Category Archives: Personal Empowerment

Its October, when the mainstream media remembers that witches are real and tries to figure out how to use them to attract viewers and readers.

Heres a piece from ABC (thats the Australian Broadcasting Corporation) that starts out the word witch is a powerful thing. It talks about the growing number of young people who are getting into witchcraft through social media. It features candles, crystals, and of course, attractive young women. It discusses the feminist connections to the modern witchcraft movement. And it ends with this quote:

Witches, wizards, theyre just people who are connected to themselves. And theyre connected to nature. And they work with plants. And theyre healers. And thats like, really what it is at its core.

This is where I need to remind everyone that I do not consider myself a witch, and therefore I do not speak for all witches, or really for any witches. But what goes on under the banner of witchcraft impacts all of us in the Big Tent of Paganism. And just as I came into all this through Wicca but found my way to Druidry and polytheism, others will come in through witchcraft and end up in other parts of the movement.

My practice is very witchcraft adjacent. What I do particularly in the area of magic is virtually indistinguishable from witchcraft. So when someone says that witches are just people who are connected to themselves that affects me far more than, say, Evangelicals and Progressives arguing about who are the real Christians.

Im less than happy with the ABC piece and with the dozens of near-identical pieces that will run between now and Halloween (though this one is better than many). I wish the media remembered that witches and Pagans are real people who practice our witchcraft and Paganism the other 11 months of the year too.

But Im not really interested in rebutting this piece, and I have no desire to critique the witches interviewed for it. I just want to ask one question:

What kind of witch do you want to be?

In most places throughout most of history, a witch was something that was dangerous to be or to have your neighbors think you might be. During the medieval witch hunts, thousands and thousands of people mostly women were tortured and killed because people believed they were harming them with magic, or consorting with the Christian devil, or both. Witch killings still happen today in some parts of the world.

That makes the archetype of the witch a very powerful thing.

And so many young women and others embrace that archetype and in doing so, they empower themselves to do the difficult and scary things they need to do to navigate an unjust and dangerous world.

Let me be absolutely clear: this is a good thing.

I wish the media understood that this isnt just a thing for young women. Its also for older women, middle aged women, and men. And non-binary people. I have no statistics, but I see what strikes me as a disproportionate number of non-binary people in witchcraft. I would love it if one of my non-binary witch friends would give their take on this.

If your witchcraft is all about personal empowerment and political activism and you see magic strictly as a psychological phenomena, youre a witch as far as Im concerned.

But thats not the only kind of witch there is.

Aesthetic witches are those who never cast the first spell but who love black clothes, pointy hats, crystals, and all the elements of the style of witchcraft. Theres a lot of overlap between empowerment witches and aesthetic witches they tend to be motivated by similar forces. But aesthetic witches mainly want to look good.

We had quite the debate about this a few years ago. The Aesthetic of Witchcraft and the Return of Real Magic was my 3rd most popular post of all of 2017. A lot of witches were offended that people again, mostly young women whose basic witch outfits cost a small fortune were claiming titles they had worked, studied, and in some cases, bled to earn.

I get that. And I wish the media would run some pictures of witches wearing something other than black dresses and cloaks. At the same time, nobody owns witchcraft, the publicity is good, and if dressing like a witch (or rather, dressing in a fashion traditionally associated with witchcraft) makes someone feel good, thats a good thing.

But thats not the only way to be a witch.

And theyre connected to nature. And they work with plants.

Are they describing witches or botanists?

Another part of the archetype is the idea of a witch living in a cottage deep in the forest, always with dirt under their fingernails, harvesting herbs for potions, perhaps befriending the local animals and perhaps using their parts in more nefarious spells.

As much as I like technology and modern conveniences, there are days when that witchs cottage looks awfully attractive.

One of the early drivers of the Modern Pagan movement was a desire to reconnect with Nature, to re-establish the relationships humanity had for tens of thousands of years before civilization and industrial society severed us from them. A reverence for Nature is a major part of my Paganism and my Druidry, and I see the witches who do similar things in similar ways as kindred spirits.

If youre a dirt witch youre very much a witch.

But thats not the only kind of witch there is.

Witchcraft can be practiced in the context of any religion. But Gerald Gardners creation (or re-creation, depending on how you interpret his stories) of a religion of witchcraft is its own separate tradition. Historian Ronald Hutton said Wicca is the only religion England has ever given to the world.

Gardnerian Wicca and Alexandrian Wicca are practiced in covens, and person-to-person teaching and initiation is a requirement. But the spread of Wicca in the last quarter of the 20th century was largely due to books, and today there are far more solitary practitioners than coven-based Wiccans.

This post by Jason Mankey addresses the boundaries of Wicca and some of the recent controversies around them. Jason says I believe that Wicca is first and foremost a magickal religion. But acknowledging the wide variation in Wiccan practice, he also admits but thats just me.

As the saying goes all Wiccans are witches but not all witches are Wiccans.

There are many different kinds of witches.

The most disappointing part of the ABC article was the line near the end that said she encourages people to look beyond all the woo woo stuff, because she believes witchcraft is so much more than that.

That line is why I wrote this post. For me, magic the woo woo stuff is the core of witchcraft.

I like Peter Greys definition of witchcraft: the recourse of the dispossessed, the powerless, the hungry and the abused. Witchcraft is where you turn when the rich abuse the poor, when the powerful abuse the vulnerable, and when politics fails to deliver on its promise of liberty and justice for all.

As a child, I wanted to be a witch. I lived in a stable, supportive family, but I was powerless and I hated it. I wanted to be able to do the things legendary witches could do.

It would be many years before I learned the truth behind the legends, and while I cant do what fictional witches can do, there is magic that I can do. Magic doesnt make things happen, but it improves the odds that they will happen. And sometimes, improving the odds makes all the difference in the world.

Yes, magic can involve crystals and herbs and candles I use a lot of candles. It can also involve blood and urine and graveyard dirt. It can be powered with chanting and dancing, and it can be powered with offerings to spirits including the kind of spirits that hang out at crossroads. It can be done with the purest of intentions, and it can be done for the most spiteful revenge.

For all that Nature is beautiful and life-giving, Nature is also terrible and life-taking. Nature has teeth.

Witchcraft reminds us that we have teeth too.

My hope is that at least some of the people who come into witchcraft for the empowerment, for the aesthetics, for Nature, or for Wicca will stick around and learn some magic.

The kind of magic that has always made people afraid of witches.

Google types of witches and youll find sites that say there are 6, 10, 25, and 45 different types of witches. The five kinds of witches Ive listed here are far from the only ways to describe and categorize witches and witchcraft. Most witches fall into multiple categories.

If I decided to call myself a witch (and I gave serious consideration to it at the end of last year, but thats another story for another time, and probably one best told over a cup of tea or a dram of whisky) I would fit into all of these categories except Wiccan. So would most witches I know.

The point is that where ever you come into witchcraft, theres always more you can add to it.

