Uniquely Hari: NeuroNav

Showing posts with label NeuroNav. Show all posts

Meeting the NeuroNav team

So great to meet the NeuroNav team in person finally. I had done an internship with them remotely last year. neuronav.org

A Bingo Surprise

The team at NeuroNav had a birthday surprise for at the Team Meeting today.
it was "Hari Bingo"

This doc is a work in progress as I try to trackback the far -from-ordinary year we've been in. Most of the year ended up being dominated by this microscopic virus which suddenly changed all that we took for granted in the world around us letting us witness both the worst of times and the best of humankind. And if I don't talk about the political landscape - that's intentional. It's too emotion for the mind to handle.

January

Jan 1, 2020 was the dawn of a new decade, a year where this century would leave its teen years and enter into the heady years of the 20s. I even wrote a poem for 2020 and another one Daily Cal Renaissance Man for the Daily Cal.

I'd been very excited about the courses I was to take in Spring especially Human Happiness. I had heard Professor Dacher Keltner speak during my Golden Bear Orientation and had waited for the opportunity to take this course. I'd even done an interview with him for the Daily Cal (Towards a Life of Meaning). And what a terrific course it turned out to be. I was Back in Wheeler Hall, my fav lecture hall covering topics one does not associate with academics - awe, gratitude, empathy. I was in total awe. Even got a shoutout by Prof Keltner during one lecture which was thrilling.

Discussion sections were in Dwinelle Hall on Thursdays from 5 to 6pm. As I stepped out of Dwinelle Hall after the discussion section, I would be greeted by the music of the Campanile, playing its concert. It was truly Happiness happens at Six. It was going to be another great year.

I was taking a Business Class for the first time at Haas Business School.

I'd finished the CITI training required by the IRB for research with human subjects and joined Prof Harvey's Lab, Rhe Golden Bear Mood and Sleep Research Clinic as an RA. Back also at the RadMad Disability Lab, teaching the Autism Decal and being on the board of SpectrumAtCal.

February

My family and I, all came down with a bad case of the flu early Feb and were quite sick for over one after the other. One has to wonder if we had a version of covid that time itself.

Feb 3, I was invite to join the ASAN board.

My birthday falls in February. I got to both celebrate with the weekender team and also with my family at an SF restaurant. Little did I know that would be my last restaurant outing for the year.
The coronavirus had started making some waves and uneasiness was creeping into the air. At my SpectrumAtCal meetings one of the other board members mentioned how worried she was about her family and the situation in China. But it was still a far away event in the minds of people living here.

March

Mar 5: I presented live at UCSF CME 19th Annual Dev Disabilities Conf. A Growth Mindset - Reimagining Possibilities for Minimally Speaking Autistics . I remember being told to be very careful not to touch anything, shake hands and did not spend a moment longer than necessary at the conference site.

The coronavirus lockdown "Shelter-At-Home" went into full swing right after. Students were asked to go home and campuses started shutting down.

April

Education transitioned to a world of boxed figures on a laptop screen. Students and instructors both struggled to understand this new mode of instruction.

How did I cope?

By writing about the Pandemic for the Daily Cal. #1 A Chilling Waiting Game #2 The Real Social Distancing.
Discussing the impact of Covid-19 on the Disability Community at Crip Camp Conversations 3 (along with the late Stacey Park)

Cole (Current President of the student body, Spectrum and Cal) and I worked on interviewing candidates for the AY 20-21 board position including that of President. While I had never actively sought the role of President of Spectrum, I somehow I found myself as its first nonspeaking President for the upcoming year.

A silver lining: Carbon emissions dropped dramatically across the world. Animals were rediscovering terrain they had been driven out of before. Nature seemed to be coming alive.

May

May brought the "shelter-at-home" finals exams but no relief with respect to the coronavirus.
My grades: Still hanging onto that 4.0 GPA.

June

In the larger world Black Lives Matter movement gathered momentum with the protests against police brutality against Blacks. A memorial at the end of my street to the fallen bears testimony.

I found myself busy with other things too. I was attending the 13 week Virtual Crip Camp which was such an interesting experience each week. There were even after parties.

I was in a Stanford Neurodiversity Design Workshop.

I was part of a Supported Decision Making Focus group.

