These days, I share my story openly, and I ask others to share theirs, too. I believe that's what it takes to help people who may be suffering in silence to know that they are not alone and to know that with help, they can heal. Now, I still have my struggles, particularly with the anxiety, but I'm able to manage it through daily mediation, yoga and a relatively healthy diet.
If I feel like things are starting to spiral, I make an appointment to see my therapist, a dynamic black woman named Dawn Armstrong, who has a great sense of humor and a familiarity that I find comforting. I will always regret that I couldn't be there for my nephew. But my sincerest hope is that I can inspire others with the lesson that I've learned.
Life is beautiful. Sometimes it's messy, and it's always unpredictable. But it will all be OK when you have your support system to help you through it. I hope that if your burden gets too heavy, you'll ask for a hand, too.
Thank you.

#Activism #Community #Depression #TED_Residency #Identity #Illness #Personal_Growth #Race #Social_Change #Mental_Health

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🟢The surprising health benefits of dreaming

#Sleep #Human_Bod #Science #Humanity

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🟢The surprising health benefits of dreaming

Why do we dream?
Well, we dream for at least several different reasons. One key benefit is creativity. Sleep, including dream sleep, is associated with an enhanced ability to solve next-day problems. It's almost as though we go to sleep with the pieces of the jigsaw, but we wake up with the puzzle complete.
The second benefit of REM-sleep dreaming is emotional first aid. REM sleep takes the painful sting out of difficult emotional experiences so that when we come back the next day, we feel better about those painful events. You can almost think of dreaming as a form of overnight therapy. It's not time that heals all wounds, but it's time during dream sleep that provides emotional convalescence.
Now, it's not just that you dream. It's also what you dream about that seems to make a difference. Scientists have discovered that after learning a virtual maze, for example, those individuals who slept but critically also dreamed about the maze were the only ones who ended up being better at navigating the maze when they woke up. And this same principle is true for our mental health. For example, people going through a difficult or traumatic experience such as a divorce, and who are dreaming about that event, go on to gain resolution to their depression relative to those who were dreaming but not dreaming about the events themselves.
All of which means that sleep and the very act of dreaming itself appears to be an essential ingredient to so much of our waking lives.
We dream, therefore we are.

#Sleep #Human_Bod #Science #Humanity

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🟢How to lead in a crisis?

#Work #Leadership #Business #Communication

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🟢How to lead in a crisis?

We think of a great leader as the unwavering captain who guides us forward through challenge and complexity. Confident, unwavering leaders, armed with data and past experience have long been celebrated in business and politics alike.
But sometimes and certainly now, a crisis comes along that is so new and so urgent that it upends everything we thought we knew.
[The Way We Work]
[Made possible with the support of Dropbox]
One thing we know for sure is that more upheavals are coming. In a completely interconnected world a single political uprising, a viral video, a distant tsunami, or a tiny virus can send shock waves around the world. Upheaval creates fear, and in the midst of it people crave security, which can incline leaders toward the usual tropes of strength, confidence, constancy, but it won't work. We have to flip the leadership playbook.
First, this type of leadership requires communicating with transparency, communicating often. So how can leaders lead when there is so little certainty, so little clarity? Whether you are a CEO, a prime minister, a middle manager or even a head of school, upheaval means you have to ramp up the humility. When what you know is limited, pretending that you have the answers isn't helpful. Amidst upheaval, leaders must share what they know and admit what they don't know. Paradoxically, that honesty creates more psychological safety for people, not less.
For example when the pandemic devastated the airline industry virtually overnight, CEO of Delta Airlines Ed Bastian ramped up employee communication despite having so little clarity about the path ahead, facing truly dire results. At one point in 2020, losing over a hundred million dollars a day, it would have been far easier for Bastian to wait for more information before taking action, but effective leaders during upheaval don't hide in the shadows. In fact, as Bastian put it, it is far more important to communicate when you don't have the answers than when you do.
Second, act with urgency despite incomplete information. Admitting you don't have the answers does not mean avoiding action. While it's natural to want more information, fast action is often the only way to get more information. Worse, inaction leaves people feeling lost and unstable.
When New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern laid out a four level alert system very early in the COVID-19 crisis, she lacked information with which to set the level. Despite lacking answers, she did not wait to communicate about the threat with the nation.
At first she set the level at two, only to change it to four two days later as cases rose. That triggered a national lockdown, which no doubt saved countless lives. Later, when cases began to dissipate, she made subsequent decisions reflecting that new information.
Third, leaders must hold purpose and values steady, even as goals and situations change. Values can be your guiding light when everything else is up in the air. If you care about customer experience, don't let go of that in times of upheaval. If a core value is health and safety, put that at the center of every decision you make.
Now doing this requires being very transparent about what your values are, and in this way, your steadfastness shows not in your plans but in your values. Prime Minister Ardern's clear purpose all along was protecting human life. Even as the immediate goal shifted from preventing illness to preparing health systems and ultimately to bolstering the economy.
And finally, give power away. Our instincts are to hold even more tightly to control in times of upheaval, but it backfires. One of the most effective ways to show leadership, if counterintuitive, is to share power with those around you. Doing this requires asking for help, being clear that you can't do it alone. This also provokes innovation while giving people a sense of meaning.

