Reem S – Self-Help Literature (ENG 3402: Topics in Literature)

The beautiful way the beauty industry impacts Self help

The beauty industry is a controversial industry filled with both positive and negative outlooks. There seems to be a conflict of whether makeup is used because people have a connection with it or rather they are just trying to conform to societal standards of beauty. The Pandemic was a huge eraser to these confines of the beauty industry, in a time where people are quarantined and struggling with a global issue does makeup still have a place in people’s daily lives does it contribute to their well being and self-love?

The pandemic as well as being quarantined has lead to a shift in the beauty industry, it has allowed people to really understand their realtionship with beauty and makeup and make it there own. Many people through the pandemic have chosen to leave makeup as a whole while others saw it as a release during the pandemic, a way to express themselves and how they are feeling.

Tik Tok the social media platform has allowed people to find a common meeting ground during the time of the pandemic. The many trends and videos on the platform has allowed many people to join in on something and dress up. There are endless videos of people trying on different makeup looks and expressing the way that they feel. Simple looks to extravagant looks makeup has allowed people t0 pick and choice how they feel on different days and given some comfort that while there isn’t much change we can do about the pandemic you can definitely change your looks and express yourself by using makeup and beauty products.

How beneficial is the beauty industry to self help during the COVID 19 Pandemic?

How useful is the beauty industry in times of crisis?

The beauty industry is a booming business, many depend on it for their everyday activities but what about during a crisis… how does the beauty contribute to self-care during times of crisis.

Covid-19 has been a global nightmare with everyone quarantined so is beauty standards and makeup still something that exists and is used in a time that no one sees each other. Many people tend to consciously and subconsciously do things because of societal standards but during a pandemic where does the beauty industry fall in the scale of needs.

Does the beauty industry help us and contribute to our self care when a time of crisis hits. Think about specific time of crisis for you.. a sick day, a passing of a loved one, a breakup, a global pandemic…. did the beauty industry serve you any aid in recovering during those times?

Sources:

https://www.premiumbeautynews.com/en/the-cosmetics-industry-getting,18252

https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Industries/Consumer%20Packaged%20Goods/Our%20Insights/How%20COVID%2019%20is%20changing%20the%20world%20of%20beauty/How-COVID-19-is-changing-the-world-of-beauty-vF.pdf

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/consumer-packaged-goods/our-insights/how-covid-19-is-changing-the-world-of-beauty#

Communicating in crisis: How beauty brands are reaching customers during the COVID-19 pandemic

https://www.ft.com/content/98e8ab63-0676-4c87-9ae3-071486773dea

https://www.usehero.com/news/virtual-retailing-how-beauty-brands-are-flourishing-during-a-time-of-crisis/

https://www.cosmeticsdesign-europe.com/Article/2020/05/25/COVID-19-crisis-impacts-beauty-financials-hard-personal-care-fares-better

Do You Wear Makeup When You’re Sick?

Is it just face value? The Beauty Industry effect on Self-Help

I would like to do my research project on the beauty industry and how beauty and beauty standards effects self help.

Self help is meant to start with the “self” and so much value is put into appearance from ourselves and society. Many people believe makeup helps them in their day to day lives, but what about in unexpected times.. like a pandemic. In a recent article women spoke about how makeup has helped them even through the quarantined pandemic.

https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2021/03/22/beauty-makeup-companies-pandemic

It’s also proven that wearing make-up can make you feel better. “Putting make-up on and even simply looking forward to playing around with a new look gives the brain a boost of feel good neurochemicals, especially dopamine. It results in improved mood, reduced stress and therefore, in better mental health.

I want to research

How effective makeup is within wellness
is makeup just for face value to please societal standards or does it help a persons wellbeing
how has the beauty industry changed and how can it bring change, has lack of inclusivity effected peoples confidence and well being.

Class Notes 04/27

In today’s class we spoke about very important and new topics about the Self-help genre

Context of large influences that impact the self help movement
Ways in which the self-help genre is embedded in cultural and educational movements.
Key terms within self help

Our research project is coming up and Professor Belli spoke about the broader sense of the terrain that’s possible within our research project.

When choosing a topic we should

Choose a topic we are personally interested in
Research additional information on this topic
Try to Narrow down your topic to a small slice and really go in depth

Professor Belli will help us through the research project as well as aid us in refining our topics.

New topics within self-help that may spark and interest for our research projects

Ethics of Self-Help

The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/jan/31/gps-prescribe-self-help-books

Self-Help and the Medical/Health Industry

https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/12/22/when-doctors-prescribe-books-heal-mind/H2mbhLnTJ3Gy96BS8TUgiL/story.html

https://litreactor.com/news/bibliotherapy-doctors-prescribe-books-for-depression

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/doctors-are-now-prescribing-books-to-treat-depression-180948211/

Positive Psychology

Ppc: Sas.Upenn.edu

APA: American Psychological Association

Martin Seligman the president of the APA since 1999 and the father of positive psychology.

