The sounds of my facetime ringing or facebook messenger dinging or news alerts buzzing now act as my alarm most mornings. I spend my first couple of hours catching up on updates and then messaging friends and loved ones, including regular online check-ins with my 80+ year old parents.

Then come the emails. 

I now find myself sifting through a barrage of well-intended informational briefings from companies, including some I’m only tangentially connected with. Like the manufacturer of the dishwasher I bought last year, offering me detailed information about what their company is doing to protect their employees and what I should do if my dishwasher breaks down. I’m thinking, maybe hand wash my dishes and let the service techs shelter in place too? (Except, of course, to respond to hospitals and other front line service providers. They need their dishwashers to keep running.) 

This flood of information I’m seeing also includes newsletters and social media...

I have friends who are huggers, and people who know me know that I’m a hugger. I even sign off emails with “Hugs, Pallas.” So it’s hard for me to be able to push people away, say “stop!”, or stop myself when presented with an opportunity to hug.

But I’m going to have to find a way. Fast.

We’re all going to have to learn to override our deeply ingrained social impulses as long as Covid-19 hangs around. Instead, we’re going to have to give “social consent” to be anti-social, at least for the time being....

See the full article on The Spinoff: https://thespinoff.co.nz/covid-19/19-03-2020/covid-19-a-huggers-guide-to-staying-the-hell-away-from-people/

(photo courtesy: Photo by Taisiia Shestopal on Unsplash)

I was working with a client the other day, helping her prep for a job interview. We were doing this not in person, but on the computer. I asked her a not-so-straightforward interview question and 30 seconds into her answer, I found my eyes straying from her face to some of the other tabs that were open on my computer screen.

"Stop!" I put my hand up and confessed what had happened. I pointed out that if her own coach was losing interest, then it was clear her answers needed to be shorter and more to the point. Especially during a real interview, when the time and attention span of the interviewer may be more limited. The problem is, that's not who she is. She's a thinker. It takes her a while to formulate her thoughts. So what to do?

In a recent Harvard Business Review article, the author wrote that in studies she helped conduct, the research showed participants, playing the role of job applicants, who were perceived as "genuine" and "authentic" were more likely to be...

Trips to the grocery store have never been my favourite thing. I’m not someone who flips through cookbooks as a pastime, dreaming of what I can create in the kitchen (I know and envy people who do). I’d much rather sit at my computer and create word concoctions instead.

But increasingly, my reluctance about going to the grocery store is compounded by guilt whenever I do....

See the full article on The Spinoff: https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/01-07-2019/plastic-bags-are-just-the-start-on-the-paralysing-guilt-of-a-supermarket-visit/

This newsletter is going out on the one month anniversary of the Christchurch terror attack. I had just started settling into my new community on the South Island when the tragedy unfolded. It left me numb. It's taken me a month to process.

As someone who's lived in the Middle East, studied its culture and politics, as well as reported extensively to "humanise" the Muslim community in the US, I was buoyed by what I observed after I moved to New Zealand. Friends of mine helping Syrian women learn to drive in Wellington. Neighbors helping collect donations for refugee families. At the Happiness Idea, we did a radio show on a local Muslim who started inviting strangers into his own home for "Coffee, Cake and Islam?" conversations.

I simply had a hard time believing what had happened when I heard the news about Christchurch. Though I wasn't naive enough to think it couldn't happen here, I lived in hope that it wouldn't. However, when I received...

"From Passion to Mission" Meet the master chef behind Raw Glory and Bounty Box NZ, and find out how shares her passion for and deeply held value about eating healthy organic produce and whole foods.

This podcast episode was aired last November 5, 2018.

"Second Chances" Meet members of Trade School Kitchen in Naenae an amazing local cafe advocating to decrease the stigma around women with a prison past by providing the necessary support and employment opportunities for them to get back to society!

This podcast episode was aired last September 24, 2018.