Photo by Kyle Cleveland on Unsplash
Woman lying on bed smoking.Do you have anxiety? Have you tried just about everything to get over it, but it just keeps coming back? Perhaps you thought you had got over it, only for the symptoms to return with a vengeance? Whatever your circumstances, science can help you to beat anxiety for good.
Anxiety can present as fear, restlessness, an inability to focus at work or school, finding it hard to fall or stay asleep at night, or getting easily irritated. In social situations, it can make it hard to talk to others; you might feel like you're constantly being judged, or have symptoms such as stuttering, sweating, blushing or an upset stomach.
It can appear out of the blue as a panic attack, when sudden spikes of anxiety make you feel like you're about to have a heart attack, go mad or lose control. Or it can be present all the time, as in generalized anxiety disorder, when diffuse and pervasive worry consumes you and you look to the future with dread.
Most people experience it at some point, but if anxiety starts interfering with your life, sleep, ability to form relationships, or productivity at work or school, you might have an anxiety disorder. Research shows that if it's left untreated, anxiety can lead to depression, early death and suicide. And while it can indeed lead to such serious health consequences, the medication that is prescribed to treat anxiety doesn't often work in the long-term. Symptoms often return and you're back where you started.
How science can help
The way you cope or handle things in life has a direct impact on how much anxiety you experience – tweak the way you're coping, therefore, and you can lower your anxiety levels. Here are some of the top coping skills that have emerged from our study at the University of Cambridge, which will be presented at the 30th European Congress of Neuropsychopharmacology in Paris, and other scientific research.
Do you feel like your life is out of control? Do you find it hard to make decisions – or get things started? Well, one way to overcome indecision or get going on that new project is to "do it badly."
This may sound strange, but the writer and poet GK Chesterton said that: "Anything worth doing is worth doing badly." And he had a point. The reason this works so well is that it speeds up your decision-making process and catapults you straight into action. Otherwise, you could spend hours deciding how you should do something or what you should do, which can be very time-consuming and stressful.
People often want to do something "perfectly" or to wait for the "perfect time" before starting. But this can lead to procrastination, long delays or even prevent us from doing it at all. And that causes stress – and anxiety.
Instead, why not just start by "doing it badly" and without worrying about how it's going to turn out. This will not only make it much easier to begin, but you'll also find that you're completing tasks much more quickly than before. More often than not, you'll also discover that you're not doing it that badly after all – even if you are, you can always fine tune it later.
Using "do it badly" as a motto gives you the courage to try new things, adds a little fun to everything, and stops you worrying too much about the outcome. It's about doing it badly today and improving as you go. Ultimately, it's about liberation.
Two people free fall while sky diving.
Forgive yourself and 'wait to worry'
Are you particularly critical of yourself and the blunders you make? Well, imagine if you had a friend who constantly pointed out everything that was wrong with you and your life. You'd probably want to get rid of them right away.
But people with anxiety often do this to themselves so frequently that they don't even realize it anymore. They're just not kind to themselves.
So perhaps it's time to change and start forgiving ourselves for the mistakes we make. If you feel like you've embarrassed yourself in a situation, don't criticize yourself – simply realize that you have this impulse to blame yourself, then drop the negative thought and redirect your attention back to the task at hand or whatever you were doing.
Another effective strategy is to "wait to worry". If something went wrong and you feel compelled to worry (because you think you screwed up), don't do this immediately. Instead, postpone your worry – set aside 10 minutes each day during which you can worry about anything.
If you do this, you'll find that you won't perceive the situation which triggered the initial anxiety to be as bothersome or worrisome when you come back to it later. And our thoughts actually decay very quickly if we don't feed them with energy.
Find purpose in life by helping others
It's also worth considering how much of your day is spent with someone else in mind? If it's very little or none at all, then you're at a high risk of poor mental health. Regardless of how much we work or the amount of money we make, we can't be truly happy until we know that someone else needs us and depends on our productivity or love.
This doesn't mean that we need people's praise, but doing something with someone else in mind takes the spotlight off of us (and our anxieties and worries) and places it onto others – and how we can make a difference to them.
Being connected to people has regularly been shown to be one of the most potent buffers against poor mental health. The neurologist Viktor Frankl wrote:
"For people who think there's nothing to live for, nothing more to expect from life … the question is getting these people to realise that life is still expecting something from them."
