thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-08-15--OnlyFans Isn't Only About Porn Anymore - These Musicians And Entertainers Are Cashing In On The Plat

OnlyFans Isn't Only About Porn Anymore - These Musicians And Entertainers Are Cashing In On The Platform Too

Isn’t OnlyFans a porn site?
Well, yes, OnlyFans gained prominence for sexual content, with individuals offering photos, videos and intimate access to people who pay to subscribe to their pages.
Since it began in 2016, it has developed a cult following for people who prefer their porn shot in the creator’s homes rather than in a high budget studio.
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As well as offering users exactly the content they desire (fans can often message the creator with bespoke requests), OnlyFans democratises porn creation: rather than creators losing half their earnings to a middleman, creators have complete control over the material they share - and take home 100% of the profits.
But the privileges of the platform, such as the opportunity to offer intimate, exclusive content to a set of potentially high-paying users, has begun to appeal to users creating non-sexual content.
Musicians, actors, fitness enthusiasts and even drag queens are flocking to the platform. In the past fortnight, Drag Race All Stars winner Shea Coulee signed up, and more recently, US rap royalty Cardi B.
““No I’m not going to be showing my titties, or my p***y, or my ass, just straight up real content shit,” she told fans. “Everything you want to fucking know, ask the question!”
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Cardi announced that she’s joined the platform in an Instagram video where she insisted her content will be porn-free.
“No I’m not going to be showing my titties, or my pussy, or my ass, just straight up real content shit,” she told fans. “Everything you want to f*cking know, ask the question!”
And in a slightly more polished press announcement, the website’s publicists said: “Cardi will be using the platform to release behind the scenes content, including from the WAP music video, address ongoing rumours, share glimpses into her personal life, connect closer with her fans, and much more.”
Cardi is the latest in a string of entertainers cashing in on the opportunity to offer fans a closer look at their real lives.
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Another is the Emmy nominated singer NEVRMIND, who advertises his OnlyFans with equal prominence as his Spotify and Apple Music pages on his website.
“I always thought of joining but truthfully when the lockdown started It really pushed me. I found another way to livestream shows and also reach a new audience,” says the musician.
NEVRMIND finds the platform’s audience is a “mixed crowd” and has gained a whole new set of fans having joined, suggesting there is a thirst for platonic music content. “I have some of my followers from Instagram converted over but for the most part it’s a whole new audience and I love that,” he says.
He says having control over what he posts and getting paid for his influence are the two most attractive features. “I believe everyone that has the ability to build an audience and have influence deserves to get paid for it.”
“It makes it easier to find who would actually come to your shows and spend money on your art” - NEVRMIND, Emmy nominated musician
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Part of the appeal for the artist is that there’s an audience hungry for entertainment content that are probably being underserved - in other words: there’s a gap in the market.
And it’s feasible that people who subscribe to porn channels would be open-minded to discovering new music on OnlyFans given they have already established trust in the platform.
“I know the power of social media traffic,” he says. “Everyone coming on and off the platform also loves music so why not feed them both?”
And in business terms, it makes perfect sense. Subscribers have to pay before they can view content, so creators have a clear idea of who their audience is, the ability to interact with them if they wish, as well a set of people to market new releases to.
“It makes it easier to find who would actually come to your shows and spend money on your art,” he reflects.
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Julian Shaw, an actor and fitness influencer, has also converted to OnlyFans under lockdown. He had more of a sense of trepidation about joining because of the platform’s reputation, but says the financial reward quickly made sense.
“I was killing myself making weekly YouTube videos about staying healthy during the pandemic, for no pay, and I saw an opportunity to better monetise my content and help people more directly with their mental health and wellness,” says Shaw.
“I’ve more than replaced my prior income and even paid off a credit card that has haunted me for years” - Julian Shaw, actor and fitness influencer
“I got my courage up, made an account and the rest is history. I’ve more than replaced my prior income and even paid off a credit card that has haunted me for years!”
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Shaw had a similar experience finding a fanbase with the platform without relying on a prior social media following. He found that offering a discount code or promotion meant his page was featured by OnlyFans and followers quickly amassed.
Julian Shaw was hesitant about OnlyFans, but has made significant profits since joining under lockdown Supplied
He sees the platform as the future hub of digital entertainment: “I describe Only Fans as your own personal Netflix. I believe there is a shift happening in content. Through traditional media you need to reach millions of people to make good residual profits, because so many other people are getting paid.
“With a direct subscription model you only need a small number of passionate followers and you can make a living.
The benefit is mutual for creators and fans alike, believes Shaw. With the smaller pool of dedicated followers signing up to pay you for content, “you can now afford to take the time to talk to them, learn what they love and even make customised content for them.
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“I can actually speak at length to subscribers on Only Fans – I can’t do that on Twitter or Instagram or Facebook or I’ll be doing it all day and never get anything done” - Julian Shaw
“So if you’re a singer you could write songs for them, if you’re a fitness influencer you could create customised workout videos. I can actually speak at length to subscribers on Only Fans – I can’t do that on Twitter or Instagram or Facebook or I’ll be doing it all day and never get anything done.”
Others are blurring the lines between sexual content and the entertainment sphere. Caroline Calloway, perhaps the world’s most famous influencer and the subject of a media storm when her friend Natalie published a tell-all essay, plays to the platform’s core content with what she posts.
Calloway tells HuffPost UK she joined the platform after being “really bored and horny during quarantine and I needed to make some money.”
Caroline Calloway signed up to OnlyFans are being 'bored and horny' under lockdown Noam Galai via Getty Images
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“I cosplay as different literary heroines, so everything from Dagny Taggart in Atlas Shrugged to Orlando in Virginia Woolf to Juliet by Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare,” she says.
“I dress up as bad ass literary heroines and a lot of times my perfect titties are out. But that’s as far as I go, topless photos.”
“It’s always been very hard to make a living from creating the stuff inside one’s imagination but it’s finally a little bit easier with these sort of crowdfunding sites,” she says of the platform.
“That’s why people are using them - artists still need to pay electrical bills, and put food on the table and buy 3,000 dollars worth of rare books for obscure academic projects and those things cost money.”
“I thought it would be a lot of creepy men but I was pleasantly surprised by how normal my followers on OnlyFans seem” - Caroline Calloway
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She reflects on those subscribing to her page: “I thought it would be a lot of creepy men but I was pleasantly surprised by how normal my followers on OnlyFans seem, and how respectful they are, and I really love the amount of women that follow me. I think that’s hot...”
Under the pandemic, there has been a lot of talk about which elements of lockdown life will sustain. While digital theatre shows and Zoom conversations have kept us in touch with one another and our interests, they seem unlikely to interest us once we’re able to entertain ourselves properly, with live shows and the like, once more.
However, OnlyFans, and a site called Patreon, another subscriber-based service which musicians like M.I.A and KT Tunstall have adopted, may have changed our viewing habits in the long run: under the oppressive conditions of the virus, entertainers have learned something new: that audiences desire intimacy from the people they stan, like and follow, and they’ve learned how to deliver it.
Look up OnlyFans and there’s still a strong chance your laptop privacy settings will not allow you access - but surely those days are now numbered as the platform explodes to find new and broader audiences.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-08-15--Why Is Cinema So Reluctant To Let Leading Ladies Be Child-Free?

