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Purpose and Direction

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What is your purpose and how do you want to change and affect the world.

Soon after the completion of Disney World in Florida, someone said, “Isn’t it too bad that Walt Disney didn’t live to see this!” Mike Vance, creative director of Disney Studios, replied, “He did see it – that’s why it’s here.”

“Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.” — John F. Kennedy

When you have or know your life’s purpose, your life becomes filled with direction and meaning.  You will have the right direction and destination to set you forward.  Your purpose gives you a reason for getting up and showing up. If you don’t get up and show up, something important won’t be accomplished.

Finding Purpose and Direction

Unfortunately, it is a common for you to question where your life is going. If you’re constantly asking yourself where your choices are taking you and if you’re making the right ones, you’re not alone, according to Maxie McCoy, author of You’re Not Lost: An Inspired Action Plan for Finding Your Own Way. But feeling lost is not unusual.  Either you got to where you always said you wanted to be, only to realize you don’t want that any more. Or, you’ve never known where you’re going.

Finding and living our purpose is key to having a meaningful, fulfilling life. And, a strong sense of purpose can have a powerful positive effect. When you have a sense of purpose, you never get up in the morning wondering what you’re going to do with yourself. When you’re ‘in purpose’ — that is, engaged with and working towards your purpose — life becomes easier, less complicated, and stressful. You become more focused, like an arrow flying towards its target, and your mind feels strong, with less space for negativity to seep in.

When you don’t have a sense of purpose in your life, it makes you more vulnerable to boredom, anxiety, depression and falling into a rut, according to Psychology Today. To get yourself out of a rut, you should think small, because small is manageable. Small actions let you test and “dry run” how the action might make you might feel. Small steps are better than unyielding and misguided big ones. And over time, they allow you to get closer and closer to a life that feels full of purpose and direction. So it is important to ask yourself: What’s the absolute smallest thing I can do right now to feel more of this?

“When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.” — Seneca

Victor Frankl’s famous book, Man’s Search for Meaning, in which he describes his experiences in concentration camps during the Second World War. Frankl observed that the inmates who were most likely to survive were those who felt they had a goal or purpose. Frankl himself spent a lot of time trying to reconstruct a manuscript he had lost on his journey to the camp — his life’s work. Others held on to a vision of their future — seeing their loved ones again or a major task to complete once they were free.

Aligning ourselves to a purpose often makes us less self-centered. We feel a part of something bigger, something outside ourselves, and this makes us less focused on our own worries and anxieties. Our own problems seem less significant, and we spend less time thinking about them, and so our sense of well-being increases.

“Having a purpose is the difference between making a living and making a life.” — Tom Thiss

Survival is the most basic level of purpose, common to all living things on this planet. It means the effort to meet basic physical needs for food, shelter, or to protect one’s survival in the face of others who threaten it.

The desire for purpose is one of the main reasons why people are attracted to religion. If you are a Christian, your purpose is clear: to worship God and Jesus Christ and attempt to live a virtuous, Christ-like life.

Personal Accumulative — attaining wealth, status and success: Many people in our individualistic and competitive modern societies derive their sense of purpose in these ways, according to Psychology Today. Encouraged by the consumerist ethos of our societies, their main purpose is to accumulate: to make money, to attract attention, to become famous, or rise to positions of status and power.

Purpose and hope are closely related. Working towards a goal implies that we feel that the goal is attainable, and that our lives will change for the better once we have reached it. It implies hope — depending on our type of purpose, hope for a better life for ourselves, a fairer and more just society, liberation from suffering and oppression for others, a healthier world, and so forth.

Having a sense of purpose is powerful. With a clear and concrete purpose that is greater than yourself, no ocean of difficulty is too great. Without a clear and concrete purpose, we rarely move beyond our current boundaries.

Vision and goals can provide you a sense of purpose and can help you see things and work towards things in the future.  It has been said that, “Vision that looks inward becomes duty. Vision that looks outward becomes purpose.”

References:

  1. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/out-the-darkness/201307/the-power-purpose
  2. https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/career/a25700487/how-to-find-purpose/
  3. https://personalexcellence.co/blog/why-have-a-life-purpose/
  4. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/set-your-purpose-reach-your-goals/art-20269956
  5. http://rhapsodystrategies.com/live-life-on-purpose/

1st Generation Building Wealth

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“People want instant gratification, but regular practice is what strengthens your ability. It’s a muscle you have to build, the same as you do with exercise. It will get easier over time.” Andy Reed, PhD, Fidelity’s vice president for behavioral economics.

