Happy Friday!
Welcome to the wabi-sabi letter, the digital newsletter that promotes healthy living, wellness, mental health awareness, fitness, positive habits, and all around happiness. Clear your head and cleanse your inbox with a tiny space for wellness as you set your intentions for the day. Badabing badaboom.
Mask on, Mask Off (Again)
According to this recent piece in The Atlantic, the mask may become a permanent fixture in our society (which may not be all bad). Masks might slip on socially or seasonally, as people move in and out of public spaces, or when the temperature drops in winter. Public-health officials could also recommend face coverings intermittently in lockstep with outbreaks, or as a method to tide people over between boosters.
“If people are smart, they will continue to mask if they’re in high-risk situations,” at least for a while, Maldonado told the author, and perhaps not just for SARS-CoV-2 but for other airway viruses as well. Those practices have long been commonplace elsewhere, and if the United States and many other Western countries haven’t hopped on board before, maybe they will now. Australians have “really come full circle on masks,” Subbarao, the Melbourne vaccine expert, told me. “I don’t see a lot of pushback on it.”
Adopting new strategies isn’t admitting defeat, nor is dusting old ones off. We can, and should, expect masking to wax and wane as risk waxes and wanes. “We have to learn as we go and adapt our strategies as needed,” Subbarao said. “This is just one more example of that.”
Yelp’s New Update for Hot Vax Summer
We know this summer, the Delta variant’s sent COVID-19 case numbers up to levels the United States hasn't seen since February. For those concerned about the virus, knowing the vaccination status of those around is more important than ever—especially when dining indoors where you're likely to have your mask off. To help as you pick which restaurants to visit, Yelp added filters that show which restaurants require proof of COVID-19 vaccination and which ones have staffs that are fully vaxxed.
About the update, Noorie Malik, VP of user operations at Yelp wrote in a recent blog post: "With the uncertainty surrounding the spread of the COVID Delta variant, we’re seeing an increasing number of businesses implement new safety measures to protect their employees and communities. To help consumers understand how a business is currently operating as pandemic guidelines continue to evolve, today, Yelp is announcing two new, free attributes—'Proof of vaccination required' and 'All staff fully vaccinated.' Users will be able to filter by these attributes when searching for local businesses on Yelp."
Businesses will have the option of updating their profiles to reflect this information, as well as whether the staff wears masks. To prevent reviews based on a restaurant's COVID-19 policies, Yelp is proactively monitoring pages of businesses that activate these attributes.
Mini-Win Breathing Practice from Mindful
Of course, after all of this stressful back and forth and emerging news, we need some mindfulness. When you feel frenzied or frantic, pause and remember that by dropping your attention below the neck and tuning into your body more often, you’ll learn to read your inner body signals sort of like you read a book. This can help you learn to understand the messages of what’s needed or not needed to feel better physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Follow this mini breathing exercise from our friends at Mindful below:
Focus your attention on your breath.
Inhale and slowly count for four to six seconds.
Exhale and slowly count for four to six seconds.
Do this five times.
Action Item: You can lean into your mindfulness practice through breath and body by viewing the full piece in Mindful here.
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You're amazing. Enjoy the world today.
Love,
wabi-sabi team