Posts tagged with decade.

Resolutions for 2010 - Part 2

Bryce Warnes, January 5, 2010 at 2:16 PM

 

 

In the last post I went over some of the essentials of university survival, the sort of things - food, sleep, physical activity - that are easy to forget about in the academic whirlwind. Regular exercise and healthy eating definitely weren't a major preoccupation for me during the first semester, and, judging by the lifestyles of many of my peers, I am not alone in my self-neglect. It's a new semester, though - as well as a new year and a new decade - and there's no better time to make some fundamental lifestyle changes.

 

Physical existence is important, but so is the internal mental state. There's no doubt that university life - especially for new students - can take its toll. Campus services ranging from peer counselling to suicide prevention tend to students' emotional needs, to a degree; but these are the last lines of defence against the Black Dog. What about practical, here-and-now techniques for keeping your psyche on the up and up? Below are some changes I've recently tried incorporating. Maybe they can help some of the other first-year students out there chilled by winter and the thought of a second term.

 

  1. Play ukulele. The reports are in: Ukulele is, technically, the best instrument ever invented. As well as being cheap and easy to learn, it has amazing recuperative effects on the psyche. I would advise anyone looking to improve their life as a whole to learn ukulele. Don't be fooled when Oprah starts pushing ukulele as a healthy lifestyle choice - you heard it here first.

 

It's not all hyperbole. The appreciation and practice of music has proven benefits. Taking the time each day to chill out and play some tunes can calm the nerves, clear the mind, and even stimulate the release of dopamine in the brain. I have the innate musical talent of a mollusc, but picking a few strings always seems to improve my mood. The instrument's gotten more popular in recent years, and there are plenty of instructional videos and tablature sites available free online. And if you're the self-important, serious type, a ukulele might be just the humbling force you need in your life. It's such an adorable instrument. Who can take themselves seriously while playing such a tiny guitar?

 

  1. Make time to do nothing. When was the last time you did something that was completely unproductive in any practical sense? Whether you spend your time pursuing academic success, economic gain or social advancement, you're still working toward a final goal. But what about the pleasures of inaction? Or even action without purpose? Focusing on your aspirations will help you achieve them in the long run, but forgetting them - temporarily, of course - can be a great relief as well. Try setting aside an hour every day to focus on nothing but your own pleasure.  For some, this might mean meditating, or going for a walk in the woods. For others, having a beer and playing Team Fortress 2 can do the trick. A famous MC once rapped, "Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers." And sometimes, all it takes to restore those powers is - nothing.

 

  1. Remember you're going to die. Forgive me for waxing morbid, but sometimes the best way to improve your state of consciousness is to realize that, one day, it's going to end. It sounds dark, but don't go busting out the white face paint and Skinny Puppy records. Recognizing that your time on earth is finite tends to put things in perspective. Yeah, writing your term paper is hard. But so is the cold, clammy embrace of death. And compared to the rest of your life - what it is, and what it may become - it's a drop in the ocean. When you realize how small your problems really are, they become easier to handle. It doesn't have to be a negative topic for reflection, either. Tibetan Buddhist monks meditate daily on the process of dying, but the Dalai Lama still has a pretty good sense of humour.

 

  1. Break a habit. I think we're all familiar with the course of the typical New Year's resolution. It usually manifests at some point between the Christmas weight gain and the New Year's hangover. "I'm going to start doing Pilates," you say. Or, "I'm going to quit smoking," or "I'm going to stop making commitments I can't meet."

 

And about a week later your body is gently puddling over the cushions of your couch while you mow down on Cherry Garcia and puff a Monte Cristo No. 2, weeping in disgrace. (Details may vary. The description's dead on in my case, though.) It's pathetic, sure, but after the first few years, it becomes a sort of ritual.

 

But there's something to be said for breaking away from the usual routines and dependencies we rely on to get through the day. Whether we admit it or not, we all have habits, and they're not always as obvious as a bad diet or a nicotine fixation. Plenty of people check Facebook on a daily basis but don't consider it an addiction. How about quitting social media for the year? The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine can remove you from sites like Twitter and Facebook in a fraction of the time it would take to do so manually. Imagine a life without status updates. Even if unburdening yourself of the Internet's greatest distractions doesn't boost your productivity as a student, a life without fibre-optic gossip might give you the focus you need to start the decade off right.

 

 

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