Importance of sleep
Today I wanted to share with you how important sleep is, and why all-nighters are NOT a good thing. It's important for your mental and physical health, ad I'm here to walk you through how much of it you need and why!
- 8 hours is recommended from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute
- Sleep promotes learning!
- It stores memories into your long-term memory in the hippocampus of the brain
- Sleep enhances problem solving, decision making and helps with attention span!
- Sleep repairs heart and blood vessels, preventing heart disease
- Lack of sleep can lead to obesity, as sleep regulates hormones for hunger
mental Health Stigma
Mental health is often brushed off and not adequately addressed, with sentiments like "just get over it." This is an important problem to acknowledge and address. Here are a few ways in we can do our part to normalize and destigmatize mental health for ourselves as well as those around us:
Educate yourself about the issue:
Spread awareness:
Author: Shruti
Educate yourself about the issue:
- Take some time to learn more about mental health and the stigma's.
- In order to address the issues it's important to understand what/why its harmful
- Talking to friends and family can help with addressing the issue
- It's important to open up, and having people you can talk to can make it easier
- Internalizing the stigma can lead to feelings of embarrassment when you find yourself dealing with things like anxiety and depression.
- Remember that they're trained professionals and truly want to help.
Spread awareness:
- To address the stigma, it's important to continue talking about mental health in an open and respectful manner.
Author: Shruti
Mental and physical health are interconnected
It is extremely important to maintain mental and physical health because they are interconnected. I would like to say they overlap similarly to a Venn Diagram. If you have a poor mental, your physical health can suffer, and vise versa. In today's post, I want to share how to maintain good mental and physical health with everyone:
Work out!
Author: Sabrina
Work out!
- At least thirty minutes of activity each day is very beneficial
- Ride a bike, jogging, walking or lifting weights are great ways to get some exercise in
- My personal favorite is finding new yoga videos on YouTube!
- Eating healthy with nutrient dense foods will give your body energy - but it's okay to have "cheat days"
- Listen to your body and what it wants, as this will make healthy eating feel more attainable
- Meeting with a registered dietitian or nutritionist can allow for a correct nutrition plan!
- Find new hobbies that you enjoy doing on your own
- Some examples include reading, finding a new show to binge watch, baking, coloring, etc.
Author: Sabrina
How to be successful online
Some universities have already confirmed an online semester, which can be stressful for some people, including myself! So, below I've included some times on how to have a successful online semester, should it come to that.
Keep a planner and agenda:
Author: Delina
Keep a planner and agenda:
- This works for both in-person and online classes - but this helps stay on track with course content, assignments and exams, proving you from missing any deadlines.
- If you don't want to buy a planner, there are many free apps like google calendar!
- Getting to know professors is important for getting letters of recommendations in the future - it may even be less intimidating virtually
- Attending their office hours will also be important, especially if the classes are asynchronous, you won't be able to ask questions during class.
- Be sure to have somewhere in your home dedicated just for studying, a place that is away from all the distractions
- You may want to buy a desk that you can put somewhere in your house to give the "college dorm" feel
Author: Delina
How to celebrate events during COVID-19
I had my birthday in march, here are some of the things I did to celebrate:
Author: Delina
- I first started by making a birthday cake, I made one from scratch! Heres the recipe:
- https://sugarspunrun.com/vanilla-cake-recipe
- My family and I dressed up even though I was staying at home
- Lastly, I zoomed my extended family and they sung happy birthday to me while I cut the cake!
Author: Delina
How to deal with colorism
What is colorism?
Author: Francis
- Colorism is a form of discrimination or prejudice in which people are treated differently based on the color of their skin. Usually colorism occurs within the same ethnic or cultural group.
- Discrimination occurs when those of lighter skin are treated more favorably than those with darker skin.
- Colorism has been occurring around the world in places like Latin America, East Asia, West Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
- Acknowledge that colorism exists through individual, institutional, and cultural encounters. It also exists across different ethnic groups. Acknowledging that there is a problem is the first step to solving the issue, but it is just the starting point.
- At university level: establishing an environment of inclusiveness where students can share their experiences with colorism to empower students to speak up about the issue.
- Accepting and understanding that everyone is different and even though someone's skin tone may be different, at the end of the day we are all human and should be treated equally.
- Try to limit the negative stereotypes and embrace the uniqueness of everyone.
- Seek experiences outside of your ethnic or cultural community to better understand others culture or ethnic group.
Author: Francis
Staying motivated with online classes
Here are some tips to help with some of the obstacles that may come with online learning:
- Stick to a schedule or routine
- Using your class schedules and syllabi, you can come up with a weekly routine that helps you stay on top of your classes.
- Set goals for yourself
- This could be done through a checklist or the use of a planner or journal.
- Find a supportive group of people
- Whether this group is your friends or classmates, they can help you stay motivated. Set up Zoom study sessions!
- Take breaks and take care of yourself
- Go easy on yourself! Take care of your mental health! Some things you could do is exercise, cook or watch TV. It is super important that we're looking after ourselves in this way!