I get stuck with 'NZ European' even though I am from the USA and my family has been there for 9 generations.

Oh boy, it is going to grow. 😞 The Auckland cluster grew to 179 cases, and that was even though they locked the city down 5 hours after the 4 member family was found to have it.

If the family already has it, it means that the quarantine worker has had it and has been spreading it for a number of days. This is what happened with our first of 4 border breaches. The other 3 were caught before it was passed to the family, so much easier to contain and contact trace. Crossing fingers that the quarantine worker hasn't been wandering around and go to events and restaurants. I'm so sorry!

Transfer has happened in the quarantine facilities here in NZ a number of times. Three nurses wearing full PPE have gotten it. And at least 2 residents that I can remember- one from the trash can lid and one from the elevator button. All are directly genomically linked to people in the facility. These are tightly regulated facilities with strict cleaning routines that have undergone multiple audits to improve the protocol. I'm guessing you have it.

We are thrilled to have him back. For us, the 7 weeks will be worth the $3300 cost (plus plane flight). His mental health should be fine in such strict guarded quarantine as he will be in the middle of the last 2 weeks of class -- so very busy. His final exams start 2 days after he gets out and gets home. Then it is summer fun! I am very very glad to live in a covid free country. All the nay sayers here shut up about a month ago as the rest of the world started to accelerate again. USA at 187,000 for just today. I just about fell over.

Goggles too. They eyes are mucus membranes. The ones he has are not like tight swim goggles, they are more like safety glasses for chemistry lab.

There have been people that have tested negative on day 3, and positive on day 12. They are not allowed to leave the facility until they return a negative test. Anyone who refuses to be tested is required to stay for three weeks I think. But it might be 4.

My older boy is flying back on a 24 hour flight, so we know he will be exposed. He has an N95 mask and goggles. He will go into the quarantine facility under guard by the police and the defense force for 14 days before getting home.

14 full days in quarantine means that she will be clear. I would not test. I would not risk the extra exposure. The reason they are testing here is because people who are known to have it are transferred to a different,stricter facility. So they cannot leave their rooms. So separating the definitely have from the probably don't haves. If your sister is by herself, then the quarantine is enough. Only 1 person in NZ has been shown to get symptoms outside the 14 day incubation period. If anyone else asymptomatic finished the 14 day quarantine, NZ would know it because that person would have spread it once they got into the community and we have no cases. So there has not been post 14 day asymptomatic spread in the 6 months we have been doing this.

Yes! I completely agree. I particularly like "how traitorous ones mind can be." Isn't that the truth! I say that I 'lock down' my mind, but that is just the way I learned to perceive of it based on the severe conditions under which I learned it. I much prefer they way you said "being able to realize what my mind is doing and bringing my attention back to enjoying the *right now*"

I think my mastery of the skill was accelerated because I worked on it for about 15 hours per day and under duress, so I was very very motivated.

I'm not sure that I have an 'identity.' I'm not sure I need one. I live my life finding joy in small things. I am mindful. I am caregiver, a teacher, and a scholar. But none of those things define me. I enjoy staying fit, eating well, and studying chemistry and economics. But they also don't define me. I love my children and my husband and my family who is so far away. But when you sum all this up, I just wouldn't call it an identity. I live. I am satisfied. It is enough.

I will also add that I learned this skill because of severe mental illness. I am not saying it is easy to learn, but things were bad enough for me that I was willing to try anything. Basically, I think I learned to meditate in some nontraditional way.

dp

I have the same set of problems that normal people do. My dh is at risk of losing his job every single day, and there are not more jobs out there in a covid world. My younger boy is about ready to take his first set of exams and he has dysgraphia so it is not a small issue. My sister has a compromised immune system and is require to teach in person in a covid hotspot or lose her job and there is nothing I can do from so far away. My life is not roses. But my life is enough. I take care of things I have to do. I limit my negative response and reframe things in a positive way. If my dh loses his job, we are going to put him on the equivalent of the Appalachian trail for 5 months and I will increase my tutoring to pay for our expenses. We will eat beans and rice for a year. If my son fails all his exams because he writes at 9 words per minute, we will delay university by a year. If my sister gets covid and dies, I will mourn, but it will pass. I live in the world, and I deal with problems, but I am satisfied with my life and don't need more. I don't need a purpose. I am enough.

