Features

By Dr Tareq Rasheed
International Consultant and Trainer

Life is not as easy as we wish it to be; stress is always there in all stages of our lives. Kids suffer stress due to lots of homework, studying and exams. Teenagers face stress with their parents as they wish to push boundaries and do whatever they want with no restrictions.

Adults suffer from stress due to work, responsibilities and sometimes long working hours. Even retired people and senior citizens suffer from being sick or feeling lonely. This is life, but successful people always look at stress positively as a step towards success and even when facing very negative stress, they can create a life balance.

Managing stress

So, what are the secrets of managing stress? Stress is defined as a state of worry and mental tension-it’s a natural human response to life challenges. Some positive stress is highly needed to allow people to achieve positive results; this positive stress is related to passion and a desire to achieve. However, when facing difficult situations, negative stress may cause depression, worry and disturbance to life balance: Life Balance is a state of positiveness that helps you to live a healthy life with positive relationships. 

The ability to achieve balance and manage stress simultaneously need some practice and techniques to live a healthy positive life. These techniques include:

1. Time Management and Scheduling: One of the best practices to achieve life balance is to schedule your time. Having a weekly schedule is highly recommended; to work with a daily plan is one of the highest causes of negative stress; you start working to fulfil daily tasks, and in such instances, you are managed by tasks, rather than you managing them

A weekly schedule allows you to have a big picture of your tasks and by scheduling weekly, you are mastering and managing your schedule. 

Defining your relationships

There are five types of relationships: Personal, organisational, family, society and spiritual. You do not need to give equal time to each relation, but you should satisfy the required relation; otherwise, you will suffer high negative stress later. Give your work its time, but your family is the most important relationship to care about. Your friends and society are also part of relationships, these relationships will give you positive energy. So, invest in them. 

Your relationship with God is the most crucial relationship ; it does not take much time from your schedule daily, but will balance your life in the long haul. Of course, do not forget yourself. Include in the week time for yourself; time for self-development, rest and exercise.

2. Fight or Flight: Successful people will always choose confrontation than running away from their problems and negative relationships. Confronation may cause short-term stress, but you will feel positive afterwards. If you choose flight, you will suffer from lasting and long-term stress. Confront very hard situations and you will be able to manage in the long term

3. Self-Awareness: As you increase attuning to yourself and self-awareness, you will be able to conclude that life is too short to waste on negative emotions and stress. The most important thing is your health; we tend to forget ourselves and may face serious health problems. This is when you become aware that nothing in life is more important than your body and mental health

4. Emotional Intelligence: This is the ability to manage emotions positively and is one of the most critical factors for a healthy positive life. Emotional intelligence includes several skills: 

• The ability to manage negative emotions: The strongest negative emotions to manage are anger, depression, worry and boredom. If not managed, these negative emotions will cause negative stress that will impact you negatively in the long term

• Self- Motivation: Learn always to motivate yourself; speak positively with yourself, do not allow negative thoughts to start affecting you. Stop blaming yourself and you will find lots of positivity in your life 

• Motivating others: Be very sociable and learn to motivate others; your family, friends, relatives, colleagues and friends. This will really charge you with very positive energy

5. Setting Priorities: Once you define your priorities in life, you will be able to reduce stress. Always think of important and not urgent issues; your health, your development, strategic relations. At work try to think of the most strategic issues and delegate routine tasks to others, if possible 

6. Learning to say “NO!” What stresses some people is the inability to say no and always saying yes. Try to learn to say “no” to issues which are not important. Do not stress yourself with mundane issues just to satisfy others who may exploit you as being a “yes person”

7. Leading a healthy life through deep sleep, eating healthy food and exercising

A stressless life is impossible; this means carelessness, but being able to live the positive stress that allows us to achieve and proceed is the secret to success. If you manage your time and relationships, you will be able to manage negative stress in the long term.

Life is too short to waste without being goal-oriented. A project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. Life is a project that aims to create a result in this journey.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

PARIS — Record-breaking heatwaves across the Northern Hemisphere have again sparked concerns about the danger such blistering temperatures pose to people’s health, particularly children and the elderly.

