The Next Big Idea 10 concepts that could - University of Toronto ...

All about Alumni
Breathing Lessons
Nurse Almir Alicelebic brings an
element of kung fu to the bedside
Overheard
A man arrives in the ER with a racing heartbeat. A nurse takes the
man’s pulse. It’s over 150, well above the normal range of 60 to
100 beats per minute.
At the Weeneebayko hospital in Moose Factory, Ontario,
nurse Almir Alicelebic (BScN 2009) not only provides the appropriate
care for atrial fibrillation, he teaches the patient how to
slow down his frantic heartbeat with a Kungrobics breathing
technique. He also refers the patient to his weekly Kungrobics
class, which he holds at a health centre.
Alicelebic learned Kungrobics in Toronto, and the practice emphasizes the breath work
used in kung fu training. Alicelebic, 25, finds that it promotes health and fosters feelings
of well-being. As a nursing student, he introduced Kungrobics to Na-Me-Res, a shelter in
Toronto for native men. “The breathing exercises were quite successful for some of the
residents, especially ones off the street with cravings, anxiety and non-clinical depression,”
says Alicelebic, noting that a treatment program is also necessary for people dealing with
cravings. At the end of his placement, he taught Kungrobics to a First Nations counsellor
at the shelter to ensure the practice could continue. The counsellor thought the movements
resembled those of the animal spirits depicted in traditional native dances.
“My favourite successes come from the bedside,” continues Alicelebic, who has
offered the breathing exercises to patients battling everything from arthritis to suicidal
feelings. He is now hoping to work with a physician to integrate Kungrobics into the
Weeneebayko hospital’s traditional healing program.
Five years ago, when Alicelebic started studying Kungrobics, he just wanted to
learn a martial art. “I had no idea to what extent it would shift my perception, morality
and outlook on life,” he says. “I’ve been extending this sort of thinking into my everyday
life, and I’ve been noticing more while being happy with less.” – Susan Pedwell
On CSI, all deaths
are murders. In Ontario,
most people die of
natural diseases. Of the
approximately 80,000
deaths that occur in a
year in Ontario, only
about 250 altogether
across the province are
suspicious or homicides.
Dr. Toby Rose, a forensic
pathologist, highlighting
one media distortion of her
profession. Rose trained
in pathology at U of T. She
spoke at ideaCity in Toronto
last June.
also marks the 64-year-old Environics co-founder
as a card-carrying boomer. “If I were to be zapped by
a Vespa jaywalking across Bloor Street today, I would be happy
to have ended my authorial career with this book,” he says.
“If I manage to dodge that Vespa, then I will continue to work
for the rest of my life as long as it does not feel like work.”
On a sunny fall day, he’s fuming (still) about the Conservative
Party’s decision to scrap the long-form census. Adams
is also full of talk about his latest venture, the four-year-old
Environics Institute for Survey Research. Its aim is “to stimulate
constructive discourse” based on public-opinion research
geared at specific groups, such as Muslims and aboriginals,
who tend not to be the subject of values surveys.
Adams’ previous titles probed and prodded the body politic;
his bestseller Fire and Ice definitively laid to rest the notion that
Canadians are simply Americans with snow shovels at the ready.
In Stayin’ Alive, he divides the boomers into four “values” tribes,
reasoning that people’s beliefs shape our opinions to external
forces at least as powerfully as more traditional categories (age,
region, party affiliation). He slots himself into the “Autonomous
Rebel” tribe – which most closely resembles the prevailing
stereotype of the boomer as a countercultural hippie.
Looking ahead to the boomers’ dotage, Adams doesn’t
expect the much-studied generation born between 1946 and
1964 to make a sharp right turn into reactionary old age.
The boomers, his findings further indicate, are not morphing
into their parents, and the progressive values of their youth
remain intact. “The Autonomous Rebel at 60 looks like the
Autonomous Rebel at 40,” he says. “We’re becoming more
like ourselves.” – John Lorinc
courtesy of almir alicelebic
48 WWW.MAGAZINE.UTORONTO.CA