Last submitted blogs

Great news from Rebecca Bishop: The Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture (MAC), a Smithsonian Institution Affiliate, will host Dig It! The Secrets of Soil, an exhibition on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, on view February 4 - September 22, 2012.

Opening day will unveil this 5,000 square-foot exhibition and reveal the complex world of soils and the connection to our daily lives. The Museum is open from 10am – 5pm with admission fees of $7 for adults, $5 for seniors (60+) and students. Children 5 and under are free. MAC Members are at no charge.

Image courtesy of the Spovangelist.

The day’s events will include earth and art family activities throughout the day. And, at 2:00pm, Smithsonian professionals, local scientists and conservationists will provide a thought-provoking panel discussion about global hunger: “Can We Feed the World and Sustain the Planet?” The panel discussion will be followed by a no-host beer and wine reception with an opportunity to socialize with the panelists. There will also be live blue grass music from the Dead Fiddlers Society.

One of the biggest problems of stress is recognizing it in time. If your head starts hurting while you are painting your apartment, you quickly make a connection to toxic fumes and escape. With technology, the situation is different. Technostress can show up in many ways, affecting both our physical and mental health. We need to exercise awareness when working and living in a highly connected technological world.

To help you identify technostress and to catch it before it become a serious problem, I created a short list of symptoms that are usually reported by those experiencing technostress. Go through the list and see how many you check off.

Some of the symptoms of technological stressors are:

Memory loss, forgetting what you started to do or why you walked into a particular room
Impatience with self and others
A lessened ability to relax or slow down
Anxiety over having lost access to your cell phone, palm, TV or other types of techno equipment
Headaches, stomach discomfort, back pain, ulcers, and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
Difficulty falling asleep
Continuously checking your e-mail, voicemail, surfing the web, and other types of techno equipment, and not turning it off for the night

The Cure: Managing Technostress

Ethel Roskies, who writes on stress management, makes the point that stress has become the fashionable disease of today – the treatment of which is a popular and profitable activity. To manage the high-tech addiction of overload, we must go to the place it originates: the brain. To help the brain retain cognitive fitness, we must look at factors that affect the brain:

Glucose (sugar) and H2O (water) – Low levels of glucose (hypoglycemia) and dehydration significantly affects the functioning of the brain. Eating complex carbohydrates, fresh fruit and vegetables is a great way to replenish glucose and not feel run-down. The slow release of glucose from complex carbs keeps the brains energy level consistent with less dramatic spikes representing a healthier choice then that of simple carbohydrates like fruit juice, candy or sweet treats which break down immediately causing the body to have dramatic spikes.
Hydration – Keep your brain hydrated: about 80% of your brain is actually water, and the rest of it is taken up by both physical and biochemical structures. Your brain uses about 25% of the oxygen and sugar that your body circulates for nutritional needs.
Rest - Recovery, downtime and sleep. Studies show that optimal amounts of sleep range from 7 to 8 hours per night for men and 6 to 7 hours for women. Ignoring sleep is like ignoring your credit card bill – if you don’t pay, things are only going to get worse.
Time Management – Give yourself more time to do everything by building a margin for error. Schedule time to take care of specific daily tasks.
Time Out – Set regular “Time-Out” periods or simply go outside and take a break or meditate.
Self Care – Meditate, Stretch, and Exercise. Get out of the office or home and do some deep breathing.
Eye Strain – Take a short vision break every 30-minute.
Focus on the Moment – Limit multitasking and practice being present.
Boundaries – Make clear distinctions between work times and free times. Limit the times of the day when you check emails, cell phone, play games, watch TV or access other technological devices. Use technology to create and publicize your boundaries. Educate and contract realistic timelines with others.
Prioritize – Ask yourself what is of primary importance in your life. Think about what refreshes you and deliberately plan to fit that activity into your schedule.

The bottom line is, technostress manifests itself in each and every one of us to various degrees. It is not a matter of “if” but rather “when” a technological glitch nails you. Your problem solving and ability to cope make the difference in the degree of perceived hassle.

My belief is that technology is not the problem; time management and unrealistic expectations are. Technology should be viewed as a sport which requires conditioning, cross training, proper nutrition, and recovery time.

How do you deal with stress caused by endless emails, meetings, and to do lists?

Images courtesy of Quantum Learn and Mykl Roventine {Flickr}.

