#when self image issues meet overconfidence

[toastywarmhappyhats]

Namaari: Being gay isn't a choice

Namaari: *pulling Raya into a full body hug, chin resting on Raya’s head* It's a game and I'm winning

Raya: *Torn between competitiveness and affection* Is that a challenge Dep’la? 

Namaari: Yes.

[dancerin-thedarkness]

Studio Update Week 9

Every year of my life that I have studied art, I have experienced the blues at some point between, let's say, week 4 and week 12. At this point, I am pretty well in the swing of that negative emotion, oscillating from overconfidence to self-hatred, from an inability to accept any criticism to taking it personally every time.

What does it mean to be successful as an artist, anyway? Got chewed out by a professor over my approach to sculpting; he worries about the "success" of my pieces, a criticism that I think comes as much from style as it does anything else. But what does it mean for a piece to be successful? I don't think any artist pursuing artistic career can isolate it to any one thing, least of all our personal perception of my art, but all the same-- if I make a sculpture and push it through the kiln and it comes out in one piece, looking like I wanted it to-- is that not, in a sense, success?

What does it mean to be successful as an artist when my style is about my gaze, and when its so often about deconstructing things? I love so many diverse types of art, yet my style as a painter and a sculptor always has to do with texture, fluidity, with leaving elements that seem "incomplete" because for me, they lend the piece its completeness.

Seemingly unrelated tangent: my ability to cope with lifelong body image issues and dysmorphia has boiled down to body neutrality in place of positivity or negativity. It doesn't matter if my body is beautiful or if it is ugly; it matters what it can do. Can this be helpful to apply elsewhere? Does it matter to my sense of self and self worth if my piece is considered successful by onlookers? Can I choose to tune them out and say "this is what I want to make and this is how I want to make it, and what matters is my ability to meet that goal." and leave everything else to the side?

I don't think it's popular to say yes to that question. I'm in graduate school; by necessity I am making art and then bringing it to others to gather their input. The artist is disconnected from our work, it ceases to be ours when we sign it; does the death of the artist have to mean that my own feelings about my art fall to the wayside within myself, drowned out by the cacophony of other voices and their conflicting ideas?

Going to have to make like walt whitman and contradict myself on this one, I think. Even as I go thousands of dollars into debt to share my work with others and to benefit from their perspectives, I think I'll have to put my own ideas first. If I am not prioritizing that which I want to make and the way I want to do it, then why even bother making art in the first place?

[brightsun-and-darkmidnight]

Changes to Find the Middle

TITLE: Changes to Find the Middle

CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Oneshot

AUTHOR: brightsun-and-darkmidnight

ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine Loki helping you through a new medication regimen.

+

Image meeting Loki at the really "good/high" end of a mental illness (like bipolar).

RATING:  Teen

NOTES/WARNINGS: Mental health. Bipolar disorder. Manic to depression. Sexual relationship. Mentions of sex but no explicit content. Character not being herself. 

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Please be careful and take care of yourself. This might be a little triggering due to what I know of Bipolar disorder. Extreme highs (hypomania) and extreme lows (depression) are shown in this but thankfully this has a happy ending I wish everyone could experience in real life. Mental health is so important and People who have mental health issues often can not control themselves due to a chemical imbalance or traumatic experience in their life. Their behavior is often NOT their fault. Seek professional help if needed.

Song Muses: (Addicted by Saving Able) (You don't know by Katelyn Tarver) (Rescue Me by Onerepublic) (Inner demons by Julia Brennan) (Paralyzed by NF)

My Ao3: brightsun_and_darkmidnight

LENGTH: 2,413

*FINALLY..Read the warnings. Once you agree you can handle it...

 ~ ~ ENJOY�� ~ ~

"How has your energy been? You look good."

I sat down enthusiastically in front of the doctor's desk, "really good! I have the energy to catch up with things now that a couldn't even think about doing a few months ago."

"That's very good. Are you hanging out with your friends again? I remember our last visit you said you missed them."

"Yeah I took your advice and told them. Only two of my friends are close now but they took me out of my house occasionally and I am feeling more confident with myself because of them."

"I am happy to hear that." The doctor smiled at me.

I talked really fast because my doctor needed to hear more, "Their friends got me into one of Stark's parties and it was… amazing. I met this new guy actually."

"You guys do anything fun?"

"We met at the party and things really sparked. Like REALLY sparked and we see eachother everyday." I did not leave the suggestive tone out of my voice.

"That's good. Go on dates?"

Excitement lit in me at the thought of all the amazing sex we had… but other than the few drinks he bought me and the takeout dinner… 

The doctor glanced at me, their look shifted… something shifted and I already knew what was wrong.

"Umm… well.." I rubbed my thigh out of nerves just THINKING about it. Just the thought of the gynecology appointment for STI testing I should get done. I cleared my throat as I awkwardly answered, "there's more… action going on than casual conversations." 

My face flushed with heat when they asked,

"You mean sexual intercourse?"

I nodded my head. 

I knew. Everyone that actually knew "normal" me… All of us KNEW I never have sex with anyone until a month a serious dating, at least. The type of dating where discussions were deeper things than food, half watched movies, and how our outward appearances looked naked. I never sexted when I couldn't actually meet the other.

The doctor carefully asked the famous question, "Have you used protection?"

I tried to laugh but it came out broken. "No. Once again I felt invincible, overconfident, and had the sex drive of a rabbit."

The doctor started to discuss my sleep that was nonexistent. Then the amount of food consumption that was high and all I have been eating was cheap takeout. I haven't been eating like my usual self who tried to keep eating healthy. Even through depression I ate frozen fruit. It was on my list every time when I absolutely had to drag myself to the store to get necessities. I explained how I have been the person who, "helps everyone out with extreme unrealistic enthusiasm" as I always said to be annoying during my normal window of mind set.

I went to the store to pick up my prescription for a mood stabilizer. I went home and as much as I REALLY wanted to answer the phone when seeing Loki's name. I just didn't. I forced the thought from my mind of...a really pleasure filled night. My body filled with the desire to be touched by another's body.

The phone stopped ringing and so did my sinful thoughts.

As usual there was no voicemail.

In normal circumstances there should have been one, with a declaration of loving longing or a stupid question in a way to just get me to get back in contact.

I stared at my phone. My mind was at war and the part fueled by my bodily behavior was winning. It became a game in my head that was unfavorably tipped towards my body's desire. He texted me if he could come to my place and the game was over. I hid the medication in the cupboard after taking my first dose.

I woke in an odd way… something was different.

I groaned as I moved and felt the bed still warm under my body. I opened my eyes as I inhaled at a similar scent. I was unsure if I was glad he was gone or upset he seemed to have just left. He usually stayed till I woke. I felt the sensation between my legs and knew I needed to make a gynecologist appointment before I had to go to work, praying I could get in after my shift tomorrow.

I made the appointment but it was not for a few days and Loki kept in contact. However I worked on letting him go slowly with not responding immediately and was to the point of making sure not to respond to him unless there were so many number of attempts to contact me.

I stared at my phone as a new text message appeared.

Loki asked a simple question, "Are you ok?"

I laughed and laughed till I could no longer bare to do it.

It WAS a simple question but no one ever wanted the real answer. No one wanted the burdens of another placed on their shoulders from SMALL talk. The truth was deeper and more time consuming than anyone could predict. So I sent the simple one worded lie and left my phone alone again, but silenced it.

It was a while before I checked my phone due to falling asleep to the discovery channel.

I was fully prepared for no new notifications.

I was surprised to see 2 new messages.

I wanted to throw the phone before I looked but the idea was squashed by excitement and curiosity.

Both of the messages from Loki.

"Do you want to meet up?"

Hour after the last message, "talk tomorrow. Goodnight."

I didn't answer back because my stomach tightened in an odd way. I was used to feeling good about a God wanting me but now...

I used positive self talk to encourage myself to not give in on my final day before my tests but that coping skill is easily the hardest to master. I found myself open the chat with him, start to type something arousing and had to delete it. I was pissing myself off. I hated the stage between "normal me" and "ill me" because my mind was constantly at war.

I decided to ultimately block Loki's number in an attempt to stop contact.

My test results came back that I was still healthy and relief washed over me..

Eventually those supposed friends stopped talking to me as they usually did because I was not "fun" anymore.

I was becoming my "normal" self again, thus putting in the efforts of a healthy schedule again.

However, the loneliness from staying in by myself. Not having anyone to talk to. Ofcourse, I had my coworkers that have always openly laughed at poor tastes of mental health jokes. I was losing interest in everything because, "why should I care" and "what's the point?"

I had to look presentable for work so while I was "public eye" ready, I did my shopping then. By the time I got home on the days of the extremely scarce necessity shopping, I was exhausted but my body was wide awake. I would toss and turn trying to sleep but it would not welcome me.

Then other times, I put the cold stuff away and went straight to bed without getting anything to consume. I would often cry myself to sleep, then wake too tired to do anything. 

On days off I would lay in bed and do nothing until the desire to use the toilet became too strong.

I would weep and mourn my favorite past times. Not actually my interests and hobbies but how much I could not will myself to just do them. I left the discovery channel play on the TV just for the sake of something familiar. When a little fact I knew would be mentioned it was like a smoldering campfire was stirred. 

A little life breathed into me from time to time and due to the doctor's recommendation, I got back into therapy again. It helped but the talks were hard and seemed to weigh heavily on me more once I was home. There are skills I should be using and strategic tips to get things done. However, sometimes I just could not pull the will into my grasp to participate in the knowledge of a healthy lifestyle.

My phone rang with an unknown number. I answered it due to expecting a response from my doctor.

"How have you been?"

I knew that voice… but I could not pinpoint it.

I answered, "I'm ok. But who is this?"

"Loki."

"Oh…" I scrambled for words but nothing came. How was I supposed to explain this to him, my current state in everything and the fact I blocked his number?

"Are you home?"

"I was just about to leave." It was a lie. 

A damn terrible lie. I had no plans of removing myself from my couch. It had everything I needed in arms reach because it was essentially my comfort fort now.

The doorbell rang and I was extremely tempted to act like I was not home but the person on the other end of the phone knew.

I sighed with dread ringing in my chest much like the damned sound of company at my door insistent on not giving up.

I opened the door slightly to see Loki standing there.

His eyes met mine.

"You do not seem ok." Echoed from my phone before he ended the call.

I looked past Loki because while it might have once been excitement, I felt anything but that currently.

I tried to push my words out louder than a whisper, "What are you doing here?"

"I have been trying to contact you.. more regularly as of recently."

"I have no intention of being a booty call anymore."

His eyebrows scrunched and he blinked.

I went to shut the door as I said, "goodbye Loki."

Loki's hand shot out and kept the door opened. "You were never."

I huffed in annoyance as hope rose slightly in my chest. Then the doubts from depression took that hope and buried it 20 feet further than before. Tears pricked my eyes after the past hour of seeming to be gone and dried.

Loki's face was of concern when he asked, "may I come in?"

My face felt like it contorted into pure agony as I tried to hide the sob erupting from my aching heart. I tried to swallow the huge lump in my throat but it caused further pain. Then finally from the pain that emitted from deep within me, the tears fell.

I was in the hurricane of emotion from having a visitor.

Joy from not being alone then, to the horror of having to explain.

There was too much to explain... My reason for treating him so vastly different since we met. My emotional state. All my emotions. My appearance of myself and my house. The medication on the counter that had purpose. My illness and why once again I was crying harder. Trying to explain what was WRONG with me and why I needed the medication.

Loki sat beside me at the messy and cluttered kitchen table.

"What do you mean you were 'too good' at the time we met?"

I sniffed but still had to wipe my nose. "It's a symptom of bipolar disorder. I can literally feel too good at some points of my life. I had unbelievable amounts of confidence and optimism. It's called hypomania. That's not who I am. I am much-MUCH more responsible than getting drunk and having unprotected sexual intercourse with someone I know nothing about on an intellectual level."

I watched Loki's tongue swipe his lips as they pressed together and eyebrows scrunched again in thought.

Finally he spoke, "Your vast knowledgeable facts from our FIRST conversation have been playing on that TV throughout our conversation. I can see several things that show your bright mind. The very mind I fell for."

My eyes glanced at him once again. "My knowledge does not change. Just the optimism, focus, and desire for it."

Things seemed to be clicking in Loki's mind. He looked at the medications once again and did not take his eyes off of them. "If you continue your treatment, you will be what you deem normal?"

A small smile pulled my lips as a puff of air escaped from my amusement. "Yes. What I deem as normal. Not anyone else meaning I will be back to my healthy self... If I could remember to take my medicine."

"I am going to help you because I want to see the happy medium that you keep mentioning. It seems that I have seen you at all of your worst moments." He gave me a side glance with a smile pulling at his lips, "I assume there is something I must like out of your normal."

I began to smile but a frown quickly placed it. "There is no telling when I will be normal again."

Gold shimmered over my medication.

"Perhaps now it will become easier to stay on your medication regimen."

I grabbed a bottle and examined it once there was no longer gold around it. "What did you do?"

"I will know where these containers are and be able to move them. I will also know when you open them." He got the spare phone out of his pocket, "should I not be able to contact you again through phone, I will simply move these containers to you."

I felt a little happier as I teased, "I guess simply blocking your number is not going to work anymore?"

Loki smiled, "There are plenty of other numbers I could use."

Loki did help me. There had to be a little adjustment to his plan of keeping track of my medicine. He bought a specific little container made for sorting pills into daily doses. He would help me fill the daily spots for medication and he put another enchantment on that one as well. 

Everyday he would come to my place and help with things that needed to be done. He would compliment me when I needed it. He would hold me when medication would make me drowsy. He would urge me to eat when I did not want to. He helped me make healthier choices when I wanted to devour the whole house.

He actually took me to nice restaurants when I felt decent enough to get out.

He would always know everything about my medication and with him being able to literally hold it in my face at any point in the day… well there was no longer the option to forget.

Loki was the constant supply of water to my thirst for knowledge. Due to that type of relationship we really connected. Like really connected. We talked about everything to varying levels of importance and on both ends were voicemails with ridiculous ways to entice the other to call back.

Sometimes I would purposely ignore his calls just to see what the next stupid thing would be left in my mailbox… I listened to the recent one just left on my phone a minute ago.

"I know your games by now, so call me back. ...My declarations of love can wait until you tell me what sweet thing I am craving. I am at the store, so do hurry up before I decide to buy 5 of everything in the candy isle." There was a faint sound of the typical background noise in a store. "Please hurry… I fear I am going to need a bigger cart."

[capricornzoso-blog]

V/Taehyung's Natal Aspects

Planets in Houses*

Sun House 8

Moon House 12

Mercury House 9

Venus House 9

Mars House 9

Jupiter House 7

Saturn House 11

Uranus House 9

Neptune House 9

Pluto House 6

Node House 5

Positions of Houses

House 1 6°21' Gemini

House 2 0°13' Cancer

House 3 21°51' Cancer

House 4 15°35' Leo

House 5 15°31' Virgo

House 6 24°29' Libra

House 7 6°21' Sagittarius

House 8 0°13' Capricorn

House 9 21°51' Capricorn

House 10 15°35' Aquarius

House 11 15°31' Pisces

House 12 24°29' Aries

* Planet/ * *Aspect * * Planet/ * * ORB *

* Point * * Point#2 *

Mars Conjunction Neptune 1°48'

Mercury Conjunction Uranus 2°14'

Mercury Conjunction Neptune 2°23'

Mercury Conjunction Mars 4°11'

Venus Conjunction MC 5°06'

Mars Conjunction Uranus 6°26'

Sun Conjunction Jupiter 8°58'

Pluto Opposite AS 4°27'

Moon Square Neptune 0°34'

Moon Square Mercury 1°49'

Moon Square Mars 2°22'

Moon Square Uranus 4°04'

Moon Trine Jupiter 3°53'

Venus Trine AS 4°07'

Uranus Trine AS 7°05'

Uranus Sextile Pluto 2°38'

Mars Sextile Saturn 3°31'

Mercury Sextile Pluto 4°53'

Saturn Sextile Neptune 5°20'

Sun Inconjunction AS 1°42'

Mars SesquiQuadrate AS 1°27'

Sun Quintile Saturn 0°46'

Moon BiQuintile Pluto 0°42'

Here, the aspects with the smallest orbs will be the most prominent in influencing V's personality and life, ofcourse as I stated earlier major aspects like the conjunction hold more effect at 10�� than an exact(less than 1° orb) minor aspect like a quintile. The most important thing would be the aspects that a planet forms in a birthchart, then the house that the planet occupies and then the least important is the zodiac sign in which the planet is situated. For example-Someone with a Pisces moon(often regarded as a soft and whimpy moon sign) square Mars and conjunct Pluto(Both of them co-rulers of the dangerous and manipulative Scorpio sign/8th house) in the 1st house(ascendant, our image projected towards the outer world) at 0° exact would not be soft and wimpy like other Pisces Moons, if not at all. Ofcourse, it could retain some of the characteristics of a Pisces moon but on most occasion, that person would show Mars and Pluto more often than Pisces.

Also Important is the chart ruler or the ruler planet of the ascendant sign, for V it would be mercury since mercury rules Gemini, his ascendant. All aspects formed to Mercury would be much more prominent

.

Astrology is withheld to no single human being or entity. As we go on, we gather knowledge from others, but that knowledge is not ours to keep so we cannot put restrains on it.

Of course we ought to respect someone's intellectual property and not demean it via unlawfull use and plagiarism.(I am not going to sue you don't worry)

All of us are human and have fallacies, I or you,my reader are no better a person than my subject.

So off we go-

Mars Conjunct Neptune

(My sister has this too, exact. I know)

People with this aspect have delusions about themselves and their life, they often fantasise about accomplishing their dreams but fail when they have to put it into action, because they give up before they can complete it. Procastination is also a possibility, so is the possibilty of extreme passiveness, they are often late when meeting deadlines. If you told them they have weird fantasies and/or that they are delusional, they are rarely going to accept it. Self-deception is quite common. These people should be carefull not to engage in occult phenomenon or with mediums and psyshics, they can quite easily come under psychic attack by negative entities, they lack physical boundaries and their physical space is often invaded by other people without their consent. On the plus side, they can have great artistic talent and could be good at water sports including swimming. Since this conjunction occurs in the 9th house, we will see V behaving like this in an educative environment(he probably wasn't a dilligient student who always did their home work on time. Lol everybody is like that)or while travelling. Their is some danger from water while travelling.

Mercury Conjunct Uranus

A sharp mind, lightning sharp wit. He always comes up with the quirkiest of ideas and since Uranus(the planet of innovation and progress) is conjunct his chart ruler mercury, this aspect is very integral to his personality. He hates old or conventional methods of thinking. (Like if some man shaves with a razor, our V is going to shave with a scissor. Chill its an example.) He has many original ideas and his mind cannot stay still for more than a few seconds. He has the ability to comeback with witty one-liners in a conversation much faster than most people. He has a brilliant mind but needs to channelise his ideas into productive endeavours instead of just thinking 'em. He has a good sense of humour. He is a progressive thinker. Someastrology sites call this the genius aspect, the moniker is not undeserved as these people are brilliant at coming up with solutions a lot faster than me and you can. Their over-active brains however often result in distorted speech. They might think that they cannot express the ideas that they conceive, as they tend to forget them as quickly as coming up with them.

Mercury Conjunct Neptune

Another aspect for distorted speech, he has trouble accepting his insecurities and other people's criticism in favour of living in his own reality, this results in avoidance of telling on the truth in lieu of making up false stories or half-truths.( A friend with this aspect is incredibly insecure when voicing her opinion and often tends to take a diplomatic stance on every issue for fear of being ignored, she doesn't even notice this at times. )

On the plus and plump, he more likely than not has a good taste in artistic pursuits. This aspect also makes him sensitive to psychic phenomenon. He could even develop telepathical skills.

These people should be checked for going around a topic, avoiding a conclusion as they can have problems coming up with the exact thing they want to articulate.

Mercury Conjunct Mars

These people can be very aggressive when talking, especially when they feel someone has challenged them. They feel challenged most of the time BTW. You don't want to be around them when they are angry, with their scathing words they are going to make you feel like a total piece of shit... You cannot win a debate against them, they will run over you with a bulldozer. Shouting, Screaming and Swearing(for some) are extremely common occurances. They have the proverbial "mercurial" temper. Often the moniker "mercurial" is used to describe Guns n Roses frontman(lead singer) Axl Rose, famous, aside from his very talented singing ability, for leaving the stage whenever anyone did ANYTHING to displease him. He has a video on Youtube where whilst singing a man disturbs him. He is quick to jump off the more-than-7 feet tall stage into the crowd saying "Okay then Goddamnit", why? Because (In his words-"Thanks to to the lame ass security I am going home" ) *Throws Mic* he has this aspect too(at an10° orb)

Venus Conjunct MC-

The MC is our image to the public/our profession according to some astrologers, people with their Venus conjunct Midheaven or MC would express their sense of beauty, their taste in art and their values to the outside world or even integrate these into their workplace. They are likely to be preceived as beautifull and talented. In his case, he is precieved as knowledgeble in the industry's undertakings due to his sense of astistry. Industry insiders probably think he is an expert in the idol game. He likes to maintain an ambivalent environment and since his Venus is in Aquarius, he comes off as a mediator to his friends. He holds his values to himself in professional settings. Some people may find him somewhat of a do-the right-thing kind of person

Mars Conjunct Uranus

Very short-tempered but his temper falls down as soon as it rises up. You will never know when he would go off into a rage. He is extremely unpredictable, you will keep guessing but never know what he would do next. He is very progressive sexually and probably isn't quite okay with homophobia and racism on a sexual level.

At the same time, he tends to very erratic when using his energy. His drive to accomplish tasks at hand comes and goes at an unhealthy pace. He could at times experience severe bouts of hypochondria, doing one thing after another and then regressing like a sunflower at twilight.

