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Saturday, 22 January 2022 06:30

Nigeria’s conservative north is overflowing with aphrodisiacs - The Economist

Beside the food-sellers at a street market in Abuja, a man in a flowing white kaftan holds a brown leather bag in one hand. In the other, well, is a baby crocodile, which he holds out to a potential customer. “Do you want to touch it?” he asks in Hausa, a language spoken in northern Nigeria and surrounding countries, before offering far more than a fondle of a ferocious reptile: medicines for a cold; for chest pain; for a sore back; and to improve sexual performance. A protracted haggle ensues. Details are discussed. Instructions are issued. Money changes hands, as…

Friday, 21 January 2022 06:03

The seven selves: Your roadmap to improving emotional intelligence

High performers typically have good emotional intelligence (EQ) — researchproves that. And, as you move higher and higher in an organization, the level of your EQ has an increasingly positive general influence. So, if you want to do well, climb the ladder and support your organization as a true team player, building your EQ isn’t an option. It’s a necessity. To discover the current level of your EQ and what you can do to improve it, understanding your “seven selves” is key. The seven selves 101 The seven selves everyone has and can strengthen for better emotional intelligence include: Self-image:…

Thursday, 20 January 2022 06:18

Emotionally intelligent people embrace these 10 simple rules

Put these rules into practice, and start making emotions work for you, instead of against you. "How can I improve my emotional intelligence?" That's a question I get asked a lot. And over the past year I've used this column to focus on answering that question--by providing simple rules that are not only easy to remember, but that you can start putting into practice right away. Here are 10 rules of emotional intelligence that will help you start making emotions work for you, instead of against you. 1. The 25/5 Rule According to ancient legend, billionaire Warren Buffett's personal pilot…

Monday, 17 January 2022 06:18

7 most expensive African countries to live in due to high inflation rates

Many African countries are pressured by high inflation rates, thus causing everything to become expensive. Business Insider Africa presents Africa's seven most expensive countries to live in as a result of high inflation rates. Inflation is measured by the rate at which prices of goods and services increase within a given timeframe. Global economists told Bloomberg that the biggest danger to the economy in 2022 would be inflation, not the Covid-19 pandemic with its different variants. Now, that's surprising and quite interesting! But perhaps that is not much of a surprise after all. Inflation has always been known to be…

Sunday, 16 January 2022 06:14

The scientific reason it's so hard to make friends as an adult (and what to do about it)

Science confirms it's harder to make friends as an adult, but psychology offers a few tricks to help. The surgeon general has been warning America is in the midst of a loneliness epidemic for years, and the forced physical separation of the pandemic certainly didn't help us stay in touch. Surveys show that many Americans lost friendsthanks to two years of shutdowns and restrictions, with older Americans more likely to have lost touch with friends. Some see this as a positive change, a matter of pruning back our social lives to fewer but stronger ties. But for lots of folks…

Friday, 14 January 2022 04:32

Driving change: The all-female garage shifting attitudes in northern Nigeria

The green-and-red Nana Female Mechanic Garage sign is visible from the main road into Sokoto city. Behind its sliding iron gate, Zainab Dayyabu stomps around in heavy work boots and a blue jumpsuit, her hands callused and oily. “I love the job I’m doing,” says the 23-year-old, as she opens the bonnet of a Peugeot van to test its battery. Zainab is one of 25 young apprentices at the first all-female garage to open in the northern Nigerian state of Sokoto. The workshop aims to provide jobs for women in an industry dominated by men and challenge traditional gender roles…

Sunday, 09 January 2022 06:16

The world’s religions face a post-pandemic reckoning

Ask a vicar, a rabbi or an imam about the biggest challenge facing his or her congregation, and the need to foster spiritual values in a secular world may leap off the tongue. Yet the world’s religions face an equally acute but different sort of problem: how to stay in business in a material, competitive sense. In religion as elsewhere, covid-19 has helped sort out winners and losers. Churches that were catering effectively to the needs of their flocks even before the pandemic have often thrived as people worry more about death—and in lockdown have found more time to spare…

