by Moderator ★
January 15, 2018 in Be Positive
There are so many documents, videos and quotes attached to the iconic life of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Read more about the meaning behind the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday.
Watch one of his historical speeches here.
Happy Martin Luther King Day!
by Moderator ★
January 11, 2018 in Social Media Guide
You know those moments when you’re hanging out with friends or family and all of a sudden you look around and everyone is on their phones, not talking or looking at each other? It can be amusing, but also a good reminder to put down our phones and be present. And while we all need to check ourselves from time to time, the reality is we depend on our phones a lot.
In the world of balancing our health, well-being, work, school, family, friends, commitments, errands, intentions and more there are definitely some apps out there that serve as reminders and help keep us organized and on top of it all. Whether its scheduling, keeping up on our health or a useful tool for school, there’s no doubt apps can serve as a reminder and help us live a healthier life.
However, if not careful, we can become overly attached to our phone (and the apps we use). Read more about nomophobia here.
What apps do you rely on the most? If you were doing an app cleanse, which ones would you get rid of from your phone? Leave a comment below!
by Moderator ★
January 9, 2018 in Educate Yourself
Do you ever feel too attached to your phone? We all get upset when our phones fall into puddles, or when we have to put our phones away during class.
But some people feel super intense discomfort when they get separated from their phones. Researchers have named this state of mind “nomophobia.” Its important to note that this is not a medical diagnosis right now, but a term some researchers are using to describe a trend.
It stands for “no mobile phobia.” People who experience nomophobia feel like their phone is like an extension of their body, so taking it away makes them feel as though someone just walked away with their hand! They feel addicted to their phones.
One recent study found that “dependent personalities”—people who have an excessive need for affirmation from others, and who fear separation—are the most likely to feel distressed when they’re not allowed to use their phones. Also, women showed significantly stronger feelings of attachment than men did.
The good news from this study is that there is one discipline that may ease these feelings—mindfulness!
(Is there any mental health condition that mindfulness does not help?!)
There are many ways to improve one’s mindfulness. In this study, participants practiced meditation. In general mindfulness helps people who struggle with unhealthy attachments, whether it’s to their phone, a loved one, a substance, an outcome of a situation, and so on. Plus, mindfulness can help us in many ways, not just with attachment! Practicing mindfulness can decrease stress, increase focus, and improve memory!
Psychology Today recommends some other strategies to help with nomophobia:
What do you think about nomophobia? How many minutes (or seconds) pass between the time you wake up and the time you check your phone? Have you ever tried to practice mindfulness yourself? Share your experiences in the comments.
by Moderator ★
January 5, 2018 in Be Positive
New Year’s season is the time everyone’s making resolutions: drop those extra pounds, start training for that half- or full-marathon, totally nix sugar (and maybe even go full vegan or Paleo!), earn straight-As, and get into Harvard with a full scholarship.
Is it any wonder that folks get to Valentine’s Day feeling defeated on all counts?
So how do you improve without totally tanking within a matter of weeks? Here are three New Year’s tips to help you sustain improvement throughout the year.
Instead of making your New Year’s goal to achieve fame, success, and superstar status, change the focus to gradual lifestyle changes that are easier on your mind. Some examples: remembering to be grateful, treating everyone you meet like a new friend, and taking the time to listen to one person per day.
“Winning,” “likes,” and “followers” have been catchwords for the online self-congratulatory selfie culture. But these ideas run counter to sustaining realistic improvements over the long haul. Selfies may document a momentary gain, but check back with those folks in a couple of months, and it’s likely they’re back at square one, struggling with the same problems they started with.
Life is not a race, anyway! When you start with small improvements and change one behavior at a time—one day at a time—you increase your chances of making the changes stick. Initially, you may feel like you’re losing the “race,” but as the folks who try to change everything all at once wind up floundering, you’ll watch your own improvements rack up. … And if you wind up moving two steps forward and one step back, it’s okay—if you don’t beat yourself up, you’ll be fine in the long run.
Bonus tip: Communicate, and ask for help!
This is a theme that runs through SOVA: people who ask for help usually do better. And they put themselves in a position to pass that help along later to others who need it.
What improvements would you like to make this year? How do you think you’ll go about working toward them?
by Moderator ★
January 4, 2018 in Educate Yourself, Social Media Guide
Studies have found that teens today have the same level of anxiety as psychiatric patients did in the 1950s, and the difficulties of managing this anxiety can diminish healthy self-esteem, leading in turn to depression. We hear so much about how we all need to have a high level of self-esteem.
But what does “healthy self-esteem” mean, anyway?
One clue to understanding any idea is to look at how its words evolved. We often think that holding someone in “high esteem” is to love them, so we often think of having “self-esteem” as loving ourselves. But let’s look at the older meanings, too.
“Esteem” was first used as an English word that meant “worth.” It came into English from very old French and Latin words that meant “to appraise” and “to estimate”—can you hear how “esteem” and “estimate” sound similar?