The word witch is a powerful thing.

It means different things to different people. For some it means magic user.

What kind of witch do you want to be?

Go here to read the rest:

What Kind of Witch Do You Want To Be? - Patheos

East Kilbride Strathaven and Lesmahagow MP, Dr Lisa Cameron, will be attending the COP26 conference this month on behalf of constituents.

She will be present for two days of the summit, which runs from October 31 to November 12, featuring youth empowerment and cities, regions and the built environment.

The event will see world-leaders descend on Glasgow and is a global United Nations summit about climate change and how countries are planning to tackle it.

The Lanarkshire Live app is available to download now.

Get all the news from your area as well as features, entertainment, sport and the latest on Lanarkshires recovery from the coronavirus pandemic straight to your fingertips, 24/7.

The free download features the latest breaking news and exclusive stories, and allows you to customise your page to the sections that matter most to you.

Head to the App Store and never miss a beat in Lanarkshire - iOS - Android

Ms Cameron will be collaborating with the Diana Award as chair of the Parliamentary Mentoring Group and taking a delegation of young people to COP26 to hear their views for youth empowerment and to ensure that there is representation across the generations.

She is particularly keen to highlight issues for town centre regeneration regarding cities, regions and the built environment and especially the plight of new towns like East Kilbride that require substantive investment and prioritization to redevelop sustainably for the future.

The MP said: "I am delighted to be attending COP26, as the representative for East Kilbride Strathaven and Lesmahagow.

"I am excited that there will be a delegation of young people will be there to put forth their views on youth empowerment.

"On a personal level I will be using the platform to highlight issues surrounding town centre regeneration in areas within the constituency which needs substantive investment and prioritization to redevelop sustainably in future."

**Don't miss the latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here.

And did you know Lanarkshire Live had its own app? Download yours for free here.

The rest is here:

East Kilbride MP will highlight town centre regeneration at COP26 conference - Daily Record

opinion

Al Cross| Opinion Contributor

This column has never dealt at length with Donald Trump because its about Kentucky politics. But now, Kentuckians and our federal representatives face the prospect of another Trump presidency, which could pose a clear and present danger to the way we govern ourselves.

It is now clear that Trump fostered and supported what some call a self-coup to stay in office after the 2020 election, and he seems likely to have less respect for the Constitution in a second term.

A matter of such weight requires more than 800 words to explore, so please read the two pieces excerpted below, published recently by Republicans (unless theyve changed registration recently). They make clear how Trump has used his lies about the election to complete his transformation of their party into a personality cult.

You may also like: Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul carry on Kentucky's tradition of conspiracy theories

Robert Kagan, a prominent neoconservative, began his 5,700-word essay with a bang: The United States is heading into its greatest political and constitutional crisis since the Civil War, with a reasonable chance over the next three to four years of incidents of mass violence, a breakdown of federal authorityand the division of the country into warring red and blue enclaves.

Kagan gave the devil his due, fairly describing the supporters who give Trump power: They believe the U.S. government and society have been captured by socialists, minority groups and sexual deviants. They see the Republican Party establishment as corrupt and weak . . . They view Trump as strong and defiant, willing to take on the establishment, Democrats, RINOs, liberal media, antifa, the Squad, Big Tech and the Mitch McConnell Republicans. His charismatic leadership has given millions of Americans a feeling of purpose and empowerment, a new sense of identity. . . . Unlike establishment Republicans, Trump speaks without embarrassment on behalf of an aggrieved segment of Americans, not exclusively white, who feel they have been taking it on the chin for too long. And that is all he needs to do.

Capitol riot arrests: See who's been charged across the U.S.

Michael Gerson, who was head speechwriter for George W. Bush, wrote that another Trump presidency is likely, concluding: Trump has strengthened his identification with the seditious forces he unleashed on Jan. 6. He has embraced ever more absurd and malicious conspiracy theories. He has shown even less stability, humanity, responsibility and restraint. And his support among Republicans has grown. Trump and his strongest supporters are in a feedback loop of radicalization.

If Trump returns to the presidency, many of the past constraints on his power would be purposely loosed. ... There is no reason Trump would not try to solidify personal power over military and federal law enforcement units to employ as a bullys club in times of civil disorder. There is no reason he would refrain from using federal resources to harass political opponents, undermine freedom of the press and change the outcome of elections. These are previously stated goals. What attitudes and actions does this require of us? Any reaction must begin with a sober recognition. Catastrophe is in the front room. The weather forecast includes the apocalypse.

Mitch McConnell plays a central role in this crisis. A brief history: He delayed his verdict on the election until the Electoral College had spoken, then said firmly that Biden had won.

After the Jan. 6 insurrection, he blamed Trump for it and tried to read him out of the party, then found a technical excuse not to vote for conviction in the second impeachment trial the real reason likely being that it would have put him in a small minority of Republican senators, and thus in danger of losing his job as Senate Republican leader.

You could see the struggle in Mitch McConnell about whether to throw Donald Trump overboard, the Houses chief impeachment manager, Adam Schiff, said on PBS and KET Tuesday night. You could see that he recognized what a disaster Donald Trump is for the country, but I think he concluded ultimately that if he tried to throw Donald Trump overboard, he himself would be thrown overboard. But at the end of the day, you have to ask, why are you in office anyway if youre not gonna do the right thing when the country really needs you?

Debt ceiling: Mitch McConnell shielded US from default before. Now he's playing hardball

Schiff is out with a new book, Midnight in Washington: How we Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could. McConnell knows that title is not all fantasy. He must do what he can to keep it from being a prophecy.

He can start by giving 10 Republicans the green light to support a bill that would negate state laws that allow state politicians to overrule election professionals. These are laws built on Trumps lies and are part of his plan for 2024. McConnell has said the last election was fairly decided; he needs to make sure the next one is, too.

Al Cross, a former Courier Journal political writer, is professor and director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky. He writes this column for theKentucky Center for Public Service Journalism. Reach him on Twitter@ruralj.

See the article here:

Its time to face up to Trump, the dangers he poses and the role Mitch McConnell plays - Courier Journal

CHICAGO, Oct. 07, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Despite financial challenges brought forth by the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study from TransUnion (: TRU) found that 18.7 million U.S. consumers that entered a financial hardship program experienced an increase to their VantageScore 4.0 credit risk scores in 2020. This accounted for 58% of the total hardship population (excluding student loans).

Yet, the credit risk of those individuals in financial hardship programs often changed based on when they exited a hardship status. Financial hardship is defined by factors such as deferred payment and forbearance programs for credit products such as auto loans, credit cards, mortgages and personal loans.

COVID-19 has presented enormous financial challenges to consumers and businesses, especially during the first six months of the pandemic, said Paul Siegfried, senior vice president and card and banking business lead at TransUnion. Our research shows that while many consumers were negatively impacted by the pandemic, the majority experienced an increase in their credit scores.