Sun Conjunct Jupiter

This aspect makes V extremely optimistic, and LUCKY. Just when everybody is down with sorrow, he will light up the atmosphere with his positivity and confidence. Although, this aspect is mostly positive , we do observe some narcissistic tendencies here or even an inflasted sense of self. Overconfidence is more common however.

Pluto Opposite Ascendant/Pluto Conjunct Descendant

When a planet is opposite your ascendent, it is immediately conjunxt your descendant. The descendant is our behaviour is romantic or nonromantic committed relationships and partnerships. The descendant also provides a clue to the kind of partner we are attracted to or what kind of person is attracted to us. His descendant is conjunct Pluto, making him extremely Scorpionic in a one-on-one relationship. He is very controlling, like to know where you are at, what you are doing, manipulative to get what he wants from his business or romantic partners. He is extremely suspicious and its not easy to attain his trust but once you do, he will stand by you come rain and thunder. He is also very jealous and possessive of his romantic partners. He is a Scorpio in relationships or he could attract these kind of partners and relationships. He is the kind that will have your hair cut if some other guy compliments your hairstyle.😲 There is also the possibility of attracting dangerous and violent partners that want to control him, he could attract stalkers, obsessed people and/or criminals

Next time, we will be looking on to the other aspects .

Till then. ZoSo~♤

[easyhairstylesbest]

Libra Monthly Horoscope

MONTH OF January

Monthly Snapshot 

Homebody no more! Your 2020 was seriously shelter-focused, and not just because of the pandemic. With three planets in Capricorn and your domestic fourth house, Chateau Libra was where all the action happened. In some ways, it was a silver lining that this coincided with a time when many of us were forced to spend unusually long amounts of time indoors and with family members—although if you were separated from loved ones, the isolation may have really gotten to you.

Starting this January, you’ll thrive outside your hive as Jupiter and Saturn embark on their first full month in Aquarius and your playful, passionate fifth house. While we all obviously need to observe rigorous safety precautions, your demeanor will become more open and creative again as you emerge from an unusually internal, reflective cycle. With the Sun still lingering in Capricorn and your homey fourth house until January 19, it might take a wee bit longer for this fun-loving cycle to kick in—but once it does, watch out, world!

Relationships are always a priority for your companionship-oriented sign, and this month you’ll learn who’s on Team Libra through thick and thin. Some of your alliances, which you’ve been cultivating over the past year, could become uber-official. Stock your squad with power players, Libra, and set up a path for mutual gain.

Back up all your data and devices before January 30, when communication and technology planet Mercury turns retrograde, a tricky time for interactions. With Mercury going rogue in Aquarius and your flamboyant fifth house, things could get dramatic—and that’s the last thing you need. Guard against turning your life into a reality show (unless, of course, you want that) by setting up clear expectations in your relationships all month long.

Week 1: January 1-10

Get ready to go deep

Relationships have been a source of excitement AND stress over the past six months, and this week, the plot could thicken. On Wednesday, January 6, intensifier Mars wraps an extended six-month visit to your opposite sign of Aries (four times longer than usual), where it’s been heating up your partnership zone since June 27, 2020. Whew!

Libras are naturally twosome-oriented, but there wasn’t much of a break from the steady stream of people clamoring for your attention. It could have been a lot of together-time, even for you. On the other hand, a new relationship might have been extra steamy thanks to the presence of lusty Mars!

Some of your bonds may have been riddled with arguments or competitiveness. Business negotiations could have gotten heated. Uncomfortable? Yes, but that’s how straight-talking and assertive Mars works. There’s no dodging directness. Your peaceful sign will go out of your way to avoid conflict, sometimes at your own expense. The downside is that you might also miss an opportunity because you don’t speak up or make that big ask. Mars in Aries taught you that the squeaky wheel does indeed get the premium oil. So…you’ve been squeaking!

While you should certainly continue, you may soon be doing so in a more hushed and husky tone. From January 6 to March 3, the climate shifts to a more insiders-only vibe as Mars plunges into Taurus and your eighth house of intimacy and intrigue. Emotions run deep and become extra palpable, from smoldering lust to seething jealousy.

With Mars heating up this joint-venture sector, a financial endeavor could take flight. You might attract angel funding, a loan or a grant—or you might make a savvy investment yourself. There may be tax issues looming or a legacy or inheritance on the horizon. Tight on funds? Pool your resources, work the barter system or team up with a fellow power player for a win-win.

Week 2: January 11-17

A good cry never hurt anyone

Drama alert! This week could be high on the histrionics and intense on the intrigue. Mars and Uranus are gathering speed in Taurus and your eighth house of intimacy, shared finances and control. From hidden emotions to jealousy and power trips, strong energies are heating up.

At the same time, expansive Jupiter and structured Saturn are both in Aquarius and your passionate, expressive fifth house. Where the eighth house is internal and secretive, the fifth is total “heart on sleeve” externalized Yet they can share a common level of intensity, and with so much amped-up cosmic energy afoot, it will be hard to stay centered.

It all begins on Wednesday, January 13, when Mars and Saturn get embroiled in a tense square, pulling you between public and private matters. Mars can ramp up possessiveness or suspicion, but he also turns up the sensual heat! The rash red planet may even tempt you to rush into a binding arrangement, whether emotional, financial or sexual.

As Mars squares cautious, self-protective Saturn in your romantic fifth house, the rose-colored glasses come off. Anyone you’ve hoisted onto a pedestal could fail to live up to the lofty attributes you’ve assigned them. If you’re trying to put yourself out there as an artist, performer or influencer, your talents may go unnoticed by the people you hope to impress, which can leave you discouraged. A budding attraction might slow down or hit a snag. Time for a reality check about who someone is…and isn’t?

But maybe something even better is on its way. This Thursday, January 14, game-changer Uranus ends a five-month retrograde in Taurus and your proprietary eighth house. Out of the blue, you could hear of an opportunity to join forces (and possibly finances) for mutual gain. With tech-savvy Uranus here, you might meet someone virtually or cement your bond via pixels before you get to experience your off-the-charts chemistry in the flesh.

Uranus has been retrograde since August 15, and as the side-spinning planet corrects course, there will actually be zero retrograde planets for two weeks! Take advantage of this decisive energy to make your moves.

Also on Thursday, the Sun and Pluto form their annual meetup in Capricorn and your fourth house of home and family. This could be a powerful day to move, change your living space or to clear the air with a family member. Have you been sensing a power struggle, particularly with a female relative? Today, you can assert yourself and make sure that the relationship moves forward on a mutually respectful foundation. It’s okay if a domineering type is a teensy bit taken aback by your strength, as long as it’s an acknowledgment of your power. Just make sure you’re leading with love, not sowing seeds of fear and intimidation.

On Sunday, January 17, a once-every-seven-years event occurs as expansive Jupiter and liberated Uranus move into a tense square, both fighting for freedom. While outspoken Jupiter wants you to toss all self-consciousness aside and “do you,” Uranus in your private and strategic eighth house is looking to get ahead by showing LESS, not more, of your hand.

This Jupiter-Uranus square could find you micromanaging your image and being overly concerned with the way people see you (which you have no control over, really). Any relationship or situation that feels confining could send you running to make a jailbreak. Intense emotions boil over, leading to a heated outburst—or possibly the consummation of simmering sexual tension!

It will be nearly impossible to keep your feelings inside, but make sure that you’re not burning a bridge with a demand to be heard. By no means should you suppress your needs, but issuing ultimatums won’t go over well today either. Remember, other people’s desire for autonomy might be as potent as yours.

Week 3: January 18-24

The return of fun and romance

Hibernation season is officially over, no matter what your weather app says. This Tuesday, January 19, the Sun enters Aquarius and your playful, passionate fifth house until February 18, joining Mercury, Jupiter AND Saturn, who are all occupying these colorful quarters of your chart.

Ready to get an early start on Valentine’s Day? Cupid could pay an unexpected visit. For Libras of the childbearing set, the stork may also appear since the fifth house rules fertility. Consider yourself notified! Over the next few weeks, get yourself camera-ready because the spotlight is sure to find you.

The last year may have left you feeling a bit invisible or overlooked. In truth, the planets sent you on a 2020 retreat, where you got in tune with deeper emotions and solidified a strong inner foundation. Now you’re ready to emerge and be seen, heard and noticed again!

But DO make sure you can still retreat to your metaphorical dressing room because your private life is also heating up this week. On Wednesday, January 20, intense Mars will team up with changemaker Uranus in Taurus and your eighth house of intimacy and investments. This could bring a speeding curveball around your finances or personal affairs. An attraction might heat up into a full-on boudoir consummation. You could also get a hot lead on somewhere to put your money or to team up for a joint venture that could pay off handsomely.

Just be careful about getting in too deep too soon. This Saturday, January 23, impulsive Mars will square off against overconfident Jupiter, and your risk-taking could turn reckless. Any rash moves, especially into an offer that could be “too good to be true,” may leave you with a messy cleanup job. Conduct due diligence, both through research AND soul-searching. Does something not add up? Do you feel a disconnect between what your mind and gut are saying? Don’t dismiss that.

Avoid gambling and signing on to anything that’s too speculative. That caution is doubly emphasized because Saturday also brings the year’s only conjunction (meetup) of the Sun and sobering Saturn. This is a day when we must confront limitations and look at the downside of any venture through a harsh and unflinching lens. The truth may hurt, but better to let it sting than sustain the greater injuries of making a hard-to-reverse, costly mistake.

As the Sun and Saturn unite in Aquarius and your romantic, creative fifth house, a budding relationship could turn serious—provided you believe it can go the distance. If someone’s here-today-gone-tomorrow, you may decide to stop investing your energy in this bond. That also goes for friendships, artistic collaborations and hobbies. If it’s not “sparking joy,” as your fellow Libra Marie Kondo would say, move on!

Week 4: January 25-31

Unburden your heart and be free

Pump up the passion! This week, a cosmic coterie queues up in Aquarius and your romantic, creative fifth house. The Sun, Mercury, Jupiter and Saturn all keep chugging through this sign, turning up the heat (and possibly adding a side of drama). Add in a full moon this Thursday, and emotions will be running high.

On Tuesday, January 26, the Sun in Aquarius will square off against disruptor Uranus in Taurus, echoing the tension of the January 17 Jupiter-Uranus square. Once again, you could be torn between wearing your heart on your sleeve and keeping your cards close to your vest. Surprising information could surface, and drama could ensue if a secret is abruptly revealed.

Are you hanging onto hurt, resentment or some painful breach of trust? The Sun-Uranus square could be the kick you need to just let it go—and liberate yourself in the process. We know a Libra with access to her ex’s text messages (long story). While she feels empowered in the short-term because she’s privy to his secrets, it keeps her stuck in a chain of pain. Meantime, he’s moved on to his next relationship…while she’s still fixated on him.

If you resemble this remark in any way, from prowling a frenemy’s Instagram feed to holding yourself back because of a bad experience, the Sun-Uranus square invites you to get radical—and set yourself free!

You’ll want to lighten your load because the future looks oh-so bright on Thursday, January 28, when the Leo full moon—the first full moon of 2021—ignites your eleventh house of teamwork and technology. Has that brilliant collaboration opportunity finally arrived? This is your invitation to link up with like-minded people who share your vision and values. Leave those energy vampires in the past, Libra, and focus on your divine mission!

How can you share your message with the wider world, especially through digital platforms? Teaming up with tech-savvy types can help you connect with even more kindred spirits. A website relaunch or a social media “brand refresh” could be ideal for this full moon.

Even better? Today, the Sun will conjunct expansive Jupiter in its once-a-year meetup, known as the Day of Miracles and considered by astrologers to be one of the luckiest days of the year. Since your fun-loving, attractive fifth house will be supercharged by this merger, look for lucky breakthroughs in the romantic and creative parts of your life. Today’s a major day to generate buzz—so send out those big announcements!

Be quick about it, though, because on Saturday, January 3class=”body-el-link standard-body-el-link” 0, communication planet Mercury will go retrograde through unpredictable Aquarius and your flamboyant fifth house until February 20. Does your love life look like a bad rerun all of a sudden? If old issues (or an ex) suddenly breaks the surface, take a deep breath before you go there. During this tricky transit, remember that there IS such a thing as bad publicity. With Mercury doing a backspin, make sure you don’t court attention for attention’s sake. Hold off on any big, flashy moves until after February 20.

LOVE & ROMANCE:

January is a hugely significant month because Mars leaves Aries and your relationship realm after an unusually long half-year transit. Since last June 27, there’s likely been an intense focus on your partnerships—sometimes stressful and conflict-filled while other times passionate and mind-blowingly hot!

Mars will move on from Aries on January 6, plunging into even deeper waters as it visits Taurus and your intimate, erotic eighth house until March 3. You might feel a sense of urgency around permanent plans, like moving in together or making a joint investment, neither of which is lessened by the pandemic surge. This cycle can bring even more sensuality and intrigue—but it also drives up trust issues, jealousy and possessiveness. For single Libras, this could be an internally focused time of doing some healing around trust and deeper feelings—or to find someone you connect with on the levels of mind, body AND soul.

You’ll still be in the mood for flirting and lighter chitchat until about January 8, when Venus exits Sagittarius and your breezy third house and moves into Capricorn and your emotional fourth. Paired with Mars in Taurus, this could make you feel sensitive and vulnerable. While you’ll enjoy the nostalgia, you may also be mercurial, thin-skinned and quick to react.

Make sure you have adequate support and self-care to see you through. Talk about your feelings instead of holding them inside, even if you first process them with a caring confidante instead of your love interest.

Key Dates:

January 9: Venus-Mars trine

Bring on the lasting love! As affectionate Venus and passionate Mars harmonize in stable earth signs, you could have true romance with all the trimmings—sensuality and stability. Skip the “come here now go away” players and their mixed messages. A partner who makes you feel secure is suddenly the most attractive catch in town. Coupled? Mark a long-term relationship with a thoughtful gift to let your mate know how much you cherish them.

MONEY & CAREER:

  Dear Reader: To bring you cutting-edge financial and career astrology, we’ve replaced our monthly Money & Career horoscope with an expanded new offering. And we’re burstinclass=”body-el-link standard-body-el-link” g with excitement to announce it!

We invite you to join the waitlist for our Astropreneurs community, where we’ll be sharing tools, trainings and cosmic career coaching in 2021 and beyond! Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a dreamer with a side hustle or just looking for deeper satisfaction from your work, we’ll guide you to your path and purpose by the stars.

2021 Vision Board Experience: January 28 with The AstroTwins Ready to design a path that truly fulfills you in 2021? Joclass=”body-el-link standard-body-el-link” in us for a star-powered live online event to create success, leadership and impact on January 28, 2021. Tickets available at https://astrostyle.com/visionboard21

Love Days: 13, 19

Money Days:26, 8

Luck Days: 24, 6

Off Days: 3, 21

See All Signs

Shop ELLE.com’s Exclusive Zodiac PopSockets

Aries Astrology Galaxy PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Aries Illustrated PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Taurus Astrology Galaxy PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Taurus Illustrated PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Gemini Astrology Galaxy PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Gemini Illustrated PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Cancer Astrology Galaxy PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Cancer Illustrated PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Leo Astrology Galaxy PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Leo Illustrated PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Virgo Astrology Galaxy PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Virgo Illustrated PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Libra Astrology Galaxy PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Libra Illustrated PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Scorpio Astrology Galaxy PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Scorpio Illustrated PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Sagittarius Astrology Galaxy PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Sagittarius Illustrated PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Aquarius Astrology Galaxy PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Aquarius Illustrated PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Pisces Astrology Galaxy PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Pisces Illustrated PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Capricorn Illustrated PopSocket

Stars & ‘Scopes amazon.com

$14.99

Capricon Astrology Galaxy PopSocket

The AstroTwins Identical twin sisters Ophira and Tali Edut (The AstroTwins), have been ELLE.com‘s official astrologers for over a decade.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

Libra Monthly Horoscope

[resiliency20]

Resilience at work

Once you become more resilient, the power to beat adversity comes more quickly. Resilience at work often indicates the crucial difference between how you handle pressure or lose your cool. There’s tremendous power in being resilient, persistent and determined. And every one of it are often learned.

 But how does one develop, acquire or intensify such qualities? How does one become more resilient? In what way are you able to somehow disregard the challenges in life, persevere and in any case, be successful?

 At first, you've got to understand that resilient people tend to stay a more positive attitude and deal with pressure more efficiently. The individuals with great resilience are genuinely happy people but often haven't such perfect lives. Their success and general happiness are frequently credited to their outlooks and habits which they need cultivated, and to not their circumstances.

 Self-esteem also plays a big role in handling stress or recovering from challenging events. It’d explain why some people are more resilient, remain confident and optimistic within the face of illness, while others are depressed, unhappy and miserable despite abundance, wealth, and privilege.

 So, the solution is how we affect what happens to us. Life is challenging enough. So when things crumble, it's useful to possess a group of tools to fall back upon. One among those tools is named resilience and are some things you'll learn and apply. Resilient people know the role they need in their own lives and understand their capacity to unravel problems, even once they don't yet have an answer.

 When life and death situation arises, what do the winners do this the losers do not? You can also find out how to become more resilient in life. Regardless of if you're browsing employment loss, a tough occupation, or personal calamities, resilience can help. You’ve got to become more confident in your ability to reply and affect a crisis. It’s a superb thanks to build determination for the longer term.

 Using Mental Pictures to Become More Resilient

Successful people are always dreaming big and using their imagination to make mental pictures.

 It must not be misinterpreted as a nasty thing. In fact, when dreaming big, it helps you become more efficient. These mental images are an ingredient of to become more resilient.

 Although big visions expose resilient people to the danger of failure, they are doing something else that's very interesting. They motivate themselves et al. to stay trying even once they have failed.

 And all of those years, i assumed i used to be wrong to urge from one job to a different in several fields. When in fact, I used to be a part of the elite right along. Why? Well, successful people fail tons, but they also try tons. So, when things don't compute, they advance until a thought does work. Successful individuals, survivors, and great entrepreneurs have this trait in common.

 As a result, crazy successful people, super athletes, and individuals who survive tough situations are all overconfident.

 Becoming More Resilient Is Remaining Busy

As soon as things tend to travel wrong, most of the people get scared, depressed or sad. They retreat and conceal, by distracting themselves. And yes, it can suppress the emotions, but it doesn't get you out of the mess you're in.

 To become more resilient, you ought to know that remaining busy not only gets you closer to your goals, but it's also the simplest thanks to stay calm. You’ll also tell that you simply are happier once you are busy or working. You’re hustling, which is sweet. But it's hard to stay that go-getting attitude when things aren't going well, yet resilience is that the key.

 Being Resilient Is Getting and Giving Help

All resilient people know they can't roll in the hay on their own. in order that they get help. But more precisely, they are going to the proper person. Getting assistance is a not a nasty thing but an honest thing. And yes, sometimes you're ashamed or embarrassed, so you are doing not ask. But don't let your pride get within the way.

 What is exciting about becoming more resilient is that even within the worst times, you understand that giving help can benefit you. Studies show that folks who give are very successful people and live longer. Helping somebody else helps you rise above your fears. You’re a rescuer, not a victim anymore.

 In an emergency, resilient people believe experts by calling the proper person. While friends and family are often somewhat comforting, a resilient person makes intelligent choices on which friend or which relative to believe in any given circumstances.

 Becoming More Resilient by Making It a Game

During feelings of safety, reward, and even feeling great, a structure within the brain called the striatum activates. Some drugs like cocaine do set it off, but did you recognize that learning a replacement habit or skill, or the performance of structured actions and patterned activities roll in the hay also?

 Even boring stuff are often fun and cause you to more resilient if you switch them into a game with small challenges and rewards. The simplest thing about it's that you simply can use this gaming system as a daily routine for problems. Are you able to better than yesterday? What percentage pushes are you able to make today?

 Something all survivors have in common is to celebrate small wins. Resilient people take great joy from even their tiniest victories. It’s an important step if you would like to make an everlasting feeling of motivation and stop the decline into despair. It also provides relief from stress.

 Being More Resilient has Good Habits

To become more resilient, you've got to figure on having good useful habits and replacing wasteful ones. Healthy habits don't take a toll on your willpower and determination the maximum amount as bad behaviours, and that they will assist you have more resilience.

 How does one endure a loss, a shipwreck, a deserted island, an earthquake or being lost within the wild? You’ve got to organize for the longer term, even once you are within the middle of trouble. Wrong also as bad training are often worse than no training. So, develop good habits and replace the bad ones. Expect the simplest but always be prepared for the worst.

 Being Flexible is a component of Becoming Resilient

All resilient people understand that failure is an important obstacle toward success. Extremely successful people often fail, over and over. They understand that they need to require risks and make mistakes to strive.

 Having flexibility may be a necessary a part of becoming more resilient. By learning the way to have more adaptability, you'll be better equipped to reply as you face a life crisis or a predicament. While most of the people could also be crushed by unexpected or unforeseen changes, highly resilient individuals can adapt and prosper.

 Becoming More Resilient Is Controlling Emotions

When you are under stress, you can't think straight. Any hasty decision rarely brings the simplest results. To be more resilient, you've got to stay calm, Gage and evaluate things logically in order that you'll make an idea and put it into action.

 Particularly in emergencies or crises, resilient people, survivors, also as successful people spend almost no nonce troubled about things going wrong or getting upset about what's lost. So you'll know that you simply are in trouble, but you continue to keep your cool regardless of what.

 Having More Resilience Is to stay Going

Resilient people don't succumb to negativity per say. In stressful circumstances, they will retain some level of positivity and keep going. They are doing experience pain, loss, and suffering a bit like anyone else. But what makes them more resilient and circumstances different, is that they will let negativity alongside positive emotions like gratitude, gladness, and joy.

 Therefore, excellent problem-solving skills enable you to succeed better. People high in resilience don't hand over immediately. They persevere, stay the course and keep going. Persistent individuals still find and check out new ways to unravel a drag until they find an answer for it.

 A Closing Word on Becoming More Resilient

As you learn to become more resilient, you've got to know that when a threat or problem is handled, and once the dust has settled that your life are often even better than it had been . So when your life is overwhelming, and you need resilience, confine mind that expecting an issue to travel away on its own will only prolong the disaster.

