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Happy Mind, Happy Life

Alright ladies and gentlemen we are back. After going through the constant pounding of these dreadful weeks, I’m sure we have some folks out there who temporarily forgotten what a sleep schedule is or the pleasurable feeling of a good skin care routine. Well I’m here to say that you don’t have to, yes I know it’s easier said than done but you know as well as I how therapeutic hot showers can be. So take that day off from that project or midterm and go back to that daily routine, you can say I’m a bad influence but I like to see myself as a good-bad influence.

For those of us who took a little longer to join the gang, welcome. Due to your excessive dedication to stay here at UCI you have gain +1 acheivement for fully immersing yourself in winter quarter and gained a badge for a smooth transition from Fall Quarter. New Objective gained: Take care of your Mental and emotional well being. You’ve seen it here folks, if you don’t take care of yourself no one will do it for you and that is why I’m taking the initiative to follow my own advice and de-stress.

I’ve started taking my daily walks around our lovely campus, UCI makes it very easy to see lovely sunsets and if your feeling a little adventurous like me you can scale up the building for a better view. Of course safely through the stairs. Whether it be talking about how you failed or maybe passed your mid-term or exams *wink* *wink*, socializing is still the easier/efficient way to destress. Just jamming out or watching euphoria has been the go to for the past couple of weeks. If it’s still hard to figure out what to do, go to UTC, Spectrum or Target. Start off simple and take baby steps, remember mindset is everything.

Objective Completed!!

New Objective: Get Some Sleep!!…..(Accept/Decline)

Objective Declined…Alright folks this is your favorite blogger signing out

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My Midterm De-stress Methods

Wow… these past 4 weeks have flown by so quickly. Weeks 3 and 4 are the beginning of the midterm season. Stress starts to kick in as we start having late-night study sessions and have increased homework loads. To be honest, I have started feeling the build-up of stress just like the fall quarter. In this blog, I will talk about some of the ways I relieve my stress and some new things I would want to try in the future.

My first instinct for de-stressing is to listen to music. Depending on the type of music I listen to, it helps me relax and forget about all the stress I dealt with in the day. My go-to playlist includes many r&b and soul songs. This genre of music helps me calm down because of its chill beats and lyrics. Some artists that I have been listening to are Mac Ayres, Jeerena Montemayor, Pink Sweat$, and Jeff Bernat. Another thing I do after studying is talk to my friends. All of us have been working very hard in our rooms all day; it’s always great to end the day by eating dinner and catching up with friends. Sometimes, we end up watching something in the common room. We recently watched the new movie “Encanto” on Disney+ after a long day of studying. It was such a great de-stresser as I was able to laugh and enjoy the movie with friends.

My de-stressing methods do work well now, but I do want to try some other techniques. Last quarter, I occasionally went to the ARC or Pippin to work out. I really want to try and continue working out. I noticed that exercising makes me feel better and less stressed. Another way I’ve been de-stressing in the past is by joining some extracurriculars. In high school, softball and the dance team were extracurriculars I joined to take a break from school. This quarter, I decided to join Kababayan’s Philipino-American Cultural Night (PACN). Every week, I will be attending practices learning choreography.

The midterm season is very stressful, it’s very important to find ways to handle that stress! Good luck to everyone with midterms, and don’t forget to take a break every once in a while.

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Tension and Relaxation go hand in hand

The time passed much faster than I thought! The winter semester has just started, and the mid-term exam is coming soon. Is everyone busy preparing for the mid-term exam? My class had a later midterm than my friends, but that meant there was more material on the exam! In addition, I have to prepare for the career fair, and the time for mid-term review becomes very tight. Thus, in this busy period of time, how to effectively relax has become a very important thing. I’m going to share with you what I do to relax.