However, consumers in financial hardship present different risks based on whether they exited or remained in financial hardship as of Q3 2020. TransUnion analyzed 1.3M hardship consumers whose score improved in 2020 to evaluate their performance on new bankcard originations.

The early month on book performance on new bankcards for consumers who were in hardship programs is outperforming non-hardship consumers. Hardship exiters had a 4.8% 30+ days past due delinquency rate six months after origination of a new bankcard in Q4 2020. Hardship remainers had a 4.9% delinquency rate while non-hardship consumers had a 5.1% delinquency rate.

The study also found that hardship consumers in each credit risk tier were more likely to originate new bankcards after score improvement compared to those individuals who did not go into hardship.

We drilled down further into the study and split the hardship consumers based on their current hardship status those who exited and those who remained. We found that hardship exiters exhibit higher credit use behaviors as they are more likely to have mortgages and have higher utilization, said Siegfried.

Assessing Risk in a New, Complex Lending Environment

Such nuances between financial hardship exiters, remainers and various risk groups often pose a challenge for lenders when offering new loans. The study found that applying alternative credit risk scores can help lenders better assess borrowers.

In particular, the study found that TransUnions CreditVision Acute Relief Risk Score for non-prime and CreditVision Early Payment Default Score for prime and above credit tiers can better separate low- to high-risk consumers. Further separation was evident by applying a segmentation of hardship exiters and hardship remainers.

Many people continue to feel anxious about their finances. An important thing to keep in mind is making regular, on-time payments is one of the most important factors for credit health. If a consumer cant make payments, they should talk with their lenders to find out if theyre offering any assistance, concluded Margaret Poe, head of consumer credit education at TransUnion.

Individuals interested in learning how to read their credit report can click here. More information about the study can be accessed here.

About TransUnion (: TRU)TransUnion is a global information and insights company that makes trust possible in the modern economy. We do this by providing a comprehensive picture of each person so they can be reliably and safely represented in the marketplace. As a result, businesses and consumers can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good.

A leading presence in more than 30 countries across five continents, TransUnion provides solutions that help create economic opportunity, great experiences, and personal empowerment for hundreds of millions of people.

http://www.transunion.com/business

See the rest here:

18.7 Million US Consumers in Financial Hardship Programs Experienced an Increase to their Credit Scores - GuruFocus.com

News and research before you hear about it on CNBC and others. Claim your 1-week free trial to StreetInsider Premium here.

TransUnion study finds that credit risk often changed based on when consumers exited hardship programs

CHICAGO, Oct. 07, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Despite financial challenges brought forth by the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study from TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) found that 18.7 million U.S. consumers that entered a financial hardship program experienced an increase to their VantageScore 4.0 credit risk scores in 2020. This accounted for 58% of the total hardship population (excluding student loans).

Yet, the credit risk of those individuals in financial hardship programs often changed based on when they exited a hardship status. Financial hardship is defined by factors such as deferred payment and forbearance programs for credit products such as auto loans, credit cards, mortgages and personal loans.

COVID-19 has presented enormous financial challenges to consumers and businesses, especially during the first six months of the pandemic, said Paul Siegfried, senior vice president and card and banking business lead at TransUnion. Our research shows that while many consumers were negatively impacted by the pandemic, the majority experienced an increase in their credit scores.

However, consumers in financial hardship present different risks based on whether they exited or remained in financial hardship as of Q3 2020. TransUnion analyzed 1.3M hardship consumers whose score improved in 2020 to evaluate their performance on new bankcard originations.

The early month on book performance on new bankcards for consumers who were in hardship programs is outperforming non-hardship consumers. Hardship exiters had a 4.8% 30+ days past due delinquency rate six months after origination of a new bankcard in Q4 2020. Hardship remainers had a 4.9% delinquency rate while non-hardship consumers had a 5.1% delinquency rate.

The study also found that hardship consumers in each credit risk tier were more likely to originate new bankcards after score improvement compared to those individuals who did not go into hardship.

We drilled down further into the study and split the hardship consumers based on their current hardship status those who exited and those who remained. We found that hardship exiters exhibit higher credit use behaviors as they are more likely to have mortgages and have higher utilization, said Siegfried.

Assessing Risk in a New, Complex Lending Environment

Such nuances between financial hardship exiters, remainers and various risk groups often pose a challenge for lenders when offering new loans. The study found that applying alternative credit risk scores can help lenders better assess borrowers.

In particular, the study found that TransUnions CreditVision Acute Relief Risk Score for non-prime and CreditVision Early Payment Default Score for prime and above credit tiers can better separate low- to high-risk consumers. Further separation was evident by applying a segmentation of hardship exiters and hardship remainers.

Many people continue to feel anxious about their finances. An important thing to keep in mind is making regular, on-time payments is one of the most important factors for credit health. If a consumer cant make payments, they should talk with their lenders to find out if theyre offering any assistance, concluded Margaret Poe, head of consumer credit education at TransUnion.

Individuals interested in learning how to read their credit report canclick here.More information about the study can be accessed here.

About TransUnion (NYSE: TRU)TransUnion is a global information and insights company that makes trust possible in the modern economy. We do this by providing a comprehensive picture of each person so they can be reliably and safely represented in the marketplace. As a result, businesses and consumers can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good.

A leading presence in more than 30 countries across five continents, TransUnion provides solutions that help create economic opportunity, great experiences, and personal empowerment for hundreds of millions of people.

http://www.transunion.com/business

Continued here:

18.7 Million US Consumers in Financial Hardship Programs Experienced an Increase to their Credit Scores; Study Finds Their Performance Similar to...

A week this packed feels like the good old days when every Thursday we'd have to take inventory of the options and make some hard choices about which shows we were going to see and which we'd have to pass on. I'm going to break it down venue by venue, and you're going to have to decide how far your time and money will take you.

Los ngeles Azules kick of Vina Robles' week on Friday, Oct. 8 (8 p.m.; all ages; $50 to $70 plus service charges at vinaroblesamphitheatre.com). After a year without a concert, the recently named Premio Lo NuestroCumbia Legacy Award-winning ensemble has embarked on their 40 Aos Tour, which will take them to 25 venues, including Paso. Expect classics such as "Cmo Te Voy a Olvidar" and "El Listn de tu Pelo," as well as music from their 40-year career.

Multi-platinum Danish band Volbeat plays Vina on Saturday, Oct. 9 (8 p.m.; all ages; $49.50 to $69.50 plus service charges at vinaroblesamphitheatre.com). They're on their Wait A Minute ... Let's Tour tour to promote their new video for "Wait A Minute My Girl," a bopping post-punk pop track that will get you hopping.

Legendary punk outfits Flogging Molly and Violent Femmes share the bill at Vina on Sunday, Oct. 10 (6:30 p.m.; all ages; $45 to $65 plus service charges at vinaroblesamphitheatre.com), with Me First and The Gimme Gimmes and Thick opening. Yeah, four bands for your moshing pleasure. The Femmes, a personal fav in the '80s, are celebrating their 40th anniversary, and you'll hopefully hear classics such as "Blister in the Sun," "American Music," and "Gone Daddy Gone."

