At some point in our lives, most of us are going to know at least one person who has died of suicide. The way I phrased that is important. Maybe you didn’t grow up hearing this as much as I did, but I still often hear others say “committed suicide.”

Like many of us, I love a good checklist. The action of crossing something out or “checking” that box is satisfying! Being in school for years now, checklists are one of the only ways I can keep my sanity and organize my tasks.

The top two sources of stress in the U.S. right now are money and work. Big surprise, I know. So when someone is dealing with chronic stress, it may be due to an over demanding job, long-term illness, paying the bills that never stop coming, etc.

Here’s the problem. The study didn’t actually include people who experienced trauma. It simulated trauma with 52 healthy college students by having them watch a 12-minute film and then tested them on their memory of the film with and without having played Tetris.

If you haven’t already, you will experience grief (likely several times) during your lifetime. Grief comes as a result of many experiences. The most common one is due to losing someone who we care about, but we can also grieve breakups, divorces, etc.

We often hear people say, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” or “I have XYZ still to do, I’ll sleep when that’s done.” We can easily neglect one of the biggest things our bodies need, and it may be that sometimes we just forget how important it is. 

Whether we like it or not, studying is a crucial part of the educational experience. Whether you’re trying to memorize muscles in the body or quizzing yourself on the details surrounding a certain period of history, the truth about studying is that not all methods are created equal.

Early last year, lying in a hospital bed, I mourned, “We didn’t get to go camping together.” Things looked bleak, and my husband asked if I had any life regrets. I don’t recall a word of this conversation, so I was as surprised as anyone to hear that NOT CAMPING was on my list of life disappointments!

When was the last time you were generous towards someone else? Whether it was paying for your friend’s coffee, spending time volunteering at XYZ, helping someone carry something in even though you were busy, etc.?

As you watch the man across the room walk toward you, without even thinking about it, you begin to come to conclusions about what type of person this may be. Some are easier to reach than others. His height, for example, age, general level of fitness, and degree of grooming or self care.

Symptoms of autism spectrum disorder can include difficulties in communicating, rarely sharing enjoyment of activities with others, speaking for long periods without the awareness that others aren’t interested or being given a chance to speak, and making facial expressions that don’t match what they are saying (NIH).

I found it a chore that I’d rather not do. It just seemed silly, writing a note and thanking someone when I had already told them thank you in person when I had received the gift!

Have you ever found yourself lying awake at night while your mind swirls around something again and again to the point where you feel paralyzed to do anything about it?

Researchers studied whether dancing was a good therapy for treating depression, and it is. Because dancing is all about moving your body and expressing emotions, it can help alleviate some of those symptoms, as well as reduce the levels of depression. 

People complain on social media, the news, etc. all day every day. Memes are created from complaining, people go viral ranting about something petty. We’ve been raised to complain. 

While women are born with it, it does need to be mastered. And once mastery is achieved, she is exalted into a different stratosphere among her peers. Some guys will argue they have similar skills, but the reality is they are just fooling themselves. 

Research is currently being conducted on what is referred to as “smartphone dependence” and one study reports that 60% of 2,097 American smartphone users cannot go one hour without checking their smartphones, a condition now called nomophobia (Hussain, et al., 2017).  

We can’t let fear decide our goals and dreams. We can’t let fear control the decisions we make. Fear is designed to keep us alive in a fight or flight moment, not as a governing principle for a lifetime. 

You might not like coffee, but you drink tea, or soda, or energy drinks. We all consume caffeine pretty regularly, so let’s talk about what it does to our brains - the good and the ugly.

I’m also not talking about the kind of breaks that involve eating a sugary snack or looking at Instagram or Facebook. A break that is going to help is completely shifting your focus from the subject you’re working on. This break should also involve something that will bring positive emotions.