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Summerland Summerland
If there is one thing that Gemma Arterton’s Alice Lamb can’t abide in the new period comedy Summerland, it’s children. They are the bane of her reclusive existence in a small seaside town in Kent, during WW2, branding her a “witch” and causing a daily nuisance with pranks on and around her property while she is trying to write her thesis.
So when a kid called Frank (Lucas Bond) lands on her doorstep, one of the many London young escaping the capital during the Blitz, it’s no wonder she baulks at the idea of housing one.
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But as Alice reluctantly bonds with the young lad, while flashbacking to her university love affair with the family-wanting Vera (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the film suggests that any woman could warm to the concept of child-rearing if they are simply served up the right child to rear.
Summerland isn’t the first movie to thrust motherhood on independent women who have no interest in children; Baby Boom (1987) and We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011), to a more nuanced and critical extent, are two such examples.
However, Jessica Swales’ film still perpetuates the notion that being child-free isn’t a valid choice at a time when more and more women are choosing to be.
In 2019, according to the Office for National Statistics, 48% of women in England and Wales had not had children by the time they hit 30, compared to 80% of the previous generation who had at least one child by that milestone.
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Fertility issues are one of the reasons why an increasing number of women are choosing to go child-free but other factors include economic concerns, climate change worries, career goals and simply feeling that being a mother isn’t actually what they want.
Of course, society has long been resistant to the idea of women denying their biological mandate, especially when those women have celebrity status.
One winces at the years of pejorative news coverage aimed at the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Renee Zellwegger and Kylie Minogue for deigning to enter middle-age without putting their ovaries to use.
Just entering Aniston’s name in a Google search bar prompts a suggestion about “kids” with 56,600,000 related search results. The barrage of media attention of her pregnancy status even forced the former Friends star to pen a response.
“The sheer amount of resources being spent right now by press trying to simply uncover whether or not I am pregnant (for the bajillionth time... but who’s counting) points to the perpetuation of this notion that women are somehow incomplete, unsuccessful, or unhappy if they’re not married with children,” she wrote for HuffPost in 2017.
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“We don’t need to be married or mothers to be complete. We get to determine our own ‘happily ever after’ for ourselves.”
Unfortunately, cinema hasn’t always been an ally for this lifestyle choice and too often helped to reinforce the “all women should be mothers” stereotype.
In Alien (1979), Ellen Ripley is the sole survivor, and one of two women in the seven person crew, who defeats the Xenomorph menace.
The character was originally written as male so it’s no wonder she exists in that first film without any gendered baggage, but as the franchise continued, and new male filmmakers took control of her narrative, she was soon made a surrogate mother in Aliens (1986), impregnated in Aliens 3 (1992) and made a fully-fledged mother herself in Alien Ressurection (1997).
“It's time movies reflected the positive reality of life purposefully lived without children.”
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More recently, Bridget Jones’ Baby (2016) thrust the titular heroine into motherhood as an excuse to extend the franchise, despite her barely showing signs of interest in the previous two films. More often than not, there is an extenuating circumstance as to why a woman is child-free and usually its because their life isn’t regular – Captain Marvel, Black Widow and Tomb Raider aren’t really depictions of the everyday woman.
Film critic Catherine Bray recently mused on the topic and suggested that the majority of child-free female characters fit into one of four categories: the young/ingenue (Frances Ha, 2012), the de facto parent (Charlotte in Now, Voyager, 1942), the dysfunctional or damaged (Jane in Eternal Beauty, 2019) or they are simply not the lead (Jocelyn in The Jane Austen Book Club, 2007).
This latter category is what I call the “mother buffer” approach, whereby a child-free woman’s independent position is softened by the reminding presence of a parent or two.
Summerland certainly fits into the de facto parent category, as does the recent film Saint Frances, which sees the lead, Bridget, wrestle with her decision to have an abortion and live a child-free life while working as a nanny.
That’s not to say cinema hasn’t produced good representations of women not wanting to be mothers. Jackie Brown (1997), Eat Pray Love (2010) Obvious Child (2014) and Like a Boss (2020) are a few instances of films that have helped to normalise a child-free existence, but they are frustratingly rare.
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So as the stigma reduces around a non-maternal way of life, it would be wonderful if movies were less reluctant to reflect the positive reality of life purposefully lived without children.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-08-15--Thai King Commutes Death Sentence Of UK Backpackers' Killers

Family pictures of Hannah Witheridge and David Miller. Family handout
Two men on death row in Thailand for the murders of British backpackers Hannah Witheridge and David Miller have had their sentences commuted to life in prison, their lawyer said.
The bodies of David, 24, from Jersey and Hannah, 23, from Norfolk were found on a beach on the Thai island of Koh Tao in 2014. They had been bludgeoned to death, and a post-mortem showed that Hannah had been raped.
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Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun from Myanmar, were convicted in a Thai court and sentenced to death in 2015. The verdict was upheld by an appeals court in 2017 and the Supreme Court in August 2019.
The convictions were mired in controversy with supporters of the two men arguing that they had been framed and that they had initially confessed to the crimes under duress.
Myanmar migrant workers Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Htun leave after a hearing at the Nonthaburi provincial court in Thailand, August 29, 2019. REUTERS
Their sentences will be reduced to life imprisonment after a royal pardon decree was published on Friday, their lawyer Nakhon Chompuchat told Reuters.
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“The two are eligible under a section in the royal pardon decree to get their death sentences reduced to life imprisonment,” Nakhon said.
“They will also have a chance to get their sentences reduced further on good behaviour.”
The decree published on Friday said the royal pardons were granted to commemorate the king’s birthday on July 28 and to “illustrate the king’s clemency”.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-08-16--Priti Patel Says Migrants Crossing The Channel Fear They Will Be 'Tortured' In France

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Home secretary Priti Patel has said migrants are crossing the Channel to Britain because they believe France is a “racist country” where they may be “tortured”.
According to reports, Patel made her comments in a conference call with Conservative MPs concerned about the recent upsurge in numbers attempting the dangerous voyage in small boats.
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Government sources said she had made clear that she did not share those views and was simply explaining the “pull factors” which led so many migrants to risk their lives in this way.
One MP on the call told The Sun on Sunday: “Priti was asked why the migrants are so desperate to leave France and come here. She told us some believe racism to be an issue.
“They claim they feel discriminated against when, for example, looking for work in France. Others claimed they feared being tortured if they stayed in France or Germany.
“Priti stressed that she didn’t believe any of this to be true. She was merely trying to explain the pull factors.”
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However, another MP on the call was quoted as saying that she had left an impression that she did believe the French were racist.
“She was calling them racist and she is right. They are more racist than us,” the MP told The Sunday Times.
A Home Office spokesman said the UK was working with the French authorities to stem the small boat crossings.
However, the spokesman said the government had limited scope for action until the Brexit transition period comes to an end at the end of the year.
“The home secretary is clearly frustrated by the increasing number of small boats crossing the Channel – this is compounded by the fact we are currently restricted in our response by EU regulations,” the spokesman said.
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-08-16--PC Andrew Harper’s Mother Pens Emotional Letter Urging Harry Dunn’s Alleged Killer To Return To UK

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The mother of PC Andrew Harper has written a letter to Harry Dunn’s alleged killer urging her to return to the UK.
Debbie Adlam, who has become friends with Dunn’s mother Charlotte Charles, said she wrote the letter because “there is too much suffering going on to sit and do nothing”.
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Dunn was killed when his motorbike crashed into a car outside a US military base in Northamptonshire on August 27 last year.
Anne Sacoolas, the wife of an intelligence officer based at RAF Croughton, claimed diplomatic immunity following the crash and was able to return to the US, sparking an international controversy.
Adlam’s son PC Harper was killed 12 days earlier after he tried to stop three thieves fleeing as they stole a quad bike in Stanford Dingley, Berkshire.
She wrote to Sacoolas the day after the anniversary of her own son’s death, asking her to consider how both families had experienced their “world falling apart”.
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Andrew Harper Thames Valley Police/PA
In the letter to Sacoolas, who was charged in December with causing Dunn’s death by dangerous driving, Adlam described the two families’ losses as “immeasurable”.
The letter, seen by the PA news agency, reads: “On August 15 last year my son Andrew was dragged for over a mile by thieves stealing a quad bike.
“Andrew was a young police officer who had just got married 4 weeks earlier.
“I will not go into details of Andrews injuries, suffice to say they were horrific as were Harry’s.
“As a mother yourself, can you begin to imagine if what happened to Andrew and Harry had happened to one of your children?
“Charlotte and I have to live through having to face this reality every day and night.”
Adlam wrote that the devastation to both families had been “overwhelming”, adding that their worlds had “changed beyond recognition in so many ways”.
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The letter continued: “Harry’s family are going through the most awful time and lots of us are trying our best to support them.
“Charlotte is a mother like you and me. It is all about our children.
“Harry’s family are languishing, left to find a way to to deal with the fact that you left without any apparent concern for those left behind to pick up the pieces.
“Things will inevitably get worse for them but I imagine for yourself and your family too.
Charlotte Charles. David Mirzoeff/PA
“You too have children, they will want to feel loved and respected as they grow, but by allowing the current situation to carry on you risk them spending their lives in the shadow of what is happening now and how it has been handled.
“They could experience more negativity than you may have realised if things are not looked at and handled in a sensitive and decent manner for all concerned.”
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PC Harper’s mother previously told PA that “something needs to change” after those responsible for her son’s death were handed 16-year and 13-year sentences at the Old Bailey on July 31.
The 28-year-old Thames Valley Police officer was caught in a strap dangling from the back of a Seat Toledo driven by Long, and dragged to his death.
His mother has called for “Andrew’s Law” to be implemented, meaning a minimum of 20 years in prison for anyone who kills a police officer.
She concluded her letter to Sacoolas by saying: “I am sure you were scared at the time and perhaps badly advised, but it is not too late.
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“This is not going to go away, so please bring an end to this current situation and give Harry’s family and your own a better future.
“You all deserve to live more peacefully than anyone can possibly be at the moment.”
Explaining her reasons for writing the letter, Adlam told PA: “My son Andrew died a year ago. It’s been a horrible year.
“But when I looked at Charlotte’s situation, I saw a mother who was hurting just like me.
Adlam has become friends with Charles since the deaths of their sons. Jacob King/PA
“I don’t know if this letter will do any good, or even whether Mrs Sacoolas will ever read it, but we are all mothers and I felt it was important to at least try to help resolve the situation in my own little way.
“It all seems so needless and senseless.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-08-16--Search For Brothers Missing In Water Off Lancashire Coast Stood Down

The search for two brothers who went missing after getting into difficulty in water in Lancashire has been stood down, police have confirmed.
Ali Athar Sabbir, 16, and Muhammad Azhar Shabbir, 18, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire have not been seen since shortly before 7pm on Saturday close to St Annes Pier in Lytham St Annes at about 6.55pm on Saturday.
A 15-year-old boy, the brothers’ cousin, managed to swim to shore and is being treated in hospital.
In a statement, Lancashire Police said: “Sadly, despite searching for a number of hours, our colleagues at HM Coastguard and the RNLI have been unable to find missing brothers Muhammad Azhar Shabbir, 18, and Ali Athar Shabbir, 16, from Dewsbury who got into difficulty in water close to St Annes Pier yesterday evening.
“The search has now been stood down but may reconvene later today. We will update you if they are found.”
A spokesperson added: “Our HM Coastguard and RNLI colleagues searched the water well into the night and resumed early this morning. They have unfortunately been unsuccessful and both Muhammad and Ali remain missing.
“Their family have been informed and are being supported by specially trained officers. Our thoughts remain with them at this incredibly sad and difficult time.
“Our thanks goes to HM Coastguard and the RNLI for their efforts, along with everyone who has offered their support and well wishes.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-08-16--A-Level Appeal Criteria Suspended By Ofqual Hours After Being Announced

