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Hindustan Times
19-05-2025
- Health
- Hindustan Times
Can mindfulness combat anxiety? Study explores
If you're worried about job, money, the status of the world, or anything else, try a moment of mindfulness. Paying close attention to the present moment without judgment - the basic idea behind all mindfulness techniques - can help calm anxiety and improve focus, said Resh Gupta, a postdoctoral research associate with the Mindfulness Science and Practice research cluster. "A lot of research has shown that mindfulness can reduce anxiety symptoms," she said. The calming power of mindfulness is well-known to people who have made the practice a part of their daily lives. Still, experts continue to investigate how it works and which types of mindfulness might be most useful for different types of anxiety, ranging from fleeting bouts of worry to more chronic, clinical anxiety disorders. "We all experience anxiety, but it can manifest in many different ways," Gupta said. "It's a tough problem to pin down." Also read | Doctors say these simple, mindful activities can ease anxiety in Alzheimer's patients In a paper published in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, Gupta and co-authors laid out a new approach to understanding the relationship between mindfulness and anxiety. Instead of taking a one-size-fits-all approach, they propose that different kinds of mindfulness practices might be helpful for different varieties of anxiety. The proposed framework should ultimately help us understand how to match anxiety sufferers with more precise treatments, Gupta said. Todd Braver, the William R. Stuckenberg Professor in Human Values and Moral Development and a professor of psychological and brain sciences, is a co-author of the paper. The other co-author is Wendy Heller, a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The work was supported in part by the Mindfulness Science and Practice cluster and the Arts & Sciences' Incubator for Transdisciplinary Futures. Braver said that the new paper is emblematic of the kinds of work being done by the cluster. "There is a growing recognition that these practices can be incredibly useful in enhancing psychological well-being," Braver said. "But we still do not fully understand the mechanisms of action by which mindfulness can produce beneficial effects. That's where the scientific research can be so valuable, by helping us more precisely identify why and how certain practices are effective." Gupta, Braver, and Heller suggest that mindfulness combats anxiety by improving a mental process called cognitive control. "Cognitive control is the ability to regulate your thoughts and your actions in a way that helps you achieve your goals," Gupta said. "For example, if you know you have to go to the grocery store right after work, you can keep that goal in mind during the workday and turn down an offer to do something else after work." As Gupta explained, mindfulness and anxiety have opposite impacts on cognitive control. People who are more mindful generally perform better on tasks requiring cognitive control. That observation is supported by neuroimaging studies, which have shown that mindfulness meditation can effectively modulate activity in brain regions that support cognitive control. On the other hand, anxiety can worsen cognitive control. "Worry occupies a lot of space in the brain's working memory system," Gupta said. "This is where your goals are stored." This impairment in cognitive control can intensify worry symptoms, but using mindfulness to improve cognitive control can help interrupt the harmful cycle of worry. Depending on the type of anxiety people are experiencing, some approaches might work better than others, Gupta said. People who spend a lot of time worrying may especially benefit from a type of mindfulness meditation called focused attention. "Focused attention teaches you to choose an anchor, such as your breath or a sound," she said. "You keep bringing your attention back to that anchor every time your mind wanders. Instead of focusing on the worry, you're focusing on the present moment experience." People who are hypervigilant and experiencing a lot of physical symptoms of anxiety - rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms, tightness in the chest -- may do better with a different approach. "For this type of anxiety, a form of mindfulness meditation called open monitoring may be beneficial," Gupta said. "Instead of focusing on one thing, such as the breath, you can observe all internal and external experiences from moment to moment in a non-reactive, non-judgmental way." WashU's Mindfulness Science & Practice cluster offers many resources for university and community members who want to add mindfulness to their lives. The cluster sponsors regular talks as well as other events, including those in which participants can learn mindfulness practices from trained practitioners. "We're dedicated to helping the WashU and greater St. Louis community get access to tools to learn about mindfulness science and practice," Gupta said. Also read | Feeling mad? New research shows how mindfulness can help manage anger and aggression Braver is enthusiastic that recent research from the cluster and other institutions will help people gain a greater appreciation of the wide variety of practices that fall under the mindfulness umbrella. "People have different options they can choose from, so it becomes easier to find one that best fits your particular temperament, concerns, or current situation," he said. 'It's quite empowering to learn these types of practices, and to feel like we can be in charge of how we use them to improve our quality of life.' Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.
