Tuesday Playlist

A soundtrack for studying . .  . or dancing . . . .

Lorde: "Green Light"

Birdy: "Wings"

Lana Del Rey: "Young and Beautiful"

<3 Frances

Spring is Upon Us

I don't care if it's cold outside . . . it's spring now! And even if there was a part of me that really, really wanted snow last week, I'm grateful that all the little flowers and animals didn't have to deal with any crazy blizzard weather.  I'm also grateful that it might actually get warm soon--and not just sporadically like it did in February.  As much as I love hot chocolate-and-peppermint-weather, my chronically dry skin and numb toes are looking forward to not having to be wrapped in layers of flannel.  Not that springtime will stop me from stealing my brother's over-sized plaid shirts, of course....

Indie Playlist for Spring 2017 (Compilation by alexrainbirdMusic)

I've been listening to alexrainbirdMusic's Spring 2017 Indie playlist to get spring ready, doing lots of homework, and cleaning.  Spring weather always makes cleaning feel very necessary. I just wish there were more time for it .... every weekend has been booked by work or school.  Has anyone else been spring cleaning?  Sometimes it helps to put on a show in the background, like the Maya Angelou documentary that was on PBS on Friday..  There was so much about Maya Angelou that I'd never known before I saw the documentary, and I really recommend it because she's as brilliant as her poetry, and the documentary has so much meaningful footage and history in it. 

Another quick thought for spring time . . .for some reason, spring weather always makes me think of styles form the 1910s into the 1920s. Flippy flapper skirts and little hats and flowers always feel very spring-y.  

from fashionista.com

from www.vintage.es

from Modcloth

from Vicky Loebel

<3 Frances 

Link Loves and Must-Reads 3/10/17

In honor of whatever flu/stomach bug/bronchial infection is currently making rounds through school, I'm taking a sick day.  (In other words, I am ill.  Woohoo.)  But I've developed a new sort of love for tea.  If I could carry a tea kettle around with me at school and work, I seriously would do that.  Unfortunately, my backpack is already big enough to make me look ridiculous enough as it is.
Since I'm home, I have a little bit more time to do classwork and long-term projects, and I thought I'd take the opportunity to share some of the things I've had sitting here as links for the past two weeks.  Yay!

• What I Ate Wednesday: It's Unhealthy to Eat Only Healthy Food by Alexis Joseph
• This article from the Hummusapien is really refreshing given the current "all-or-nothing" attitude that the media is preaching when it comes to health and fitness and well-being.  It's awesome to make healthy choices so you can feel your best, but there's a big difference between taking caring of yourself and being obsessive.  Having a fixation on health can actually be really unhealthy.  This is something that's become more and more clear to me over the past few months.  That said, it can be difficult to identify what behaviors are healthy and which are obsessive because of al of the hardcore images of wellness that we're constantly being bombarded with.  Alexis's post is something I think everyone who struggles with balancing true health and happiness with obsession and anxiety needs to read because Alexis (an actual RD) has a very honest and un-obsessive attitude about taking care of herself.  Unlike the Photoshopped fitspo pics preaching two-hour workout sessions, green drink lunches, and dessert-less evenings, Alexis talks about how "[t]here is so much more to life than golden milk and smoothie bowls and toast covered with berries and almond milk yogurt." Thank you!!
• A Story of Bats, Agaves, and People by Kristen Lear
• I love Bat Conservation International and all it does to help take care of our little bat friends, and this story is awesome because it shows just how we can help people and animals at the same time.  YAY for environmental conservation efforts!  There's such a huge relationship between the health of the natural world and the health of the human one, and we often forget about this relationship when we're thinking about "progress" and "industrialization."  But true progress is about maintaining a balance with nature and respecting our ecosystems so that our world doesn't end in a sad spiral of global warming and pollution.  I mean, look at Bhutan....a carbon-negative country that measures progress based on GNH (Gross National Happiness). I think we have a lot to learn from Bhutan! (And from bats.)
• If social media is toxic for you . . . do these 4 things by Cassey Ho
• This sort of relates to the first article I linked to.  Looking around me, I realize just how many people (many of whom are very young) have fallen into the trap of comparison.  I'm definitely not immune to this myself. Even without a smart phone and all the apps that come with it (yup, I've got a little flip phone and LOVE IT), I'm definitely affected by comparison.  I'm so incredibly grateful every day for little things like hearing my hermit crabs playing in their houses or talking to my mum about work, but I also really love fashion magazines (guilty pleasure), and that usually leads to #comparisonproblems.  Social media is such a huge contributor to comparison because it inundates us with a Photoshopped version of reality.  Why, we wonder, is everyone so happy and glamorous and perfect all the time?  Well, here's the truth: they aren't!  Think of social media as a big filter.  People are only sharing what they WANT to share.  And for every Snapchat story of an epic vacation, there's something very sad going on in the world (i.e. deportation, famine, war, etc.).  Comparing ourselves to each other is such a waste of time. Should a blueberry compare itself to a banana?  NO.  Both fruits are totally awesome in totally different ways. 