So self-esteem can mean how we “appraise” ourselves or “estimate” our “worth.” It’s like our selves—our bodies, minds, spirits—are like a house full of valuables, and we are the appraisers, estimating how much our house and all its contents are worth.
Here are two helpful new understandings we can draw from just looking at the words:
Self: We get to be the appraisers. Nobody else but we ourselves. If we give the power to appraise our estates to somebody else, then we give away our own power to “estimate our worth.”
Appraisal: Estimating our worth depends on having realistic attitudes. If we look at our “riches” and see only what’s missing—what we think should be there and isn’t—then we don’t do an accurate job of appraising our worth. But if we look at our riches and appreciate what we do have, then we have a better chance of building on that accurate appraisal.
Hear how the words “appraise” and “appreciate” sound the same?—they come from the same ancient Latin roots, too!
Habits that can “depreciate” our sense of ourselves:
Habits that can help us more accurately “appreciate” ourselves:
As we learn to more accurately “estimate” and “appreciate” our particular set of riches, we give ourselves space to imagine what we really want for ourselves, and we gain resilience and strength to plan and build our lives.
What does “self-esteem” mean to you? What are some other habits you use to build your self-esteem? Share with others who may benefit from hearing your experiences!
by Moderator ★
January 1, 2018 in Be Positive
What are your goals for 2018? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
by Moderator ★
December 29, 2017 in LINKS
Sometimes you might want to listen to something while you’re reading, working, or trying to relax but music is too distracting. Try a “white noise” app or website! On noisy summer nights, you can switch on your white noise to drown out the sound of your neighbor mowing the lawn at 11 p.m.
So tune into that soothing static and relax!
How did listening to white noise make you feel?
by Moderator ★
December 25, 2017 in Be Positive
Do you celebrate this time of the year? If so, how? Do you have any specific family or cultural traditions that are special? We’d love to hear in the comments below!
by Moderator ★
December 22, 2017 in LINKS
The innovation of apps and social media tools to improve mental healthcare and bring it to more people has benefited many users in the past few years. One new app called Huddle came out of the experience of its founder, Dan Blackman, in the small town where he grew up.
In Blackman’s hometown, everybody knew each other. This type of tightly knit community can provide great support on its own. On the other hand, if you’re afraid of your small community judging you, it can make it harder to ask for the help you need. Blackman’s father suffered from addiction to alcohol and didn’t get the help he needed due to the stigma in his community.
So Blackman invented Huddle.
This app allows you to join virtual support groups and communicate with other members by posting and responding to videos. If you’re super concerned about people knowing who you are, Huddle allows you to blur out your face, create an anonymous username, and enable software that changes the sound of your voice.
These features allow Huddle’s users to discuss their feelings “face to face” without showing others their identity. They also allow other users to see that they aren’t alone in facing the problems and questions they have.
Want to learn more about Huddle? Watch this YouTube video or check out this article.
Hopefully Huddle and similar apps will bring community to more and more people.
Would you try Huddle? If so, what are the features that attract you? If not, why not? Tell us what you think below!
by Moderator ★
December 21, 2017 in Social Media Guide
Healthcare professionals and government officials have been confronting suicide for years by implementing various self-harm and suicide prevention programs. Now, social-media companies like Facebook are taking part in the fight against suicide—by using artificial intelligence (AI).
Companies that run social media platforms are becoming more and more concerned about their users’ digital self-harm. For example, this year Facebook invested in a form of AI that reads the text in posts to look for individual users’ emotional distress and potential for self-harm. The software also looks for users’ comments such as “Are you OK?” and “Can I help?”—these can indicate that someone has suicidal thoughts.
When the software finds posts like these, it sends them to a team of trained reviewers who can work with first responders if necessary, or else contact users via Facebook Messenger with links to verified crisis-support resources.
Facebook reported that in the month before Thanksgiving 2017, the trained team worked with first responders on more than 100 possible crisis situations that the AI software identified. (Users can still report suspicion of people in crisis, and these reports go through the same human reviews that the AI reports do.)
Computer science is increasingly able to identify people’s risks for harming themselves, and this is a novel approach to mental health care. The hope is that this online strategy may help people who might be afraid to seek treatment “in real life.”
Technology can be a double-edged sword when it comes to our wellbeing. It’s important every so often to take a step back and think: does our use of social media makes us feel better? When we log onto apps, it can can help us connect with loved ones for support—but on the other hand, it can also turn into an outlet for negative interactions and thoughts.
Challenge yourself to use social media to support yourself and others! Keep your wellness in mind when using Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook.
Read more about Facebook’s new artificial intelligence project here.
What do you think about Facebook using AI to monitor your risks for self-harm? Do you think this will make for a safer social-media environment in the future? We would love to hear from you … please share your thoughts below!
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