Knowing that someone else needs you makes it easier to endure the toughest times. You'll know the "why" for your existence and will be able to bear almost any "how".
So how can you make yourself important in someone else's life? It could be as simple as taking care of a child or elderly parent, volunteering, or finishing work that might benefit future generations. Even if these people never realize what you've done for them, it doesn't matter because youwill know. And this will make you realize the uniqueness and importance of your life.
Olivia Remes is a PhD Candidate at the University of Cambridge.
This article first appeared on The Conversation. You can read it here.
This article originally appeared on 03.16.21.
via Pexels
Note: The man depicted in the image is a model. When you call your Internet provider's customer service line there are only so many times you can ask the manager before you hit a dead end. And there's no way in the world you're going to be transferred to the CEO.
A 90-year-old man in North Hollywood, California had it up to his neck in slow internet service so he took things a step further than his usual customer service call. He went straight to the top of the company and made a complaint with AT&T's CEO John Stankey.
While most people in the modern era would try to reach such a person via email or social media, Aaron Epstein went old-school and took out ads in the Dallas and Manhattan editions of the Wall Street Journal.
He chose Dallas because it's where Stankey lives and Manhattan to get the word out to the investor class. Smart thinking. Hit 'em in the pocketbook.
Epstein paid $1,100 for a quarter-page ad which ran for one day in the papers.
"Dear Mr. Stankey: At&T prides itself as a leader in electronic communications," the open letter begins. "Unfortunately, for the people who live in N. Hollywood, CA 91607, AT&T is now a major disappointment."
According to a letter, Epstein has been an AT&T customer since the 1960s.
Epstein goes on to explain that many who live in his neighborhood have technical positions in the film industry and need access to the latest in Internet technology.
"We need to keep up with current technology and have looked to AT&T to supply us with fast Internet service," Epstein wrote in the open letter to AT&T's CEO. "Yet, although AT&T is advertising speeds up to 100Mbps for other neighborhoods, the fastest now available to us from AT&T is only 3Mbps. Your competitors now have speeds of over 200Mbps. Why is AT&T, a leading communications company, treating us so shabbily in North Hollywood?"
GIF from media2.giphy.com.
LooseKeys GIF
Ars Technica did a little legwork and found that after plugging Epstein's address into AT&T's Internet-availability checker it got a response that said: "High-speed Internet isn't available at your address."
Epstein has contacted the company numerous times and feels like he's getting the runaround.
"That's what they've been telling me for the last five years," Epstein told Ars Technica. "What gets my goat is, I've been getting snail mail advertising the faster speed, but when I call them they say it's not available."
The good news is that Epstein's complaint hasn't fallen on deaf ears. An AT&T spokesperson said they are aware of his complaint and are going to reach out to him. However, the company didn't answer whether it plans to upgrade service in his neighborhood.
Let's hope that when AT&T reaches out to Epstein they do so via telephone. Because if they decide to send him an email, he probably won't be able to open it.
This article originally appeared on 02.05.21
Tweet merged with image via Christiaan Colen / Flickr/Creative Commons.
At least 3.4 billion fake emails are sent around the world every day according to Security Magazine. These account for untold millions of losses due to online scams.
Historically, the "Nigerian Prince" scam is one of the most popular. It typically involves the fraudster promising the victim a significant share of a large sum of money, in return for a small up-front payment. Once the fraudster gets the money they either disappear or continue to concoct more scanrios to fleece the victim.
This scam dates back hundreds of years when scammers would contact businesses asking for money to get a wealthy relative out of a Spanish prison.
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, a serial entrepreneur who is the founder of The Next Web tech events, shared how he fights back against scammers, and it's pretty brilliant. He created a fake company called Nordic Procurement and when the scammer emails it, they're sucked into a time-consuming rabbit hole of out-of-the-office replies.
The point is to waste as much of the scammer's time as possible so they prey on fewer people.
None
Nordic Procurement has a pretty funny tagline: "The only value of wasted time is knowledge. Stop wasting time, start trusting Nordic Procurement Services." A procurement company takes over a company's dealings with outside vendors and tries to come up with favorable terms.
Scammers who find themselves dealing with Nordic Procurement will soon learn that there is a lot of red tape in the industry.
Boris created a scammer trap, Nordic Procurement Services.
After its initial success, Boris is looking for ways to scale and automate and his anti-scammer strategy.
