Author: JenSzucs

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Settle your mind and body

Today’s world is stressful, so how do you try to balance yourself and keep you feeling grounded. How can you settle your mind and body?

One great, beneficial way to do this is thru meditation or mindfulness. It’s something so useful, can be done anywhere and it’s free!

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

What is meditation? A good definition of meditation is found on the Freedom Genesis website. “In a nutshell, meditation is simply relaxing and becoming present in the moment.“

Meditation can help you in so many ways, including:

  1. Making you happier
  2. Help you manage anxiety, stress and depression
  3. Almost immediate benefits
  4. Help you fall asleep
  5. Sharpen your memory (https://mindworks.org/blog/why-is-meditation-important-facts-you-need-to-know/)

These are just a few of the benefits, and there are so many more!

There are many ways to practice meditation, as outlined on the Freedom Genesis blog. A few examples they review on the site are:

  1. Breathing meditation
  2. Mindfulness meditation
  3. Walking meditation
  4. Mantra meditation (TM Meditation)
  5. Concentration medication

It’s so great to know there are multiple ways to meditate! You can find a method or two that works for you. My personal favorites are breathing meditation and walking meditation. I love the quietness of listening to my breathing and calming my body & mind. Sometimes I will turn on some Tibetan singing bowls and listen to them quietly also. I also love the quietness of taking a walk … especially in a quiet area, surrounded by nature. (For me, both of these mean without headphones!)

Let me know if you meditate. What is your favorite meditation method?

Social media posts:

Facebook post: Settle your mind and body. Learn an easy method to calm yourself quickly: https://algonquincollegesocialmedia.wordpress.com/?p=97472

Twitter post: Settle your mind and body. Learn an easy method to calm yourself quickly: https://bit.ly/33yDC8U

Reference list:

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Is Social Media Polarizing Us?

Social media … so many positive things to say about it – and so many negative things to say about it. This seems like an old topic, and perhaps it is. But I still like to talk about it and point it out.

I personally think social media is polarizing us in many areas. I see posts and items that are creating such angry arguing – and I don’t like that. Especially when you can’t really tell whether the information is true or not! I wonder why some of these subjects are even on social media. Of course you can’t have a reasonable discussion about them in that arena! And especially not a helpful one! They are just too big!

I admit I don’t utilize my personal social media feeds as much anymore. They are full of politics, people sharing all kinds of crazy, weird stories and topics that are inflammatory. I don’t want to see that. I want to see the cute animal pictures … and all the other wonderful good news stories that are out there! I want to connect with my family members and share news. There is tons of awesome people doing awesome stuff every day!

Photo by Alena Koval on Pexels.com

One area that makes me a bit furious is that the algorithms these companies use in order to ‘show’ you items. As you look & interact with different posts, they are keeping track of that. And because you looked at it, they decide to show you more and more of the same thing. You think you’re getting a diverse representation of items on your feed – but not at all. If anything, it is squashing you more into a smaller category of certain thoughts or ideas. Search engines do the same type of thing. This is not helpful in some areas, and decidedly unhelpful & destructive in other areas. These algorithms know you better than you know yourself! That’s not cool in my world … I wish that wasn’t true.

I’m not opposed to social media or communication or the exchange of ideas. These platforms are tools – and like all tools they can be used either for good or for bad. I prefer using it for good. There are tons of good news stories out there! Many wonderful supportive online communities help people build successful, happy lives.

What type of person are you? Thrilled by the adrenaline that comes from reading posts and commenting? Or turned off by all the kerfuffle? Perhaps somewhere in between – like myself – depending on what mood you’re in and the topic? Let me know in the comments!

Social Media Posts:

Facebook: Your social media feed is polarizing you! Read more at: https://algonquincollegesocialmedia.wordpress.com/?p=97639

Twitter: Your social media feed is polarizing you! https://bit.ly/2StC1em

References:

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How do you speak to yourself?

Have you ever spent time paying attention to the way you talk to yourself? The way you think or feel about yourself? When you’ve done something right? What about when you’ve done something wrong? We all know that when someone else does something right, we are (normally) quick to congratulate them and inform them to give themselves a pat on the back. And if they’ve done something wrong, to go easy on themselves … that everyone makes mistakes.

So you say those types of things to yourself too right? You let yourself feel that exuberance of doing something right … or sooth yourself with calming and gentle words for something you’ve done wrong (or could have done better)? Yeah … I’m guessing that’s a work in progress.

Photo by Erik Mclean on Pexels.com

Unfortunately, many of us don’t learn by default to be kind to ourselves. We hear those words at times, but our actions don’t necessarily reflect them.

One of the most important things to learn in life is to be kind to yourself.