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Flourish/Martin-E-P-Seligman/9781439190760

Positive psychology is the scientific study of what makes life most worth living. It studies “positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions … it aims to improve quality of life.” Positive psychology focuses on both individual and societal well-being.

Positive Psychologist choose to focus on strengths rather than remediation.

Remediation is the act of remedying or correcting something that has been corrupted or that is deficient.

GMP: Gross National Product

GDP: Gross Domestic Product (measures both positive and negative product factors)

GHP: Measures well being and happiness.

The country of Bhutan, a Buddhist kingdom on the Himalayas’ eastern edge, is known for its monasteries, fortresses (or dzongs) and dramatic landscapes that range from subtropical plains to steep mountains and valleys. Bhutan has adopted a policy of GHP since 1974.

Positive Psychology and Self Help have a tense relationship. Positive psychologist like the distance themselves from being associated with the self help genre. Positive psychologist advertise that they have a strengths based approach. They believe they are separate from the self help genre because they are backed up by science.

Sites to find what your strengths are:

https://www.viacharacter.org/

https://characterlab.org/

Books on Positive Psychology

https://angeladuckworth.com/

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Flourish/Martin-E-P-Seligman/9781439190760

Grit: In psychology, grit is a positive, non-cognitive trait based on an individual’s perseverance of effort combined with the passion for a particular long-term goal or end state.

Perseverance: persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.

Resilience: the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.

The Quantified Self Movement

https://quantifiedself.com/

Quantification: the expression or measurement of the quantity of something.

Quantitative: relating to, measuring, or measured by the quantity of something rather than its quality.

Qualitative: relating to, measuring, or measured by the quality of something rather than its quantity.

Social sciences tend to focus on qualitative.

The quantified self refers both to the cultural phenomenon of self-tracking with technology and to a community of users and makers of self-tracking tools who share an interest in “self-knowledge through numbers.

Life Logging: A is a personal record of one’s daily life in a varying amount of detail, for a variety of purposes. The record contains a comprehensive dataset of a human’s activities.

Biometric Data: Biometrics are physical or behavioral human characteristics to that can be used to digitally identify a person to grant access to systems, devices or data. Examples of these biometric identifiers are fingerprints, facial patterns, voice or typing cadence

Sentiment Analysis: Sentiment analysis is the use of natural language processing, text analysis, computational linguistics, and biometrics to systematically identify, extract, quantify, and study affective states and subjective information

https://hedonometer.org/timeseries/en_all/?from=2019-10-27&to=2021-04-26

Due for next class 04/29

Create a new post under “Research Project”

Write a preliminary proposal about the topic your research project will be on.

Tips:

Decide the focus of your project
Thing about the manageableness of the project
Pick a topic that you personally find interesting
Get an overview of your project
Share links and citations
Dont title your blog post “Research Project” have the title connect to your topic.

Self Help Critiques (Mindfulness)

Mindfulness is a concept I have heard of several times as well as a common theme throughout our study of Self Help Literature. Mindfulness seems like a concept that can be usefully applied and used but also through the readings of self help texts and this weeks article reading, I can tell it can also be a loaded concept with many people goal is to profit off of it. I really like how all three articles addressed all the positive of the mindfulness concept but also addressed all the inflation and corruption within the concept of mindfulness and the self help industry. It is intriguing at first glance how each of the titles of the articles are controversial, “The Mindful Revolution”, “The Mindful Conspiracy”, and “The Problem of Mindfulness”.

“The Mindful Revolution” by Kate Pickert had a more positive learning approach to mindfulness. Kate Pickert takes us through a timeline of progress and realization of the concept of mindfulness. On her journey Pickert mentions how adapting to mindfulness is fully grasping the concept and allowing yourself to almost rewire your brain. This is such a revolution because so many in our day and age are not comfortable with internal change which is ironic because our world is changing with technology and advancements every single day. It seems as the world gets more and more advanced our internal selves retract and we almost have become like robots that aren’t in tune with what is around us. Through Pickert’s learning of mindfulness she came out with new additions to her daily life. She is now more aware of digital time and has taken approaches to limit her time digitally and embrace what is around her. This article was definitely the least controversial of the three articles.

