Dealing with stress at the University

At primary school, sometimes I got very anxious when I was about to have an evaluation, I had a knot in my stomach so unbearable in occasions that I couldn’t go to do the test, but I was a good student anyway. Some things have changed since my early years. Now, I don’t get all that nervousness, because I almost never feel prepared to an evaluation, so in those cases I think I deserve bad marks and the new feeling isn’t exactly the one I had as a kid, it’s more like stress and depression, with the apparent fact of not achieve something relevant to “my future”, considering that I’m living in a place very far from home and I displeased Santiago a lot -now this thought have changed-, but before I leaved Temuco I felt really useless so I needed to prove I could make things by myself. I did it, in a way, but marks didn’t improve. I -not always- think I’m capable to be a better student, but concentration and insecurity are my annoying limitations. So, I believe -like self-help books and many people say- it’s necessary to have an escape. Energy starts to accumulate and what else to do? Use it! I don’t mean stressed persons got to start banging fists on trees… ok, maybe concrete, but not nature! Anyway, my manner to get stress away is to do some kind of exercise, like jogging in the hill, it helps to start again with a revitalized organism; I mentioned it in another post. It depends on the person, of course. The most important thing is to do what we know can make us change the uncomfortable mood: listen to music or the sound of a river, being in a natural place or different from the actual one, do some art, be with friends… That’s the way I think it’s possible to deal with stress.

Critical periods to learn

“Dispelling “Neuromyths””, chapter 6 of the Neuroscience book we had to read, made possible to reflect on things that can be useful to “sell the ointment”, but referring specifically to Neuroscience myths. In general, it’s a very interesting lecture and one of the issues that caught my attention in a greater way was the section where the author talked about the critical periods to learn about certain matters in lifespan. It states that adults are less capable of learning some things than kids or young individuals. It is related to the not confirmed belief that people lose neurons, but actually, according to investigations about it, nerve cells get smaller, they don’t reduce their number. In addition, researchers have concluded there are synaptogenesis types in life: the one linked to “experience-expectant learning” -it occurs early in lifetime- and the other connected to “experience-dependent learning” -with the exposure to varied environments-. So, the second one can be improved during existence. But, the thing is, the writer is against the thought that suggests there is just an opportunity to learn some matters like, for example, playing an instrument. It is true kids can learn faster, so that might be the generalized problem to say the first idea, but adults -maybe in a slowly way- can learn anything too. I think it is necessary to maintain our minds working, because of the process of cortical plasticity, I believe we can be prone to learn faster if we do that. I've noticed my 11 years old cousin is really fast when someone teaches her something. I believe it's a thing of mental speed that can be improved.

A healthy lifestyle, is it possible? How?

Some parents teach their children to live in a healthy way. They make their kids eat fruits and vegetables. Fast food would be just for special occasions and sports or some kind of exercise would be highly necessary to keep them active, not just looking at the computer -thinking about these times-. I went for a jog to San Cristobal hill last weekend and I saw a family -mother, father, two kids and a baby- riding on bicycles, even with their baby in a little cart pulled by the father’s bike, I think that’s great.
I believe it is possible to have a healthy lifestyle, but I think it’s very important to be encouraged by parents, because the physical state has to be cultivated when we are young and now is too easy to prefer sedentary living ways, everything has become more comfortable, but it shows not good secondary effects. That’s why we need to be capable to make wholesome things seem -and be- pleasant. It’s usual to hear people talking unwillingly about exercise, but it is because they are not used to do it! First times doing exercises the body may be in pain and tired, but with patience it turns revitalizing -sometimes addictive, but that’s another issue-, just the opposite and great feeling. If it goes with a healthy way of eating is even better.
My mother always gave me varied meal in reasonable portions, but I don’t know how I get used to eat out of hour -not healthy food, by the way-. Physically, I was a bit overweight, so I remember doing exercises since a little kid; I think I started with step aerobics at seven, and then karate, later aerobox and now I use the climbing wall sometimes. But still I’m not so healthy, because I don’t organize my time well and when I get stressed, I start sinning with greed and I “don’t have time” to activate my body. There’s always time, the thing is get rid of the lack of willpower and start doing things efficiently. Being physically healthy really helps to be mentally better too. Doesn’t it sound good?