Add to that the emotional toll of living in America at this time — having friends and fellow health-care workers die of the virus, seeing cellphone videos of Black people being killed by police.
Turnage said he began to feel the stress and pressure of everything in the spring. “And for the first time in my life, I experienced real depression,” he said.
Turnage is 62 and African American. Unseemly as it may be for the city’s top health expert to not be the model of health, he is determined to change that narrative and serve as a kind of inspiration to others. His life — and theirs — may depend upon it.
When the coronavirus pandemic resulted in the closure of his D.C. government office, Turnage began working from his home in Southwest Washington. Somehow that refrigerator door was always open in front of him.
“I was just going back and forth, grabbing things to eat without even paying attention,” he recalled. “The next thing I know, I look down and say, ‘Oh, my goodness. Where did those 30 pounds come from?’ My vital signs went crazy. My blood sugar was spiking way too high, and I began having all of these side effects.”
He had to make a change. African Americans are disproportionately afflicted by diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease — illnesses affected by what we eat.
Turnage was born in Richmond, the son of a sharecropper and a domestic worker. He was raised on soul food. “My mother was the best cook in the world,” he said. “One of my favorites is pork chops, rice and gravy.”
As a youngster, he wasn’t concerned about what or how much he ate. He was always on the run. He attended North Carolina A&T on a baseball scholarship. At Ohio State, where he earned a master’s degree in public administration, he played lots of pickup basketball games and other sports.
Returning to Virginia, he became an expert on health-care policy and served in the administrations of two governors — Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine.
“Ten-hour workdays, six days a week, half a day on Sunday,” Turnage recalled. “I had just turned 50 and all of a sudden I’m spending my days in a chair. Eating fast foods.”
A newly elected D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray picked him to run the city’s health department and Turnage was kept on by Gray’s successor, Muriel E. Bowser.
Six weeks ago, he found himself eating more and more French toast for breakfast, less and less oatmeal. As part of an effort to reboot his health and also do a public service, he enrolled in coronavirus vaccine trials being conducted at George Washington University.
Bowser was so impressed that she tapped Turnage to speak out on the need to have more African Americans participate in vaccine trials.
His efforts also come at a time when health-care advocates nationwide are pressing vaccine investigators for more diversity among participants.
I wasn’t sure why the race of participants mattered in a vaccine study. Race, by my way of thinking, is a biological fiction — a social construct with life-or-death consequences for Black people. So I asked Marc Siegel, associate professor of medicine at George Washington University and a co-investigator for the coronavirus trials to explain this confluence between race and science.
According to Siegel, one of the most important reasons to have a diverse pool of participants is “perception.”
“If you have a study that is done with only one demographic, a study of purely Caucasians, how would people of other ethnicities look at that and see something that is safe in their demographic?”
He added: “I don’t think we are really concerned that there will be different immune responses based on race. . . . To my knowledge, race has not really affected previous immune responses to vaccines.”
Gary Gibbons, a cardiologist and director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health, who is a proponent of more diverse trial participants, added this caveat.
“But we don’t know that until we study it,” he said. “The bottom line is you ultimately learn that by testing it in a variety of individuals.”
Although Turnage will be doing his part to encourage more Black participation in the vaccine trials, the toughest work will involve making those lifestyle changes to improve his own health.
Difficult but not impossible.
“After working all day in a pressure-packed job, I don’t want to eat a healthy bowl of beans,” Turnage said. “I want to sit down to some sweet potato pie and ice cream.”
“And when you think about this in terms of poor people, their lives are such a scramble. Raising two or three kids, working two jobs. Dog-tired all the time, not a lot of money. They’re not thinking about preparing healthy meals for the kids,” he said. “They’re thinking, ‘I’m doing good if I can just get them something to eat.’ ”
Turnage realizes he’s in a fortunate position — even with the co-morbidities. His participation in the coronavirus vaccine trials could last up to two years. And he probably will not know until it’s over whether he was injected with the actual vaccine or a placebo. But either way, he will be helping many — especially African Americans.
Meanwhile, he’s focused on getting himself healthy and encouraging others to join him in the quest.
“I’m eating more veggies and other healthy foods,” he said. “More oatmeal and less French toast.”
Because as he put it: “No matter when a vaccine for covid-19 comes out, those underlying conditions will still be there taking lives.”
