Anxiety.

Hey!

So today, I want to discuss a topic I am all too familiar with: anxiety! You're probably wondering why I am so excited to discuss this but in reality, I am just really happy that have made it to a point in my life where I can not only openly talk about anxiety but I feel confident enough to give others advice on how to cope and deal with anxiety.

Anxiety is not always a sign of deep stress or even that there is something wrong with you, it is a normal mechanism that your body uses to react to a wide array of situations. Feeling anxious if there is a problem with your job or you have a test you did not prepare for is totally normal and shows that your body is reacting rationally to the situations it faces.  Someone with an anxiety disorder has o much anxiety that it interferes with daily life, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

I used to have terrible anxiety over the future, anxiety about what others thought about me, anxiety over whether I would be able to reach my goals, anxiety about money and financial tribulations, anxiety about what food I am going to eat, anxiety about my room not being clean, anxiety about whether or not I would ever get married, anxiety about whether or not checking that I had locked my car three times was enough, anxiety over whether my parents would be okay when I left the house, anxiety about if my little sister was being bullied, anxiety about getting into another car accident, anxiety about whether I prayed enough, anxiety over every little thing.  Everything.  It got to the point where I could not leave my car to pump gas because I was afraid that the people around me would stare or judge me.  I could not do something as simple as leaving my house without having a million thoughts running through my head.  Granted, I never told anyone and I dealt with all of these negative feelings alone, but they still took over my life.

Now, I am part of an amazing organization of almost 200 people at my school.  I don't stress the little things or those things I have no control over.  And the best part is, I no longer have panic attacks or sudden drastic shifts in my mood.

How did I get to this point? How can you get to this point?

Well, for one, I began trusting God and trusting that His plan for me was better than anything I could ever think of or stress over.  That was probably the biggest change in my life that truly led me to happiness and true joy.  I took my stress and my anxiety and my tears and I handed them over to Him, knowing that He would take care of me and everything would be alright.

Secondly, I realized that a great deal of the things in my mind were things I could not control.  I cannot control whether people like me or judge me, so why not continue living my life and doing whatever I want? Do not stress over things you cannot control.

Thirdly, stop wasting your time!  If you're spending your time being idle or sitting around and doing nothing, you are going to have more time to overthink and ruminate on negative thoughts.  Fill your days with schoolwork, volunteer opportunities, hanging out with family and friends, etc.  Sometimes it's better to be very busy so that you don't give yourself the opportunity to overthink.

Lastly, just breathe.  Oftentimes when you're in the middle of a panic attack or your staying up late at nite because you cannot sleep, or you feel as if your drowning in your own thoughts remember to just breathe.  Take a deep breathe and try to revert your negative thoughts to something more positive.

Anxiety is difficult.  I may be well for the most part, but there are still days where I struggle with keeping my mindset in the right place.  I don't think I could write everything down on this subject on one page or even in one day.  There are so many different types of anxieties and different people have different coping mechanisms but overall, this is what helped me.  If you are truly dealing with anything and feel like you need someone to talk to, I am always here and I encourage you to seek help if your negative thoughts make you feel as though you should harm yourself or others around you.

I truly hope this helps someone out there.  Always remember, that with God anything is possible and He will help you get through all of your trials.

A.

17.

Hello.

I genuinely did not want to write this post.

I wanted to avoid the subject at all cost.  I wanted to keep living my life as if nothing happened.

But the reality is, that 17 innocent lives were lost and countless others are in ruins. 

I would be a hypocrite not to discuss something that happened only 30 minutes away from my own home.

What upsets me most about the shooting at Stoneman Douglass High School is not that it was so close to home, or that people died, or that it occurred on a national and religious holiday, or even that this is such an acceptable part of American lives, but the fact that this person has the capability of making people fear for their lives when they are pursuing an education.  That upsets me most. These were children, innocent children.  And now so many of these innocent children are afraid to attend school, parents are afraid to send their children to get an education, school is literally an essential part of every child's life and thousands of students are now afraid of the institution that was meant to propel them towards a better life. 

This post is not political and will not discuss the subject in detail.  I simply ask every one of you to place yourself in the situation that those children faced the day a young man walked into their school with the intention of killing as many people as possible.  Place yourself in their shoes.  Feel their fear, try to imagine the sheer atrocity it must have been to sit and wait in a classroom, not knowing if you would make it out alive.  Then, place yourself in the position of the parents that sent their child off to school every morning for the past 18 years and now will never see their baby ever again, will never hear their voice ever again, will never hug them ever again, will never hear their laughter, will never watch them walk across the graduation stage or get married or have children of their own.  Have some compassion for those families and those students that have suffered. 

I implore all of you to hug those around you that you love, make it known to them how much they mean to you.  Pray for the families, pray for the souls of those students that lost their lives, pray for the young man who did this, pray that no other child will ever have to suffer this pain again.

I know that prayers and condolences will not make a change if they are not followed by action, but I choose not to get political because that's not my intention.  I am incredibly proud of the willpower of Broward as a county and a community, these young people will truly make a change in the world because of their choice to not be silenced but rather use their voices to help others in the future.

