Author: fizur-philip@cooperhealth.edu

The use of the word “peace” in University of Ottawa’s “Peace Week” can give pause to those not familiar with the event, though the word choice was very intentional. “[Peace] means many, many different things,” said John Packer, associate law professor and director of U of O’s Human Rights Research and Education Centre (HRREC). There exists the concept of both positive and negative peace—negative peace being the absence of war or armed conflict; positive peace being the management of a society’s inherent disputes to maintain equanimity through the construction of sustainable institutions and reconciliation of past wrongdoings. “If the intention is to have [an event that] that focuses and activities, then at least the English phraseology should be renamed to a health and wellbeing week,” said Packer. “But if the idea is to encompass peace in the terms that we’re talking about, some fashion of broader peace, then I would say keep the name and add some activities for peace on campus and around us.”

To that end, each year University of Ottawa offers peace week, and COVID did not stop it this year, though things do look different. This year, festivities featured virtual events focusing on the wellbeing of stressed-out students. From psyches to pet therapy and at-home yoga, to mindful meditation and life hacks applicable to modern life (all of which were accessible from wherever one may access the internet) Peace Week featured a large variety of events. But it also involved frank discussions on topics ranging from employment prospects before COVID and in the post-COVID world to the contribution of organizations like Black Lives Matter to advancing greater issues of peace and justice.

Learn more about this program at the University of Ottawa student newspaper.

When the coronavirus pandemic descended, the moms of four brave girls in Florida realized an in-person reunion for their daughters, something that had become an annual tradition since they had met four years ago, was out of the question. Rather than skip it, they used Zoom to the delight of their children, known collectively as the Tutu Girls.

Lauren Glynn is the shy one with the toy husky dog. Smiley McKinley Moore has a doll with blond hair just like hers, and Avalynn Luciano is the squirmer with the pretty white bow on top of her head. Together, they are the Tutu Girls – a brave posse of cancer survivors.

All age 7 or nearly so, the three girls were diagnosed with leukemia in 2016 and met at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida, where they became fast friends. In the hospital, they sang together and played ring-around-the-rosy. They shared popsicles, and kept each other company while undergoing brutal treatment.

That year, they posed for photos at the hospital in purple tutus with a fourth young cancer survivor, Chloe Grimes, and a tradition was born.

Read more about the Tutu Girls at APNews.com.

At 96, Giuseppe Paterno has faced many tests in life – childhood poverty, war and, more recently, the coronavirus pandemic. Now he has sailed through an exam that makes him Italy’s oldest university graduate.

This week, the former railway worker stepped forward to receive his diploma and the traditional laurel wreath awarded to Italian students when they graduate, applauded by his family, teachers and fellow students more than 70 years his junior.

“I am a normal person, like many others,” he said, when asked what it felt like to be graduating so late. “In terms of age I have surpassed all the others but I didn’t do it for this.”

Hear his story in his own words below, and read more at Reuters News.

It began when lifelong baseball fan Kimberlee MacVicar intimated that in her 52 years, she had never corralled a foul ball. “I’ve waited half a century, so I’m not in a rush,” she texted me on July 24 — opening night in Oakland. With nobody else to scavenge for baseballs during this strange COVID-19 season devoid of fans, I had a clear advantage as a regular covering Bay Area baseball and one of the few people allowed inside the stadium. So I saw to it that the next day, MacVicar received a ball hit foul by slugger Mark Canha as her Athletics defeated the Angels. This sparked an idea: Why not share the souvenirs, spreading some joy to those who can’t go to the ballpark?

Read more about Kimberlee MacVicar and the efforts of her and others to reconnect fans to the ballpark, even when they cannot be their physically, at APNews.com.

Many of us are beginning to return to some sense of normalcy in our routine as the pandemic continues and, in some areas, re-emerges. While there was an emphasis on attending to mental health at the height of the pandemic, it is easy to lose sight of this as we return to work, school, and other activity of daily living. For this and many other reasons, there has been a renewed push to develop and research smart phone and web-based technologies to assist people in attending to their mental health while on the go. What behavioral scientists such as Drs. Pooja Chandrashekar of Harvard University and Kiona Weisel of University Erlangen-Nürnberg have found is that, while using smartphone apps as standalone psychological interventions cannot be recommended, these apps have strong potential to deliver high-efficacy mental health interventions in the context a global shortage of mental health providers and services until more traditional interventions are more widely available.

Ready to begin exploring some of these apps yourself? Here is a list of those that have the strong research-based support for efficacy:

• MoodHacker – Using MoodHacker every day is key to seeing your patterns and progress. Check out the 7-day and 30-day snapshots to see which days and activities lifted you up or brought you down. Since what you do relates to how you feel, over time you’ll learn which activities boost your mood. If your positive activities are working, you should see a steady improvement in your mood.
• Mindfulness Coach – Practicing mindfulness means grounding yourself in the present moment. Mindfulness has been shown to be helpful for reducing stress and coping with unpleasant thoughts and emotions. Mindfulness Coach will help you practice mindfulness meditation.
• CBTi Coach – For those who have experienced symptoms of insomnia and would like to improve their sleep habits, this app will guide users through the process of learning about sleep, developing positive sleep routines, and improving their sleep environments. It provides a structured program that teaches strategies proven to improve sleep and help alleviate symptoms of insomnia.
• SuperBetter – SuperBetter builds resilience – the ability to stay strong, motivated and optimistic even in the face of change and difficult challenges. Playing SuperBetter unlocks heroic potential to overcome tough situations and achieve goals that matter most.
• PTSD Coach – PTSD Coach was designed for those who have, or may have, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This app provides you with education about PTSD, information about professional care, a self-assessment for PTSD, opportunities to find support, and tools that can help you manage the stresses of daily life with PTSD. Tools range from relaxation skills and positive self-talk to anger management and other common self-help strategies. You can customize tools based on your preferences and can integrate your own contacts, photos, and music. This app can be used by people who are in treatment as well as those who are not.

Have an app that has been helpful for you? Let us know!

It all started when Rick Everett walked out of his home in Sydney and put up a sign on his kitchen window that read: “Free coffee to combat the virus.” It was March, and the Australian acrobat had lost his job during the pandemic. With more free time, he felt he could help out others in need. And he knew how to bake and cook after managing a chocolate and coffee shop and a pizza restaurant. When he started, he said the window would be open whenever he was home. He stressed that it wasn’t a coffee shop business; he just wanted to do something nice and meet his neighbors for a friendly chat during a difficult time.

Learn more about Mr. Everett, this project, and several more than were born out of it at APNews.

While it is great to have a long term wellness goals, it is also equally helpful to identify briefer, more concrete ways to build wellness into your day. Adding structure to any activity helps improve the chances that our efforts will be a success. Below. are five easy steps you can take to make wellness a part of your day from first thing in the morning to the end of the day!