October 2017

How often do you feel happy, enthusiastic, amused, inspired, or calm on a given day? For more than a decade, researchers have been uncovering a link between positive emotions and better health , particularly for women . But there’s a catch. Beyond how much positive emotion we feel, more recent research has found that variety matters as well. For example, people who experience a greater variety of positive emotions may be less depressed, healthier , and better able to cope with negative...

An undocumented immigrant father drops off his 12-year-old daughter at school in Los Angeles. Moments later, 2 black, unmarked vehicles surround his car a few blocks from the school. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrest him while his 13-year-old daughter watches from his car; she can be heard sobbing while she films a cell phone video of the arrest that later goes viral. 1 An undocumented Guatemalan mother of 4 children, including 1 with cerebral palsy, faces...

Christopher Columbus was a narcissist . He believed he was personally chosen by God for a mission that no one else could achieve. After 1493, he signed his name "xpo ferens"—"the Christbearer." His stated goal was to accumulate enough wealth to recapture Jerusalem. His arrogance led to his downfall, that of millions of Native Americans—and eventually fostered his resurrection as the most enduring icon of the Americas. In 1496, Columbus was the governor of a colony based at Santo Domingo, in...

An unprecedented coalition of community members, educators, parents, and students at LA Unified have convened a new task force to urgently address why African-American youth continue to have the lowest test scores and why black students and families continue to feel ignored by the education system. Black students persist in having LA Unified’s highest rates of dropouts and suspensions. They are most likely to be identified as needing special education services, and they are least likely to...

In 2013, the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine published a report showing that Americans die earlier and experience poorer health than residents of other high-income countries, such as Australia, Finland, and Japan. Though such international comparisons are concerning, health differences within the United States are even larger. Studies have found, for instance, that in many American cities life expectancy varies by as much as 20 years between neighborhoods. A recent...

When people are threatened, evolutionary biology dictates extreme reactions: flee or fight? Donna Hicks, who studies conflict resolution at Harvard, says that this dynamic is at the core of much global tension—it’s just scaled up to the level of cities or countries. So she starts small, focusing on individual interactions. She puts an emphasis on dignity—the inherent value of a life—and says that focusing on that value can prevent or dissolve tensions. Using this approach, she once led a...

In my work as a public health researcher, I am reminded every day that the health risks of childhood aren’t limited to communicable diseases, playground falls, and sports-related bumps and bruises. Youths in America far too often suffer intentional injuries inflicted by assaults from peers, strangers, and even caregivers in the course of seemingly routine activities of adolescence — going to school, shopping with friends, or playing outside their homes. While our medical system can usually...

There are many benefits to learning how to feel your emotions. One is it helps you become a more compassionate, empathetic parent. The weekend before I flew to Iceland, I pulled my luggage out of our storage room and came across the boxes I’m saving for my girls. These boxes contain all of my daughters’ art, birthday decorations, cards, diaries, etc., from the time they were little girls. It was a family weekend, so we all decided to go through these mementoes together. It was a sweet...

Register HERE Trauma is historical, structural, political, intergenerational, interpersonal, and embodied. So then must be our healing . WHAT: RYSE's 4th Annual Trauma and Healing Learning Series will build on learnings and impacts of previous years to assert and ensure racial justice as central tenet of trauma-informed approaches. At this Launch, we will share our framework of atmospheric trauma and healing and its application in personal, organizational, and collective praxis. The Trauma...

It's Official!! We're hosting the 1st NATIONAL Trauma-Sensitive Schools Conference! Join us! There will be workshops for teachers, social workers, therapists and parents... Details and call for proposals can be found at - https://creatingtraumasensitiveschools.org/conference/

Ai Weiwei, the world-famous artist, is snapping my picture. We're 25 minutes into an interview at the hotel room where he's staying in Beverly Hills when I glance up from my reporter's notebook to find Ai's iPhone trained on me; his lined, often inquisitive face is screwed now in concentration as he tinkers with the focus on his phone. I pause mid-sentence and stare, waiting for some kind of explanation: Have I asked a threatening question? Do I have something on my face? Am I going to...

CHARITIES have issued a call to “halt the cycle of childhood trauma” by providing increased support for parents dealing with harmful drinking habits. An estimated 30,000-51,000 Scottish children are being raised by problem drinkers, according to a recent report, with many youngsters at risk of imitating the same deleterious behaviour. Experts in harm-reduction and welfare organisations are warning that urgent support is needed to ensure fewer adults are faced with entrenched alcohol problems...