“The Mindful Conspiracy” by Ronald Purser was definitely my favorite out of the three articles. I likes how Purser addressed the controversy within the Self help community as well as with the mindfulness concept. He addresses that mindfulness within itself isn’t a bad concept it the people who have taken this concept and inflated it to fulfill their pockets. He mentions many famous figures who have partake in the self help industry. Purser gives a more realistic approach to mindfulness and address the concept without all the “fluff” that many self help texts and individuals use. I really liked how he concluded his article he says “Mindfulness isn’t cruel in and of itself. It’s only cruel when fetishised and attached to inflated promises. It is then, as Berlant points out, that “the object that draws your attachment actively impedes the aim that brought you to it initially”. The cruelty lies in supporting the status quo while using the language of transformation. This is how neoliberal mindfulness promotes an individualistic vision of human flourishing, enticing us to accept things as they are, mindfully enduring the ravages of capitalism.”

“The Problem of Mindfulness” by Sahanika Ratnayake gives us and insight from an insider almost. Sahanika Ratnayake was raised as a Buddhist, many self help concepts stem form Buddhism and mindfulness also has roots that come from Buddhism. Ratnayake take us through her studies of Western beliefs compared to Buddhism. Buddhist takes on self care and mindfulness and the western adaptation dont always match up. Ratnayake takes a depper look. into the concept of mindfulness are interrogates its true usefulness. She comes to find that to her mindfulness has limits and can not be used in every single situation. “The contrasting tendency in mindfulness to bracket context not only cramps self-understanding. It also renders our mental challenges dangerously apolitical. In spite of a growing literature probing the root causes of mental-health issues, policymakers tend to rely on low-cost, supposedly all-encompassing solutions for a broad base of clients. The focus tends to be solely on the contents of an individual’s mind and the alleviation of their distress, rather than on interrogating the deeper socioeconomic and political conditions that give rise to the distress in the first place.” I really like this part of the article because she really dives deeps within the flaws of mindfulness and concludes that it isn’t the solution for everything and it puts people within a bracket where as many people come from different backgrounds.

Ratanyake concludes in a gracious way while still being real. She says “I still dabble in mindfulness, but these days I tend to draw on it sparingly. I might do a mindfulness meditation when I’ve had a difficult day at work, or if I’m having trouble sleeping, rather than keeping up a regular practice. With its promises of assisting everyone with anything and everything, the mistake of the mindfulness movement is to present its impersonal mode of awareness as a superior or universally useful one. Its roots in the Buddhist doctrine of anattā mean that it sidelines a certain kind of deep, deliberative reflection that’s required for unpicking which of our thoughts and emotions are reflective of ourselves, which are responses to the environment, and – the most difficult question of all – what we should be doing about it.”

I totally agree with her, mindfulness should be used in situations where it help aid in a solution but it can be prescribed as the only solution. Many people have different backgrounds, health issues, and lives that one concept cant be a solution for the masses.

All in all I enjoyed reading a different side to Self Help texts. When reading different self help texts many thoughts and criticisms so its nice seeing responses to the Self Help Industry.

Meditation

I am really excited for this upcoming meditation assignment! Lately things have been a bit chaotic and stressful and I feel like this assignment will push me to set aside time for myself to reflect and relax. I have chosen the meditation app called Sakeenah it combines meditation with islamic approaches. I think this will suit me best because it will have a double positive, it will help me relax as well as integrate my religion and its unique approaches to meditation. This upcoming month is Ramadan the holy month for muslims in which they reflect and give thanks to all that we are blessed with. In the month of Ramadan muslims are meant to deeply reflect within themselves and try to take the month to better themselves, what a coincidence that this assignment has come about in the same time that Ramadan is approaching. Im excited to integrate this assignment with this upcoming holy month and really reflect and hopefully introduce a new beneficial approach to meditation. The app Sakeenah has many different features and specific meditations for anxiety, sleep, organization, and emotions. It also has religious approaches like moral sleep stories which incorporate historic stories in islam that help you sleep better as well as losses and saber which is meant to help you learn to deal with whatever befalls you through the teachings of islam. All in all I am very excited for this assignment and the timing of it. I hope to benefit a lot and improve on organization and de-stressing.

This is the link to the Sakeenah App https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sakeenah/id1488712495

I looked at many different apps including

Calm (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/calm/id571800810),

Headspace https://apps.apple.com/us/app/headspace-meditation-sleep/id493145008,

Breethe https://apps.apple.com/us/app/breethe-meditation-sleep/id920161006

They all are very popular and from what I read very useful to their users. I chose Sakeenah because it had aspects of these apps but also included a personal aspect for me that the others dont have. Sakeenah integrates the approaches of common meditation apps while also including islamic approaches.