We all know that for financial security, you need to spend less than you earn, save more, invest and make smarter financial decisions over the long term.

To save effectively, you must establish a solid financial plan that requires understanding your current financial state , concrete goals, and regular and accurate tracking your behaviors and outcomes over time.

“People want instant gratification, but regular practice is what strengthens your ability. It’s a muscle you have to build, the same as you do with exercise. It will get easier over time,” says Andy Reed, PhD, Fidelity’s vice president for behavioral economics.

To read more, go to: https://www.fidelity.com/learning-center/personal-finance/2021-money-resolutions? fbclid=IwAR0nFHEKRYVVuXRKIPHhmBbvD4s5iovtbdS9MEt8WU0qxYh9YQYuVVWohzc&sf240961961=

References:

  1. https://www.fidelity.com/learning-center/personal-finance/2021-money-resolutions? fbclid=IwAR0nFHEKRYVVuXRKIPHhmBbvD4s5iovtbdS9MEt8WU0qxYh9YQYuVVWohzc&sf240961961=

Vaccination and Wearing Masks

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“Once enough people have some immunity, either because of previous infection or because of vaccination, the virus will have a hard time spreading through the community.” Consumer Reports

Researchers hope that Americans getting vaccination will be sufficient to end the pandemic once there is sufficient supply and enough pf the population gets vaccinated.

In trying to understand the readily available vaccine information and how it will affect the lives of Americans, Consumer Reports has reviewed government guidance and consulted with public health experts to provide insight to their readers about the vaccine candidates.

Vaccination equals two doses

Vaccines require two doses—an initial shot and a booster, taken several weeks later. Generally with a two-dose vaccine, it takes about two weeks from the second dose for a vaccine’s protection to fully kick in, according to Natalie Dean, PhD, an assistant professor of biostatistics specializing in infectious disease and vaccine development at the University of Florida.

Though two doses are necessary, the FDA’s analysis of the Pfizer vaccine indicates that people appear to be somewhat less likely to get COVID-19 within two weeks of receiving the first dose.

It’s unclear how long protection from that first dose may last. And the second dose is still required for full protection, to ensure a more durable immune response. 

Halting the virus transmission

It is not known definitely whether getting vaccinated will prevent you from spreading the coronavirus to others. Thus, preventive measures such as social distancing, washing hands, and wearing a mask will remain important even after you get vaccinated, according to the CDC.

More research is required before scientists can say exactly how many people need to be vaccinated to achieve “herd immunity “. It’s possible that with extremely effective vaccines showing 95 percent efficacy, we might hit the point where communities are protected by the time somewhere between 60 and 70 percent of people have been vaccinated, according to Kathleen Neuzil, MD, a professor of vaccinology and director of the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. 

It will be possible for vaccines, as long as Americans get vaccinated, to have a significant impact on ending this pandemic.

Severe allergic reactions

In the U.K., public health regulators have advised that anyone with a history of a severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction to a vaccine, medicine, or food should not receive the vaccine. Two healthcare workers were reported to have had severe allergic reactions after receiving the vaccine. Public health experts worry that the reports could frighten people with allergies and make them think they should avoid getting the vaccine.

From Pfizer’s vaccine trial results, there were no severe allergic reactions. Deliberately, the trials excluded people who had previously had severe allergic reactions to vaccines, a Pfizer scientist said during the advisory panel’s discussion.

The FDA plans to advise that people who are allergic to components of the vaccine should not get it, an agency scientist explained. The FDA’s earlier review of Pfizer’s trial data found slightly more potential minor allergic reactions in the group that received the vaccine than in the placebo group, but none of these were severe, and none occurred immediately after people received their doses of vaccine.

References:

  1. https://www.consumerreports.org/vaccines/your-questions-about-a-coronavirus-vaccine-answered/?EXKEY=YSOCIAL_FB&fbclid=IwAR2LW6PC_JSykJwyG-Kv9ozQkNvxH-1VnYmAby-MJIr8kSJfHm7UwtyH3k8

Vitamin D: Powerful Protection vs. Viruses

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A new study from Spain looked at 216 hospital patients with COVID-19 and found that 80 percent didn’t have adequate levels of vitamin D in their blood, according to Healthline.com.

