#Psychological balance

[kaleidoscopevisualart]

📺🎶 Kaleidoscope Visuals with Emotional Acoustic Piano

[hopenature777]

[stuckinapril]

Just a girl who wants to be her mother’s daughter in the ways that matter

[reasonsforhope]

It has often been dismissed as utopian thinking, a pie-in-the-sky idea that wouldn’t survive contact with reality. But the four-day week has once again quietened critics, as the results of the world’s trial suggest that it’s a win-win for employees and their bosses. 

Workers who adopted a shorter week with no loss of pay were found to be happier, more productive, took fewer sick days and generated more revenue for their employers, a landmark study has found. 

The Study

Led by researchers at the University of Cambridge, England, the study assessed the impact of a pioneering four-day week trial, which took place in the UK between June and December 2022. Of the 61 firms that took part – among them online retailers, financial service providers and restaurants – 56 pledged to make the move permanent. [Note: That's 91% of the firms!!]

The Results

Researchers found that 71% of participants reported lower levels of burnout, with 39% saying they were less stressed than before the trial. What’s more, 60% found that they were better able to combine paid work with care responsibilities, while 62% said it was easier to combine work with their social lives.

Unsurprisingly, this translated into a 65% reduction in sick days, and a 57% drop in the number of staff leaving compared with the same six-month period the previous year. 

Concerns that switching workers to a four-day week would impact profits did not materialise. In fact, when compared to a similar period from previous years, organisations reported revenue increases of 35 per cent on average.

Trials have continually proved successful

"We feel really encouraged by the results, which showed the many ways companies were turning the four-day week from a dream into a realistic policy, with multiple benefits,” said Dr David Frayne, research associate at University of Cambridge. “We think there is a lot here that ought to motivate other companies and industries to give it a try.”

The trial involved two months of preparation, with workshops, coaching, mentoring and peer support for participants. Resisting the idea that the trial must be ‘one-size-fits-all’, each firm designed a policy tailored to its particular needs.

Some academics have questioned the merits of a four-day week, arguing that it can create more stress for employees because they have the same amount of work to do in fewer hours.

Nevertheless, with trials taking place around the world, often with positive results, the shorter working week appears finally to be going mainstream.

Of the UK trial, Joe Ryle, director of the 4 Day Week Campaign, said: “This is a major breakthrough moment for the movement towards a four-day working week. Across a wide variety of different sectors of the economy, these incredible results show that the four-day week with no loss of pay really works.

“Surely the time has now come to begin rolling it out across the country.”

-via Positive News, 2/21/23

[csuitebitches]

Book Review/ Notes from: The Psychology of Successful Women

I found the book pretty generic but I liked the fact that she added guiding questions to her strategies, which made it more doable. Here are the notes:

1. Define what success means to you. Ensure that it is healthy and holistic.

2. Note down your goals. “What do i want to be/do/have in my career?”

“A study on goal setting at the Dominican University in California showed you are 42% more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down. Written goals are proven to increase your focus, strengthen motivation and help you come up with a plan of attack to make your dreams a reality.”

3. We need a combination of the right mindset + behaviour in order to actually succeed.

4. Confidence isnt relative to being an extrovert or introvert. Confidence is about having trust in oneself.

A) developing a positive internal dialogue instead of a negative, critical one

B) focus on strengths rather than weaknesses. “.. revealed that people who used their strengths every day were three times more likely to report having an excellent quality of life, six times more likely to be engaged at work, 8% more productive and 15% less likely to quit their jobs.”

C) stop comparison - whether it means logging off social media or unfollowing/restricting certain people.

D) click with people with the same values as you.

E) believe in yourself. It’s not your job to prove yourself to everyone.

5. Developing a personal brand is important. A personal brand is how people see you and what you’re known for. Its important to consider how you present yourself online and offline.

• Your personal (people person/ adaptable/ flexible, etc) and professional strengths (what you really enjoy doing)

• What makes you unique

• Your achievements and qualifications

• Your life experiences

• Your values and the things that are important to you

• Your passions

• Your image

• Your mindset and attitude

• Your behaviour

Ask people around you how they see you - speak to people you deeply trust.

Reflect on that.

How would you like them to see you?

6. Imposter syndrome is often described as a pervasive feeling of self-doubt, inadequacy and incompetence, despite evidence of success.

A. Identity triggers and thought patterns to that lead you to feeling like a fake.

B. Acknowledge your past success and accomplishments. Write a list of some of your achievements and successes. Reflect on some of the great feedback you have received from a client or colleague in the past few months.

7. Boundary setting is a necessary evil. You will feel guilty at first, but it gets easier with time. You dont have to give out excessive excuses, either.

8. Fear of failure: What have you been putting off learning, doing or experiencing personally or professionally, because of fear of failure, or a fear of not being ready? • What can you do this week or month to stretch your comfort zone? • What would you do right now if you knew you absolutely couldn’t fail?

9. “Women tend to apologise a lot more than men in general, even when we have nothing to apologise for – almost out of habit. Do you say sorry a lot? Now this does not mean that we should never apologise, or that we can’t say sorry – of course we can. Just be mindful of over-apologising.”

Phrases to stop saying:

- I’m sorry that our director is unable to come today, you’ll have to put up with me instead…

- Apologies if I’m nervous today, I don’t often speak in public…

- I hope you dont mind but…

- I’m no expert on this but…

10. Stop diminishing yourself. “When we undervalue our role or contribution, we often reflect this in our language, and talk like what we do is not that important. Furthermore, when we don’t genuinely value ourselves, we may start to convince others of the same. People will often mirror back to us how we feel or speak about ourselves.”

