Amid pandemic, Italy’s oldest student graduates at 96

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.

Mindfulness Monday: Compassion

Every Monday, the Daily Dose is dedicated to starting your week right with a brief guided mindfulness exercise. Today, we focus on compassion. Psychologist Kristin Neff, who studies compassion, tells us “Self-compassion involves acting the same way towards yourself when you are having a difficult time, fail, or notice something you don’t like about yourself as you would act toward other under the same circumstances. Instead of just ignoring your pain with a “stiff upper lip” mentality, you stop to tell yourself “this is really difficult right now,” how can I comfort and care for myself in this moment?” Today’s exercise is meant to help us with this, so let’s begin.

Feel Good Friday: Bringing the Ballpark to the Fans

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.

The Science of Mental Health Apps

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!

Mindfulness Monday: Abbreviated Body Scan

Today’s Mindfulness Monday exercise brings our attention back to our body. We recognize that incorporating mindfulness into your already busy day can be a challenge, and so we like to occasionally offer very brief mindfulness based interventions to help you on your way.

Today, we offer and abbreviated version of one of the most common mindfulness-based exercises, the body scan. The purpose of the body scan is to purposely shift your attention to what is going on in your body and, in doing so, reconnect to your physical self rather than the multitude of stimuli and demands in your environment. In this practice, we try to simply and notice any sensations we’re feeling without judgement. While some may find the body scan relaxing, relaxation is not always the primary goal. The goal instead is to train your attention as to become more open and aware of your sensory experiences, recognizing what is happening in each sense, and accepting it just as it is. With time and practice, the body scan can boost your ability to focus and be fully present. Let’s begin.

Feel Good Friday: Coffee Talk

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.

5 Quick Ways to Improve Your Day

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!

New Resource! COVID-19 Child Care Tuition Assistance Program

New Jersey Human Services Commissioner Carole Johnson announced that applications are now open for the new COVID-19 child care tuition assistance program the Murphy Administration has created to help families with child care costs as schools open remotely.

The $150 million program will provide child care tuition assistance to New Jersey families with incomes up to $75,000 that are in need of either full or part-time child care due to their child’s remote learning schedule.

Learn more at https://www.nj.gov/governor/news/news/562020/20200921a.shtml

Mindfulness Monday: Gratitude Review

Today’s Mindfulness Monday exercise brings our attention back to gratitude. Before we begin our exercise it might be helpful to briefly discuss how many are turning to gratitude at a time where it may be difficult to feel grateful for much.

UC Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner is a big believer in gratitude. He, like many other psychologists, have researched the benefits of practicing gratitude. Dr. Keltner’s research findings on the matter are so strong, as a matter of fact, that he uses this as a key component of his course at UC Berkeley, the Science of Happiness, which is now also taught inmates at San Quentin State Prison to good affect.

Dr. Keltner has studied stress, relationships and well-being for 25 years. He has created a series of videos designed to keep people feeling calm and resilient in the face of COVID-19, a pandemic that has touched every aspect of our lives and profoundly disrupted our sense of well-being and produced uncertainty and anxiety.

So let’s begin today’s mindfulness practice.

Feel Good Friday: The Cairo Choir

The video is colorful, the tune cheerful and the lyrics promise better times ahead.

“The day will surely come, near or far it will come,” the singers belt out in Arabic.

“A new dawn shall shine. Everyone shall rejoice. … That day shall be a feast. Hand in hand, we will return,” they sing, waving at each other from their on-screen tiles. In a corner of the screen, a sign language interpreter performs the song.

With their concerts on hiatus and their usual routine of rehearsals upended by the coronavirus, members of the Cairo Celebration Choir joined virtually with musicians and soloists to put out a hopeful message amid the virus gloom.

“The main comments we received: it’s joyful and it gives hope,” said choir founder and artistic director Nayer Nagui, who wrote the lyrics and had composed the music years ago for another project.

Read the full story at APNews.com, and watch the video above.