 Rather, begin to figure on finding how to resolve the difficulty directly. While there's no simple or quick solution, you'll always take steps toward making your situation better and fewer stressful. You’ve got to specialist in the progress that you simply have achieved thus far. Then plan you are the following steps, rather than being discouraged by the number of labour that also has got to be done.

 Focus on practicing a number of the common traits resilient people have. Resilience takes time to create, so don't get disappointed if you struggle to manage challenging events. To measure a full life, some amount of difficulty is important. Today, you'll meet the challenges of life by becoming more resilient, and within the process, having more skills and elegance. It’ll only cause you to stronger!

[20qs20somethings]

Sarah, 24

1. Would you describe yourself as a millennial? Why? Definitely. I take pride in being described as a millennial.

2. Can you use three to five words to describe our generation? Rambunctious, reactionary, persistent, determined

3.  What’s your relationship with social media like? It’s an abusive, dark, twisted relationship. So I’m a journalist and I cover a lot about communities of color especially how politicians impact those communities. So for the last 4 years I’ve been doxxed, I’ve gotten rape threats, death threats, I’ve gotten phone calls from people who know where I live. My mom and dad are small business owners and people went on their Yelp pages and tried to aim my mom and dad online. 

So I think there’s a price to pay for being an outspoken woman of color on social media, people are always trying to clip your wings. But at the same time without social media, I wouldn’t have a platform to speak truth to power so I don’t know. So like celebrating yourself, if you say that “I’m great” people will say you’re cocky or overconfident and if you say you're sad, people will say you're fishing for compliments. I’m not a really private person so I feel like I should understand the consequences that happen and I’ve come to terms with that. But it’s one of those necessary evils definitely. 

4. Selfies: Thoughts? I love them, I took about 8 of them before this interview. I like it and to be honest, I grew up with a lot of low self esteem in terms of body image. Taking selfies make me feel comfortable about myself. If I take a selfie and it looks good, I own it. It’s something that’s helped me feel comfortable with the way I look. 

5. Do you believe in love? I mean, I don’t know if I have love out there for myself, but I do believe in love just based in looking at my mom and dad. Just the fact that they met in an ESL class in America, didn’t speak the same language, but still fell in love. I don’t know how to explain it, but I do believe in it and I think the reason why I don’t believe that there is love out there for me yet is maybe because I’m really picky. I love my mom and dad’s meet cute story and I don’t mean to demean people who meet on Tinder, but I want something magical and organic like that, something by chance. I remember my dad talking to a friend of his and my dad said, “you can’t force things to happen.” I would say I do believe in love. 

6. What’s something you think people assume of you based on your internet persona? That I am a tight-ass. I remember in my freshman or sophomore year of college, I was in these Facebook groups and I would always get political, always get into debates and I was very preachy on social media, and this guy said, “Wow I thought you were going to be a tight-ass in person.” All my friends agree too that because my social media would be about politics and social justice issues and in person, I’m like what I’d like to call sophisticated and ratchet. I say crass jokes, when I’m hanging out with people, I don’t just want to talk about politics and all those things, I want to talk about other aspects of life or pop culture. 

7. Fill in the blank: “Home is _______” Where you want it to be. 

8. Do you think the American Dream is still alive? It’s hard and I think it’s the way we describe the American Dream. I think on the one hand, it’s really malicious to say that there’s a thing as the American Dream. But I think we need to be honest with what each individuals or community’s expectation of what the American Dream is like. 

I think on the one hand, it’s really hypocritical for me to say the American Dream is a fake, a mirage or whatever because I can see how it’s impacted my parents, made them come here with nothing and my story in itself is the American Dream. But at the same time, it sucks to see that there are people who come here with the expectation to become the CEO of a company or having the next Facebook and because of our institutions and structures that are in play, people with certain backgrounds can’t even enter this country or have the opportunities provided to them. 

9. Is college overrated? Yes, I dropped out of school. I went in as a Pre-Med major my freshman year and I didn’t like it. I was always about journalism, writing, and being creative. So I went to American University which is about $64k a year, eventually I went into foreign policy and wanted to go into foreign service and I finally realized, all I’m doing is these readings and my professor is just going through a powerpoint and there’s no intellectual conversation. 

During those times before Trump was president, we’re talking about middle eastern foreign policy, the Muslim vote, or the relationship with Russia or China, and it was frustrating to see this one dimensional view of the way the world works. I’m not saying we should invite Milo Yiannopoulos, I’m against that, but I think it’s good to have dissenting voices and not to be dismissed so much. American was very status quo and neoliberal and I don’t think there was an opportunity to have enlightening discourse. I got more sadly, through Facebook and reading articles.

10. Would you rather have security or fulfillment in your work? To be honest, I want to say fulfillment because I’m doing that as a journalist and I don’t have the security. But I don’t regret being in my field so I’ll stick with fulfillment. I can sleep at night knowing that I’m in this career that for me is a moral obligation that I love to do, I’m doing it for the right reasons, and it helps me get up in the morning. 

11. What do you want out of this life? The way I think about what I want out of life is how when I die, what can I look back on and I think what it comes down to is making a difference. Dying and knowing that I’m a good person and that I did something impactful.

12. How do you measure success? I think measuring success is seeing how much of an impact my stuff makes and not in terms of quantity. It’s not about how many people read the article, it’s the people who read the article and did something about it. 

13. How do you want to be remembered? As someone who definitely took a stand for something regardless of how it would adversely affect them. Standing up for the underdog and for what I believe is morally right, fair, and just.

14. Do you think people are sincere enough? No, I think a lot of people are fake as hell. It’s so interesting to see how people only want you when they need something. I think there are some sincere people out there, but there are a lot of fake people around.

15. What are qualities that you value? Steadfast, intellect, humor, humility, trustworthiness.

16. What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned so far? Speak up. I realize I have no problem speaking up for other people, but I have a huge problem speaking up for myself. I’m afraid to ask for a raise, if I don’t like how something is edited or how something is produced, I keep it to myself. So the thing I’ve learned is to learn how to speak up and defend yourself. 

17. What’s the hardest lesson you’ve had to learn? Discrimination really sucks. What I’ve learned about discrimination is no matter how hard you work, no matter what you do, no matter how many times you fix your errors or make no errors, there’s nothing you can do to prevent someone or something to not like you for who you are. It’s so easy to say that their opinion doesn’t matter, but it sucks knowing you had no power or control to change that. 

18. What are you scared of? Death, the afterlife, spiders, Taylor Swift’s lawyers

19. What does self-love mean to you? It’s something I’m still coming to terms with and practicing, but it’s a sense of feeling, accepting, taking pride in who you are in your identity and your flaws despite what people think.

20. What is the best piece of advice you want to leave the world with?Taking pride in yourself. The thing I’ve noticed is being a child of immigrants, a woman of color, people don’t like it when people say, “I’m proud to be black/muslim/moroccan.” We’re taught to suppress that. So for a lot of 12 years, I was told to not tell anyone I’m Muslim to make my peers feel comfortable and I realized white people don’t give a shit how I feel. Not about my health, my well being, my comfortability. I want to tell anyone to think for yourself and what makes you comfortable. 

Be unapologetic about who you are because it’s awesome being you. There’s something awesome about yourself that makes you different that people don’t know about that you're exposed to. You’re awesome, cool, and don’t let other people tell you to tone it down. Think about your own well being, your sense of self worth, and prioritize yourself.

[phynxrizng]