Mike

Mike Conner helps individuals reinvent the conversation between their brain, body and food.  A Wellness, Food and Kitchen Coach who spends endless hours helping her clients create meaningful life plans as she infuses their lives with fresh ways of thinking about lifestyle change.  As Conner says: “there is no such thing as bad or good genes, good or bad karma. There are solely life’s trails and corrections.” She encourages people to figure out ways to explore the edges of the world around them, from changing their physical environment to the cultivation of new interests and habits. Visit coachconner.com for extended versions of health and wellness articles.

Technostress: How You Catch it and How You Cure it! is a post from: Modern Hippie Mag

Over the past couple of decades, California has earned a reputation for passing its own environmental standards that are often much more rigorous than those set by the federal government. Following this trend, California’s Air Resources Board (ARB) released a tougher vehicle emissions program for vehicle model years (MY) 2015 through 2025. The Advanced Clean Cars program, which was passed unanimously on January 27th, is designed to “encourage” the sale and development of environmentally advanced cars by mandating significant cuts in smog and carbon dioxide emissions.

According to ARB Chairman Mary Nichols, the new rules “will clean our air, fight climate change and provide cars that save consumers thousands of dollars at the pump.” Specifically, by proposing tougher smog standards starting with MY 2015, cars built in 2025 will emit 75 percent less smog-forming pollution compared to 2014. In the past, similar legislation (known as Low Emission Vehicle I) reduced smog by 75 percent between 1994 and 2003. Greenhouse gas emissions, for which regulations go into effect in 2017, are predicted to be 34 percent lower for MY 2025 vehicles than those made in 2016. Over the course of the regulations, it is estimated that greenhouse gases will be reduced by roughly 52 million tons, or the equivalent of taking 10 million cars off the road for one year.

The vital source of these emission reductions is the 1.4 million plug-in hybrid and zero-emission vehicles that will be on the road by 2025—if all goes according to plan. Essentially, manufacturers will be required “to offer for sale specific numbers of the very cleanest cars available.” ARB estimates that while the cost of new vehicles with high-efficiency technology would increase by an average of $1,900, the payback period would be between one and 3½ years. Over the course of a typical consumer’s ownership of such a vehicle (eight years), the owner would save an average of $4,000, which translates to about $6,000 over the lifetime of the car. Even if these estimates are correct, however, consumer demand will ultimately decide when (or if) the electric vehicle industry can thrive and sustain growth over the long term.

Image

The requirements to build and maintain a sustainable business today are quite different than they were just ten years ago.  The triple bottom line, also known as people, planet, profit is recognized by sustainability professionals as the the three pillars of sustainability.  In essence -a process by which firms manage their financial, social and environmental risks, obligations and opportunities.   

Companies on the leading edge are evaluating the economic, social and environmental impacts that will ultimately affect profitability.  Green business practices are becoming more and more the norm, as companies both large and small realize the value of integrating eco awareness and sustainability concepts into their operations and business strategies.  But, how are small and large sized businesses communicating their sustainability successes?

Is it possible that Twitter, Facebook, and blogging could be the three pillars of sustainable communications?  Two recent posts, Business Blogging for a Sustainable Purpose
and Who are the Tweeps Tweeting for A Better Green Brand? explore the value of social media for sustainability communications.  Our friend Fabian Pattberg asks,  Facebook – A useful Sustainability and CSR platform? Mirroring thoughts on the subject include those found in the post, Sustainability Professionals + Facebook = Worth It?

With sustainability concepts and definitions still subject to interpretation and debate, there are challenges to effectively and clearly communicating the business sustainability message.   Facebook offers opportunities to engage differently with stakeholders compared to the other platforms.

Consumers, prospects, potential business partners require different levels of stakeholder engagement and buy in to your company as well as to your definition of business sustainability.  While Facebook may or may not be the most dynamic platform, there are ways to make a sustainability social media marketing strategy work for you.  

If you are looking for more information on how to use Facebook to grow your sustainability practice of create social media success for your business, consider checking out our 8 -week, self-guided, online course called Social Media for Sustainability Professionals. It includes an entire section devoted to Facebook (with additional sections focused on websites, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging, Google+ and more!)—including the difference between a Facebook profiles and pages, privacy issues, tactics for growing your fan base, and mistakes to avoid.