There is a difference between *dealing* with negative things, and *worrying* about them. I am talking about not allowing my mind to go round and round on an issue with no results.

I've never done any reading on spiritual/religious teachings. Interesting to hear that this way that I have developed has been discovered by others. I am enough. My life is enough. I do not need or want more.

I am finding joy right now in how my computer keyboard feels under my fingers. I am also finding joy in the clock ticking in the background while I hear my typing. Joy in everyday things leads me to feeling satisfaction in life. It is enough.

The first thing I did was lock down all negative thoughts. All of them. I did not judge them worthy or no. If a thought brought up negative feelings, I got rid of it. Once my mind was my own (took 3 full months), then I could process ideas one at a time and not be overwhelmed by them. I could read up on an idea and evaluate it based on my life. When I felt I had spent enough time for that day on that idea, I would lock it down. It was a way to control how much of my life was absorbed in thinking about things that were not pleasant. Life is not all roses, and I don't avoid negative ideas. The difference is that I control how I spend my emotional energy. I don't get consumed or overwhelmed. Because I control my mind, I decide if and when an idea is worth considering.

Out of the 57,000 people who have quarantined for 14 days in state run quarantine facilities in NZ, they are aware of only 1 person whose incubation was more than 12 days (so negative tests on day 3 and day 12, but then showed symptoms 3 days after leaving the facility and had a genome that didn't link to any in the facility so did not get it in the facility). There have been about 50ish (based on my recollection of the daily briefings over many months) that tested negative on day 3 and positive on day 12. I'm not clear on how many of those were 1) delayed incubation, 2) false negative on day 3, 3) got infected in the facility. Hope that helps you with evaluating risk.

I had a severe OCD episode about 13 years ago that required me to learn new mental skills. I was in what is known as Pure O, where I had the obsession without the compulsion and it consumed every single waking moment. I thought I was going crazy and it lasted about 6 months. Nothing I was advised to do worked. It did not help to argue with myself that my obsession about being not good enough was ridiculous. Keeping journals, working through tasks, all failed. My mind was in a loop that was unbreakable, and I came to believe the more I tried to rationalize my way out, the stronger the connections became. So I chose to break the connections. I decided to never let myself think those bad thoughts. When they came (which was at first at every moment), I would do whatever it took to stop thinking those thoughts. I would focus on the wind in my hair, or the feel of fabric under my fingers. I would focus and focus to stop thinking about bad things. I quit analyzing my thoughts and focused on stopping them. It took 3 months, but I rewired my brain. The connections and loops were broken for good, and I learned powerful skills to stop bad thoughts. When I have a thought that I do not want, I lock it down. I over power it with my mind. I can do this in a microsecond now. I bring this up because perhaps if thinking about all this stuff has not worked, maybe it is time to stop thinking about it. I don't need a purpose. I can just be. I can find joy in every tiny little thing in my life because I am not consumed with looking for more.

My younger son LOVES these underwear. And waits for a new pair for every christmas and birthday. As he gets more, he is phasing out the cotton.

No, but helping my teens gives me joy. But as for inherent meaning, I do not need to be special, I do not need to actually even have meaning. It is enough to be. I focus on being satisfied. Satisfied with my health, my looks, my husband, my house, my children, etc. There does not need to be a point to life. I do not need a purpose. I can just be. I can do what I love, which is to learn. My father calls me a scholar. My life is enough. I do not need more.

Sorry, no. They are in the USA. MI and KY, so it is not safe at all.

No way. I can't stand wool clothes because of the itch factor, but icebreaker merino is something special. I don't find the scratchy at all. Worth every dollar to stay clean and dry and not get yeast infections which I was getting on a monthly basis before I switched. I haven't had one since wearing wool underwear!