Fact: Not all homeowners insurance policies are created equal. When it comes time to file a claim, many homeowners find that their policy covers only certain types of damage.
"As a homeowner, you should thoroughly read your policy before you need it. Review your declarations page in order to fully understand what your policy covers and what your deductible will be for various types of losses," says Raymond Plante, vice president of account services at Rainbow International Restoration.
"This way, you aren't hit with any unexpected surprises when you have to report a claim," says Plante.
When an unfortunate event happens (like a windstorm or a burglary), you'll likely file a claim with your insurance company. But your life will be even more stressful if you make a mistake filing the claim or aren't familiar with what your policy covers.
To avoid any unexpected pitfalls, experts recommend that—in addition to knowing the ins and outs of your policy—you take certain steps to protect your property. Here are some insurance claims do's and don'ts for homeowners.
Do: Document everything
There’s no such thing as overdocumenting when it comes to claims. Your smartphone can be a handy tool to document each and every detail.
“Take plenty of pictures and videos detailing the story of your claim, including various angles and distances capturing the origin of the loss and the resulting damage to your dwelling and its contents,” says Plante.
It’s also a good idea to get organized and create a separate folder to keep all your documented items together.
“Equally important, document all related expenses, save all receipts related to temporary repairs, alternative living expenses, contractors, plumbers, electricians, etc.,” says Plante.
Don't: Delay filing your insurance claim
When an incident causing damage happens, homeowners should report it immediately.
Most insurance policies don't put a time limit on how long you have to file a claim. They simply require "timely reporting of property damage," says Plante.
A good rule of thumb is to file within one year of the incident.
"Some policies state the homeowner may be held responsible for subsequent damages due to delayed reporting or failure to make reasonable temporary repairs to prevent further damage,” Plante says.
Do: Use professionals to help you navigate the claims process
When damage happens, there’s so much to do and take care of. But don’t go at it alone. Claims representatives can help walk you through the process.
“For example, the insurance adjuster, mitigation contractor, insurance experts, and building inspectors should all be able to get in contact with homeowners,” says Plante. These professionals can help you deal with the fine details.
The claims process can be arduous, so you should prepare a list of questions to ask claims professionals. For example: “Does my home insurance cover temporary living expenses?” Or, “When will an adjuster come to my house?”
Don't: Allow a generalist to do the job
When it comes time for repairs, the last thing you need is shoddy work from a self-proclaimed jack-of-all-trades, especially since your home may have more damage than you are even aware of.
“After a hailstorm, if you have damage to your window glass, you’ll also likely have damage to your roof,” says Larry Patterson, owner of Glass Doctor of North Texas. “Your insurance company may tell you they have one person who can fix both types of damage, but be wary of this.”
A jack-of-all-trades may know how to fix a window, but he likely won’t have the expertise of a roofing expert. Therefore, find experts that know what they're doing, and will be covered by your insurance company. This might mean going back and forth with your policy holder to find qualified professionals, but it'll be worth it in the long run.
Do: Ensure you receive a warranty
Getting your home repaired after unforeseen disaster can put your family at ease and get your life back on track. But you’ll want to make sure that a repair job on your home comes with a warranty.
For example, if your home has a lot of window glass damage, make sure you receive a warranty for your glass repair services.
“A strong warranty against seal failure, for example, will ensure you don’t have to pay to have the work completed again in a few years when your insurance company isn’t paying for it,” says Patterson.
Don't: Pay a contractor in full before the work is completed
Your insurance company will be paying for some, or all, of the repairs. Yes, the money won't be coming out of your pocket, but that doesn't mean the insurance company should pay for a job half-done. Be careful not to pay in full or sign on the dotted line before work is actually done to your home. Make sure there is a plan for the work being done, and get all the details in writing.
“Work with the repair contractor to set expectations, including time frame, materials selection, inspections, payments, etc.,” says Plante. “This can prevent future headaches and ensure homeowners and contractors are on the same page.”
OCILLA, Ga. (AP) — An immigration detention center in Georgia performed questionable hysterectomies, refused to test detainees for COVID-19 and shredded medical records, according to a nurse quoted in a complaint filed Monday.
The complaint to the Homeland Security Department's internal watchdog relies on accounts of Dawn Wooten, who worked full-time as a licensed practical nurse at the Irwin County Detention Center until July, when she was demoted to work as needed.
Wooten calls a gynecologist who works outside the facility “the uterus collector.”