Such sustained heatwaves — which experts say are becoming more common due to human-driven climate change — can put human bodies under extreme pressure, sometimes leading to dehydration, heatstroke and death. 

Research recently found that more than 61,000 people died due to the heat in Europe last summer — and 2023 is shaping up to be even hotter.

The immediate effect

As temperatures rise, the body fights to maintain its normal temperature around 37ºC.

The heart ups the tempo, sending sweat to cool down the surface of the skin, the body’s front line against the heat.

The skin’s blood vessels also dilate, releasing heat.

The impact on health

But if the heat overwhelms these temperature regulators, it can cause symptoms such as fatigue, headaches, fever and disturbed sleep.

Another early sign is dehydration, which occurs when the body loses more fluids than it takes in.

Heatstroke, which strikes when the body cannot stop its temperature rising past 40ºC, is considered to be the most serious heat-related illness.

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has warned that repeatedly high overnight minimum temperatures are particularly dangerous to human health, because the body never gets a chance to recover. 

Such high overnight minimums — which parts of the United States, Europe and China have been suffering through this week — can lead to heart attacks and death, according to the WMO.

“Whilst most of the attention focuses on daytime maximum temperatures, it is the overnight temperatures which have the biggest health risks, especially for vulnerable populations,” the UN agency said. 

The added threat of humidity

Humidity during heatwaves can also overwhelm the body.

Sweating helps cool bodies by evaporating off the skin — but if it is too humid, the sweat cannot evaporate. 

The combination of heat and humidity is measured by what is known as a “wet bulb” temperature.

Researchers have warned that a wet-bulb temperature of 35ºC can kill a healthy young adult within six hours.

This threshold of human survivability has only been reached a couple of times — but experts warn the number of instances will increase as the globe warms.

The most vulnerable

Most vulnerable during heatwaves are the elderly, people who already have health problems, and children — particularly those under five years old.

As people get older, they have fewer sweat glands, making the elderly less able to control their temperature.

During heatwaves, these sweat glands work day and night. 

After a few days, the sweat glands get exhausted and produce less sweat, increasing the body’s core temperature.

Most of the estimated 61,672 people who died due to the heat in Europe last summer were over the age of 80, according to research.

Other factors

Where people live and what they do can also put them more at risk during heatwaves.

Living in a city, particularly in densely populated areas or poorly insulated homes, can further expose people to the blistering heat.

People who work outside, such as construction workers, are also at an increased risk.

Those who play sports are doubly at risk because exercise also raises the body’s temperature.

The homeless are particularly exposed, having few ways to escape the heat. 

Some drugs can also add to health problems during heatwaves, such as diuretics which reduce the amount of water in the body.

What to do

During heatwaves people should drink plenty of water and try to stay as cool as possible.

Health authorities recommend people avoid going outside during the hottest part of the day — and if possible spend a couple of hours in a cool place, such as an air-conditioned cinema, library or museum.

They also advise people avoid physical exertion or drinking alcohol. 

And, because social isolation can be a factor, it is advisable to regularly check in with friends and family.

SAO PAULO — Lara Maia types on her laptop perched on a small desk occupying a gap between the fridge and wardrobe in her micro-apartment in Sao Paulo, Latin America’s most populated city.

Behind her, the bed also serves as the couch.

“I don’t need any more: I’m close to everything and I feel free to leave whenever I want with a few bags,” the 34-year-old computer scientist told AFP of the 16-square-metre apartment near downtown Sao Paulo.

Maia’s space on the 16th floor that serves as her home and occasional office is an example of a growing trend of apartments the size of hotel rooms.

Long a way of life in other large cities of the world, in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s economic capital, the boom has been a recent one.

From 2016 to 2022, available units up to 30 m2 soared from 461 units to 16,261, according to the state housing association Secovi-SP.

The number represents a fifth of all apartments in the city of 11.5 million residents.

Some, with furniture squeezed in as in a game of Tetris, or with the kitchen just inches from the bathroom, have become the subject of jokes on social media.

But this has done nothing to dampen demand, mainly among adults aged 20 to 39, according to a survey by real estate firm Quinto Andar. 