DAILY ASTROLOGY REPORTS AND HOROSCOPES FOR, 8-21-17

Astrology Cafe Daily Astrology ABOUT TODAY DAILY MONTHLY CHART You are here: Home / Daily Astrology / Astrology of Today – Monday, August 21, 2017 Astrology of Today – Monday, August 21, 2017 Aug 20, 2017 by Annie Leave a Comment  The Moon is in Leo until 4:24 PM, after which the Moon is in Virgo. The Moon is waning and in its Waning Crescent phase until the New Moon at 2:30 PM, after which the Moon is waxing and in its New phase. The New Moon (Solar Eclipse) occurs today in the sign of Leo at 2:30 PM. Mercury is retrograde (Mercury is retrograde from August 12-September 5). Times are EDT. Horoscopes Aries  Aries Today’s Solar Eclipse occurs in your sector of romance, hobbies, creative self-expression, recreation, and children, dear Aries. Events happening now and in the coming weeks set you up for new beginnings in one or more of these areas of life. This is a passionate period for you when you discover the need to enjoy yourself, to express your creativity with confidence, and to spend more time with the kids or with your paintbrush! These are examples, but it’s about doing things that help you reconnect with your spirit of play and personal enjoyment. If you’ve been holding on too tightly to people or projects that have been keeping you from expressing your true self, this is a time for making necessary changes. You are likely to attract positive attention from others, especially romantically or creatively speaking. A new hobby or pastime can come into high focus. Even if your life seems crammed with things to do, you need to learn to make the most of the time you do have for enjoying yourself. Pace yourself, though, because rushing into something is not advised now. Allow the process to unfold. While eclipses can drain your energy temporarily, your ruler, Mars, forms a trine to Saturn, and you’re in a great position to apply yourself to something meaningful. Taurus  Taurus The Solar Eclipse that occurs this afternoon clears the path for new beginnings, dear Taurus, and this can mean you break free from the past in some way, particularly on emotional levels and having to do with your home or family life. Situations that have been holding you back may need to be put behind you. The weeks and even months ahead are a time of special attention to your domestic world, sense of safety and feeling of belonging, understanding your roots, and matters of intimacy and vulnerability. You’re coming in touch with basic feelings and needs that you may have overlooked. The Solar Eclipse is a cosmic nudge to discover your inner well. You’ll be paying special attention to your support system as well as the support and nurturance you give others. For some, this is about finding a more suitable home or living conditions and arrangements. The coming weeks are ideal for making long-range plans for the future, re-organizing the home or home environment, and family-related activities. There can be some drama on the domestic front, but this ideally leads to a fresh perspective or new beginning. Changes and improvements may be necessary as you reorganize your personal life, or shuffle around your priorities. While eclipses can be draining, a Mars-Saturn influence in play today can have you applying yourself to meaningful projects and making some headway. Gemini  Gemini A Solar Eclipse occurs today in your solar third house, dear Gemini, bringing the need to start fresh in the areas of communicating, connecting, learning, and everyday affairs. How you organize your daily life and divide your attention comes into play now, and a reworking of these things may be in order! This is a time for putting out feelers and taking in new ideas and information, but avoid going too far with this. Plan to make warm and engaging new connections with people, be open to the idea that you need more intellectual stimulation in your life, and look for ways you can improve your approachability or communication skills to better reflect who you are. However, watch for taking on so many activities or commitments that you feel overwhelmed. There can be new channels emerging for expressing yourself in new ways or for getting around town! New equipment or transportation options may open up different opportunities and experiences. There can be motivation to let go of outdated attitudes or conditions so that the path is clear for new beginnings. News can come that steers you in a new direction. While the eclipse can overstimulate confidence, in the weeks ahead, you’ll get to an exceptional sense of what is truly valuable to you, and also of your own capabilities, aiding decision-making. Cancer  Cancer The Solar Eclipse occurring this afternoon happens in your solar second house, dear Cancer, and while it stirs up activity in your financial life, it’s a less visible period for you when you can cruise along without too much in the way of interference! Still, important decisions may be required of you in the coming weeks and months, particularly revolving around personal finances and business or personal possessions and valuables. For some, this can be about boundaries in a relationship or your sense of self-worth and how it affects your ability to support yourself or ask for what you want. There is heightened sensitivity to your physical environment today. In the weeks ahead, you may find new ways to increase your income or earning potential. If you’ve been holding on too tightly to a lifestyle or financial habits that haven’t been serving you well, this is a time when circumstances might force the matter. Save major launches or decisions until after Mercury turns direct on September 5th, but work towards making changes. The second half of the day brings easier energy to focus on your priorities and enjoy the process. Meeting your responsibilities is satisfying. Leo  Leo A Solar Eclipse occurs in your sign today, dear Leo, and the weeks and even months ahead are powerful for personal new beginnings and a reinvention. What you want to change, improve, or initiate — these things are in your hands now. You’ll be getting more attention now so be sure to wear your confidence well. Taking the high road is vital. Going forward, people build their faith in you, and this only serves to motivate you further to present the best version of yourself. Many of you will try on a new look, image, or manner of expressing and presenting yourselves. You are working towards being more independent, feel freer, and more true to your nature in your self-expression. Today, it’s important to seek self-understanding. You are unlikely to have a plan of action now, and that’s okay. Remember that Mercury is still retrograde until September 5th, so ease yourself into this dynamic phase of your life. As the day advances, you are more likely to appreciate some level of solitude to have a go at your projects or work, or for some reflection. Virgo  Virgo A Solar Eclipse occurs in your soul and privacy sector this afternoon, dear Virgo, and circumstances seem to conspire to take charge of your health, private affairs, and need to put emotional baggage behind you. This can also be a time for giving more time to a person in need or a major cause. Buried or neglected issues can demand your attention over the coming weeks and even months, and working on these can pave the road to future success and happiness. You may be serving, helping, and supporting others or it could be a time of retreat and withdrawal on some level as you work behind the scenes. If you’ve been neglecting your psychic, spiritual, and emotional needs, then this is a time that pushes you to acknowledge and tend to them. This eclipse should have an impact on the coming six months of your life, at which point you come to a checkpoint for your progress. Today, as the day advances, you could find that pouring your energy into a particular project can be consuming in all the right ways. You might find that you get some small area of your life back on track, organized, or otherwise running smoothly, and this can be very satisfying. Libra  Libra A total Solar Eclipse occurs today and influences your sector of friends, happiness goals, dreams, wishes, new ideas, technology, networking, and teamwork, dear Libra. This is a time for paying special attention to developments in these areas of your life, as they’re likely to be significant with long-term effects, setting you on a path for personal changes and new beginnings. There can be new friends or associations with groups and people who share similar interests or a common goal or new beginnings with existing connections. If existing friendships are in need of a new focus or a renewed bond, then the energy of this eclipse can help in the coming weeks and months. There might even be some drama in your social life that shakes things up enough to prompt changes and new directions. Friends or dreams/projects might enter or leave your life. This is not a time for clarity, but one of faith in the process. While you can feel overwhelmed or tired, as the day advances, you can feel some motivation to take care of business. Scorpio  Scorpio The Solar Eclipse occurring today brings new beginnings in the coming weeks and even months in your life direction, path, professional dealings, or reputation, dear Scorpio. This eclipse is about improving your public and professional life or starting a new project altogether. New projects and goals, and possibly even a new area of focus on the job, may emerge. Enter these with healthy confidence, not overconfidence, as the Leo eclipse encourages. You have more impact on others than usual, so use this time in the spotlight well. Avoid hasty moves now. The period ahead is favorable for new business plans and goals, but it’s also very reliable for making nice with people in high places, teachers, bosses, and parents as well. There can be substantial changes in your life when it comes to your own influence or authority, or with authority figures in your life. In the coming weeks, there can be a pleasant feeling of reinvigoration when it comes to your life-plan goals, although for now, you may feel a little directionless or unclear. As today advances, you can feel very comfortable with your responsibilities. Energy levels even or smooth out. Sagittarius  Sagittarius A New Moon Solar Eclipse occurs today in your adventure and learning sector, dear Sagittarius, and in the coming weeks and even months, you’ll be discovering ways to express your need for exploration, travel, learning, discovery, new horizons, and spiritual food. This can be a time of a significant publishing, announcement, advancement, or new adventure, whether mental or physical. The period ahead is one of increased bravery and spontaneity, as well as a time for learning something new or committing to studies. Events occurring now and in the coming weeks can serve to push you out of your routine. In some way, you are making a break from the past. There may be opportunities to broaden your horizons through travel or education. Transportation issues can also be in focus, with new avenues opening up for getting out and about. Often enough, eclipses bring about a small crisis or shake-up that prompts a new direction or the need to venture beyond the usual routine. Eclipse days can be emotionally exhausting, but an aspect influencing the second half of the day helps your energy levels improve as you’re desensitized to potential distractions. Capricorn  Capricorn When a Solar Eclipse occurs, it’s a time for turning over a new leaf in a particular area of your life defined in large part by where the eclipse falls in the chart, dear Capricorn. In your solar chart, this happens in your eighth house of intimacy and sharing, making the period ahead one of personal empowerment and discovery. You have a chance to see your inner workings in new, meaningful ways. If you’ve been too dependent on others, or the opposite, too proud to ask for help, then you’ll see and feel it now and want to make changes. Intimacy and deep levels of sharing are heightened. Financial support issues and matters of debt or obligation can come to the fore, and it’s time to take charge so that you can bravely start anew. This can also be a good period for quitting bad habits and unhealthy dependencies and for releasing burdens. Keep in mind, however, that it’s important to be patient so that things can unfold naturally. Don’t push for clarity, and it will come! Later today, energy levels even out. A Mars-Saturn influence is in effect, and fortunately for you, is tied into the energy of the eclipse, which extends its positive influence. Aquarius  Aquarius The Solar Eclipse occurring today happens in your opposite sign, dear Aquarius, bringing a charge of energy to partnerships. The months ahead are important ones for exploring your need for partnership, whether this is about starting a significant relationship, committing to enhancing an existing one, or recognizing changing needs regarding relationships in general. Emotions are heightened right now, and inclinations are excessive, so do watch for taking premature action. Pay particular attention to new information or goings-on in your life as they can be significant. Take in now, and take action when it feels right. Over the coming weeks and even months, negotiations and one-to-one relationships are highlighted. Making contacts or making something public can be themes for some of you. If you have been holding on too tightly to a difficult relationship, then circumstances now will push the matter. This eclipse is in strong, favorable aspect to your ruler, Uranus, and can lead to excellent opportunities for self-expression through your contact with others. While you can feel drained energetically around the time of an eclipse, a Mars-Saturn influence shaping the day tends to even things out. In fact, you may thoroughly enjoy doing something productive. Pisces  Pisces A Solar Eclipse occurring today influences your sector of work, habits, health, and routines, dear Pisces, prompting a new start with any of these areas of life in the coming weeks and even months, as its range of influence is large. Circumstances are such that you want or need to start anew. It’s a time for reworking or committing to improved or new daily routines, work projects, healthy habits, lifestyle changes, or even a new job or line of work for some. Be sure to pace yourself and don’t jump into something without thinking. A new direction will come, and you don’t have to push for it. However, you’ll feel the motivation and courage build, and you’ll get to a point where you’re in charge and confident of what you’re doing. Self-improvement is in high focus. If you’ve struggled with difficult work relations or situations, this is a time to start fresh. Clearing up the clutter is necessary and beneficial now. Today, you can feel a little drained, but concentration improves as the day advances. Creative projects that require a practical touch or detail work can benefit now. * Remember to read horoscopes for your Ascendant sign and Sun sign. If you don’t know your Ascendant sign (and you know your birth time), you can look it up here. If Your Birthday is August 21st, If Today is Your Birthday full horoscope here. Astrology of Today – The Details: If you’re astrologically inclined and interested in the details of the Astrology of today, here are some of the factors considered in the forecasts (for the astrology of the week, see This Week in Astrology):   Date & Time: Aug 21 2017 4:24 pm Event: Moon enters Virgo Description: The Moon in Virgo We crave organization and order, and are quickly disturbed by anything standing in the way of these things. This is a good time for chores, organizing, and tidying. It’s also a time for scheduling health appointments and checkups, starting new routines, and generally tending to details. Date & Time: Aug 21 2017 2:30 pm Event: Moon goes void of course Date & Time: Aug 21 2017 2:30 pm Event: New Moon at 28°Le52′ Date & Time: Aug 21 2017 2:30 pm Event: Total Solar Eclipse (NM) Date & Time: Aug 21 2017 1:25 am Event: Tr-Tr Mon Tri Sat Description: Transiting Moon Trine Transiting Saturn An auspicious time for any project demanding endurance or tolerance. Also good for establishing new habits and rituals. Date & Time: Aug 21 2017 6:34 am Event: Tr-Tr Mon Cnj Nod Description: Transiting Moon Conjunction Transiting North Node A time to embrace new opportunities for emotional growth. Accept challenges. New attachments, relationships, connections. Success may come through dealings with women or with the public. A time to consider your priorities vis a vis home and family and the outside world. Sensing current moods and trends. Fated meetings or connections. Date & Time: Aug 21 2017 6:34 am Event: Tr-Tr Mon Pll Nod Description: Transiting Moon Parallel Transiting North Node Date & Time: Aug 21 2017 12:38 pm Event: Tr-Tr Mon Qnx Chi Description: Transiting Moon Quincunx Transiting Chiron Hurt feelings may be opportunities for healing. Now is the time for building bridges, not burning them. Date & Time: Aug 21 2017 1:39 pm Event: Tr-Tr Mon Tri Ura Description: Transiting Moon Trine Transiting Uranus We are open to new ideas. A break in the routine is pleasing now. We could be experimenting with new ideas or feelings. There can be chance meetings, events that occur that open our minds or our awareness. Date & Time: Aug 21 2017 2:30 pm Event: Tr-Tr Mon Cnj Sun Description: Transiting Moon Conjunction Transiting Sun It’s a New Moon and we have a chance to wipe the slate clean and start anew. This is an impulsive time. Date & Time: Aug 21 2017 4:24 pm Event: Tr-Tr Mon Cnj Vir Description: Transiting Moon Entering Virgo We crave organization and order, and are quickly disturbed by anything standing in the way of these things. This is a good time for chores, organizing, and tidying. It’s also a time for scheduling health appointments and checkups, starting new routines, and generally tending to details. Date & Time: Aug 21 2017 5:21 pm Event: Tr-Tr Mon Pll Sun Description: Transiting Moon Parallel Transiting Sun Date & Time: Aug 21 2017 8:10 pm Event: Tr-Tr Mon Sqq Plu Description: Transiting Moon SesquiSquare Transiting Pluto Deeper feelings emerge suddenly, and possibly in a disruptive way. We may be over-reacting or going to extremes. Wait for the tension to subside before taking action. Date & Time: Aug 21 2017 8:35 pm Event: Tr-Tr Mon SSq Cer Description: Transiting Moon SemiSquare Transiting Ceres Date & Time: Aug 21 2017 9:11 pm Event: Tr-Tr Mon Tri Jun Description: Transiting Moon Trine Transiting Juno We can gain strength through others or through our relationships, and we are especially comfortable in one-on-one situations. Date & Time: Aug 21 2017 2:21 am Event: Tr-Tr Sun Tri Ura Description: Transiting Sun Trine Transiting Uranus We are looking forward, happy and confident about making changes and improvements. We are willing to experiment and explore. Date & Time: Aug 21 2017 6:02 am Event: Tr-Tr Plu Opp Cer Description: Transiting Pluto Opposition Transiting Ceres Date & Time: Aug 21 2017 8:00 am Event: Tr-Tr Chi SSq Pal Description: Transiting Chiron SemiSquare Transiting Pallas There can be difficulty getting our message across or winning support for our ideas. Strong Signs, Elements, Modes BALANCE OF SIGNS LEO STRONG Self-confident, generous, warm-hearted, powerful leader, dramatic. Can be overly proud, vain, extravagant, arrogant. BALANCE OF ELEMENTS FIRE STRONG Fire is enthusiastic, dynamic, and spontaneous, but lacks reflection. We are more courageous and adventurous now, with a tendency to act before thinking. There is little concern about what happened in the past. We are competitive and possibly impatient or bored easily. AIR WEAK We may have a difficult time being objective or detached. We may not be especially communicative. BALANCE OF MODES The modes are balanced. LUNAR PHASE: BALSAMIC Moon less than 45 degrees behind the Sun. Time to tie up loose ends, review, reflect, let go, and edit. The following aspects (major only) and positions are at noon (EDT) on August 21st: Note that when an aspect is applying, it has not yet happened but is within orb – it’s pending. When an aspect is separating, it has already happened/perfected and is moving away from the aspect. Depending on the speed of the planet/body involved, the aspect will have perfected–or will perfect–in a matter of hours (often the case with the Moon), days, months, and possibly years in the case of the very slow-moving outer planets and bodies. Note that the Moon moves at a rate of approximately one degree every 2 hours, so that if an aspect involving the Moon is applying and has an orb of 5 degrees, the aspect will perfect (be exact) in about 10 hours. If the Moon is separating from an aspect with an orb of 2 degrees, it has already formed said aspect approximately 4 hours ago (since the following are positions at noon today, then it would have occurred at about 8 AM today). **I suggest paying close attention to applying aspects. The energy of the aspect builds as it gets closer to exact. Once an aspect involving inner planets has happened, it’s over. Separating aspects are good to know for context, but in terms of energy that is with us today, applying aspects are most important. (This is the case for daily astrology influences involving inner planets, which pass quickly, and not natal astrology aspects, which are with us for a lifetime). THE MOON THE MOON IN LEO You have an emotional need for praise and attention. Under stress you may show off in order to gain attention, or become arrogant. You may be proud of your mother, or she may be very proud of you. 28TH DEGREE OF LEO Part of Body: Chordae tendinae Sabian Symbol: Many little birds on the limb of a large tree. ASPECTS OF THE MOON CONJUNCTION THE SUN Orb 1°21′ Applying A New Moon. Intensity of focus, a new beginning, fresh energy, intiative, impulse. CONJUNCTION MARS Orb 6°47′ Separating Emotions are all-consuming. We desire adventure, change, and action. We can be hasty and rash, but if we use common sense as well, it can be a good time for getting the courage to do something brave. Instinctive reactions are quick. TRINE SATURN Orb 6°13′ Separating We are more able to find a balance between our own emotional needs and our responsibilities. This is a strong time for establishing good habits. We are more tolerant, deliberate, and resolute. TRINE URANUS Orb 0°58′ Applying We are open to new ideas, ways of expressing ourselves and our feelings. A break in the routine is pleasing now. We could be experimenting with new ideas or feelings. There can be chance meetings, events that occur that open our hearts or our emotional awareness. QUINCUNX CHIRON Orb 0°22′ Applying We could be misjudging our sensitivity levels and making poor choices as a result. Decisions made now may not reflect our hearts, and can be regrettable later on. CONJUNCTION THE NORTH NODE Orb 3°11′ Separating There is a stronger drive or need to be around others, to share ourselves, and to belong. THE SUN THE SUN IN LEO You are good-hearted, have a sunny personality, and a strong need for attention. You have a generous nature, but can be arrogant. 29TH DEGREE OF LEO Part of Body: Atrioventricular septum Sabian Symbol: A mermaid emerges from the ocean. ASPECTS OF THE SUN CONJUNCTION MERCURY Orb 9°29′ Applying Thoughts and communications about ourselves and our goals. We are expressing ourselves confidently, directly, and clearly. TRINE URANUS Orb 0°23′ Separating We are looking forward, happy and confident about making changes and improvements. We are willing to experiment and explore. QUINCUNX CHIRON Orb 0°59′ Separating We could misjudge our capabilities now and might end up pushing ourselves or others to a point where we feel hurt, rejected, or crticized. Or, we might struggle with a situation where we may need to humble ourselves. People or circumstances may seem to be exposing or playing on our vulnerabilities. CONJUNCTION THE NORTH NODE Orb 4°33′ Separating We might come to realizations of personal or professional truths, and these can propel us forward on a new path, or advance our current goals. People tend to support and assist us now. We might recognize our need for others. This is a good time for setting goals. MERCURY MERCURY IN VIRGO You have a discriminating mind, and can be critical and analytical. You can also become obsessed with detailed knowledge. This may be to your detriment in daily life, although it is very beneficial for doing any kind of research. You like to be precise in your communications with others. 9TH DEGREE OF VIRGO Part of Body: Right hepatic lobe Sabian Symbol: A man making a futurist drawing. ASPECTS OF MERCURY OPPOSITION NEPTUNE Orb 4°58′ Separating Our minds open to many different possibilities and options. We can feel inspired or we might be thinking in imaginative or possibly impractical ways. We see beyond physical or material concerns and solutions. There is extra sensitivity now. We may be dealing with deceptions or self-deceptions, and it can be difficult to be discriminating. We may not be seeing the obvious, and instead are imagining more complicated scenarios. VENUS VENUS IN CANCER You place emphasis on family relations. You will form strong emotional bonds within your own tribe. You may have an emotional need for financial security. 25TH DEGREE OF CANCER Part of Body: Blood vessels of digestive organs Sabian Symbol: A leader of men wrapped in an invisible mantle of power. ASPECTS OF VENUS SQUARE JUPITER Orb 4°27′ Separating We are easily distracted, craving pleasure or leisure. We may be overdoing things, overselling ourselves, overbuying, or overstating our affections. There can be a lack of self-discipline now. However, we can also push ourselves to reach a little further than we usually do, particularly on a social level. SQUARE URANUS Orb 3°45′ Applying You are restless and lack commitment in your personal relationships. You are wilful and see anyone else’s claim on you as an obstacle to your freedom of self- expression. You need to learn to compromise and enjoy your partner’s unique contribution to your life. TRINE CHIRON Orb 3°10′ Applying Opportunities for relationships or socializing can arise now. Interactions are open, warm, and supportive of growth. MARS MARS IN LEO You have a strong need to express your personal creativity. You may display dramatic and confident behaviour, and like to make an impact on your surroundings. You may also be arrogant. 21ST DEGREE OF LEO Part of Body: Left atrium Sabian Symbol: Intoxicated domestic birds fly around in dizzy attempts. ASPECTS OF MARS SEXTILE JUPITER Orb 0°27′ Separating You can create opportunities to achieve your personal goals. You will always be able to find the energy level you require. TRINE SATURN Orb 0°34′ Applying We can be reserved but possess self-control now. We are better able to focus on priorities or practical affairs. This is a good time to take care of details, to get organized, and to put in hard work. CONJUNCTION THE NORTH NODE Orb 3°36′ Applying You are being challenged to become assertive and focussed on your personal goals. Independence and self-confidence are keys to your growth in this life. You may find yourself thrust into leadership roles. JUPITER JUPITER IN LIBRA You have a strong concern for justice. You are a diplomatic teacher, and express your spiritual values in your relationships. 21ST DEGREE OF LIBRA Part of Body: Renal hilum Sabian Symbol: A crowd upon a beach. ASPECTS OF JUPITER SEXTILE SATURN Orb 1°01′ Applying You have a chance to be very successful as you are neither profligate nor mean, but have a balance. SQUARE PLUTO Orb 2°58′ Separating You will need to learn to have confidence in yourself even when life deals you a few blows. You range from over confident to completely lacking in confidence. The truth lies somewhere in between. SATURN SATURN IN SAGITTARIUS Saturn in Sagittarius asks us to take on the responsibility of living according to our personal truths and principles — and to be loyal to these. This is a time for turning a critical eye to those beliefs and principles that don’t accurately reflect our authentic selves. (December 23, 2014, to June 14, 2015, then September 17, 2015, to December 20, 2017) 22ND DEGREE OF SAGITTARIUS Part of Body: Right trochanter Sabian Symbol: A chinese laundry. URANUS URANUS IN ARIES The urge to start fresh, to break free from restrictive attitudes or circumstances, to totally redesign an area of our lives (or even our personalities), and to gain freedom through independence is strong during this cycle. (May 27, 2010, to August 13, 2010, then March 11th, 2011, to May 15, 2018, then November 6, 2018, to March 6, 2019). 29TH DEGREE OF ARIES Part of Body: Auditory canal Sabian Symbol: A celestial choir singing. NEPTUNE NEPTUNE IN PISCES A long-term influence in which fantasy, imagination, compassion, and spirituality are in stronger focus. (April 4, 2011, to August 4, 2011, then February 3, 2012, to March 30, 2025, then October 22, 2025, to January 26, 2026) 14TH DEGREE OF PISCES Part of Body: Right cutaneous veins Sabian Symbol: A lady in fox fur. PLUTO PLUTO IN CAPRICORN Tests of our boundaries; breaking down and rebuilding structures and rules. (From January 25, 2008, to June 14, 2008, then November 26, 2008, to March 23, 2023, then June 11, 2023, to January 20, 2024, then September 1, 2024, to November 19, 2024). 18TH DEGREE OF CAPRICORN Part of Body: Ligaments of right knee Sabian Symbol: The union jack flies from a new british destroyer. Chiron, Major Asteroids, and Moon’s Nodes: in Sign and in Aspect CHIRON CHIRON IN PISCES Strong awareness of our own vulnerabilities and humanity stimulates compassion for others. (April 20 to July 20, 2010, then February 8, 2011, to April 17, 2018, then September 25, 2018, to February 18, 2019). 28TH DEGREE OF PISCES Part of Body: Phalanges of left foot Sabian Symbol: A fertile garden under the full moon. VESTA IN VIRGO You have a perfectionist streak. You work hard and expect the same from other people. You need to avoid being overly critical. Positively, you have the ability to set up efficient and productive routines at work. 17TH DEGREE OF VIRGO Part of Body: Abdominal muscles Sabian Symbol: A volcano in eruption. PALLAS PALLAS IN TAURUS You have the ability to see the beauty in nature and the arts. You have much common sense and wisdom. You may become involved in either healing with your hands or healing the earth through environmental movements. 13TH DEGREE OF TAURUS Part of Body: Cervical and brachial plexi Sabian Symbol: A man handling baggage. JUNO JUNO IN CAPRICORN You want a partner who you can respect, and who respects you. You seek long-term commitment and may marry later in life. 3RD DEGREE OF CAPRICORN Part of Body: Cutaneous nerves of thigh Sabian Symbol: The human soul receptive to growth and understanding. CERES CERES IN CANCER Your ability to nurture others is closely linked with your own relationship with your mother. If you had a close and loving relationship with your mother then you will enjoy the same with others in your adult life. If not, you may form dependent relationships. 18TH DEGREE OF CANCER Part of Body: Duodenal opening of pancreatic duct Sabian Symbol: A hen scratching for her chicks. THE NORTH NODE THE NORTH NODE IN LEO This a quest to develop your inner strength. You may find that you experience times of loneliness. These times are part of your lesson to forge your own creative life in order to give generously to the world. 25TH DEGREE OF LEO Part of Body: Pericardium Sabian Symbol: A large camel crossing the desert. THE SOUTH NODE THE SOUTH NODE IN AQUARIUS This a quest to develop your inner strength. You may find that you experience times of loneliness. These times are part of your lesson to forge your own creative life in order to give generously to the world. 25TH DEGREE OF AQUARIUS Part of Body: Left tibialis anterior muscle Sabian Symbol: A butterfly with the right wing more perfectly formed. *** CONJUNCTIONS TO SELECT FIXED STARS *** Transits 21 Aug 2017 – Event Chart Aspects to Mercury 08°Vi16 +04°06′ Cnj 07°Vi41 THUBAN To protect or make a treasure. Aspects to Pluto 17°Cp11 -21°38′ Cnj 16°Cp53 RUKBAT Steadiness and strength.  SHARE THIS: EmailFacebook6TwitterTumblrGoogleReddit Filed Under: Daily Astrology, Today Tagged With: August 21, Mars Saturn transit, Mars trine Saturn  « Astrology of Today – Sunday, August 20, 2017Astrology of Today – Tuesday, August 22, 2017 » Leave a Reply   Search this website … Search Cafe Astrology Cafe Astrology Home Cafe Astrology Free Reports Recent Astrology of Today – Tuesday, August 22, 2017 Astrology of Today – Monday, August 21, 2017 Astrology of Today – Sunday, August 20, 2017 Astrology of Today – Saturday, August 19, 2017 Astrology of Today – Friday, August 18, 2017 In this post Full Moon‌ Mercury is retrograde‌ The Moon is waxing‌ The Moon is waning‌ The Moon is void‌ Previous  Tags Jupiter Neptune transit Mars-Pluto transit Mars Chiron transit Mars Jupiter transit Mars Neptune transit Mars Pluto transit Mars Saturn transit Mars Saturn transit Mars Uranus transit Mercury Chiron transit Mercury Jupiter transit Mercury Mars transit Mercury Neptune transit Mercury Pluto transit Mercury Saturn transit Mercury semi-square Venus Mercury square Jupiter Mercury square Mars Mercury square Neptune Mercury square Pluto Mercury square Uranus Mercury trine Jupiter Mercury Uranus transit Mercury Venus transit Sun Chiron transit Sun conjunct Mercury Sun Jupiter transit Sun Mars transit Sun Mercury transit Sun Neptune transit Sun Pluto transit Sun Saturn transit Sun sextile Jupiter Sun trine Saturn Sun Uranus transit Venus-Mars transit Venus Chiron transit Venus Jupiter transit Venus Mars transit Venus Neptune transit Venus Pluto transit Venus Saturn transit Venus sextile Uranus Venus square Saturn Venus Uranus transit  Subscribe via Email Enter your email address to receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address Email Address Subscribe Current Planetary Positions 8/21/2017 12:53:12 PM Sun 28° Leo 56' 16" Moon 29° Leo 41' 30" Mercury 08° Virgo 08' 49" R Venus 24° Cancer 49' 06" Mars 20° Leo 43' 31" Jupiter 20° Libra 11' 41" Saturn 21° Sagittarius 11' 36" R Uranus 28° Aries 23' 12" R Neptune 13° Pisces 14' 32" R Pluto 17° Capricorn 11' 30" R Chiron 27° Pisces 47' 18" R TrueNode 24° Leo 13' 38" R Subscribe to Blog via Email Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Email Address Email Address Subscribe Categories  Archives  August 2017 M T W T F S S « Jul 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Copyright © 2017 · Astrology Cafe by Cafe Astrology

[comicsatlasrp-blog]

Character Name: Emma Frost Character Alias: will occasionally still go by The White Queen Identity Status: Public Character Birthday: November 13th Character Age: 29

triggers: drugs, brief mention of a suicide attempt, murder, brief mention of genocide, like basically just a lot of death

There’s a trope entitled ‘Never Stand Next to the Hero’, and if that didn’t become the story of Emma’s life, what did ??

‘Frost’ was more than an appropriate surname for the multibillionaire Bostonian family it plagued. Ruled by CEO Winston Frost, everyone in the family was at his cold, hard will. Nothing was ever good enough. So now, we focus in on the other Frosts and their faults, as so often pointed out by the patriarch himself. Hazel Frost, wife, not interesting or obedient enough; Christian Frost, eldest son, openly denying his family and estranging himself; Adrienne Frost, eldest daughter, too invested in herself; Cordelia Frost, middle daughter, a complete deviant – a wonder that she was never forced out of the picture; Emma Frost, youngest daughter, a snake always disguised as a rabbit. Now, you can see Winston’s predicament !!

The curse that reigned over the family strengthened its hold when Emma began hearing voices. Knowing full well that she would be shipped to the nearest mental ward if it ever got out, only Christian knew… but we’ll get back to that later. Still, Christian was the only general support system, aiding her in her attempts to actually have a life outside of Frost Manor. Her life outside, however, was how she fell prey to a schoolgirl crush turned into much more, how she fell prey to a life of isolation, how she fell prey to The Hellfire Club… again, all points we’ll return to. We’re still on her origin story !!

During her time in the Snow Valley School for Girls, she gradually began deducing that what she was hearing – they weren’t voices. They were thoughts. The thoughts of her peers and her teachers and that janitor…

She could hear their secrets, she could hear their fears, she could hear their real opinions, she could hear important questions and answers; she could instinctually know that, yes, your parents are drowning in debt – that, yes, you are having an affair with your coworker; she could see various images running through minds, one of which being what was possibly a cannibal’s breakfast; she could transcend language barriers.

But all that mattered in her early years was exploiting her family.

In Europe, Emma learned that Winston had a ‘business partner’ who he, naturally, had been having a longtime affair with. When it was all laid out on the table… nothing changed. Her mother didn’t leave her father… and why would she ?? A rhetorical question, actually.

Instead, she turned to tranquilizer-grade pills and limitless red and white wines.

It wasn’t long before Christian followed in his mother’s footsteps. When his boyfriend was revealed to Winston, he refused his father’s threat to dump him and move back into the household. Officially disowned, the only tie he had left to the Frosts was Emma… up until Winston used his influence to get his boyfriend framed and deported, leaving Christian almost completely alone.

Of course, what’s an origin story without death ??

Granted, this death never fell through. Emma found Christian attempting to hang himself by his fan.

After he was ‘saved’, he, too, turned to a life of substance abuse.

You know, I’m starting to believe the Frosts don’t only inherit money, but also inherit an addictive personality…

When Winston was to declare the heir to his great fortune, he made a big deal of it. Every Frost was gathered together, as well as some others. Now, apparently timing wasn’t a strong suit of Emma’s, seeing as that was also when she suggested to The Winston Frost™ that, perhaps, they should send Christian to rehab. Winston was on it !!

And by ‘on it,’ I mean he had doctors from a neglectful mental ward at the ready to take Christian away !!

That being said, when Emma being the heir was announced ( even though Adrienne was practically Winston in a younger, female body ), she rejected and decided to go on an adventure !! On the streets !! With $500 in total !! For a life she had to build at a young age with hardly any prior experience !!

Of course, this is an origin story, so it found a way to work itself out through the discovery of new powers, new friends, and new enemies.

The true note to take away from this part of her life was how she became so very deceptive. Yes, yes, she was already a conniving master of blackmail, but, through this experience, she learned she hardly ever needed anything more than her mind – no receipts required.

After a staged kidnapping turned real kidnapping when Winston Frost refused to pay the affordable price for Emma’s safety, guns turned towards Emma and her slightly irrelevant boyfriend, only there to provide more obligatory origin story death and provoke this new set of mind weaponry. Said slightly irrelevant boyfriend ( otherwise known as Troy ) was killed for being unable to pay sharks back for a loan he’d taken. Left with Emma, as they debated between an issue of life or death ( regarding, of course, the ever-legendary Winston Frost’s daughter ), she found a way to project her own thoughts into those of others. Through learning what X thought of Y, she managed to turn Y against X, so on and so forth and what have you. In the end, all of the sharks wound up killing one another.

Finally, to conclude this terribly long origin story that attempted to encapsulate the majority of the solo series, Emma enrolled into Empire State University. There, she learned two important things: 1) she was a mutant, 2) people hated mutants. Of course, god only knows how many mutants were there, and she wound up meeting another, more experienced, telepath who taught her true control…

…then wound up accidentally teaching her everything when she trapped Emma inside of her mind ( because, my god, telepathy can get weird ).

Thus, we finally conclude our origin story and enter The Hellfire Club, a high-class gentleman’s club. She and an inner, Sebastian Shaw, formed a highly influential connection upon learning that the club was set up as a trap to kill all mutants. Of course, as two mutants and members themselves, they wound up staging a coup and seizing control of The Hellfire Club. Thus, mutants began dominating the inner circle.

As The White Queen, Emma cared for essentially two things: money and power. Everything else was moot. Caring had been booted out of her system. By then, there were some days that she’d force terrible imagery into the minds of various people for fun !! Then, there were obligatory murders, but that just goes with the villain territory – we all know that.

Still, Pet the Dog tropes were squeezed in. Given that she was still technically the Frost International heir, she became the chairperson of the Massachusetts Academy. When she wasn’t committing elegant felonies, she was molding young minds. The lines often blurred, however, such as when she attempted to recruit young mutant Kitty Pryde into her school and, along the way, tried to kill multiple X-Men who were attempting to stop her.

Fittingly, her first class of students were dubbed ‘Hellions’. Through great measures of manipulation ( including, of course, telepathic exploitation ), her class grew full size. The more she was around the young mutants, the less sinister she became. After all, she had always wanted to be a teacher. Indeed, the more she was around the young mutants, the less deaths occurred by her hand.

The less deaths that occurred by her hand, however, the more deaths she experienced.