I kept writing for the Daily Cal: Fixed

July

Jul 17: I got the chance to co-moderate a conversation with the one and only Judy Heumann on AAC, disability policy, activism, and much more. AAC Users chat with Disability Rights Legend, Judy Heumann

Articles in the Daily Cal: #1Authentic Representation in Media #2 Superfest Shorts

July 26. Quite the biggest surprise of my life, I think. I got a mention on President Obama's Instagram, that too on the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

August

8/13: I presented at the UCSB Disability Studies Initiative Summer Speaker Series. My presentation titled Potential and Possibities through a Disability Justice Lens can be seen at the link.

8/27: Just before college reopened I was in a Coronavirus Information Series with the Autism Society of America in a conversation with Chris Banks, President of ASA. College Advocacy and Beyond - Autism Society of America

I start an internship with NeuroNav.

Articles in the Daily Cal: #1ADA in Color , #2 Disability Visibility, ,

The fall semester at college was to be all online. To be frank, I was getting quite zoom fatigued already.

My fifth semester leading the Autism DeCal at UC Berkeley. All remote this time. The classes were to be 2 hours long. So more lecture content was introduced.

Even before its first formal board meeting, Spectrum at Cal was participating in the Mental Health Week events with 2 events of our own "Autistics Belong, An Intro to Spectrum" and "How to be an ally to Neurodivergents". More zoom meetings of course.

September

California went through another year of crazy wildfires. Last year we were only affected by the smoke with a blanket of toxic air descending on us form fires up north. This year fires were close to home - a lot of places within the Bay Area evacuated. And with it the toxic air.

Sep 9: Spectrum at Cal first Board Meeting for the semester.

I co-authored this section from the Stanford Rebuild Project Anxiety as Comorbidity in Neurodiversity which I had started towards the end of summer.

Invited to be part of a Delphi panel by AASPIRE for an AutPROM Toolbox - a set of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of services for autistic adults. What I enjoyed about this ex which ran through December was that it ran parallel to my Research Methods course which discussed the theoretical and statistical aspects of scale creation, so it was like seeing theory and real life application unfold at the same time. These are scales you read about in Psychology and I got see and comment on 50 of them.

DeStigmatizing Autism: Conversation with Berkeley Seniors on their "Spilling the Cha Podcast" - where Eli and I discuss Spectrum StudentOrg , the Autism Decal and living with Autism.
Articles in the Daily Californian: The Social Dilemma.

Articles in the NeuroNav Newsletter # Silver Linings & Creative Workarounds # NeuroNav Launches SDP, # Meet Your Navigator Sabrina Kappe # The Making of a Social Impact Organization

October:

SpectrumAtCal held its own Black Autistic Lives Matter event.

I presented at the Stanford Neurodiversity Summit. Hari As Possibility: College Track.
October is Disability Awareness Month and Daily Cal came out with their first every Disability Special Issue. Quite ironic given that UC Berkeley is considered the birthplace of the disability rights movement. But really it better late than never and I'm so happy I was able to really get this issue off the ground and play a huge role in it besides writing 2 pieces for it.

Articles in the Daily Californian #1 Born into the ADA. # This is our Campus too. Disability in Higher Ed #3 Blackness, Blindness and Audio Description.

Articles in NeuroNav Newsletter #1 Vote because you can, vote because you should #2 The Future of a very tall very Berry Hibiscus #3 Designing Tools & Training for Independent Faciltators

Somewhere in between were interesting academic courses, midterms and two projects.

November

The year seemed to be rushing towards an end even as the turmoil of the political landscape was mentally stressing and endlessly exhausting.

A busy month with three personal events and a video

Transitions to Adulthood - ASAN Gala Panel

Log Kya Kahenge (What will people say!) - Abelism in the South Asian Community
ACL Panel. A cross-group campus event.

A Video on Why I vote for Disability Rights CA.

A fever pitch buildup to the Elections.

Articles in the NeuroNav Newsletter #1 The Importance of Gratitude #2 Love Each Other and wear a Mask

Spectrum at Cal held its acceptance week with a Research Panel and a Policy Panel.