“Everybody he sees has a hysterectomy — just about everybody,” Wooten said. “He’s even taken out the wrong ovary on a young lady.”
It was unclear to Wooten if women knowingly consented to the operations. Nurses raised concerns about the doctor, who is unnamed.
“These immigrant women, I don’t think they really, totally, all the way understand this is what’s going to happen depending on who explains it to them,” she is quoted saying.
The facility in Ocilla, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) south of Atlanta, houses men and women detainees for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as inmates for the U.S. Marshals Service and Irwin County.
ICE said it does not comment on matters before the inspector general but that it takes all allegations seriously.
"That said, in general, anonymous, unproven allegations, made without any fact-checkable specifics, should be treated with the appropriate skepticism they deserve,” the agency said in a statement.
While the 27-page complaint filed by advocacy group Project South quotes unidentified detainees extensively, it also includes detailed comments from Wooten. The complaint says Wooten was demoted after missing work with coronavirus symptoms, which she believes was retaliation for raising questions about addressing COVID-19.
Wooten said the number of detainees infected was much higher than reported because there was no active testing and not all cases were reported, according to the complaint.
Wooten is quoted as saying the sick call nurse sometimes fabricated seeing detainees in person when they hadn't and that she saw the nurse shred a box of detainee complaints without looking at them. She said nurses ignored detainees reporting COVID-19 symptoms.
If detainees reported a fever, nurses would put them on an over-the-counter cold medication for seven days without testing them for COVID-19, she said.
Wooten said the facility declined to use two rapid-testing COVID-19 machines that ICE purchased for $14,000 each. No medical staff had been trained on them and she saw the machines used only once.
LaSalle Corrections, which owns and operates Irwin County Detention Center under contract, did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Monday.
As of Sunday, 42 detainees at the facility had tested positive for the virus, according to ICE. Nationwide, 5,772 detainees were positive.
Founded in 1992, Boston Dynamics is arguably the best-known robot company around, in part because its demonstration videos tend to go viral. Now it is attempting to transform from an R&D company to a robotics business, with an eye on profitability for the first time.
When we interviewed Boston Dynamics founder and former CEO Marc Raibert in November 2019, we discussed the company’s customers, potential applications, AI, simulation, and those viral videos. But it turns out Raibert was transitioning out of the CEO role at the time — current CEO Robert Playter told us in an interview this month that he took the helm in November. We sat down to discuss Playter’s first year as CEO; profitability; Spot, Pick, Handle, and Atlas; and the company’s broader roadmap, including which robots are next.
Almost a year as CEO
Boston Dynamics hired Playter in 1994. After 18 years as vice president of engineering, Playter took a director role when the company was acquired by Google. Following Google’s sale of Boston Dynamics to Softbank four years later, he became COO and then a year later, CEO.
“The company is transforming,” Playter said. “There’s a lot of change that’s taking place. And we’re trying to do some things that are pretty hard. Our history is we’re an R&D organization. And really, we’re the best in the world at creating some new concept of a robot and making it work well enough that you could go do a demo with it. And we are trying to hang on to what made us great there: the ability to do advanced development and research and solve fundamental and hard problems but also develop our commercial muscle, learn how to sell a product, manufacture it, support it, and ultimately make a profit. It’s not always easy to have both of those kinds of goals coexist.”
To help Boston Dynamics become a commercial company, Playter has been hiring executives with experience in sales, business development, marketing, HR, and finance. The engineering leadership has come from the R&D realm and will remap how the robots are produced. But the majority of the new work is happening on the business side, where the company is “developing the processes and the discipline to go build a profitable business.”
Spot sales and profitability
In June, Boston Dynamics started selling its quadruped robot Spot in the U.S. for $74,500. Last week, the company expanded Spot sales to Canada, the EU, and the U.K. at the same price point. Playter says Boston Dynamics has sold or leased about 250 robots to date and business is accelerating. As part of the early adopter program, the first 120 robots took about seven months to sell. Another 120 followed in three and a half months, essentially doubling the rate of sales. Next year, the company plans to give Spot a recharging station and robot arm.
Compared to big manufacturing robotic companies, 250 robots is not a lot. But Playter points out it’s a big achievement “for a novel robot like Spot.” Other robotic startups would love to get that sort of market validation. “We’re penetrating, we’re establishing a market, and people are starting to see value. We’re adapting Spot to be a solution for some of the industries we’re targeting,” Playter said.
