Art has the power to inspire, uplift, and bring joy to people's lives. It can help individuals to see the world in a more positive light and develop a more optimistic outlook on life. Here are a few ways in which art can help: Art can evoke positive emotions: Whether it's a painting, sculpture, or... Continue Reading →
Breaking the Cycle: How to Overcome a Negative Mindset and Focus on the Positive
During my gap year between college and graduate school, I found myself working as a lab technician at New York University. On our floor, there was a small room that housed the glassware washers and autoclaves. It was here that I met a kind-hearted but timid man who operated the machines. Whenever I entered the... Continue Reading →
Organized leisure
“Leisure time is too precious to be totally leisurely about leisure.” - Laura Vanderkam in "Tranquility by Tuesday" The other day, my 7 year old daughter was talking to our babysitter about the books she is currently reading in school. I was deeply engrossed in my computer work on the couch nearby, when she suddenly... Continue Reading →
Standing at the bus stop
Before going to graduate school, I spent a year working at New York University as a lab technician. As a farewell gift, I received a popular book called “At The Bench”. It was supposed to act as my springboard into “real”research. In addition to helpful descriptions of common lab techniques, it also contained some practical... Continue Reading →
Getting out of our own way
Illusion of control Today I want to talk about control. You might find it laughable after the last 2+ years we have been through, but all of us seek it nevertheless. While I am not the most organized person, I have always been big on scheduling. When it comes to my own schedule, I plan... Continue Reading →
“I am a cell biologist” T-shirt flashbacks
Science is hard. 98.5% of the time it doesn't cooperate. And that can really hurt your ego. Even knowing that it's normal to expect only a tiny percentage of your experiments to work often doesn't help. And while years of experience can help slightly stack the odds in your favor, science always catches you off... Continue Reading →
Do you fear new challenges? Maybe you shouldn’t!
In spring 2017, I got laid off from my first job and spent the summer looking for a new one. While I knew what I wanted to do, I also realized that I had to be open minded in case my "perfect" job didn't exist in New York City yet. Neuroscience companies were hard to... Continue Reading →
The little things that make us happy
In February, we went on a ski trip to Canada where we also celebrated our older daughter's 12th birthday. Her birthday always falls on the school winter break and virtually every year our family goes skiing during that time, which means that we tend to celebrate it for a whole week. This year, the kids... Continue Reading →
Did you follow the herd and start using Zoom backgrounds? Maybe you shouldn’t!
Now that we are 2 years into working remotely (for the most part anyway), we have become experts in Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, Slack, you name it... At the same time we got sick of demonstrating our (occasionally messy) apartments. In fact, I recently attended a webinar (on Zoom!) talking about remote meeting etiquette. Putting... Continue Reading →
From Wilting Mind to Fragile Memory
In one of my recent posts, I wrote about how I felt at my previous job and why I created "Wilting Mind". Many people say that art often comes from pain. The greater the pain, the greater the art presumably. And that you should actually draw on that pain for inspiration. Over the past four... Continue Reading →