The exams regulator for England has dramatically suspended its criteria for A-level grade appeals, just hours after being announced.
In a brief statement, Ofqual said the policy was “being reviewed” by its board and that further information would be released “in due course”.
No reason for the decision was immediately available.
The move came less than a day after the body published its criteria for mock exam results to be considered as the basis of an appeal.
It threatened to plunge the A-level process into further disarray following an outcry from students after almost 40% of predicted grades were downgraded by the regulator’s “moderation” algorithm.
In a statement late on Saturday, an Ofqual spokesman said: “Earlier today we published information about mock exam results in appeals.
“This policy is being reviewed by the Ofqual board and further information will be published in due course.”
The chairman of the Commons Education Committee said the sudden disappearance of the guidance was “unacceptable”.
Tory MP Robert Halfon told BBC News: “That is a huge mess. Goodness knows what is going on at Ofqual. It is the last thing we need at this time. This just unacceptable in my view.
“Students and teachers are incredibly anxious – particularly the students who are worried about their future. This has got to be sorted out.
“Ofqual shouldn’t put things on websites, take them away, sow confusion. This is just not on and it has got to be changed.”
Labour has accused education secretary Gavin Williamson of backtracking on assurances given to students about the appeals process.
Williamson gave a “triple lock” commitment that students could use the highest result out of their teacher’s predicted grade, their mock exam or sitting the actual exam in the autumn.
However, in its document, Ofqual said that if the mock result was higher than the teacher’s prediction, it was the teacher’s prediction which would count.
The regulator said while mock exams did not usually cover the full range of content, the assessments took into account a student’s performance across the whole course.
Shadow education secretary Kate Green said: “Gavin Williamson promised to give students a triple lock, but instead he left many devastated by unfair exam results, and now his commitment to give them another chance is rapidly unravelling,” she said.
“Having promised that students will be able to use a valid mock result, the reality is that many will not receive these grades even if they represent a student’s best result.
“The latest chaos is the inevitable consequence of this Government’s shambolic approach to exams, which saw solutions dreamt up on the back of a cigarette packet and announced barely a day before young people received their results.”
The latest setback comes as ministers were braced for a fresh backlash when GCSE results for England are announced on Thursday.
Like the A-level results, they will initially be based on teacher assessments and then “moderated” by the Ofqual algorithm to bring them in line with previous years’ results.
Williamson has said the process was necessary to prevent “grade inflation” which would render the results worthless after actual exams had to be abandoned due to the coronavirus outbreak.
However critics have complained it has led to thousands of individual injustices, disproportionately penalising students from schools serving disadvantaged communities.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the Qfqual document was “surreal and bureaucratic”.
He urged the government to follow the example of Scotland – where there was a similar outcry – and abandon the moderated results and go back to teacher assessments.
“That would be a better approach than this appeals system as it would mean students would get revised A-level grades immediately on the basis of the teacher assessments already conducted, which draw on the very evidence that is now proposed as part of the appeals process,” he said.
“We don’t blame Ofqual for the bizarre nature of the appeals criteria. The regulator has been given a hospital pass by a government that is in disarray.
“It is time for ministers to stop the chaos and fall back on teacher-assessed grades rather than prolong this nightmare.”
Meanwhile Williamson has defended Ofqual’s grading method in a column in the Sunday Express.
He wrote: “No system that was put in place was going to be able to replicate the exams process.
“But the calculated grade overseen by Ofqual makes certain that everyone can be confident that these qualifications carry the same weight as previous years.
“And our triple lock process means if any young person is unhappy with their result, they can appeal on the basis of a valid mock exam and, in England, have the chance to sit exams in the autumn.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-08-16--Robert Trump, US President's Younger Brother, Dies

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Robert Trump, the younger brother of US president Donald Trump died on Saturday night, a day after the president visited him in a New York hospital.
President Trump announced the death in a statement.
“It is with heavy heart I share that my wonderful brother, Robert, peacefully passed away tonight. He was not just my brother, he was my best friend,” the president said.
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“He will be greatly missed, but we will meet again. His memory will live on in my heart forever. Robert, I love you. Rest in peace,” Trump said.
Robert Trump, who at 71 was younger than the 74-year-old president, was a business executive and property developer. Unlike his reality TV star brother, Robert Trump shunned the limelight.
President Trump visited his ailing brother on Friday at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center before going to his golf club at Bedminster, New Jersey, for the weekend.
The president was expected to attend the funeral, an aide said. He has a busy travel schedule in coming days with plans to visit four battleground states as part of his re-election campaign.
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The cause of death was not revealed. Trump told reporters on Friday that his brother was “having a hard time” with an undisclosed illness. A person familiar with the situation said the brother had been on blood thinners.
ABC News had reported that Robert Trump was hospitalized in the intensive care unit at Mount Sinai hospital in New York for more than a week in June.
That month, Robert Trump won a temporary restraining order against his and the president’s niece, Mary Trump, to stop her from publishing a tell-all book that offered an unflattering look of the president and his family.
A state supreme court judge in Poughkeepsie, New York, later denied a request to stop publication and canceled the temporary restraining order.
Robert Trump had said the book, “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man,” would violate a confidentiality agreement tied to the estate of his father Fred Trump Sr, who died in 1999.
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The New York Post reported in March that Robert Trump had married his second wife, Ann Marie Pallan, and that they lived in a country home on Long Island.
Two of Donald Trump’s children shared tributes to their uncle on social media in the wake of this death.
“Robert Trump was an incredible man - strong, kind and loyal to the core. Anyone who encountered him felt his warmth immediately. He will be deeply missed by our entire family,” said Eric Trump in a tweet.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-08-16--Taylor Swift Bashes Trump For 'Calculated Dismantling' Of US Postal Service

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Taylor Swift waded into political waters once more to speak out against President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to disrupt the November election by wreaking havoc on the U.S. Postal Service.
“Trump’s calculated dismantling of USPS proves one thing clearly: He is WELL AWARE that we do not want him as our president,” she wrote Saturday on Twitter. “He’s chosen to blatantly cheat and put millions of Americans’ lives at risk in an effort to hold on to power.”
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Taylor went on to say the president’s “ineffective leadership gravely worsened the crisis that we are in and he is now taking advantage of it to subvert and destroy our right to vote and vote safely.”
She concluded with a bit of sound advice: “Request a ballot early. Vote early.”
Trump’s calculated dismantling of USPS proves one thing clearly: He is WELL AWARE that we do not want him as our president. He’s chosen to blatantly cheat and put millions of Americans’ lives at risk in an effort to hold on to power. — Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) August 15, 2020
Donald Trump’s ineffective leadership gravely worsened the crisis that we are in and he is now taking advantage of it to subvert and destroy our right to vote and vote safely. Request a ballot early. Vote early. — Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) August 15, 2020
The Postal Service’s current crisis has roots as far back as 2006, when an act of Congress required the quasi-governmental agency to create a fund that would cover employees’ pension and health care costs 75 years into the future.
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As a result, 2006 was also the Postal Service’s last profitable year, according to Politifact.
The Postal Service is now in dire need of funding, as former Postmaster General Megan Brennan warned back in April.
States are preparing to collect more mail-in ballots than ever because of the coronavirus pandemic as Americans fear putting their health at risk to vote in person.
The agency’s situation slid further downhill in May when Brennan was replaced by major Trump supporter Louis DeJoy. He has made changes that promise to undercut the agency’s ability to deliver mail-in ballots on time ― a vital democratic function.
Both parties largely believe that making voting easier and more convenient will benefit Democrats.
On Thursday, Trump appeared to admit that’s why he wants to block funding to the Postal Service: to make it difficult for people to vote.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-08-16--The UK And Europe Are Opening Schools Again. Here's What America Should Learn From Us

