Students expecting study celebration at UF’s De-Stress Study Fest

“Check out UF’s De-stress Study Fest right before finals week,” Lina Dang said. “They even bring dogs to pet!”

Dang majoring in Nutrition on a Pre-Dental track, finds events like these on campus to be a great resource to relieve stress. Pet Playtime is an opportunity to take a study break by petting some furry friends, she said. Pet Playtime has been a courtesy of Animal People.

De-Stress Study Fest will be hosted at the Reitz Union, which will be open 24/7 from April 18 to 28, offered by the University of Florida Division of Student Affairs. This will be an event from the start of readings to the end of finals week to help you prepare for a successful.

Students will have the chance for tutoring sessions on specific times and study areas in meeting rooms and study lounges for bigger study groups.

Because of the extended hours of food service and the printing lab, students will no longer worry about any complications preventing them from studying. I know cooking food is a reason to distract many of us.

The idea here is to provide students with easy access to help them de-stress for exams. During the event, students are expected to be able to prepare for upcoming finals, papers and presentations.

In addition to other activities, there will be Zumba classes, yoga classes, meditation classes and relaxing massages to help students cope with stress. The game room will offer free movies and free bowling for study breaks.

Dang is amongst the many students excited to study for spring semester with study events like De-Stress Study Fest.

AWARE brings to you Play Day before finals week

Shari Goldwin (middle), and her colleagues seek to promote mental health counseling during Play Day event at Plaza of the Americas, Wednesday afternoon. AWARE coordinators stand in front of what they have called throughout the day as a “bounce house Q-tip gladiator,” which lets students safely step into fun fighting exercises. Photo taken by Maria Espinoza

Students are overwhelmed because it’s almost finals week. That is why the University of Florida Counseling Wellness Center and AWARE team presents students with Play Day event at Plaza of the Americas.

AWARE is an undergraduate program seeking to promote mental health counseling and represent the Counseling Wellness Center. Their job is to recruit students in seeking mental health services, but reduce the stigma of students seeking mental health counseling, Shari Goldwin said.

“You don’t always need to be inside stressing over exams,” Goldwin said. Goldwin, AWARE coordinator, encourages students that they need to take a break sometimes, come outside and play.

In addition to other services partnered with CWC, Gator Well had a hut filled with items promoting stress management as well as health. Students had the advantage to receive free items such as condoms, Frisbees and stress sand balls amongst others.

As students walked out of Library West, it was inevitable for them to avoid Play Day at Plaza of the Americas. The UF CWC gave students easy access to a stress free environment by laying it out in front of them.

What they really want to promote is “play.” They offered juggling, hula hooping, massage therapist, stress sand balls, cotton candy, coloring and painting, and gardening.

Goldwin’s tip on reducing stress: “Take a break every once in a while.”

Yoga tactics diminishes anxiety before job interview

Yoga practitioners are known for their capability of using body strength and balance to experience inner peace. For Michaela Roberts, her yoga experience has helped her get through stressful situations.

Roberts, 20-year-old majoring in biological engineering at the University of Florida, has been certified in yoga since her freshmen year of college. As a power yoga instructor, the breathing and meditation techniques used in yoga exercises has helped her during nerve-wracking job interviews.

“I got anxiety, really nervous, and started taking deep breaths,” Roberts said.

Many students and professionals experience these types of emotions during interviews. During Roberts’ power yoga class, I realized the only way to focus on my balance was by slowly inhaling and exhaling deep breaths every couple of seconds.

According to Roberts, yoga focuses more on body strength and balancing. One of the several poses used for balance involved a spiritual warrior in which the person stretches out their arms, knees are half bent and body faces either right or left.

Roberts also teaches a “yoga for health class” called Hatha yoga, which eases your mind and guide mental clarity toward strength, flexibility and relaxation. This centuries old-form of yoga provides breathing, postures and stress management as the foundation for Hatha yoga

Shambhala meditation to awaken yourself

Snyder is an instructor for Gainesville’s Shambhala Meditation Group hosted every Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the United Church of Gainesville. The goal of Shambhala’s teachings is to find human wisdom and basic goodness that will service others and our own beings. Photo taken by Maria Espinoza.

“The main purpose of Shambhala is to awaken yourself,” Jan Snyder said.

Shambhala meditation is another great way to unplug from society to recharge into a healthier mind.

