The happiness effect

So I have been absent due to finals and packing but I guess that’s never an excuse. Won’t happen again. Today I traveled back home to Bogota to spend the holidays with my parents. It should be fun. I bought some magazines, reading I have also nelgected due to recent life management crisis, like Time. And found this article about something I have always known but is nice to see researched. The happiness effect, is how emotions and behaviors spread through social networks like contagious deseases. Conclusion? The more happy, positive people with good habits and high hopes you have in your life the more likely you are to emulate.

It may mean that an individual’s well-being is the product not just of his behaviors and emotions but more of the way they feed into a larger social network.

So… how can you make this benefit you?

Be selfish. Stay away from negative, whining, cynical people. Some may be family, so I am not saying to cut them out of your life entirely. Just don’t be with them so much; be there without becoming their constant shoulder, because listening to them whine is not going to help them either.

Accept the fact that your mom was right. Peer pressure is not that evident but it is nonetheless existent. So if you want to be healthy, hang around people who enjoy cooking, playing sports, who don’t smoke or do drugs. It is common sense yet until scientific data shows it most of us remain skeptic. Now it is here so it is time to surround yourself adequately.

Tips to optimize your study time

Final exams are around the corner and it is time for a game plan. Stress is good every once in a while but in excess it will certainly harm you. Follow these tips and make sure you get the best grades you can get. It is not about cramming or stressing, it’s all in time management!

Prepare to be busy. Before you even start studying,  let everyone know how busy you are. This is not the week to have club meetings, to go out or spend hours on the phone with your best friend. This week you will become anti-social. Also, make sure you go to the grocery shop and buy loads of healthy snacks (granola bars, carrot sticks, peanuts…) and quick-to-prepare meals so you won’t have to spend time eating out.

Find a good place to study, and keep it. I am what people call “verbose,” and my quality becomes an obstacle when it comes to learning my stuff. So the only place I get anything done is the fourth floor of my school’s library. The whole floor, labeled as “QUIET STUDY AREA,” will land you the ugliest looks you will ever get by the utterance of the slightest whisper or cell phone vibration.

Pace yourself, and don’t stress. If you are lucky like me, you have all your tests in the same day. The key to less stress is planning and prioritizing. For example, I have gotten two A’s in my first two exams in my History of Journalism class, so it won’t kill me to get a B this time. On the other hand, I have gotten high B’s in Law of mass comm, so I need to get a very high A on this final. Conclusion? My priority will be law.

Sleep. I am a morning person. Since I am more productive in the morning, I go to sleep early and wake up to study. Staying up late is simply a waste of time for me. Figure out at what time you are more likely to concentrate, and sleep around it.  BUT PLEASE, DO SLEEP! The idea of studying instead of sleeping is counterproductive. You need to know your material as much as you need your brain to be functioning at a full capacity.

Meet with study groups. Make sure these people are as serious about studying as you are. The reason for doing this is that different people always remember different things from lectures so you can complement each others knowledge. It is also a good way to obtain notes from the classes you’ve missed.

Keep a lid on the caffeine The only time I advocate caffeine is if you are already a regular drinker. The truth is, if you never drink coffee and you decide to start with it in exams week, it is more likely to make you nervous and jittery than it is to make you concentrate.

Reward yourself. After hours of studying make sure you go out for a walk or do some sun salutations. Call your mom and let her know of your progress.

The day before the exam, relax. DO NOT stay up all night studying. Cramming like that is never a great idea specially if you have various tests in a row. I close my book at about 8 p.m. the night before the exam and not open it again. That tendency of looking over notes right before the professor walks in with the exam is not going to help you as much as it will bring you closer to a nervous breakdown. Breathe, find your center, and concentrate.

Good luck! If you have any other tips please comment.

Leftover recipes

Photo by Bree Pettis

I came to my roommate’s house for Thanksgiving because my family doesn’t live in the country. Half of the turkey was left over and we sat down to try and figure out what to do with it.

I found this blog post about leftover recipes.

The ones I think are easier, and more college-student geared are the

1. Mushroom, Turkey and Rice Casserole
2. Cran-Turkey Enchiladas

Hope you find it useful! Save yourself some money and steal your leftovers from home. I am sure your mother will thank you.

