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In self development February 5, 2019 By Women of Rubies

WOMEN’S BRAINS APPEAR ‘YEARS YOUNGER’ THAN MEN’S -STUDY

Women tend to outlive men and stay mentally sharp longer, and a new study out Monday could explain why: female brains appear on average about three years younger.

Female brains appear on average about three years younger than men’s, a new study has found

The study enrolled 121 women and 84 men, who underwent PET scans to measure brain metabolism, or the flow of oxygen and glucose in their brains.

Like other organs in the body, the brain uses sugar as fuel. But just how it metabolizes glucose can reveal a lot about the brain’s metabolic age.

Subjects ranged from their 20s to 80s, and across those age spans, women’s brains appeared metabolically younger than men’s, said the findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal.

A machine-learned algorithm showed that women’s brains were on average about 3.8 years younger than their chronological ages.

And when compared to men, male brains were about 2.4 years older than their true ages.

“It’s not that men’s brains age faster,” said senior author Manu Goyal, assistant professor of radiology at Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis.

“They start adulthood about three years older than women, and that persists throughout life,” said Goyal.

But why?

One theory is that hormones might begin shaping brain metabolism at a young age, setting females on a pattern that is more youthful throughout their lives, compared to men.

Scientists hope to find out if metabolic differences in the brain may play a protective role for women, who tend to score better than men on cognitive tests of reason, memory and problem solving in old age.

It “could mean that the reason women don’t experience as much cognitive decline in later years is because their brains are effectively younger,” said Goyal.

More work is underway to confirm and better understand the implications of the research.

In Interviews&profile February 5, 2019 By Women of Rubies

MEET CHINONYE CHUKWU, THE FIRST BLACK WOMAN TO RECEIVE SUNDANCE FESTIVAL’S BIGGEST PRIZE

Chinonye Chukwu is a Nigerian-born, Alaskan-raised screenwriter, producer and director, and her works have received recognition and awards.

On Sunday, January 27, 2019, she won the most notable award at the 2019 Sundance film festival, thereby making her become the first black woman to receive the hugest prize.

Her film, ‘Clemency’ won the festival’s biggest prize– the Grand Jury Prizze for U.S. dramatic entry. This makes Chinonye Chukwu the first black woman to win the grand jury prize.

In 2012, Ava DuVernay was the first black woman to win a directing award, and now, Chukwu is a notable first black woman for the biggest prize.

Alfre Woodard stars in this gripping death row drama that definitely deserved the award. Deadline says Chukwu will work with Blacklist scriptwriter Alyssa Hill who will adapt the screenplay from the memoir A Taste of Power: A Black Woman’s Story.

Credit: Fabwoman.com

In Interviews&profile February 5, 2019 By Esther Ijewere

TALE ALIMI: THE YEAR OF DOING

Like most years, this year is already racing with full speed as the first month comes to a close.

At the beginning of each year or towards the end of the previous year, we make plans for the new year and set goals of what we want to achieve. A couple of years ago, after setting and not achieving my goals, I quit setting goals!

I decided to just focus on the moment, visualize what I want and go with the flow. That worked well for sometime as I did not feel like I was in competition with anyone and I was able to listen to my instincts. The problem with this approach was that I spent more time visualizing and creating my vision board than actually taking action!

That’s when I knew that there had to be a balance and I made up my mind to find it.

Fast forward a few years later, working with our clients at Tale Alimi Global, we usually start the year setting our intentions for the year we want and creating corresponding goals. As we work with clients, I have observed that some people are better at articulating their goals than others. However some people are only able to articulate averagely, but once they had clarity, they did a good job executing.

Our most successful clients are ‘doers’, they massively execute on the strategy we develop and achieve great results. I am big on strategic thinking and planning, but from my experience, I have to say that an average strategy with massive execution trumps a great strategy with poor execution.

If you are a planner and visualizer like me, its time to start doing more! And I have themed this year, ‘My year of doing’ because it reminds me of Shonda Rhimes ‘Year of yes’ and because I spent the last year exploring and visualizing.

To encourage us(yes we are in this together) to do more, I came up with five reasons why we should execute more this year.