News.com.au
16-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
‘We'll tax you till you're poor': How Norway's Labor-style wealth tax sparked $84 billion disaster
Labor's controversial tax on unrealised superannuation gains has already sparked 'panic' as investors scramble to sell off assets — and experts say Australia should heed the warning of Norway as a cautionary tale. Treasurer Jim Chalmers defended his plan to double the tax rate on superannuation earnings above $3 million, from 15 per cent to 30 per cent, despite growing pressure to ditch the policy which would, most controversially, tax unrealised gains on assets including property, farms and shares held by super funds. He called the policy 'modest' and claimed the 'changes affect a tiny, tiny sliver of people with superannuation'. However, a policy with similarities to Labor's was brought in by Norway's government two years ago, and the effects have been stark. 'Don't come to Norway, we will tax you till you're poor — and when you have nothing left, we will tax you a little more,' Christer Dalsbøe, founder of Norwegian tech company Braver sang in a video that caused a stir on social media last year. 'Before you make a grave mistake, you need to be aware. We even tax paper valuations. You'll have to sell your shares. So if you're good at technology or business, please stay out. A booming public sector is what this country is about.' Norway, with a population of 5.5 million, has similarly high income taxes as Australia used to fund its generous social welfare programs, but its wealth taxes are unusual, as they include unrealised gains — taxing the change in the value of an asset even if it is not sold. In 2023, the country's centre-left government raised its wealth tax to 1.1 per cent from 0.85 per cent and raised the dividend tax, accelerating an unprecedented exodus of the country's ultra-wealthy, many of whom have relocated to Switzerland in recent years. 'The recent wealth tax increase in Norway was expected to bring in an additional $US146 million ($228 million) in yearly tax revenue,' according to research by Alex Recouso, co-founder and chief executive of CitizenX. 'Instead, individuals worth $US54 billion ($84 billion) left the country, leading to a lost $US594 million ($927 million) in yearly wealth tax revenue. That's a net decrease of $US448 million ($699 million).' Among those billionaires and multi-millionaires to flee were industrial tycoon Kjell Inge Røkke, who moved to Italian-speaking Swiss city of Lugano. Mr Røkke was Norway's fourth-richest person and the country's highest taxed individual in 2022. His departure was expected to cost Norway about 175 million kroner ($26 million) in lost tax revenue per year, according to The Guardian. Owners of companies are among those hit hardest, often drawing a modest salary even though their company has a high value. 'If your salary is one million and you have to pay one million in [wealth] tax, it's clear that it's untenable,' Tord Ueland Kolstad, a real-estate magnate who 'grudgingly' moved to Lucerne, Switzerland in 2022, told AFP last year. 'The system is designed so that it confiscates more than what you can produce.' To pay a wealth tax, which can exceed their yearly income, entrepreneurs often need to take out dividends, hampering their company's capacity to invest. Those dividends are also subject to a tax rate of 37.84 per cent. 'So basically you have two options — either leave Norway, or sell your company,' Mr Kolstad said. Mr Recouso explains that Norway's approach to wealth taxation 'reflects a sophisticated yet burdensome system that interweaves multiple fiscal obligations'. 'Each municipality wields authority to levy its own tax rates, while the national government imposes additional charges on personal income, net worth, and various forms of capital,' he writes. 'The current structure encompasses property tax, value-added tax, and capital gains tax, creating a comprehensive framework that has prompted many of the nation's wealthiest citizens to reconsider their residency.' He adds that the valuation of assets for tax purposes, particularly real estate holdings, 'frequently generates friction between taxpayers and the tax administration, as disagreements arise over assessment methods and fair market determinations'. 'Norwegian entrepreneurs and billionaires face particularly galling challenges under this tax regime,' he says. 'The wealth tax rate, combined with dividend tax, often forces business owners to withdraw substantial funds from their companies solely to meet tax obligations. This creates a destructive cycle that hampers business growth and reduces incentives for domestic investment. 'The situation becomes even more complex when you consider the exit tax regulations, which insidiously attempt to capture value from departing residents.' Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store last year criticised the exodus, stressing that taxes are what pay for Norway's generous welfare system. 'When you've made your wealth in Norway, put your kids in school, benefited from the healthcare system, driven on the roads and reaped the rewards of its research, it's a breach of the social contract,' he said in a speech to parliament. Geoff Wilson, founder of Wilson Asset Management, said Norway 'provides valuable lessons for Australia'. 'Since [2023], over 100 of Norway's top 400 taxpayers, representing 50 per cent of that group's wealth, have left the country to protect their businesses,' he wrote in a report last month critiquing Labor's proposal. 'Norway has since seen a fall in gross domestic product, venture capital investment, and has also experienced higher household indebtedness … the Norwegian brain and wealth drain is a direct result of the tax on unrealised gains.' Treasurer Jim Chalmers held firm this week on his plan. 