I like to listen to something on the way to the library or study room because it takes up so much time with assignments, revision tasks, and daily activities. Sometimes I listen to some music, but more often I listen to books. If you have any favorite songs can recommend to me, I can enrich my playlist. What I would like to introduce to you here is listening to books. I have listened to crosstalk and pingshu (storytelling), which are ancient traditional Chinese oral performance art forms. Crosstalk mainly tells funny jokes and recent news, while pingshu tells stories about ancient Chinese novels and books. Since I always use my mobile phone and computer a lot, listening to something can also relax my eyes, which is killing two birds with one stone. In addition, I also like to chat with my friends to relax. Although the epidemic can be scary at times, technology is now so advanced that people can communicate without leaving their homes. It is also a good way to share with your friends the recent daily events or difficulties you have encountered. Having a call or Facetime with a friend is a great way to relieve stress and stay social while not being affected by the pandemic.

I hope you will not be discouraged when you are under too much pressure and relax by doing what you enjoy. Combining work and rest will get twice the result with half the effort. For the upcoming midterm exam, I hope all students can be fully prepared and achieve excellent results. 

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Walking for Self-Care

Every morning, I have the opportunity to smell the freshly-cut grass outside and feel a blanket of cold air against my cheeks. Walking my dog in the morning has become a vital part of my daily routine, and I now consider it a form of self-care. I find that waking up earlier than I typically would to take a walk creates structure for my schedule, as opposed to waking up a few minutes before my first class. In my experience, what I do in the morning can set the tone for the entire day, so practicing self-care at that time – by taking a walk, in my case – can be conducive to a productive day. 

Even if the walk is as brief as 15 minutes, you can still reap the benefits that exercise brings, such as decreased stress, improved mental health, and enhanced physical health overall. While I walk, I tend to observe my surroundings in order to take my mind off of the stresses that the coming day might bring, focusing on the birds chirping, the people passing by, or the other dogs that we might encounter during our walk. Alternatively, I sometimes treat the walk as a time to mentally plan out my day and prepare myself for the events and tasks I will have to attend to later. Either strategy, or a combination of both, can be used to make the most of the walk.

I looked into the UCI trails that friends on campus can take advantage of:

https://www.campusrec.uci.edu/stepup/trails/ant-trails.pdf

The guide above, courtesy of the UCI Campus Recreation Center, includes routes for long or short walks. While I have not followed these specific trials, as I do not live on campus, I would recommend them to anyone who seeks to incorporate walks or runs into their routine and support their self-care.

Your friendly neighborhood Undeclared major,

Sabrina

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New quarter

Happy New Year!!! Last semester was the first semester for me to enter the university life, which ended in the tense and complicated study. The most important thing I learned last semester was not learning a certain course. Although the courses in university were much more difficult than those in high school, I quickly adapted to them. I think the most important thing I learned in school was to get along with people. I’ve lived at home since I went to school, and although I have a lot of friends at school, I’ve never lived with any of them for a long time. However, because my home is far from the school, I choose to live on campus. One of my roommates is my good friend, we hang out together, dance together and go shopping together. But my other two roommates didn’t get along very well with us. Our body clocks were different. My friend roommate and I usually go to bed between 2am and 3am, while my other two roommates go to bed at 10pm. The different living habits caused quite a bit of trouble, because we left the light on when we were awake and they felt it interfered with their sleep.

Winter Quarter is a brand new semester. I hope we can live in peace in our dormitory. Only a peaceful dormitory can bring us warmth like home. In terms of study, I hope I can work harder to improve my GPA. Due to some negligence in last semester, my GPA is not high now. But I believe that through my efforts, I can bring my GPA back to the score I expect. I took 5 classes this semester because I didn’t have AP credits in high school, so I had to catch up by studying a little bit more than the others each quarter.

During the winter break, me and my friends drove to the Palm Springs to relax and soak in the hot springs; I also went to ski in Big Bear Lake with my friends. I thought I would have no chance to ski in California, because I thought it was very hot in California. However, my friend invited us to ski in Big Bear Lake. The next day we drove to Big Bear Lake. I like skiing very much, because I feel I can forget all the troubles when skiing. Winter break is over, which means the new semester has begun. Come on, everyone! Welcome the new quarter.