Spot’s success means the company is beating its own internal targets. “We are meeting — actually exceeding — some of our sales goals for Spot,” Playter said. “We had ambitious goals this year, but we met our Q1 goal. We’re meeting our Q2 goal. We have ambitious Q3 and Q4 goals. I think we’re probably going to meet or exceed them this year. To become profitable, these products do have to become successful. They have to scale. But right now, I think we’re beating plan.”
The company now has a roadmap to profitability. “I think we’ll be profitable in about two and a half years,” Playter said. “2023-2024 is when I’m projecting that we are cash positive.”
Logistics robots
To hit that milestone, Boston Dynamics is simultaneously developing robots for logistics (think production, packaging, inventory, transportation, and warehousing). “And that, frankly, is gaining a lot of attention from the logistics industry,” Playter said. “I am confident that’s going to succeed. That sort of business focus is sort of a new thing for us. But I think that part is going really well. But can we do that and still have the Atlases of the world doing backflips and pushing the boundaries and having all of that coexist in one company? So far, so good. That’s the challenge in front of us, I think, though, to allow these differing skills to coexist in one company.”
Handle slated for 2022
In our interview with Raibert, he categorized the company’s next three robots by time: today (Spot), tomorrow (Handle), and the future (Atlas). Raibert called Handle the “tomorrow” robot because at the time he expected it to ship in 2021. The company has pushed that date back by at least another year.
“We’re building a version of Handle which we will launch in 2022,” Playter said. “We have customers lined up that we’re doing pilots with, essentially prototypes of those machines now. But we’re designing the version for scaled manufacturing, and we expect those first systems to be available in about 2022.”
The timeline appears to have slipped, but Playter doesn’t see it that way.
“Handle hasn’t really been delayed,” Playter said. “We’ve got a new design of Handle. We decided we need to change the design before we commercialize it. So that’s what’s going on. I wouldn’t say it’s delayed. I would say that we sort of rethought exactly what we wanted to do there. And so now we have an iteration on that design, which we are beginning to prepare for manufacturing. And it takes time. To really design something for manufacturing and the reliability you need, it takes a couple of years.”
Boston Dynamics isn’t yet ready to share what the redesigned Handle looks like. The company will make that public “sometime in 2021.” Broadly speaking though, the design change will make the robot “faster and more efficient in a logistics setting,” Playter promised.
Boston Dynamics is really gunning for logistics next. “The opportunities in logistics are large, and we’re going to have the first mobile case-picking robot that can pick up and put down boxes, whether it’s in the back of a truck or in your warehouse or at the end of a conveyor,” Playter said. “Basically, any of the box-picking tasks that are sort of ubiquitous in a warehouse, I think Handle will be able to do.”
Pick for now
But that’s in 2022 at the earliest. Until then, Boston Dynamics is selling Pick, a depalletizing vision system and computer that costs $75,000. Pick is not a robot — it needs to be attached to existing commercial robots. Companies sell integrated robot setups that use Boston Dynamics’ Pick for between $200,000 and $400,000.
Handle is the mobile version of Pick. So, will the former kill the latter? “I think it will have its place in the world, but I do believe that in the long run having a robot that’s mobile that can do what Pick does will end up superseding Pick,” Playter said. “The thing is, there’s need for that application now. Ultimately, the market for a fixed position, depalletizing or palletizing robot is limited because there’s only so many places that you get enough flow of product coming through that you want a robot to do that. But if you have a mobile robot, it can now do that job in several places.”
A mobile robot is naturally superior to a stationary one, but there’s a cost trade-off. “Yeah, but I don’t think cost will ultimately be that much higher,” Playter said. “There is more complexity in our thing, for sure. But I think we’ll be able to manage that cost.”
Pick may not be a robot, but it’s Boston Dynamic’s first product in the logistics space, and it’s getting traction.
“The purpose of Pick is to have an advanced machine learning-based vision system that lets you look at a pallet so that a robot can go pick up boxes that it hasn’t seen before, or what’s called mixed-SKU pallets — pallets of different kinds of product,” Playter said. “And it takes an advanced vision system to be able to deal with that. But we’re beating out more established competition in some early sales. And the neat thing is the vision systems with Pick are going to be the same ones that we use with Handle.”
When Handle launches, it will do the same task in mobile robot form that Pick does bolted to the ground. In this way, Boston Dynamics is establishing credibility with Pick before the full mobile robot is ready.
