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