Six months ago, it was easy for many Americans to think COVID-19 was on the defensive. Vaccinations were ticking up as case numbers ticked down. Summer sunshine made hanging out outside actually enjoyable, after a cooped-up winter of socializing with just our pods. Maybe, just maybe, Zoom fatigue would soon be a thing of the past.

Today, that optimism seems miles away. Hospitalizations are hitting new highs. Concerns about school safety amid climbing case counts have working parents and teachers on edge.

If you’re not exactly feeling hopeful about the year ahead, you’re not alone. Here are five of our favorite stories spotlighting resilience, healing, and yes, hope, to help you face 2022.

1. ‘Work with hope’

Face it, poet and classics scholar Rachel Hadas writes: “We’re in a prolonged period of maddeningly, scarily bad news.”

But if you think that makes our society unique, think again. For as long as humans have been writing, they’ve been facing crises, learning to adapt – more than we give our species credit for – and keeping hope afloat. And readers today can draw strength from yesterday’s literature.

Whether it’s Homer’s Greek epic “The Iliad” or American poet Emily Dickinson, writing about resilience often shares key themes, Hadas says: learning to balance the present and the future, the big-picture horizon and the joy of small things along the way. Quoting the modern Greek poet George Seferis, she writes of the need to “put to sea again with our broken oars.”

2. Before healing, remembering

The pandemic has robbed people not only of joy, but also of ways to process grief. As many people grasp “every opportunity to reconnect” and find new normals, others are still mourning lost loved ones, especially if COVID-19 restrictions prevented the kinds of healing and commemoration families once took for granted.

Eventually, as the pandemic ebbs, both groups can find happiness, but in different ways, writes David Sloane, who studies commemoration and mourning practices.

With normal healing interrupted, “everyday memorials” from flags and photographs to tattoos can help people “transition from the depths of the pandemic to the reopened society by offering ways for them to mourn and remember.”

As we recover, joy and grief are often mixed together, he says, but don’t let “survivor’s guilt” keep you from finding comfort.

3. Lean in to rituals

Across cultures, rituals can mark life milestones, strengthen social ties and even promote hygiene – such as Wudu, ritual cleansing before prayers in Islam. Yet the pandemic has interrupted everyday rites like handshakes and hugs, not to mention once-in-a-lifetime events like weddings or bar mitzvahs.

But that presents an opportunity to adapt, writes psychologist Cristine Legare. People often rely on rituals to manage stress and exert control, which helps them deal with uncertainty – part of what’s so overwhelming about the pandemic.

“There are good reasons people spend time, money and energy engaging in rituals in the face of COVID-19 restrictions,” she writes. “They are essential to meeting our physical, social and psychological needs in the face of adversity.”

4. Hope vs. optimism

Hope isn’t expecting good things, psychologist Jacqueline Mattis clarifies: It’s believing they’re possible, and then creating paths to achieve them. In other words, having a plan.

She offers five strategies to actively cultivate hope: having goals, harnessing uncertainty, managing attention, seeking community and looking at evidence. Challenges like a global pandemic call for adapting, not giving up, and “uncertainty is not reason for paralysis – it is a reason to hope,” Mattis writes.

“Hopeful people do not wish – they imagine and act,” she writes, emphasizing the importance of acting in community. Research on anti-poverty activists, for example, underscores that their relationships ignited their hope and conviction, giving them “a sense of accountability, to recognize that their work mattered and that they were part of something bigger than themselves.”

5. Get in the flow

For people still crafting their 2022 resolutions, cognitive scientist Richard Huskey has a suggestion: Add some flow.

It’s on his own list, too. “Flow,” a term coined in the 1970s by psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, is that feeling of complete absorption, or intense concentration, when someone’s thoughts “are focused on an experience rather than on themselves,” Huskey explains.

Intrinsically rewarding experiences, like those that put us “in the zone,” support mental health, well-being and resilience. In fact, a study from China shows that people with more “flow” in their lives “had better well-being during the COVID-19 quarantine.”

Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.

Molly Jackson, Religion and Ethics Editor, The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

New years often come with new resolutions. Get back in shape. Read more. Make more time for friends and family. My list of resolutions might not look quite the same as yours, but each of our resolutions represents a plan for something new, or at least a little bit different. As you craft your 2022 resolutions, I hope that you will add one that is also on my list: feel more flow.

Psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi’s research on flow started in the 1970s. He has called it the “secret to happiness.” Flow is a state of “optimal experience” that each of us can incorporate into our everyday lives. One characterized by immense joy that makes a life worth living.