More punk awaits when Celtic-American heroes Dropkick Murphys and Berkeley-based Rancid play Vina on Wednesday, Oct. 13 (7 p.m.; all ages; $45 to $50 plus service charges at vinaroblesamphitheatre.com), with The Bronx opening. This is the first time since 2017 that The Murphs and Rancid have hit the road together.

Finally, rock acts Dirty Heads and Sublime with Rome play Vina on Thursday, Oct. 14 and Friday, Oct. 15 (7 p.m.; all ages; $49.50 to $75 plus service charges at vinaroblesamphitheatre.com), with Hirie opening. They're calling it their High and Mighty Tour. Sublime With Rome is promoting their 2019 album Blessings and its singles "Wicked Heart" and "Light On." Like Sublime, Dirty Heads mixes hip-hop, reggae, and rock, all delivered with their laid back Cali attitude.

The Fremont kicks off their week with reggae, ska, surf, pop, and punk acts The Expendables and Ballyhoo! this Thursday, Oct. 7 (8 p.m.; $18 plus fees at seetickets.us). I almost can't believe The Expendables have been at it for 18 years. I still think of the Santa Cruz band as newcomers, but they're veterans now.

A three-band punk show with headliner Pennywise comes to the Fremont on Saturday, Oct. 9, with Deviates and The Line opening (7 p.m.; $33 plus fees at seetickets.us). The Hermosa Beach headliner is a real California institutiona band that delivers "fast-paced anthems expertly engineered to inspire radical change, personal empowerment, relentless hijinks, and reckless fast times," as their bio notes. Expect hits like "Same Old Story," "Fuck Authority," "Alien," "Homesick," and "Bro Hymn."

Stripped-down Americana roots heroes The Wood Brothers play the Fremont on Thursday, Oct. 14 (9 p.m.; $25 plus fees at seetickets.us), with Kat Wright opening. They write beautiful, literate, often melancholy songs, and their most recent, Kingdom In My Mind, is amazing.

"Everyone has these little kingdoms in their minds," Chris Wood said in press materials, "and the songs on this album all explore the ways we find peace in them. They look at how we deal with our dreams and our regrets and our fears and our loves. They look at the stories we tell ourselves and the ways we balance the darkness and the light."

Numbskull and Good Medicine start their week with some ripping bluegrass at Morro Bay's The Siren. Al Lee & Blue Summit plays Friday, Oct. 8 (7:30 p.m.; 21-and-older; $15 presale at eventbrite.com or $20 at the door), with local bluegrass up-and-comer Miss Leo opening. Led by singer-songwriter and mandolinist AJ Lee, Blue Summit has become the darling of the North Bay bluegrass scene, drawing influences from swing, folk, blues, jazz, country, soul, and rock.

Grammy-nominated performer Janiva Magness is next up at The Siren on Wednesday, Oct. 13 (7 p.m.; 21-and-older; $22 presale at eventbrite.com or $25 at the door). She's touring in support of Change in the Weather: Janiva Magness Sings John Fogerty, which came out last month on Blue lan Records and reframes 12 songs "curated from the Creedence Clearwater Revival leader's catalog in Magness' soaring, soul-centered style," press materials explain. Expect to hear "Lodi," "Bad Moon Rising," "Don't You Wish It Was True," and others.

"Kirk Pasich, the founder of Blue lan, suggested that we record 'Long As I Can See the Light,'" Magness explained, "and I loved adapting and singing that song, so it was a natural evolution to Change in the Weather. John Fogerty is a brilliant writer. His melodies are big and rich and provide a real highway into the heart of his songs, which is wonderful for me as a singer, and their backbone is his storytelling, which is spare and direct, and absolutely American in its imagery and themes. And those themes endure."

Numbskull and Good Medicine close their week with super fun pop punk act The Queers at The Siren next Thursday, Oct. 14 (7 p.m.; 21-and-older; $10 presale at eventbrite.com or $12 at the door), with local act Pancho and Wizards opening. Expect Queers classics such as "Can't Stop Farting," "Born To Do Dishes," and "I Didn't Get Invited To The Prom." If you dig the Ramones, you'll dig The Queers.

Grateful Dead tribute act Grateful Shred plays SLO Brew Rock this Thursday, Oct. 7 and Friday, Oct. 8 (7:30 p.m.; 18-and-older; $27 plus service fees at ticketweb.com). These guys re-create the sound and the vibe of the iconic jam band.

Indie folk pop act Whitney plays the Rock on Monday, Oct. 11 (7 p.m.; all ages; $35 plus service fees at ticketweb.com), with Rene Reed opening. Whitney formed in a Chicago apartment in 2014, "tackling songs by the Everly Brothers, Allen Toussaint, and more played," according to their bio. In 2016, they began releasing their own material but continued to offer select covers like NRBQ's "Magnet" and Neil Young's "On the Way Home."

(((folkYEAH!)))) and SLO Brew Live present the Cass McCombs Band on Thursday, Oct. 14 (7 p.m.; all ages; $25 plus service fees at ticketweb.com). This psychedelic folk-rock songwriter's material has been described as diverse, cryptic, vital, and refreshingly rebellious. According to his press materials, "'Rancid Girl' reads like a ZZ Top study in Kardashian politics, 'Run Sister Run' [is] a mantra for a misogynistic justice system, [and] 'Bum Bum Bum' displays a racist, elitist government through the allegory of sadistic dog breeding."

Arroyo Grande's favorite auditorium is back in action next Thursday, Oct. 14, when Led Zeppelin tribute act Led Zepagain plays the Clark Center (7:30 p.m.; all ages; $39 to $44 at clarkcenter.org/shows/led-zepagain/). "It's as close as you'll ever get to the real deal!" said Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page.

"From the high-energy electric classics to the beautiful acoustic works, you will be mesmerized as Led Zepagain resurrects Page's soaring guitar leads, Jones' brilliant keyboard passages, Bonham's trademark pounding rhythms, and the signature Robert Plant vocals," according to press materials. "As you experience immortal classics 'Stairway to Heaven,' 'Immigrant Song,' 'Whole Lotta Love,' and 'Black Dog,' you'll understand why Led Zepagain has become highly regarded as the most authentic representation of Led Zeppelin in the world today."

Local alt-rock act Carbon City Lights will play Harmony Cellars on Friday, Oct. 8 (4:30 to 6:30 p.m.; free) and Sea Pines Golf Resort next week on Saturday, Oct. 16 (2 to 6 p.m.; free), and their lead singer has some breaking news. "I got cast on this season of NBC's TV show, The Voice, and got to audition for Blake Shelton, Ariana Grande, John Legend, and Kelly Clarkson," Michael Venia explained. Congrats, my man! Good luck!