Karma’s a bitch.

A vicious, personal attack wound up killing the band of students – something Emma was unable to comprehend until she saw the evidence herself. The database of Frost International listed each Hellion as ‘DECEASED’.

A group of students had been put in grave danger due to the personal vendetta that Emma’s aforementioned sister, Adrienne, carried. A planted explosive led to the death of one kid as he attempted to disarm it, and the plan in and of itself led to Adrienne’s death at the pull of Emma’s trigger. That was the end of Generation X.

Failure to acknowledge a foreboding warning given to her by a student led to the death of them all as the island of Genosha exploded in an attempt to kill the mutant race, Emma only surviving due to an emerging second mutation. Failure to acknowledge a foreboding warning caused her to be one of the very few survivors of the sentinel attack.

An inefficient teaching method led to overconfidence amongst one of her protégés, causing her to take a lethal step under the impression that she was enough to save all of Xavier’s school. An inefficient teaching method led to another becoming ‘brave’ enough to fight in a hopeless battle – to die in a hopeless battle.

She already had blood on her hands from her years in The Hellfire Club. How much had been added by this misplaced passion for teaching ??

Perhaps passion wasn’t always placed in the right. Perhaps passion was sometimes far too applied to one’s own self to tailor to the needs of others affected by said passion. If nothing else, that was what Emma had observed.

In the end, she was only one stable thing. She was neither a good teacher or a bad teacher; she was she was neither a hero or a villain. She was stable as the X-Men’s most questionable character. She was stable as the X-Man that never left the grey area of the moral spectrum. She was stable as the X-Man who’d be the first so suggest murder as a solution !!

In short, there were five things that the Frosts all inherited: money, cruelty, addiction, tragedy, and forever questionable motives.

[themtmshow]

What are some of your favorite MTM episodes and why?

Thank you for the question! I’m sorry it took me so long to reply; I wanted to give you a decent answer but I haven’t had much free time this week. I was goingto give you a top 10 list and, after much deliberation, I ended up with a top15 list instead; I couldn’t narrow it down any further. And if anyone wants to reblog this with their own favourite episodes, or send me an ask about it, that would be very welcome.

I’m posting this under a cut because it got very long (sorry about that).

1x02 – Today I Am a Ma’am

This episode features the first of many disastrous Mary parties, and personally, I don’t think they got any better than this. “Allow me to introduce myself:I’m another person in the room” is one of my favourite lines of the wholeseries. And I love the part where Rhoda dumps food all over her lap and Marylooks over in horror. That is absolutely the kind of thing I would do at a party, if it didn’t violate every social rule in existence. (Also, Ilove any time Rhoda is in a scene with her real-life husband at the time, DickSchaal, aka Howard Arnell.)

2x21 – Where There’s Smoke, There’s Rhoda

This is the one where there’s a fire in Rhoda’s apartment, so she moves in with Mary for a few days. I thinkthis is one of my favourite Mary/Rhoda episodes, because it puts them inconflict with each other while still managing to reinforce how strong andbeautiful their friendship is. They end up fighting because they’re just sodifferent, not because they intentionally want to hurt eachother. They have each other’s best interests at heart the entire time. And theend where Rhoda agrees to go stay with Phyllis is fantastic. I love the look onPhyllis’ face that just screams “HELP ME.”

 3x06 – Rhoda the Beautiful

This, of course, is the episode where Rhoda won the Ms. Hempel Beauty Contest. I have alot of feelings about this episode. I really don’t like the implication that Rhoda wasn’t beautiful when she was fat, and that she only became beautiful after she lost weight. For one thing, Rhoda was neverall that fat, and for another thing, she was never not gorgeous. Also, weighthas absolutely nothing to do with beauty anyway. But I do think the episode madeit clear that the important thing wasn’t Rhoda’s weight at all. Her problem was that she didn’t feel good about the way shelooked. And even winning a beauty contest doesn’t solve that problem for her. Onanother show, that might have been the end of it, but for Rhoda, even that external validation isn’t enough to make her feel confident. Only after admitting her victory to Mary and receiving her support is Rhoda able to take some pride in her appearance.I love this episode because it doesn’t dismiss Rhoda’s self-image issues asunimportant. Instead, it gives them the emotional weight they deserve. Rhoda’s not sillyfor feeling bad about the way she looks. She’s not shallow for caring about herappearance. And she’s not vain for taking pride winning a beautycontest. The writing (and Valerie Harper’s Emmy-winning performance) reallyemphasize how hard it was for Rhoda to feel good about herself, and how braveshe is for gaining that confidence. I adore the scene where Rhoda tells Marythat she won. She looks down instead of meeting Mary’s eyes. Her voice shakes.She’s clearly terrified. And Mary’s reaction is so wonderful. Rhoda neededMary’s support here, and she absolutely got it. Although this episode dealtwith some really important subject matter, and it was definitely inspiring and poignant, it was ultimately a story about one woman earning some well-deserved confidence, and her best friend who helped her get to that point.

3x16 – Lou’s Place

This is theepisode where Lou tries to be the happy, welcoming bartender, but he can’t keepit up, so he ends up individually terrorizing his patrons. I always laughwatching him try to angrily force everyone to have a good time. “What thehell’s wrong with you, anyway? You just sit there like a bunch of clods… Nowthis is the Happy Hour.” I’m laughing out loud just thinking about it. I thinkit’s one of the funniest scenes in the whole show. And I cannot imagine how EdAsner kept a straight face through the whole scene. Or anyone else, for thatmatter. I also love the scene where Ted tries to arm-wrestle Lou while posing for the photographer. And Murray giving Ted change for $500 in nickels was a great ending.

4x17 – Cottage for Sale

This is the one where Lou almost sells his house but Mary changes his mind at the last minute. It’s just a nice, quiet episode that I’ve seen a million times and it always makesme smile. We see Lou give Mary a lot of helpful (and not-so-helpful) advice andguidance over the course of the series. I like this episode because it’s one ofthe times where Lou depends on Mary to be the voice of reason and help him realize that in some cases, his emotions are more important than logic. And I like thescene where Lou makes Mary breakfast: a scrambled omelet, with green pepper,green onion, and… beer. He’s just so pleased with himself for it. Phyllis is also very good in this episode, in her typical nails-on-a-chalkboard sort of way.

 4x20 – Better Late… That’s a Pun… Than Never

“Wee Willie Williams was the oldest living citizen in Minneapolis. There were other citizens in Minneapolis who are older; however, they happen to be dead.” Although the Wee Willie obituary scene is already enough tomake this episode legendary, this is also one of my favourite Mary and Lou episodes. I likethe part when Lou says that he missed Mary more than anyone else did, because that’s not the kind of thing he admits very often. Apart from that, I think it’s very sweet that Rhoda gave up a Robert Redford/Paul Newman movie to write obituaries with Mary until 4 in the morning. That’s quite a favour, even considering what happened as a result. And I would really love to know which character went into Lou’s office overnight and broke all his pencil points. (It was probably Murray.)

4x21 – Ted Baxter Meets Walter Cronkite

I love mostof the Teddy Awards episodes, and this is one of my favourites. This was a goodepisode for Ted. I love the look on his face when he realizes that he won. Forall his confidence before, he seems genuinely surprised, which suggests that much of his trademark overconfidence is actually fake. Ted had so few victories in the show, and his acceptance speech makes mesad for him almost as much as it makes me laugh. And his meeting with WalterCronkite was pure genius. (I wonder if Ted ever gave him his pipe back?)

 5x01 – Will Mary Richards Go to Jail?

I really admire Mary in this episode. She’s scared of going to jail, andshe even cries about it, but she does the right thing anyway, without really considering any other alternative. She’s not flawless, butshe’s brave and principled, which is something I love about her. This is alsoanother really good Mary and Lou episode. Lou’s ethics are such a fundamentalpart of his character, and he demonstrates many times over the course of theseries that he’s very rarely willing to back down on things he cares about. Butin this episode, he tells Mary that he doesn’t believe in the freedom of thepress - going against everything he believes in as a newsman - because he can’t handle her being in jail. That demonstrates just how much he cares about Mary,even more than the ensuing hug. And I always laugh when Sue Ann tells Mary, “Dear, when you get out, if you get out, I’ll beright there to help you find your way back into decent society.” (I’m curious as to howSue Ann got all those tin prison cups on such short notice. Does she just have themlying around in her studio at all times? Was she doing a special on prisonfood? Does she collect them? We’ll never know.)

5x19 – The Shame of the Cities

This is theepisode where Lou and Mary make a documentary on a politician that Lou thought was shady but who turned out to be incredibly boring. The “Thank you, Mr. Mugger” scene at the end is one of myfavourite scenes in the show. Mary Tyler Moore was so damn talented. I alsoreally like Charlene, and I like the part where she casually tells Mary thatshe dated Frank Sinatra and Mary can’t get over it. And I lovethe scene where the news team has a meeting in Lou’s office to work on the documentary and Ted listens in until Lou shuts the door on him (at which point you hear his offscreen cry of anguish).

5x23 – Ted Baxter’s Famous Broadcasters School

This is the one where Ted is tricked by a con man and he has to run a broadcasting school with just his colleagues for support. I don’tknow exactly why this episode is so funny to me, but I really enjoy it. I lovethat everyone pulls together, however reluctantly, to help solve Ted’s problem.And I like Ted’s school song: “We have no gym and we have no pool, but we haveheart at Ted Baxter’s Famous Broadcaster’s School!” Short, but catchy. I also love how Mary completely loses her patience by the end of it. (“Who IS this person? What are we DOING here?!”) Although, having watched “GetSmart,” I find it very confusing that Mary is on a date with Siegfried.

6x09 – Ted’s Wedding

I don’t knowwhy they didn’t call it “Ted and Georgette’s Wedding,” but anyway, this was a veryfunny episode. Ted and Georgette were adorable, of course. Sue Ann was brilliant as thefrilly, flower-toting task manager who magically had everything together at thedrop of a hat. And the tennis-playing priest was perfect. (“Bride on mybackhand, groom on my forehand!”) The wedding is sweet but still hilarious, andalthough this is a significant episode with two of the main characters getting married, it fits very neatly into theshow.

6x18 – Once I Had a Secret Love

I actuallyfeel weird about this episode because of the Lou/Sue Ann storyline. I find it disturbingthat Lou was made to feel guilty for having a drunk one-night stand. And Ithink that if Lou had been a woman and Sue Ann had been a man, that storylinemight have played differently.  But asidefrom that, this is a really emotionally heavy episode because of the Mary/Louconflict. It’s the first time we’ve ever seen Lou be really devastated bysomething Mary did. And I think it’s interesting that he just shuts down,instead of yelling or being sarcastic like he normally would after being hurt. It shows a side of him thatwe don’t normally get to see, and I have a lot of feelings about it. I also have a lot of feelings about the Mary andLou resolution scene, which is very sweet. And Ted is wonderful in thisepisode. “Mary, why are you weeping? Into a sock!” That part always makes melaugh. This was the episode that made me realize how much the show show relied on Ted to keep the show funny while they did heavy episodeslike this one. (I think the episode where Murray falls in love with Mary is another example.)

 6x22 – A Reliable Source

This is the episode where Mary quits her job after Lou insists on running a potentially incriminating story on her Congressman friend. The scenenear the end where Lou helps Mary type her resignation letter is another one of myfavourite scenes. I like any time Mary call Lou by his first name, because sheso rarely does. And although I think that Mary was wrong about wanting to keepthe story about the Congressman off the air, I admire her for sticking to herword anyway. I also think it’s sweet how Murray and Ted really try to supportMary in her fight against Lou, even though there isn’t much they can do. And it amuses me that Ted so readily assumes his friends are trying toget him a raise when they’re really talking about totally irrelevant things. “Thegood Lord has blessed me with many friends… And not a damn one of them’s gotany pull around here!”

 7x10 – Murray Can’t Lose

There are afew episodes during season 7 where you can tell that the writers and the castknew it was going to be their last season, and they just went all out with thesentiment. This is one of those episodes. There are a lot of good scenes inthis one, such as Mary singing in Lou’s office, Ted using Lou as aventriloquism dummy, and Georgette’s excellent dance sequence. But my favouritepart is the end scene where Murray gives his acceptance speech to all hisfriends, even though he didn’t win. I think what Murray says to Mary is lovely: “You do theimpossible every day. You make people forget how beautiful you look becausethey’re too busy realizing how beautiful you are.” It’s a perfect summary ofthe way Murray feels about Mary, and it’s also such a good way to describe her. And I love that Murray finallyadmits to Ted that he does actually like him. (Of course, Tedhad to ruin the moment.)

7x11 – Mary’s Insomnia

Apart fromthe highly inaccurate depiction of insomnia, I adore this episode. It wasdirected by James Burrows, who is one of the most legendary directors of alltime (he also did Cheers). Maybethat’s the reason why there is so much excellent physical comedy in thisepisode. Aside from that, and aside from this being such a nice Mary/Louepisode, I like that Ted actually got to get back at Murray for his years ofinsulting him. I also love the scene where everyone shows up in Mary’s bathroomwhile she’s taking a bath, and only Murray has the good sense to be embarrassedabout it. And Lou accidentally lapsing into “Up the Lazy River” while attempting to sing a lullaby is another one of my favourites.

I could absolutely go on and list another 15 episodes, and probably another 15 after that, but I think it’s in everyone’s best interest if I stop here. Thanks again for the question! And like I said above, people should feel free to reblog and add your own favourite episodes. I’d love to hear what everyone thinks.

[personalcoachingcenter]

An Effective Way to Tackle the Social Causes of Poor Health

New Post has been published on https://personalcoachingcenter.com/an-effective-way-to-tackle-the-social-causes-of-poor-health/

An Effective Way to Tackle the Social Causes of Poor Health

John Kuczala/Getty Images

The new business model for health requires healthcare organizations to address not only medical problems, but social problems like hunger, loneliness, and trauma. That’s because these types of issues — known as the social determinants of health (SDOH) — are key impediments to achieving the outcomes healthcare organizations are now given incentives to deliver.

These social determinants are foreign terrain for many healthcare organizations, but that hasn’t stopped them from entering the space. The number of reported health system-based SDOH programs has grown more than ten-fold in the past decade. This response would signify the kind of change long awaited by social advocates except for one thing: many such programs run a high risk of failure because they lack disciplined planning.

The typical story is that a well-meaning clinician or healthcare executive secures funding to experiment with a SDOH program. Burdened with tight timelines and competing responsibilities, these champions often quickly assemble limited pilot programs around high-level concepts such as leveraging community health workers or building referral platforms. Planning is sacrificed for expediency. And so, healthcare leaders who would never tolerate an amateur approach to drug development are willing to shotgun the development of complex social interventions. Why are we respectful of biomedical discovery and cavalier about social innovation?

Insight Center

Much of the haste around these programs seems enabled by the ubiquitous word “pilot,” which implies that it is acceptable to lower standards or defer planning because future iteration is expected. This overconfident approach has also been enabled by news headlines announcing outsized returns on investment; many exaggerated results are supported by flawed before-after studies measuring nothing more than regression to the mean. (The reality, according to a recent meta-analysis, is that very few SDOH interventions reduce healthcare utilization or costs — but probably because of poor design, not because these programs can’t be effective.)

Taken together, these factors have created hype around SDOH programs that is destructive in the long term; inevitably many programs won’t deliver as promised, and disappointed health care leaders may conclude that none of these programs work.

At the University of Pennsylvania, my team and I have spent the past decade developing IMPaCT, a standardized community health worker program that effectively addresses social determinants of health. We’ve tested IMPaCT in several randomized clinical trials (here’s one) which demonstrate consistent improvements in quality while reducing hospital days by 65%. These outcomes translate into two dollars in return for every dollar invested annually in the program. We believe that the high performance of the IMPaCT model are a direct result of the planning and design thinking we used in its development. Here, we share insights from building IMPaCT and from technical assistance that we’ve offered to help organizations arrive at their own SDOH solutions.

Start with a small team

We often see healthcare leaders cede the design of social determinants programs to a clinical committee or community advisory board. While inclusion is essential and refreshing, the pitfalls of design by committee are well known. Organizational dynamics between complex healthcare organizations and social service agencies can be especially fraught. We’ve found that it’s crucial to engage diverse perspectives while investing authority in those with dedicated time and expertise. I led a five-person working group that included experienced social determinants researchers, a health system leader and a community member.

Define problems crisply

Many leaders — believing SDOH programs are cure-alls — skip the step of problem definition or list dozens of outcomes they expect their program to improve. We listed three to four socially and financially important problems and meaningful outcomes a priori. For example, we focused on improving access to post-hospital primary care because this mattered to low-income patients, and was tied to enhanced provider reimbursement. We also focused on quality and days spent out of the hospital — important for all stakeholders.

Identifying problems and desired outcomes in advance allowed us to “solve for them” in our program design, measure them in clinical trials and then translating improvements into a return on investment.

Understand end-users

While it’s always a good idea to engage end-users in planning, it’s all the more important for SDOH programs. That is because the end-users of these programs — low-income people — often lack voices in healthcare. Some enlightened healthcare leaders engage patients through advisory boards, which is a step in the right direction. However, these boards may be self-selected (the homeless woman with diabetes is unlikely to be on the board) and representation risks may be token.

We interviewed 1,500 low-income patients on porches, hospital bedsides, jails and shelters. We asked them what made it hard to stay healthy and what we should be doing to help. These interviews were audio-taped, transcribed, and analyzed. We used the resulting insights to design IMPaCT. While it is certainly not necessary or feasible for every healthcare organization to interview thousands of patients, a dozen or so conversations can substantially inform program design.

Study past successes and dwell on past failures

Although social determinants programs are fairly new to healthcare, they are not a new concept. Disparities researchers and social scientists have deep expertise in their design, implementation and evaluation. Developing countries are also often far ahead of in the U.S. because of the greater imperatives to provide preventive care and to efficiently spend limited health care dollars.

While planning IMPaCT, we immersed ourselves in the experiences of community health worker programs both in the US and abroad through reading and discussion with experts. We paid particular attention to past failures, which is necessary to help overcome the overconfidence of “believers” who have a blind faith in these programs. Based on the lessons of past community health worker programs, we built hiring algorithms to minimize staff turnover and created robust supervision to ensure quality.

Embrace program manuals and “design jams”

Rapid-cycle innovation is even more of a buzzword than SDOH, yet speedy and iterative evaluations of programs can be hard to do in practice. Often, program designers have conflicting and subjective assessments of what is or is not working in their program. Many programs lack the explicitly written, ex ante, testable goals and hypotheses scientists have used for years to lend discipline to their processes, and often there are no written program protocols. It’s hard to revise what isn’t described or standardized in the first place.

While planning, I drafted program manuals: easy-to-read guides describing how to run a community health worker program like ours. We began our implementation at a very small scale, with just two part-time community health workers. I followed them around for weeks with the manuals in one hand and a red pen in another. When they departed from our protocol, I asked them why and, if their rationale was sound, considered revisions. This process of “designing in-situ” hasn’t ended with the planning stage. We still do periodic manual-guided observation of community health workers in the field. We also have quarterly “design jams,” or meetings that include all 60 team members during which we review and revise manuals.

Treating poverty is probably as hard as — if not harder than — treating cancer or heart disease. We have at least a rudimentary understanding that cancer is fundamentally a genetic disease and that patients with heart failure are sensitive to salt intake. But we have little understanding of how exactly poverty causes poor health or why people die of loneliness. While it is heartening that health systems are now devoting attention to health’s social determinants, they will need the same kind of discipline that has helped them develop biomedical therapies.

These programs don’t have to be perfect when they launch — but if they’re set up to fail, they probably will. That’s why it’s so important to try to get it mostly right from the outset, and to build in programmatic ways to course correct as needed. In addition, the challenges of change management make it harder to fix a broken program than getting it right the first time. Careful planning doesn’t have to be prohibitively time or resource intensive. Our initial planning stage took about six months. As in the biomedical world, timelines can be shortened and outcomes strengthened by using an evidence-based intervention instead of reinventing the wheel.

The stakes of SDOH programs are quickly rising: state Medicaid programs, large insurers and even venture capitalists are investing millions in this space. This money alone won’t solve complex social problems. Years from now, whether we have a hodge-podge of unevenly performing initiatives or a robust system of effective SDOH programs will depend on the careful thought and effort we put in today.

Source, N;

[thechasefiles]

The Chase Files Daily Newscap 3/16/2108

Good Morning #realdreamchasers! Here is The Chase Files Daily News Cap for Friday, 16th March 2018. Remember that you can read full articles via subscribing to Nation News Online, purchasing a Weekend Nation Newspaper (WN) or via Barbados Today (BT).