In the years since, researchers have gained a vast store of knowledge about what it is like to be in flow and how experiencing it is important for our overall mental health and well-being. In short, we are completely absorbed in a highly rewarding activity – and not in our inner monologues – when we feel flow.

I am an assistant professor of communication and cognitive science, and I have been studying flow for the last 10 years. My research lab investigates what is happening in our brains when people experience flow. Our goal is to better understand how the experience happens and to make it easier for people to feel flow and its benefits.

What it is like to be in flow?

People often say flow is like “being in the zone.” Psychologists Jeanne Nakamura and Csíkszentmihályi describe it as something more. When people feel flow, they are in a state of intense concentration. Their thoughts are focused on an experience rather than on themselves. They lose a sense of time and feel as if there is a merging of their actions and their awareness. That they have control over the situation. That the experience is not physically or mentally taxing.

Most importantly, flow is what researchers call an autotelic experience. Autotelic derives from two Greek words: autos (self) and telos (end or goal). Autotelic experiences are things that are worth doing in and of themselves. Researchers sometimes call these intrinsically rewarding experiences. Flow experiences are intrinsically rewarding.

What causes flow?

Flow occurs when a task’s challenge is balanced with one’s skill. In fact, both the task challenge and skill level have to be high. I often tell my students that they will not feel flow when they are doing the dishes. Most people are highly skilled dishwashers, and washing dishes is not a very challenging task.

So when do people experience flow? Csíkszentmihályi’s research in the 1970s focused on people doing tasks they enjoyed. He studied swimmers, music composers, chess players, dancers, mountain climbers and other athletes. He went on to study how people can find flow in more everyday experiences. I am an avid snowboarder, and I regularly feel flow on the mountain. Other people feel it by practicing yoga – not me, unfortunately! – by riding their bike, cooking or going for a run. So long as that task’s challenge is high, and so are your skills, you should be able to achieve flow.

Researchers also know that people can experience flow by using interactive media, like playing a video game. In fact, Csíkszentmihályi said that “games are obvious flow activities, and play is the flow experience par excellence.” Video game developers are very familiar with the idea, and they think hard about how to design games so that players feel flow.

Why is it good to feel flow?

Earlier I said that Csíkszentmihályi called flow “the secret to happiness.” Why is that? For one thing, the experience can help people pursue their long-term goals. This is because research shows that taking a break to do something fun can help enhance one’s self-control, goal pursuit and well-being.

So next time you are feeling like a guilty couch potato for playing a video game, remind yourself that you are actually doing something that can help set you up for long-term success and well-being. Importantly, quality – and not necessarily quantity – matters. Research shows that spending a lot of time playing video games only has a very small influence on your overall well-being. Focus on finding games that help you feel flow, rather than on spending more time playing games.

A recent study also shows that flow helps people stay resilient in the face of adversity. Part of this is because flow can help refocus thoughts away from something stressful to something enjoyable. In fact, studies have shown that experiencing flow can help guard against depression and burnout.

Research also shows that people who experienced stronger feelings of flow had better well-being during the COVID-19 quarantine compared to people who had weaker experiences. This might be because feeling flow helped distract them from worrying.

What is your brain doing during flow?

Researchers have been studying flow for nearly 50 years, but only recently have they begun to decipher what is going on in the brain during flow. One of my colleagues, media neuroscientist René Weber, has proposed that flow is associated with a specific brain-network configuration.

Supporting Weber’s hypothesis, studies show that the experience is associated with activity in brain structures implicated in feeling reward and pursuing our goals. This may be one reason why flow feels so enjoyable and why people are so focused on tasks that make them feel flow. Research also shows that flow is associated with decreased activity in brain structures implicated in self-focus. This may help explain why feeling flow can help distract people from worry.

[Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.]

Weber, Jacob Fisher and I have developed a video game called Asteroid Impact to help us better study flow. In my own research, I have participants play Asteroid Impact while having their brain scanned. My work has shown that flow is associated with a specific brain network configuration that has low energy requirements. This may help explain why we do not experience flow as being physically or mentally demanding. I have also shown that, instead of maintaining one stable network configuration, the brain actually changes its network configuration during flow. This is important because rapid brain network reconfiguration helps people adapt to difficult tasks.

What more can the brain tell us?