Nothing is worse in a crisis than feeling like there's nothing you can do to help. We follow this new kind of leader through upheaval, because we have confidence not in their map but in their compass.
We believe they've chosen the right direction given the current information, and that they will keep updating. Most of all, we trust them and we want to help them in finding and refinding the path forward.

#Work #Leadership #Business #Communication

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🟢To learn is to be free

#Activism #Education #Gender #Motivation #Personal_Growth #Potential #Social_Change #Society #Women_Kids #Equality

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🟢To learn is to be free

A room full of boys. A girl child, hardly nine or ten years old, she is sitting in the center of the room, surrounded by books. She is the only girl among boys, and is barely missing her female cousins and friends, who are inside the home instead of the school, because they are not allowed to get an education alongside boys. There isn't a single functional girls' school in her village.
She was born in a Baloch conservative tribe, where women and girls are a matter of honor. She is the eldest in her family, and when she was about to be born, her parents wanted a baby boy. But they had bad luck; a baby girl arrived. It was customary in her family to keep girls inside the homes. But her uncle, who was a university graduate, he wanted to give her an opportunity to see the world, to be part of the society. Luckily, she has a name that can be used for both men and women. So he saw a chance to change her course of life. So he decided to raise her as a boy.
At three months old, she went from being a baby girl, to baby boy. She is given a boy's getup. She is allowed to go outside and get an education alongside boys. She is free, she is confident. She observes, she notes small, everyday injustices faced by women and girls in her village. When newspapers arrive at her home, she watches as it passes from the eldest man to the youngest man. By the time women get hold of the paper, it is old news.
She completes her eighth-grade year. Now fear starts to come in. This will be the end of her education, because the only option for high school for further study is five kilometers away. Boys have bicycles, they are free. But she knows her father will not allow her to travel on her own, even if she were posing as a boy. "I can't let you do that. And I don't have the time to walk you there and back. Sorry, it is impossible." She gets very upset. But a miracle happened. A long-distance relative offers to teach her ninth- and tenth-grade curricula during summer vacations. This is how she completed her matriculation. The girl whom I am talking about to you is me, Shameem, who is talking before you now.
Throughout centuries, people have been fighting for their identity. People have been loved, privileged, because of their identity, their nationality, their ethnicity. Again, people have been hated, denied, because of their nationality, their identity, their race, their gender, their religion. Identity determines your position in society, wherever you live. So if you ask me, I would say I hate this question of identity. Millions of girls in this world are being denied their basic rights because of being female. I would have faced the same, if I hadn't been raised as a boy. I was determined to continue my studies, to learn, to be free. After my schooling, even enrolling in college was not easy for me. I went on a three-day hunger strike.
Then, I got permission for college.
In that way, I completed my college. Two years later, when the time came for me to go to university, my father turned his eyes, his attention, to my younger brothers. They need to be in school, secure jobs and support the family. And as a woman, my place was to be home. But, I don't give up. I sign up for a two-year program to become a lady health visitor. Then I hear about Thardeep Rural Development Program, a non-profit organization working to empower rural communities. I sneak away. I travel five hours to interview for a position. It is the first time I am the farthest from my home I have ever been. I am closest to my freedom I have ever been. Luckily, I got the job, but the hardest part is facing my father.