I leave you with this quote:
"Opting for peace does not mean a passive acquiescence to evil or compromise of principle. It demands an active struggle against hatred, oppression, and disunity, but not by using methods of violence. Building peace requires creative and courageous action." - Pope John Paul II

A.

Lent.

Hey.

So lent is a very important time for any Christian, but particularly as a Catholic, this time is highlighted by a multitude of events that culminate into the season of  Easter.  This is probably the most important season, surpassing Christmas simply because it is held in remembrance of Jesus' greatest sacrifice for each and every one of us.

I know you're wondering, "Well Ana, what are you planning on giving up this Lent?"
Well, my response to that question is quite difficult because I'm not giving up a specific item, but rather I am choosing to give up more of my time to the Lord.  I don't really have any negative habits that I must get rid of or any temptations that are causing me harm, but there are things I don't do like pray on a regular basis.

I've decided to dedicate at least half an hour every day to prayer and communicating with God.  The first thing my father said when I told him this was that half an hour was way too little.  But in reality, going from five minutes a day to an hour seems like a drastic change.

To be honest, I am the type of person that prays throughout the day and has a little conversation with God asking Him for guidance or saying a short prayer of gratitude or simply going to Him when I really need someone to talk to.  But I feel that dedicating myself to sitting down and simply thinking about Him, maybe praying the rosary, or reading some verses from the bible, would really help strengthen my relationship with the Lord immensely.

We all have super busy schedules, trust me I know the struggle.  But we should all be willing to dedicate at least a few moments of our day to honour our creator, the one who gives us everything we need and never fails to be there for us all when we need him most.

So I encourage you all to give up a few moments of your own day this Lent.  You can give up Netflix too (that's what I gave up last year :D), but also think about how amazing it would be to grow closer to God over the next 40 days.

I hope you all had a great Ash Wednesday!

A.

Habits.

Hi.

In my search to pursue happiness and pursue my goals, I looked up different ways people studied and lived their daily lives.  There was one common variable among all of these generally happy people.  How did they all build good such well-rounded lives? They developed habits.

A habit is an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary, according to the definition on Dictionary.com.

This is crucial because small habits, small consistent actions are what develop a person.  Once we formulate something as a habit, we no longer have to spend energy making the choice to do that action and we have more energy to make better-informed decisions on more important things in our lives, this is all part of the will-power theory.  You can find more information about the willpower theory through the American Psychological Organization: http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/willpower.aspx

So, how do we create habits? How can we use our bodies natural ability to form habits to our advantage? Why are habits so important?

We create habits through constant repetition.  We can use habits to make tasks such as studying, exercising, healthy eating, easier for our bodies and seem like less of a daunting task.  Habits are crucial because every small act, every choice, every single decision will build our character and eventually who we are as people.  Habits can be good or bad. Our ability to manipulate good habits and remove bad habits is what makes them so important.

It takes time to build an action into a habit.  But if we can take that time to help us develop something that will benefit our future, why not?

If you're interested in learning more about habits and research conducted on the subject I recommend the book The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.

A.

Biomedical Engineering

Hey!

I decided to begin my school and study posts writing about my major and my first semester of college.  There is not much information available on my major unless you go looking for it so I felt it appropriate to discuss being a female in the STEM field.

So I am an undergraduate student studying Biomedical Engineering.  Biomedical Engineering (BME) is the implementation of engineering principles into the medical field.  The field of BME is extremely broad and can range anywhere from building prosthesis to wearable sensors to cellular engineering.  Many of the medical technology such as MRI as well as the heart rate monitor on a smart watch are all considered part of BME.

Currently, I have only completed one semester of college and therefore have only completed one class under BME.  Fall semester I took six classes: chemistry, chemistry lab, calculus, two honors courses, and intro to BME.  The majority of my studies consisted of chemistry, calculus, and MATLAB.  One of the major things about engineering that many people tend to forget is that it is not only a science based field but a technology based field.  Coding and computer simulations and laboratory work make up a great deal of your time and efforts.

My first semester of college was all about transitioning for me.  I wanted to focus on building good study habits and having a stable foundation in terms of my academics.  One of the most important things I did was waking up early and going to the library every single day.  Even if it is just staying at the library to read a book or watch a YouTube video, make it a habit to go somewhere that you can focus.  This way when the end of the semester comes and you're stressed, you won't have to waste your willpower on going somewhere to study (I will be doing a post on habits later on).

Otherwise, I did not become incredibly involved in any organizations until this semester simply because it was difficult to try and keep up a new schedule whilst accommodating to commuting and balancing everything.  I kept it simple and just focused on school for the first semester while I got accustomed to everything.  If you're going into your first semester, I strongly suggest that you do the same because it will be worth it in the end.

I apologize for the long post but I felt it important to discuss all of this because university is an important step in anyone's life and not many people know about what I am currently studying.  I hope you all have an awesome day and if you have any specific requests/suggestions/concerns just leave them in the comments below.

A.