“They are young professionals; middle and upper-middle class, at the start of their careers, mostly single, attracted by modern and well-located properties close to jobs or public transport,” said Secovi-SP CEO Ely Wertheim.

Raised in a large house outside Sao Paulo, Maia told AFP she could get a bigger apartment in another neighbourhood for the same 2,300 reais (about $475) she pays in monthly rent.

But she is gladly giving up space to be closer to family and her job, presential part of the time.

At the end of a day working from home, Maia closes her laptop and prepares tea with toast in her only pan on an electric stove plate.

Then she wheels a small table from under her work desk and sits down to eat.

“In such a small space you learn to get rid of many things and to change your perception about what you need,” she said.

Meetings with friends take place on the terrace — a shared area that has become common in new apartment buildings and offers laundry and games rooms, coworking spaces and even areas for bathing pets.

Oscar Borghi, a 39-year-old engineer, has lived with his girlfriend since last year in a 28 m2 apartment with two rooms in the south of Sao Paulo, also near his work and a train station.

“We thought it would be small, but we are comfortable with the layout and spaces of the building,” he told AFP.

“When we are both working from home at the same time, one of us goes to the coworking space” in the building.

Rodger Campos, an economist with estate agency Loft, said Sao Paulo, the fifth largest city in the world, was similar to other giant metropoles like New York or Tokyo, where micro-apartments abound: “It has a high population density, global connection, and is a centre of work, health and education.”

The trend was further helped by a sharp drop in interest rates from 6.75 per cent in 2018 to about 2.0 per cent in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Jose Armenio, who works in the city’s urbanism secretariat.

This meant it was easier to buy small apartments for letting purposes.

Another boost came from the city reducing tariff fees in 2014 for the construction of small apartments. 

The aim was accessible housing for less affluent people, in areas served by public transport. But the result has been the opposite.

“Apartments of up to 30-metres squared have the most expensive square meterage in the city”, said Campos.

The municipal council recently agreed to revise Sao Paulo’s city planning, making micro-apartment construction more expensive in a bid to create more social family housing.

PARIS — The world is about to be hit by a pink tsunami as “Barbie” — Hollywood’s ironic new take on the doll feminists once loved to hate — opens with a vast marketing campaign.

Not even an actors’ and writers’ strike has been able to put brakes on the juggernaut, with the first images of stars Margot Robbie as Barbie, and Ryan Gosling as her square-jawed boyfriend Ken, sending social media into a frenzy of fuchsia.

With the movie hitting big screens across Europe from Wednesday, and North America from Friday, expectation is building at how director and indie film darling Greta Gerwig has tackled the most flagrant of corporate product-placement vehicles.

Many were surprised that the acclaimed feminist maker of “Little Women”, “Lady Bird” and “Frances Ha” would be tempted to take on a doll whose body is said to be so unrealistic she would not be able to walk if she were a real woman.

But already in the trailer, it is clear Gerwig’s take on Barbie is nothing if not tongue in cheek.

After a few perfect “life in plastic” days with the other Barbies in their bubblegum Californian world, she has her heroine kick off her high heels to put on a pair of sensible Birkenstock sandals to leave Barbie Land behind and plunge into the real world.

With Ryan Gosling camping it up as a breezily sexist Ken barechested under a fur coat, the two go AWOL, to the horror of toymaker Mattel.

“If you hate Barbie, this movie is for you,” the trailer proclaims.

“The movie is packing so much in,” Robbie told AFP on the pink carpet of the London premiere.

‘Full of controversy’

“There is so much joy, it’s hilarious, it’s very clever and it has a lot to say,” said the Australian actress, who is also one of the film’s producers. “It’s a crazy ride and a visual spectacle. I cannot think of another movie that is like it.” 

While critics say Barbie has brainwashed generations of young girls with an unattainable ideal of beauty and thinness, others see her as a figure of female emancipation through figures like Astronaut Barbie and Barbie the surgeon. 

Gerwig, 39, said her approach to tackling Barbie was “by not denying that she’s full of controversy.

“In some ways Barbie has been ahead of culture, in some ways she has been behind it,” she told AFP. “But she has definitely been a topic of conversation for 64 years.”