When you email John you get a lot of emojis and sales guy talk and a ton of disclaimers.
Hi there, great to have established first contact and here's to making
lots and lots of money together! 💸 💸 💸 💸 💸😂
Unfortunately, I can't send you the Request Form just yet, as we are
still awaiting your company registration information and will need a
copy of your passport or driver's license to verify your identity.
Apparently those attachments we're lost somewhere, which Helena
apparently already notified you about. Maybe you missed that one.
Or it is our antiquated email system that deleted them, you never know! 😂 😂 😂
Anyway, please scan the original documents and attach them to an email
and send that to helena@noprocurement.com. As soon as I receive word
that the documents have been received, I'll send you the request form
so we can be in business.
If you haven't heard from me in a week or two, feel free to reach out
again, my inbox is open for you 24/7, and I tend to reply within 72
hours. Have an amazing day!!!! ABC (Always be closing), make it rain,
mo money more problems!
Lots of LOLZ,
John Negroni
Proud and ambitious junior account manager
Nordic Procurement Services, all the way boyzzzzz
👊🏼 👊🏼 👊🏼 👊🏼 👊🏼 👊🏼 👊🏼 👊🏼 👊🏼 👊🏼 👊🏼 👊🏼 👊🏼 👊🏼
👊🏼 👊🏼 👊🏼 👊🏼 👊🏼 👊🏼 👊🏼 👊🏼
Disclaimer: The information contained in this e-mail communication is
solely intended for the person to whom it has been sent. If someone
other than the intended recipient should receive or come into
possession of this e-mail communication, he/she will not be entitled
to read, disseminate, disclose or duplicate it.
!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!
If you are not the intended recipient, you are requested to inform
Nordic Procurement of this by replying to this message, and to destroy
the original e-mail communication. Nordic Procurement, registered in
the Commercial Register under number 198273680, is neither liable for
the correct and complete transmission of the information contained in
this e-mail communication nor for any delay in its receipt.
!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!
Privacy notice: We are used to dealing with confidential information
and understand that protecting your privacy is key to building and
maintaining good relations. We are doing the utmost to use the
information that has been trusted to us in the right way. Nordic
Procurement is a part of Nordic Procurement plc, and complies with the
policies from Nordic Procurement. You can check our Privacy Statement
on the Nordic Procurement website as well as on our own website.
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Boris was inspired to build his scammer trap by "Lenny," a chatbot created to create a telemarketer's worst nightmare. When a scammer is sent to the bot they speak with an old man who talks very slowly, is very proud of his family, and can't focus on the telemarketer's goal.
In this video clip below, Lenny eventually drives the scammer crazy:
For years, you have been squinting, licking your fingers, or doing whatever you can do get a really tiny end of a thread into an even tinier hole, and thinking, [infomercial host voice] “THERE'S GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY!”
Well, kids, there is, and you're about to feel both relieved and dumb.
Twitter user John Bick shared a video from a crafting site that went viral for being extremely helpful.
People couldn't believe it. Instead of threading the needle through the hole, shake it down and go from there.
“What type of sorcery is this? https://t.co/uI2jQJAv5l”
"This is what social media should be about. People sharing helpful ideas about what they actually know."
— Atlassheepdog (@atlassheepdog) April 4, 2018
Even GEORGE COSTANZA himself is amazed by this innovation.
GIF from media0.giphy.com.
George Costanza takes a look at it.
This article originally appeared on 06.13.21
Image via Common Vision
Public school garden in California.Earth Month, while a powerful annual moment for bringing awareness to ecological issues, often falls short of creating year-round commitment to the environment and rarely fosters sustained ecoliteracy. Ecoliteracy, the ability to understand the natural systems that make life on earth possible, is fundamental for producing environmentally-minded decision makers and policies. As we continue to debate the most efficient and productive solutions to climate change, we must boost ecoliteracy to ensure that we are engaged and informed, otherwise we risk implementing poor solutions that create negative consequences.
One potential solution that has been a hot topic in climate change debates has been tree planting. The growing number of tree-planting initiatives and the ensuing controversy in public discourse reinforces the importance of ecoliteracy. Forestation that follows the principles of "right tree, right place, right community" will not only decrease CO2 in our atmosphere, but will also catalyze workforce development, improve water quality, enhance biodiversity, and empower women and girls. As more individuals become ecoliterate, more people understand how proximity to healthy forests makes them healthier, reduces mortality in women, reduces crime, and even helps them realize how their direct economic and social needs are dependent upon the health and vitality of ecosystems around them.