'I think most people recognise that these are modest changes [that] affect a tiny, tiny sliver of people with superannuation — still concessional tax treatment just slightly less concessional for people with very large superannuation balances,' he told The Australian Financial Review. The government has also been criticised for the decision not to index the $3 million cap to inflation, with modelling suggesting the number of taxpayers affected would rise from 80,000 initially to capture the majority of Gen Z workers entering the workforce today by the time they retire. Financial advisers this week warned retirees with self-managed super funds (SMSFs) had already begun 'panic' selling assets and restructuring their investment portfolios to get ahead of the changes, which are slated to start on July 1 if the legislation is passed by the Labor-Greens majority Senate. Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume this week called on Dr Chalmers to abandon the 'unfair' policy and urged his new economic team to 'speak sense' to the Treasurer. SMSF Association chief executive Peter Burgess on Thursday called on the government to urgently rethink the tax. 'No one disputes Treasury's desire for a fair and equitable superannuation system, but to claim this tax only affects a minority and serves the national interest is shortsighted,' Mr Burgess said. 'It ignores the broader ripple effects. The government's narrow focus is blind to the vital connections between superannuants, small business owners, primary producers, and angel investors. This oversight is already destabilising the SMSF sector and threatens to disrupt the delicate balance of our economic ecosystem.' Warren Hogan, the chief economic advisor to Judo Bank and managing director and founder of EQ Economics, told Sky News the principle of taxing unrealised gains would 'not work very well'. 'You've got this asset that's gone up in value, but you don't want to have to sell that asset in order to pay the tax on it,' he said on Friday. 'So where do you get money or liquidity from? 'You have to sell something else or have money in the bank to pay that tax. In practice, it doesn't work very well, particularly for those sorts of assets like farms and houses.' And a growing number of high-profile investors have warned the policy will devastate Australia's venture capital and private equity sectors, responsible for funding some of the country's biggest start-up success stories like $50 billion tech firm Canva. Industry figures say the proposed tax does not account for the highly illiquid nature of start-up investments. 'I've turned down like five good companies that I would have put money into, just because I don't even know how I'm going to deal with it,' angel investor Dean McEvoy told Capital Brief. As of January, the total assets under management for all Australia-focused private capital funds reported was just under $150 billion, according to ASIC figures. That includes $60 billion in unlisted equities, $60 billion from unlisted property, $16 billion in private debt, $12 billion in alternatives, and a growing number of green-focused companies and initiatives. 'This tax will cripple these markets, especially those that predominantly invest in emerging industries such as technology start-ups that address climate change and those driving forward the transition towards a greener economy,' Mr Wilson said. 'These markets are illiquid and mark to market accounting requires six monthly reassessment of valuations, posing great risks.' Citing the example of Canva, the web-based design platform founded in Perth a decade ago, Mr Wilson noted that to achieve its current valuation it had 18 funding rounds. 'Under taxing of unrealised gains, every funding round would require tax to be paid on a hypothetical valuation,' he said. 'Most start-ups operate with negative cashflow and when capital is raised it is to fund growth, not to provide liquidity to investors. Therefore, there is no liquidity to pay tax on an unrealised gain. If this tax is implemented, the Australian venture capital industry will be permanently and negatively impacted. Start-ups will move offshore and green initiatives with long time horizons will not get off the ground.' Mr Wilson estimates that changes could have the unintended consequence of triggering a flood of money into the housing market, with up to $155 billion in assets moving into tax exempt structures such as the primary residences. Dr Chalmers again defended the policy on Friday, saying there was 'not a unanimous view amongst economists about the worthiness of the change that we're proposing — I think Chris Richardson wrote something supporting it'. 'So as always when you're making a change like this there's always a range of views,' he told reporters. 'Obviously I follow closely the comments made by the peak groups and others. We're still providing concessional tax treatment for big balances in superannuation, it's just slightly less concessional. But it's concessional compared to the marginal rate that people would be paying.' The Treasurer insisted 'we need a little bit of perspective here'. 'I know this is seen in some quarters as contentious,' he said. 'We announced this policy almost two-and-a-half years ago, it's been in the parliament for a big chunk of that, we've been consulting on it. It's a modest change. It still leaves concessional tax arrangements in there for people who have more than $3 million in super. It is a modest change, it does impact only a very small amount of people and it still provides concessional tax treatment.'