Relatives are already scaring him about his daughter wandering off, teasing him with talk of his daughter crossing the border. When I return home, I want nothing more than just to accept the position in Thardeep. So that night, I packed all my things in a bag, and I walked into my father's room and told him, "Tomorrow morning, the bus is going to come in. If you believe in me, if you believe in me, you will wake me up and take me to the bus station. If you don't, I'll understand." Then I went to sleep. The next morning, my father was standing beside me to take me to the bus stop.
That day, I understood the importance of words. I understood how words affect our hearts, how words play an important role in our lives. I understood words are more powerful than fighting. At TRDP, I saw there was a Pakistan which I didn't know, a country much more complex than I had realized. Until that, I thought I had a difficult life. But here, I saw what women in other parts of Pakistan were experiencing. It really opened my eyes. Some women had 11 children but nothing to feed them. For getting water, they would walk three hours every day to wells. The nearest hospital was at least 32 kilometers away. So if a woman is in labor, she travels by camel to get to the hospital. The distance is great; she may die on her way.
So now, this became more than just a job for me. I discovered my power. Now, as I was getting salary, I started sending back money to my home. Relatives and neighbors were noticing this. Now they started to understand the importance of education. By that time, some other parents started sending their daughters to school. Slowly, it became easier and acceptable for young women to be in college. Today, there isn't a single girl out of school in my village.
Girls are doing jobs in health sites, even in police. Life was good. But somewhere in my heart, I realized that my region, beyond my village needs further change. This was also the time when I joined Acumen Fellowship. There, I met leaders like me across the country. And I saw they are taking risks in their lives. I started to understand what leadership really means. So I decided to go back to my region and take a position as a teacher in a remote school, a school that I have to reach by bus -- two hours traveling, every morning and evening. Though it was hard, on my first day I knew I made the right decision. The first day I walked into the school, I saw all these little Shameems staring back at me --
with dreams in their eyes, the same dream of freedom which I had in my childhood.
So the girls are eager to learn, but the school is understaffed. Girls sit hopeful, learn nothing, and they leave. I can't bear to see this happening. There was no turning back. I found my purpose. I enlisted a few of my friends to help me to teach. I'm introducing my girls to the outside world by extracurricular activities and books. I share with them the profiles of the world's best leaders, like Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. Last year, a few of our students went to college. For me, I never stop studying. Today, I'm working to complete my PhD in education --
which will allow me to gain a management position in the school system, and I will be able to make more decisions and play a pivotal role in the system.
I believe that without educating the girls, we may not make world peace. We may not reduce child marriage. We may not reduce infant mortality rate. We may not reduce maternal mortality rate. For this, we have to continuously and collectively work together. At least I am playing my role, though the destination is not close. The road is not easy. But I have dreams in my eyes, and I am not going to look back now.
Thank you.

#Activism #Education #Gender #Motivation #Personal_Growth #Potential #Social_Change #Society #Women_Kids #Equality

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🟢Playful, wondrous public spaces built for community and possibility

#Architecture #Design #Community #Society #TED_Fellows #Public_Space

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🟢Playful, wondrous public spaces built for community and possibility