<3 Frances

3 Big Ways Stress Wereaks Havoc in Your Life

Dramatic title, right?  But it's totally appropriate.  We're taught all this stuff about how to lead "healthy, happy lives"--eat this, never eat that, always work out, count your macros, get strength and cardio, work all the muscle groups--but the whole "reduce your stress" thing is a trend that, while popular, is particularly difficult to subscribe to.  Meal-prepping seems markedly easier to accomplish than lowering your cortisol levels does, especially in our fast-paced world of PRESSURE PRESSURE PRESSURE. (Okay, maybe I overdid it on the capital letters.)
The thing is, even with all these "wellness rules" that are designed to help make our lives more, well, lively, stress continues to be a major contributor to chronic un-wellness.  I know you've heard this a million times before, but this time, please listen.  It's almost springtime.  Spring clean your life this year!  KICK. STRESS. OUT.

• Stress damages your skin.  There is a direct correlation between my forehead and lower jaw and exams.  I can actually feel myself actively breaking out when I'm taking a test. When your body releases cortisol (the hormone stress causes), your immune system activity is reduced, and you need a high-functioning immune system to keep blemishes and inflammation at bay. But stress isn't just connected to acne.  Long-term stress can also affect the length of telomeres, the caps at the end of DNA that protect if from degradation.  If telomeres decay, then cells decay and age, and that means wrinkles and lines.
• Stress messes with your metabolism.   When you're stressed, your body enters "fight or flight" mode, which is great if you need to outrun a zombie but not so great if you're just trying to have a happy day.  To give you energy for fight or flight mode, your body pumps glucose into your blood stream, and insulin resistance ends up impaired, so you're blood sugar goes on a wild ride that can leave you fatigued and metabolically down: "even if [people] don’t actually comfort-eat to deal with stress, their metabolisms slow down, their energy expenditure decreases, their hormones get all off-kilter, and their blood sugar regulation goes down the drain."
• Stress can make you miss out on quality sleep.  We all know how important sleep is for everything from encouraging cell growth and repair (#beautysleep) to helping you process and store things you've learned (#studying)., but when we're stressed out, getting the quality 7-9 hours we need to function at our best is a lot more difficult.  Our minds are racing with all the things we need to get done, so we can't drift off into that wonderful REM space of recharging and restoring, and we're so full of stress hormones that our bodies don't relax enough to be refreshed in the morning.

I've been paying more attention lately to just how easily I get stressed out and just how prevalent stress is in my everyday life, and I'm encouraging those around me to do the same.  My mum, for instance, is one of the most hardworking and caring people I know, but stress is a big issue for her because she has a tendency to give give give and never rest rest rest.  But you can't expect to be well if you don't try to prioritize health!  