Shambhala’s teachings offers its basic wisdom to those individuals lost in their busy lives to find a good human and meaningful life. According to their principles, it is important to help service others, but more importantly to remember our own individual bodies.

Snyder said that people are consumed in working and studying that they forget to have a moment to themselves. During Shambhala meditation, the person is left alone with their own thoughts.

According to Snyder, people may start to meditate for about five minutes. Tonight, meditation was quite longer than what I anticipated. Our group meditation lasted about over an hour.

As instructed, hands are gently placed on top of your thighs relaxed, while your posture is straight with soft shoulders to put you on a comfortable position. Snyder described it as a puppet hung by a string.

Shambhala is the opposite of other meditating techniques. Shambhala requires meditation with your eyes open looking down about a foot away without wandering your eyes around the room.

Snyder advised the group, “If you hear a noise, let it be a sound and not distract you from your meditation.”

In Shambhala’s walking meditation, hands are placed on top of the belly with left thumb pulled in and cradling both hands together. We walk as if we were stepping on the back of an elephant, Snyder said.

During our group discussion, one of the meditators mentioned she enjoys the humor in Shambhala.

“There were times I wanted to laugh, but I decided to just keep the smile within myself,” she said.

One of Shambhala’s famous slogans states, “Don’t be afraid to make a fool out of yourself.” And Snyder adds that Shambhala also involves the act of willing to be vulnerable.

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the founder of Shambhala, arrived in the West of the United States from Chinese-occupied Tibet, India. He came to share the insights of Tibetan Buddhism by using his renowned “crazy wisdom” with an entirely different culture.

Shambhala is the practice of connecting us with the natural power and energy of the world around us. On the other hand, the methods of Buddhism helps us clarify your mind, open our heart and face the realities of human life.

Rinpoche’s purpose was to demonstrate his followers that it takes kindness – to ourselves and others— and courage, to wake up in this world.

Art enthusiast takes opportunity of job duties

Erika Tonnelier, 20, welcomes children and adults to come relax at the store by using arts and crafts. Tonnelier finds wheel throwing, a great way to relax at Corks & Colors. Photo courtesy by Maria Espinoza.

For Erika Tonnelier, working at Corks & Colors has enabled her to enjoy her favorite hobby while still earning an extra few bucks for college expenses.

Tonnelier, 20-year-old graduate from University of Florida majoring in sociology and sustainability, finds wheel throwing relaxing for new patrons at the store. As a young artist, Tonnelier said Corks & Colors gave her the opportunity to go back to painting, while still being able to attend school with her busy schedule.

According to Tonnelier, wheel throwing lets people create something using his or her own bare hands. She explains that people have the chance to feel out you made this incredible masterpiece (referring to the result of the pottery process).

As part of this blog, I am willing to engage in most of the activities presented here. And so far, most of them have been fascinating.

Though making bowls sounds relaxing, I decided to paint a pottery piece instead. Painting can be time consuming, but the fact that you have a great abundance of colors from almost every angle of a spectrum in front of you, makes your leisure time unexpectedly pleasurable.

I was focused on making my drawing unique and graceful. Of course, I incorporated my favorite colors, inspiring words and two elephants to give me luck.

Elephants are often used in Feng Shui for good luck and energizing your homes.

As a result of my deep concentration in my painting, my mind was inundated by positive thoughts. If you lose focus, it is most likely you’ll make a mistake in your painting. But after all, painting is a perfect way to embrace your mistakes.

I noticed that most of the canvas paintings hung by the store entrance had many peaceful signs such as trees, sunsets, birds and flowers. I found that writing quotes in your pieces gives a sense of inner spirituality.

Most of the colors provided at Corks & Colors are pastels, with the exception of deep-toned primary colors and black and whites.

From my point of view, painting keeps your mind off stressful exams, chores, work or even doing laundry. Arts and crafts activities can also be a great and fun way for busy mothers to de-stress with their child near them.

Arts and craft is an easy alternative for people to unplug themselves from a society filled with busy schedules. People will be able to recharge energy by applying their creativity on canvases and pottery pieces at Corks & Colors.

Tonnelier hosts painting classes with groups up to about 10 people and said, “I love working here.”