The more you do, the more you know how to do

The sickness of planners is trying to create ‘perfection’. You want to spend all the time looking at various options, doing scenario planning and projecting outcomes. However, all this is theory until you start doing! I spent almost six months agonizing over the title and content of my next book. I will go on long runs, get inspiration about titles and a few days later I would begin to doubt its relevance. After going round in circle for too long, I put my foot down in October and decided to start writing. Surprisingly, the more I wrote, the more I had a better sense of direction.

So stop agonizing and trying to get things perfect and watch the months fly by, start doing and more clarity and ideas would come to you.

Execution is a cure for self doubt.

Another curse of perfectionists is self doubt. You never feel good enough to do what you know in your heart you are meant to do. Or you tell yourself you don’t have the resources or the time to do it. I was speaking to my team member some weeks ago about leading a segment at our year end event. I noticed she was hesitating and when I asked her why, she said she did not think she was qualified to stand before the calibre of people we were expecting. I immediately debunked her self doubt and told her about my mentor in my Social impact fellowship in the US who was a decade younger than me.

I told her to just do it and she did a great job that created a positive atmosphere at the event. When you begin to doubt yourself , don’t dwell on it, get up and execute. The more you execute on something, your self doubt disappears and you become more confident in your self.

When you execute, you make your own luck.

How many times have you looked at people and thought how lucky they are? Most times the so called ‘lucky’ people are busy executing on something. If you have been waiting for a lucky break and it doesn’t seem to be coming, maybe it is time to get up and execute so you can make your own luck. Yesterday, I saw a news headline that Kim Kardashian was expecting another baby, I decide to ‘keep up with the Kardashians’ as I hardly watch Television so I am not up to date about them. As I read the news, I realized that they were always busy doing something! From having new babies to starting beauty companies. They were making their own luck by executing.

This is the year to make your own luck. If you want to create a multimillion business, start grinding.

Execution builds your focus.

You need focus to execute. When you decide to execute, you cut out distractions. When I decided to start writing my new book, I started blocking out time and cutting out things that might distract me like excessive social media watching the lives of other people who were executing!

Execution is what brings dreams to life.

My favorite past time is imagining and day dreaming. My imagination has 3D capacity! I like to see things in my mind first because I believe creativity starts internally before it manifests externally. However after you are done dreaming, you have to take some action to see the dream come to life. If you have been seeing yourself as a millionaire in your dreams, or married to the person of your dreams, then make it a reality by taking action to bring your dreams to life.

Now that I have themed this ‘Our year of doing’, I am determined to lead by example. Some of the things I will be doing includes finishing up my new book before the end of Q1 and I am co-founding a new Company to address the milestone funding challenges that a lot of small businesses face.

If you are a small business that has had funding challenges, please fill this survey to help us understand your needs better. And if you have an interest in investing in small businesses , please fill this survey, so we will also understand your requirements.

I want us to hold ourselves accountable to our year of doing, so lets connect on Instagram so that as I share my progress, you can also share yours with me. Lets start doing!

In Interviews&profile February 5, 2019 By Esther Ijewere

MEET THE 10-YEAR OLD ENTREPRENEUR TAKING THE FASHION WORLD BY STORM!

Hailing from Johannesburg, South Africa, 10-year old Enhle Gebashe is already pursuing her dreams of becoming a well-known fashion designer and entrepreneur. She most recently founded Enhle Babes Couture, a children’s clothing brand specializing in glamorous African prints. Aside from the overwhelming number of orders, several doors have opened for her, including training opportunities and mainstream media interviews!

Young but with a vision

Enhle is a fifth-grade student at Rosebank Primary School in Johannesburg. She says her garments are all custom-made to meet the needs of her target market — girls ages 4 to 12. She envisions designing African prints, dresses, and anything in between that “princesses” can wear. So far, the support she received exceeded her expectations.

“So many people known me,” she told IOL. “I can’t believe this is happening to me. At school I’m getting so much attention, the people who used to bully me are now respecting me. The response is amazingly surprising for us.”

No time to play around

As a young entrepreneur with a hectic schedule, Enhle doesn’t have much time to play like other children. After school and every weekend, she goes shopping for fabric and doing photo shoots for her creations.