CITY RUN INCUMBENT BOSTIC NOT THREATENED BY NATLEE’S BID - I’m running for The City, so what! With that public declaration, this island’s best known prostitute threw her hat into the political ring, as Barbadians anxiously await the announcement of a date for the next general election. When Prime Minister Freundel Stuart rings the election bell, Natalie Natlee Harewood, whose “office” is said to be located in the red light district of Bush Hill, St Michael, will be contesting the City of Bridgetown seat as an independent. Natlee, who is best known here for her song Dirty Harry in which she took apart a client whom she said had wanted a relationship when she was only interested in conducting a business transaction with him, is set to make a significant shift in career from prostitute to politician. When contacted today for comment on the turn of events, Natlee, who created a stir nearly a year ago when she delivered what was deemed to be an outrageous and publicly offensive performance at Reggae on The Beach, said: “I have nothing to say to Barbados TODAY or any journalist.” However, she confirmed the news on her Instagram page, which has over 38 thousand followers. With a portrait of herself and the words, “Vote For Natalie” plastered on the image, she issued what she said was her political mission statement. “I want to help people, especially the poor, and I’m not coming to be fake, I’m coming real. Vote for me Natalie Harewood, City of Bridgetown.” She also promised that if elected, she would do her best on behalf of her constituents. “I’m going to put my best foot forward and that is a promise,” the prostitute, who calls herself a “night jobber”,  said. Barbados TODAY understands the candidate also ventured into Bridgetown yesterday in an attempt to sway members of the electorate and to announce herself as a prospective candidate. On social media Natlee has already been getting some much-needed support from her followers. One Instagramer said: “Got my vote, well done Nat! Please place the x in the box properly. Don’t let it touch the lines. Let’s do this for Nat. I sorry she isn’t running for St Philip West. Let’s go there.” Another commented: “Go Nat, you have my support, you have my vote.” However, at least one person opposed the prostitute’s decision. “You’re going to have a hard time getting people to really and truly support you,” the poster said, with prostitution currently illegal in Barbados, despite its known existence in the informal sector. It is understood that Harewood is a single parent who was forced into her current lifestyle in order to support her offspring, having failed in her attempts to find  conventional employment. When contacted, Barbados Labour Party candidate Jeffrey Bostic, who represented The City in the last Parliament which was dissolved earlier this month, told Barbados TODAY he saw no problem with Harewood challenging him at the polls. “I really don’t have a problem with it. If Natalie satisfies the criteria, there is nothing wrong. It is in her rights if she wants to contest the seat. I don’t have an issue with it at all,” Bostic said, adding: “I don’t focus on any of my opponents. I don’t judge them. I respect whoever comes up against me, but I just focus on myself and what I have to do. That is what I have been doing and I will continue to do that. That is my focus at the moment.” In fact, despite Natlee’s popularity, Bostic said he did not feel threatened, and was upbeat about his chances at the polls, as well as those of the Mia Mottley-led BLP. “I am confident in what I am doing. I am not arrogant or overconfident in terms of being re-elected, but I think I have done quite a bit of work in the City of Bridgetown and it is up to the people to make that determination as to whether they think I am deserving of re-election. I believe I am, but the decision rests with the people. “I am very confident in the ability of my party and that we will be returned to run the affairs of this country,” Bostic said. The other candidates in the race are newcomer Henderson Williams of the incumbent Democratic Labour Party and Lynette Eastmond of the United Progressive Party. To qualify as a candidate, all that is required from an eligible Barbadian is a $250 deposit on Nomination Day, and to be proposed and seconded by two people. The Prime Minister is yet to fix the dates for either the poll or the nominations, which must take place before June, with a record number of political aspirants expected on the 2018 ballot.  (BT)

NATALIE ENTERS POLITICAL CAMPAIGN - Well-known sex worker Natalie Harewood is contesting this year’s general election. The self-proclaimed lady of the night is creating political history by being the first known sex-worker to do so. Harewood, 36, gained notoriety two years ago with her explicit viral postings on social media and is vying for The City constituency. Earlier this week she was at Nelson Street canvassing and said she wanted to bring an alternative hope to  those she feels have been overlooked and discarded by the traditional politician and political parties. “I know them [the people] understand me. I does understand them because in life you got to understand young people. We were young and we got to understand them. Respect due at all times. You got to talk to these young people and let them know this is a real life . . . . “I was a single mum and I didn’t have anyone to help me and the only way that I could have done something was to sell my body to help my children to get them big. But if I could have changed my life I would never ever prostituted. If I had the sense I had today, I would never do that,”said Harewood who is selling her message as an independent. She will be running against Barbados Labour Party (BLP) incumbent retired Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Bostic, United Progressive Party (UPP) leader, former senator Lynette Eastmond and Democratic Labour Party (DLP) candidate credit unionist Henderson Williams. “. . . .I would never encourage a young person to prostitute their body that is not nice. So many young girls does message me and tell me they would like to do that and I try to [discourage] them. [That’s why] I would like to pave a way for young people, especially young girls, so they don’t have to go and do what I did when my children were younger. I don’t know what people think about me, I am not a bad person. I see how much people love me, I does see it daily and I can try and help my people,” she said. She also considers herself a positive role model but admitted that at first she was hesitant to claim such a title because she believed this was the role of parents. Harewood, who said that she was serious about the move and she had already landed a proposer and a seconder and was awaiting the election date annoucement to pay her $250. She has a following of almost 40 000 people on the social media site Instagram.   “I am going forward and I am trying to do my best to help the poor people in Barbados and I am not turning back. Nothing beats a try. It was too much fake all these years. I am the real deal right now for my people. It isn’t no more lies. I am not a politician; I don’t know the first thing about politics but I know Barbados is hard and my poor people want help, we want jobs. Too much crime in Barbados. Too much young people coming out on the streets to prostitute their bodies for money. We  need help. That’s all I know.” Some of the issues raised were: sanitation, unemployment and road infrastructure and a the lack of green spaces for the children to play in The City. (WN)

CANADA STANDING BEHIND HIGH COMMISSIONER LEGAULT – Canada is standing behind High Commissioner to Barbados Marie Legault who was strongly criticised this week by Minister of Education Ronald Jones. In a statement through her spokesman, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland made it clear that Legault was “in no way endorsing any candidate in their upcoming election.” She added: “On the contrary, she was (speaking) to Canada’s well-established feminist foreign policy as the keynote speaker at an event highlighting gender issues in the Caribbean on International Women’s Day. Canada is proud to support the greater participation of women in all spheres, including politics and government, around the world.” Speaking at a Democratic Labour Party meeting on Sunday, Jones suggested that Legault should be recalled to Canada. This was in response to comments she made last week in which she said she was "taken aback" at previous statements by call-in program host Maureen Holder questioning whether Barbados was ready for a female Prime Minister. "How dare you?" said Jones of Legault, adding: "You should be asked to leave or your government should tell you to come home because ‘you have interfered in the domestic political affairs of Barbados. Pack your georgie bundles and go." He suggested that "there is a wicked and deliberate attempt by one or two forces in Barbados who have the honour representing their country on sovereign soil in Barbados” to interfere in Barbados' politics. "I become seriously offended when somehow your garters pop, everything expose and in a demonstration of your proclivities and because you are functioning with some knowledge that I don’t have, you decide to make certain utterances....Get out! You can’t come and because you eat muskrats (species of rodent native to Canada and some parts of the US) you can come and tell us to eat rats."  Speaking at the W Portfolio event for International Women's Day last week, Legault stated: “Given the history, I have to say that I was taken aback when in January I saw political analyst Maureen Holder asking if Barbados was ready for a female Prime Minister and advocating for a national debate on it. I think every country is ready for a male or female prime minister. Gender does not have an impact." Holder's comments came against the background of the pending general elections pending where Opposition Leader Mia Mottley will be leading the Barbados Labour Party. “Has this nation given (a female prime minister) any serious thought, or is it a case that people are so fed up with the DLP that they feel they have no other choice but to accept the next best alternative?” Holder said in January, according to Nation News.  (WN)

SCATHING BRITISH TELEGRAPH REPORT ON BARBADOS – Barbados’ tourism image has been cast in a very negative light in its main source market as a result of the ongoing sewage crisis. In a scathing article which carried the headline, The stench of economic decay is overwhelming Barbados, Julia Bradshaw, business editor of the United Kingdom-based Daily Telegraph, warned her readers that “Barbados stinks. It really does”, as she reported on the vexing sewage mess, which has so far resulted in the closure of several establishments and hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses to hoteliers. “A foul effluvium bubbles up from the manhole covers and rainwater drains in the streets, pours into the roads and pavements, and out on to the island’s pristine beaches 24 hours a day,” the article said. The Telegraph is considered one of the UK’s main national daily publications with circulation of close to half a million up to last year, and reaches millions online. Aware of the likely impact of the sewage crisis on the island’s bread and butter tourism industry, the author said “this tragedy is a catastrophe for a country so dependent on tourism and a national humiliation for an island that was once a model of success in the Caribbean”. Just yesterday Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) Rudy Grant told the association’s quarterly meeting that at least two hotel properties had losses of about $222,000 in cancellations between December 2017 and February 2018 due to the sewage crisis. Grant also told the gathering of mostly industry players, but which also included Barbados Labour Party spokesman on tourism Ronald Toppin and Minister of Labour Dr Esther Byer-Suckoo, that he had already spoken to Government “with respect to how we believe the issue of the plant should be dealt with”. The sewage problem, which now seem to be somewhat under control since the introduction of injection wells, has so far resulted in the closure of the Worthing post office, the St Lawrence Primary School and popular restaurant Chicken Barn. Bradshaw, who did not say where her information came from, but gave the impression that she had actually lived in Barbados, warned that the “sewage problem is blighting the entire south coast of the island I used to call home”. She also suggested that the entire situation could have been avoided, while further cautioning that it had “the makings of a serious economic and social crisis”. The writer claimed that because of the stench tourists were leaving and many who have not yet arrived were cancelling flights. She also charged that the sewage problem was “a symptom of the incompetence and perceived corruption of the current administration, which Barbadians have dubbed the ‘do-little government’”. In the damning report, Bradshaw said instead of carrying out maintenance on the sewerage system over the years, resources were “poured into the construction of a smart new multi-million dollar” headquarters for the state-owned Barbados Water Authority. Construction on the approximately $63 million, 80,000 square foot Pine, St Michael building began in 2012 and was completed in 2015. “Worse still, it could have been avoided had the authorities undertaken required maintenance on the water and sewage system installed in 2002 under an Inter-American [Development] Bank loan,” she said. Bradshaw said the sewage mess was coupled with the island’s high fiscal deficit, falling reserves, low credit ratings, a slowdown in foreign direct investment and high debt, “and still the Government takes no action”. “The rapid deterioration that has taken place in Barbados over the past few years on the back of the country’s economic malaise is shocking,” she said. In her biting report, Bradshaw also pointed to school violence, broken infrastructure, crime, dumping and littering, while pointing out that general elections were due in the coming months and the incoming administration would be met with “the same notorious message – ‘there is no money left’”. Mindful that the report could hurt this island’s reputation, Barbados TODAY sought a reaction from the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc (BTMI) on the development. However, Chief Executive Officer William Billy Griffith would only say, “my only comment at this stage is that a response is forthcoming”. Barbados TODAY understands that after learning of the report BTMI officials had met with the officials from the Ministry of Tourism.  (BT)

CLOSER SCRUTINY – The Fair Trading Commission (FTC) has commenced investigations into the poultry, telecommunications and hospitality industries in an effort to determine if any of them is involved in anticompetitive practices. Word of this has come from Director of Fair Competition Antonio Thompson, who said consumers would be given a chance in the coming weeks to share their views on some areas, including pricing and quality. Addressing the FTC’s tenth annual training programme at Accra Beach Hotel today, Thompson said the Fair Competition Division was “really and truly driving the poultry study”, while he was liaising with the Consumer Protection Division on the probes into the hospitality and telecoms sectors.  (BT)

BHTA SAYS GOVERNMENT STILL TOO SLOW WITH CONCESSIONS – With several hotels here gearing up to pump millions of dollars into the ailing economy this coming summer, the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) is complaining that Government is still too slow to respond to applications for concessions under the Tourism Development Act (TDA). Chief Executive Officer Rudy Grant told yesterday’s quarterly meeting at the Barbados Hilton Resort that hoteliers intended to spend $20 million in improvements and would like to take advantage of the TDA and other measures, such as the Shipping Incentives Act. However, Grant complained in his report about the length of time it takes for Government to authorize the concessions allowed under the legislation. “One of the things that we do have to ensure is that these pieces of legislation, the benefits are facilitated in a more timely manner. It is still taking too long for members when they apply, to access the concessions and we have to make every effort to ensure that there is more timely delivery between the application and the final approval,” Grant said. Among those set to undergo refurbishment this year are Courtyard by Marriott, Cobblers Cove Hotel, Sugar Bay Resort, Coral Reef Club, Rosebank Apartments, Worthing Court Hotel, Bougainvillea Beach Resort, Beach View Hotel, The Sandpiper, Sand Acres, and South Gap Hotel. However, the most significant investment will come from Butterfly Beach Hotel, which is set to spend between $3.5 and $5 million, with Coral Reef Club expected to invest $3 million, Cobblers Cove, $1.5 to $2 million; South Gap Hotel, $2 million; and the Courtyard by Marriott, $1 million. The other pending investments range from $100,000 to $900,000. Various hotel properties spent a combined $30 million in upgrades last year.    Grant said in addition to lobbying for timelier access to concessions, the BHTA would continue to petition the various Government entities for promised changes to guidelines related to the National Social Responsibility Levy (NSRL). Following the announcement by Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler last year of a 400 per cent increase in the contentious NSRL, BHTA Chairperson Roseanne Myers had told the association’s annual general meeting in June that the controversial levy would not apply to tourism-related companies covered by the TDA. Grant yesterday stressed the need for speedier action on the part of the authorities whenever commitments are given to hoteliers. (BT)

BWA EXPECTS DYE TEST RESULTS THIS WEEK - The Barbados Water Authority (BWA) is this week expecting to receive the findings from dye test samples taken from the vicinity of new injection wells on the sewage-infested south coast.  BWA General Manager Keithroy Halliday told Barbados TODAY if the test results proved favourable, this would pave the way for repairs to begin on the main or effluent line, thereby bringing further relief to residents and businesses affected by the flow of sewage. “The well-testing was done about four days from Friday, I think, onward. We took dye samples from a number of locations where we expect to be affected, including the swamp. Samples were sent overseas for specific testing. Once we get that information in - I am sure hoping to get it in this week - we will sit with the EPD [Environmental Protection Department], the MOH [Ministry of Health], possibly the Coastal Zone Management Unit, we will look at the analysis, we will look at what the information means in terms of helping us understand the filtration . . . permeability, and to understand where exactly we expect the plumes would manifest themselves,” Halliday said. He assured Barbadians that the wells were sufficiently deep and the injection would go into waters with such high salt levels that all the bacteria would be killed. The BWA boss also said the engineers were comfortable the injection wells were the correct option and would not harm the nearshore or the environment. (BT)

TESTING NATURAL DISASTER READINESS – An earthquake and the resulting tsunami devastated Barbados yesterday, but many Barbadians did not seem to know about it. As part of the annual tsunami exercise Caribe Wave, the Department of Emergency Management (DEM) in Warrens, St Michael, had largely been “evacuated” as it had been compromised during the natural disaster. Instead, the communications aspect had been moved to the Arch Hall Fire Academy in St Thomas, while a control team stayed behind. “We are now in the warning stage where people are moving to higher ground. We chose Arch Hall for relocation as there is already communications equipment there, plus it’s on higher ground,” said Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency operations specialist retired Brigadier General Earl Arthurs. He said, while the Barbados Government Information Service had been broadcasting alerts, there was no wish to inadvertently cause any panic, so the operation was not fully showcased. In Holetown, students and business houses participated in the exercise, a simulation where an 8.3 magnitude earthquake triggered tsunami waves of 30.6 metres. Students and teachers of the St James Primary School assembled at Morgan’s Hill under the supervision of emergency officials from the DEM, Roving Response Team, Fire Service and more. Programme officer at the DEM, Danielle Skeete, said the exercise was done to test protocols and familiarise the students with the proper procedure in the event of a real emergency, adding it was a success. She was pleased with how the exercises went, but wanted more organisations to take part. (WN)

WAIT IS OVER – The long wait is over for immigration officers, who are due to move to new headquarters at the beginning of next month after seven years of waiting, agitation and protests, including working half day over the last two months. The National Union of Public Workers (NUPW), which represents the officers, today revealed that it had received word from Chief Immigration Officer Wayne Marshall that the new offices at the Barbados Tourism Investment Inc (BTI) car park on Princess Alice Highway in Bridgetown was all but ready for the workers to move in. (BT)

Changes to national drug formulary effective April 1 - Effective April 1, there will be changes to the Barbados National Drug Formulary, which will involve the deletion of some drugs and the addition of others. Persons who benefit from free drugs under the formulary are advised to check with their medical practitioners to find out if the medications they are currently taking will be affected by these changes. According to a statement from the Barbados Drug Service, the Drug Formulary Committee recently undertook a comprehensive review of some of the therapeutic categories within the formulary, in consultation with a cross-section of stakeholders, including doctors and pharmacists. The official list of prescribable medicines is updated every two years to ensure that the best and most appropriate pharmaceuticals are available to the public, the statement disclosed. The Drug Service has advised persons whose medications will no longer be available on the formulary that their current prescriptions can be repeated until the end of September, provided that the prescription was initially filled before the end of March. Categories of persons who receive free medication are those aged 65 and over; children under 16 years; and all persons, irrespective of age, who receive prescribed formulary drugs for the treatment of diabetes, hypertension, asthma, cancer, glaucoma and epilepsy. For more information about the changes, persons may check with their medical practitioner or pharmacist, or contact the Barbados Drug Service at 535-4300, or e-mail drugservice@health.gov.bb. (BT)

CHILD ADVOCATE IN FAVOR OF FLOGGING BAN – The call by new Unicef representative Dr Aloys Kamuragiye for the banning of corporal punishment in Barbados has received the backing of at least one child advocate. Chairperson of the National Committee Monitoring the Rights of the Child, Faith Marshall-Harris, renewed her support for a ban during the UNICEF Eastern Caribbean area meeting with the committee at the Ministry of Social Care in Warrens on Wednesday. During a presentation of statistics on Barbados’ progress in the sustainable development goals, Kamuragiye explained that a country’s profile was assessed by five broad dimensions: survival and thriving, learning, protection, environment and fair chance. He said the island was marked particularly weak in the areas of protection and fair chance due to insufficient and no data.  He reported that under protection, 75 per cent of children aged one to 14 had “experienced physical punishment and/or psychological aggression by caregivers in the past month”. Kamuragiye urged the Ministry of Education to promote alternative ways to discipline rather than the culturally accepted corporal punishment. Marshall-Harris, a retired magistrate of the Juvenile Court, agreed that more emphasis needed to be placed on alternatives to punishment. She said that because using lashes was a cultural norm, change would not occur overnight and therefore the efforts must be sustained. “The concern that I have is, as long as children know that they can push you and push to the point where you will go to that point . . . ; if on the other hand,  they know that the cut-off point is somewhere else, ‘Like I am going to take away your tablet’, then that becomes the standard. “You don’t have to beat them . . . because you can lower the bar on punishment, ” she said. Deputy Principal of Graydon Sealy Secondary School, Peter Skeete, said that many educators, while acknowledging that corporal punishment may not improve learning outcomes, contended that it affected behaviour. He said many teachers saw flogging as an effective way to control deviance and would likely push back against any bid to remove it. He added that many educators would challenge UNICEF’s equating physical punishment and psychological aggression.   (WN)

SENIOR CITIZEN SETTLING IN NEW LOCATION AFTER EVICTION – Luinda McKree has settled comfortably into her new location at Lancaster House, St James. McKree was evicted from her home at Tichbourne, Howell’s Cross Road home on Tuesday morning by court marshals on the behalf of the RBC Royal Bank of Canada following the conclusion of an ongoing court case which reportedly lasted seven years. Providing an update on McKree’s condition yesterday, Reverend Dr David Durant, Chairman of the National Assistance Board, told the Weekend Nation she was “doing well”. “She’s settled in quite nicely. A number of people that know her called to check up on her . . . some of whom were extended family. She is safe and we have her valuables stored in a container. The other things that weren’t valuable were taken to the dump,” he said. Durant also made a correction to her age. He originally reported to the media she was 69 years old but said after further checks, realised she was actually 74 years old. He said she would be allowed to stay at the house until other accommodations was made for her. “She is comfortable but of course she is grieving about the situation. We provided counselling and medical health checks for her so we know what condition she is in. She will be here as long as needs be. We just want to make her as comfortable as possible,” he added. When the Weekend Nation contacted RBC for comment, senior manager communications, Southern Caribbean, Hanneke Stomp-Harmsen who responded on the behalf of the bank said such matters were strictly confidential.  “RBC respects the privacy of its client. We do not discuss matters relating to our clients with third parties or media, as this is confidential,” Stomp-Harmsen said.   (WN)

12 warrants issued for PSV conductor’s arrest -  A public service vehicle (PSV) conductor, for whom 12 warrants of arrest were issued, ran out of luck today as he was remanded to prison. Shamar O’brien Blackman, of London Bourne Towers, Bay Street, St Michael, appeared before Magistrate Graveney Bannister in the District ‘A’ Traffic Court this morning where he threw in the towel and pleaded guilty to ten traffic charges, dating back to June 2011, including having excess passengers and giving police a false name and address. He was slapped with $2,050 in fines for the offences, which he was unable to pay by the end of the day’s sitting. Today, Blackman also appeared in the No. 1 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court where there was also an outstanding warrant for his arrest. Magistrate Douglas Frederick informed Blackman that he had not attended court for the past three years after he was granted $5,000 bail on the indictable November 23, 2009 charge of allegedly having intercourse with a 15-year-old girl. However, Blackman claimed that when he attended court in the past his name was never on the call list. He also told the magistrate that he had moved from his previous address; therefore court marshals could not locate him. However, his surety withdrew today, resulting in Blackman being remanded until April 12. (BT)

Guilty as charged! DRIVER CONVICTED FOR INDECENTLY ASSAULTING 11-YEAR-OLD - A driver was remanded to Dodds prison this afternoon after he was found guilty of indecently assaulting an 11-year-old schoolgirl on September 19, 2007. It took the nine-member jury about 30 minutes to arrive at the verdict against Berkeley Anthony Brathwaite, of No. 51 Rices, St Philip, after hearing evidence, presented over two days, by the victim, her mother and three police officers.  However, with the court still to decide what his final fate will be, Brathwaite’s attorney Steve Gollop today argued that his client was a fit and proper candidate to continue bail, as he had not infringed his conditions for the past 11 years.  Gollop even suggested that additional conditions could be attached to Brathwaite’s bail, such as reporting to a police station and handing over his passport to the authorities.  The attorney also informed the court that Brathwaite was self-employed and had one dependent. Therefore, to place him “on remand right now will disrupt that relationship and his business,” the defence attorney argued, in appealing for his client’s release. However, Principal Crown Counsel Alliston Seale countered, pointing out that Brathwaite was no longer an accused, but a convicted man, and as such the “table has turned”. “He has been convicted of a very serious offence which carries [a term of] imprisonment,” the prosecutor said. Following those submissions, Justice Randall Worrell requested that Brathwaite’s surety attends court on March 23 when both sides are due to make fresh submissions on bail. In the meantime, a pre sentencing report has been ordered on Brathwaite, who was 44 years old at the time of the offence and who has two previous convictions, dating back to 1992. (BT)