Recent research discovered a correlation between vitamin D deficiency and a higher risk of COVID-19. Now, another new study has found the same — noting that more than 80 percent of people with COVID-19 didn’t have adequate levels of the “sunshine vitamin” in their blood.  “It looks like patients with a poor vitamin D status may have more severe COVID-19,” said Dr. Hans Konrad Biesalski, a professor at the University of Hohenheim who has evaluated vitamin D and COVID-19..

Vitamin D is a potent weapon against viruses and crucial for immune health — make sure you’re getting enough

There appears to be strong evidence that Vitamin D plays a critical role for your body’s immune system and can ward off respiratory infections. Vitamin D does not effect the viruses, but effects the way our immune system handles infections including viruses.

Boosting your immune system is one of the best things you can do because it is your body’s key defense when it comes to fighting a virus. Even if you are exposed to a virus and if your immune system is strong, you have a better chance of not getting sick.

A major 2017 study published in the British Medical Journal looked at vitamin D’s effectiveness against viral infections. Researchers analyzed 25 clinical trials that included 11,321 people. The data came from 14 countries, including the U.S., England, Japan, Australia, Canada, and Italy.

The study found that taking vitamin D supplements cuts in half the risk of respiratory infections caused by viruses.[1]

Many people recommend that people at high risk for COVID-19 — older adults, those with underlying conditions, and people in nursing homes — can be treated with vitamin D.  “Vitamin D treatment should be recommended in COVID-19 patients with low levels of vitamin D circulating in the blood since this approach might have beneficial effects in both the musculoskeletal and the immune system,” Hernández said in a statement.

Many Americans have a vitamin D deficiency

Vitamin D supplements should be considered one of the many tools that might help when conventional therapies are not enough. Research has found that vitamin D improves viral immunity by strengthening your mucus membranes.

Vitamin D is a key nutrient for your immune system. Once thought as the vitamin for strong bones, vitamin D actually does a lot more for your body — including support your immune system.

The coronavirus and other viruses get into your body through entry points that are covered with mucus membranes. They include your nose, mouth, eyelids, lungs, trachea (windpipe).

A lab study at the University of Illinois found that vitamin D helps mucus membranes provide a stronger barrier to viruses by increasing the antimicrobial compounds in them.

With coronavirus pandemic, researchers have not yet had time to fully test vitamin D directly against it. But they say there’s no reason to think that it would not work just as well against coronavirus as it does against the flu, colds, and other upper respiratory viruses.  “Very low vitamin D status has lots of negative consequences and this could be the case for COVID-19, but that’s not the same as saying that routine vitamin D supplementation will prevent severe infection,” he told Healthline.

  1. https://www.healthline.com/health-news/new-study-found-80-percent-of-covid-19-patients-were-vitamin-d-deficient
  2. https://www.bmj.com/content/356/bmj.i6583
  3. https://www.institutefornaturalhealing.com/2020/03/coronavirus-one-vitamin-may-be-the-key-to-stopping-it/
  4. https://www.bing.com/amp/s/www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/the-surprising-role-vitamin-d-plays-in-your-immune-health/

Coaches Voice Stopping College Basketball Season

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Stop the season. Stop the games, men’s and women’s college basketball, right now, according to several prominent college basketball coaches.

The college basketball season officially began in late November — yet, 33 men’s teams still have not played one game because of COVID-19 interruptions. A number of prominent voices in the college basketball game are wondering if the season should be stopped or postponed with the COVID-19 crisis anything but under control, especially with the physical, emotional and mental toll it has on college student athletes.

Many states has declared the coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency and have implemented restrictions on travel, business and public gatherings. Additionally, there are approximately 2,000 deaths a day and nearly 300,000 new COVID-19 infection cases daily across the country. Nationally and locally, communities have experienced a spike in positive COVID-19 cases since late November. Local and state governments and public health officials are now predicting COVID-19 cases will continue to spike even higher in January following the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

The most vocal advocate for stopping (or pausing) the men’s and women’s college basketball season is Duke’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski. Coach Krzyzewski wants the NCAA “…for the mental health and safety of our players and staff, to assess where we’re at” with with regards to the college basketball season and in light of more COVID-19 game cancellations.

The Duke men’s basketball program will forgo its remaining nonconference regular-season basketball games. The decision was made out of an abundance of caution due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to allow the Blue Devils’ players time over the holidays to spend with their families, according to a release from the university.

