Mental Health Tip of the Week #3

Helping Others: The First Step in Making the World a Better Place

Resource: https://buildabroad.org/2017/10/27/helping-others/

Helping others is the first step in making the world a better place and improving the lives of those who aren’t as lucky as you. But it’s also shown to bring about a wealth of benefits for those who choose to help and might just be the key to happiness!

Studies in recent years on the impacts of volunteering have shown a range of physical and psychological benefits that result from helping others, without needing any trips to the doctor. It helps to create stronger communities that are concerned with the well-being of each and every individual as you work towards a happier society for all.

It might be assisting your friends, family, coworkers or classmates while expecting nothing in return or extending help to a complete stranger on the other side of the world. Being kind and caring towards others is also infectious and can quickly inspire others to do the same. But if you don’t get the ball rolling, then who will?

When you break it all down, helping others just feels good! Volunteers have described what they refer to as a “helpers’ high”, feeling a sense of euphoria after giving of their time to help others. It’s believed to be a release of endorphins that is followed by a longer lasting period of calm and emotional wellbeing that helps to reduce stress levels. Studies show that the same parts of the brain are invigorated when we give to good causes as are stimulated when we receive money ourselves.

Knowing that you are helping to make the world a better place and giving hope to those who might not otherwise have it is undeniably rewarding and the good vibes won’t cost you a thing!

Find your happiness

Research has shown that there are strong correlations between helping others and happiness and that those who are happy are more likely to be inclined towards assisting others. Numerous studies have documented the effects of helping others on people of all ages, from preschoolers to high school students and working professionals. Because giving makes us happier and happiness makes us give more, it’s a never-ending cycle of feel-good virtue!

Volunteering is a social activity, and humans have evolved as highly social creatures, so it makes sense that having an excuse to be around others should bring you happiness. Some researchers think that helping others gives individuals a neuro-chemical sense of reward that boosts their mental wellbeing. Altruistic people are more likely to create strong connections in their community and extended networks, which inevitably impacts their feelings of happiness.

It’s not about wealth

An interesting result from studies into helping others was that volunteering related to increased happiness, regardless of the socio-economic situation of the individual. People who gave money to charitable causes (rather than spending money on themselves) were found to be happier, no matter what their income levels.

But helping others doesn’t’ have to be about giving money. It can also be about giving of your time through organized volunteering projects or just a kind gesture to a stranger without any expected rewards. These often mean even more than financial gifts as they require you to actively engage with the person you are helping on a one-to-one level.

Helping others is contagious

When someone around you performs a good deed, it’s hard not to want to be involved. When you see the happiness it brings them and those around them, it’s only natural that you will want to catch a dose of their altruistic behavior. Studies have confirmed this, with people more likely to perform generous acts after observing someone else doing the same. This means that it only takes one individual to start the domino effect of inspiring people to help others.

Enhanced wellbeing

Improved happiness as a result of volunteering also leads to reduced depression, anxiety and other mental health issues. When you feel good about what you are doing to help others, you will also feel better about yourself. Studies have shown that offering help has a stronger positive impact on mental health than if you are receiving help while creating a community environment that reduces feelings of isolation. Volunteering might also help to distract you from problems in your own life or put them in perspective in the big scheme of things.

Live longer

Studies show that active volunteering can increase our lifespan, with older people who support others shown to live longer than those who don’t. It helps to maintain cognitive functioning in older people while increasing educational achievements in the youth. Those who help others are often better at managing their stress levels (which in turn can help to lower blood pressure) and enjoy an increased sense of life satisfaction that helps to stave off illnesses and depression. It might not seem obvious, but an active social life can significantly impact our long-term health.

Find a sense of purpose

If you’re struggling to find meaning in life or feeling cynical about your day-to-day existence, helping others could be the answer. Studies show that volunteering can enhance your sense of purpose and help you find meaning in life.

For those who have recently retired or their children have moved out of home, helping others can assist in reestablishing their identity. While their focus may have been on raising a family or saving for the future, they may now have time available to help others and work towards the greater good of the world.

But that’s not to say you have to wait until later in life to start helping others. If you’re not sure what you want to do in the future or don’t have a firm career path, volunteering can help you to establish what’s really important in life and will bring your long-term job satisfaction. It might offer opportunities not available through your school or college and the chance to see a bit of the world before you settle into a career.

Remember: Helping others takes the selfishness in our lives and replaces it with selflessness. It gives us a sense of self-worth and makes us feel good about ourselves. Helping others is beneficial not only to you but to the people you help. One act of kindness can turn into countless acts of kindness.