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Starting in April, 22 European countries began sending children back to school in waves. The specific safety measures implemented across the Covid-ravaged continent differed, but none approached the reopening of schools as anything close to “normal”.
Under strict protocols imposed by the French government, for example, parents were required to take the temperature of their children before arriving at school, lesson and recess times were staggered to avoid student contact, class sizes were limited and ball games were banned. Schools in Germany broke students into smaller groups, implemented one-way systems in hallways to prevent mixing, and kept doors and windows open to help with ventilation. Denmark held some classes outside.
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Despite the pressures on teachers, parents and students, the reopenings didn’t lead to a significant increase in coronavirus infections among students, teachers, or staff. The European experience, however, was brief. Schools were open for just a few weeks before closing again for the summer.
“So far we haven’t heard anything negative about the reopening of schools, but it is probably too early to have final conclusions on that,” Blaženka Divjak, the minister for education in Croatia, told reporters in May.
A middle school classroom in Boulogne-Billancourt, outside Paris, on June 22. THOMAS SAMSON via Getty Images
Now, countries are facing the pressing question of whether schools can open safely after the summer break — a much larger test than Europe’s brief experiment earlier this year. Parents, teachers, students, school administrators and public officials around the world are currently engaged in heated debates about how students can return to classrooms, and whether doing so will put more lives at risk.
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In New York, mayor Bill de Blasio has insisted that schools open as scheduled on September 10, despite pushback from unions representing teachers and principals, who are arguing for a delay.
“We owe it to our kids to get this right,” de Blasio said on Wednesday. “We are moving forward with that spirit, of devotion to our children.”
Here in the UK, prime minister Boris Johnson has similarly framed the reopening of schools next month as a moral imperative and a “national priority.”
“Now that we know enough to reopen schools to all pupils safely, we have a moral duty to do so,” Johnson wrote in The Mail on Sunday. “Keeping our schools closed a moment longer than absolutely necessary is socially intolerable, economically unsustainable and morally indefensible.”
Students have their temperatures checked before entering the Saint-Exupery school in the Paris' suburb of La Courneuve on May 14. MARTIN BUREAU via Getty Images
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Getting students back into classrooms may require trade-offs, scientists have warned, in order to keep the coronavirus infection rate under control. In the event of flare-ups, the UK government is reportedly considering closing pubs, restaurants and shops so that schools can remain open — despite pushing hard in recent weeks to relax lockdown restrictions and get the economy moving again.
Teachers and scientific experts have also called for the country’s test and trace systems to be ramped up before students return to school.
Anne Longfield, England’s children’s commissioner, said this week that regular testing of pupils and teachers would need to be carried out as frequently as every week to keep transmissions down.
“I think it needs to be as regular as it needs to be, to ensure that the infection is caught and identified as quickly as possible and then the tracking system can move on from that,” Longfield said.
A study published in The Lancet this month warned that reopening UK schools without improving the test and trace systems threatened to trigger a second wave of coronavirus infections this winter that could be twice as big as the first.
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That concern is shared by experts in the US.
“When school starts, both at the high school level and in college and universities, we think we’re going to see an explosion of cases in September that will far surpass what we saw after Memorial Day, and that this is just going to continue increasing, getting higher and higher in terms of numbers,” Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told CNN this week.
Play equipment is cordoned off at a school in Bruz, France, on May 12. DAMIEN MEYER via Getty Images
The early success in the spring has allowed many European countries to gradually ease restrictions. French president Emmanuel Macron announced that attending school would be “obligatory” starting on June 22, and safety measures for schools were relaxed significantly. Physical distancing rules would be lifted in kindergartens, while primary school students would be asked to maintain one metre distance between themselves and teachers while in classrooms.
As of June 24, more than 80% of schoolchildren had returned to classrooms, according to the Ministry of Education.
“Today it is because we have very high quality school directors that we have been able to achieve complete school deconfinement and be the country in Europe which has the most students returning to school after a deconfinement,” France education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer said.
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When the new school year begins on September 1, the guidelines will be relaxed even further. According to the new health and safety requirements announced last week, strict social distancing will no longer be required, and restrictions on mixing between different classes and groups of students will be eased. Students within the same class or group will be allowed to share toys, books and other materials.
Students over 11 years old must wear a face mask, both indoors and outdoors, and when traveling between classes. Staff and teachers in elementary, middle and high schools will be required to wear masks in situations where a distance of at least one metre cannot be guaranteed, particularly in common areas like the teachers’ lounge.
Parents with their children stand in a socially-distanced queue waiting to enter a school in Copenhagen, Denmark, April 15, 2020. Ritzau Scanpix Denmark / Reuters
The ability of students and teachers to follow such health and safety requirements could play a key role in preventing a surge of coronavirus cases when schools reopen. When Israel resumed classes in May, for example, it required students in fourth grade and higher to wear masks. Windows were to be kept open to promote ventilation, and students were to be kept six feet apart.
In many schools, however, physical distancing proved impossible. And when a heatwave hit, schools shut their windows, and the government lifted the face mask requirement. Soon, coronavirus cases began spreading like wildfire. By the end of the school year in June, 977 students and teachers had contracted the coronavirus, and Israel’s Education Ministry had closed 240 schools and quarantined 22,520 students and teachers, according to The New York Times.
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Other countries “definitely should not do what we have done,” Eli Waxman, a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science and chairman of the team advising Israel’s National Security Council on the pandemic, told the Times. “It was a major failure.”
Early signs from the US, however — where photos have shown crowds of students mingling in school hallways, without face masks — suggest that some school districts have not learned from Israel’s experience.
Day two at North Paulding High School. It is just as bad. We were stopped because it was jammed. We are close enough to the point where I got pushed multiple go to second block. This is not ok. Not to mention the 10% mask rate. pic.twitter.com/JKbGYqG9RS — hannah (@ihateiceman) August 4, 2020
A key question surrounding the reopening of schools is how susceptible young people are to the coronavirus — and how likely they may be to spread it to adults, including teachers, parents and other members of the community.
The science surrounding how coronavirus affects young people remains unclear. Studies have suggested that children are less likely to become severely ill from coronavirus, and may be less likely to transmit it, but the evidence is not conclusive.
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This week, a new study led by Public Health England found that children under 16 accounted for just 1% of coronavirus cases in England, suggesting the “limited role of children in the pandemic.”
Another study, expected to be released in the coming weeks, is reported to have found that infections among students are driven by the high prevalence of coronavirus in the community, rather than the other way around.
“Evidence so far indicates that schools do not appear to be a primary driver of coronavirus infections in the community,” said Viv Bennett, Public Health England’s chief nurse.
Children sit for the first day of classes of the new school year at the GuthsMuths elementary school in Berlin on August 10. Safety requirements in German schools include keeping windows open for ventilation. Maja Hitij via Getty Images
That finding dovetails with a research paper published last month by the Royal Society’s DELVE initiative, a group of scientists compiling data about the pandemic from the UK and other countries, which similarly found that schools have so far played a limited role in spreading the virus — a finding that may bolster government plans to send children back to class.
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Yet the report’s authors also note that there is still much that’s not yet known about how coronavirus affects young people, and it is difficult to draw conclusions about which safety measures are most effective.
“This is new territory for schools and there is a critical need to understand from other countries how schools can open safely at close to full attendance,” the report states. “Robust evidence on effective mitigations is however, limited.”
In the end, according to Devi Sridhar, a member of the DELVE group and a professor and chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, the best way to avoid having coronavirus spreading through schools is to make sure that the infection rate in the community is already low.
“The safest way to open schools is to have no community transmission or extremely low,” Sridhar told the Telegraph.
“Schools operate within communities, and that’s my headline: The safest way to protect schools is to make sure it never gets to school in the first place.”
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thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-08-16--Fears Modern Slavery Victims Are Falling Off Radar As Referrals See Huge Drop During Lockdown