Right now, researchers do not know how brain responses associated with flow contribute to well-being. With very few exceptions, there is almost no research on how brain responses actually cause flow. Every neuroscience study I described earlier was correlational, not causal. Said differently, we can conclude that these brain responses are associated with flow. We cannot conclude that these brain responses cause flow.

Researchers think the connection between flow and well-being has something to do with three things: suppressing brain activation in structures associated with thinking about ourselves, dampening activation in structures associated with negative thoughts, and increasing activation in reward-processing regions.

I’d argue that testing this hypothesis is vital. Medical professionals have started to use video games in clinical applications to help treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Maybe one day a clinician will be able to help prescribe a Food and Drug Adminstration-approved video game to help bolster someone’s resilience or help them fight off depression.

That is probably several years into the future, if it is even possible at all. Right now, I hope that you will resolve to find more flow in your everyday life. You may find that this helps you achieve your other resolutions, too.

Richard Huskey, Assistant Professor of Communication and Cognitive Science, University of California, Davis

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Dear Lady of the Lake, 

How are the Clear Lake Hitch doing? I saw that they did not get Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) Protection? What does that mean for the future of the fish? Thanks for your column. 

— Hans asking how are the Hitch — 

Hi Hans! 

I have been holding on to your question for a while, sorry it took so long to get to you. But this is a great time to talk about the Clear Lake hitch. The scientific name of the Clear Lake hitch is Lavinia exilicauda chi, and the native indegenous peoples of Clear Lake (the Hinthil, Gowk Xabatin, or the Pomo) refer to the fish as “chi” (pronounced CH-eye). In this article I will use hitch and chi interchangeably, as they are commonly recognized under both names. 

The chi is a very culturally important fish to the Pomo, serving as a main food staple, providing a vital source of protein and nutrients, and easy to catch as the hitch prefers shallow, warm, and slow-moving water, ideal to the shores and sloughs along the edges of Clear Lake. Chi love to inhabitat shallow waters full of submergent and emergent aquatic plants, in areas with sandy or gravel bottoms. Here is where they feed on aquatic insects and terrestrial insects that rest on the surface of the water, as well as crustaceans. 

Chi don’t live that long, about five to six years, and become reproductively active in their second year for females and first year for males. The maximum size for the minnow has been recorded at 350 mm (or about 13 inches). The juvenile chi are small, and easy food prey for larger game fish in Clear Lake. Juveniles mostly stay within the shallow shorelines of the lake and sloughs, in areas hard to access by their predators yet where their food is plentiful. Luckily, chi can withstand rather warm temperatures, up to 30oC (86 degrees Fahrenheit) and more, which is an advantage when they are trying to avoid predatory fish who prefer cooler waters. 

Chi will spawn in the shallow yet flowing tributaries that flow into Clear Lake, usually in the springtime, but they have been observed spawning anywhere between February and July, if the weather conditions are right and there is plentiful, warm, yet well-oxygenated water in the streams. Chi will swim against currents and flows, and jump small barriers to get up stream to preferred spawning grounds. However, chi are no salmon, they are small-bodied and have limits to the heights and velocities they can overcome when swimming in a high-flowing stream. 

Clear Lake chi populations and abundances have declined in recent years, with declines being noted by local residents, tribes, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in 2014. Since then population estimates and catch counts, conducted by several state and federal agencies, have fluctuated, but in the last four years, sharp declines and little to no recruitment of juvenile chi has raised some high concerns for this endemic, special minnow fish. 

This chi is currently threatened under the California Endangered Species Act, or CESA, but failed to make the U.S. Endangered Species Act list in 2020 when it was petitioned. 

You can read about this decision in the Lake County News article from Dec 3, 2020 “U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decides against listing hitch under Endangered Species Act.”

Listing of the species adds extra protections that go into effect when the species population or habitat could be harmed or jeopardized. For example, when getting a permit to build something on the lakeshore, like a structure that goes out into the water and might disturb the shallow habitat of the lake, there are seasonal limitations of the year when that building is prohibited; this is a state CESA protection to prevent habitat loss or injury to the Hitch or direct loss of the Hitch themselves. 

The story of the chi is complicated, and the chapters to recovery are even more so. There is still so much unknown information about the chi, particularly that time in the streams after they spawn when the eggs hatch and the fingerlings, then juveniles, make their way downstream to the Lake. Fish biologists and water resource managers don’t know what happens to the chi during this time and we don’t know factors are causing the chi numbers to be so low. Drought and surface / and subsurface water use are most certainly having impacts, but the specific mechanisms of how are currently unknown. 