Earthy, soulful singer-songwriter Crimson Skye will play Paso Robles' Broken Earth Winery this Saturday, Oct. 9 (1 to 4 p.m.; free). She has a terrific new album, The Far Side, with songs that will burrow into your ears and soul.

Contact Senior Staff Writer Glen Starkey at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.

Follow this link:

With 30 bands to choose from, this week is one for the record book - New Times SLO

Still Life: Notes on Barbara Lodens Wanda (1970)Anna Backman Rogers154 pagesPunctum Books, 2021

One of the complaints made about feminist films of the 1970s and 80s was that they were too experimental, too avant-garde, too elitist. They refused the pleasures of pop cinema. They skipped the well-told story and refused the escapism of character identification. And beauty? Forget it!

Take Barbara Lodens Wanda, from 1970: its a desolate portrait of what New Yorker critic Paulene Kael dubbed an ignorant slut in a film described by Jump Cuts Chuck Kleinhans as flat and opaque. Indeed, Wanda, who is based on a woman Loden read about in the newspaper, lacks all ambition and her pathetic spiral into crime is captured in stark, often downright ugly imagery topped off with an affectless performance. How would feminists ever catalyze a broad-scale revolution with films as unappealing as Wanda?

In her terrific new book Still Life: Notes on Barbara Lodens Wanda, Anna Backman Rogers, who teaches at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, eloquently offers an answer to this question. Rather than deny Wandas ugliness, Rogers passionately calls attention to it; she repeatedly points to the films slowness and mundanity, as well as to Wandas passivity and hesitancy, her muteness and numbness. However, in all of this, Rogers uncovers not bad screenwriting and shoddy filmmaking but instead writer/director/actor Lodens quiet, unflinching subversion, and she uses this to argue further that not only should we watch films like Wanda, we must watch them. This is a film that holds within it the sadness of the world, Rogers writes, and asks us to attend to that as an ethical calling. It tells us, starkly and simply, not to turn away from suffering.

While this is Rogers thesis, which is powerfully argued, the book also ponders how and why Wanda has gained cult status, and why for many of us, the film feels uniquely our own. Wanda is a film I have thought about every single day since I first saw it, Rogers writes, and it continues to teach me things. Here, Rogers names the feeling that many viewers have in response to the blunt force of Wanda, which is often followed by a sense of discovery, intimacy, even identification: Wanda, an undiscovered heroine of inscrutable pathos, is always our Wanda! However, while that sense of acute recognition often feels quite singular and personal, Rogers demonstrates how the film is not only speaking to a bevy of cult fans, nor is it simply an iconic emblem of the past; it is instead a prescient alarm for the present.

Still Life is divided into three parts. The first section contains nine sub-sections, each one carefully situating the film in a particular way. Rogers begins with the material history of the film, how, when and with whom it was made. She highlights Ross Lipmans role in discovering the original print of the film in 2007, the films restoration, and its digital release by the Criterion Collection in 2019. She also traces a history of critical responses far more incisive than Kaels, citing a key essay written by film scholar Brnice Reynaud originally in 1995 and then re-published in Senses of Cinema in 2002 that brought the film back into a broader conversation. Reynaud pointedly queries the historical erasure of the film, not only by mainstream critics and audiences even after it won the Critics Prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1970, but by feminist historians. While Wanda has been ignored by every major text of feminist film theory published in English over the last 20 years, Akerman, Potter and Rainer have become household names, claims Reynaud. While this spins me into a fantasy world where feminist filmmakers are indeed household names, Reynauds point is pertinent. Wanda might not fare well commercially, but what made the film so dismissible by feminists, too?

Rogers, building on the work of critical theorists of affect such as Sara Ahmed, Lauren Berlant and Ann Cvetkovich, goes on to read the film in relation to a broader political context. She shows how Wanda condemns the mendacity of the American myths of success and happiness, writing, By attending to failure, to impossibility, to impasse, we can attain a greater understanding of the ways in which happiness, as a disciplinary ideology, comes to shape our understanding of what it means to be a person in the world.

Rogers then narrows her critique to gender, noting that Lodens quite brilliant portrayal of Wanda demonstrates total disenfranchisement. Wandas passivity can be seen as a radical indictment of the multitudinous and infinitesimal ways that women every day are forced to subjugate and deny their personhood, explains Rogers, who goes on to assert that Wanda continues to reverberate now, in 2021 because it is a film from the future since its politics are so prescient of the endgame currently being played out politically, economically, socially (and ethically) on a global scale.

In short, then, with this opening section of the book, Rogers joins a vocal cadre of feminist critics across a nearly 30-year history who have had a profound experience viewing the film and in turn, have argued for its relevance. What Rogers brings to the conversation is the idea that a film from 1970 speaks so powerfully to our current moment, a time inviting a radical reimagining of representation; an attention to affect and the sensorium as viable modes of cinematic expression; and a desire to attend to ongoing lived trauma for so many. While the final three sub-sections would be stronger with some rearranging, the writing here burns with the high heat of a blowtorch.

The second section of the book is, curiously, a shot-by-shot reading of the film, zooming in close to study framing, camera movement, cutting and performance. After describing several scenes in flat detail, Rogers offers her interpretation, noted in italics, including her own affective responses to what she has witnessed. Reading this section is strange, like listening to a baseball game on the radio. If weve seen the film, we can recall many of the images; however, to then read Rogers often eloquent response is at once thrilling, validating and wrenching. Yes, we think, I remember that scene, and yes, the obliteration of consent. Yes, ineffable sorrow. Ah, yes, silence, only silence. Fade to black.

The final section acts as a brief coda, returning to the books larger argument and the desire not to include Wanda within a broader canon of feminist filmmaking that championed images of women or celebrated self-empowerment. Instead, Rogers notes that the film holds a disarticulated, muted, numb, and seemingly passive woman at its core and demands that the viewer reckon with the very possibility of self-definition as an inaccessible privilege. This is a feminism that needs to address race and class as much as gender, and one that must reimagine the role of film in figuring, and perhaps even galvanizing, modes of resistance.

Still Life is very much a book in conversation with other scholars and critics who have written about Wanda, including Elena Gorfinkel, Natalie Lger, Kate Zambreno, Amy Taubin, Marguerite Duras, Amelie Hastie and even Isabelle Huppert. Rogers gathers and sifts through much of the historical information available elsewhere, but she situates this information within her own felt experience of the film and presents her own take, one that refuses the myths of betterment and potential proffered by neoliberalism. She sees and celebrates Barbara Lodens brilliance and quiet ferocity, and, as in the best examples of autotheory, deftly integrates personal experience with philosophical inquiry. More importantly, Rogers meets Lodens powerful drive to represent a womans experience with her own equally searing indictment of American myths. Rogers reclaims the mute and the numb in order to say that this is what suffering looks like and we cannot look away.