What started as an idea to make extra money for school trips is now becoming a reality. Enhle has been offered to study by a local design school on a part-time basis. Award-winning scientist Thulile Khanyile, who is her mother’s friend, also wanted to mentor her on the basics of money, saving, and business. She has also been in-demand in magazine and TV features. Regardless, she is still wowed by every like and comment she receives from her social media posts.

Staying balanced

Her mother, Desiree, is very happy for her daughter’s achievements. But she is still cautious about it. “Our plan was never to get her to be famous,” Desiree said. “I just wanted her to do what makes her happy, which is designing. I fear that she is very young for all this fame, so we need to be very careful about how she is handled going forward.”

Sometimes, Desiree still can’t believe what her daughter has achieved at such a young age. She said, “I’ve always known that Enhle is going to be something big one day. I kind of had it at the back of my head but I didn’t know it was going to be something this serious.”

Enhle aspires to someday be able to open up her own shop and reach out to other African countries as well. She credits her achievements to social media for helping people become aware of her creations. She said, “Nobody would know about Enhle if it was not social media. Social media has been the main marketing strategy for us.”

Source: Black Business

In self development February 5, 2019 By Esther Ijewere

GRACE ORISAKIYA: IDENTIFYING YOUR UNIQUE VALUE PROPOSITION FOR A JOB SEARCH

Everyone is unique in his or her own way. Those values, skills, ideas that’s makes you unique, different, special and can be used for various purposes and this is usually referred to as your personal or unique value proposition. Your value proposition can either get you that business deal or job your applied for several. However, some people are not fully aware of what their UVPs are, in some cases, it is mistaken for just their career. During some career coaching sessions with my clients, they express their inability to do things differently, their fear of failing and they usually wish to be different that is why it is important for everyone to know how special and unique they are and how this uniqueness can be useful. In a nutshell, your UVP is basically the things you can do but with a positive difference. The best ways to identify your UVP are to:

Know your strengths.
Create a difficult scenario and figure out how you could handle it in a different way (sometimes done during employees engagement sessions in companies).
Identify those attributes that matches your personality perfectly.
Think of what kind of solutions you can offer to problems.
Be authentic.
Ask people to identify what makes you unique to them.

Identifying your UVP however can give you the confidence you need to apply for a job. Remember these:

Everyone may know how to do a particular job but not everyone may have the right skills to get it done.

Social media has made it easy to have a false identity, so it’s important you focus on knowing what you can do uniquely than trying to be someone else. (Being inspired by someone isn’t wrong but being inspired should make you find out your path not live like someone else).
Your UVP can set prepare you for success. It can enable you know what you can do and how you can do it differently and better.
It makes you a better version of yourself.

Therefore, your UVP can set you one the right path for a successful job interview and employment when you can prove concisely why your values and skills can be vital to the organization you are applying to.

About Grace

Grace Asemota is a Business Psychologist (M.Sc) and a Certified Life Coach. She has partnered with Organizations and solopreneurs to grow their personal and professional brands and has coached students and staff in different institutions and organisations.

She continuously coaches and trains on the importance of goal setting, happiness, team management, personal development and self- confidence in a wide range of organisations (in Nigeria, UAE and US) and institutions by motivating staff to develop a collaborative culture and identify key factors that can enhance personal growth.

You can get in touch with her on

grace.orisakiya@gmail.com

LinkedIn @Grace Asemota-Orisakiya

In lifestyle February 5, 2019 By Esther Ijewere

CHISOM WINIFRED: THE THING ABOUT NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS

Feel free to blame it on the spur of the moment. Everyone is excited and feeling like they can take on the world. At this point, we can promise God anything.

We’re gearing towards that time of the year again, the time for New Year resolutions. I hope you had a jolly Christmas, with plenty rice and chicken? Good, because it’s time for a blast of the naked truth.

We’ve all done it. Promised heaven and earth on New Year day. God, I will stop smoking. I will read my books this semester. I will serve you more this year. No sex for me this year. I’ll give all my time and energy to my business idea. Blah blah blah.