For me, public space is political. I work with communities around the world, and as we know, every community has problems. Some of these problems are solved through the ballot box or city hall meetings or community efforts, like bike lanes and potholes and school budgets. But some problems are beyond the reach of these structures, like food deserts, community well-being and the loss of cultural identity. These problems cannot be solved with the existing tool sets. I believe that public space is the most potent place to discuss these issues, because it contains the richest diversity of perspectives. And that's what makes it so powerful. The existing parks, town squares and sidewalks are not enough, though, which is why I'm interested in creating a new type of public space, one that's built by the community and designed specifically for their needs.
I start by listening and by setting up actual outdoor living rooms, complete with couches, tables, chairs, rugs and lamps, as a way of holding meetings to learn about the issues directly from the community. I use this technique to capture the voices and ideas of people that might not have time or feel comfortable in more formal meetings. So why get someone to sit in a love seat in the middle of the street?
In York, Alabama, the residents bear witness to the abandoned houses that cover the town, which are a constant reminder of the white flight that took place after segregation ended, when white homeowners left the area and let their houses fall into disrepair. Teaming up with the people of York, we transformed an iconic, pink-sided, blighted property in the middle of town into a new house, called "Open House." However, this house has a secret. It physically transforms into a 100-seat open-air theater for plays, movies, music or whatever the community would like to experience. And when it folds back up into the shape of a house, the image of the reclaimed pink siding reminds people of the past. After its opening, the mayor saw the potential in Open House and held the next town hall meeting there. The excitement of this unique gathering space brought new energy and gave a fresh viewpoint to collectively discuss the future of the town.
In Cambridge, Massachusetts, to highlight the issues of energy, waste and climate change, we replaced a garbage can in a park with an anaerobic digester to transform dog waste into usable methane gas. Burning this methane lights the park and reduces greenhouse gases. By slightly changing an everyday experience in public space, the Park Spark Project provokes neighbors to have conversations about the natural and built systems around them and their connection to the environment.
In Lyons, Nebraska, residents spoke about the loss of social life as downtown storefronts began to shutter their doors, a result of the slow violence of disinvestment, which has left many rural downtowns empty. To address this loss of human connection, we used an abandoned storefront to turn Main Street into a movie theater. The storefront wall is modified with hydraulics so that the awning and false front fold down over the sidewalk with the push of a button, providing seating for 100. As the community came together to build a storefront theater, an eccentric postman who makes sci-fi movies starring his cat proposed to make a documentary for the debut. And so that summer, we turned downtown into a movie set and the townspeople into actors to create the movie "Decades," a history of Lyons downtown from its founding to the present moment. On opening night, the main street, which is usually empty after dark, filled with people to watch the story of their town, leaving locals to question: How will we write the next chapter of Lyons? Well, the next chapter started with a series of movie screenings, public events and international musicians, as well as a low-budget film community that has blossomed in Lyons, bringing in people from all over the world and a permanent art gallery that has opened next door.

My work harnesses the power of the built environment to focus on issues that communities and local governments have failed to address themselves, by creating projects so custom fit that the community naturally makes it their own. When people from all walks of life have a shared experience in these spaces, it can lead to a paradigm shift in how we see our home, our community and the world. For me, public space is political and becomes powerful when it sparks people's imagination to envision a new future. And although every place I've worked is unique, it all boils down to one thing: if people can sit together, they can dream together.
Thank you.

#Architecture #Design #Community #Society #TED_Fellows #Public_Space

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🟢The surprising reason you feel awful when you're sick

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🟢The surprising reason you feel awful when you're sick

It starts with a tickle in your throat that becomes a cough. Your muscles begin to ache, you grow irritable, and you lose your appetite. It's official: you've got the flu. It's logical to assume that this miserable medley of symptoms is the result of the infection coursing through your body, but is that really the case? What's actually making you feel sick? What if your body itself was driving this vicious onslaught? You first get ill when a pathogen like the flu virus gets into your system, infecting and killing your cells. But this unwelcome intrusion has another effect: it alerts your body's immune system to your plight. As soon as it becomes aware of infection, your body leaps to your defense. Cells called macrophages charge in as the first line of attack, searching for and destroying the viruses and infected cells. Afterwards, the macrophages release protein molecules called cytokines whose job is to recruit and organize more virus-busting cells from your immune system. If this coordinated effort is strong enough, it'll wipe out the infection before you even notice it. But that's just your body setting the scene for some real action. In some cases, viruses spread further, even into the blood and vital organs. To avoid this sometimes dangerous fate, your immune system must launch a stronger attack, coordinating its activity with the brain. That's where those unpleasant symptoms come in, starting with the surging temperature, aches and pains, and sleepiness. So why do we experience this? When the immune system is under serious attack, it secretes more cytokines, which trigger two responses. First, the vagus nerve, which runs through the body into the brain, quickly transmits the information to the brain stem, passing near an important area of pain processing. Second, cytokines travel through the body to the hypothalamus, the part of the brain responsible for controlling temperature, thirst, hunger, and sleep, among other things. When it receives this message, the hypothalamus produces another molecule called prostaglandin E2, which gears it up for war. The hypothalamus sends signals that instruct your muscles to contract and causes a rise in body temperature. It also makes you sleepy, and you lose your appetite and thirst. But what's the point of all of these unpleasant symptoms? Well, we're not yet sure, but some theorize that they aid in recovery. The rise in temperature can slow bacteria and help your immune system destroy pathogens. Sleep lets your body channel more energy towards fighting infection. When you stop eating, your liver can take up much of the iron in your blood, and since iron is essential for bacterial survival, that effectively starves them. Your reduced thirst makes you mildly dehydrated, diminishing transmission through sneezes, coughs, vomit, or diarrhea. Though it's worth noting that if you don't drink enough water, that dehydration can become dangerous. Even the body's aches make you more sensitive, drawing attention to infected cuts that might be worsening, or even causing your condition. In addition to physical symptoms, sickness can also make you irritable, sad, and confused. That's because cytokines and prostaglandin can reach even higher structures in your brain, disrupting the activity of neurotransmitters, like glutamate, endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine. This affects areas like the limbic system, which oversees emotions, and your cerebral cortex, which is involved in reasoning. So it's actually the body's own immune response that causes much of the discomfort you feel every time you get ill. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work perfectly. Most notably, millions of people worldwide suffer from autoimmune diseases, in which the immune system treats normal bodily cues as threats, so the body attacks itself. But for the majority of the human race, millions of years of evolution have fine-tuned the immune system so that it works for, rather than against us.

