As a young kid, I had always loved and admired animals. Although I had never had a pet or any knowledge of how to care for one, I still adored them. Four years ago, I had gotten a horse to further my riding career as I fell in love with the sport. She was the first animal that I was ever responsible for. She helped me grow in so many aspects of my life from my confidence to my physical skills, and many things in between. Looking back on those years, it still astonishes me how much a fifteen hundred pound animal that doesn't speak English, can teach things I didn't realize about myself. It was only recently that I had finally, after years of asking, adopted my first puppy. I love him dearly, but having a dog is a lot of work. Work that pays off in the end. Two years ago when I was fourteen years old, I had read a flyer in a local coffee shop, looking for volunteers to help at a therapeutic riding association. One look at the title and I was instantly captivated until the fine print stated there was an age requirement of sixteen years old. Since then I couldn't wait till I turned sixteen to finally volunteer here. But of course, we are living in a covid era. Who would have thought? Anyway, I applied to volunteer at the same place I had seen the flyer back during the holiday break and was stoked to start which was postponed until later this year. The big factor that influenced this decision years ago was that this equine therapeutic association was created for kids with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities. The amount of power a horse could have to teach these kids to not only learn about the animal itself but to grow and learn about themselves. For these kids, horses teach them physical, psychological, social skills that other activities can not. I continue to love volunteering here, learning each story of the kids that ride here inspires me. This is the website where I volunteer, for more information on therapeutic riding, visit this page. Physical benefits can include:
Here are four of ten things many different animals can teach us about being human according to Psychology today:
My experiences with working with many different animals and people have taught me more about them and even more about myself. As Well as volunteering with animals and people alike, learning from animals can teach us about the ways of being human that we can forget at times. Madison
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Sold! For $500 the art piece Escape by Deborah Leigh. Deborah Leigh is my aunt, and over 9 years ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and in a period of coping with mental illness. When diagnosed in her late 50’s she started to “doodle” to help her relax. If someone told her then that she was going to sell hundreds of paintings around the world, she would have laughed in their face. My aunt needed a get away, a healthy way to manage what she was going though, and what spoke to her was art therapy. Art therapy is a method of creative expression that can help heal and strengthen mental well-being. This can either be creating it or viewing others art, it helps with expressing emotions, work on social skills and self-awareness as well as boost self esteem and cope with stress. The main goal of art therapy is to find a new personal way to help you with your struggles. This treatment helps improve the mental health of people who have to deal with addiction, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, trauma, grief and loss, cancer, dementia, PTSD and many others. What makes this method so amazing is that you don't need to have artistic ability or “talent” and it doesn't matter what age you are because everyone and anyone can benefit from it. There are also no rules in art, so if you feel like painting with your nose, so be it, go right ahead. Your art can also express as little or as much as you want. You can show the darkest memory you have or just paint a happy flower in the sun. Art is art and there is no judgement or limitations. There was a study done in https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17482631.2016.1267343 (2017) in a hospital where the employees displayed different types of art to see how the patients would react. And the study found that the patients felt more safe and it improved socialization. Art has been used to communicate and as a form of self expression for centuries. But this type of therapy has not been official since the 1940s. Professionals have realized that people who suffer from mental illness repeatedly expressed themselves in their sketches and artwork. This lead to using art as a healing strategy. Ever since then, this technique has become one of the most important therapeutic techniques. Lucy G This past weekend I watched the 2021 Grammy music awards as lots of others did. I watch the Grammys every year and look forward to it, but I’ve come to realize many flaws in the award system. Many artists are deserving of these awards and I wouldn’t say otherwise, but that doesn’t make it right that many artists get no recognition when it's deserved. To start, the way the awards are supposed to be run is by the board receiving a multitude of artists, albums, and songs that get filtered down into a list of 20 applicants for each award. From there, they (supposedly) use stats of how influential the options are to then narrow it down to a total of approximately 5 nominees per category. This, however, is not how the awards are run. After some research, I discovered that the board of directors operating the Grammys, aren’t as knowledgeable, diverse, or non-biased as you may think. They don’t even have to listen to all the songs nominated. This means that when it comes down to the final nominees, most of the people giving their input and votes are people from the same background and living environments. Most of them are also rich, white, old, males. This can heavily impact the outcome of the Grammy winner. Not only is this an issue, but the process of voting is to simply click who they like the most, and submit it. There are also “secret committees”. This creates discussion as to whether or not they have the ability to accept money for voting for a specific artist and how the people voting can choose their favorites even if statistically, they aren’t qualified to beat another nominee. According to Rolling Stone, they interviewed people who previously worked for the Grammys. They were fired because they spoke up about the corruption around the awards, and how one of them even “engaged in financial lobbying for votes during the nomination process”. While all this may be true, it doesn’t mean that all of the people behind the Grammys partake in these actions and many take their jobs very seriously. Whether or not there are major flaws in the voting system, doesn’t mean this is an excuse to blatantly state that the winners of any award are undeserving. Artists work hard for what they do and to receive such a major award is a big deal. My points just open up the discussion that other artists should be given the spotlight too. Some artists who have spoken up about this are the Weeknd who boycotted the awards due to his chart-topping