References:

  1. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/acc/2020/12/09/mike-krzyzewski-wants-ncaa-re-evaluate-playing-during-covid-19/3864481001/
  2. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/acc/2020/12/10/duke-cancels-remainder-nonconference-basketball-schedule/3889557001/
  3. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/christinebrennan/2020/12/09/college-basketball-while-covid-19-raging-makes-no-sense-coaches/3867975001/

Stopping the Exponential Rise in Cases

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“Cases are rising. Hospitalizations are increasing, Deaths are increasing. We need to try to bend the curve, stop this exponential increase,” says Dr. Henry Walke, the CDC’s COVID-19 Incident Manager.

As COVID-19 cases continue to soar, it took the U.S. more than eight-and-a-half months to reach 8 million cases but less than two months to double that number.

As a result, hospitals across the U.S. are facing dire shortages of beds for critically ill coronavirus patients as the post-Thanksgiving holiday surge shows no sign of relenting, new data shows from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

About 1 in 8 U.S. hospitals had little or no intensive care unit space available last week the data showed. And for the sixth consecutive day, the US reported a record high number of COVOD-19 patients in US hospitals: more than 108,000 nationwide, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

Public health experts say the number of hospitals struggling with intensive care unit capacity to accommodate the nation’s sickest patients likely will increase following another week of record COVID-19 cases.

As cases continue to soar, it took the U.S. more than eight-and-a-half months to reach 8 million cases but less than two months to double that number.

CDC and many states advise not to travel

As Americans contemplate whether to proceed with their holiday season or New Year’s travel plans, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is urging citizens not to travel or to get tested before or is urging Americans who go against its advice to get tested for COVID-19 twice in a bid to make travel safer.

The agency says travelers should get a COVID-19 test one to three days before travel and three to five days after travel, regardless of their destination.

Additionally, some states are reimposing stay-at-home orders for their residents and travel restrictions ahead of the winter holidays.

While other states, such as Hawaii for example, require inbound travelers to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival or require those without results before their arrival to quarantine for 14 days.

What to do

This is one time Americans should heed CDC urging to not to travel and stay home as the best way to protect yourself and others this year; or to get tested for COVID-19 twice in a bid to make travel safer.

References:

  1. https://www.jacksonville.com/story/travel/news/2020/12/11/holiday-travel-check-covid-19-travel-restrictions-by-state/3878341001/?
  2. https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/coronavirus/2020/12/12/coronavirus-florida-what-you-need-know-saturday-dec-12/6511426002/?
  3. https://www.jacksonville.com/story/travel/airline-news/2020/12/09/covid-travel-test-things-to-know-coronavirus-testing-pcr-antigen/3800400001/?

Dr. Fauci Advises Staying Home for the Holidays

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Traveling and congregating together is unsafe this holiday season according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

It’s clear that “even modest size gatherings of family and friends in a home” are contributing to spread, Fauci said. “We’re starting to see infections that are emerging from what otherwise seemed like benign settings, namely a typical gathering of 10 or so people in a social setting,” he said.

But in addition to the number of guests, it’s important to consider where people are traveling from, and the infection rates in their areas, Fauci said. Travel increases your chances of spreading or getting Covid, according to the CDC.

Expected COVID-19 infection spikes due to Christmas and Hanukkah will likely be more severe than the levels experienced following Thanksgiving, because people are typically together for longer, often indoors and sharing food and drinks, Fauci said.

Fauci has warned that the U.S. could see a “surge upon a surge” of Covid-19 cases following Thanksgiving and heading into Christmas. The month of December could be a time of “precarious risk” as people begin shopping for Christmas gifts in stores and host parties for New Year’s Eve, he said.

Staying home during the holidays, wearing a mask whenever you’re around people from outside your household and maintaining proper hand hygiene are the best ways to protect yourself and reduce the community spread of COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

References:

  1. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/09/dr-fauci-skipping-christmas-gathering-with-family-amid-covid-pandemic.html?__source=twitter%7Cmakeit+
  2. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/08/us-hasnt-seen-full-covid-brunt-from-thanksgiving-fauci-warns-.html

mRNA Vaccine Safe and Its Side Effects

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Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine trials show that side effects are common in participants and it appears that the more significant symptoms develop following the second dose.

The Pfizer-BioNTech’s mRNA coronavirus vaccine (BNT162b2) is both safe and effective, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). FDA said results from Pfizer’s large, ongoing study showed the vaccine, which was co-developed with Germany’s BioNTech, demonstrated more than 95% efficacy across people of different ages, races and underlying health conditions, including diabetes and obesity. And partial protection from coronavirus appears to begin 12 days after the first dose, according to Pfizer. Consequently, Pfizer requested and the vaccines are expected to be approved for emergency use authorization (EUA) by the FDA as early as this week.

