Learning by HEART- The Amazing Effects of Gratitude

This week, I decided to do a learning by HEART challenge. The one I did focused on happiness and it was a video that talked about the effects of gratitude. Basically, it said being grateful leads to one being happier. 

I completely agree with this video. I think being grateful definitely gives a person a healthy perspective and helps them focus on the positive in their life rather than the negative. Let's say that I chose to write down everything that happened to me during the day that was good. This would definitely help me focus on the good things that are happening around me and would help me completely shift my mindset.

I also thought it was interesting that scientists have only been studying the effects of gratitude for about 30 years. Thinking about how long some topics have been researched, this is no time at all! I am curious what else comes to light as researchers get more time to dig into the effects of gratitude.

I think the video was definitely a good reminder to me to focus on the good rather than the bad. When I get down or am tired, I can get fixated on everything that is going wrong that day which only makes my mood worse. I think writing down all of the blessings in my life would definitely be helpful since I could refer to it when I started feeling pessimistic. 

Learning Challenges: the caffeine causality loop

Today I had some free time so I decided to visit the Learning by H.E.A.R.T. blog to see if there were any tips on how I could be using my time. I'm really focused on using every moment to my advantage this semester. However, I got interrupted because the top post on the blog was a cartoon about the caffeine causality loop. I had to laugh to myself because the exact thing is happening to me today. Since I had my first exam of the semester this morning, I drank a soda last night at dinner to fuel me through the night hours of my studying. However, then I could not fall asleep and had planned on getting up early this morning to review. Therefore, when I woke up at 8 am this morning, I was very tired and needed more coffee. I'm hoping I can get through the day without feeling like I need another dose. 

Caffeine causality cartoon. Cartoon created by John Atkinson

Cutting down on my caffeine intake is also a New Year's resolution of mine because I was starting to get so addicted that I would either get a caffeine headache in the day if I did not have some, or would just feel really foggy and unable to focus. It was freaking me out! So, over the break I made sure to get on a regular sleep schedule to start training myself out of drinking it. Now that I'm back in school and my assignments are picking up, its getting harder to stick to my goal. But, I am determined to cut down and am hopeful for success. 

Source: http://oulbh.blogspot.com/2015/12/caffeine-causality-loop.html

Learning Challenges- Schedule Review

On Week 1, I set my schedule to be Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. My plan was to start the week on Sunday and then finish up by Thursday so that I could get ahead on the week. It was a great plan, until it never happened. 

A meme about procrastination. Created by: Laura Gibbs

I usually find myself starting on Tuesday and ending on Sunday. This works, because I do get everything done on time. However, I'm usually stressed to get stuff in that night. My problem is that I'm not good at working long periods of time. I like to do one assignment and then take a break and come back to it. This means I am typically doing some of the assignment each day of the week. Therefore, my week usually goes Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and finishing up the week Sunday.

That being said, I am not ready to give up. This week, it will be my goal to have all of my weekend assignments due by Thursday or Friday so that Sunday can be spent working ahead on the future week. I think my problem is that I got behind early, which made it difficult to stay on schedule. Once I am back on schedule and get into the routine, I will like it a lot better and it will relieve a lot of my stress. I am willing to make a big push one week to have easier future weeks. 

Source: http://oulbh.blogspot.com/p/time-management.html

Learning by H.E.A.R.T- Turning a Bad Day Around: Dos and Don'ts

Today I read the unit about turning a bad day around on the Learn by H.E.A.R.T. challenge page. I really liked what it said because I definitely struggle with being stuck in a bad day. I think these tips will be really good for helping me turn those days around. 

Chart of Dos and Don'ts
Source: Harvard Biz Review Twitter (@HarvardBiz)

My favorite tip was to reflect on triggers for the bad days and think of ways to avoid them. I think this would be very helpful because there are some routine things that stress me out, but for some reason I haven't figured out how to avoid them. A goal for myself this next week is to come up with ways to avoid these triggers than just deal with them. 

My second favorite tip was to NOT stay in the same place and change my scenery. This is another thing that I think would really help me break out of my bad mood and turn the day around! 

Source: http://oulbh.blogspot.com/2015/12/turning-bad-day-around.html

organization and peace through learning challenges

I am very excited that the Learning by HEART challenges have been added to the course this semester. I think that happiness, empathy, attention, reading and time management are some of the most vital skills of life. I could even argue that I think they are more important than the education I've received through this point because all of the knowledge I have accumulated means nothing if I cannot manage my time, connect with people, and live my life happily. It is not often that a course offers material on these subjects, so I am very eager to do some of the challenges and read more about how I can improve in these areas. 

Out of the topics covered, I am most interested in reading more about happiness and time management. While I do think I am a happy person, I do feel myself getting very frustrated about small issues or getting really put out when wrong thing goes wrong in my day. I think if I had a mindset of more overall happiness and was more focused on all of the good things I have in my life rather than the negative, it could help keep some of these feelings at bay. I need to learn to let go of the things that I cannot change and not let them bring me down. The challenge that most interested me in the happiness section was the happiness jar. I think its a really good idea to write down all of the good things that happen because I could see the jar physically fill up with the pieces of paper which would be a visual reminder of all the wonderful things that happen. In addition, if I ever was feeling down then I could reread all of the things and revisit the happy feelings that I felt whenever they happened. 

A meme describing a valuable life lesson. Photo created by: James Dubreze

The second area I would like to work on is time management. Even through the first week of this course, I felt myself getting behind and starting to get stressed about everything that I needed to complete. The first week is difficult because we have been on break and have not developed a routine for the semester yet. However, I think using better time management would have helped me complete more assignments without the grace period and would have eliminated some stress from my week. In addition, I think strong time management skills are vital to have because I will always need them. Even after graduated, I will still have work deadlines and things I need to get done. Therefore, I would like to develop these skills now while the resources are easily available and are in a perfect environment to practice and strengthen them. In my eyes, it would be a total waste to not take full advantage of these challenges and use them as an opportunity to grow.

Lastly, I really enjoyed the jelly bean video that was posted in the blog to introduce the idea. I had seen it before, but it was a good reminder to take full advantage of my time and live life to the fullest. I think its so easy to get bogged down in the responsibilities I have or in the feeling that my life is "hard" because I have to balance my time between classes, jobs, and friendships. It was a good reminder to shift my focus and cherish each moment and use it intentionally to further either my relationships, my knowledge or my skills. The last thing I want to do is look back on my life and regret the time I spent jealous of people who had more free time, or stressed about classwork or worried about the future. Rather, I should enjoy every moment I've been given and learn whatever valuable lesson I can from each situation thrown at me.