Atlas is still the future robot
The robot that arguably gets the most buzz is Atlas, which Boston Dynamics uses to test and build ideas. Once proven, they get pulled out and put into existing robots or turned into entirely separate robots. Indeed, the techniques that let Handle move and balance its upper body were first developed as part of Atlas, even though Handle has wheels and Atlas is a humanoid robot with two legs. The team also built its own valves and high-performance control systems for all the hydraulics in Atlas. That knowledge was then used to build a new pneumatic gripper for Handle, which Playter said exceeds the performance commercially available today.
“Atlas we’re not really envisioning commercializing, at least not yet,” Playter said. “Atlas remains an aspirational robot that really forces us to advance the state of the art in both software and hardware design. And so we still just have a few Atlases. We use that to motivate our R&D work really. People identify with the humanoid, obviously, so that makes it interesting. It’s a complex robot, and so it forces you to develop techniques to deal with all of the degrees of freedom that are not traditional techniques.”
The Atlas team has recently done some work to author behavior software on Atlas much more rapidly. What used to take six months to code, the team can now do in a few days, thanks to advanced optimization tools. “And those tools will become available really to all of our machines, but we’re using Atlas as the way of motivating the development,” Playter said. “But Atlas is too expensive and too complicated to commercialize anytime soon.”
Breaking down the various teams
There’s a lot going on inside Boston Dynamics. To put it into perspective, we asked where the company puts its focus. Playter laid out his answer in terms of team sizes.
The Spot team is about 100-110 people. The Handle and Atlas teams are about 70% and 20% that size, respectively.
“So Atlas is small,” Playter said. “It’s a research team, sort of the critical mass needed to create these interesting behaviors and performances. Handle is rapidly growing because we’re preparing to launch a product. It’s following sort of a similar trajectory [to the one] that Spot did.”
Boston Dynamics needs about 20 or 30 people to prototype a robot. Playter thinks the Handle team will grow to about the same size as the Spot team “over the course of the next two years.”
At that point, “our success in achieving profitability depends on being able to scale that product as well,” Playter said. “But there’s a large opportunity there that I think will lead to growth in the sales of that robot as well. I expect to have two successful products by the time we get there. Hopefully, we’ll start building that third one that you asked about.”
The next robot
Boston Dynamics’ near-term focus is to expand sales for Spot and Pick/Handle. But there’s room for more robots in the long term.
“Our ambition is really to take the lessons that we’ve learned over decades of R&D work in terms of how to build lightweight, highly mobile manipulation machines and apply them to a bunch of different industries,” Playter said. “I foresee that once we really get Spot totally established as a successful product that we can probably redirect some of that team to go building the next product that might be something specific for, I don’t know, construction or forestry. There’s lots of potential applications out there that I think we could go build other bespoke robots for, that are still general-purpose mobile manipulation robots but probably need to be different than the ones we have. I would like to go build a series of these things.”
Spot may be modular, but even modularity has a limit. That’s why Handle exists. Playter believes Boston Dynamics ultimately needs to build more robots in different form factors.
“In the construction industry, there’s lots of big heavy things that need to be held in place,” Playter said. “There’s a lot of two-person lifting jobs that might be able to be a one-person lifting job if you had a robot helping to carry some of that load, or something like that. These are confined spaces. These can be big and heavy. It can be drywall. It can be HVAC equipment. It can be ducting. You can’t really use robotics in those environments now because the robots are typically fixed-position robots, and they’re big and heavy. But what if you could build a robot that was light enough to be mobile on a construction site but big enough to pick up, I don’t know, a piece of drywall and hold it up while somebody else screwed the screws or managed the whole process? That’s the thing I envision, but Spot is not going to do that, and neither is Handle. It needs to be a bigger robot that can handle that kind of stuff but could still be mobile.”
As you may know, the astrology of the second half of 2020 looks just as chaotic as the first. But that doesn't mean it won't be sprinkled with some lucky moments. As we look over the coming month, mark your calendars for Sept. 9 — as this date is set to be one of the luckiest days of the month for everyone, thanks to the powerful numerology of the date and some fortunate planetary alignments that'll offer us an astrological window of opportunity and growth.