WOMAN PLEADS GUILTY TO THEFT AND MONEY LAUNDERING -  A Christ Church woman, who thought she was making “an honest dollar”, has pleaded guilty to theft and money laundering in the High Court. Sally-Ann Rosita Ramsay, of Enterprise Gardens, admitted before Justice Randall Worrell today in the No. 2 Supreme Court to stealing $8,100 belonging to Hazel Tempro and disposing of the proceeds of crime, sometime between August 26 and 27, 2013. Based on the facts presented in court, Tempro, a retired nurse, received a call on the morning of August 26 from someone who identified themselves as her friend.  Following that conversation, she visited the Royal Bank of Canada Broad Street Branch and withdrew $9,000. She kept $900 and gave the remainder to Ramsay, who identified herself as ‘Ann’ when they met up at a popular Bridgetown store. Tempro handed Ramsay the money as her ‘friend’ had instructed. The next day Tempro received another telephone call. This time from “John, a stock broker” who was allegedly connected to her ‘friend’. This resulted in her visiting her financial institution for a second time to withdraw money. However, a bank teller cautioned her against doing so. The police were summoned and Ramsay was detained. “I don’t know what this is about. All I know is that my stepbrother, who my father used to raise, asked me to do him a favour by collecting some money for him and I did so,” Ramsay had told police when asked to account for her actions. Ramsay, who was 40 years old at the time of her arrest, had also explained in a statement to police that early in the year her father’s son, who she did not remember, came to visit her at home and during their conversation had asked her to do a job for him. “He told me that he wants me to do work with John. He told me that John is a big man at the Bridgetown Port. He told me that all I had to do is go to the banks and collect money from people,” the statement read. The accused also stated that after collecting the money from Tempro, she handed it over to her brother who gave her $100 as payment.  Today Ramsay told Justice Worrell: “At the time I didn’t know I was getting myself into this kind of trouble. I thought I was working for an honest dollar. I didn’t know it would have been like this.” A pre sentencing report has been ordered and is expected by May 10. (BT)

SPRINGER AND ST MICHAEL LEAD AFTER DAY ONE OF BSSAC – It is a wide open race in both sections of the PowerAde Barbados Secondary Schools’ Athletics Championships after the first day at the National Stadium today. Scotiabank Springer Memorial lead the girls with 185 points, a mere four points ahead of last year's champions Christ Church Foundation. The other main contenders, the St Michael School, are third on 168. In the boys, champions St. Michael are out front with 139 points. Foundation are second with 123.50 and Harrison College third with 87 points. There were five records - four on track and the other in the field. Harrison College’s Jonathan Jones warmed up for CARIFTA with a meet record in the 400 metres in the under 20 boys division. Jones clocked 46.80 seconds, erasing a 17 year-old record set by Christ Church Foundation’s Wilan Louis in 2001. “I am glad I got the meet record. I wish it could have been faster but I just want to thank the Lord I got through it. It is perhaps a medal time in CARIFTA but I just like to come out and give it my all,” Jones said nonchalantly after the race. In-form Under-17 hurdler Sarah Belle of Foundation beat her own meet record set in this year’s zone meet, posting 14.05 seconds in the final, leading from start to finish finish. Belle is already focused on the Bahamas. “I hope I can win a gold medal for my country and give God the praises.” Jadon Pearce of St. Leonard’s set a junior boys record in the 100 metre hurdles in a time of 13.39 seconds. The day was doubly delightful for Mary Fraser, who won the first track event of the day, holding off a strong challenge from the precocious 12 year-old Layla Haynes of Harrison College to take the girls’ Open 3000 metres. She did the journey in 11:04.01 and Haynes ran 11:04.98. Fraser eased ahead of Harrison College’s Charissa Moore to triumph in the under 20 1500 metres. The Darryl Jordan student stated: “I am happy with what I did today because I am coming back to full fitness.” Triston Gibbons continued his outstanding form, breaking his own discus record in the Under-20 boys. The Harrisonian had a mark of 57.22 metres. He is already CARIFTA bound. Shemia Odaine narrowly missed the CARIFTA standard in the Under-20 girls’ long jump with a leap of 5.77 metres. Shanice Hutson of Coleridge & Parry had a good throw of 13.13 metres in the Under-17 girls’ shot put.  (WN)

For daily or breaking news reports follow us on Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter & Facebook. That’s all for today folks. There are 290 days left in the year. Shalom! #thechasefilesdailynewscap #thechasefiles  #dailynewscapsbythechasefiles

[yes-dal456]

What Would Gandhi Do About Trump? High-Time for a Science of Wisdom

This article first appeared on the blog of Intentional Insights, a nonprofit organization that empowers people to refine and reach their goals by providing research-based content to help improve thinking, feeling, and behavior patterns. Caption: Mahatma Gandhi, close-up portrait (image credit) Written by Charles Cassidy MPhys, Director of Evidence-based Wisdom It was 3:30 AM, and my wife and I were crumpled in stunned silence in the back of a taxi, racing through the deserted streets of South London. Our all-night US election party on November 8, 2016 had taken an unexpected turn from a celebration to a tragedy. Black comedy was fast becoming a dark reality. In defiance of all expectations, post-truth politics won and Donald Trump was soon to be the most powerful individual on the planet. My British stiff upper lip was no match for the shockwave. My American wife's can-do spirit was buckling under the emotional wallop. An adequate response seemed beyond my grasp. But then, an uninvited thought popped into my mind - What would Gandhi do (WWGD)? In shattering times like these, it can be hard to know how to respond. When faced with crisis, we often turn to role models who can offer guidance on how best to forge a wise path forward. Mahatma Gandhi is often cited across generations and cultures as one of the wisest people of the 20th century. That, I believe, is how I came to be thinking about WWGD in the back of a taxi at 3:30 AM. While Gandhi's wisdom is no longer with us, a new field of scientific research has recently emerged, which aims to provide guidance for dealing with these kinds of problems. This new field is "Wisdom Research" and it will come as no surprise to learn that it has been growing rapidly of late. As neuroscientist Dilip Jeste suggested in his recent TED talk, "wisdom" includes much more than intelligence: "Wise people are intelligent, but not all intelligent people are wise." Wisdom is called for when facing "wicked problems," where the path ahead is full of uncertainty. Sound familiar? THE BERLIN WISDOM PARADIGM - A Science of Wisdom A "science of wisdom" almost seems too audacious to say out loud. Can the scientific method really tell us how to navigate our unpredictable and messy lives in the real world? This is what a bold team of behavioural scientists in Berlin decided to find out. It was 1984 and, after years of neglect by the academic community, "wisdom" was about to meet the scientific method for the very first time. Their pioneering work evolved into the "Berlin Wisdom Paradigm." It was the first scientific attempt to grapple seriously with the ancient concept of wisdom and, as The New York Times writer Stephen Hall states, "The Berlin researchers nonetheless obtained the most comprehensive empirical understanding of wisdom by any single group in modern psychology." The team defined wise people as having "expertise in the fundamental pragmatics of life." So, essentially, "life experts." Their 5-component framework is quite detailed and sets high standards for anyone hoping to 'achieve wisdom'. Two aspects of their wisdom framework, however, relate directly to the pressing questions I faced sitting shocked in the back of that taxi on election night. WISDOM PART I: RELATIVISM OF VALUES AND LIFE PRIORITIES - There is more than one perspective The initial research in Berlin showed clearly that high wisdom performers recognise and accept that different groups have different values. We generally believe that we see the world around us "as it is." Therefore those that disagree with us are evidently "out-of-line" in some regard. This human tendency is known by the scientific term Naïve Realism. The famous "Blind Men and The Elephant" tale of Buddhist tradition illustrates this point beautifully. One blind man feels only the tusk of the animal and concludes that an elephant is like a plough. Another man feels its leg and insists an elephant is like a pillar. You get the picture. Only by acknowledging that people have different perspectives, and that therefore our perspective is also only one of many, can we get a fuller picture of how the world really works. Caption: Blind Men and Elephant (image credit) The current political system is so brutally partisan that genuine attempts to understand "the other view" have all but disappeared. Wise people, the Berlin researchers found, see that their view is only one of many, and that only by seeking out alternative views can they expand their understanding of reality. As social psychologist Jonathan Haidt wrote in The Happiness Hypothesis: "A good place to look for wisdom, therefore, is where you least expect to find it: in the minds of your opponents." Our political adversaries should not be viewed as fools, but rather as a potential means of broadening our understanding of the world. It seems a problem can best be understood and tackled when viewed from many sides. This was slowly dawning on me during my nighttime taxi ride. Uncomfortable as it might be, I was going to have to engage with people from the other end of the political spectrum. It was time to burst that filter bubble. WISDOM PART II: RECOGNITION OF AND MANAGEMENT OF UNCERTAINTY - Known Unknowns The Berlin scientists' research also revealed that strong wisdom performers are especially good at engaging skilfully with uncertainty. Behavioural science has shown that many thinking errors and cognitive biases stem from overconfidence in our own knowledge or skill. Top wisdom performers were found to be acutely aware of the limits of their knowledge and yet are still able to take reasonable "best-guess" real-world decisions. This suggests that, when forging a path of action, we need to do what we think is best, yet maintain a healthy scepticism of certainty in ourselves and in others. This also makes it much easier for us to update our beliefs as the situation changes around us. So how did Gandhi demonstrate this wise self-doubt? He changed his position on vital issues a number of times. In 1939, for example, when the British entered into war against Nazi Germany, Gandhi suggested that the British be offered non-violent moral support from the Indian people. However, following discussion with many of his colleagues who disagreed with him, he reconsidered. He concluded that it wasn't wise to support the British in a fight for democratic freedoms when India itself was still under British rule. He went on to trigger a huge civil disobedience movement with his famous "Quit India" speech aimed squarely at the British occupiers. Gandhi clearly maintained sufficient self-doubt to change his path of action when necessary. Since we are all now engaged in making choices in a climate of great political and social uncertainty, such skilful engagement with and management of incomplete information seems especially crucial. So, there I sat in the taxi, pretty certain and righteous that I was right and America was wrong. Thoughts of Gandhi reminded me again that I was not on the wise path. I had to loosen my grip on my position, and open up to a new possibility - I might be wrong. As Gandhi would know, that's a big ask. WISDOM, FINE. BUT WHY NOW? The application of science to wisdom seems to be exploding. The number of publications since the early work in Berlin has skyrocketed. I run a project called Evidence-Based Wisdom. We translate scientific wisdom research into understandable and helpful resources for the public. In my work I am lucky enough to pick the brains of many scientists operating at the cutting edge of this new field, and I often ask them the question, 'Why now?' The reply of one such trailblazer, Igor Grossmann, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Director of The Wisdom and Culture Lab at the University of Waterloo, was illuminating: In essence, most wisdom traditions try to grapple with questions of managing the complexities and uncertainties of life. Therefore, in uncertain times wisdom is likely to be more appealing. I would also think that the work of developmental psychologists in the 80s and Paul Baltes, Ursula Staudinger and their colleagues at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin in the 90s provided a fruitful soil for nurturing a scientific study of wisdom. So, in our current challenging and uncertain times, a science of wisdom has emerged, perhaps not a moment too soon. Facing greater and greater uncertainty and complexity, we need a framework for making choices that: integrates intelligence with emotion; considers multiple perspectives, often in uncertain situations; and directs our efforts to the common good. As our world continues to get more uncertain and complex, and technology further entwines our fates, you will be hearing a lot more about the science of wisdom. Although, of course, I can't be certain. SO, WHAT WOULD GANDHI DO? - PRACTICAL ACTIONS Unfortunately, even though we see clear signs of wisdom in Gandhi's choices, we can't know exactly what he would do if he was faced with the prospect of a Trump presidency. However, science can now suggest how to respond with the wisdom for which he was so renowned. So, when you are deciding how best to respond to the recent political shockwave, try activating your capacity for wise behaviour by using the following two strategies: ACTION 1: Seek out other perspectives, and view your opponents not as fools, but as sources of alternative insight. ACTION 2: Be aware that your understanding is always partial - we, each of us, "sees through a glass darkly" - so maintain a healthy scepticism of certainty in yourself and in others. You will ultimately make more progress by declaring your uncertainty than hiding it. As the taxi pulled up outside my apartment, a "wise plan" was forming. If I hoped to get a clearer idea of what on earth had just happened, I would need help from Trump supporters in understanding where they were coming from. And I would also need to let go of pretending to have all the answers. As a first step, I like to think it's what Gandhi would do. QUESTIONS:

Do you tend to believe that you alone see the world objectively, or are you able to integrate multiple perspectives on a problem, like top wisdom performers?

Are you aware of the limits of your areas of knowledge? Do you find yourself frequently roaming into areas that you know very little about?

Could you sit down with someone from the other end of the political spectrum and have a civil chat and perhaps even gain useful insight from them?

Did you find this post helpful? Support my ability to keep writing on Patreon! Bio: Dr. Gleb Tsipursky helps leaders and organizations avoid disaster through science-based strategies for effective decision-making and emotional and social intelligence. He is a well-known scholar, entrepreneur, author, speaker, consultant, coach, and activist in these areas - for more information or to hire him, see his website, GlebTsipursky.com. He runs a nonprofit that helps people use science-based strategies to make effective decisions and reach their goals, so as to build an altruistic and flourishing world, Intentional Insights. He also serves as a tenure-track professor at Ohio State in the History of Behavioral Science and the Decision Sciences Collaborative. A best-selling author, he wrote Find Your Purpose Using Science among other books, and regular contributes to prominent venues, such as Time, The Conversation, Salon, The Huffington Post, and elsewhere. He appears regularly on network TV, such as affiliates of ABC and Fox, radio stations such as NPR and Sunny 95, and elsewhere. Consider signing up to the Intentional Insights newsletter; volunteering; donating; buying merchandise. Get in touch with him at gleb[at]intentionalinsights[dot]org.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from http://ift.tt/2jaUkAP from Blogger http://ift.tt/2ju3sld

[imreviewblog]

What Would Gandhi Do About Trump? High-Time for a Science of Wisdom

This article first appeared on the blog of Intentional Insights, a nonprofit organization that empowers people to refine and reach their goals by providing research-based content to help improve thinking, feeling, and behavior patterns. Caption: Mahatma Gandhi, close-up portrait (image credit) Written by Charles Cassidy MPhys, Director of Evidence-based Wisdom It was 3:30 AM, and my wife and I were crumpled in stunned silence in the back of a taxi, racing through the deserted streets of South London. Our all-night US election party on November 8, 2016 had taken an unexpected turn from a celebration to a tragedy. Black comedy was fast becoming a dark reality. In defiance of all expectations, post-truth politics won and Donald Trump was soon to be the most powerful individual on the planet. My British stiff upper lip was no match for the shockwave. My American wife's can-do spirit was buckling under the emotional wallop. An adequate response seemed beyond my grasp. But then, an uninvited thought popped into my mind - What would Gandhi do (WWGD)? In shattering times like these, it can be hard to know how to respond. When faced with crisis, we often turn to role models who can offer guidance on how best to forge a wise path forward. Mahatma Gandhi is often cited across generations and cultures as one of the wisest people of the 20th century. That, I believe, is how I came to be thinking about WWGD in the back of a taxi at 3:30 AM. While Gandhi's wisdom is no longer with us, a new field of scientific research has recently emerged, which aims to provide guidance for dealing with these kinds of problems. This new field is "Wisdom Research" and it will come as no surprise to learn that it has been growing rapidly of late. As neuroscientist Dilip Jeste suggested in his recent TED talk, "wisdom" includes much more than intelligence: "Wise people are intelligent, but not all intelligent people are wise." Wisdom is called for when facing "wicked problems," where the path ahead is full of uncertainty. Sound familiar? THE BERLIN WISDOM PARADIGM - A Science of Wisdom A "science of wisdom" almost seems too audacious to say out loud. Can the scientific method really tell us how to navigate our unpredictable and messy lives in the real world? This is what a bold team of behavioural scientists in Berlin decided to find out. It was 1984 and, after years of neglect by the academic community, "wisdom" was about to meet the scientific method for the very first time. Their pioneering work evolved into the "Berlin Wisdom Paradigm." It was the first scientific attempt to grapple seriously with the ancient concept of wisdom and, as The New York Times writer Stephen Hall states, "The Berlin researchers nonetheless obtained the most comprehensive empirical understanding of wisdom by any single group in modern psychology." The team defined wise people as having "expertise in the fundamental pragmatics of life." So, essentially, "life experts." Their 5-component framework is quite detailed and sets high standards for anyone hoping to 'achieve wisdom'. Two aspects of their wisdom framework, however, relate directly to the pressing questions I faced sitting shocked in the back of that taxi on election night. WISDOM PART I: RELATIVISM OF VALUES AND LIFE PRIORITIES - There is more than one perspective The initial research in Berlin showed clearly that high wisdom performers recognise and accept that different groups have different values. We generally believe that we see the world around us "as it is." Therefore those that disagree with us are evidently "out-of-line" in some regard. This human tendency is known by the scientific term Naïve Realism. The famous "Blind Men and The Elephant" tale of Buddhist tradition illustrates this point beautifully. One blind man feels only the tusk of the animal and concludes that an elephant is like a plough. Another man feels its leg and insists an elephant is like a pillar. You get the picture. Only by acknowledging that people have different perspectives, and that therefore our perspective is also only one of many, can we get a fuller picture of how the world really works. Caption: Blind Men and Elephant (image credit) The current political system is so brutally partisan that genuine attempts to understand "the other view" have all but disappeared. Wise people, the Berlin researchers found, see that their view is only one of many, and that only by seeking out alternative views can they expand their understanding of reality. As social psychologist Jonathan Haidt wrote in The Happiness Hypothesis: "A good place to look for wisdom, therefore, is where you least expect to find it: in the minds of your opponents." Our political adversaries should not be viewed as fools, but rather as a potential means of broadening our understanding of the world. It seems a problem can best be understood and tackled when viewed from many sides. This was slowly dawning on me during my nighttime taxi ride. Uncomfortable as it might be, I was going to have to engage with people from the other end of the political spectrum. It was time to burst that filter bubble. WISDOM PART II: RECOGNITION OF AND MANAGEMENT OF UNCERTAINTY - Known Unknowns The Berlin scientists' research also revealed that strong wisdom performers are especially good at engaging skilfully with uncertainty. Behavioural science has shown that many thinking errors and cognitive biases stem from overconfidence in our own knowledge or skill. Top wisdom performers were found to be acutely aware of the limits of their knowledge and yet are still able to take reasonable "best-guess" real-world decisions. This suggests that, when forging a path of action, we need to do what we think is best, yet maintain a healthy scepticism of certainty in ourselves and in others. This also makes it much easier for us to update our beliefs as the situation changes around us. So how did Gandhi demonstrate this wise self-doubt? He changed his position on vital issues a number of times. In 1939, for example, when the British entered into war against Nazi Germany, Gandhi suggested that the British be offered non-violent moral support from the Indian people. However, following discussion with many of his colleagues who disagreed with him, he reconsidered. He concluded that it wasn't wise to support the British in a fight for democratic freedoms when India itself was still under British rule. He went on to trigger a huge civil disobedience movement with his famous "Quit India" speech aimed squarely at the British occupiers. Gandhi clearly maintained sufficient self-doubt to change his path of action when necessary. Since we are all now engaged in making choices in a climate of great political and social uncertainty, such skilful engagement with and management of incomplete information seems especially crucial. So, there I sat in the taxi, pretty certain and righteous that I was right and America was wrong. Thoughts of Gandhi reminded me again that I was not on the wise path. I had to loosen my grip on my position, and open up to a new possibility - I might be wrong. As Gandhi would know, that's a big ask. WISDOM, FINE. BUT WHY NOW? The application of science to wisdom seems to be exploding. The number of publications since the early work in Berlin has skyrocketed. I run a project called Evidence-Based Wisdom. We translate scientific wisdom research into understandable and helpful resources for the public. In my work I am lucky enough to pick the brains of many scientists operating at the cutting edge of this new field, and I often ask them the question, 'Why now?' The reply of one such trailblazer, Igor Grossmann, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Director of The Wisdom and Culture Lab at the University of Waterloo, was illuminating: In essence, most wisdom traditions try to grapple with questions of managing the complexities and uncertainties of life. Therefore, in uncertain times wisdom is likely to be more appealing. I would also think that the work of developmental psychologists in the 80s and Paul Baltes, Ursula Staudinger and their colleagues at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin in the 90s provided a fruitful soil for nurturing a scientific study of wisdom. So, in our current challenging and uncertain times, a science of wisdom has emerged, perhaps not a moment too soon. Facing greater and greater uncertainty and complexity, we need a framework for making choices that: integrates intelligence with emotion; considers multiple perspectives, often in uncertain situations; and directs our efforts to the common good. As our world continues to get more uncertain and complex, and technology further entwines our fates, you will be hearing a lot more about the science of wisdom. Although, of course, I can't be certain. SO, WHAT WOULD GANDHI DO? - PRACTICAL ACTIONS Unfortunately, even though we see clear signs of wisdom in Gandhi's choices, we can't know exactly what he would do if he was faced with the prospect of a Trump presidency. However, science can now suggest how to respond with the wisdom for which he was so renowned. So, when you are deciding how best to respond to the recent political shockwave, try activating your capacity for wise behaviour by using the following two strategies: ACTION 1: Seek out other perspectives, and view your opponents not as fools, but as sources of alternative insight. ACTION 2: Be aware that your understanding is always partial - we, each of us, "sees through a glass darkly" - so maintain a healthy scepticism of certainty in yourself and in others. You will ultimately make more progress by declaring your uncertainty than hiding it. As the taxi pulled up outside my apartment, a "wise plan" was forming. If I hoped to get a clearer idea of what on earth had just happened, I would need help from Trump supporters in understanding where they were coming from. And I would also need to let go of pretending to have all the answers. As a first step, I like to think it's what Gandhi would do. QUESTIONS:

Do you tend to believe that you alone see the world objectively, or are you able to integrate multiple perspectives on a problem, like top wisdom performers?