album being snubbed by the Grammys, Zayn Malik who tweeted about the show, Nicki Minaj who spoke up about the lack of recognition she received for her music, and Teyana Taylor who spoke up about the sexism within the R&B category. (NBC News) Eminem has also on several occasions over the years spoken up about being snubbed at the awards. This year, I saw more POC recognized during the show, and could see a degree of effort was made but there is still much work to be done. One major example is BTS. This world-renowned Korean group was nominated for best pop group performance at the 2021 Grammys but lost to Rain on Me by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande. Good for them for their win but there are some speculations I had while researching this award. Seeing as it goes to the best ‘performance’ specifically; BTS gave an entertaining show several times for their hit single Dynamite, topping charts and beating records while Rain on Me gave a total of one live performance. Gaga and Ari are undoubtedly talented women in music and I have no intention of taking their achievements away from them but for this specific award, my personal opinion is that BTS could have at least been recognized. Originally, BTS requested one of their Korean tracks, Black Swan, to be up for the award but it was immediately turned down due to it not being in English. They created Dynamite to be played in the states by purposefully creating an upbeat sound with English lyrics the Western industry would allow to be played on the radio. The issue is that they had to create something for Western culture in English which isn’t their first language, to cater to the Grammys before even being considered. This is a major disadvantage to any international artist shooting their shot at a Grammy. Many other Kpop groups are just as influential but don’t have the opportunity to be in the limelight due to this. My personal favourites are NCT, EXO, and SuperM. Some other popular groups not acknowledged are Black Pink and Shinee. These are the members of SuperM: International music is minimally represented at the awards other than some honorable mentions such as Bad Bunny; a Puerto Rican rapper who won the Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album. Eventually, it would be interesting to see more diverse genres of music represented at the awards such as Kpop, and Bollywood. With the rise in popularity of K-pop, the degree they are brushed under the rug is astounding to me. Many people have internalized racism towards Kpop and Bollywood music. This doesn’t mean that if you don’t like the genre that you automatically are racist, but if you don’t like it because they’re international genres; that’s a different story. Some of the many heavily influential albums/ songs that haven’t won Grammy’s over the years are; Michael Jackson’s Purple Rain, Beat it, & Billy Jean, No Doubt’s Don’t Speak, The backstreet boys I want it that way, Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP, Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange, and Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City.
The overall meaning behind my words is that even if your favorite artist isn’t nominated for a Grammy, it doesn’t mean they’re any less popular or talented. Brianna S Sources: https://www.rollingstone.com/pro/features/grammy-awards-secret-committees-945532/ https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/music/musicians-call-out-grammys-weeknd-boycotts-awards-ceremony-n1260918 https://www.vulture.com/article/the-greatest-grammys-snubs-of-all-time.html We have all experienced times in our lives and found ourselves in a conversation with someone else and have become agitated at them as they just aren't able to grasp whatever point you are trying to make or situation you are trying to explain. It is easy to become annoyed or upset because what you are saying makes complete sense in your own head; it is hard to comprehend that other people can’t understand you when you feel that everything you have said is so clearly stated. In these situations, it is so important to take a step back, try to put yourself in their shoes, and try a different approach. To start, everyone has a different way of understanding and this can be reflected in the different learning styles: ● Visual (spatial) Learner ● Aural (auditory) Learner ● Verbal (linguistic) Learner ● Physical (kinesthetic) Learner ● Logical (mathematical) Learner ● Social (interpersonal) Learner ● Solitary (intrapersonal) Learner https://www.time4learning.com/learning-styles/ For the past four summers, I have worked as a swim coach with the ages of my swimmers ranging from 5-12. Some kids respond quickly to verbal instructions; quick and concise and they are eager and ready to start the drill. Originally, this was my only way of communicating as it works for me and was fast paced to get us through all the swimming we had planned to do for the day. However, as time went on I noticed the same kids making mistakes in drills, losing focus, asking me to repeat the instructions all over again, and staring at me with puzzled looks. I recognized that by just stating the same sentence I had said a minute before did not provide any clarification at all too. I then started changing up the way I worded my instructions, creating metaphors to help them grasp the way they should move their body, having myself motion out the movement while on deck, and (pre-covid) moving my swimmers bodies to replicate the swim I wanted to see. This made such a huge impact, my swimmers became more confident and proud in themselves once they understood. At first, it was easy to look at my lane and become frustrated with the swimmers not swimming correctly as “they must have not paid attention to me” or “they aren’t trying enough”. The kids not understanding was at the fault of my own and I am glad I have been able to learn and recognize how to reframe the way instructions can be given so that I can create a positive learning space. Now when I am coaching my swimmers and giving instructions, there are a few key points to how I deliver information: - Have I given clear verbal instructions? (must use simple words, speak in a loud well paced voice) - Have I given any form of demonstration? (myself on deck showing my swimmers the movement I want to see, asking a senior swimmer to do a demo in water, showing a video of the swim) - Have I checked in with my swimmers throughout my verbal instructions/demo? (asking for a “thumbs up” if we understand, asking them to repeat back key points that I mentioned I want to see throughout the swim) - Have I given them the opportunity to ask questions? (Sometimes things that seem implied to me, may not be to my swimmers and I want to make sure if they have any uncertainty in what they are supposed to do, they are given the time to ask for clarification) If you are placed in a situation where whoever you are addressing does not understand what
you are communicating, have patience and try to change the way you are delivering what you want to say. Remember that everyone understands and processes information differently. Devon M |
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