Wednesday, 05 January 2022 06:05

Here’s why you can still get infected with Covid-19 despite having been vaccinated

Why are so many vaccinated people getting Covid-19 lately? A couple of factors are at play, starting with the emergence of the highly contagious omicron variant. Omicron is more likely to infect people, even if it doesn’t make them very sick, and its surge coincided with the holiday travel season in many places. People might mistakenly think the Covid-19 vaccines will completely block infection, but the shots are mainly designed to prevent severe illness, says Louis Mansky, a virus researcher at the University of Minnesota. And the vaccines are still doing their job on that front, particularly for people who’ve…

Tuesday, 04 January 2022 06:25

10 New Year’s resolutions that are good for the soul

Tish Harrison Warren I accomplished zero percent of my New Year’s resolutions last year. I’m obviously no sage of discipline. But I’d argue that the chief value of resolutions is not found in our success or failure at keeping them. Instead, they help us reflect on what our lives are like, what we would like them to be like and what practices might bridge the difference. There is goodness then in the very process of making resolutions. There is hope in the idea that we can change — that we can keep growing, learning and trying new things. This hope…

Monday, 03 January 2022 06:14

What is aquamation? The process behind Desmond Tutu’s ‘green cremation’

The body of Archbishop Desmond Tutu will undergo aquamation, an increasingly popular and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional cremation methods, using water instead of fire. With aquamation, or “alkaline hydrolysis”, the body of the deceased is immersed for three to four hours in a mixture of water and a strong alkali, such as potassium hydroxide, in a pressurised metal cylinder and heated to around 150C. The process liquifies everything except for the bones, which are then dried in an oven and reduced to white dust, placed in an urn and handed to relatives. Like human composting, a technique of composting…

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Sunday, 02 January 2022 06:14

Psychologist reveals what your subconscious is trying to tell you when you dream

A psychologist has shed light on the meaning behind the ten most common dreams - including death, snakes and paralysis, as well as cheating, flying and falling. Carmen Harra, American author of Committed: Finding Love and Loyalty Through the Seven Archetypes, has revealed exclusively to FEMAIL what our subconscious is trying to tell us during our nightmares. 'Because they originate in the subconscious mind, dreams can reveal our deepest needs, fears, and desires,' explained Carmen. 'Dreams prompt us to examine our feelings and states of mind. They mainly occur during the rapid-eye movement or R.E.M. stage of sleep, when brain…

Saturday, 01 January 2022 06:10

10 simple quotes to inspire kindness in the New Year & help you build realistic resolutions

These words will help you make it a practice not just to think about kindness, but to practice it year-round The new year is almost upon us. And while there's still a lot of uncertainty swirling about, the way forward is not anxious action or anger, but kindness, compassion, and understanding. There are many inspiring quotes to lean on that can remind us of this as we dive headlong into the future, but here are my favorites at the moment -- I recommend reflecting on them as prepare for 2022. 1. "Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." --…

Saturday, 01 January 2022 06:08

The unconventional approach to New Year’s resolutions that makes them stick

Mark Canada If you’ve made a New Year’s resolution, your plot for self-improvement probably kicks into gear sometime on Jan. 1, when the hangover wears off and the quest for the “new you” begins in earnest. But if research on habit change is any indication, only about half of New Year’s resolutions are likely to make it out of January, much less last a lifetime. As experts in positive psychology and literature, we recommend an unconventional but more promising approach. We call it the “old year’s resolution.” It combines insights from psychologists and America’s first self-improvement guru, Benjamin Franklin, who…

Wednesday, 29 December 2021 06:13

5 things science learned about how to live a happier, more meaningful life in 2021

It's been a busy and productive year in the field of positive psychology. This year has been a banner year for science as researchers around the globe turned out vaccines and new therapeutics in near miraculous times. But the pandemic hasn't just turned up the pressure on our physical health. It's been a pressure cooker for our mental health too. And just as brilliant medical researchers have been racing to make discoveries that will keep us physically healthier, psychologists and behavioral scientists have been hard at work figuring out how we can all be a little happier, more resilient, and…

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