I am currently traveling at the moment so there isnt a single place I plan on doing my meditations rather whatever setting I am in I’m going to try to find the beauty and peacefulness and really ground myself. I feel like not having one set place to meditate will help me because I am person who likes consistency and I sometimes get anxiety in new situations so hopefully this will help me be more comfortable in new situations. The app has many different categories so depending on the day and how I am feeling I can choose a specific category for that day. I am looking forward to this 14 day experiment and hopefully its something I can continue on doing post the 14 days.

Pandemic Processing

1 dreadful year has gone by and drastic changes have occurred. This past year has hit me and so many near and dear to me hard. It feels as though I am in one long nightmare and haven’t woken up yet. With all the bad that has come with Covid-19 there are some positives. Covid-19 has been huge eye opener it has awakened my gratitude. I have taken “normal life” for granted till now, the normal days of outings with no restrictions and masks was just a normal Saturday but now it almost seems like a fairytale. I cant believe there was a time were people flooded Times Square or Central Park and were literally neck to neck.

A once reality is now a dream.

I give my condolences to those who have lost a loved one during this dreadful time. I myself have dealt with a lot of heartache during this time but through all the ache I have grown to appreciate time with loved ones so much more now. The pandemic has allowed me and my family to spend so much more time together, not in the way we would expect but I am grateful. Grateful that this new normal can be shared with my loved ones, who I wouldn’t usually see till I was home from school or they were home form work. Being home for so long, has allowed me to reflect within myself and prioritize what it good for me and what isn’t. Having so much time to myself I have selected on what truly makes me happy and what hobbies or things makes me happy. At the start of the pandemic I started sketching on a painter app on my phone to pass time, slowly my drawing skills got better and better. I started posting some of my random drawing to social media where I got a lot of attention. I then made an art page and started getting requests from other people. Art has always came naturally to me, I loved being assigned projects in school because drawing was so easy to me. Through that art page I found that I really enjoy graphic design and art design. I am now trying to pursue Graphic Design as a career. I always wanted a career that didn’t feel like work to me, something that I was happy each and everyday doing and I think I found the one and its all thanks to the pandemic… how ironic.

These are some of the early pieces I’ve done.

The pandemic has brought a lot of misery but I think at least for me I have to look at the good side and continue to push positive within myself and my surroundings. It is so easy to get down and an everyday goal for me is to think and do positive things that will have a lasting impact on myself and the people around me. I am thankful that we are now in a place of moving forward and hopefully putting this behind us. I think we should all move forward but never forget what the pandemic has taught us. In a blink of and eye all that is normal to us and all that we take for granted can be gone. I truly believe that everyday should be lived as if its your last. Don’t put things on hold thinking you will do it tomorrow, do it today because tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. The pandemic has made me realize petty little fights that last for days are really not worth it. It is so easy to get mad about things and just stay in that mode for a long period of time, but when you’re put in a place that things are constantly changing and in thIS case not always for the better you really start to see how many things we dwell over are just little things that aren’t worth it.

Overall the pandemic has been a dreadful rollercoaster, it has brought on some highs but I am hopeful that this ride will end soon and we can start a new chapter. I am thankful for all the pandemic has taught me and my heart is with all who were taken and effected by it. I hope for brighter days soon.

Class Notes 3/11

Congratulations Maria on winning People’s Choice #4

In the next two weeks on the 23rd of March we will begin reading

“The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle

All students should purchase the hardcover version of the book and begin reading it for our class on the 23rd.

You can find the book with this ISBN-13: 978-1577314806

Today marked 1 year after the pandemic was declared by the World’s Health Organization.

“Playing the believing game” by Peter Elbow

The believing game is the disciplined practice of trying to be as welcoming or accepting as possible to every idea we encounter: not just listening to views different from our. own and holding back from arguing with them; not just trying to restate them without bias; but actually trying to believe them.

If anyone has any questions for Professor Belli Tuesday March 16th there will be no office hours if you need to contact Professor Belli email her to set up a time to talk.

Homework :

Read

Covid: One Year Later + various links on mental health, grief, and the pandemic [more coming soon + find your own!]

Due

Blog #5: Pandemic Processing (stay tuned for a specific prompt for this response: coming soon!)

Self Care

To me self care is taking time out of your day whether it be 5 min or 5 hours and just doing something for your mind, body and soul. Self-care encourages you to maintain a healthy relationship with yourself so that you can transmit the good feelings to others. You cannot give to others what you don’t have yourself. I personally love self care days they make me feel refreshed like a whole new person. My routine for self care usually starts off with making sure whatever environment im in is clean. Once I make sure everything is clean, I like to do a face mask and then pick a movie or show to watch. I also like to reflect within myself and meditate. I usually like to eat some sort of fruit preferably pineapple or pomegranate they are so refreshing. I like to end my nights early, I write down my plans for the next day and then I call it a night.

Author: Reem S