New: 💎 Friday Gems #30🎉 (Bias in design, Morning yoga routine, No self)

We reached the tiny milestone of 30 issues of the Friday Gems! Thank you!

Asalaam Alaikum Low Fidelity readers!

🎉 We made it to the big 30! Why does the number 30 matter? Well, because small victories matter as much as larger ones. For me personally it’s a challenge to take a moment to appreciate my wins so I will take this win and enjoy it while looking forward for the next 30 issues.

Check out all the past issues of the Friday Gems

Thanks for your support in helping me get to this tiny milestone. :)

On to the gems!

Here are the gems that have caught my eye this week.

💎 Biases in design: hiding in plain sight in a world full of visuals

What comes to mind when you hear the words “universal truths” or “fundamentals”?

What comes to mind for me are the Western standards that hold up a white, privileged view passed down mostly by men from a long time ago.

As I learn more about decolonizing design, this article by Ida Persson, a designer with a Scandinavian background, stood out to me because she reflects on the biased education she received in design school and how that education failed to consider the rich histories of cultures and communities from around the world.

What I’ve uncovered is that many of our “fundamental” perspectives on inspiration, typography, imagery, color, and symbolism are actually preventing us from seeing the full picture: that there’s more to design, and beauty, than what we’ve been sold.

Ida touches on key areas of graphic design of inspiration, typography, imagery, and color, and how the education received in those areas is limited to a Western, white, and male-dominated viewpoint.

Decolonizing design is a critical step forward for all creative professionals. There is a lot of unlearning and relearning I myself need to do to start to make design more equitable and inclusive.

Ida’s statement summed up nicely why we need to make the effort to decolonize design and to check and remove the conscious and unconscious biases we bring to our work.

As I continue to evolve as a creative professional, and also as a human who believes in the necessity of advancing equity and inclusion, I’m committed to unlearning and relearning the world around me. I am making a conscious effort to look for inspiration in new places and challenge my decisions daily.

🧠 Take Action! 

Bring awareness to your unconcious bias. Take a moment to write down 7 lenses through which you see the world. Pick from the following lenses (keep in mind this is not an exhaustive list):
- Race
- Ethnicity
- Gender identity
- Class
- Language
- Religion
- Ability
- Sexuality
- Mental health
- Age
- Education
- Body size
(...and many more...)

Source: UX Collective on Medium

💎 A 5-Minute Morning Yoga Routine for Beginners

Anima Sana In Corpore Sano, in other words, a sound mind in a sound body. As we make our minds more resilient to move past the obstacles we face, it is also important to take care of our physical health, and yoga is one of the best ways to do that.

The right poses can stretch the major muscle groups and warm up the joints, while slow breathing promotes focus and can reduce stress and anxiety. No equipment or even sweating‌ is required. ‌

This quick 5-minute morning yoga session is a great way to wake up and practice self-care before the busyness of the day. You can even do this while heating up the water for your morning coffee/tea/smoothie.

🧠 Take Action!

Breathing exercises are an essential part of yoga. 

Practice abdominal/belly breathing for healthy and efficient breathing:
Step 1. Breate in and inflate your abdomen as you inhale
Step 2. As you exhale, empty the air in your abdomen as much as you an

Source: NY Times (Gift article, no subscription required)

💎 Eastern philosophy says there is no “self.” Science agrees

Credit: "La Belle Société," René Magritte, 1966

“Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9 percent of everything you think, and of everything you do, is for yourself — and there isn’t one.” - Wei Wu Wei

In the West, the view of the “self,” the I, me, the ego, the mind is of a pilot who is in charge but does not change.

In the East, the view of the “self” is that it is an illusion that there is “no self” and that the mind has made up the self and, in fact, it makes up the self each and every moment.

In this article, Chris Niebauer, a cognitive neuropsychologist who specializes in the differences between the left and right sides of the human brain, shares a groundbreaking, if not mind-blowing, study that showed that the left brain makes up stories, explanations, and reasons to help make sense of what’s going on around us.

Think about that for a moment!

The stories we make up in our minds and the negative thinking, such as impostor syndrome, overthinking, anxiety, doubt, and fear, are our left brains acting like “interpreters” for reality, even if it isn’t correct, and this causes us a lot of mental suffering, pain, and frustration.

I know I fall into the stories my mind creates all the time so this revelation is just what I need to stand up to the powerful inner voice.

The truth is that your left brain has been interpreting reality for you your whole life, and if you are like most people, you have never understood the full implications of this. This is because we mistake the story of who we think we are for who we truly are. 

🧠 Take Action!

Keep Morning Pages: Popularized by Julia Cameron in her book, "The Artist's Way", the morning pages are three pages or about 750 words of stream of conciousness writing done first thing in the morning. This practice will help you get to know yourself and your thoughts, emotions, feelings better.

Source: Big Think

💎 A Gem For Thought

Source: Hanna Larsson on LinkedIn

Let me know in the comments if any of the gems resonate with you. I always love hearing from you. :)

Thanks for reading, and have a fantastic weekend!

Rizwan