9 out of 10 times, we don’t even keep our promises till mid-January. After the first few weeks, everything flies out the window. It is okay to want to be better, set goals, turn a new leaf, but I think the concept of New Year resolutions is overhyped. I’ll tell you why.

If a person truly desires to make a resolution about his or her life, I don’t think they would wait for January first to do it.

So in 2019, instead of listing those things you know in your heart you probably will never do, why not set a definite goal? Don’t call it a resolution, call it a goal and map out strategic steps to achieve it.

A goal is the ongoing pursuit of a worthy objective until accomplished. Ongoing means it’s a process because goals take time. Pursuit indicates that a chase is involved. There will likely be some obstacles to overcome. Worthy shows that the chase will be worthwhile, there’s a big reward at the end to endure the tough times. Until accomplished suggests you’ll do whatever it takes to accomplish the set goal.

Instead of our usual litany of things to do and stop doing, why not choose one goal and give it all your energy?

Another mistake we often make is creating unclear goals, vague goals. I once had a New Year resolution to buy a car. I was 14 years old and in junior secondary school. Was it a reasonable goal for a 14-year-old? I think so. We’re supposed to dream big, right? But if you asked me then, how do you intend to accomplish this goal, I would have mumbled a bunch of good sounding gibberish because I always had an answer to everything. But I wouldn’t have had a clear answer. In creating goals, use this trick: Be more specific. When you write your goal down, tell yourself, Be more specific, then write your new answer. Keep repeating this until the goal is crystal clear and measurable. There are no such things as unrealistic goals, only unrealistic time frames. If I had said as a 14-year-old, “I’ll buy a car before I’m twenty-five,” that would have been more realistic, wouldn’t it?

Last tip for setting your 2019 New Year resolution (goals): What can you create using your unique talents? What do you do that other people find difficult? What opportunities exist in today’s marketplace for your area of exceptionality? I don’t know about you, but the New Year is about working smart, not hard.

About Chisom Winifred

Chisom Winifred is a creative writer with a flair for freelance articles. She’s currently a content creator for Blueafric Media where she also heads campaigns that focuses on brand introduction, positioning and promotion of its clients.
A red carpet and TV host, she was the red carpet host for Blueafric media at the just concluded 2017 AFRIFF. Reach out to Winifred on Chisomwinnifred.cw@gmail.com or her blog http://blueprintafric.com/

In self development February 4, 2019 By Women of Rubies

SINEM-BILEN ONABANJO -WE NEED MORE NAOMIS

The world in 2008 was a very different place, and methinks, much simpler. The worst kind of race argument you could get caught up in and viciously slated was debating Barack Obama’s biracial identity – and get caught up in a debate and viciously slated I did, when on a Facebook post I questioned why Barack Obama was always referred to by the mainstream media as “America’s first black president.”

Sad, how it’s been 11 years since “America’s first black president” was a reality and not a dream, and how 11 years on America seems to have regressed into Jim Crow era, but that’s for another day.

I don’t have a child yet, but one day when I am blessed with one, she will be blessed with Turkish-Nigerian roots. My argument in 2008 was that Barack Obama was no more black than he was white. As a biracial son of a Kenyan father and American mother, he was the “first biracial American president.” But alas, post after post, my Facebook friends and frenemies kept reminding me of the infamous one drop rule – a social and legal principle of racial classification, ironically, created by white Americans.

I had heard of one drop rule of course, but I refused for my then imaginary children to be defined by that one drop at the expense of half of their DNA, identity and heritage. “If someone calls my child Nigerian,” I remember arguing, “that may as well deny my whole existence in their creation, because, whatever happened to the other half of them that is undeniably Turkish?”

I even brought in my dual heritage into the mix, which has since become even more of a contentious issue in my native Turkey; for all the similarities on the surface, Turkish and Kurdish connote very different things in my ever polarised home country, where increasingly you’re having to pick a side. It may not be a case of the one drop rule just yet, but say out loud you’re Kurdish, and in the eyes of some, you might as well have admitted to having leprosy. In this melting pot of centuries old ethnic cultures, I was fortunate enough to have never had to choose, being born to a Kurdish father and a Turkish mother. To date, when talking about how dissimilar we are, my mother still reminds me I am the daughter of a Kurd after all, not in a derogatory way, but as a loving reminder of my late father’s heritage. Exactly as I would want my children to embrace both sides of their ethnic makeup, without being pigeonholed into one, or forced to pick side.

