Where did 2022 go?
This is the last Friday in November. The pandemic timewarp feels like it's still in action, making the year pass both quickly and so slowly at the same time. More guidance, inspiration and fun inside.
Still doing the timewarp?
It's astounding
Time is fleeting
Madness takes its toll
But listen closely
Not for very much longer
I've got to keep controlI remember doing the Time Warp
Drinking those moments when
The blackness would hit me
And the void would be callingLet's do the Time Warp again
Let's do the Time Warp again
Time Warp lyrics © Universal Music - Careers, Druidcrest Music, Druidcrest Ltd.
In a recent study, researchers surveyed a nationally representative sample of 5,661 U.S. adults about their mental health in March-April and September-October 2020. Participants answered questions about their experiences with the coronavirus, their history of stressful life events, and their financial and life stressors related to the coronavirus.
When the participants were asked about their perception of time, over 65% reported distortions, even six months after the pandemic began. Over half said they felt time was speeding up or slowing down. About 46% said that they were uncertain about what time or day it was (answer; it’s blursday), and 35% reported short-term memory problems.
More women than men reported these distortions, and the same was true for people who had been exposed to trauma earlier in life. Higher media exposure was related to distorted time perception, too.
So, the question for you is, are you still experiencing these kinds of distortions? Even though we are 2.5 years into the pandemic? And if so, why do you think it’s happening for you?
Become a paid member of Noise Reduction for 40% off regular price - only ‘til end 28 Nov 2022. Thanks for your support!
When negative emotions are positive
Negative emotions are an important signal to us that things are off-track. No brainer, right? The thing is that we tend to squash them when they rise up in us, or we try to avoid negative feelings altogether. And when we do this, we may be creating more noise and less signal for a couple of reasons.
Suppressing negative emotions only makes them clap back louder later on.
When they clap back, they arrive when we might be trying to do something else entirely, and we can get confused about what the negative emotion we are experiencing is about, or it can end up colouring the emotional tone of the rest of our day.
… all emotions help you to survive and thrive. Positive emotions make you feel good and tell you when things are right. Negative emotions make you feel uncomfortable, but they come about to alert you of something being wrong. Listen to that because they are there to help guide you in your next steps so things can feel right again.
Read more about what you can do to learn to make the most of your negative signals here.
70 years of the UK Singles Chart
I grew up listening to Radio 1 – especially the Sunday evening charts, whose results would be discussed with friends at school the next day. My earliest memory is of listening to the charts with my mum in the early 70s, when I fell in love with music by the Bay City Rollers, the Osmonds, David Cassidy and Motown music in all its entirety. Now, as a Radio 2 listener, I don’t always know what’s top of the charts, or always care, but still have a love of music and can’t go a day without listening to it - Shami Scholes, Oxford, 54
For a good chunk of these 70 years, I used to spend 5-7pm in the kitchen on a Sunday evening with my finger on the pause button as I recorded my favourite tracks on the UK Top 40 Countdown. Wherever you are in the world, you may have had a similar experience in your childhood too. You too? Or maybe you’re like this man with the only complete collection of UK No.1 singles?
Can illness spread instantly through social networks?
Heard about the TikTok tics? Well, in The Social Contagion, Matthew Syed looks into a strange fainting outbreak at a school, and other similar events, which can affect dozens, sometimes hundreds of people.
It all started in the morning assembly. “Somebody collapsed, or fainted, or threw up – or a combination of the above,” says Mel. And there was a domino effect. More teenagers begin to faint. The pupils were all sent back to their classrooms but more began to complain of feeling dizzy and nauseous, across the site.
And then rumours began to spread. The kids started to speculate about a gas leak or contaminated water. “Then someone else said some chemical had leaked,” Mel recalls.
But an event like this – children and teenagers collapsing left, right and centre for no obvious reason – had happened before…
Read more and listen here too.
Full interview with Steve Jobs back in 2010 here.
How has the wellness industry become so contaminated with conspiracies?
Guardian journalist Richard Sprenger goes down the wellness rabbit hole to find out why the industry has become linked with conspiracy theories, so-called 'conspirituality'. From the Cheshire mum offering harmonic egg healing to sound bathing at the Stroud goddess temple, therapists discuss how mistrust of conventional medicine appears to have grown in the wake of the pandemic, while a familiar face from earlier in the series points to the inevitable end point of such alternative thinking.
Watch the whole set of a sceptic’s guide to wellness here.
It took hours to pull together and write this newsletter, and all the other editions I put out during each week. If can afford it, I’d love it if you would consider becoming a paid member. Thank you.
The only paper plane database you’ll ever need
Yes, it’s what you didn't know you needed with the holiday season fast approaching. This is a database of paper airplanes with easy to follow folding instructions and printable folding plans. Filter to find the planes that fly the furthest / stay aloft the longest. It’s even got a section full of activities and experiments. You’re welcome.
That’s it for this week, everyone. Let’s wave November goodbye and get set to welcome in the final month of the year. Time warp anyone?
Thank you for the morning chuckle. The hippocampus cartoon Ha. I heard and read that word so much in 2021/22 my TBI year.
I wonder if the blursdays were because there were no benchmarks to recall, apart from Lockdowns, QR scanning, testing stations and mask wearing. A common thread for all of us no doubt.
Since returning from the UK I rarely use or hear the words pandemic or covid apart from the news, recent surges overseas. As for the last weekend in November hurray, 2023 can’t come soon enough. Enjoy the weekend all.