11. “People with high levels of resilience think and act in ways that help them cope with change and setbacks. For example, they are flexible and can adapt to changing situations. They also tend to be positive and hopeful – believing the future can or will be better – even if they are in the middle of a challenge. Highly resilient people also don’t tend to dwell on setbacks and things they can’t change.”

Strategies:

1. Dont be afraid to ask for help. “People who are good at reaching out to others, talking about their challenges or setbacks, asking for help and then accepting that help, tend to cope better.”

2. Control what you can control. Do not focus on things you can’t control or change.

[lostworldss]

randomly thinking about it again but i absolutely hate the “we didn’t ask you how you were doing because we thought you would bring it up when you were ready” thing in Blades 2

like it just reminds me of when people do that in real life and it sucks. they don’t ask you about yourself or how your doing but just randomly expect you to start talking about it out of the blue?

even when you ask them how they’re doing and talk to them about their problems, for some reason they can’t turn it around and do the same for you?

why would i think you want me to start venting about my trauma unprompted?

you haven’t indicated any interest that you want me to share that with you?

talking about heavy topics like MC’s trauma with being taken for a year are not something you can just casually bring up. heavy topics can be emotionally taxing, and not everybody wants to discuss it. it can sometimes feel like a burden on other people.

it seems like MC didn’t want to bring up their trauma because they didn’t want to burden everyone with it, as they already have their own problems to deal with. MC didn’t have any inclination to think that the others wanted them to vent because they’ve only been worried about themselves and haven’t shown anything to indicate that they care about MC’s problems.

i love the all the LIs in Blades and i believe that all of them love and care about MC so much. that being said, they definitely all seemed to be pretty narcissistic with their problems in book 2. i’m not going to say selfish, because i don’t believe they deliberately meant to hurt MC. since again, MC didn’t bring their problems up, so they wouldn’t think it’s that bad.

but having the mindset that your friend will just bring up their trauma whenever they’re ready and just to not ask them about it, seems more harmful than good. it just comes off as not caring.

and it’s crazy because MC is always asking the others how they are doing and checking up on them with their traumas throughout the book. yet no one really does the same for them.

communication is a two-way street and MC definitely could have brought it up if they wanted to talk about it, but like i said before, it seems like they had the mindset that everyone else’s problems come before their own and they don’t want to burden anybody. and maybe they didn’t think it was that bad themselves. maybe it wasn’t until the two panic attacks that they really recognized it and thought about it. although if that’s what happened, that’s even worse. because if they had simply talked about with one of their friends first, they would’ve actually realized how much it affected them before then.

i’m not blaming the LIs or holding any ill will to any of them because of this, because this was definitely just bad and lazy writing on the writers’ part. they definitely did not put any thought in MC’s arc in the book, instead focusing on the LIs. MC felt like an afterthought, and they just slapped on this scene with the LIs at the end because they realized that had to come back/wrap up MC’s trauma arc in some way. (an arc which consisted of just the one other panic attack pointing out that the trauma existed in ch.8 and that’s it.) i still love the majority of the scene and the group hug, but the reasoning for the writers not wanting to put any other thought into MC’s trauma just being explained with the idea that everybody did actually care but they didn’t want to bring it up to save your feelings or something, is really bad. and i don’t think they realize how bad it makes the LIs come off.

[fantasykiri5]

Hey do y’all wanna see the most horrible fucked up homebrew ranger spell I just wrote out for fun

[vladimir777sk]

☝ Держи баланс 😉☕

Умный человек счастлив, лишь когда удостаивается собственной похвалы; дурак же довольствуется аплодисментами окружающих. Джозеф Аддисон

*An intelligent person is happy only when he receives his own praise; a fool is content with the applause of others. Joseph Addison

[transingthoseformers]

There are many valid reasons to have beef with rid15 but fuck are a lot of the Decepticon / Decepticon adjacent designs pretty

Hell i think i prefer Starscream's rid15 design over his TFP one because he feels more Starscreamesque to me

[devilsskettle]

i've watched a lot of good films lately in an attempt to catch up with a bunch of movies that have come out recently, but talk to me was the best movie i've seen in a LONG time

[andr0nap-wf]

this is a "warframe" blog and im trying to keep it that way but im fighting for my life to not be a specbio nerd here too

[kaleidoscopevisualart]

📺🎶 Kaleidoscope Visuals with Emotional Acoustic Piano

[lisablack000]

"I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them cats." ~Eckhart Tolle

[quotelr]

Are you comfortable and willing to be of service to others, but find it difficult to receive the same in return? Why are people so quick to resist receiving, even when they need the help? Your ability to receive not only opens the space for great things to enter your life, but it returns a gift of grace to the giver.

Susan C. Young

[primal-con]

Note to my fellow nerds, befriend your local comic book shop guys cause then they’ll let you buy the first complete volume of the skybound comics a week ahead of release apparently?? Anyways Carly, Jazz, Cliffjumper I love you they finally did you right <33

[dahliadear]

As I'm reading Dracula Daily I keep picturing Dr Seward as Harry Treadaway's Dr Frankenstein from Penny Dreadful. He just makes such a good soggy, insomniac, autistic Victorian doctor.