See more here:

Wanda: Film from the Future - Filmmaker Magazine

When youre already worn out from working full time, caring for family, and managing this new way of Covid being, its hard to muster up the energy to jump into a job hunt or consider changing careers. Incorporating these five coaching and change management principles into your job search will help you stay motivated throughout what can feel like a grueling process even at the best of times. First, give some thought to why you actually want a new job, and why you want it now. Next, use visualization techniques when exhaustion or false narratives take over. Then, create a plan and follow it methodically. Next, let go of the things you cant control. Finally, prepare for the inevitable emotional ups and downs.

When Fred, a client of mine, realized he wasnt feeling fulfilled in his job, he wanted to find something more meaningful. So he started a job search. Within days, he was interviewing multiple times a week for multiple companies, and each interview required hours of preparation while he was also spearheading major projects at his full-time job. As his workload became more frenetic, he said many times, This is exhausting, and at times thought he would give up for a while if the roles he was interviewing for didnt come through.

Freds exhaustion is understandable. When youre already worn out from working full time, caring for family, and managing this new way of Covid being, its hard to muster up the energy to jump into a job hunt or consider changing careers. Incorporating the following five coaching and change management principles into your job search will help you stay motivated throughout what can feel like a grueling process even at the best of times.

Understanding why you want a new job will help you focus on the end goal. It will allow you to enter the search from a place of exploration and empowerment, which will motivate you find space for job hunting instead of filling that space with paralyzing anger or fear. Defining why now? will call you to action to take that first step.

Sit and close your eyes. Visualize a time when you were excited about a new job or happy in your current one. What feelings do the images conjure up for you? What parts of the images excite you? Do you like the people? The work? Then think about your job today. Do you have different feelings? What dont you have in your current job that you wish you did?

Finally, visualize how youll feel when you find your dream job. Embrace that energy, excitement, and engagement and feel it through your entire body. What parts of the new job will make you feel this way? Using visualization to determine whats important to you and embracing the feeling that comes from the imagery will help you power through the arduous job-hunting process if there is disappointment or its taking longer than you anticipated. Use this technique when exhaustion or false narratives take over.

Fear of the unknown, of how much time the process will take, or of not knowing what you want to do will stop you from gaining momentum in your job search. But if you create a plan first and follow it methodically, youll glean energy from accomplishing every step.

First, determine how much time youre willing and able to dedicate to the job-hunting process and commit to that amount of time each day or week. Block off that time as well as 15 minutes twice a day to check personal email and LinkedIn to respond to recruiters or schedule interviews. If you can swing it, consider incorporating a bit of extra time every day to do something you love right before sitting down to job hunt, such as exercising, dancing, standing with arms akimbo (Wonder Woman stance), or being with family. This will energize you, put your mind in a peaceful and happy space, and prime it for productivity.

Next, create an activity schedule. What will you do and when? Do you need to prepare your resume, update your LinkedIn profile, or develop stories around your experience to tell during interviews? How much time will you spend applying online? Be clear on what youll do each day you blocked off time.

Finally, determine who youll need support from when job hunting. Do you need to ask a significant other to take more responsibility in the household so you can use that time to job hunt? Do you need to set boundaries for the time youll dedicate to the search and not let anyone (or anything) interrupt you?

All companies recruiting processes are different and will take various amounts of time. Some companies have a maximum of four interviewers whereas others may have 10 interviews, a technical test, and reference checks. Some companies take 30 or 60 days to hire; some take 90 days or longer. Roles, leaders, or budgets can change after a job is posted or after youve interviewed, leaving you to wonder, what happened?

You cant control any of that. You also cant control whether youre a culture fit, whether a recruiter disappears and ghosts you, whether there are any jobs open in your chosen field at a particular time, or how many jobs youll need to apply to before you find the perfect one. Focusing on all of these things will sap your energy and make you not want to even start a job hunt.

But if you focus on what you can control, youll increase your positive energy and build momentum. Here are a few things to spend your energy on instead of the factors that are out of your hands:

Mental preparation is just as important as preparing your resume. The job-hunting process is emotional and comes with plenty of ups (great interviews) and downs (losing a job to another candidate). Even landing a new job may lead to stress over setting your current team members up for success, offboarding, and then onboarding in a new company. Rejection after a battery of interviews may make you feel like you wasted a lot of time. But what if you changed that perspective to finding success in each failure? Every interview, every meeting, is practice for the right job. When youre rejected from a job you really want, it feels like a lost opportunity. But what if you changed the narrative in your brain to genuinely believe it wasnt the right opportunity?

Prepare how youll work through rejection in advance. For example, give yourself a maximum of one day to mourn the loss, determine what you learned from the experience, then own that it wasnt the right role for you. Setting boundaries will stop the spiral over an opportunity that wasnt right for you anyway.

***

The most important aspect of job hunting is to be compassionate with yourself and change your thought process from Im not doing enough to Im doing the best I can. When Fred felt like his work, family, and other commitments were being short-changed as a result of the time he dedicated to his job search, he reminded himself that the investment in finding the right job would ultimately enrich all aspects of his life and that a more rewarding environment would curb some of his fatigue. He was right his energy and happiness multiplied exponentially when he landed his dream job.

View original post here:

How to Job Hunt (When You're Already Exhausted) - Harvard Business Review

A steady diet of exploitative, sexually provocative depictions of women feeds a poisonous trend in womens and girls perceptions of their bodies.

Editors note: WhenMs. was launched as a one-shot sample insert inNew Yorkmagazine in December 1971, it was a brazen act of independence. At the time, the feminist movement was either denigrated or dismissed in the so-called mainstream media. Most magazines marketed to women were limited to advice about finding a husband, saving marriages, raising babies or using the right cosmetics.

To pay tribute to five decades of reporting, rebelling and truth-telling, Ms.s series From the Vault includes some of our favorite feminist classics from the last 50 years of Ms.

On a typical day, you might see ads featuring a naked womans body tempting viewers to buy an electronic organizer, partially exposed womens breasts being used to sell fishing line, or a womans rearwearing only a thongbeing used to pitch a new running shoe. Meanwhile, on every newsstand, impossibly slim (and digitally airbrushed) cover girls adorn a slew of magazines. With each image, youre hit with a simple, subliminal message: Girls and womens bodies are objects for others to visually consume.

If such images seem more ubiquitous than ever, its because U.S. residents are now exposed to anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 advertisements a dayup from 500 to 2,000 a day in the 1970s. The Internet accounts for much of this growth, and young people are particularly exposed to advertising: 70 percent of 15- to 34-year-olds use social networking technologies such as MySpace and Facebook, which allow advertisers to infiltrate previously private communication space.

Although mass media has always objectified women, it has become increasingly provocative. More and more, female bodies are shown as outright objects (think Rose McGowans machine gun leg in the recent horror movie Grindhouse), are literally broken into parts (the disembodied womans torso in advertisements for TVs The Sarah Connor Chronicles) or are linked with sexualized violence (simulated crime scenes on Americas Next Top Model featuring seemingly dead women).