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It’s taken Matthew Norwood decades to recognise that he was a child victim of grooming and exploitation.
He was selling drugs from the age of 13 and by 16 he’d served time and become adept at spotting loneliness and neglect in other children, turning these vulnerabilities into a recruitment tool.
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“You make them feel part of something,” he says, describing how he’d spot a child hanging near the group and strike up a chat or ask them to run an errand.
If they seemed gratified by the attention, he’d get them to stash some weed, or give them food, money or gifts to cement a sense of obligation.
Today’s county lines gangs use similar strategies, but escalate rapidly to coercion, often staging robberies of money or drugs left in the child’s care and forcing them to work for years to repay the debt.
“They know they’re exploiting kids. But they don’t care. You justify it. ‘I’m feeding them, that kid’s getting money. If I don’t do it someone else would’” - Matthew Norwood, CEO of 1Message
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Typically this involves trafficking the young person to small towns for days or weeks on end to deal drugs from houses that Simon Harding, director of the National Centre for Gang Research, describes as “filthy, rat-infested hellholes.” Violence and sexual abuse are rife.
“They know they’re exploiting kids. But they don’t care. You justify it. ‘I’m feeding them, that kid’s getting money. If I don’t do it someone else would’,” says Matthew, who as CEO of 1Message now trains others to detect signs of grooming.
The UK is in the midst of a modern slavery crisis. Every year since 2014, the number of people identified as potential victims of forced labour has soared, reaching 10,627 referrals last year – a 52% rise from 2018.
“Lockdown removed many of the usual ways of identifying children at risk of being exploited by gangs” - Anne Longfield, children's commissioner for England
Worryingly, in the first three months of 2020, there was a sharp drop in these referrals; not because modern slavery is in decline, but rather because efforts to contain Covid-19 disrupted frontline services, meaning there have been fewer opportunities to spot those at risk.
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Data collected by the Home Office shows that the largest group of modern slavery victims are now British children.
Almost all of these are British boys trafficked into forced labour by county lines gangs – a trend that charities and police warn has continued unabated during lockdown, as children are driven cross-country by their traffickers instead of relying on public transport, sometimes disguised as key workers.
The National Youth Agency launched a campaign during lockdown for youth workers to be classed as key workers, following its report that found organised crime gangs had adapted quickly to the pandemic and were grooming youngsters out of sight of the authorities.
Anne Longfield Childrens Commissioner for England HuffPost UK
Responding to the report, titled Hidden in Plain Sight, children’s commissioner Anne Longfield said: “Lockdown removed many of the usual ways of identifying children at risk of being exploited by gangs. With the closure of schools and youth centres, thousands of vulnerable young people have simply gone off the radar.
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“As rules are relaxed there will be particular dangers for young people at risk of criminal exploitation.”
While lockdown is easing, for children who have been entrapped into modern slavery conditions by county lines gangs, the nightmare is likely to last for years.
“He went from being this laid-back lad to acting up, getting angry and anxious. He’d lose it over something silly and punch a hole in his bedroom door,” says Penny, whose then-teenage son was a promising gamer who competed in international tournaments.
When he and his girlfriend got pregnant, he began looking for more reliable sources of income – then disappearing for days on end. “He’d come back three or four days later, wearing someone else’s clothes and couldn’t look me in the eye,” says Penny.
“He was getting beaten. It aged him. I could see the damage that had been done to him”. Years later, in his 20s and in prison, he remains terrified of his traffickers.
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Stock picture of a teenage girl using an iPhone. PA
While economic pressure makes a young person especially vulnerable, county lines recruiters will prey on any kids who feel ignored, says Sheldon Thomas, former gang member and founder of Gangsline.
“When you don’t feel loved at home or grow up without a father figure, the rejection is very severe”.
Christina Gabbitas, author of No More Knives, agrees. “It’s about educating your children, giving your children time,” she says. If they don’t get attention at home, “they will go get this from elsewhere.”
Some victims on the cusp of adulthood fall through the cracks because they’re too young for adult support programs or too old for child services. At 17, Amanda was sentenced to nine months in prison for her first offence: trafficking cannabis. As a minor, Amanda wasn’t eligible for the standard discharge grant (now £46) available to newly released prisoners.
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“They gave me a train ticket and dropped me at the station,” she says.
A vulnerable teenager with no support network, within months Amanda met a man who “scared the living daylights” out of her, driving her to different towns and cities and forcing her to work as a prostitute.
“One night he took me to London, dropped me on the street at two in the morning with crack users everywhere and said don’t come back until you’ve made £300,” she recalls. “I was petrified”. Amanda found a phone box, called a number inside for Childline and told them what had happened – but the children’s charity couldn’t help. Amanda had now turned 18.
While it’s now generally understood that there’s no such thing as a child prostitute, no such consensus exists on whether a child can be a drug dealer.
Jeffrey Williams-Baah, who leads the Children’s Society’s STRIDE project to support boys at risk of criminal exploitation, says the organisation urges law enforcement to treat children as victims, not perpetrators.
This is gradually gaining traction. Tim Champion, head of the National County Lines Coordination Centre, secured the first ever county lines conviction under the Modern Slavery Act in 2017 and other offenders have been prosecuted for trafficking minors since.
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But high-profile raids like July’s Operation Venetic do little to address the underlying risk factors; as Champion notes, “even if county lines was wound up, these children would still be susceptible to being preyed upon by people wanting to make profits.”
Worse, some children exploited for criminal labour are recruited for work unpaid for the police too, in extraordinarily dangerous circumstances and without an independent safeguarding body.
While under-17s can’t sign a witness statement without a parent or guardian present, no such law exists when recruiting informants. A court ruled in 2019 that children can be used for up to four months without formal review.
As former undercover drug cop Neil Woods explains, drug dealers now use kids as a “buffer zone” to distance themselves from the police – “and it works”.
Kept at arm’s length from potential adult informants, he says, police resorted to children, putting them in greater danger. Gangs know that when a child is taken into custody, police will try to recruit them, so step up efforts to terrify them into keeping quiet.
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“It’s unbelievable when you think about it. Especially when kids who come into contact with police are more likely to be vulnerable,” says Woods.
Covid-19 is making these young people even more vulnerable.
As Williams-Baah says, the lockdown leaves kids with little to do, while those experiencing stressful home lives are unable to access safe, supportive spaces. Domestic violence has soared.
Meanwhile, the austerity cuts that followed the last recession pushed 30% of children, including nearly half of all Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) households, into poverty. Now, the pandemic has pushed 12% of 16- to 24-year-olds into debt and cost one in 10 their jobs.
“It seems to young people, everyone wants something from them,” says Amanda, who received 30 convictions for prostitution before she escaped her trafficker to a woman’s refuge.
“The dealers want them to sell. The police want the information to get the dealers. And the young people don’t feel that the police give a s*** about them. I think the key factor in helping these young people is to communicate that someone does actually give a shit. They do care.”


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-08-16--Bobby Norris Stuns Fans After Revealing Results Of 75-Day Fitness Transformation

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Bobby Norris has stunned fans after revealing the results of his new fitness regime.
The Only Way Is Essex star said his mental health had “never been better” after he transformed his body and mind in a 75-day fitness challenge.
The 33-year-old shared a series of before and after pictures on Instagram as he revealed he’d been working with a personal trainer.
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Speaking about his new look the reality star said: “I honestly can’t believe how different I look. But it’s about so much more than that.
“I’ve never had a great relationship with body image, sports & fitness. It’s been a part of my life where I lacked lots of confidence.
“I’ve been fuelling my body with nutritious healthy food and doing 15 minute exercises everyday for the first 6 weeks and then 5 weeks ago Scotty stepped in to help me achieve a body and mind I could have only previously dreamed of.
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“I’ve never felt more balanced, energised and happy in my own skin.”
The TOWIE star added: “Living a healthy lifestyle isn’t just about the way you look, it’s about being the best version of you and having respect for yourself and your body.
“My mental health has never been better and I would like to thank you for all the support Scotty, I feel you have made me into the man I always knew I could be!
Bobby’s transformation comes after he addressed a number of MPs about the homophobic abuse he has been subjected to online.
As part of the government investigation into online abuse, Bobby spoke to The Petitions Committee about Bobby’s Bill, which aims to make online homophobia a criminal offence.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-08-16--19 Times A Live News Broadcast Gave Us An Unexpected Laugh

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There are no two ways about it, watching the news is never near the top of anyone’s list of things guaranteed to give them a chuckle.
At best, you’ll learn something new (though that’s rarely laugh-worthy), and at worst, you’re going to wind up thoroughly miserable at the state of things (especially given everything that’s happening right now).
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That’s why you have to bask in the funny moments the news provides while you can – even if the source is usually a technical mishap or a faux pas from the host.
We’re talking unfortunate slips of the tongue, awkward encounters with interviewees or the moment a presenter realises they’re doing something on air they really shouldn’t be.
To put a smile on your face, we’ve rounded up some of our favourite moments from when newsreaders have caught off guard during a broadcast...
When Joanna Gosling was caught scrolling through her phone live on air
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And that’s not the only time a BBC News anchor wasn’t quite prepared for the cameras
That time Simon McCoy did a whole segment brandishing a ream of paper instead of an iPad
When Thomas Schafenacker’s very inappropriate gesture made it to air
That moment when an empty chair started discussing a “defining moment for Afghanistan’s future”
When this Sky News presenter found himself in sudden need of a change of clothes (don’t worry, not in that way)
When there was a rather sudden interruption during this Sky News report on the Icelandic ash cloud
And speaking of interruptions, there’ve been plenty of them over the years, but none quite as iconic as this
Of course, there’ve been plenty of them during lockdown too, including this fabulous BBC News exchange...
And can you believe this happened on Sky News on the literal same day?!
Lockdown also provided a few mortifying at-home moments, including for this US presenter who mixed the sophistication of a suit jacket with the convenience of shorts
This guy was having fun with Zoom backgrounds years before the rest of us
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And speaking of Zoom, lockdown also gifted us this gem
As if @BBCNews have been using a free version of Zoom 🤣😂 pic.twitter.com/vEG9QZBQsN — Rob Davies (@rob_davies) May 26, 2020
Who remembers the time this poor cyclist fell into a lake live on BBC News?
Or the time the news ticker kept everyone in suspense?
We’re still not really sure what was going on here
Bless Carol Kirkwood, who couldn’t wait to share the new phrase she’d learned with the entire nation
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But that’s not the only time she’s been left red-faced with an unfortunate choice of words


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-08-16--'A True Artist': How The Unstoppable Michaela Coel Became The Most Exciting Talent In TV - By Those

'A True Artist': How The Unstoppable Michaela Coel Became The Most Exciting Talent In TV - By Those Who Know Her