In numerology, the number nine represents completion, and it carries the energy of both endings and new beginnings. We're getting a double dose of this energy on Sept. 9 (or 9/9), making it an ideal time to release things that are naturally coming to a close in our lives in order to make room for bountiful fresh starts — and on top of it, a lucky Sun/Jupiter trine aspect in the skies will blast us with an added dose of cosmic good fortune on the very same date. Here's the full scoop on why Sept. 9, 2020 will be a lucky day, according to both numerology and astrology — and how you can make the most of September's high point of good vibes.
The Numerology Of 9/9
The number nine represents the energy of completion because it's the last of the single-digit numbers (also known as cardinal numbers in numerology) before the double-digit numbers begins — and thus it symbolically holds a culmination of wisdom, experience, and a drive to be of service to others.
"The number nine is a powerful number, as it's seen as a cardinal number," ascension guide and quantum shaman Laura Brown tells Bustle. "It carries a very high spiritual energy that helps confirm we are entering a phase where, although we may experience endings in our life, it's to make room for something aligned with our purpose to enter." Don't fear the endings that the number nine's completion-energy can bring. It's all about moving in cycles, so this energy also indicates the beginning of something new — and in the case of 9/9, something that's even more in sync with our soul's higher purpose.
Given that 9/9 is the ninth day of the ninth month of the year, this date is charged even more powerfully with the number's meaning — making it an even more auspicious time to release stagnant energy and embrace new beginnings. "Nine is the only number that when you double it (99), its energy actually increases — doubling your spiritual evolution, alignment with purpose, and increasing fortuitous events that enter your life," Brown says. Numerologically, this is a time to accept the completion of certain cycles in your life instead of fighting them, and acknowledge all the fortunate new beginnings that are on the horizon. Letting go of things can be tough, but aligning yourself with the energy of this date can help you make the transition and gain clarity on ways you can make a positive and uplifting mark on the world around you.
We just happen to have one of the luckiest and brightest astrological aspects of the season taking place on Sept. 9, which is a lucky trine aspect between the Sun and Jupiter. When these two powerful celestial bodies are in harmony with one another, you can guarantee there's an abundance of luck and good fortune headed our way. This planetary meetup serves as a cosmic self-esteem booster that inspires us to broaden our horizons and embrace a more positive attitude, which can give us the confidence we need to seize the opportunities and walk through the open doors that 9/9's energy helps us gain access to.
The cosmic energy is upping your confidence and inspiring your creativity for a reason — so that you can take advantage of the good fortune and make some power moves. We are presented a slight challenge here, as ambitious planet Mars is beginning its retrograde period on 9/9, which can make us feel less motivated to charge forward on our goals. However, having the sun's lucky synergy with Jupiter on our side will push us toward more higher-minded spiritual goals and growth — and its those dreams that we should work toward now.
This is our last opportunity in 2020 to take advantage of such an auspicious alignment between the brilliant sun (which represents our creativity, vitality, and spirit) and knowledge-seeking planet Jupiter (which represents luck, expansion, and growth) — so you'll want to make the most of this cosmic lucky streak while it lasts.
How To Take Advantage Of The 9/9 Energy
"Combine the 9/9 numerology with the current astrological energy, and you have a day primed for massive shifts that open so many doors of possibilities within our lives and grant us access to our true purpose," Brown says. The blessings of the sun/Jupiter trine blended with the numerological power of the number nine gives 9/9 a mystic sparkle that'll bring you good luck — if you're willing to embrace the energetic changes that are afoot.
If you want to take advantage of the lucky energy of 9/9, align yourself with your higher purpose. You can do this by thinking more about life goals that involve spiritual growth, service to others. While it's great to have goals related to money and success, the energy of 9/9 is more geared toward lighting up and supporting higher-minded pursuits of the soul. Doing a simple meditation or visualization for 9/9 can help get you in touch with your spiritual side and focus your mind on more these types of humanitarian goals.
Because the energy of 9/9 corresponds with completions and endings, this is also an important time to acknowledge any cycles in your life that appear to be coming to a close — as well as anything no longer serving you that has run its course and needs to be released. It's not easy to let go, but once you do some spiritual house-cleaning and clear space in your heart and mind, you'll have more room for new things to enter your life — and that's what 9/9 is all about. Journaling exercises can be really helpful in identifying habits, situations, relationships, or patterns in your life that need to be released. Try setting your phone's timer for nine minutes and free-writing on the topic until the alarm sounds. You might be surprised to see what naturally comes forth.