the turn of the NHS frontline staff to choose where they stand. I have spoken privately with some nurses from our local NHS Trust hospital, and they feel it is simply wrong-footed to make the jabs mandatory.

Of course, there are other aspects to these developments, and I although I would like to address them here like bullet points in a lecture, I won’t do that. I’m not here to lecture anyone or tell them what I think they should do, or not do.

After a relatively quiet weekend and beginning to next week, we have a few more rings of fire to leap through. Next Wednesday Mars in Scorpio comes into an exact opposition with Uranus in Taurus retrograde. This occurs at 12 degrees of each sign. The energy of any Mars-Uranus aspect is volatile, unpredictable and intense. I know because I live every day with Uranus square Mars in my natal blueprint. Saturn is also in an applying square to Uranus, which will be exact on December 24th, 2021, the last square between these behemoths in those signs for quite some time to come.

On Friday, November 19th, there will be a partial Lunar Eclipse in Scorpio-Taurus.

This lunar eclipse event may further galvanize and embolden those questioning the official narratives and mandates. The confrontation between Mars and Uranus squaring Saturn will alert those in charge that their tactics are having less of an effect than desired. This may result in further and perhaps more draconian restrictions in December, especially after the Total Solar Eclipse in Sagittarius (self-righteousness). I am still taking the long view and holding zero expectations as we move from now to the first exact Pluto Return station to the USA Natal Chart Pluto in February 2022. Now that will be a subject of deeper delving in January 2022!

The upshot of all of this from my perspective is that this is a time for steadfast resoluteness and preparedness. Lots of folks I know are “prepping”, something I’ve been meaning to do for a few months now since supply chains have been disrupted and fuel has gotten scarcer. However, the spiritual and soul-base perspectives are of primary importance in these challenging and confusing times.

Ever since Halloween and the November 4th New Moon I’ve detected an uptick in psychic interference and fatigue. Some of that is due to the fluctuations in the planet’s magnetic fields, but hey, the veils are still very thin now. People energy, including thoughts and emotions, seem to be bleeding through boundaries much easier than before. This is creating some personal friction that is straining working or friend relationships. Very touchy when it is someone close to you that you feel you need some space from. By extension I am also picking up on a lot of astral interference and other static. Clearing oneself daily is a useful activity, and only takes a few ticks to accomplish. Some symptoms to be alert for are undefined irritability, low-grade depression, self-talk, blaming, complaining, dissociative or addictive behaviours, a longing to be somewhere else, and general doubt or fear.

Although lower emotions like fear, guilt, shame and anger are generally to be eschewed, anger can be a creative energy when approached in the correct attitude. Anger is one of the most misunderstood and avoided emotions on the planet, or conversely, one that is over-indulged in far too often.

The one message anger can have for us is that our Soul Core is alerting us to some person, situation or thing that violates our sense of Self, or our core values. As such, anger is then your friend, and an ally in helping you in choosing and activating healthy boundaries. In a climate such as we have now, people’s right to say “NO!” is even being taken away. To someone experiencing physical, mental or sexual abuse, we would be appalled if someone were denied the inherent right to say “NO!, that is does not feel good and I will resist!” This is when anger can give us the courage to stand up for ourselves and by saying “no” we are saying “yes” to what feels right and good for us.

It will be increasingly essential to observe what is going down without it dragging you down with it. It is also becoming apparent that we may have to act in a firm and steadfast way to preserve the life we have chosen to live, and not acquiesce quite so easily to what others tell us to do. This Saturn in Aquarius cycle will be with us until March 2023, so we’ve still going to see this type of attrition carrying on for a while yet. By that time Pluto will be done with the transit to the USA chart and will be about ready to head into Aquarius itself. That should be of larger concern than what we currently are experiencing. Even so, it is vital that we look to staying as much in the now as possible.

There are many things to be currently thankful for, and to celebrate. If you have your health, good food, shelter and loving family and friends, then appreciate that…deeply. Hold fast to the vision you have for your life and choose the path that brings the most peace to you, not the most material gain or comforts. The pressures we are seeing have been designed by us, and for us, to awaken and galvanize us to take full responsibility for our happiness right now, and for the future.

This is also the Planet’s shaking and waking us out of the nightmare that is capitalism and consumerism. I recall when I was channeling Archangel Ariel that she’d remind folks that moving into 5D would mean no more Wal-Mart’s or McDonalds. We cannot blend our current culture or beliefs with a higher order society. Our technology is owning us, and we are slowing realizing that that is now so. We also can feel how dehumanizing our institutions have become (humans are NOT a resource). The good news is that we are at choice, and in fact that is where our true power resides.

Choice.

Don’t leave home without it, and refuse to submit your power of choice to another.

About the Author

Isaac George is an internationally recognized intuitive mentor/coach, evolutionary astrologer, conscious channel, self-published author and musician. After a life-altering spontaneous kundalini awakening in 1994 he explored various healing modalities, including hypnotherapy and Reiki. In 1998 he began spontaneously channeling Archangel Ariel and other dimensional intelligences.

Originally from the United States, Isaac currently resides in the UK and offers Spiritual Mentoring sessions and programs and Evolutionary Astrology consultations.