<3 Frances

Jill's Library: Jane Eyre

It's finally Friday, loves!  And it's oddly warm today . . . not February weather at all.  It's difficult because, as much as I love birdsong and breezes and sunshine (cliched, I know, but true), I struggle with the reality that global warming is having such a big impact on climate conditions.  (I'm not just saying this because it's warm, either--global warming doesn't necessarily mean it gets warmer everywhere!)
But the fate of the planet momentarily aside, let's talk a little bit about books. Today's spotlight is on Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.  It's one of the most famous novels out there, and I actually first picked it up about four or so years ago, when it became a way to escape the stresses of travelling one particularly muggy summer.  I of course intended to finish Jane Eyre right away, but somehow I left the last fifty or so pages unread, and when I discovered this a few weeks ago, I realized I needed to do something about it.  So now, after four whole years, I've finally finished it . . . and I'm sad because I miss it!

Picture from Bustle

For anyone who is unfamiliar with Jane Eyre, it's the story of a young orphaned governess trying to find her way in the dark moors and cold manors of 19th-century England.  Oh, and it's a bit of definitely a love story, too, famous for quotes like "I had not intended to love him."  (But you did, Jane!)  That said, it's also a bit scary.  Not horror scary, but spooky scary, much like Wuthering Heights.  Ghosts, crazy shut-ins, murder attempts . . . these aren't the first things that come to mind when you think "Jane Eyre," but the Bronte sisters don't shy away from eeriness.
Of course, when Jane Eyre is brought up in conversation (however often that may be), there are usually mixed reactions to it, with some disliking it as another sad Victorian romance and others having found solace in Miss Eyre as a friend.  I fall into the latter category.  Jane, reserved and plain as she may be, is a literary "bestie."   She is thoughtful, honest, and incredibly humble, and her ability to stick to her values and beliefs despite not being a "fighter" by nature is inspiring.  Because Jane Eyre is so character-driven, and because it's told from Jane's perspective, I think that her personality and beliefs (justice, equality, etc.) play a major role in my argument for why you should read Jane Eyre if you ever find yourself in the Victorian literature section of the library.  Adding to that, the very way in which Jane Eyre is written is in and of itself compelling, particularly when you think about how much of Charlotte Bronte's own experiences may have inspired it.  The tuberculosis outbreak at Jane's boarding school, for instance, hearkens to the illnesses plaguing the Bronte girls .... all of who died tragically young.



<3 Frances

Study Corner: Writing Timed Essays (and Why They Make My Skin Break Out)

I had a timed essay in my English class today.  At the end, I felt good about what I'd written, but I also had a breakout of hives on my chin from the anxiety of the experience.  Skintervention setback! I guess I broke out because writing a timed essay is stressful, kind of like riding a roller coaster.  Once you're in your seat and the ascent has begun, you know that there's no going back and that you have to get through the ride now, but you can't quite imagine how.  It's a bit terrifying, really, and, unfortunately, I can't give you much advice in the way of the inevitable "drop" without passing out because riding roller coasters is not something I have much experience with.  Writing timed essays, though . . . that's something much more familiar to me.  I'm no expert, but I definitely have some tried-and-true tips for making timed essays feel less like timed essays (if that makes sense).

I definitely did not take this picture, lol, but it goes well with study time :).

• Take a deep breath.  
• Read the prompt over once to familiarize yourself with it and then again to find its main point.
• Ask yourself what the prompt is asking for.  Usually, it wants you to take a stance on something and defend your position with evidence, but there are nuances in the way a prompt is written that can change the way you're supposed to present your argument. 
• Also--think of your rubric (if you have one). You want to make sure you hit the big points on the rubric.
• Decide.
• Once you've figured out what the prompt wants, think of your resources and come up with a general idea for what you want to say.
• You need to have a general idea of your argument in order to write a cohesive paper.  Find your focus! Center yourself on it, and let your ideas for your body paragraphs stem from it.
• Make your skeleton.
• Come up with the "key three."  These are the main body ideas for your essay.  Put them in boxes on your brainstorm paper to help you organize what you're going to write about. You have limited time, but it might help to write a few bullet points in these boxes if you can.
• Make sure all your boxes relate in some way to your argument!
• WRITE!
• Your thesis will go at the end of your intro, but don't get too caught up in the introduction. If you're getting caught up in it, get your thesis down and start your body paragraphs.  
• Each body paragraph needs 1) an opening, 2) examples, 3) supports, and 4) a conclusion to tie it up (and relate it to the argument).  This is the simplest formula, and it works.
• Once you get your three (or however many you end up with) body paragraphs down, work on your intro (if you haven't already) and write your conclusion.  Make sure your conclusion doesn't just summarize but instead also carries your argument forward, but remember that the intro and the conclusion aren't as crucial as getting in the key arguments of your essay and your main point, so don't freak if you're running out of time to make the conclusion super fancy.
• Check it over.
• Read over your paper (if you have time) and make sure it hits at least most of the points on the rubric.  If you have time, try to get all of them, but if you're running out of time, try to get at least the big ones.