“She’s there as a colleague, as a mate, and then she’s there jumping into the role of actor for a scene,” reflects Ita O’Brien, intimacy coordinator who worked with Michaela Coel on I May Destroy You. “And on days where she’s finished her scene she’s into her own clothes and bang, into co-director mode… And then, ‘oh sorry, I can’t have this conversation, I’ve got to go and have a production meeting’: into executive producer mode.”
This is only the briefest glimpse into what life was like for Michaela Coel during the shoot for I May Destroy You, the BBC drama which set a new precedent for how consent and sexual assault - moreover, just how lives in general - can be authentically portrayed on screen.
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Coel had previously written and starred in the BAFTA award-winning Chewing Gum on Channel 4, so her new work was always going to garner attention, but when the Daily Mail started writing articles about the show, it became clear this experimental project shot in east London had reached a mainstream audience.
Michaela Coel in I May Destroy You BBC/VARIOUS ARTISTS LTD AND FALKNA/NATALIE SEERY
Soon after, when Coel appeared on the front page of New York Magazine captioned ‘Michaela The Destroyer,’ her small but robust international fanbase felt validated. I May Destroy You has seen Coel rise to a level of fame and prominence only those closest to her could have quietly predicted. Not that anyone would have listened.
“What’s brilliant about her is she’s calling the industry out: going ‘hold on a minute, you’re not really considering us,’” continues O’Brien of Coel. “I do feel it is groundbreaking. How Michaela writes, what she has written about, and also the fact that she’s a woman writer.
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“Part of the groundbreaking work is a shift in focus: that the writing’s not coming from a male perspective, with a male gratuitous gaze on sexual content. I’m not saying all male writers are gratuitous…”
The prominence of writers like Coel, Normal People’s Sally Rooney and Sex Education’s Laurie Nunn suggest we’re living through an age where female writers are being given - or confidently taking - opportunities to offer new perspectives on storytelling.
Her fans and co-workers say Coel’s writing has forced us to consider how much of what we passively intake on TV is written from the perspective of men.
Take the scene in episode three of I May Destroy You (mild spoiler alert) where Coel’s character Arabella is hooking up with an Italian man named Biagio, who notices a blood clot in her period discharge during sex.
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“The paraphernalia of a menstruation isn’t something that’s out there,” says O’Brien, who notes that half the population spend roughly half their lives engaged in a menstrual cycle, yet when has the reality of that been shown on TV before Coel?
“It’s so gratifying being part of something that is helping people have that awareness,” continues O’Brien. “Plus, when else have you seen a woman of colour with an Asian man?”
Graphic scenes of sexual assault, stealthing (the act of a man removing a condom during intercourse without alerting his partner), and vivid depictions of drug use all go further than other shows to depict truthful scenarios from real life, breaking stigmas about what we can and can’t say, but also the way in which we say it.
More than clusters of realistic scenes reflecting the life of one Black millennial woman, Coel’s brilliance is in how she has dismantled the traditional narrative of storytelling - which is patriarchal as hell, says Nadia Fall, who directed Coel in Home at the National Theatre in 2013 and worked with her before that, during her time at Guildhall School of Acting.
Michaela Coel Getty
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“I May Destroy You made me weak at the knees because it was just so genre-defining,” says Fall. “Each episode takes its own pace and it’s not linear. I think that’s a very female way of looking at the world - you can tell there’s a woman at the helm of that.
“Women have been taught to write and produce work in that way, with a beginning, middle and end: she breaks that.” - Nadia Fall, theatre director
“Even us women have been taught to write and produce work in that way, with a beginning, middle and end: she breaks that. She breaks that because she’s good, but she also breaks that because she’s given the time and space to do that.”
Coel continually revised the script throughout production, which felt meta given her character Arabella in the show is a writer struggling to turn in the script for her new book. “Michaela did 191 rewrites,” recalls O’Brien of the creative process for I May Destroy You.
“We were musing on art absolutely repeating life,” remembers O’Brien. “The art is she was up against it, the storytelling is she’s got to get her draft written, and there’s no time really given in the storytelling to deal with her trauma... and that in a way was still happening here within the mechanisms of filming.”
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Michaela had a wellbeing practitioner on set, which is common for productions dealing with themes of trauma and assault (I May Destroy You is inspired by Coel’s own experiences of sexual assault.)
“It was sort of like how do we pause and push back time so Michaela can get the support she needs in order to continue giving the best of herself as an actor in the scene, as well as holding the space as executive producer co director and writer,” says O’Brien.
Still, she remembers a woman in control. “The development of the creativity that was happening throughout the production was really quite extraordinary. That kind of ongoing development of script, this beautiful unfolding beast tends to happen more in theatre: it felt like this ongoing undulation, everybody absolutely supporting and going with the flow.”
O’Brien remembers Coel reflecting on her own creative process during filming. “I did ask her what she’d do differently and she said she’d have a writers’ room,” says O’Brien.
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“Her tenacity for work is just phenomenal. Her obvious self care to be able to come back each and every day and step into each of those different hats, those different roles” - Ita O'Brien, intimacy coordinator, I May Destroy You
“I wouldn’t write it all myself - she did all of those herself. Her tenacity for work is just phenomenal and her obvious self care to be able to come back each and every day and step into each of those different hats, those different roles (Coel has writer, actor, producer and director credits on the show), and give each of them what they needed…”
Nadia Fall recognises in Michaela an unmatched skill to get things done. “I have never known someone who is such a grafter. And I mean that in every sense of the word: physically grafting and mentally grafting, and writing: pulling late nights and all of that...
Michaela Coel in I May Destroy You BBC/VARIOUS ARTISTS LTD AND FALKNA/NATALIE SEERY
“That’s Michaela, and that was Michaela back as a student: genuine graft, she has put in the effort, it’s not come out of just chance, luck, ‘ooh I’ve had a great idea.’ She has been grafting every single day that I’ve known the woman.
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“That fills me with hope and joy because it makes me think if you work really hard, and you’re really determined and focussed, it is possible to make your mark….”
Michaela’s creativity was already flowing by the time she studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama alongside I May Destroy You co-star Paapa Essiedu. “I remember her being very energetic and creative,” says former student Nicoletta, also an alumni from 2012, the year Coel graduated.
“I had the chance to watch her first performance of Chewing Gum Dreams and I was really impressed to find out it then turned into a Netflix series. This for me has been the magic of Guildhall: meeting inspiring people and having the chance, as a musician, to also work alongside actors.”
Michaela Coel Getty
Coel may not have found it so magic: Paapa Essiedu has since spoken out about the school’s culture, and called out one teacher’s use of the N-word during class. “It was a really confusing place to be Black,” Essiedu said in a recent interview.
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“I remember meeting her at Guildhall and straight away you know when someone’s got a spirit in their eyes: they’re just immediately arresting and charismatic and just very very special. I think that’s the first time we properly met,” says Nadia Fall.
The duo worked together shortly after Coel graduated on a “dusty old symposium” theatre show about mental health. “We tried to bring it to life with these little talking head dramas,” she says of the show, which Fall describes as a prelude to Home, the National Theatre production she worked on with Coel which was one of Coel’s earliest big breaks on stage.
“These people don’t come around very often, so when they do it’s really striking.” - Nadia Fall
“A lot of the people who were in the final piece [Home] were because Michaela had worked with them or she’d done spoken word poetry with them: she’s really brilliant at bringing the right people into the mix, beyond being an actor,” says Fall.
“I think that’s a trait that more and more young artists have: they aren’t just an actor, or just a director - they’re really an artist in the true sense of the word, because they’re putting everything into the pot. Bringing the right people together, producing, thinking about the writing. Michaela really is that sum of all parts, making her a mega artist in her mind. Those people don’t come around very often, so when they do it’s really striking.”
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Michaela Coel Getty
It was in 2015 that Rachel Springett, a commissioner at Channel 4, gave Coel her first major TV commission with Chewing Gum, adapted from the Fringe play Chewing Gum Dreams Coel had developed at Guildhall and premiered at The Yard soon after graduating in 2012.
“Getting shows commissioned is really hard, especially with a new writer; every commissioner inevitably has their own taste and comedy is so subjective,” explains Springett.
“I was extremely passionate about Chewing Gum from the start and after making the online shorts I really fought to be able to pitch for a full series. I knew Michaela was someone very special and like nobody else I had seen. Her writing was so unique and her performance was incredible.”
Springett remembers seeing Chewing Gum Dreams on stage at The Yard in 2012: “She conjured up images of characters in an original, well observed, tragic and humorous way,” she recalls.
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“It stood out as it illustrated a part of society that doesn’t get represented enough. The themes of gentrification, class, systems, relationships and abuse were all explored in a way I had never seen before” - Rachel Springett, commissioner, Chewing Gum
“Her razor sharp commentary on young kids from Hackney without being patronising or in any way falling into stereotypes. It stood out as it illustrated a part of society that doesn’t get represented enough. The themes of gentrification, class, systems, relationships and abuse were all explored in a way I had never seen before.
“The reason I wanted to commission Chewing Gum above any other show at the time, was because her writing and performing completely stood out.
“Michaela was discussing really important themes, gave us incredible characters who you’d never usually see on TV, showed us pathos and comedy in an original way, and with dialogue that was wonderfully unique. Michaela is one of the most talented writers and actors of our generation.”
Michaela Coel as Tracey Gordon in Chewing Gum Dreams Oliver Prout
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An auteur, a female in a crowded industry of men and a multi-disciplinary producer able to see their work from the perspectives of director, actor and writer - but never letting multiple roles compromise her output - Coel would sound inhuman if it wasn’t for her love of people.
Lewis Reeves, who played her abuser on I May Destroy You, enthuses to HuffPost UK about the moments between takes with Coel. “She’s Incredibly smart and a wonderful listener,” he says. “She was the bollocks. Funny, down to earth but direct in what she wanted to achieve.”
Reeves sums up why perhaps so many of us resonated with I May Destroy You: “We were seeing things so recognisable and true of ourselves shot and told in a way that we all related so much to.”
“Whether that be the scene with the blood clot or recognising London how it really is. That’s a real skill: to be so true to yourself, but make it feel so connected to the audience watching.”
All eyes are on what Coel may do next - although no further work is listed on her imdb.com profile and I May Destroy You is still three weeks away from the finale in the US, airing on HBO, so the freshness of the show is likely to be felt through to the autumn and into winter.
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After it ends, the ramifications of the style and content on future TV will no doubt be wide-spanning, but it’s pertinent to note that as theatre venues across the world remain closed, the ecosystem of new rising talent - the next Michaela Coels - is temporarily put on pause.
Actors like Coel and Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge began their careers, and premiered their hot TV concepts, on the stage where TV executives like Rachel Springett saw them first.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-08-16--What 'Personal Best' Means To Me: How 5 Runners Reframed Success