December

Dec 2: Prof. Victor Pineda said he'd nominated me to be on the Doha Debates show - how can you turn down a request like that. This year Doha Debates with host Nelufar Hedayat, was running a #DearWorldLive series addressing critical issues around the globe. The Disability Justice Special on Dear World Live was on Dec 2, UN International Persons with Disability Day. I was the student voice asking questions of the amazing Judy Heumann and Haben Girma

Doha Debates also asked me for a separate message for World Disability Day. Here is my message on Inclusion and Belonging.

Dec 3: The Opportunity of Education - Speaker at Neurodiversity: A Paradigm Shift, Conf by University College, Dublin, Ireland (video not up yet)

Two Projects due. For my stigma & prejudice class and one to be done all in R for my Statistics Class.

I'm super proud of all that SpectrumAtCal has been able to accomplish this semester despite it being a remote semester. We also kicked off a new Peer-to-Peer Mentorship program by partnering with WeEmbrace amongst other things.

Final exams: Yes!! with the 4.0 GPA intact. I love my courses at Cal.

Dec 22: I play host with guest, ASA CEO, Chris Banks for Autism Society of America's Coronavirus Information Series Year End Recap.

Covid: US/World , Cases 18.3K/77.9 Deaths 323K/1.71M

The elections are over but why still so much uncertainty.

Mentally it has been a rough year. I have felt that I may have regressed in some areas that are more obvious and in ways I am not quite able to define.

In a way I'm glad I had a lot of activities and work to mentally occupy my mind, there have been some amazing silver linings for me this year, so I can't say that 2020 has been a total wash.

Neuro Nav

NeuroNav is in the Self-Determination Space. Got to do an internship there from end Jul 2020

Reflections https://www.neuronav.org/post/reflections-on-2020-goals-for-2021

Party with a Plan https://www.neuronav.org/post/party-with-a-plan

https://www.neuronav.org/post/creative-workarounds-and-silver-linings

Happy Thanksgiving

"In this time of a global pandemic and untidy political landscape, it is all the more important that we practice gratitude. We can, as Mother Theresa once said, be grateful for what we can give rather than for what we receive." - Hari Srinivasan

Happy Thanksgiving everyone

The importance of Gratitude

As the name suggests, Thanksgiving is a time when our minds turn towards gratitude and giving thanks. But what exactly is gratitude. The 18th century philosopher and economist, Adam Smith, had deemed Gratitude as the Social Glue of economic culture.

In her book, The How of Happiness, American psychologist, Sonja Lyubomirsky lists “Expressing Gratitude” as Happiness Activity No 1. She says most people associate gratitude with saying thanks to someone but gratitude is actually much more - wonder, appreciation, looking at the bright side, fathoming abundance, counting blessings, present-oriented, not taking things for granted, coping and counting blessings.

In an article for the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, Robert Emmons, the world leading researcher on gratitude, explains that there are two components to gratitude. The first is affirmation of goodness. Life is undoubtedly filled with both good and bad moments. “But when we look at life as a whole, gratitude encourages us to identify some amount of goodness in our life.”

The second component of Gratitude according to Emmons is figuring out the source of goodness. It is be a humbling experience as we focus not just on our pride in personal accomplishments but acknowledge the dependence on others, even higher powers, that “gave us many gifts, big and small, to help us achieve the goodness in our lives”

Emmons goes on to explain that the benefits of gratitude span the physical, psychological and social realms. It magnifies positive emotions, blocks negative emotions, makes you more stress resistant and have a higher sense of self-worth. But what is most striking according to Emmons, are the social “relationship-strengthening” benefits. Various studies have demonstrated that people who practice gratitude are more helpful and compassionate towards others. He also urges us to think outside the box when it comes to what is gratitude. We can as Mother Theresa had once said, be grateful for what we can give rather than for what we receive.

Emmons points out that practicing gratitude is not easy as it can mean we feel we are less in control or that we are giving away credit due to us to others. He suggests two simple activities to get started.

A gratitude journal listing just five things once a week.

Count your blessings on a regular basis, maybe once a day

In a 2015 article by psychologist Juliana Brieines for The Greater Good Science Center adds further practises.

Mental Subtraction of Positive Events, that is, not taking things for granted. Consider the positive events in your life and imagine what your life would have been like without them.

A Savoring Walk once a week by yourself, where you “pay close attention to as many positive sights, sounds, smells, or other sensations as you can.”