Self-Talk

Begin to listen to yourself. Spend some time writing down some of the thoughts and feelings you have on a day to day basis. Literally do it. When you wake up in the morning, what are you saying or feeling? “I hate my job … here we go again … sigh … ”

When you catch yourself being negative, stop and try to think what you would say to a friend in the same position. Say those same words to yourself.

A rule I have begun to live by in my life is:

If you wouldn’t say it to a friend, you can’t think or say it about yourself.

Photo by Designecologist on Pexels.com

That one idea will change your world, if you really begin to live by it. Examples: you try on a pair of pants and they make you feel fat. Would you say to your friend “You fat thing… disgusting … “. No, you’d never say that. So you’re not allowed to say it to yourself.

What would you say to a friend then? “It’s the cut / shape / sizing. Try something else. Ignore the sizes. We can find something that works better.” Then that’s how you speak to yourself … it’s that simple. But it does take practice.

Negative self-talk is a just a bad habit. And habits can be changed! It just takes a bit of work and effort.

There are lots of places/sites/videos/books on the internet to work on self-talk, here are a few links to some good pages:

Positive Self-Talk: How Talking to Yourself Is a Good Thing

What is Positive Self-Talk? (Incl. Examples)

And in case you are interested in a great program:

Attacking Anxiety & Depression Program, a Drug-Free, Self-Help Guide To Curing Anxiety, Depression and Stress

Social Media Posts

Facebook:

Self-talk: one of the keys to a happy life! (and it’s free!) Learn more at: https://algonquincollegesocialmedia.wordpress.com/2020/09/28/how-do-you-speak-to-yourself/

Twitter:

Do you know one of the keys to a happy life? Discover it at: https://bit.ly/2HEr1bT

What is the number one skill required to discover the truth? An opinion …

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Have you noticed in the last few years how difficult it seems to know what the real truth is? ‘Real truth about what?’ you ask. My answer is ‘about anything!’ But that’s not really true, it’s not about just anything. It’s true that my recycling got picked up this morning – because I saw it happening. Do you believe me? You don’t know me … (However the fact that my recycling got picked up this morning doesn’t register very high on the importance scale.)

But what if something DOES register higher on the important scale in my life? And I DON’T see it happen? How am I (or people) expected to figure out what’s true then?

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

I’ve had to change the way I evaluate information coming in. I don’t really like the fact that I’ve had to do this – but it’s in my own (and my family’s) best interest for me to do this. And I’ve made a point to try and teach my children to do the same.

I used to be more trusting of the news & media. I believed that those people/companies were actively working hard to provide balanced, insightful & truthful information to the public. And I believe in many cases that the employees / writers / journalists etc. still are or are trying to. But when the media companies appear to have become huge cartel type business structures that generate billions of dollars and push people around, that becomes a different story. Unfortunately their employees/ writers/ journalists etc. are essentially caught in the middle (and need to make money – like everyone else).

Then you go browsing around to try and get different opinions. And wow – that makes things worse! Depending on what search engine you use, completely opposing viewpoints show up from sources you previously felt you could rely on! Or maybe no other opinions show up – so it would seem that everyone is saying the exact same thing. Like what? Since when does everyone say the exact same thing? lol … what then??

So what is the number one skill (in my opinion)? Critical thinking.

Critical thinking is an important skill to have and to continue to hone through out your life. What is critical thinking? As Grace Fleming quotes in this article: “it can best be summed up as thinking and judging for yourself.” And I also like these traits of critical thinkers as outlined on this Lumen Learning web site page.

There are many areas where I have begun approaching issues in this manner – much more than I ever did before. Areas such as:

  • media / news
  • health care
  • government / politicians
  • search engines / search results
  • banks

I know, I know … you’re thinking I’m a total conspiracy theorist! lol … and maybe I am to a degree. Yeah yeah whatever … I’ve lived a little while and there are many, many people out there who don’t have other peoples best interests in mind.

What do you think? What is the number one skill required to know and learn the truth?

Please remember – these are my opinions only.

Social media posts:

Examples of two promotional social media posts for my blog post. (The image below the two posts is a positive image of someone being successful – because I want people to know this is a skill you can acquire and be successful with.)

  1. Facebook

Do you know the number one skill required to discover the truth? Learning how to discover and know the truth is a skill everyone can have … including you! Learn more at: https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/algonquincollegesocialmedia.wordpress.com/95278

2. Twitter

The truth … one of the hardest things to determine. Learn the number one skill required to discover the truth! https://bit.ly/35XoJi3

Works Cited:

Fleming, Grace. “Introduction to Critical Thinking.” ThoughtCo, Aug. 27, 2020, thoughtco.com/introduction-to-critical-thinking-1857079.

Lumen Learning, lumenlearning.com, https://courses.lumenlearning.com/publicspeaking/chapter/chapter-6-logic-and-the-role-of-arguments/, Accessed 18 September 2020.