Sitthiphong via Getty Images
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Personal bests were once about time: how quickly a person could run from A to B – and whether it was quicker than they’d run before. It was about running harder and faster – but now, many people who pound the pavements are reframing what a ‘personal best’ actually means to them.
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They may run until they feel they’ve been out for long enough – or become more accustomed to the mental health benefits of being outside by noticing nature, rather than heaping on pressure to be competitive. Reimagining what ‘personal best’ means is a way for the running community to be more inclusive.
Their message? We should all enjoy running. Running coach Laura, 31, says personal bests can be a “relentless, yet adaptable pursuit”. The temptation to define a PB as a time on the clock is limiting, she says. “You could run the race of your life on a challenging course – the time on the clock may not be a ‘personal best,’ but up until that point, your effort would be.”
Personal best doesn’t mean beating up your body with overtraining, she says. “It comes from learning from mistakes, striving for progress but not perfection, and finding joy in the process, not the results.”
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Ben Walker, 33, a personal trainer from Dublin, agrees. “Setting a PB should always be designed to boost morale and record every training session as a success – even if there’s only slight increments of progress,” he says.
HuffPost UK spoke to five people about how they view success as a runner – and how that’s changed over time. Prepare to be inspired.
‘Now, a personal best to me means enjoyment’
Whitney Heins, 39, founder of themotherrunners.com, US.
Supplied Whitney
“The definition of ‘personal best’ evolved for me this year. Last year, I was determined to qualify for the US Olympic Trials Marathon, which led me to train intensely on a torn hamstring. I didn’t qualify and have taken much of this year off to rehab my injury. Needless to say, defining ‘personal best’ by the time on the clock didn’t work in my favour!
“Now, a personal best to me means enjoyment. It means balance. It means taking care of myself and being proud, no matter the pace or time on the clock. As long as I’ve run smart – whether it be fast or slow – I can hold my head high.
“Running is no longer a means to an end (a specific time or qualification). It’s not a determination of self-worth. Rather, it’s an opportunity I have every day to feel great about myself: to feel healthy and balanced, rather than exhausted and stressed. In essence, a personal best in running is getting closer and closer to revealing the potential that lies within – in a way that sets me up to being a happy, healthy runner for the rest of my life.”
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‘I like to run fast, but running is so much more than that’
Natalie Mitchell, running coach and writer, US.
Supplied Natalie
“As I run through the sea air, with sun shining on my face and my children safely tucked away at home, I feel free. The fluid motion of my legs and the reminder to keep my body erect and my arms close to the side becomes second nature.
“I’ve been a runner nearly my entire life and it still completes me. I have personal goals that I work hard to achieve, but I love running in its raw art form. The gentle tap of my feet on the pavement or trail, the natural glow on my cheeks long after I’ve finished. Some days I want to yell from the top of the hill: ‘Everybody needs to run! It’s the greatest feeling in the world!’
“I like to run fast, but running – and personal bests – are so much more than that. Even on the tough days, I coax myself to go for just 15 minutes one way and if I don’t feel it, I can turn around. I never turn around. Most days, I let my thoughts run wild with possibility... the dreams of how if I keep showing up, anything is possible.”
‘Once the coronavirus hit, I didn’t care about my speed or time anymore’
Sashea Lawson, 30s, creator of Diverse Runners World, US.
Supplied Sashea
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“My personal best has nothing to do with speed right now. It’s about how great I feel when I’m running. For too long I focused solely on the numbers every time I went for a run. Am I going fast enough? Is my cadence in the right range? Would I complete my training distance in the time I wanted?
“It felt like work, and with that came pressure. Once the coronavirus hit and races started getting cancelled, I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. I didn’t care about my speed or time anymore.
“I just laced up, put music on and headed out the door. Now running feels fun and my personal best is getting stronger on every run.”
‘My time might remain the same, but if I feel better – I consider that a PB’
Gary Butterfield, 34, entrepreneur, Leeds.
Supplied Gary
“I’m an avid Strava user. It’s easily my most used app. I keep track of how I’m performing, but also follow friends so we can inspire each other to get outside.
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“But when it comes to assessing whether I’m getting better, I assess myself in a number of different ways. First, and perhaps easiest, is whether I’m improving on my pacing. Am I getting quicker at covering the distances I want? More than this, though, I look deeper. After my runs, I ask myself whether I enjoyed it, more than the last time I did the distance; whether it felt easier than last time; and whether it flowed better. My time might remain the same – or maybe a little slower – but if I feel better, I consider that a PB.
“Of course, these are anecdotal measures, and could vary session by session. Was it hotter, and, therefore, a bit harder? Did I get better sleep? All important questions, and all can have an impact on my training. For this reason, I tend not to focus on one in particular. I’d rather be mindful of them all.”
‘Reimagining my personal best has supported my growth mindset’
Joss Matthews, 25, sports coach and PE teacher, the Wirral.
Supplied Joss
“Outside of being a teacher, I have a very active lifestyle. My school started incorporating the Youth Sport Trust’s My PB programme into our PE lessons – this meant I was teaching children how to rethink what a personal best means, and it inspired my approach to exercising in my own time.
“I used to be so focused on achieving short-term goals, but the programme looks for deeper, more long-term reasons to exercise. It teaches skills like co-operation, responsibility and resilience and, since incorporating it into my life, my mental health has been supported, and it’s helped me to focus on my own wellbeing.
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“One thing I’ve struggled with in the past is perseverance when setting long-term goals. But reimagining my personal best has supported my growth mindset by teaching me self-discipline! It’s helped me enjoy and persist setting long-term goals.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-08-16--3 Quick And Easy Vegan Recipes From Deliciously Ella

Ella Mills, known as Deliciously Ella, has reached fans all over the world with the launch of her latest cookbook, “Deliciously Ella Making Plant-Based Quick & Easy.” It includes 100 new recipes, and we’re giving you three of our favourites ― all of them tasty, nutrient-packed meals worth making today.
Plant-based eating has been part of Mills’ life since 2012, when she drastically changed her diet to ease the symptoms of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), which affects the autonomic nervous system. She started a food blog that exploded in popularity and became one of the faces of the all-encompassing wellness movement. The result was over a million Instagram followers, a popular podcast and one of the fastest-selling vegan cookbooks in UK history. Regardless of how you feel about wellness trends like infrared saunas (she mentions being a fan in the new book), Mills’ plant-based recipes are mouthwatering and truly easy to prepare.
The cookbook features plenty of recipes worth exploring, from breakfast (like a green ginger smoothie or a smashed mustard avocado savoury toast) to dips and dressings (like a harissa-spiced hummus or a miso coconut sauce). But the serious draw is in the three chapters dedicated to everyday dishes you’ll actually want to eat: 10-15 minute meals, 20-30 minute meals and big batch meals. That way you can select what to make based on how much time you have to spare.
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We’ve got three recipes from the new book, featuring one full recipe from each category: Creamy Kale and Mushroom Salad (10 minutes), Sesame, Almond and Black Pepper Tofu Bowl (15 minutes) and Easy Red Lentil Dhal (big batch).
All recipes and photos are reprinted with permission of Mobius/Hachette Book Group, Inc.
Creamy Kale and Mushroom Salad
Deliciously Ella
This is probably my favourite salad ever, having stolen the crown from the tahini tamari kale salad in our first book. We’re very generous with the dressing in this one, which is why it’s so good, as the dressing is really creamy. Make sure to rub the dressing into the leaves firmly, so that the kale is nice and soft. Once it’s soft, we toss in chunks of avocado, sautéed mushrooms, cumin, toasted seeds and garlicky croutons.
Ingredients
Handful of pumpkin seeds (about 1 cup)
Handful of sunflower seeds (about 3 tablespoons)
Olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
7 ounces mushrooms, thinly sliced
7 ounces kale
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 slices of bread (we love sourdough)
1 garlic clove
2 ripe avocados, peeled, stoned, and cut into bite-sized pieces
Salt
For the dressing
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup cashews
1/2 cup almond or oat milk
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 heaped tablespoon nutritional yeast
3 tablespoons olive oil
squeeze of lemon
Method
1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit fan. Toss the pumpkin and sunflower seeds onto a baking pan with a tablespoon of olive oil, some salt and the cumin. Roast for about 5 minutes, until crunchy.
2. Place the mushrooms in a large skillet over medium heat with a drizzle of olive oil and a generous sprinkling of salt. Let them cook while you make the salad, stirring them every now and again until they turn golden brown.
3. Place the kale in a large mixing bowl, remove any thick stems, and tear the leaves into pieces.
4. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil, the apple cider vinegar, and a sprinkling of salt and rub them into the leaves using your hands. Massage the kale for a minute or so, being really firm, so that it softens.
5. Next, make the dressing. Simply place all the ingredients in a high-speed blender (we use a NutriBullet) and blend until smooth and creamy.
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6. Toast the sourdough, then rub it with a raw garlic clove and cut it into bite-sized chunks.
7. Rub the dressing into the kale, massaging it with your hands and letting the leaves soften even more. Then toss in the toasted seeds, mushroom, avocado, and sourdough.
Sesame, Almond and Black Pepper Tofu Bowl
Deliciously Ella
I’ve loved cooking with tofu recently. It’s a great way to up your plant-based protein and is such an easy way to make a filling dinner too. This bowl is my go-to after yoga. It’s really high in protein from the beans and tofu, quick, filling, and a great weeknight supper. I like it served with wilted spinach, brown rice, and a little squeeze of lime.
Ingredients
14 ounces firm tofu
3 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons tamari
3 1/2 ounces broccolini, cut into bite-sized pieces
3 scallions, finely sliced
1 red chilli, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon maple syrup
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 14-ounce can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 heaped tablespoon almond butter
Salt
Method
1. Lightly press some of the liquid out of the tofu using paper towels. Once it feels dry, chop it into bite-sized cubes and place them in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of the sesame oil, 1 tablespoon of the tamari and a generous sprinkling of salt.
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2. Pour the tofu and all of the sesame oil mixture into a large skillet, making sure there is space for the tofu to sit flat (you don’t want cubes sitting on top of one another). Fry it on high heat for about 7 to 8 minutes, until it’s golden and lightly charred, tossing it every few minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.
3. While the tofu cooks, blanch the broccolini. Simply place it in a bowl of boiling water to cover and drain it after 3 minutes when it’s still al dente.
4. Add the scallions, chilli and garlic to the skillet you used for the tofu (there’s no need to wash it in between uses) with the final tablespoon of sesame oil and the other tablespoon of tamari, the pepper, maple syrup, and rice vinegar. Place it on medium heat.
5. After a minute or so add the broccolini, black beans and almond butter. Saute for about 3 minutes to heat the beans through. Add the tofu right at the end, with 2 to 3 tablespoons of water, which should loosen the sauce. Let stand for a minute or so to warm the water a little and let it all meld together before serving.
Easy Red Lentil Dhal
Deliciously Ella
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You can’t beat a good dhal. I love the depth of spice, the warming, comforting sense of each bite, and how good the leftovers taste the next day! This is a really easy recipe that always hits the spot. I like adding the coconut milk to make it extra creamy and the spinach to get my greens in, but otherwise it uses all the classic ingredients of a dhal. I serve it very simply with brown rice and yogurt.
Ingredients
1 cup split red lentils
2 tablespoons coconut oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 onion, minced
1 green chilli, seeded and finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons medium curry powder
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 14-ounce can of coconut milk
1 teaspoon coconut sugar
2 large handfuls of baby spinach (about 3 1/2 ounces)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Salt and pepper
Method
1. Put the lentils into a large saucepan, cover with boiling water, and place over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes (you want them to have softened and lose their bite). Drain and set aside. Be careful not to overcook or they can become mushy.
2. Place a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add the coconut oil, onion, garlic, chilli and a pinch of salt. Saute the onion mixture until soft, then add the spices, stirring them through the onion mixture for 1 minute or so.
3. Turn the heat down and pour in the coconut milk and coconut sugar, then bring to a boil. Let this cook for another few minutes, stirring well to combine all the flavours.
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4. Stir the drained, cooked lentils into the skillet and let them cook in the sauce for a further 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.