In the year 2019, while much has changed, some things remain the same as I was reminded earlier this week, when the new tennis sensation Naomi Osaka fielded a question from a Japanese reporter who wanted her to reply in Japanese and Osaka replied that she was going to say it in English before going into her answer.

Last year, upon winning the third round of the Australian Open, Osaka had to educate another Japanese reporter who wanted to know what her victory as a “very proud” Japanese means for her people.

“You moved to New York when you were two years old and lived in the United States for a long time, but you’re very proudly Japanese, obviously. What will this victory mean for the people back home, for both sets of fans who will be watching this for you?” asked the reporter, not knowing his mic would be handed back to him with the kind of sass we now know Osaka to be capable of.

“Actually, I live in FL now. But, I mean, of course I’m very honored to be playing for Japan. But my dad’s side is Haitian, so represent. But um, yeah. I forget the rest of your question. Sorry!” responded the tennis ace.

Following her latest win, USA Today called Osaka “the first Japanese player, man or woman, to win a Grand Slam trophy.” ESPN called her “the first tennis player from Japan to reach No. 1 in the rankings.” A story too similar to the French national football team made up of sons of immigrants who carried the country to the World Cup final who were relegated to the second class row behind the lily-white, pure-blooded French boys who went up to receive the cup, or the immigrant who was Malian one day but became French almost the next upon saving the life of a toddler dangling off a balcony, or men of African descent, footballers, scientists, politicians, who are defined by their country of adoption at the height of the success – how many times have you heard “American scientist of Nigerian parentage” or “British politician of Caribbean descent” – and dismissed by country of heritage at first sign of misdemeanour – “the terrorist thought to be Nigerian having gained naturalisation in 2015…”

So much may have changed in 11 years, but so little seems to have, if we are still debating the race of my still imaginary children. All I know is that I hope they will not be defined by the one drop rule, their non-black side erased, or whitewashed to make them fit into the success story that dictates all hint of colour should be removed. Above all, I hope they will have as much sass as Naomi Osaka in not letting anyone put their well-rounded selves into square boxes of racial tick boxes.

Credit: Guardian Woman, Sinem-Bilen Onabanjo

In Career Gems February 4, 2019 By Women of Rubies

LAGOS STATE RECORDS 134% RISE IN SEXUAL ABUSE AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

The 2018 report of the Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team of the Ministry of Justice, Lagos State, has shown a 134 per cent increase in cases of rape, defilement and domestic violence handled by the agency compared to the previous year.

The report indicated that DSVRT handled 2,356 cases in 2018 – 1,312 higher than 1,044 cases treated in the preceding year. In the year under review, the agency recorded 1,750 domestic violence cases, 279 child abuse cases, 78 defilement cases, 44 cases of rape, 51 attempted rape cases and 154 other cases.

While the number of domestic violence cases increased by 817, the incidence of child abuse and defilement rose by 251 and 37 respectively. Rape cases was 24 higher compared to the 2017 report.

According to the 2018 statistics, the office on the average received 166 new cases monthly and got 840 genuine reports via the 6820 emergency short code.

The report stated, “The team recorded a major increase in the number of cases handled in 2018. A total number of 2,356 cases, including 1,750 domestic violence cases, 279 child abuse cases, 78 defilement cases, 44 rape cases, 51 attempted rape cases and 154 other cases were handled. It was discovered that the number of cases increased by 134 per cent in the year 2018.

“DSVRT has responded to 439 reports of domestic violence, 215 reports of sexual abuse and 186 reports of child abuse – all reported via the 6820 platform. What is most exciting about the platform is that it breaks the initial barrier of people not wanting to make formal reports at an office or police station. We are now able to interact directly with survivors and concerned witnesses and take vital steps in dealing with a case.”

The report added that DSVRT focused on children who experienced violence at the hands of close relations, noting that a total number of 2,646 children were exposed to domestic violence within the home. Some of the children were said to have been taken through counselling programmes to ensure that their experiences did not have permanent and negative impacts on them.

