Blog

Last month my neighbor and I mustered our emotional strength, gathered up our neighborhood cat, and drove to the SPCA to help her leave this Earth in peace. He had named her Minou — French for kitty, a common term of endearment for cats in Cajun country — though I’m sure she’d had many names, which is why I’m posting about her here. Minou is one of the tens of thousands of animals that were victims of Hurricane Katrina. An estimated 15,500 were rescued, many more died, and some, like Minou,...

I try to get at least eight hours of sleep a night, but I’m not always successful. What can I say? Sometimes, it’s too hard to resist binge-watching a show on Netflix. But how does sleep deprivation actually affect us? On average, Americans get seven-and-a-half hours of sleep each night, which isn’t too bad. On workdays, most people are in bed before 11 p.m. and awake by 6:38 a.m. There is some bad news: A staggering 50 to 70 million Americans suffer from some type of sleep disorder, and...

Letting go and knowing when you need to are important life skills, as is the ability to maintain and set healthy boundaries. All three of these behaviors are challenging to women (and men, for that matter) who grew up in unloving households, didn’t have their emotional needs met, and developed an insecure attachment style. They may resort to building their own version of the Great Wall of China to avoid confrontation and conflict, preferring to deal with the status quo rather than take on an...

Those of you who suffer from panic attacks know the awful feeling when your throat starts to close up, you get dizzy or lightheaded, maybe feel tightness in your chest and have difficulty breathing. Your vision may be affected and you can become either hot or cold or alternate between both. You may feel nauseous. You may believe you are going crazy or having a heart attack. The more you are convinced it is one of those the worse the symptoms become. Fear really takes over at that point and...

A new study in Zimbabwe shows that “Friendship Bench” therapy has proven effective in treating depression , anxiety , and other common mental health disorders. The Friendship Benches, located on the grounds of health clinics around Harare and other major cities in Zimbabwe, are staffed by lay health workers known as community “Grandmothers,” trained to listen to and support patients living with anxiety, depression, and other common mental disorders. The new study shows that this innovative...

American health-care spending, measured in trillions of dollars, boggles the mind. Last year, we spent $3.2 trillion on health care -- a number so large that it can be difficult to grasp its scale. A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association reveals what patients and their insurers are spending that money on, breaking it down by 155 diseases, patient age and category -- such as pharmaceuticals or hospitalizations. Among its findings: Chronic -- and often...

Without deep listening and gentle loving speech it is very difficult to move towards peace. Peace will only become a reality, says Thich Nhat Hanh, when world leaders come to negotiations with the ability to hear the suffering at the root of all conflicts. All violence is injustice. We should not inflict that injustice on ourselves or on other people. Historians and teachers as well as politicians should look deeply at the suffering caused by wars, not just at the justifications that...

Research suggests that people who overcome a series of small adverse events as children grow into resilient adults. In fact, researchers have developed several tools to measure an individual’s resilience. One of them is the Resilience Factor Inventory, a 60-item questionnaire that is based on well-known resilience studies.

They began with a song and ended with a poem. In-between, there were photographs and giant graphic renderings, movement exercises and a “human pulse” formed when 90 people stood in a circle and squeezed each other’s hands. At a June summit in Whatcom County, Washington, titled “Our Resilient Community: A Community Conversation on Resilience and Equity,” the arts played a starring role. Kristi Slette, executive director of the Whatcom Family and Community Network, one of two Washington sites...

Sleeping soon after a traumatic event can help some people cope, a new Swiss study suggests. Two groups of volunteers were shown a video with traumatic images. One group slept for the night after seeing the video. The other group stayed awake. Participants recorded their memories of the images for several days. "Our results reveal that people who slept after the film had fewer and less distressing recurring emotional memories than those who were awake," said study author Birgit Kleim. She is...

The private prison industry may end up being one of the winners under the incoming Trump administration, though it’s not clear how or when the new administration will act. Stocks of for-profit prison operators tumbled after the U.S. Department of Justice announced in August that it would no longer house federal inmates in private lockups. But they rebounded after the Electoral College upset in November by Donald Trump, who campaigned on pledges to crack down on crime and step up deportations...

David B. Cohen, a veteran English teacher at Palo Alto High and columnist for Education Week, spent a year crisscrossing California observing some of the state’s best teachers. The result was Capturing the Spark: Inspired Teachers, Thriving Schools, an insightful look at talented teachers, effective practices and promising schools, from Arcata to El Centro. Some interviewees were California Teachers of the Year or, like Cohen, have their national board certification, a distinguished...