A steady diet of exploitative, sexually provocative depictions of women feeds a poisonous trend in womens and girls perceptions of their bodies, one that has recently been recognized by social scientists as self-objectificationviewing ones body as a sex object to be consumed by the male gaze. Like W.E.B. DuBoiss famous description of the experience of Black Americans, self-objectification is a state of double consciousness a sense of always looking at ones self through the eyes of others.

Women who self-objectify are desperate for outside validation of their appearance and present their bodies in ways that draw attention. A study I did of 71 randomly selected female students from a liberal arts college in Los Angeles, for example, found that 70 percent were medium or high self-objectifiers, meaning that they have internalized the male gaze and chronically monitor their physical appearance. Boys and men experience self-objectification as well, but at a much lower rateprobably because, unlike women, they rarely get the message that their bodies are the primary determination of their worth.

Researchers have learned a lot about self-objectification since the term was coined in 1997 by University of Michigan psychology professor Barbara Fredrickson and Colorado College psychology professor Tomi-Ann Roberts. Numerous studies since then have shown that girls and women who self-objectify are more prone to depression and low self-esteem and have less faith in their own capabilities, which can lead to diminished success in life. They are more likely to engage in habitual body monitoringconstantly thinking about how their bodies appear to the outside worldwhich puts them at higher risk for eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. And they are prone to embarrassment about bodily functions such as menstruation, as well as general feelings of disgust and shame about their bodies.

Self-objectification has also been repeatedly shown to sap cognitive functioning, because of all the attention devoted to body monitoring. For instance, a 1998 study asked two groups of women to take a math examone group in swimsuits, the other in sweaters. The swimsuit-wearers, distracted by body concerns, performed significantly worse than their peers in sweaters.

Several of my own surveys of college students indicate that this impaired concentration by self-objectifiers may hurt their academic performance. Those with low self-objectification reported an average GPA of 3.5, whereas those with high self-objectification reported a 3.1. While this gap may appear small, in graduate school admissions it represents the difference between being competitive and being out of the running for the top schools.

Another worrisome effect of self-objectification is that it diminishes political efficacya persons belief that she can have an impact through the political process. In another survey of mine, 33 percent of high self-objectifiers felt low political efficacy, compared to 13 percent of low self-objectifiers. Since political efficacy leads to participation in politics, having less of it means that self-objectifiers may be less likely to vote or run for office.

The effects of self-objectification on young girls are of such growing concern that the American Psychological Association published an investigative report on it last year. The APA found that girls as young as seven years old are exposed to clothing, toys, music, magazines and television programs that encourage them to be sexy or hotteaching them to think of themselves as sex objects before their own sexual maturity. Even thong underwear is being sold in sizes for 7- to 10-year-olds. The consequence, wrote Kenyon College psychology professor Sarah Murnen in the journal Sex Roles, is that girls are taught to view their bodies as projects that need work before they can attract others, whereas boys are likely to learn to view their bodies as tools to use to master the environment.

Fredrickson, along with Michigan communications professor Kristen Harrison (both work within the universitys Institute for Research on Women and Gender), recently discovered that self-objectification actually impairs girls motor skills. Their study of 202 girls, ages 10 to 17, found that self-objectification impeded girls ability to throw a softball, even after differences in age and prior experience were factored out. Self-objectification forced girls to split their attention between how their bodies looked and what they wanted them to do, resulting in less forceful throws and worse aim.

One of the more stunning effects of self-objectification is its impact on sex. Nudity can cause great anxiety among self-objectifiers, who then become preoccupied with how their bodies look in sexual positions. One young woman I interviewed described sex as being an out of body experience during which she viewed herself through the eyes of her lover, and, sometimes, through the imaginary lens of a camera shooting a porn film. As a constant critic of her body, she couldnt focus on her own sexual pleasure.

Self-objectification can likely explain some other things that researchers are just starting to study. For instance, leading anti-sexist male activist and author Jackson Katz observes, Many young women now engage in sex acts with men that prioritize the mans pleasure, with little or no expectation of reciprocity. Could this be another result of women seeing themselves as sexual objects, not agents?

Disturbingly, some girls and women celebrate their object status as a form of empowerment. This is evident in a booming industry of T-shirts for women that proclaim their object status, such as one on which Fuck Foreplay is written across a half-used tube of KY Jelly, suggesting that the wearer is ready for penetration at a moments notice. (This shirt also propagates the notion that men do not enjoy foreplay.) Other shirts make light of rape, with words such as Violate Me or No Means Eat Me Out First.

At the root of this normalization of self-objectification may lie new consumer values in the U.S. Unlike the producer citizen of yesteryearinvoked in the 1960s by John F. Kennedys request to ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your countrythe more common consumer citizen of today asks what the country, and everyone else, can do for him or her. Consumercitizens increasingly think of relationships with others as transactions in which they receive something, making them more comfortable consuming other human beings, visually or otherwise.

Self-objectification isnt going anywhere anytime soon. So what can we do about it?

First, we can recognize how our everyday actions feed the larger beast, and realize that we are not powerless. Mass media, the primary peddler of female bodies, can be assailed with millions of little consumer swords. We can boycott companies and engage in other forms of consumer activism, such as socially conscious investments and shareholder actions.

We can also contact companies directly to voice our concerns and refuse to patronize businesses that overtly depict women as sex objects. An example of womens spending power, and the limits of our tolerance for objectification, can be found in the 12 percent dip in profits of clothing company Victorias Secret this yeardue, according to the companys CEO, to its image becoming too sexy. Victorias Secret was not the target of an organized boycottrather, its increasingly risqu bra and panty show seems to have begun alienating women, who perhaps no longer want to simply be shown as highly sexualized window dressing.

Another strategy to counter ones own tendency to self-objectify is to make a point of buying products, watching programs and reading publications that promote more authentic womens empowerment. This can be difficult, of course, in a media climate in which companies are rarely wholeheartedly body-positive. For instance, Dove beauty products launched a much-lauded advertising campaign that used real women (i.e., not super-skinny ones) instead of models, but then Doves parent company, Unilever, put out hypersexual ads for Axe mens body spray that showed the fragrance driving scantily clad women into orgiastic states.

Locating unadulterated television and film programming is also tough. Even Lifetime and Oxygen, TV networks created specifically for women, often portray us as weak victims or sex objects and present a narrow version of thin, white beauty. Action films that promise strong female protagonists (think of the women of X-Men, or Lara Croft from Tomb Raider) usually deliver these characters in skintight clothes, serving the visual pleasure of men.

Feminist media criticism, at least, is plentiful. Ms., Bitch and others, along with publications for young girls such as New Moon Magazine, provide thoughtful analyses of media from various feminist perspectives. NOWs Love Your Body website critiques offensive ads and praises body-positive ones. Blogs, both well known and lesser known, provide a platform for women and girls to vent about how the media depicts them. And theres some evidence that criticizing media helps defuse its effects: Murnens study found that grade school girls who had negative reactions to pictures of objectified women reported higher self-esteem.

