Getting Back into Your Life After Being Sick

The last week and a half (along with all the stress that finals week brings), I've had a nasty bout of flu/cold/sore throat/ridiculously loud and socially inconvenient cough. There's no other way to say it, being sick just sucks. And when you're sick, sometimes the only way to handle it is to baby yourself a bit. Let yourself lounge in bed, watching Netflix. Take up friends on their offers to go get food for you. Let work just wait a little while.

But what about when you're feeling better? I think that how you treat yourself when you're getting back into the swing of things matters just as much as how you treat yourself while you're sick. Here are my little goals as I recover and get back to class + work.

Plan positively / It's easy to feel like I'm so far behind because of the time I took off from being sick but focusing on all that I have left to do isn't productive. When you write down all that you have to do, try to remember to prioritize + really--I know it's hard--but try not to stress yourself out too much.

Be realistic / Your first day back (wherever back is) you won't be able to do anything, most likely. Maybe you need to take a mid-day nap, or opt out of some non-essential plans you had made for the day. Ease yourself back into things.

Treat yourself kindly /  I like this as a rule of thumb for myself all the time but especially after an illness. I've been trying to listen to my body a little more closely since I know I'm not still 100%. My throat's still a bit sore, so I'm not scarfing down raw veggies, I'm still eating oatmeal and soft foods. The first few days after a cold, you're probably tired. Let yourself sleep early instead of going out. Listen to your body and give it what it needs.

How are you handling flu season? Are any of you babies about being sick like I am? (No? Just me?)

On Niches (In Blogging and In Life)

I'm a person of many dichotomies.

I love sciences, but I really like design. I like being with people, but I love being alone. 

For a long time, I thought that was something I should change about myself. During the summer, I'd "decide" what kind of person I would be that fall--as if it was that easy. Some years I'd want to be that super sweet girl who everyone loved to be around. Some years I decided I would be the tough girl who didn't care about what anyone thought.

But I would always find out, by the second or third school day, that it just didn't work like that. I can't choose a stock character and make it me. 

More importantly, unlike the stock characters I tried to be when I was younger, I found that I couldn't put myself in a box. I was on the cheerleading squad, but I also played soccer. I was a good student, but I also flunked a test once in awhile. 

Eventually, and especially lately, I've begun to embrace the dichotomies (and sometimes, contradictions) within myself. It's really a beautiful thing to realize the value in loving and embracing your personality with all its quirks, and even FOR its quirks. 

I've begun to love the fact that I don't "fit in a box" and I should add that you should too--because YOU don't fit in a box either. 

Over the last few weeks (and really the whole lifespan of my blog), I've been exploring my blog, the concept of a niche and "categorizing" your blog. Quite similar to the way I feel about myself, I can't put my blog into the metaphorical box. And again, like the way I felt about myself, I thought this way a bad thing, that no one would ever really like my blog if every post I wrote doesn't fit in their little niche of "positivity bloggers" or "design bloggers". 

But I thought to myself, why have I accepted and embraced that fact that my own personality doesn't fit into some stereotype, but I still expect my blog to? 

Though it seems all over the board, 80s music, plant microbiology, black + white design and positivity mantras have one thing in common: they are loved by me. And though the topics of my blog may seem equally random, they are united under the fact that they fit under the umbrella of my passions. 

And as I've thought about my many passions that I've chosen to represent in this blog, I think I've truly stumbled upon one of my biggest passions in this blog. 

I'm passionate about loving myself. Not in an "I believe I'm beautiful" way, though I think that's real truth. I believe that my existence, my interests, my loves, my hates, my quirks, my inconsistencies and dichotomies (and yours, too!) are totally valuable to the world and one of the things that adds to the texture and richness of our lives. And I'm passionate about making sure you know this truth too. When we embrace our weird personalities, we can live bravely and freely. 

That's why when Bloglovin' asks me to categorize my blog, I have no qualms about shamelessly and fearlessly choosing "other".

6 Weeks of Wellbeing Project Recap

I did not expect this project to be hard. I honestly thought it'd be about spending more me time. More time blogging, resting, reading, with the boyfriend. And I did just about all of those things. But I found out most of all that cultivating a lifestyle of wellbeing is more than just doing things to make you feel good. It's more than that. 

I don't pretend to know all about how to love a happy-healthy life, but I'd like to think that I'm learning. And the hardest things I've learned is that the things that really make me feel good don't make me feel good. By that, I mean that the most fulfilling, worthwhile things that I can do with my time bring happiness over time or at a later date. 

Let's take volunteering for example. I'll be brutally honest and say that I don't actually enjoy volunteering a lot of the time. I work with snotty kids and change a lot of diapers (okay, I love them, but you know I'm right). But when I focus on the value in what I'm doing, it brings me happiness in the long haul and confidence in myself as a person. 

The second thing I learned I sort of already knew. Taking time for wellbeing doesn't have to take long. I know you know this but let me just park on this for a sec and give you some ideas for upping your wellbeing. 

Do good to you. 

: eat clean, drink water, exercise. 