Are you aware of the limits of your areas of knowledge? Do you find yourself frequently roaming into areas that you know very little about?

Could you sit down with someone from the other end of the political spectrum and have a civil chat and perhaps even gain useful insight from them?

Did you find this post helpful? Support my ability to keep writing on Patreon! Bio: Dr. Gleb Tsipursky helps leaders and organizations avoid disaster through science-based strategies for effective decision-making and emotional and social intelligence. He is a well-known scholar, entrepreneur, author, speaker, consultant, coach, and activist in these areas - for more information or to hire him, see his website, GlebTsipursky.com. He runs a nonprofit that helps people use science-based strategies to make effective decisions and reach their goals, so as to build an altruistic and flourishing world, Intentional Insights. He also serves as a tenure-track professor at Ohio State in the History of Behavioral Science and the Decision Sciences Collaborative. A best-selling author, he wrote Find Your Purpose Using Science among other books, and regular contributes to prominent venues, such as Time, The Conversation, Salon, The Huffington Post, and elsewhere. He appears regularly on network TV, such as affiliates of ABC and Fox, radio stations such as NPR and Sunny 95, and elsewhere. Consider signing up to the Intentional Insights newsletter; volunteering; donating; buying merchandise. Get in touch with him at gleb[at]intentionalinsights[dot]org.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

from Healthy Living - The Huffington Post http://huff.to/2jaTioA

[kingdomofhellfire]

Shaw: A History


Full Name: Sebastian Hiram Shaw My name Means: Sebastian derived from a Latin name that means “from Sebaste” and Sebaste is a town means “venerable”. Hiram is Hebrew for “Exalted Brother”. The Shaw name has been in America almost as long as white people. The earliest noted American Shaw was the Reverend of Salem in 1692 (and was also the Sorcerer Supreme ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ). Nicknames: When he was younger, people shortened his name to Seb, but now that he is older he finds nicknames detract from the image he has built for himself. Birthdate: December 18th, 1989 Birthplace: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA Age: 28 Nationality: American Race: Caucasian 
Astrological Sign + Traits: Sagittarius. Strengths: Generous, idealistic, great sense of humor. Weaknesses: Promises more than can deliver, very impatient, will say anything no matter how undiplomatic (Shaw would argue none of these are true and he has the track record to prove it). Hair color: Brown 
Eye color: Dark brown 
Prominent features: 
Skin tone: A slight tan. 
Blemish, Distinguishing marks or Scars?: Shaw is notoriously hard to mark. He has accelerated healing, which is not incredibly fast, but works well enough to heal up any surface wounds that he may suffer. Build/Body Type: Shaw is tall and broad Height: 6'2" Weight: 210lb Speech Patterns: Shaw worked very hard in college to rid himself of his Pittsburgh accent. Now he speaks in a slightly formal American accent. He would not be out of place announcing the nightly world news. Tag words: Strengths: Planning, manipulating, understanding what people want. Weaknesses: overconfidence, inability to trust

Sebastian Hiram Shaw was named by his father, Jacob Shaw. Jacob’s father desperately wanted to be part of the long line of successful and intelligent Shaw men his family is so well known for. However, he failed his family, driving them into bankruptcy. Even as a poor man, Jacob knew the power and influence behind a strong name. He chose Hiram as the middle name so as to further connect his son to his lineage, and Sebastian for its meaning and he approved of the sound of it, thinking it was sophisticated. Shaw has very few nicknames. As a child, those close to him would call him Seb (Sebastian is a bit of a mouthful). Now that he is an adult, Shaw understands the importance of a name, especially since his name is the name of the company he built. Calling him Seb will most likely get you a raised eyebrow coupled with a stern look. Continuing to do so shows a lack of self-preservation. If one cannot manage all of the syllables of ‘Sebastian’ then ‘Shaw’ will work just as well. Shaw is 28, having been born the night of December 18th, 1989. He is a college graduate and CEO of a major corporation he built by hand. He seems older for his age, partly because he has done so much in so little time and holds so much sway in the world that the idea he could possibly be under thirty seems impossible. Shaw’s mutant ability will slow his aging ability down, so the air of experience will help him down the line. One thing that Shaw stresses the importance of is appearance. He is tall, 6 foot 2, and broad. He works out consistently, both for vanity and to heighten and strengthen his mutant abilities. Shaw is brown eyed and brown haired. He sports a well maintained beard. (The faceclaim is Jamie Dornan and the only issue I have with this man is he is too skinny. Shaw is built and not just a six pack. Look up his comic version and you’ll see what I mean. He’s got a wider chest than some forms of Superman. Sebastian holds a belief that you can always be better. He trains himself mentally and physically as much as possible. And his mutation is so wholly physical and the more he works, the more energy he builds up, the stronger he is. It only makes sense that he would have the physique of a weight lifter and fighter as opposed to a runner.) The reason I am so focused on his build is because otherwise Shaw is rather average in appearance. Brown eyes, brown hair, slightly tanned. As a rule, he will never scar, there are no blemishes or even freckles. If not for his training, the way he holds himself and his importance Shaw would be really average looking. It is oddly important to discuss Shaw’s attire. I’ve based a lot of him off of the comics and the movies are set in 1962 which means by all accounts he should be wearing the dumbest clothes. Comic’s Shaw is super into period clothes. He looks like he’s ready to grab a drink with Benjamin Franklin. The reasoning there is that he views it as a time where there was great freedom (and there was for white dude so there’s that). Comics Shaw lives in the current age and has oddly romanticized that time period for clothing. I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t and maintain any sort of dignity for him in this universe. He would be laughed out the door. Worse, he would attract too much attention; for all of my ‘Shaw wants to be noticed and show off’ chatter, it makes more sense for him to do this in a socially acceptable way. Shaw is showing you his power and appearing up front about himself when he dresses like this, keeping up the vain appearance of a young CEO, but he’s so much more dangerous than that and would not want more attention beyond his only legitimate business. Rather than frilly shirts and tailcoats, Shaw splurges on the best modern/classic clothes he can get his hands on. He does wear a three piece suit most of the time, but does understand the importance of dressing down (no vest). Shaw doesn’t wear jeans, he doesn’t wear tee-shirts on their own, perhaps accented with a lighter jacket. If he isn’t wearing a tie, he most likely has a number of top buttons open, showing off his chest or has replaced it with an ascot (think Fred from Scooby-Doo). He has absolutely no issue running around without a shirt and would do so more often if he wasn’t a professor and surrounded by children. He fights without his shirt, and in black pants. He saves more shirts that way. He accessories with cufflinks and a large wristwatch. When he’s headed off to be alone, pajama pants, boxers or absolutely nothing. Shaw’s clothing, like most things about him, are a reflection of his status. He favors dark blues and black to tie in with his Black King status. He wears these thing, not for comfort, but as a sign of power and status. Notable relationships: Emma Frost: Starting off with one of the few people to make it out of Shaw’s life alive. Shaw first noticed her off stage and was struck by her. It was during his more sentimental days, he was in love with Lourdes and best of friends with Ned, but he saw something of himself in her. Someone who was unwilling to be trapped by the circumstances they were born into. Later, after a conversation with another worker, he found out the circumstances were ones of riches rather than poverty which broadened his respect for her. It is far more difficult to walk away from a gilded cage. It wasn’t until he saw her act, and more importantly her diamond mutation, that he stepped forward and introduced himself. From there he discovered she was a telepath and dedicated a portion of his time to honing her skills and training her to be a person worthy of the Hellfire Club. When Ned Berkman betrayed Shaw, he was able to count on Emma to overthrow him and take his place as Black King and crown her his White Queen. From then on Emma is the closest person to Shaw and quite possibly the person he trusts most in the world. Through their time together Emma was the first to suggest a deeper romantic connection. At first, Shaw refused, still too sore from the loss of his fiancée and the betrayal of his closest friend. Over time they grew closer and did attempt a relationship which they later dissolved amicably. Even if they are no longer seeing each other, the comfortableness and physicality between them remains. She continues to run the Hellfire Club as his second and most likely will, saving some great fallout between them. When mutants started being called to learn at a SHIELD facility dressed up as a university, Emma was sent to investigate this . Within a year, Shaw lost all contact with her. Frustrated and concerned about a serious threat rising to the Hellfire Club and mutant kind coupled with the real possibility Emma was dead, Shaw reached out to SHIELD University and offered to teach with them. Now that the two are together again, they are working to thwart President Kelly’s anti-mutant agenda.

Lourdes Chantel: Shaw never mentions his relationship with Lourdes. He will not speak of her and unless you were in his life before Ned Buckman’s betrayal, you will not have had the chance to meet her. Shaw met Lourdes at one of his first galas, making friends and networking with so many older and richer people who were trying to steal from him the secret of his success. She spotted him and drew his attention to her, captivating him from that moment onwards. They started a whirlwind romance, she would visit him on jobsites and text him in the boardroom. With her teleportation powers and her family’s money and clout, they were able to go anywhere, do anything. She was the one to introduce him to Ned Buckman and the Hellfire Club, which she was already a member of. It was a decision she would soon regret. As Shaw listened more to Ned and spent more time with the Club he began to change. Less time enjoying life with her and more time ruining the lives of other in the pursuit of money and power. She begged him to leave, told him he was changing, but she couldn’t leave the man she loved. On Christmas Eve, Shaw got down on one knee and proposed to her. By the end of the year she would be dead. Ned Buckman, hated mutants, a secret he had kept close to his heart until he unleashed the first sentinels and attacked all of the mutants in the club. Shaw and the rest of the Club members fought valiantly, but in the action Lourdes was shot through with a harpoon, dying in his arms. The rage and sadness propelled him through the rest of the fight, calming only slightly when he snapped Ned’s neck. Without Lourdes there is no reason for Shaw to leave the Club he now runs. He misses her desperately, not quite sure if he will ever love someone as openly and truly as he did her.

Ned Buckman: If Shaw ever had an inciting incident to propel him into villainy, it was the betrayal of Ned Buckman. When Lourdes introduced Shaw to the Hellfire Club, she introduced him to Ned Buckman, the White King of the Inner Circle. The man took an instant shining to Shaw, taking the young man under his wing. With Ned’s guidance, Shaw’s work took a darker and more profitable turn. A sizable chunk of the dirty tricks Shaw knows today he learned from Ned. Most of all, Shaw trusted him. So much so that when Ned came to Shaw in secret, toting a new project capable of trapping mutants and taking their power so the Hellfire Club could have their own personal powered military, Shaw agreed. Not only did he agree to help with Ned’s Sentinel project, he supplied metal, man-hours and a substantial amount of funds. The end result, Sentinels running through the Hellfire Club’s base of operations and murdering mutants, particularly Lourdes, shattered any trust Shaw had in Ned and any other person in existence. So Shaw snapped Ned’s neck and had him collected. Like a good friend he spoke at his funeral and set up a fund to support research into brain tumors like the one the press was told Ned died from. Shaw saw all of this death and destruction as a product of his naïveté. He had wanted to impress Ned, he cared too much about what the older man had thought of him.

Jacob Shaw: Sebastian Shaw’s father. An engineer, he often created new inventions and improved faults in other products. He raised Sebastian with an understanding of the strength of their family. It was difficult, hearing Jacob wax poetically of every other ancestor as Sebastian watched his father struggle to keep the lights on. But Sebastian always felt loved in his home and loved his father in return. Jacob He was inspired to follow in his father’s footsteps and take up engineering as his major. However, the fiscally challenging times and his father’s lack of success also taught him he needed to learn how to promote himself and his talents. Soon he switched over to business, focusing his attention towards business.

What is in your character’s memory?

Shaw’s memory is nothing special. He does have a high IQ and a strong memory to support that, but there is nothing super about it. There is one incident from his childhood that he does vaguely remember. At one point in his early childhood, Sebastian’s father handed him over to Mister Sinister. He was experimented on and altered so that Sinister could use his body after he died. When Jacob realized what was happening, he took his son back and built a machine to counter the effects. So, since Shaw was drugged up and traumatized he wouldn’t remember everything. As for traumatic events in his adulthood, Shaw is more likely to investigate them than forget.

Where does your character live?

Shaw currently lives in his SHIELD provided apartment. The space is altogether much too small, which is why he spends so much time in his office or one of the places in town he has purchased under aliases and shell companies. Upon moving in Shaw redid all of the interiors, choosing to upgrade the furniture but stopping at physical changes such as wall color or faucets and fixtures and equipment. It’s tasteful, not cluttered, with art on the wall and dark hardwood furniture. Fabrics are most likely black or purple or a series of colors to compliment those two colors. In my mind, I consider it to look like the furniture was taken from a restored colonial historical house. The furniture is ornate and beautiful but not necessarily comfortable. The apartment is really more of a place to host guests on campus than anything else. He sleeps there. He eats at his office or a restaurant, he works out in the gym, performs his professorial tasks in his teacher’s office and saves his personal business for the Italian restaurant or an off campus apartment.

What is your character good at:

One of the things I love about Shaw is that if he lost his superpower today he would only lose a small fraction of his actual power. Shaw awoke his mutation late in life. This means that Shaw got where he is today through physical and mental hard work and rarely relies on his powers for professional (non hellclub) business.

Shaw’s power is kinetic energy manipulation.

What does your character want?

Power. Shaw will kill all of you if he has found that the amount of power he would gain is greater than the amount of energy and trouble it would cause him. This is why I view him as a villain. Even if he is doing the right thing, he is doing it for power. He would do terrible, terrible things to get what he wants and due to his personality and how he view the world, he would rarely seek out power through good deeds in the long run.

What does your character do when they are not at home?

When Shaw isn’t at home, he’s at work or the Hellfire Club. If he isn’t at work or the Club, he’s most likely at a function or on a mission for work or the Club. Or he’s working out. What I’m trying to get at is that Shaw isn’t one to waste idle time. He’d rather be improving himself, his station in the world, or elevating the Hellfire Club (which is really an extension of him).

How does your character love?

Shaw loves deeply. He commits himself fully to his partner. The issue is that he has already loved and it ended in bloodshed. Rather than reflect and repair his heart, Shaw now considers love to be a potential weakness. Sex and causal relationships are where he thrives. He is rarely monogamous. He has a history of preferring women, but has no issue with starting relationships with men.

What will ultimately destroy your character?

Telepaths.

Okay, bad joke, but not completely untrue. Shaw thrives on his own. It’s his control that makes him a strong leader. The number of people who can physically overpower him is short, but no so for people who can control his mind. And yet, Shaw is so close to Emma. He knows there’s that potential for her to turn on him, that she could undo him just as easily as he could snap her neck.

Things that can defeat Shaw’s power. He has to touch the item to stop them, so extreme temperatures would burn. He can suffocate. Telepathy can force him to turn off his ability.

[personalcoachingcenter]

An Effective Way to Tackle the Social Causes of Poor Health

New Post has been published on http://personalcoachingcenter.com/an-effective-way-to-tackle-the-social-causes-of-poor-health/

An Effective Way to Tackle the Social Causes of Poor Health

John Kuczala/Getty Images

The new business model for health requires healthcare organizations to address not only medical problems, but social problems like hunger, loneliness, and trauma. That’s because these types of issues — known as the social determinants of health (SDOH) — are key impediments to achieving the outcomes healthcare organizations are now given incentives to deliver.

These social determinants are foreign terrain for many healthcare organizations, but that hasn’t stopped them from entering the space. The number of reported health system-based SDOH programs has grown more than ten-fold in the past decade. This response would signify the kind of change long awaited by social advocates except for one thing: many such programs run a high risk of failure because they lack disciplined planning.

The typical story is that a well-meaning clinician or healthcare executive secures funding to experiment with a SDOH program. Burdened with tight timelines and competing responsibilities, these champions often quickly assemble limited pilot programs around high-level concepts such as leveraging community health workers or building referral platforms. Planning is sacrificed for expediency. And so, healthcare leaders who would never tolerate an amateur approach to drug development are willing to shotgun the development of complex social interventions. Why are we respectful of biomedical discovery and cavalier about social innovation?

Insight Center

Much of the haste around these programs seems enabled by the ubiquitous word “pilot,” which implies that it is acceptable to lower standards or defer planning because future iteration is expected. This overconfident approach has also been enabled by news headlines announcing outsized returns on investment; many exaggerated results are supported by flawed before-after studies measuring nothing more than regression to the mean. (The reality, according to a recent meta-analysis, is that very few SDOH interventions reduce healthcare utilization or costs — but probably because of poor design, not because these programs can’t be effective.)

Taken together, these factors have created hype around SDOH programs that is destructive in the long term; inevitably many programs won’t deliver as promised, and disappointed health care leaders may conclude that none of these programs work.

At the University of Pennsylvania, my team and I have spent the past decade developing IMPaCT, a standardized community health worker program that effectively addresses social determinants of health. We’ve tested IMPaCT in several randomized clinical trials (here’s one) which demonstrate consistent improvements in quality while reducing hospital days by 65%. These outcomes translate into two dollars in return for every dollar invested annually in the program. We believe that the high performance of the IMPaCT model are a direct result of the planning and design thinking we used in its development. Here, we share insights from building IMPaCT and from technical assistance that we’ve offered to help organizations arrive at their own SDOH solutions.

Start with a small team

We often see healthcare leaders cede the design of social determinants programs to a clinical committee or community advisory board. While inclusion is essential and refreshing, the pitfalls of design by committee are well known. Organizational dynamics between complex healthcare organizations and social service agencies can be especially fraught. We’ve found that it’s crucial to engage diverse perspectives while investing authority in those with dedicated time and expertise. I led a five-person working group that included experienced social determinants researchers, a health system leader and a community member.

Define problems crisply

Many leaders — believing SDOH programs are cure-alls — skip the step of problem definition or list dozens of outcomes they expect their program to improve. We listed three to four socially and financially important problems and meaningful outcomes a priori. For example, we focused on improving access to post-hospital primary care because this mattered to low-income patients, and was tied to enhanced provider reimbursement. We also focused on quality and days spent out of the hospital — important for all stakeholders.

Identifying problems and desired outcomes in advance allowed us to “solve for them” in our program design, measure them in clinical trials and then translating improvements into a return on investment.

Understand end-users

While it’s always a good idea to engage end-users in planning, it’s all the more important for SDOH programs. That is because the end-users of these programs — low-income people — often lack voices in healthcare. Some enlightened healthcare leaders engage patients through advisory boards, which is a step in the right direction. However, these boards may be self-selected (the homeless woman with diabetes is unlikely to be on the board) and representation risks may be token.

We interviewed 1,500 low-income patients on porches, hospital bedsides, jails and shelters. We asked them what made it hard to stay healthy and what we should be doing to help. These interviews were audio-taped, transcribed, and analyzed. We used the resulting insights to design IMPaCT. While it is certainly not necessary or feasible for every healthcare organization to interview thousands of patients, a dozen or so conversations can substantially inform program design.

Study past successes and dwell on past failures

Although social determinants programs are fairly new to healthcare, they are not a new concept. Disparities researchers and social scientists have deep expertise in their design, implementation and evaluation. Developing countries are also often far ahead of in the U.S. because of the greater imperatives to provide preventive care and to efficiently spend limited health care dollars.

While planning IMPaCT, we immersed ourselves in the experiences of community health worker programs both in the US and abroad through reading and discussion with experts. We paid particular attention to past failures, which is necessary to help overcome the overconfidence of “believers” who have a blind faith in these programs. Based on the lessons of past community health worker programs, we built hiring algorithms to minimize staff turnover and created robust supervision to ensure quality.

Embrace program manuals and “design jams”

Rapid-cycle innovation is even more of a buzzword than SDOH, yet speedy and iterative evaluations of programs can be hard to do in practice. Often, program designers have conflicting and subjective assessments of what is or is not working in their program. Many programs lack the explicitly written, ex ante, testable goals and hypotheses scientists have used for years to lend discipline to their processes, and often there are no written program protocols. It’s hard to revise what isn’t described or standardized in the first place.

While planning, I drafted program manuals: easy-to-read guides describing how to run a community health worker program like ours. We began our implementation at a very small scale, with just two part-time community health workers. I followed them around for weeks with the manuals in one hand and a red pen in another. When they departed from our protocol, I asked them why and, if their rationale was sound, considered revisions. This process of “designing in-situ” hasn’t ended with the planning stage. We still do periodic manual-guided observation of community health workers in the field. We also have quarterly “design jams,” or meetings that include all 60 team members during which we review and revise manuals.

Treating poverty is probably as hard as — if not harder than — treating cancer or heart disease. We have at least a rudimentary understanding that cancer is fundamentally a genetic disease and that patients with heart failure are sensitive to salt intake. But we have little understanding of how exactly poverty causes poor health or why people die of loneliness. While it is heartening that health systems are now devoting attention to health’s social determinants, they will need the same kind of discipline that has helped them develop biomedical therapies.

These programs don’t have to be perfect when they launch — but if they’re set up to fail, they probably will. That’s why it’s so important to try to get it mostly right from the outset, and to build in programmatic ways to course correct as needed. In addition, the challenges of change management make it harder to fix a broken program than getting it right the first time. Careful planning doesn’t have to be prohibitively time or resource intensive. Our initial planning stage took about six months. As in the biomedical world, timelines can be shortened and outcomes strengthened by using an evidence-based intervention instead of reinventing the wheel.

The stakes of SDOH programs are quickly rising: state Medicaid programs, large insurers and even venture capitalists are investing millions in this space. This money alone won’t solve complex social problems. Years from now, whether we have a hodge-podge of unevenly performing initiatives or a robust system of effective SDOH programs will depend on the careful thought and effort we put in today.

Source, N;