And this week, a committee of leading U.S. vaccine scientists recommended that the Food and Drug Administration authorize the first COVID-19 vaccine for Americans.

FDA approval of a drug means that the agency will have determined, based on substantial evidence, that the drug is effective for its intended use, and that the benefits of the drug outweigh its risks when used according to the product’s approved labeling. Approval of the he vaccine will help reduce the risk of disease. The vaccine works with the body’s natural defenses to safely develop protection (immunity) to disease, according to the FDA’s website.

How an mRNA vaccine works

Messenger RNA vaccines, called mRNA for short, is a new kind of vaccine technology that has never before been licensed in the U.S. mRNA vaccines contain material from the virus that causes COVID-19 that gives our cells instructions for how to make a harmless protein that is unique to the virus. The objective of a vaccine is to teach your immune systems how to recognize and fight the virus that causes COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Messenger RNA vaccines aren’t like past seasonal influenza vaccines. An mRNA vaccine is essentially just a piece of genetic code that contains instructions for our body. The mRNA tells our cells to make a protein — the same protein that is the spike on top of the actual coronavirus. This is what triggers the immune response in these types of vaccines.

In contrast, past seasonal influenza vaccine puts a weakened or inactivated virus into your body to trigger an immune response, which then produces antibodies. Those antibodies are what ultimately protects you from getting infected if you ever encounter the real virus.

It typically takes a few weeks for the body to build immunity against COVID-19 infection after vaccination. And after vaccination, the process of building immunity can cause symptoms or “side effects”. These symptoms are normal and are a sign that the body is building immunity.

Side effects

Sometimes the vaccine process of teaching your immune system how to react to the virus can cause symptoms. These symptoms are normal and are a sign that the body is building immunity. Moreover, no major safety issues were uncovered and common vaccine-related side effects like fever, fatigue and injection site pain were tolerable, according to the FDA.

The most common vaccine side effects were injection site reactions (84.1%), fatigue (62.9%), headache (55.1%), muscle pain (38.3%), chills (31.9%), joint pain (23.6%), and fever (14.2%), acc riding to the report submitted to the FDA.

Severe adverse reactions occurred in 0.0% to 4.6% of participants and appeared were more frequent after the second dose than after the first. The frequency of serious adverse events was low (<0.5%), without meaningful imbalances between study arms.

Although some COVID-19 trial participants reported COVID-like symptoms, it is impossible to contract the coronavirus from the vaccine, because the mRNA vaccines develop by Pfizer and Moderna don’t use the live virus. 

Bottomline

Getting vaccinated is one of many steps you can take to protect yourself and others from COVID-19.  Vaccines work with your immune system so your body will be ready to fight the virus if you are exposed.

References:

  1. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/08/pfizer-moderna-covid-vaccine-side-effects-trials.html?__source=iosappshare%7Ccom.microsoft.msedge.EMMXShareExtension
  2. https://www.fda.gov/media/144245/download
  3. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/how-they-work.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fvaccines%2Fabout-vaccines%2Fhow-they-work.html
  4. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/vaccine-benefits/facts.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fvaccines%2Fabout-vaccines%2Fvaccine-myths.html

First Home-based COVID-19 Test Kit Approved

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FDA authorizes first direct-to-consumer COVID-19 test system for at-home sample collection with laboratory test processing

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized LabCorp’s Pixel COVID-19 Test Home Collection Kit for use by any individual 18 years and older without a prescription. This product, which is authorized as the first COVID-19 direct-to-consumer (non-prescription) test system, allows an individual to self-collect a nasal swab sample at home and then send that sample for testing to LabCorp.

Positive or invalid test results are then delivered to the user by phone call from a health care provider. Negative test results are delivered via email or online portal.

This home sample collection kit can be purchased without a prescription. It is intended to enable users to access information about their COVID-19 infection status that could aid with determining if self-isolation (quarantine) is appropriate and to assist with health care decisions after discussion with a health care professional.

“This is the first kit for consumers to self-collect a nasal sample for COVID-19 in their home that does not require a prescription,” said Jeff Shuren, M.D., J.D., director of FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health. “While many home collection kits can be prescribed with a simple online questionnaire, this newly authorized direct-to-consumer collection kit removes that step from the process, allowing anyone to collect their sample and send it to the lab for processing.”

References:

  1. https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-fda-authorizes-first-direct-consumer-covid-19-test-system