Spawning observations in the creeks is high; we can see them spawning and we can count high numbers. After that, something is happening to the eggs or baby chi that is causing them not to become adults in the lake, or hindering their ability to make more baby chi. 

Some of this important research is being led by research fish biologists from the United States Geological Survey, or USGS, California Water Science Center in Sacramento, California. Research conducted in the lake from the last five years has demonstrated drastic declines in young Hitch in Clear Lake. Those biologists are going to investigate post-spawning activities, and sample streams during and after spawn, to identify what exactly is happening to hitch in the streams and what management actions would be best suited to aid in recovery of the species. 

However, before significant and expensive actions and restoration projects can take place, fish biologists and agency scientists need to have a clear plan. Over the last couple years, there has been a huge, collaborative effort to establish a plan for recovery, called The Hitch Conservation Strategy. 

The strategy plan is being coordinated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, or USFWS, but includes many local partners such as those from regional tribes like Big Valley Rancheria, Middletown Rancheria, and Robinson Rancheria, County of Lake, the Lake County Land Trust, private citizens, CDFW, and more. This plan is hefty, and again, relies on information that is yet unknown. 

How can you help? 

There are several ways you can help. 

First, educate yourself about the Hitch and about lake and stream ecology and biology. Luckily, by reading the Lady of the Lake columns and asking important questions, like you did Hans, you are already accomplishing this step. If everyone understands the ecology and biology of this important species, and it’s habitat, the community as a whole will appreciate and value this species, and be aware of the kinds of activities that have negative impacts on the fish and their habitat. 

An easy way to learn a great deal about the Clear Lake kitch is to check out the video below, from a public forum called Water Quality Wednesday that was held on Jan. 12 and hosted by Lake County Water Resources. 

This video is about an hour long, but broken up into two 20-minute presentations. Moderated by myself, the Lady of the Lake, the first presentation is by a research biologist from USGS, Dr. Fred Feyrer, and he discusses his recent observations and data on Hitch from Clear Lake. 

The second presentation is by Amber Aguilera, a scientist of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and she goes through the current outline of the draft conservation strategy, and the actions and management being proposed to help in the recovery of the hitch and its habitat. 

The second way you can help is to volunteer a few hours during the spring (March, April or May) to help do hitch observations and counts. 

It’s really very easy. This is a great activity for extra credit for a science or environmental class, a great activity for girl or boy scouts, or just a great way to get outdoors and spend some time with family or friends. All while giving back to a special species that really needs all our help! 

There are several ways you can participate in this important effort: 

You can download volunteer directions and datasheets from the Chi Council website from the tab on the left. Basically, it includes driving around to bridges and public access points of spawning creeks (like Clover, Middle, Scotts, Adobe/Highlands, Manning and Kelsey) and wait till you spot a hitch. If you go during the right time of year, you won’t have to wait long! Take a few moments and see how many you see and can count. Note any spawning behavior. Review the full protocols provided by the Chi Council before starting any Hitch counts. 

You can record locations on the map online provided by the Clear Lake Environmental Research Center, or CLERC, in their Hitch Observation Program. CLERC also has lots of videos of hitch to show you what you are looking for and how to identify the hitch (don’t get them confused with carp!). CLERC also has forms and directions you can view, download, or print to help you. 

 Lastly, you can call the County of Lake Water Resources Department at 707-263-2344 to get paper forms and directions for doing Hitch observations, and recommendations on busy spots. 

For teachers and troop leaders: If your classroom, study group, girl/boy scout troop wants to learn how to observe and track hitch, and you want a Water Resources staff to lead, guide, or assist you, call Water Resources or email them, and might be able to help you or connect you with someone who can guide your group. 

Thanks for your questions Hans, and thanks for caring about the Clear Lake hitch. The recovery of this unique species will be slow, but together, with dedicated and caring community-members like you, the Clear Lake hitch has a bright future. 

If you have more questions about the Clear Lake hitch, I suggest you watch this informative video all about the hitch. If you still have questions or comments, you can direct them to the Lake County Water Resources Department, 707-263-2344, or through email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and they can help answer your questions or get you in touch with someone who can. 

Sincerely, 

Lady of the Lake 

Angela De Palma-Dow is a limnologist (limnology = study of fresh inland waters) who lives and works in Lake County. Born in Northern California, she has a Master of Science from Michigan State University. She is a Certified Lake Manager from the North American Lake Management Society, or NALMS, and she is the current president/chair of the California chapter of the Society for Freshwater Science. She can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..