First Word

  RESILIENCE MEANS NOT JUST SURVIVING BUT THRIVING New book titled Real Resilience draws a mental roadmap to thriving during the pandemic and beyond.   DIXON , Calif.—In recent months the term “resilience” has become the new buzzword. In fact, 2020 will go down in the annals of history as the year that people had to bounce back from the negativity of the pandemic, California fires, racial tensions, political unrest, and a myriad of other disasters. Those individuals who did not understand or discover ways of bouncing back and stabilizing after such a year can now look to the new book titled Real Resilience – Once Upon a Pandemic by Selwa Berbawy Hamati to become resilient and not just survive all these changes, but also thrive in the New Normal.   “ As a certified business and life coach, I have seen people not just survive but thrive through obstacles and chaos many would find overwhelming. That is why I wrote this book,” said Hamati. “I want that experien

  COVID-19 has disrupted our daily lives and coined a new mental-health term “Covid Anxiety,” which has impacted old and young alike. For children this time in history has been especially disruptive to their normal school routines and social lives. Selwa Barbawy Hamati wrote her new children’s book Ant Trails and Butterfly Dreams – A Story About Happiness to deliver her message that no matter what is going on around young children, they can “decide” to be happy throughout it.   In the book’s introduction, Barbawy Hamati expresses the reason she wrote this important piece of children’s literature. “ I was often sad as a little girl. I remember how other people’s moods and opinions deeply affected me. I was happy when they were happy and when they were nice to me; as soon as that changed, my whole mood changed. I didn’t know how to be happy inside no matter what was happening around me. I had no idea that happiness was a choice and that even when things around me seemed so bad