Week 8

Journal Entry 7

  Well, here it is. The final week of my class, and the last of my required posts. Sure, I might post a few more times independently, but once the workload of new classes hits, who knows if I'll be able to keep up with weekly posts? 

  Ah well, no need for pessimism! Instead, I'll focus on what I've learned! Learned optimism, individual strengths, life plans, and tons of other stuff that'll probably stay with me for decades to come! 

  Now, on to the subjects!

Discuss the findings from your Emotional Intelligence Test.

  I discovered that I hate spending an hour answering 140-something questions, just for the website to give me an incredibly brief summary and try to charge $10 for the "full results". That was one of my findings, at least. The one score that I did get said 85/100. I think that that's a good score, but I have no way of knowing for sure. I did score myself on the aspects in this week's emotional intelligence presentation, as suggested. Naturally, I didn't give myself any scores that were too low. Most of them were around the center of the board. Two of my higher scores (that I gave myself) were in adaptability and emotional self-awareness. Some days I might be easily upset, saddened, or angered, but I know when I am, and know to stop and think from a point of view outside myself when it happens. Also, being in a large family has given me the ability to just roll with whatever the family decides. Adaptability!

Discuss your stress level and plan to manage upcoming stress.

  Okay, so I was prompted to take this stress test from Ohiohealth.com.

I got back a "high" stress level, but then I realized that the wording of the questions confused me and made me put all my answers in backwards (e.g. hitting very true instead of very false, or somewhat false instead of somewhat true). I switched them around so that they were what I meant to put, and it came back as "moderate". I think I actually have had high stress this week, but usually it's down at moderate levels. I forgot to employ a lot of the stress techniques that I posted on here last week, maybe it would've helped to visualize each day beforehand.

Complete the OnCourse Journal Entry 30.

   In this activity you will practice identifying positive methods for reducing the stress in your life.

  

  Sounds good. I already had some ideas, but I'm always happy for more.

  Write about a recent time when you felt overwhelmed, sad, or anxious.

  Hmm... I felt pretty overwhelmed when babysitting my siblings while trying to clean the house the other day. I would've preferred to only have to do one or the other, but the house was getting unsanitary and I couldn't abandon the kids.

  Identify two or more strategies that you could use in the future when you experience this emotion.

  In the past, I've tried to not get stuck in that situation, either by keeping the house in good shape beforehand or by coming along on the trip and taking all the kids. That just produces stress too, though. Maybe if I were to try some of the tricks I read about, even though those are intended for test-taking. Mental cheerleading could encourage me, or visualizing my goals might help me to come up with a game plan and execute it. Also, putting some time-management strategies into play couldn't hurt.

  Alright, that's it for this week! I've learned enough from this session's class to drastically improve my life, and I'm pretty dang sad that this is my last assignment. I guess that the real assignment is to live what I've learned now. Thanks for reading, and...

 Don't forget to be awesome.

  -Joshua Blanton II

 

Week 7

Journal Entry 6

Hey, miss me?

  Last week I spent my would-be blog time writing a long-winded paper on the book, "The Idea of a Christian College". The book and the paper on it are both a good read, and very educational, but not all that entertaining. Since I missed a week, the entry number isn't the same as the week number. 

  That bugs me way more than it should, but it's my own fault for not writing a post. 

  Okay, on to the important stuff!

Wired Study Tips

This week, I was introduced to a wealth of study tips from Texas A&M University, and let me tell you, I feel wealthier. From "Why LeBron is Smarter Than Neil deGrasse Tyson", I learned that the brain is a part of your body. Who knew, right? 

  Let me hit you with some context here: your brain is not seperate from your body. Thus, having a healthier body results in a healthier brain. Being in good shape, eating healthy, exercising, etc. boosts your brain functions by one heck of an amount. That means that being good to your body also makes you better able to use the brain you've been given. Doesn't that just tear apart the concept that brain and brawn are opposite ends of the spectrum? Big Tony has the same potential of being top of the class as he does at benching 250. Little Melvin could do with some cardio now and then to bolster his coding ability, too. 

  The next good one I got was "Test Stress Reduction, the Navy SEAL Way". It gave me the 4 key stress control tips that Navy SEAL trainees are taught to get them through their BUD/S training exercises. 

  Tip 1 is goal setting. Not the "where do I see myself in 5 years" self-help kind of goal setting. We're talking on-the-fly short term goals, as short as you can get. "Just gotta swim 100 more yards", or in a college student context, "Just gotta write one more page". Any goal can be accomplished if you just take it one step at a time.

  Tip 2 is Mental Rehearsal. You can use your brain's ability to imagine the future to help you succeed, rather than live worst-case scenarios, when the stress hits. If you make a habit of envisioning yourself going through the process of what stresses you out, imagining yourself working through obstacles you might expect, and finally succeeding, you'll feel more relaxed and prepared when the actual situation is upon you. That's the idea, anyway.

  Tip 3 is Self Talk. Rather than talking yourself down, and beating yourself up for every mistake, you can use that same energy to make yourself a "mental cheerleader". A mental cheerleader is an imaginary version of someone who always has an encouraging word for you, and is always there to congratulate you for even the smallest victory. This keeps your optimism up, which is critical in high-stress situations.

  Tip 4 is Panic Control. Basically, deep breathing to slow your heart rate and pull you out of panic mode. There's not much to deep breathing, but remembering to do it can bring you back into focus.

  Well, those are the 4 key tips. I may have went on a bit too long about them, but I think they'll turn out to be pretty useful later on. I'd definitely recommend these tips to any college student who was in need of some help.

Learning and How the Brain Works

  Next up, I'm supposed to talk about something I learned from this week's study on left brain/right brain and various learning types. 

  First off, I'm a right-brainer. Also, the only one in my class, as far as I can tell. Apparently, that makes me a spontaneous deep thinker, intuitive and easily bored by facts and figures. Able to pick up on subtleties, but easy to lose track of time or direction. Does that sound like me? You can be the judge.

  Next up is learning styles. The names of the categories explain themselves pretty well, so I'll just get into it. 

  I'm a moderately reflective learner, as opposed to being an active one. I can see that pretty well. I'm an extremely intuitive learner, instead of a sensing one. Sensing doesn't actually mean being sensitive, it just means better with solid facts and data. I don't know why they called it sensing. I'm a pretty visual learner, but also leaning a bit towards verbal sometimes, too. Visual and verbal mean exactly what they sound like, just in case you were wondering. Finally, I'm almost in the middle between being a sequential learner and a global one. Sequential learning is learning the details, step by step, while global learning is geared toward the "big picture". Now that I know what styles of learning I favor, and have a bit more insight on how my own mind works, all that's left is to apply that into my life. I'm a bit surprised at my supposed level of intuition, but I guess I just never really thought about it.

  It kinda makes me sad that next week will be my last blog post required by this class. What will I write about now? Will I keep writing? Why do people always ask rhetorical questions in threes? Anyway, it'll be a bittersweet occasion.  Let me leave you with this:

"Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius."

Benjamin Disraeli, British Prime Minister