The report said, “From January 2018 to December 2018, the attention of DSVRT was drawn to incidents of child abuse in 19 schools. All the erring schools are under investigation by the Office of Education Quality Assurance in the Ministry of Education. All the defilement cases have been taken to court.”

Credit: LIB

In Career Gems February 4, 2019 By Women of Rubies

THE ANAMBRA STATE GOVERNMENT RELEASES OFFICIAL STATEMENT ADDRESSING THE CASE OF CHILD MARRIAGE BETWEEN A 15-YEAR-OLD GIRL AND OZUBULU MAN

The Anambra State Ministry of Women and Children Affairs on Sunday, said that it has received a complaint about an alleged underage marriage involving a girl from Ihiala identified as Chinwe, and a man from Ozubulu, Mr Izuchukwu Igwilo.

The statement signed by Lady Ndidi Mezue, the Commissioner, Anambra State Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, said the ministry is following up on the case as it continues to collaborate with several persons and organisations including security agencies towards quick resolution.

“The ministry is in contact with the girl’s family, Anambra Police and other interested parties in the matter including human rights activists,” the statement reads.

“The ministry’s utmost concern at this period is the safety and well-being of the young girl in question, as well as the well-being of her young child. As a result, the ministry has up till this time not made any press statement, granted any media interviews nor released any pictures concerning this matter, this is to protect the dignity and privacy of the innocent persons involved. We call on all those working on this case with us to toe the same line.
We can report at this time that considerable progress has been made on the matter and wish to state that the young girl in question is not yet in the custody of the ministry as reported on several social media platforms.
We wish to assure the public that in line with our mandate, and as can be seen in previous social welfare interventions undertaken by the Ministry, we will pursue this particular case towards achieving a satisfactory and positive outcome.”

Credit: LIB

In self development February 4, 2019 By Esther Ijewere

JANE UDOKA: THE LITTLE THINGS OF LIFE THAT MATTERS

The world and life itself is a never ending maze filled with similar looking alleys called twists. Everyone constantly runs and walks through this maze searching for particular and specific life goals. For some, these goals maybe love, suitable life partners, stable income, friends or something as intricate as finding one’s true self. Truth is though, no one knows what she may find at the next corner and while life is generally that uncertain, and nothing can ever fully prepare us for it, there are certain things that can sure help along the way.

I’m and will always be a strong advocate for healthy friendships. Amazing friendships are almost a basic necessity of life. No man is an island they always say and if you want to go far in life, you have to learn to work alone some would also contradictorily say. Yes, I do believe them both, you know why? Because just as friends can be a strong help, they can also be your downfall if you happen to come across the wrong ones. Friends are family when you make the right ones, they’re the ones who’ll stretch out their hands and pull you up when it feels like you’re drowning. I’ll strongly say, in navigating this maze called life, get you, a great friend and be one too.

Your essence is something you have to find and stay true to. It’s amazing just how much people undermine this seemingly simple yet so important aspect of life. Your essence is your being, basically speaking it is who you are, what makes you who you are and anything that makes you tick. In the world of ever changing social trends and the glamour filled social media life, your essence is something that staying uncompromisingly true to, will help you navigate this maze. Understanding you are different from any other person, that you are unique and amazing and there’s no other person just like you will always help you find your path in this maze.

Self confidence and self preservation is yet another great help. Often times, along these alleys in this maze, you’ll find people that will seek to grow on you, or put you down just to help themselves in the process. That is when self confidence comes in, understanding that you’re worth so much more. Self preservation simply put means safeguarding your emotions and senses, sifting through yourself and gradually blocking that with disturbs your inner peace.

Inner drive is something that you definitely need in this journey, it’ll push you to always aim higher than the last achieved feat. It’ll be there, to push you and encourage you when you lose your way in the maze, it’ll be there to wake you up and seek ways to improve your life in the maze.

About Jane

21 year old Udoka Jane O is a trained Engineer, She is a professional freelance writer on Relationship and healthy lifestyles. Jane has written a number of mind engaging articles….