Lego is making Braille Bricks

Originally from the New York Times

When Carlton Cook Walker’s young daughter developed health problems that led to near-total blindness, she knew she wanted her to learn Braille. But the family’s school, in rural central Pennsylvania, was resistant. A teacher pointed out that the girl, then in preschool, could still read print — as long as it was in 72-point type and held inches from her face.

“I said, ‘What about when she is in high school? How will she read Dickens like this?’” recalled Ms. Cook Walker, whose daughter, Anna, is now 18. “The teacher’s response was chilling: ‘Oh, she’ll just use audio.’”

So Ms. Cook Walker took matters into her own hands. In addition to successfully advocating Braille in her daughter’s school, she bought used children’s books, embossed Braille dots alongside the text and rebound them, teaching Anna to read through the stories of “The Berenstain Bears” and “Clifford the Big Red Dog.”

Now, a new effort is underway to ease challenges like these and help blind and visually impaired children more naturally learn to read Braille, a system based on different configurations of six small, raised dots that blind people read with their fingertips. And it is coming in the form of a favorite childhood toy: Lego bricks.

This week, the Lego Foundation, which is funded by the Lego Group, the Danish toy company that makes the blocks, announced a new project that will repurpose the usual knobs atop the bricks as Braille dots. And because the blocks will also be stamped with the corresponding written letter, number or punctuation symbol, they can be played with by blind and sighted children alike. The project, called Lego Braille Bricks, is in a pilot phase and is expected to be released in partnership with schools and associations for the blind in 2020.

“When they get Lego in their hands, it’s intuitive for them,” said Diana Ringe Krogh, who is overseeing the project for the Lego Foundation. “They learn Braille almost without noticing that they are learning. It is really a learning-through-play approach.”

Advocates say the product could transform reading for blind and visually impaired children, making the experience of learning Braille more inclusive and helping to combat what has been called a “Braille literacy crisis.” Though the research is limited, some estimates suggest that just 10 percent of blind children in the United States learn to read Braille, even though Braille literacy is associated with better job outcomes for adults. In 2017, less than half of American adults with visual impairments were employed, according to a disability report by Cornell University.

Braille, once widely taught in schools for the blind, has fallen by the wayside since the 1970s, when the law began requiring public schools to offer equal education to children with disabilities. Blind students were able to join their sighted peers in the classroom, but traditional schools, biased toward sight and facing a lack of specialized teachers, often pushed children with any sight at all to rely on magnified print. And an explosion of accessible technologies, including audiobooks, apps and screen readers, has strengthened reliance on audio, which advocates say cannot effectively teach critical skills like spelling and grammar, let alone complicated math.

“Audio can give you information, but it can’t give you literacy,” said Chris Danielsen, a spokesman for the National Federation of the Blind, which offers summer programs to teach Braille through hands-on activities.

Paul Parravano, who went blind from retinal cancer as a toddler, said Braille was critical to his job working in government relations at M.I.T. He uses it to write and give speeches, keep track of his calendar and take notes in meetings.

“If I’m sitting in a meeting and my boss asks me a question about a piece of information, I can’t go stick an earphone in my ear and look it up if I’m in a meeting with a senator or member of Congress,” Mr. Parravano said.

He even uses Braille to get dressed for work; a labeling system helps him match clothes that he cannot see. For example, if “a suit is No. 50,” he said, “my file system says that will go with tie No. 46 and shirt No. 32.”

But many children don’t learn Braille, not only because teachers and parents often lack the technical skills to teach it, but also because the experience can be isolating for young children, who must rely on separate books and machines from those used by their classmates.

Mr. Parravano learned Braille on his own in the 1950s. His mother taught him at home, he said, using a homemade block of wood and six marbles, which represented the six dots in the code.

Today, children often learn to write on a heavy machine that looks like a typewriter, but it feels clunky and can differentiate them from their friends in daycare and school, according to Thorkild Olesen, president of the Danish Association of the Blind. His organization first pitched the idea of Braille building blocks to Lego in 2011, followed by the Dorina Nowill Foundation for the Blind in Brazil, which separately proposed the idea in 2017.

“Many blind children give up learning Braille or will not be introduced to Braille in the first place,” Mr. Olesen said in a statement.

There have been other attempts to make learning Braille more appealing, including alphabet blocks and UNO playing cards. But the Lego bricks, which have built-in mainstream appeal and offer the chance to play around with words, or even play a makeshift game of Scrabble, seem to have a unique appeal.

“I don’t know of any other efforts that combine learning and play as thoroughly as Lego Braille bricks,” Mr. Olesen said.