Kayaking eases depression on a stressful week

Bobbi Leininger kayaks through UF Lake Wauberg on a sunny afternoon. Leininger said she has kayaked for a very long time through the waters of Biscayne Bay in Miami, Fla. Photo taken by Maria Espinoza

If anybody has a day off their busy week, use your spare time to do outdoor activities. I decided to take my roommate to get her personal perspective on kayaking at Lake Wauberg on a normal weekday afternoon.

Bobbi Leininger, 19-year-old Santa Fe College, marine biology major, loves kayaking. Being raised in Miami, Leininger and her family have owned kayaks and would go off the beach of Key Biscayne, Fla., to enjoy a family day off together.

Now as a college student with the amount of stress mounting her shoulders, she feels the need to do something different and proactive. Kayaking for a couple hours took her mind off of studying for the overwhelming upcoming midterm exams.

As she kayaked alone, Leininger felt free in the open lake. “I always think about the ocean or what’s underneath.”

For a while, she forgot she had to study.

Most business people and students skip the gym because of their busy schedules. Dedicating a day of your week to kayaking is a great way for cardiovascular exercise.

While kayaking, you gain other health benefits such as the sun’s UV rays creating a synthesis to build vitamins for your body and easing your depression.

Being inside an office filing papers or studying inside your dorm for several hours a day can become very unhealthy.

Researchers have found studies on a consistent connection between depression and the lack of Vitamin D. The lower the level of Vitamin D in your body, the higher the chance you have of depression.

The Vitamin D Council have reported results on studies linking depression to patients lacking Vitamin D. Other studies provided by The National Institute of Health say sunlight may increasingly improve your mood.

No matter which outdoor activity you decide to do, I agree we should enjoy the free natural resources of fresh air, waters and sunshine nature has provided us for our survival.

Classical music affects your state of mind

Studies have shown that bringing classical music to your ears can help you de-stress. This type of mellow music will relax and sooth you to help the mind concentrate on relaxing muscles, such as breathing more deeply and evenly.  

Classical music helps the heart slow down, unlike other lively energetic music which motivates the heart to race faster encouraging movement. This may be the reason why gymnasiums play upbeat music when people are working out.

Of course, the technique of listening to classical music only works if you’re tired and avoid working out to release anxiety.

People need a break to calm down in the most possible relaxing environment. Instead of listening to random jungle sounds like waterfalls, birds whistling and frogs ribitting your night away when trying to fall asleep, classical music will help get your mind off of your busy day.

The case of a 46-year-old man, who suffered from constant seizures throughout his life, was a success story when he decided to start listening to Mozart. Before the Mozart Effect, doctors had suggested that brain surgery was the best way to improve his deteoriating learning and memory skills.

Roger Dobson, contributer to AlterNet website, quoted Dr. John Hughes from the University of Illinois to find Mozart’s music brilliantly complex, but highly organized that normalizes the functioning of the cortex.

To add on to the use of classical music, the Hereford General Hospital in the UK play Mozart flute music in the operating rooms to sooth their patients.

The brain thinks of the best response to a situation and uses emotions as a catalyst to tell the body to react accordingly. Researchers, Amit Etkin and Joy Hirsh, from the Neuron journal say that emotional stimuli such as feeling happy or fearful affect the processing of emotional thoughts, called amygdala.

Try listening to classical music to calm down from your daily stress. By giving 30 minutes a day to Mozart, your heart and mind will feel much more relaxed.

About Me

As a new University of Florida transfer student, I was overwhelmed by the amount of information given on preview. I had no idea what to expect from my first day of class.

When I realized taking five classes was going to be a stressful challenge, I decided to join other activities to keep me motivated. I wanted to discover a new fun way to practice my writing skills.

Basically, my whole week is scheduled with three on-campus classes and two online classes. Alongside being an online contributor to Sparks Magazine, which focuses on the Asian American culture; and member of the PRSSA community service committee.

 I can honestly say I rather be stressed than feel unproductive. But there are natural stress relievers we can discover during our spare time.

I want to share a journey of unplugging from your busy week and recharging with natural stress detoxifiers.

During this spring term, I will be looking for weekly activities to release stress. The point will be to forget about all your troubles for just a couple of hours to engage in a stress detox by performing simple activities.

This blog shall not only concern those who are stressed, but people who feel depressed or just want to feel happier. It is something you will be looking forward to throughout the week.