SELF-CARE

Here are 5 tips to help you maintain your sobriety as the holidays approach. If you are an alcoholic, getting sober is one of the hardest things you may ever do, staying sober will be the hardest, and you need all the help you can get. Read these tips, one of them may just save your life. 1. Stay out of slippery places. Only attend a function with alcohol being served if you have a legitimate reason to be there. 2. Don't depend on someone else to get you home from the occasion. Drive your own car, and make sure you park in a way that you won`t be blocked in. If you don't have a car, make sure you have cab fare and a cell phone. You should also have your sponsor's phone number. 3. Know what you are going to drink before you get there, and order something that comes in a can or bottle t...

Almost half of women with disabilities have experienced sexual harassment or assault in the workplace, according to a new 19th News/SurveyMonkey poll that is one of the first to explore the issue. The number, 48 percent, compares to 32 percent of women without disabilities who reported experiencing sexual assault or harassment at work. While there is a growing body of research and reporting on the sexual violence faced by people with disabilities, little of it has delved into the workplace. Monika Mitra, director of the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at Brandeis University, said some describe sexual violence against people with disabilities “as a silent epidemic.” Mitra has done research on sexual violence against people with disabilities, but not in the workplace. To her knowled...

Take a break from your screen and look at plants − botanizing is a great way to engage with life around you. When you hear about the abundance of life on Earth, what do you picture? For many people, it’s animals – but awareness of plant diversity is growing rapidly. Our planet has nearly 300,000 species of flowering plants. Among animals, only beetles can compete with that number. There are more species of ferns than birds, more mints than mammals, and more beans than butterflies. Measured in total mass, plants make up 82% of all life on land across the globe. We are plant scientists and co-founders of Let’s Botanize, an educational nonprofit that uses plant life to teach about ecology, evolution and biodiversity. In the past several years we have witnessed a botanical boom, with partici...

It’s time to bust the ‘calories in, calories out’ weight-loss myth. If you’ve ever tried to lose weight, there’s a good chance you’ve been told it all comes down to a simple “calories in, calories out” formula: burn more calories than you consume, and the kilos will disappear. And it’s easy to see the appeal of breaking weight loss down into simple maths – just follow the formula, and you’ll achieve success. It’s also believable because many people do lose weight when they first adopt this approach. Indeed, the diet industry’s reliance on the “calories in, calories out” concept is why society blames people for being overweight. Anyone who can’t follow this simple energy formula is only overweight because they lack the willpower to eat less and exercise more. But the only simple truth he...

Seeking Safety as a Black Woman in New Cities. I have moved three times in the past 13 months. My academic career-climbing has propelled me across the country from my longtime residence near Washington, D.C., to the Dallas–Fort Worth metro area, followed by a brief return to living New York City–adjacent. Now that I’ve finally secured a coveted tenure-track job, I have landed in upstate New York—Syracuse, to be precise. With each new move, I think about my safety as a young Black woman living on her own. The first rule is to never look too out of place; my vigilance is heightened in areas where I know I look like I don’t belong. “Belonging” is a complex concept, but I try to stay in areas that have rich diversity, from race and ethnicity to age, dress, and gender identity. When I first ...

Between 29th May 2023 and 22nd June 2023 Mercury will be in retrograde and this can cause havoc with our lives. This is because the planet goes in to reverse and has a kind of stop start approach to the earth. It is not just the planet earth that is affected by this but more particularly those with Aries, Libra, Gemini, Virgo in their birth signs. This means that you will need to keep on top of things and make sure your computer is sound. If you are sending texts and emails then double check them and that they go to the right people. You are now aware of this situation and so you can do all you can to protect yourself and your things from the influence of Mercury Retrograde. Your thoughts could also be affected by Mercury which is the planet of communication and travel. You need to think...