The Braille bricks have been tested in schools and community centers in Brazil, Denmark, Norway, and Britain. And, in the fall, the pilot program will expand to Germany, France, Mexico and the United States, according to the Lego Foundation.

After taking in feedback, Lego will roll out the Braille bricks next year, the foundation said. The Lego sets will be free for children through associations for the blind and schools.

Ms. Cook Walker’s daughter, Anna, is a senior in high school now. But both mother and daughter said having Braille Lego bricks during childhood could have made a huge difference.

Anna recalled an embarrassing episode in kindergarten, when she had her own special bucket of Braille books. “When my classmates wanted to feel them, the teacher ran across the room and said: ‘You can’t touch that. Those are Anna’s,” she said.

Including both Braille and the written alphabet on the bricks would remove the notion of “otherness,” her mother said. And they could also help include sighted siblings and parents, who are often intimidated by the process of learning, said Ms. Cook Walker, who works with other families as part of a national organization for parents of blind children.

“This would be the bridge they need,” she said.

Blind Singer with Autism Wows America's Got Talent

On America's Got Talent this week, Kodi Lee, a 22-year old blind musician with autism, performed a show-stopping feat wowing the judges and the entire audience. His performance was met with tears and a standing ovation. His performance sent him straight to the final round of America's Got Talent. 

 Check out the video below to hear his interview and beautiful performance from this week's show! 

Spring Cleaning Tips

Have you been putting off Spring cleaning? The good news is that Spring isn't over and you still have time to get your Spring cleaning done just in time for Summer! Here are a few times that might help you get the process started:

originally from Sylvane.com

1. Make a Schedule

Scope out your home: What areas need the most work? Where do you skip during routine cleaning? Those are the best places to start. Regardless of where you start, having a plan for when you’re tackling each room will keep you focused on the task at hand.

2. De-clutter

Decluttering makes you more efficient and keeps you organized. But more than that, clutter has psychological influences. It signals to your brain that work isn’t done. Studies have shown that a disorganized home adds to your stress level. The scientific implications of inhaling dust – combined with the psychological stress of coming home to a pile of unsorted laundry or cluttered desk – can take a toll.

Set aside some time to:

• Organize your closets
• Dust and organize your office
• Look through that dreaded junk drawer

You may be surprised how fresh you feel after you eliminate unnecessary stress from your life.

3. Always Work from Top to Bottom

When you think about how to spring clean your home, it’s important to start from the ceiling down. This will force debris downward and keep you from having to re-dust or re-clean your space. If you have a vacuum with an extension hose, use it to get cobwebs and dust from your ceilings and fans first.

Then dust your furniture and other items before vacuuming all the dust and debris off your floors. It will save you time.

4. Think Green When You Spring Clean

You want to start spring off on a clean note, so don’t expose yourself to chemicals and toxins. A steam cleaner is one of the best green products for spring cleaning. It can be used to clean your microwave, tile, hard floors, kitchen appliances, bathrooms, and even outdoor areas.

Since steam cleaners only use hot water vapor, they are a 100% natural and chemical-free cleaning solution. But keep in mind – not everything can be steam cleaned.

If you don’t have a steam cleaner, one of the best natural combinations for cleaning is white distilled vinegar, baking soda, and water. These ingredients are affordable, non-toxic, and have worked for ages when it comes to cleaning.

5. Walls and Windows Need Love too

People almost always clean their floors, but they typically forget about walls and windows. Not all dust settles on the floor and other surfaces. Just use a damp towel to wipe down walls and blinds (starting from the top). Remove and wipe down the window screens outside.

When it comes to the actual window, we don’t suggest using chemical cleaners. A steam cleaner with a squeegee is a great way to clean windows.

6. Don’t Be Scared of the Kitchen and Bathroom

Don’t fear cleaning your bathroom! Review our full list of spring cleaning tips to quickly hit these trouble areas. Here are a few common trouble areas:

Kitchens

• Wipe down your cabinets.
• Go through your pantry and refrigerator. Wipe down the shelves, and throw away any old items.
• If you have stainless steel appliances, be sure to use gentle cleaners or a steam cleaner to avoid scratching or other issues.

Bathrooms

• Change your shower curtain.
• Go through your cosmetics drawer or medicine cabinet and throw away any expired items.

Consider installing or upgrading to a new bathroom fan. Replacing an existing fan or adding a new one can help to ensure your bathroom remains in top notch condition. They are great for ventilating moisture during showers and removing odors/vapor removal. Depending on the unit you select, it may even come with built-in lighting, automatic operation, and other user-friendly features. 