Good luck, loves!!! I hope this is a *bit* helpful. Coming up with a skeleton is probably the tip that helps me the most.  Let me know if you have any study or writing questions.  I'm not an expert, but my tutoring work has helped me come up with some ideas to make school more manageable.

<3 Frances

Link Loves and Must-Reads (and Hermit Crabs)

Bear, one of our sweet hermit crab babies, passed on this week :(.  We're going to give him a little burial today in our porch garden cemetery, and I already really miss just knowing that he is in the little terrarium in the living room. We've had many hermit crabs and hamsters over the years, with our apartment serving as a hospital and rehab home for all the smaller pets that get ill at the school my mum works at, and it's always heartbreaking when a pet passes on. I just hope that Bear is now in a happy place with his hermit crab spirit family.
This week's Link Loves and Must-Reads are from many different times and places, but I think they're all important and/or interesting in their own ways, covering everything from happiness to mindset to education.  Education is a topic I've been thinking about a lot lately because, while being a superhero and communciating with the spirit world writing, reading, and dancing are my favorite pastimes, my "daytime identities" include being a teacher and a student. I spend a lot of time in classrooms surrounded by children.  I think their circadian rhythms are on a totally different schedule from mine, though.  When I'm exhausted, they're ready to run an Iron Man or scale walls (the latter of which they've actually attempted).

• What Happy People Do Differently by Robert Biswas-Diener and Todd B. Kashdan
• We actually read this article for class, and it couldn't have been a more timely read.  A loved one of mine is currently going through a really hard time health-wise, and I'm praying for them to get better and also thinking a lot about one of the things we talked about the last time we saw each other--balance.  Balance is so important.  Anything to the extreme is detrimental, and even if we think that having control over all aspects of our lives is going to make us happy, IT ISN'T.  If you need any research to back this claim up, "What Happy People Do Differently" lays it out pretty fantastically. Intuitively, it doesn't really make sense that there are many times when discomfort and unpredictability shouldn't be avoided but rather embraced, but curiosity is directly linked to satisfaction and long-term growth. Curious now?  Yes, yes you are ;).
• Paralysis by Analysis (vlog) by Maddy Moon
• I've shared some of Maddy's work before, and I keep returning to her podcast, vlog series, and blog because of how inspiring and honest she is.  Her insights on body image, loving yourself, and being true to yourself are incredibly motivating if you're going through a hard time and trying to release limiting beliefs that are holding you back from really living your life (as opposed to just being afraid of it).  "Paralysis by analysis" is something I definitely deal with, and having Maddy tell me to snap out of it is very helpful.
• Beautiful Women Smile from the Soul by Brooklyn of No Sleep Till Peace
• This is a post by a Peace Corps volunteer working in Peru, and I love it because of how sweet it is. It's a real cheer-up that'll make you feel like there's still good in the world, no matter how dark things seem sometimes.
• Why we should all be reading aloud to children TEDTalk by Rebecca Bellingham
• Anyone who remembers being read to as a little kid, be it at home or in a class or even via a television program (Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, etc.) will be able to relate to this TEDTalk.  It's really quite amazing to think that, of all the little kids I've known, very few have been unable to become engrossed in a book.  Read-alouds seem to be a universal sort of entertainment.  

<3 Frances