Feel Good Friday: Healing Through Literature

Throughout the pandemic, many of us have turned to a variety of distractions to help ease emotional suffering and, for those who contracted COVID-19, physical suffering. Some have found comfort in streaming new shows and movies, others have reinvested in exercise, while others have turned to baking and other comfort foods. But when Geoff Woolf became gravely ill and hospitalized with the virus his sons, Nicky and Sam, remembered something their father had told them some time ago, that “if he was in hospital for a long time, he would be able to deal if he had a book.” To that end, they loaded an e-reader with Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” — “his comfort read,” according to Sam — and played it for their unconscious father.

In late July, after many months and nearly succumbing to COVID several times, Geoff was discharged from Whittington Hospital, workers applauding as he was wheeled out of the ward en route to a specialized neurological hospital where his recovery continues. Out of this experience was born a larger project, Books for Dad.

Mr. Woolf’s sons recruited volunteers who loaded e-readers, donated by Audible, with a variety of content and delivered them, disinfected, with single use headphones, and individually bagged, to the hospital treating their father. They were soon were distributing dozens more to other hospitals around the U.K. and, from this, Books for Dad has kept growing with the intent to distribute 5,000 e-readers to British hospitals over the next six months and add books for children and young adults to their content.

Read more about the Woolf family and Books for Dad at APNews.com or visit the Books for Dad website to learn more

Resiliency in Beirut

Beirut continues to recover from the recent port blast that killed at 178 and injured thousands more. Already taxed hospitals caring for those victims now face a rise in coronavirus cases. And yet, in the midst of such incredible challenge, the people of Beirut remain resilient and signs of this were seen everywhere starting immediately after the explosion and continuing to today. Large crowds of citizens were immediately in the streets with brooms and shovels to begin the clean-up. Engineers volunteering their own time to try to make safe the many damaged buildings. On social media, the story and images of a nurse, surrounded by shattered glass and blood, caring for three newborns and attending to the rest of her duties in the aftermath of the blast, has been widely circulated. More broadly, the citizens have begun to organize, to channel very strong emotions, to address the longer standing issues that led to this tragedy and in doing so are becoming power agents of governmental change.

For today’s Daily Dose, we encourage anyone in need of inspiration to look to the people of Beirut. Even when weary, their resiliency shines through. Anyone who wishes to support relief efforts might consider donations to the Lebanese Red Cross or United Nations’ World Food Program.

Mindfulness Monday: Just Be

Every Monday, the Daily Dose is dedicated to starting your week right with a brief guided mindfulness exercise. For many of us, life was harried prior to COVID and now has only become more so. Running from responsibility to responsibility, it easy to sometimes just stop, be, and be grateful for our mere existence. Today, Dr. Erin Lohman of Wichita State guides us through a mindfulness exercise to address this, wherein we simply sit and observe, bringing ourselves back in contact with what is here and now. Enjoy, and be well!

Feel Good Friday: Kids Caring for an Officer

Six-year-old Amiyah Dantzler-Clay and her 5-year-old brother Jayden saw Police Maj. Richard Gibson parked in front of their Baltimore home and figured he could use a treat. So they took him an ice pop. While Maj. Gibson was in the children’s neighborhood that day scouting for ways to help improve the area for residents, two days after a homicide outside a vacant house, he was instead the beneficiary of the kids’ thoughtful gesture of a nice, refreshing, icy, grape-flavored ice treat. The officer was so moved that a couple of days later he returned to their home with a gift: a box full of their favorite frozen pops. The visit was a fun surprise for Amiyah and Jayden, who like other children have been isolated from friends and classmates during the coronavirus pandemic. Read more about this story at APNews.com.

Well-Being Services for Health Care Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have profound personal, public health and economic consequences worldwide. Since its onset, health care providers have worked tirelessly to treat adults and children facing this complex condition, and are consequently at increased risk for acute and long-term mental health conditions. Starting in late March, 2020, the Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado School of Medicine, has launched COVID-19 related wellness programs for health care workers and staff across disciplines and medical settings. The services are designed to support colleagues in health care, promote their physical, emotional and relational well-being, and reduce their risk for adverse mental health issues. These programs include Team Support Sessions, COVID-19 Support Groups, a Well-Being Support Line, Faculty and Staff Mental Health Services, an eight-session series on coping during and after COVID-19, a series entitled Mind the Brain: Mental Health in the Time of COVID-19, website programming, and much more. Learn about their efforts and success on the Division 38 Website.

Mindfulness Monday: Afternoon Reset

Every Monday, the Daily Dose is dedicated to starting your week right with a brief guided mindfulness exercise. We recognize that as you build your mindfulness practice it may be easier to incorporate exercises into the beginning or end of your day, whereas building it into the workday may be more challenging, though that is often where mindfulness is needed the most. Today, instead of reaching for a coffee when you’re feeling tired in the afternoon, try the Calm.com Afternoon Reset. You can do this mindful movement session at your desk!

Feel Good Friday: Poems from Portsmouth

Valerie Rochon is eager to read her email every Monday morning, even when it makes her cry. In addition to the endless Zoom meeting invitations, each week brings a new poem tucked into otherwise matter-of-fact messages about the coronavirus pandemic from the Portsmouth city manager. Tammi Truax, the city’s poet laureate, has been contributing to the newsletters since early April, elevating the collection of public health updates and community resources with a layer of emotion and introspection.

Read more about Tammi and her weekly poems that elevate her city’s virus newsletters from sadness to inspiration.

Wellness Design Ideas as We Return to Remote Learning

Recognizing that many will continue to home school in the Fall, school psychologist Roseann Capanna-Hodge offers a variety of means by which parents and children can promote good learning and wellness. These include creating a designated space for learning, overall having a routine and structure to lower cognitive demand, minimizing stimuli that cause agitation, fatigue, or any reaction such as noise, lighting, smells, and tactile needs, and assessing your child’s preferred methods for learning (visual, auditory, etc.). Read the full articles and complete, specific recommendations at Forbes.com.

Mindfulness Mondays – 3 Minute Breathing Exercise

Every Monday, the Daily Dose is dedicated to starting your week right with a brief guided mindfulness exercise. As we continue to adjust to life with COVID-19, many of us continue to straddle between the safety precautions that have been in place since March and returns to normalcy which, itself, creates more of a feeling of unsettledness and harriedness. As such, today we offer a very brief and very effective exercise. The goal of this activity is to notice when the hectic nature of the day is seeping in and to hit reset – spending just 3 minutes focused on your breathing. This exercise comes courtesy of the MyLife app.

Feel Good Friday – Have a Cow!

When the coronavirus pandemic forced the University of Vermont to close and send its students home, the alarm spread: What would happen to the cows? The university’s beloved herd of about 100 dairy cows is normally tended by students taking part in the Cooperative for Real Education in Agricultural Management program, or CREAM, and without those students, the fate of the cows seemed to be in jeopardy.

Find out how alumni and students came together to solve this problem at https://apnews.com/01757ed26d4f6a2af57af3b0fa61a6b7.