7. Don’t Forget About Your Air

Replacing furnace and HVAC filters is one of the most important and overlooked parts of spring cleaning. In fact, replacing a standard filter with a more robust one with a high MERV rating will help keep you healthier as you enter spring.

It will catch smaller, irritating particles. Air conditioner ducts build up dust during winter, and upgraded filters catch unwanted particles so they don’t enter your space. It’s an inexpensive way to make sure you’re breathing clean, healthy air.

The best way to ensure healthy spring air void of allergens, indoor chemicals or odors is with an air purifier. If anyone in your home suffers from allergies or wakes up stuffy during allergy season, adding an air purifier to his/her bedroom will help.

9. Have Severe Allergies? Protect Yourself.

Cleaning will more than likely unsettle all the winter dust on furniture and fixtures. If you suffer from allergies or are using heavy-duty cleaners, be sure to read the labels. For safe spring cleaning, wear rubber gloves, masks, scarves, and even hairnets. Protective clothing will help guard against skin irritations and allergic reactions.

9. Let Spring Cleaning Set a New Tone

If your space feels dark and heavy, you can make small changes to help make it light and fresh for spring. Adding new colorful pillows or art are great ways to change up your space. Replacing items like bedding, towels, table linens, and even window treatments are other ways to transform your rooms for spring and warm weather ahead.

Mental Health Tip of the Week #3

7 Ways You Can Reach Your Highest Potential

By: Nate Leung

Have you ever heard of someone who achieved greatness in their lives just by using a mediocre amount of their talent or potential? All the great names that you will see throughout human history that have contributed to the human development and evolution in different fields had one thing in common—they all did what they did at their highest potential.

Whether it is Einstein, Gandhi or Martin Luther King, all of them achieved greatness in their domains just because they exhibited and observed their highest potential in their undertaking. Therefore, in order to be successful and achieve greatness, you must work to your best potential. Usually the highest potential is considered exertion of a greater level of efforts; however, working on the highest potential is easier said than done and there is much more to it than just exerting efforts.

Below, are 7 things that you can do to reach your highest potential.

1. Identifying your potential is key.

Before achieving the highest potential, it is imperative that you know what your potential is. You need to know about what you do best or the things you love doing the most. In most of the cases, it will be the things you love doing in which you have potential. Therefore, it is of grave importance that you identify the things you love doing before blindly exerting efforts. You must know whether you want to be a doctor or a lawyer instead of doing the wrong thing your whole life, and then wondering at the end why you did not achieve excellence in your profession. Ergo, before following a profession and exerting efforts, first identify whether you have the potential for that very undertaking.

2. Commitment is the compulsory factor.

Once you have identified the field in which you have potential, the next thing you ought to do in order to achieve the highest potential is to be committed to achieving a higher level of potential. When doing this, there are two things that need to be considered. First, you must know change is the only constant and that things will change around you; however, your commitment should be with the holistic goal. The second and more important thing to remember is that commitment requires inspiration; therefore, to ensure that your potential level soars, you need to find some inspiration, whether it’s in the form of some idols or something that is the voice of your heart.

3. Take small steps toward your potential.

You cannot possibly become a physics genius by reading the course of masters when you are in 8th grade. Thus, the journey to your higher potential must always comprise of small steps, where with every step your level of knowledge and expertise in your potential increase, which will eventually lead to the highest step of the ladder.

4. Accept failures as learning experiences.

Without disappointment you cannot appreciate victory. Failure is an important part of the learning curve, and failure is the condition where your metal is tested; therefore, it is important that you consider failure as an integral component of your journey toward higher potential. With each failure, you come to know one more way of not doing things; thus, you exert your efforts in the right direction, which ultimately boosts your spirit and morale leading to achievement of a higher potential.

5. Be confident in your ability to reach your highest potential.

Perhaps the single most important factor without which you cannot achieve even little potential, let alone higher potential, is confidence. You need to be confident of your ability pertaining to achieving higher potential. One major factor that can lead to you becoming confident about your abilities is when you love what you do, or you are someone who you love. When you are in such a mental state, then you feel confident about your potential. Thus, with time, confidence grows, and you reach a higher level of potential.

6. There is no shame in getting support.

I cannot understand why people feel shame in getting support in something which they can do on their own. In every walk of life, we have some ideals, some inspiration, and some personalities to whom we turn for guidance at the time of need. Therefore, if you can’t maximize your potential despite all your efforts, then you should not feel shame in getting support from a mentor or someone who has been in the same condition as you. Having a mentor will make your way to higher potential easier and more effective.