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Rita Braver to Retire From CBS News After More Than 50 Years
Rita Braver is departing CBS News after a 53-year tenure. The CBS News Sunday Morning staple will depart the network at the end of the month. 'Those who know Rita and Sunday Morning realize how essential she's been to our work,' CBS News Sunday Morning executive producer Rand Morrison wrote in a note to staffers. 'Not simply because of her excellent reporting, her keen sense of curiosity about all kinds of things, and her willingness to take on almost any assignment… but also because Rita has always brought professionalism, clarity, and a passion for quality to every story that's come her way.' In a 2022 tribute marking her golden anniversary with CBS News, Braver talked about her '50-year love affair' with her longtime home. 'It's had its highs and lows, some exasperating moments, and some too magical to every forget,' she said. Braver's began her journalism career at CBS' New Orleans affiliate WWL-TV. She joined CBS News in 1972 as a news desk staffer in its Washington, D.C. bureau, the first of many jobs she had at the Eye Network. In 1983, she became its chief law correspondent-a role she held for a decade. Later on, she served as chief White House correspondent from 1993 to 1997, and was a frequent guest and guest host of Face the Nation on Sunday mornings. She has been CBS News Sunday Morning's chief national correspondent since 1998. In recent years, Braver has reported on such national issues such as political correctness on college campuses and the resurgence of antisemitism in the United States. She has also led viewers through exhibits of such famed artists Vermeer, Chagall, José Parlá, and Kehinde Wiley. 'My reward for years of jumping out of bed whenever a story broke was the chance to work for Sunday Morning,' Braver said in her 2022 tribute video. 'The bonus is that I get to work with some of the smartest, nicest people you can possibly imagine.'
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Rita Braver To Retire From ‘CBS News Sunday Morning'
Rita Braver will retire from CBS News Sunday Morning at the end of this month, capping a career at the network that has spanned more than 50 years. 'Those who know Rita and Sunday Morning realize how essential she's been to our work,' Rand Morrison, executive producer of Sunday Morning, wrote in a message to staffers. More from Deadline California Lawmakers Unveil Plans To "Modernize" Film & TV Tax Incentive Program Via Expanding Eligible Projects, Upping Credit To 35% In LA GOP Lawmakers Warn PBS And NPR CEOs They Want To Defund Public Media - Update The Atlantic Publishes Attack Plans That Pete Hegseth Shared On Signal Messaging App 'Not simply because of her excellent reporting, her keen sense of curiosity about all kinds of things, and her willingness to take on almost any assignment – however demanding or complex the subject – but also because Rita has always brought professionalism, clarity, and a passion for quality to every story that's come her way.' He added, 'To call it this end of an era… barely does justice to the challenges we'll face now that we can no longer pick up the phone and call on Rita.' Braver started as a staffer at the news desk in the Washington bureau in 1972, and later was chief law correspondent from 1983 to 1993. She worked on network newsmagazines including 48 Hours, Street Stories and Public Eye with Bryant Gumbel, and served as chief White House correspondent during the first term of President Bill Clinton. She has been national correspondent for Sunday Morning since 1998. Braver has won multiple Emmy awards and was inducted into the National Television Academy of Arts & Sciences Gold Circle last fall. Best of Deadline How Jon Gries' Return To 'The White Lotus' Could Shape Season 3 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery How To Watch 'Wicked: Part One': Is The Film Streaming Yet?