Chinese-born Simu Liu, who plays one of the many Kens in the movie, said he admired how Gerwig “doesn’t shy away from some of the criticisms of Barbie, some of the very valid criticisms of body image and of diversity... but still wraps it in an era of optimism and hope”.

Issa Rae, of “Awkward Black Girl” fame, who plays one of the Barbies, said despite all the “negative associations”, for her Barbie went back to core memories of her childhood. 

Girl power makeover

“I think about telling stories with Barbies, making Barbies kiss and thinking about all the different questions I had about life, posing that onto Barbie,” she told AFP. “So people are very protective of her in that way.”

Gerwig — who wrote her first hits about New York life with her partner, “Marriage Story” director Noah Baumbach — is next to take on another childhood cultural colossus by adapting the “Chronicles of Narnia” for Netflix.

While Barbie’s makers Mattel seemed happy to be cast as cartoon baddies in the trailer for the film, they are counting on the blockbuster giving their lodestar toy some “girl power” cred as she challenges the patriarchy.

But behind Barbie’s Dayglo optimism, the turnover of Mattel’s dolls division fell by nine per cent last year. 

And the old sexist stereotypes have not been easy to airbrush away. Uniformly blonde and white for decades, Barbie has been going through a huge makeover since 2016 with 175 different models reflecting different colours and body types — “curvy, tall and petite” — as well as dolls with physical disabilities.

PARIS — Do you feel like society’s morals have declined recently? You are far from alone, and may be suffering from a “psychological illusion”, according to recent research.

At every point over the last 70 years, people across the world have continuously believed that morality is declining, US psychologists found by looking at historical surveys.

But rather than morals steadily falling throughout history, the researchers suggested this perception is an illusion caused by rose-tinted memories of the past and a focus on the grim news of the present.

In a study in the journal Nature, the researchers quoted an observer as saying that “the process of our moral decline” has led to “the dark dawning of our modern day”.

They then revealed that this is a quote from the Roman historian Livy written more than 2,000 years ago. 

“This feeling is always there, you can find quotes from any era of history where people are decrying the decline of people’s interpersonal goodness,” Adam Mastroianni, a researcher at New York’s Columbia University and the study’s lead author, told AFP.

The researchers first looked at 177 opinion polls that included more than 220,000 people in the United States from 1949 to 2019. 

In 84 per cent of the polls, a majority reported that morality had declined — and the rate remained steady regardless of the year.

Similar surveys from 59 other countries found a remarkably similar rate — 86 per cent — agreed that morals had tumbled.

“People all over the world believe that morality has declined, and they have believed this for as long as researchers have been asking them about it,” the study said.

Age, politics not major factors

While one might think that older people were more likely to believe the world has gone to hell, it turned out that young people do as well.

“The effect of age is pretty small,” Mastroianni said.

But young and old alike agreed when everything started getting worse.

“Participants believed that moral decline began at about roughly the same time they appeared on Earth,” the study said.

And while people with conservative political leanings were more likely to think morals had crumbled, liberals also felt this way, Mastroianni said.

So has the fabric of our society been consistently unravelling over the years?

For the researchers, the evidence suggests that “on average, modern humans treat each other far better than their forebears ever did”.

And when it comes to “everyday morality”, such as taking care of a neighbour’s dog or giving up a train seat to an elderly person, “we found pretty strong evidence of no change,” Mastroianni said.

‘Troubling consequences’

This illusion of moral decline could be the result of two well-established biases, the study said.

The first is what is known as the Pollyanna principle, in which people tend to forget the negative parts of the past. 

The second is that people are likely to seek out negative information about others — and “mass media indulge this tendency”, the study said.

Combined, these factors paint a rosy past that has decayed into a cruel present.

But these biases can evaporate when people judge the morals of their friends and family, not society at large.

In 2020, US participants of a survey said that in general people were not as kind, honest or nice as they were in 2005.

But they also said that the people they knew personally had improved morally over the same period.

This illusion of moral decline may have “troubling consequences”, the researchers warned.

Three quarters of US respondents in a 2015 poll said that “addressing the moral breakdown of the country” should be a high priority for the government, even amid serious crises such as climate change. 