7. Listen to your intuition.

Intuition is a combination of instinct and experience; therefore, when you feel that the level of your potential has become stagnant, you need to consider the scenario from both the instinct and experience perspective. When you undertake an activity after deciding upon it with both experience and your gut feeling, you will feel confident that you will perform to your highest potential.

The Perfect Strawberry Lemonade Recipe for Memorial Day

from The Food Network

Ingredients: 

Zest of 1 lemon, in wide strips

2 cups sugar

2 cups chopped hulled strawberries

2 cups fresh lemon juice (from about 10 large lemons)

1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions: 

1. Make the lemon syrup: Bring the lemon zest, 1 1/2 cups sugar and 1 1/2 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan, stirring, until the sugar dissolves; let cool to room temperature.
2. Meanwhile, make the strawberry syrup: Toss the strawberries and the remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a bowl and let sit at room temperature until the sugar dissolves, about 45 minutes. Strain the strawberry mixture; reserve the strawberry syrup and berries separately.
3. Make the lemonade: Combine the lemon juice, lemon syrup, salt and 2 cups cold water in a pitcher. For each drink, put about 1 tablespoon of the strawberry syrup in a tall glass. Fill with ice, then top with the lemonade and some of the reserved strawberries.

the Most Compelling tech tools for the Visually Impaired

article originally on The Next Web

Technology is increasingly improving our lives by conveniently tackling menial tasks – and it’s also helping people with disabilities lead more independent lives and improve their skill sets.

With this in mind, and in celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, here’s a look at some of the most innovative apps and solutions helping people with visual impairment today.

Facebook’s AI-captioned photographs

Back in April 2016, Facebook introduced a new feature in its iOS app to help visually impaired users ‘see’ photos.

By leveraging AI, the app is able to automatically generate a description of every photo a users comes across.

By using a screen reader on iOS, users can hear a list of items that feature in the photos, such as, for example, ‘Image may contain six people sitting on a bench and laughing.”

Seeing AI

Next up Seeing AI, an iOS app launched by Microsoft in July 2017. Appropriately described as a ‘talking camera for the blind,’ the free app helps people identify objects around them using their iPhone cameras and AI. Simply point your shooter at something, and Seeing AI will tell you what it is, out loud.

The app is the result of a project at Microsoft Research and it’s interesting to see how AI and machine learning could help improve lives both in the short and long term.

A VR ‘canetroller’

Also from Microsoft, this VR haptic controller helps the visually impaired create an accurate mental map of a virtual space.

Essentially, the device tries to mimic the experience of using a traditional white cane and translates this in a virtual reality environment.

To overcome the need for visual cues, the device uses vibrations and sound to simulate the effect of touching different virtual objects. It also uses a wearable braking system to make walls and barriers seem solid.

We covered the canetroller in February last year, and at the time there were still some limitations to overcome – one participant found that the audio modelling, particularly the way sounds echoed off solid objects, wasn’t quite realistic enough. But, it’s start.

Soundscape

In March last year, we wrote about Microsoft’s Soundscape app, which launched after four years in the making. The app, available in iOS in the UK and the US, seeks to guide visually impaired people around cities.

But, how? Well, the aim is to provide 3D audio cues that help users find their destination but also making them aware of their surroundings while they walk to get there.

Project Torino

Project Torino is yet another interesting proposal by Microsoft.

The system consists of a programming languageof programming language and large colourful toys called pods, which can be used to make songs, poems, stories, and sounds to help children with visual impairments to learn to code.

Lookout

Google’s Lookout is a nifty Android app that leverages AI and computer vision to help the visually impaired. 

It works on Google’s Pixel phones, which users can wear around their neck or inside a shirt pocket with the rear camera facing away from them. The app is able to recognize a host of things including printed text, signage, people, and objects. It notifies users about locations with audio cues, such as ‘car at 6 o’clock.’

Be My Eyes

Microsoft, Google, and Facebook are not the only companies working on innovative solutions to help those with a visual impairment.

Be My Eyes, for example, leverages the power of community to help visually impaired people to connect with sighted volunteers who “lend their eyes” to help with short, simple tasks.

The app was created by Danish founder Hans Jørgen Wiberg, who is visually impaired himself, after he began thinking about how to use video call technology to create an assistive tool. It currently has more than 100,000 blind users, and more than 2 million volunteers across the globe.

All in all, it’s great to see technology moving beyond the confines of convenience and seeing how it can be applied for good. Technology should work for us, and I, for one, am excited to see what the future will bring.