This Thanksgiving, let us see what the NeuroNav team is grateful for

Hari: I’m constantly grateful to the various people at different points in my life who have supported me in many ways. I’m grateful to God, for my talents and my intelligence which was not something taught or learned during my many years in special education. I’m grateful to everyone at UC Berkeley for providing a supportive environment that helps me pursue my desire for a college education, an aspiration that cannot be taken for granted for people with significant disabilities like me. I’m grateful to my family for their never give up attitude towards me and especially in this time of covid which has been difficult for me. And I’m grateful that I too am able to contribute back to society in whatever small way I can.

Sabrina - This year I am grateful for my family, including my new husband. They have always been such a huge anchoring force in my life, and they have been that and more in these unpredictable times. And while it’s been hard not to see many of them in person, our weekly Zoom calls have become my favorite weekend activity, and one that I hope we will continue even as things find their way back to “normal.”

Emma - I am most grateful for the health of my family, especially my father who works at a hospital as a physician. I am also grateful for my husky who keeps me smiling :)

Nick - Even though I could not have expected how this year has turned out, I am very grateful for the friends and family I hold near and dear to my heart. They have supported me in the ups and downs of this time and I love them very much.

Rachel - I am grateful for new opportunities and the great people in my life.

Katie - I’m grateful for my friends, family, and my health. In a time that could be very isolating (and has been for many), I’ve been able to stay connected (virtually and socially distanced) to the people who I care most about. I think that has really helped me stay sane (ish!) throughout the pandemic.

Full Article here: https://www.neuronav.org/post/the-importance-of-gratitude

Love Each Other

An Apt message for the Times @Albany Waterfront Trail

The Albany Waterfront Trail meanders behind the Golden Gate Fields Racecourse in Albany, CA and hugs the bay as it stretches to a little strip of land, simply known as the “Albany Bulb.” It’s a chance to see the Bay Bridge on one side and the Golden Gate Bridge on the other, even as the sun sets over the silver ocean at dusk. Nature and the universe continue to shower their infinite love upon all us humans living on this beautiful planet that we call home.

As I was ambling along the trail, I came across this sign painted on a wood bench:

“Love Each Other, Wear A Mask.”

It is such a simple statement, just six words, yet profound in its own way. We live in a time of global pandemic due to the spread of a new virus that we have not yet quite understood, and wearing a mask seems like a very simple ask. Do we not wear shoes to prevent harmful microbes on the ground from entering through the skin on our feet; it's not foolproof, but it gets the job done for the most part. And, it’s not uncommon for us to wear a mask when we catch the common cold so we don’t spread the cold to others or when we have the flu; both of which are viruses too. Given that COVID-19 is a respiratory airborne virus, it seems logical that we wear a mask to cover our nose and mouth. It is not just about protecting yourself but also being mindful of protecting those around you.

But what is even more timeless, is the first part of the statement, “Love Each Other.” We all witnessed the hoarding of toilet paper and panic buying earlier this year as soon as the Pandemic began. But during this time of global crisis, we also saw unprecedented levels of altruism, generosity and kindness towards strangers across the world. We had almost reached a state of “Agape,” the Greco-Christian term for unconditional love of our fellow human beings or the Sanskrit “Metta;” in transcending consideration of the self into seeking what’s best for others.

It turns out that humans are innately built for love, goodness, kindness and compassion.

So how do we consciously move towards this state so that this innate goodness becomes a part of our everyday existence?

In my class on “Basic Issues in Cognition” at UC Berkeley, we learned that loving kindness actually begins by developing acceptance towards oneself, and if there was resistance, it usually indicated feelings of unworthiness. If you cannot love yourself, you are an empty cup with nothing to give to others.

Professor Davina Chan led us through a simple loving kindness exercise, which can be practiced daily for a few minutes.

Start with Loving Kindness towards yourself by repeating.

May I be happy

May I abide in well-being

May I be secure

May I dwell in safety.

This warmth is then directed towards others, first to people you care about then extended to acquaintances, strangers and even those you regard as enemies.

Regular practice of simple actions can thus lead to an avalanche of profound change within ourselves and the world. The wood bench on the trail, sums it up - “Love each other. Wear a mask.”

Let us begin today!

This post appeared on the neuronav website where I was a communications intern. https://uniquelyhari.blogspot.com/2020/10/love-each-other-wear-mask.html