The perception that morals have gone to the dogs could increase the appeal of “leaders who promise to halt that illusory slide — ‘make America great again’”, the study said, in a reference to the campaign slogan of former US President Donald Trump.

A highly stylised and modern take on Land Rover’s defining and utilitarian off-roader, the new Defender arrived in 2019 as an altogether different proposition to its predecessor. A more refined and practical SUV in the vein of the old Discovery, albeit with a retro-inspired Defender styling nods, it trades a ladder-frame chassis and live axles for monocoque construction, independent suspension and plenty of luxury and tech, and was sure to ruffle feathers among the faithful, even as it appeals to a wider client base.

Gainly gains

Initially offered in short wheelbase three-door ‘90’ or long wheelbase five-door ‘110’ versions, the Defender line gained its extended ‘130’ version in 2022. Sharing the same stylised retro-futuristic design cues, clamshell bonnet, straight lines, rounded edges and near equal width to height ratio, the 130 also shares the same wheelbase as the 110. It gains its added length from an extended rear overhang, which contrasts with its short front overhang for a more classically proportioned, albeit noticeably long, silhouette with a more rearward visual weighting.

Available with a choice of numerous petrol and diesel engines, the driven mid-range Defender P130 P400 is, however, probably the best compromise for refinement, ability and efficiency. With a new silky smooth turbocharged 3-litre “straight” six-cylinder engine offering enhanced efficiency and refinement over its supercharged V6 predecessor, the P400 develops 394BHP at a 5,500-6,500rpm plateau and 406lb/ft throughout a broad and versatile 2,000-5,000rpm range. It also features mild hybrid technology to help return relatively restrained 11.6l/100km combined fuel consumption for such hefty high-riding 2,625kg brute.

Responsive and refined

Propelling the Defender 130 through 0-100km/h in 6.6-seconds and onto 191km/h, its in-line six-cylinder engine provides ample top-end power and muscularly flexible mid-range muscle. With quick spooling turbo, the P400 is, meanwhile, confident and responsive from standstill, with little by way of turbo lag. Smooth and naturally-balanced in design, the P400 is eager through to high revs. Its mild hybrid system meanwhile collects kinetic energy through regenerative braking to run electric systems and reduce consumption, and very subtly assists the combustion engine when needed.

With low gear ratios and lockable differential allowing it to modulate power and traction as necessary for off-road conditions, the Defender dispatched both moderate dirt roads and a steep, narrow loose surface climb over uneven terrain in its stride, during a limited off-road test drive. Accessed through its user-friendly infotainment screen’s Terrain Response system, such hardware and other electronic off-road assistance features make the Defender an almost “idiot-proof” off-roader with the driver just selecting the relevant driving mode before continuing through moderately difficult terrain.

Composed comfort

Driving all four wheels through a slick shifting 8-speed automatic gearbox, the P400 delivers good road holding, while adjustable air suspension smoothens out dirt trails with forgiving ease. With air suspension rising for off-road driving, the Defender 130 boasts a generous maximum 291mm ground clearance and 900mm water fording. Little different to the shorter Defender 110 variant, the 130 features similar approach and departure angles at 37.5° and 27.8°, while departure is reduced, but still good at 28.5°, owing to a significantly longer rear overhang. 

An exponentially more refined and better handling vehicle than its predecessor, owing to its monocoque construction and independent suspension, the new Defender is relaxed, reassuring and confident in its stability, comfort and dynamic characteristics. Well-cushioned over lumps, bumps, cracks and poorly paved roads, the Defender is meanwhile vertically settled in most circumstances. More manoeuvrable and tidier into and through corners than expected for its height and weight, the Defender is composed and quick, and grips hard out of corners, while body lean is evident but not exaggerated.

Long on luxuriously

Similar to the Defender 110, the 130 is tidy through corners, if not outright sporty and connected. Pushed too hard into a corner it would have a similar instinct for predictable understeer and weight transfer away from the front inside wheel. However, its longer and heavier rear overhang is noticeable in rear weight transfers. Inside, its high driving position is supportive, comfortable and offers good front visibility, while, 360° and 3D cameras help navigate around its thick rear pillars and extended tail when reversing.