Thank yourself for not overeating

Holiday season, in my head, equals food. Think about it… it is not long after swallowing hundreds of candy bars in October when you are already feasting during Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve. It is the time of year when most of us gain weight and feel excused to do so.

There is also the common post-holidays depression, when you are left broke, lonely and, on top of that, fat. So to feel better with yourself after these holidays are over be considerate with your body.

A couple of tips for your Thanksgiving holiday:

1. Eat beforehand. Have breakfeast! Usually when you think of the huge meal you are about to have, you want to be starving for it. Bad idea.

2. Convince your parents to let you make the pumkin pie. Your mother/aunt/grandmother doesn’t care about your weight concerns. And she will make you eat everything by guilting you into it or simply because she knows you can’t resist. Contribute.

3. Balance it. Pretend it’s not the holidays. Just a regular, fantastic meal but don’t forget to eat prudently. One carbohydrate, one protein and all the vegetables you want. Lastly, finish by eating one serving of you pie.

No job after graduation? Don’t freak just yet

My roommate is graduating in less than a month. The cloud of anxiety that hangs over her head made me start thinking about how nerve wracking this can be, especially if you don’t have a job waiting for you at the other side of the tassel.

The worst thing you can do is panic. You don’t have to grow up just yet. Even while watching your engineer friends get steady jobs with decent pay right out of college you can beat the social pressure.

What is the rush?

These are some recommendations to make you realize there are too many options out there that are not that conventional nor safe.

The Peace Corps. I am not a U.S citizen, but this program is seriously making me consider applying to become a proud American. Although this is the main option available there are many volunteer programs around the world that you could easily hop into.

Teach for America. For those more comfortable staying here this is a chance to give back to a community.

I am a firm believer that location is key to everything. If you have a place that you want to live in, that you travelled to once and felt right at home, move there. For me this would be Madrid. This is the only time in your life when you truly have no attachments to hold you back. Now if you are an undergrad with a husband/wife and a kid you are an exception to this. But really… why not?

Now before jumping into any of this, you need to stop and make a list about things you want to accomplish in your life. If you are not a fan of paper and pencil try 43 things. Keep in mind that that everything you do in your life should be guiding you towards that goal of yours. If this is only a way to put off getting a job, it will certainly not help!

What not to do: Don’t apply to grad school/law school just because you don’t know what else to do! That is how people end up trapped doing things that they don’t want to do. Don’t start drowning your dreams so early in your life.

If you need more time to figure it out, take a year. Whatever you need. But give yourself a deadline.

To relax and feel inspired, read Paulo Coehlo’s The Alchemist. Trust me on this one.

This month, write a novel

I am aware that we are a third way through the month but this is still something you should try. Every year, aspiring writers around the globe set their minds to writing that novel they have been pushing around in their heads for so long. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30. It’s called NaNoWriMo and I beg you to take a look.

Now if you haven’t started, don’t freak. I enjoy this idea simply because it makes people (like me) who are scared of the time and effort involved to just stop whining, sit down and do it.

Why?

First, even if your novel sucks, and trust me, it probably will, it is something you will be proud of. As soon as you see tangible evidence are able to complete a novel, you will be encouraged to write a second one, or a third, until you arrive to your lifetime masterpiece.

Second, if many people are doing it at the same time you will not only have support but also pressure. Usually those involved in this get together and talk about their experiences, their writer’s block and their love-hate relationships with their characters. This can inspire you and allow you to peek into fellow author’s minds.

Third, you know you have been procrastinating. You know you want to write that book. How about now? Today? Start! Sit down and begin jotting down your ideas, flesh out your characters and make an outline of your plot. Even if you don’t finish 50,000 words by the end of November you may get very close and finishing will not seem that taunting.

In case you are wondering, yes. I just started mine. I’ll keep you updated as to how many words I have written and this will absolutely serve as a great incentive to keep going.