thehuffingtonpostuk--2020-08-16--I Thought I Could Cure My Depression With Green Juice And SoulCycle

goo.gl/73nyq6 via Getty Images Yoga and meditation may offer a quick boost, but they aren't a substitute for professional help.
According to millennial myth, the algorithm for mental and physical peace is simple: You ditch your desk job and predictable boyfriend to hop time zones. You experiment with tropical yoga retreats. Maybe you microdose mushrooms at Burning Man. Maybe you climb Kilimanjaro. You document your journey one #nofilter sunset at a time. You rejoin society drunk on self-awareness — certain of your place in the world.
When reality resumes, you watch your henna tattoo fade as you scroll through Instagram.
If the road to self-love is that direct (and I followed the GPS), why did I spend so many years feeling worthless?
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Since legal adulthood, I’ve concealed a mind-numbing depression. The kind that some days I could suppress and some days pinned me to the bathroom floor, spinning the wheel of emotional roulette. Which version of me will appear today? I hoped for the good version of me that was sweet to a fault and saw the potential in everyone. But I might be the other version: filled with self-hate, a prisoner of her own subconscious, incapable of stumbling out of bed except to binge Ben & Jerry’s and force it back up.
Having been raised in the “don’t air your dirty laundry” South, I believed the world would only accept me if I were discreet about my issues.
So I did the things I was told would make me healthy and whole: I bought my war paint at Sephora and my armour at Lululemon. I fuelled myself with the holistic nutritionist-approved lowwholecarb30ketoSouthBeachjuicefast. I “found myself” through breathwork workshops and crystal healings in musty Brooklyn tenements. I invested thousands to GOOP-ify my life ― clawing my way toward an effortless exterior.
Every time I thought I’d escaped, depression barged back into my life.
I was doing everything Wellness Culture instructed: boiler room yoga, hygge-ing my home, choking down a fistful of daily supplements. So why was I still giving into “U up?” texts and numbing myself with Tito’s as penance?
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Seeking a cure for my cure, I fell victim to influencer monologues claiming that if I simply decided to love myself, self-loathing would evaporate. “The power of positive thinking,” they said, as though you could simply outsmart mental illness.
So, I wrote in my gratitude journal while soaking in Epsom salts after SoulCycle. I religiously followed wellness gurus with their sculpted abs and permanent smiles, praying their “10 Steps to Love the Skin You’re In!” listicles would exorcise me. I thought I could remedy trauma and shame through healing rituals problematically disembodied from their native cultures and repackaged as mental health solutions.
I venerated an industry that sold me the promise of physical and mental perfection. With just one more session, reading, ride or mantra I would be shiny and new.
Thousands of Chase Sapphire swipes later, I’d moved as far as that yellow stationary bike.
In my relentless search for wholeness, I found that New Age wellness rituals (at least the ones that aren’t blatant cultural appropriation) can relieve temporary discomfort (and that infrared saunas are pretty damn fun). But gorging myself on green juice didn’t bring me one step closer to self-love. It left me desperate, financially drained and beholden to a fluffy culture that causes more harm than healing.
After years of drowning in consumerist self-care, alone in my apartment cluttered with crystals, succulents and a well-worn yoga mat, I found myself paralysed in bed. Fully clothed, beneath a mountain of blankets, shaking uncontrollably. I’d hit my breaking point.
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The week before, I’d left a crumbling relationship with a man I still loved. Sadly, he was still in a volatile relationship with another love: cocaine. In the days that followed, my dormant depression ensnared my mind. I clung to my meditation practice, my journal, my palo santo, but my tricks were futile this time. Defeated, I shut my phone off, silently surrendering to the disease.
It was my 28th birthday.
Since the day I turned my tassel to the left, I had mapped out the experiences and accomplishments that would validate me in this lifetime. Bare necessities included a healthy relationship, a fulfilling career and overwhelming self-love. But as I put the finishing touches on my 20s, all I’d attracted were men with substance-induced tempers, a demoralising 9-to-5 and stage 4 depression.
My Himalayan salt lamp couldn’t heal my suppressed trauma. My yoga teacher couldn’t fix my eating disorder. I couldn’t smudge away toxic exes, no matter how much sage I burned.
Self-care practices are great when you already love yourself. They help healthy, whole people savour life. Despite what I saw on Instagram or read in women’s magazines, my depression could not be healed with ceremony. Ultimately, I needed clinical therapy for that.
Self-care for me was a butterfly bandage where deep psychological and emotional cuts required stitches. A trained professional had to pierce the wound with a needle, sewing it shut, one dripping segment at a time. My prognosis required being completely taken apart and pieced back together. But therapy didn’t just close my wound ― it healed the infection beneath the surface.
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My earliest days of therapy were my darkest. Every week I left slumped over in a cab ― my body couldn’t walk me 10 blocks home. I was tormented by nightmares. I cried to the point of vomiting. My hair fell out in clumps. I lived in this pattern for months, resenting myself for not leaving my demons alone. I could have been dancing on East Village tables, getting high on attention, instead of undergoing what felt like an ongoing lobotomy.
Therapy sliced right through my #nofilter bullshit. Stripped of my self-care crash diets, all I had left was the painful truth.
It’s. Hard. Ass. Work. I confessed my psychosis to a stranger. I committed to the most vulnerable relationship of my life, when I’d never truly committed to anything, or anyone. I didn’t break focus for a year — no dating, no distractions. My therapist, Susan, trained me to confront the past, destroy enmeshment, and kill trauma inflicted by the lack of self-respect and invisible boundaries I’d known since childhood.
I experienced new sensations, like a foreign emotion called anger. I observed that when I speak, people actually hear my voice, and they listen. I stopped apologising for having an opinion. I liberated my imperfections and let them breathe for the first time.
Susan rewired my brain to know love — that I’m worthy of love — and I’m forever grateful. Our work, combined with a daily dose of serotonin peacekeepers, gave way to an excruciating, beautiful process. I now understand the paramount love that exists between my own head and heart, not at the SoulCycle on Lafayette or the Full Moon Party in Thailand.
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Wellness rituals, mindfulness and other forms of intervention are the antidote for many. But in my case, therapy and medication were the only way to excavate my purpose and honour my pain, finally uncaging the real me.
Today, there are still emotional scars that hurt faintly when touched, but I remain committed to recovery. Just as there are no quick fixes, there are no permanent ones either.
The only semi-permanent imprint is the one I leave in Susan’s chair each week.
Sometimes I still enjoy green juice on hot afternoons, and I inch closer to mastering crow pose each week. I meditate before bed and occasionally glance at the Sagittarius horoscope (just in case). After all, these are gratifying practices for a quick boost. But they are blatantly dangerous when substituted for professional help.
This article first appeared on HuffPost Personal
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