As stylised inside as it is out, the Defender 130’s luxuriously modern take on a rugged and utilitarian interior combines quality textures with easy clean surfaces, big chunky controls and a touchscreen infotainment system, and expedition vehicle-like ambiance. Extensively well equipped with modern amenities and tech, the Defender 130’s cabin is even more accommodating and versatile than the 110 variant, with its increased length translating into a three-row eight passenger cabin with much enhanced leg room for rear seat rows, and much more voluminous cargo capacity.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Engine: 3-litre, turbocharged, in-line 6-cylinders
• Bore x stroke: 83 x 92.29mm
• Compression ratio: 10.5:1
• Valve-train: 24-valve, DOHC, variable timing, direct injection
• Gearbox: 8-speed automatic, four-wheel-drive, low gear transfer case
• Mild Hybrid system: Permanent magnet motor, lithium-ion battery
• Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 394 (400) [294] @5,500-6,500rpm
• Specific power: 131.5BHP/litre
• Power-to-weight: 150BHP/tonne (kerb)
• Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 406 (550) @2,000-5,000rpm
• Specific torque: 183.5Nm/litre
• Torque-to-weight: 209.5Nm/tonne (kerb)
• 0-100km/h: 6.6-seconds
• 80-120km/h: 3.7-seconds
• Top speed: 191km/h
• Fuel economy, combined: 11.6-litres/100km
• CO2 emissions, combined: 262g/km
• Fuel capacity: 90-litres
• Track, F/R: 1,706/1,702mm
• Seating capacity, standard/optional: 5/8
• Unladen/kerb weight: 2,550kg/2,625kg (8-seat)
• Approach/departure/break-over angles: 30.1-37.5°/24.5-28.5°/22-27.8°
• Suspension, F/R: Double wishbones/integral link, adaptive air suspension
• Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion
• Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs, 363/350mm
• Tyres: 255/60R20

By Nathalie Khalaf
Holistic Counsellor

It is easy to spend our time complaining about aspects we dislike in others around us, be it family members, friends or partners alike, but it is not an empowering feeling, nor does it change anything.

Something which could be considered to be empowering and could change a lot would be to learn how to observe what we dislike in others and then turn inwards to look within ourselves at what gets triggered and where those triggers may be coming from.

This is how we can release a lot of stagnant energy blocked within us and create our own wellness. This could lead to feeling balanced, content, happy and not triggered by the world around us. 

Carl Jung says that “everything that irritates us about others can lead us to a greater understanding about ourselves”. What we notice in others around us exists within us. If we did not have it within us, our psyche would not recognise it and we would therefore not notice it in others.

Self judgement

Think with me for a moment; do you fear other people’s judgement? I invite you to notice how you are judging yourself. Are there aspects in others you love and admire and wish you had? Then look into your heart because you will find the same traits you recognise in others. Whether it is something we love in others or something we hate, we are truly mirrors of each other.

Mirror work

Mirror work is slightly different but very impactful nonetheless. Many renowned teachers such as Barbara Ann Brennan and Louise Hay taught mirror work to primarily help increase our self-love. Mirror work is as simple as making time to look at yourself in the mirror every day for a few minutes and hopefully increase it to 15 minutes or more.

This exercise is extremely powerful and can help uncover many hidden layers we adopted in youth which stop us today from truly enjoying our life and being ourselves. I say “adopted layers” because the judgement and criticism did not come from us as children. 

Self criticism

Children do not criticise nor judge themselves; they are in complete acceptance, love, openness and joy all the time. I’m speaking about the age between birth and 6 years old. After that is when the ‘thinking mind’ starts developing and the child copies and absorbs images, sounds, ideas, beliefs and words from around.

So, if our parents, family, or teachers speak to us with conditional love and harsh criticism as children then this is what we will adopt and later on use as our inner voice throughout our lives. This is really where our self judgement and criticism come from. Changing the critical, judgemental, non-loving, non-supportive voice within us starts by becoming aware of it. Once aware, then we are detached from it and can start noticing it every time it pops up as a critical thought and feeling within us, towards ourselves.

