Author: fizur-philip@cooperhealth.edu

Right now, it is easy to get caught up on many worried thoughts about our health, our jobs, and the impact of the pandemic on our many plans. But sometimes we get caught up in those thoughts and they take us to places we do not need to go. We can liken this to the experience of standing on a train planform. Standing on the station platform, sometimes we are advised to stand back as an express train will be passing through at speed. We hear and feel it approaching, thundering through as it buffets us with a strong blast of wind. We don’t attempt to jump on the express train and let it take us to destinations we don’t want to go to. In the same way, we can learn to notice the thoughts and feelings coming, and instead of jumping on that thought train, we can learn to stand on the platform, let it pass, and wait for the right train that will take us to where we want to go.

Italian professional cyclist Davide Martinelli has been using his bike to collect medicine at pharmacies to be delivered to residents in Rovato, near Brescia, Northern Italy. There are no fans lining the road. No teammates providing support. And no race to win. Mr. Martinelli has achieved a moral victory, though, by using his bike to help deliver medicine to elderly residents of his hometown during the coronavirus pandemic. Be inspired to use the talents you have always had in new ways today to do good! You can read the full story here

COVID-19 was first observed in the United States on January 20, 2020, triggering the series of events that led us to where we are today, some five months later. Getting to where we are now has taken persistence, and persistence is what is needed to see this through. In today’s Daily Dose, a message from news anchor Jim Watkins, reminding us what perseverance can do.

Clinical psychology is the psychological specialty that provides continuing and comprehensive mental and behavioral health care for individuals and families; consultation to agencies and communities; training, education and supervision; and research-based practice. It is a specialty in breadth — one that is broadly inclusive of severe psychopathology — and marked by comprehensiveness and integration of knowledge and skill from a broad array of disciplines within and outside of psychology proper. The scope of clinical psychology encompasses all ages, multiple diversities and varied systems. To that end, Psychology has an important role to play in addressing global challenges like #COVID19 and greater issues of human rights. Today, join the United Nations, hospitals, and psychologists around the world to celebrate #PsychologyDay2020.

https://www.apa.org/topics/covid-19/celebrate-psychology?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=apa-news&utm_content=psychology-day-2020

Health care workers are under more stress than ever before. How can they protect their mental health while handling new and complex pressures? TED Fellow Laurel Braitman shows how writing and sharing personal stories helps physicians, nurses, medical students and other health professionals connect more meaningfully with themselves and others — and make their emotional well-being a priority.

There’s no doubt that being required to cope with the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic was not anyone’s choice. You have undoubtedly spent the last several months wishing that this never happened, especially if anyone you care about became ill with or succumbed to the virus. Even without experiencing the health effects of the coronavirus, your life has changed in what seems to be an irreversible direction. New research shows how adapting to the pandemic may carry hidden brain benefits. Check out these 10 ways the experience of the pandemic might have cognitive benefits, then reflect on other ways that this experience may have longstanding positive impact.

Resilience, defined as the ability to adapt in a positive way in the presence of adversity, has been a topic of great interest for some time now, particularly within psychology. As countless studies show, resilience is a critical skill for reducing and managing stress and responding to emotional challenges, including traumatic life events. It’s what allows us to recover from difficulties and setbacks. If, as Nietzsche famously noted, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, then you can thank resilience. Today’s Daily Dose looks at 8 science-backed ways to boost resilience during the COVID-19 crisis. You can click on the below image to enlarge it, the full article on which the below graphic is based can be read here.

Times like these challenge us not only to be brave, but to reconsider what bravery looks like. Sometimes bravery looks like sacrificing your own needs to make sure the needs of your family are met. Sometimes bravery looks doing what needs to be done when nobody else will. But sometimes bravery looks like simply doing what right, and what is kind, for someone you don’t know and when nobody else is looking. Sometimes, bravery looks like love.

In this April 10, 2020 image from video, music therapists for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, from left, Celeste Douglas, intern Abigail Parrish and Amy Love record a session in Love’s backyard in Memphis, Tennessee. The group uploads their weekly sessions to YouTube so patients can continue receiving bedside music therapy. Read more at https://apnews.com/5af49b9e136a7c2f1fb2dba533a6dffd