Right now? 3,000. Hey give me a break… I started late as well

People catching on to the cheap food trend

This couple whose blog I found are trying a fantastic experiment. To support the point I made in my previous post, you don’t have to be rich to eat well. Check out the One Dollar Diet Project, which is an inspiration in itself. 

Start by reading their first entry, so you can understand the sacrifices in their experiment and how it has turned out. Their recipes don’t look that appealing to me, but if any of you decide that this is a good thing to do, please go ahead.

Eating healthy is not a rich-only habit

Tying in with my last post on how to have fun in these days of scarcity, I started a discussion with some friends. According to them, obesity is acceptable because not everybody has the money to eat healthy. As opposed to most countries in the world, the cheapest food in the United States happens to be fast one.

I completely disagree with this statement though and have found indeed that healthy eating can be quite easy and affordable. I started doing some research on healthy, cheap food, and it so happens that the news media is starting to catch on to the trend. In this article in the LA times I found some tips on how to buy cheaply and still manage to be healthy. 

There are some tips in the article that I think are essential. The first one, is to give up organic food. I know many of us college students still have the full-hearted ambition to save the planet but sadly it is more costly and not much healthier. I agree with the LA times in this one entirely. 

The other tips listed that I apply in my own life are buying low-fat milk, eating whole grains, buying lots of vegetables and drinking cold water instead of soda or juices. 

A tip of my own: If you get along with your roommates and you eat considerably the same (this doesn’t usually apply for those living with the opposite sex) you can share the essentials. By that I mean milk, orange juice and bread. Also, you can go to Walmart and buy one of those huge chicken breast trays and keep them all in separate bags in the freezer. 

I am a firm believer that there is no such thing as excusable obesity unless you have a serious thyroid problem. Heart disease is one of the few lethal sicknesses that can actually be prevented, no matter if you are broke. Eating in is always healthier and cheaper than eating out and fast food is, therefore, never excusable.

Harsh times, cheap measures

Being a college student make the state of “broke” a permanent one. Many of us are not even that affected by the current economic crisis because we don’t have any money anyways. Still, I have been noticing a trend in the way people are behaving, and I can’t figure out whether its precautionary or subconscious .

This column in the Chicago Tribune enlightened me. Not only are people saving money, but they are making it cool!

In college people see saving in “ladies night” or in drinking cheap beer. For me, the answer is in finding unusual diversions that can be free. Bike rides are always a fantastic thing. You burn calories and not burn fuel. Camping is also one of my favorites. There are always free days in museums, art and music shows. It’s all about being creative.

We all buy things out of boredom, for entertainment, as a reward or
for other reasons that are not all that practical. If you seek out
interesting hobbies and other ways to spend your time, you can create a
life that is very rewarding and costs very little.- from of PeopleJam.com quoted in the Chicago Tribune article.

Not only is it cheap, it’s becoming cool. Spending money and specially worrying about spending money is probably the least cool thing you can do. Enjoy the recession and venture into the non-consumerist side of American society!

The art of studying

I happen to have a hard time concentrating, particularly when it comes to studying. Here is a list I gathered in case you are beginning to believe you have post-adolescent ADD.

Start by disconnecting yourself. Shut down your internet. (Yes, I know: the horror, the horror. Please go ahead and do it). Turn your phone to silent, disconnect your land line and ask your roommates to pretend you are dead.

Decide on what you will achieve today. Every semester I happen to enroll in too many cool electives that I don’t need and always end up regretting it. Since I can’t do it all at once, I set goals like read 100 pages tonight, or contact these people for interviews before going to sleep. When there is overwhelming work it is easier to make it tangible and take it a step at a time.

This leads me to tell you to relax. There is no point in trying to get things done if you are so stressed that you can’t work. Put on relaxing music, drink some oolong tea and breath deeply. Get up from your desk and take five minutes to stretch.

Make a list if you must. I don’t like lists because I lose them, but for those who will feel better, do it. Remember the milk is a good tool for you list lovers.

Reward yourself. Instead of taking breaks or cleaning your apartment, (my favorite procrastination technique) give yourself a treat after you are done studying. For some this could be a beer, for others, much needed sleep. I always need music to decompress, so going out and listening to a jazz band in a coffee shop is the best reward.