Think positive

While practicing mirror work and becoming aware of all this judgement and criticism, we can remember where those came from and make a conscious decision to change them. To make a conscious decision is to think positively about yourselves and set your intention to fully accepting and loving yourselves.

Back to Carl Jung’s mirror quote, we can also merge his exercise with the exercise above. Together both exercises can help us work on releasing all aspects and traits we dislike and criticise within ourselves and replacing them with acceptance and love. 

The mirror exercise needs to be repeated daily for a minimum of 30 days. Remember, that critical voice takes time to settle in and pretend it is “your voice”, so you need to give yourself enough time to change the self-sabotaging voices into positive, loving, supportive ones until those become the norm and the new habit.

Critical judgement

Another part of this exercise is to look deep into your own eyes: Eyes reveal pain you had to hide. Perhaps you can release some of the sadness and promise yourself to always love and support the hurt child within. Journaling while doing this exercise can help a lot as you uncover layers of your past and set the intention to release all unwanted critical judgement.

By turning this exercise into a habit, you can more easily reach a place of inner peace where you will be more content with your life and yourself — the judgement of the self and others will cease.

We will thus find ourselves more accepting of others, whether we love them or not, by simply accepting them. You will not feel emotionally triggered, resulting in a happier lifestyle.

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

LOS ANGELES — “Succession”, the HBO drama about an ultra-wealthy family fighting for control of a sinister media empire, led the nominations for the Emmys — television’s version of the Oscars.

The show’s critically adored final season earned a whopping 27 nods, including best drama, in an announcement overshadowed by the threat of a Hollywood actors’ strike that could derail the industry’s entire awards calendar.

Topping the Emmys nominations for a second year in a row, “Succession” dominated the acting categories, becoming the first ever show to earn three of the six available slots for best lead actor in a drama.

Echoing their characters in the series, Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong and Kieran Culkin will now battle each other for the award, while their co-star Sarah Snook is the favourite for best lead actress.

“Succession”, which has twice won best drama series at the Emmys, was followed in this year’s nominations count by two more shows from HBO, which claimed 127 nods overall.

“The Last of Us” became the first live-action video game adaptation to earn major nominations, with 24, including best drama and acting nods for Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey.

“The White Lotus”, a stylish satire on wealth and hypocrisy which switched from the limited series categories to drama after returning for a second season set in Sicily, earned 23 nods.

Apple TV+’s feel-good “Ted Lasso” topped the comedy section with its third and possibly final season, taking 21 nominations.

Netflix’s “Beef” and “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” led the limited series category with 13 nods apiece.

‘Swift resolution’

Nominations were announced by “Community” star Yvette Nicole Brown, in a live-streamed ceremony hosted by Frank Scherma, chairman of the Television Academy, which organises the awards.

After a final round of voting by the Television Academy’s 20,000-odd members, the 75th Emmy Awards are scheduled to take place on September 18. 

‘Look like the devil’

Actors took to picket lines outside studio headquarters from California to New York on Friday as movie and television production ground to a halt in the most serious Hollywood strike in decades.

Hundreds of strikers marched with placards at the Netflix building on Los Angeles’ famed Sunset Boulevard, as well as at Disney, Paramount, Warner and Amazon premises, with passing drivers honking their horns in support.

In New York, Jason Sudeikis and Susan Sarandon were among A-listers who showed up for demonstrations, triggered by the refusal of studio bosses to meet actors’ demands for better pay and job security.

“The studios are tone-deaf and greedy, and they need to wake up — because we are the ones that made them rich,” actress Frances Fisher, who starred in “Titanic”, told AFP while marching outside Paramount Pictures.

Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) members joined writers who have been on strike for weeks, triggering the first industry-wide walkout for 63 years and effectively shutting down Hollywood.

“We’ve been out here for about 80 days... The fact that SAG-AFTRA went on strike brought a lot of energy, and there’s incredible solidarity,” said “Friends” co-creator Marta Kauffman.

The studios “look like the devil”, she told AFP, at the picket line outside Netflix. 