A more radical, personal solution is to actively avoid media that compels us to self-objectifywhich, unfortunately, is the vast majority of movies, television programs and womens magazines. My research with college-aged women indicates that the less women consume media, the less they self-objectify, particularly if they avoid fashion magazines. By shutting out media, girls and women can create mental and emotional space for true self-exploration.

What would our lives look like if we viewed our bodies as tools to master our environment, instead of projects to be constantly worked on? What if our sexual expressions were based on our own pleasure as opposed to a narrow, consumerist idea of male sexual pleasure? What would disappear from our lives if we stopped seeing ourselves as objects? Painful high heels? Body hatred? Constant dieting? Liposuction? Unreciprocated oral sex?

Its hard to know. Perhaps the most striking outcome of self-objectification is the difficulty women have in imagining identities and sexualities truly our own. In solidarity, we can start on this path, however confusing and difficult it may be.

If you found this articlehelpful,please consider supporting our independent reporting and truth-telling for as little as $5 per month.

Up next:

The rest is here:

Out-of-Body Image: How Media Teaches Young Girls to Hate Their Bodies and Young Boys to Objectify Them (Spring 2008) - Ms. Magazine

You dont have to look too closely to know that climate change is one of the dominantand most anxiety-inducingstories of our lifetimes. This summer, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a landmark report detailing the dire future of the planetone that United Nations Secretary-General Antnio Guterres called a code red for humanity.

Without immediate, drastic action, its unlikely that well be able to avoid 1.5 degrees Celsius warming in the next 20 years, a so-called climate tipping point that will bring about irreversible impacts to our weather, food supply, and health. Young people are expected to live through an unprecedented number of natural disasters, according to research in the journal Science. Put simply, climate change can feel like an impossible load to bear.

That thing you might be feeling right now is called climate anxietyfear and stress related to the climate crisisand its a growing phenomenon, explains Thomas Doherty, a psychologist specializing in an environmental approach to therapy at Sustainable Self in Portland, OR.

There are practical and worthwhile ways to confront and calm it, says board-certified psychologist David H. Rosmarin, Ph.D., assistant professor in psychology at Harvard Medical School and founder of the Center for Anxiety. And working to solve eco-anxiety can also help us work through other forms of anxiety we face each day, Doherty notes. Heres how to tackle climate anxiety, according to the experts.

The most significant risks to humanity are not immediate, but long-term, Rosmarin explains. The IPCC report is written in urgent language designed to spur action on the part of world leaders; it doesnt say, however, that we should brace for the end of the world.

So remember that even in the worst-case scenario, it will take two decades for us to reach that climate tipping pointurgent, yes, but a timeframe we can work with. When you find yourself obsessing over the ways in which the environment could collapse over the upcoming years, Rosmarin recommends trying to pull back. Being aware and taking reasonable action against a distant risk is fine, but being preoccupied is generally not productive, he notes. In these moments, go for a walk, write down your thoughts, or do something else that calms you and helps you refocus on the presentspiraling over potential issues wont stop them; itll just make you feel more anxious.

This strategy isnt perfectsome people are already living with the effects of climate change (like those breathing in wildfire smoke in the West), and plenty of people are declining to have children because of fears over the future. But its worthwhile, Rosmarin says, if youre caught up in vague, overwhelming eco-anxiety.

Anxiety is a normal, healthy emotion, Doherty says. On a basic level, anxiety is fear wrapped in a cloud of uncertainty. It arises when were faced with a situation that may or may not be threatening to usand he describes it as helpful because it prompts us to step inside that cloud and take steps to protect ourselves. Its normal for people to feel anxious about climate change or disruption because it has many, many potential threats, Doherty explains.

But like with other drawn-out stressors like, say, chronic illnesses, divorce, or the pandemic, you can keep livingeven thrivingwith the anxiety that it causes, Rosmarin says. Such anxieties do not need to take over ones life, he explains.

Rosmarin recalls a patient who worried about her health in the same way many others worry about the environment; its natural to worry about the big issues that affect you. He encouraged her to not try to push her anxiety away, but learn to live her life alongside it. She remarked that it was very empowering to think that she doesnt need to get rid of her anxiety to have a happy life, he says.

Anxiety is a normal, healthy emotion.

So dont immediately try to bury your anxiety over the environment; poke around in that so-called cloud, Doherty recommends, and figure out what you can do to address climate change in your life. This way, your anxiety will actually help you build toward something positive, instead of keeping you spinning your wheels and focusing on the negatives.

Its easy to get caught up in a whirlwind of sad, scared thoughts about the environment. But eco-anxiety, by its very nature, comes from a love of the world around us. I try to get people to see a 360-degree view of emotions in general, and also regarding the environment, so were not stuck on just a few different emotions, Doherty explains.

Once you start opening that up, you build more capacity to deal with your anxiety, he says. People realize they have more emotions in there, such as hope, curiosity, empowerment, or compassion. Once we get a lot of emotional channels going, then that anxiety has better context.

Although this can apply to any anxiety, it applies especially well to climate change. Reconnecting with why you love nature in the first place, especially by getting outside (which has mental health benefits of its own), can help you pair your negative thoughts with wondrous ones.

Many newcomers to eco-anxiety are not experts on the environment, Doherty says, so he recommends exploring climate issues to create what he calls an environmental identity. This is built on your values, connections with nature, life events, and researchmuch in the same way people come to understand their gender or cultural identity, he notes. With a firm grip on that, anxiety is much easier to manage, and personal growth is more likely.

You can use this identity to channel your anxiety into action, whether thats pressuring your elected officials or bosses to adopt greener practices or volunteering with an environmental organization. But theres no mandate for you to do these things, Doherty. After all, no one can do everything on their own; pace yourself to avoid burnout.

Confiding in someone you trust is necessary for all of us, Rosmarin says, whether thats in a loved one, a family member, or a professional. Sharing anxieties, he notes, can help strengthen the bonds between us, leading to happier, more fulfilling lives in general. Plus, verbalizing your thoughts can help you make more sense of them.

This is an especially important step if youre really struggling with climate anxiety. People who cannot think or focus on other matters are likely to be experiencing an anxiety disorder, Rosmarin warns. If one cannot control their worriesif they feel that they cannot stop worryingits worth having a conversation with a mental health professional.

Doherty agrees, saying that while most people will experience some form of climate anxiety, a smaller group has a climate anxiety disorder that requires help from a professional. (Finding the right one can be tough, but this guide is a great place to start.) Theres a new contingent of climate-identified psychologists and therapists like Doherty, but its not completely necessary to reach out to one, he notes.

Thinking of this as a normal, 21st-century situation is helpful, Doherty says. Any good therapist can help people deal with anxiety.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

Read the original here:

How to Cope With Climate Anxiety, According to Psychologists - Prevention.com