Without ecoliteracy, ecological understanding is a major barrier to public mobilization on issues such as climate change. However, we've found that when citizens engage in activities which build their ecoliteracy, particularly those informed by indigenous wisdom, they learn firsthand the undeniable connections between community health and ecological wellbeing, and fight to conserve, protect and enhance the ecosystems around them.
As an example, Common Vision - a leader in ecologically-based outdoor classroom education in California - is developing ecoliteracy training that catalyzes workforce development. They have cultivated an expert "youth tree corps", a cohort of high school students with Career Technical Education (CTE) training and certification in urban forestry and agroecology. Students travel in vegetable-oil powered buses to plant and prune trees at more than 275 schools throughout the state. Through programs like this, Common Vision has increased California's urban green space by 18 acres, helped sequester 180 tons of greenhouse gases, produced over 100,000 pounds of fresh, organic fruit annually, and engaged over 125,000 students in hands-on tree planting, land stewardship, arts and social justice learning. In addition to growing hundreds of trees, the youth tree corps members will develop their ecoliteracy to help shape a more resilient and ecologically sound future for humanity.
Common Vision's program is not alone, either. Dozens of other tree-planting initiatives with a focus on workforce development have been launched in the last few months. Award-winning singer-songwriter SZA launched Tree Corps with Tazo Tea and American Forests to create a paid tree-planting workforce to reforest BIPOC communities in five major US cities; the Biden-Harris Civilian Climate Corps proposes to train up new workforces to plant millions of trees; and the Tribal Ecosystem Restoration Alliance (TERA) in California has created an innovative partnership with the US Forest Service, private landowners, and tribal entities to create an unprecedented workforce development program to revitalize indigenous knowledge for tending and stewarding existing forests.
Global forest cover has decreased consistently since 2014 but it's clear that through ecoliteracy and increasing the value people place on their surrounding environment, we can combat this critical issue. Further, without ecoliteracy, tree-growing initiatives can easily be misconstrued as a panacea and distract from other important work to conserve our environment.
Image from Trees Water & People.
Indigenous tree planting project, men on hillside.
Ecoliteracy is one of the most effective tools in the toolbox that we have for societal transformation. So I encourage you to make your goal for this Earth Month getting ecoliterate. Whether that's enrolling in a formal ecoliteracy program, turning off your phone and sitting in the park to observe the vitality and resilience of insects, plants and trees, or even planting a tree, find a practice that will help you have a sustained relationship with the natural world. The complexities of the web of relationships of humans with the natural world take a lifetime to learn, but we should all start now. In particular, seek out ecoliteracy programs that elevate indigenous and person-of-color perspectives on ecology like the organizations Cultural Survival, A Growing Culture and Farmer Rishi. The choices humanity is making - from how we grow our food, build our homes, to what our 401ks and savings accounts are funding - are contributing to the climate crisis and it's up to us to gather the knowledge to collectively discover solutions for lasting change. If we build up our ecoliteracy and educate ourselves on the ecology of our individual bioregions, we can protect and preserve our planet and meet our own needs in ways which nourish and repair the ecosystems and human communities around us.
Erin Axelrodis the Project Director for Jonas PhilanthropiesTrees for Climate Health project and a Partner/Worker-Owner at LIFT Economy, helping to accelerate the spread of businesses that benefit our climate, specializing in enterprises that address soil and water regeneration and uplift traditional ecological knowledge. In addition to spearheading Jonas Philanthropies Trees for Climate Health project, the ambitious reforestation initiative working to grow over 10 million trees by 2025, Erin also leads LIFT Economy's regenerative agriculture investor network and a Restorative Ocean Economies Field-Building Initiative. She is a grassroots organizer and an amateur (for love of) ecologist.
Wanda Stewart is the Director of Common Vision and an African American urban farmer, educator and comrade to many in the movement to teach and inspire others to grow themselves, their food and their communities. She believes that cultivating food and medicine, maintaining a healthy being, and living cooperatively are essential skills for our collective survival. To support that learning, growth and healing, she revisits our shared history and trauma, reframing and reclaiming cultural knowledge and heritage while tending the land.
This article originally appeared on 04.21.21.