Actors formally went on strike at midnight Thursday after negotiations to reach a new deal with production studios ended without an agreement.

Record votes

Other shows that proved popular with voters included Amazon Prime’s period comedy “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”, which earned 14 nods, and “The Bear”, a cult hit that takes viewers inside the astonishingly stressful kitchen of a run-down Chicago sandwich shop, with 13.

Disney+’s “Star Wars” series had a successful morning — “The Mandalorian”, “Andor” and “Obi-Wan Kenobi” earned 22 nods between them. 

In the battle of the mega-budget fantasy series, HBO’s “Game of Thrones” prequel “House of the Dragon” (eight nominations) bested Amazon Prime’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” (six).

Perennial Emmy winners “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” and “Saturday Night Live” will go head-to-head in the new scripted variety series category, while “RuPaul’s Drag Race” returns as favourite for best reality competition programme.

“In these dark political times, the Television Academy’s gracious recognition of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ is a bright light. Thank you for the love,” said host RuPaul Charles.

SAO PAULO — A yellow-and-brown boa constrictor wraps itself around David de Oliveira Gomes’s neck like a scarf, but the 15-year-old Brazilian with autism is fascinated, not afraid.

For him, this is therapy.

“His name is Gold. He’s cold. He eats mice,” Gomes tells his therapist at a treatment centre in Sao Paulo, gently holding the large snake as it slithers around him.

That is exactly the kind of sentence his therapist, Andrea Ribeiro, is trying to elicit.

She specialises in treating people with disabilities, autism or anxiety, using an unusual method: reptile therapy, which she says helps patients relax and improve their communication, motor skills and other abilities.

“He’s working on speech and memory formation,” the 51-year-old language-speech therapist says of Gomes, sitting at a table with him and the large snake.

Ribeiro has pioneered this method over the past decade at the treatment centre, which features an open-air space where patients interact with lizards, turtles and a “jacare” — a kind of alligator native to Latin America that is common in Brazil, including in the Amazon rainforest.

The treatment is not scientifically proven.

But “it’s been medically demonstrated that when people come in contact with animals, it releases neurotransmitters such as serotonin and beta-endorphins that give a sense of pleasure and well-being”, says Ribeiro.

“That makes [patients] feel good and want to learn.”

The reptiles “enable us to achieve better, faster results”, she told AFP.

Step aside, dogs

Ribeiro used to use dogs in her treatment sessions.

But she found their constant attempts to play and interact made some patients uneasy, especially those with autism.

So she turned to reptiles.

It’s a class of animals that makes many people squirm.

But people with autism tend to approach them “without prejudice”, she says: The animals spark their curiosity without making them uncomfortable.

The reptiles, for their part, “are indifferent”, she says.

“They don’t seek attention the way some mammals do.”

Ten-year-old Gabriel Pinheiro is petting a small alligator, trying to imitate Ribeiro’s syllables by opening his mouth wide three times: “Ja-ca-re.”

“It’s wet,” he says, his eyes fixated on the creature from behind his glasses.

The alligator’s scales are “hard,” its belly “soft,” he says, as the therapist helps him work on opposites.

He and Ribeiro then sing a song about the jacare to practice auditory memory skills.

Pinheiro’s mother, Cristina, credits four years of this therapy with helping improve his listening, communication and motor skills.

“He’s always happy when we come,” she says.

Reptilian massage

Another patient, 34-year-old Paulo Palacio Santos, suffered severe brain damage in an accident that left him paralysed and speechless.

Ribeiro wraps his face with a thick snake, whose weight and cold temperature help reactivate Santos’s swallowing reflex, she says.

She then uses a smaller boa constrictor to work the muscles around his mouth.

The handling of these species is regulated by Brazil’s environmental authority, IBAMA.

Ribeiro works side-by-side with biologist Beatriz Araujo, whose job is to monitor the animals’ stress levels and ensure patients remain safe.

There has never been an accident in 10 years of treatment, the centre says.

The reptiles, which are raised on site, are accustomed to human contact. No poisonous snakes are used.

“I’m always here, just in case [an animal] reacts unexpectedly,” says Araujo.

“The dangers are the same as for close contact with any animal.”