The symptoms of our illnesses are annoying, but collectively, they signify an ancient process that will continue barricading our bodies against the outside world for centuries to come.

#Health #Illness #Animation #Public_Health #Disease #Health_Care #TED_Ed #Human_Body

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🟢Does Stress Affect Your Memory?

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🟢Does Stress Affect Your Memory?

You spend weeks studying for an important test. On the big day, you wait nervously as your teacher hands it out. You’re working your way through, when you’re asked to define ‘ataraxia.’ You know you’ve seen it before, but your mind goes blank. What just happened?
The answer lies in the complex relationship between stress and memory. There are many types and degrees of stress and different kinds of memory, but we’re going to focus on how short-term stress impacts your memory for facts.
To start, it helps to understand how this kind of memory works. Facts you read, hear, or study become memories through a process with three main steps. First comes acquisition: the moment you encounter a new piece of information. Each sensory experience activates a unique set of brain areas.
In order to become lasting memories, these sensory experiences have to be consolidated by the hippocampus, influenced by the amygdala, which emphasizes experiences associated with strong emotions. The hippocampus then encodes memories, probably by strengthening the synaptic connections stimulated during the original sensory experience.
Once a memory has been encoded, it can be remembered, or retrieved, later. Memories are stored all over the brain, and it’s likely the prefrontal cortex that signals for their retrieval.
So how does stress affect each of these stages? In the first two stages, moderate stress can actually help experiences enter your memory. Your brain responds to stressful stimuli by releasing hormones known as corticosteroids, which activate a process of threat-detection and threat-response in the amygdala. The amygdala prompts your hippocampus to consolidate the stress-inducing experience into a memory. Meanwhile, the flood of corticosteroids from stress stimulates your hippocampus, also prompting memory consolidation.
But even though some stress can be helpful, extreme and chronic stress can have the opposite effect. Researchers have tested this by injecting rats directly with stress hormones. As they gradually increased the dose of corticosteroids, the rats’ performance on memory tests increased at first, but dropped off at higher doses. In humans, we see a similar positive effect with moderate stress. But that only appears when the stress is related to the memory task— so while time pressure might help you memorize a list, having a friend scare you will not. And the weeks, months, or even years of sustained corticosteroids that result from chronic stress can damage the hippocampus and decrease your ability to form new memories.
It would be nice if some stress also helped us remember facts, but unfortunately, the opposite is true. The act of remembering relies on the prefrontal cortex, which governs thought, attention, and reasoning. When corticosteroids stimulate the amygdala, the amygdala inhibits, or lessens the activity of, the prefrontal cortex. The reason for this inhibition is so the fight/flight/freeze response can overrule slower, more reasoned thought in a dangerous situation. But that can also have the unfortunate effect of making your mind go blank during a test. And then the act of trying to remember can itself be a stressor, leading to a vicious cycle of more corticosteroid release and an even smaller chance of remembering.
So what can you do to turn stress to your advantage and stay calm and collected when it matters the most? First, if you know a stressful situation like a test is coming, try preparing in conditions similar to the stressful environment. Novelty can be a stressor. Completing practice questions under time pressure, or seated at a desk rather than on a couch, can make your stress response to these circumstances less sensitive during the test itself.
Exercise is another useful tool.

#TED_Ed #Health #Memory

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