: go to sleep earlier, get up earlier. 

: spend time outside

: take time off of technology, even if it's turning your phone off while you sleep or for an hour. 

: forgive yourself. For whatever you need to. 

: stretch or meditate

: clean up that area where you always put stuff when you don't want to actually put it away. 

Do good to others. 

: find a place to volunteer. Commit yourself to volunteering at least once every month. Choose an organization that you can build a relationship with and support over time. 

: say thank you. To your mailman, the lady who served your lunch, your children, anyone that you usually forget. 

: give a random compliment. 

: call your grandparents. 

: write a far-away-friend a letter

I'm sure you can come up with lots more because you're certainly an intelligent human being. So as I end my official project on wellbeing, I'm going to do my best to make sure I don't forget my well being. And I challenge you to do the same by valuing your relationships with others and yourself. 

Six Weeks of Wellbeing: Weeks 4 and 5 Recap

First off, the obligatory happy New Year! I hope your 2014 will be lovely + bright. Don't worry though, I love New Year's Day and will be celebrating it for weeks on the blog. I'll be sharing some of my goals + plans for the year in the coming weeks! 

Today I'm recapping the last two weeks of the Six Weeks of Wellbeing project because last week was Christmas + I was too busy stuffing my face with pfeffernusse (a family fave) to write out this post. #sorrynotsorry.

My sort of game plan last time I checked in with y'all was to do good things that are hard. Meaning those things that aren't fun to do, but are good for you or pay off later. I practiced doing things right away--laundry, thank you notes, even replying to texts. I practiced making time for things I need to do but don't enjoy, like cleaning out my desk + room. I found that oftentimes the dread of doing something unpleasant is often a lot worse than the actual activity. I realized that I usually put off doing laundry for days, when I could just get it over with in a few hours. As a smallish goal for 2014, I want to focus on not putting off unpleasant chores or activities.

This coming week, the very last week of the project, I want to focus on learning way to make wellbeing a sustainable lifestyle. I'll be using a lot of the actions I shared in a previous post (Get Happy in 10 Minutes or Less) like writing random thank you cards, going outside, and stretching. Leave me a comment with suggestions on how you take time to do good for yourself!

Six Weeks of Wellbeing: Week Three Recap

Well well well. What a week. I don't even know how to define this week; it hasn't been good or bad, just kind of 'eh'. Like you know in Despicable Me (which if you haven't seen...go see it. And the second.) when young Gru is trying to impress his mom and he's like a five year old building a rocket ship and his mom's just like 'eh'? That's how I feel about this week.

But still. It's been better than last week so I'll take what I can get. I didn't have a panic attack, fail any tests, or kill anyone so I'd say I'm doing alright. This week, doing good for myself was more of a mindset than actual actions. I tried to listen to myself and do what I felt like I needed, not what someone else would say I needed to do. 

For example, Monday I just finished taking exams and was just exhausted, even though I had just had the weekend. And I really felt like I should study for the exams I had the next day, but I listened to myself and decided not to. I gave myself an hour to lay in bed, watch SVU and pretend I was cuddling with H (he's sick; I'm lonely) before I got up to study. And you know what? That wasn't being lazy. Or maybe it was, but at the very least, I think it was strategic laziness. You know, laziness is important to a degree. And I think that because I let myself take that guilt-free rest, I was able to calmly prepare for my exams the rest of the night. 

This week, I'm setting a couple concrete ideas for my fourth week of wellbeing. I'm halfway done with the project and while I feel like I'm doing good for myself, I don't feel like I'm challenging myself. I'm only doing the things that feel good for myself now. But the sort of unfortunate thing is that the things that feel best for me (or you!) in the long run are most often the exact things that aren't very fun in the moment. So in the spirit of real wellbeing, I'm going to do things this week that have delayed payoffs. Here are some examples:

+Go for a run. I really hate running until I'm about ten minutes into and I realize I'm still breathing and I look super cute in my little fleece and leggings and headband. And plus, I find that those good feelings (endorphins?) really stick with me and make me feel great for a whole day!

+Clean up my living space. This can be as simple as picking up the dirty clothes on my floor (yes I am that girl) because having a clean floor can do wonders to help me be more productive and overall happier. But I may also spend sometime cleaning off my desk so you know, I can actually use it. 

+Work on my European History book and not leave it until the last minute (is that even possible for me?!). They say proscrastination sucks but that is soo a lie. Procrastination is awesome because you get to watch New Girl and eat popcorn and sit around in your PJs and pretend you don't have work to do. The aftermath, however, is terrible. So to avoid that, maybe I should not leave this huge book until two days before class. 

Just some ideas! Help me! What are some good-for-you things that aren't always fun at first?

Six Weeks of Wellbeing: Week Two Recap

Some days, rules just need to be broken, even if you made them yourself. I promised to recap my second week in the Six Weeks of Wellbeing project today, but that's just not happening. It's been a really stressful week. I had a big research paper, not to mention exams coming up. Sometimes, despite our best intentions, our own wellbeing becomes overlooked.

But I'm not going to get mad at myself or let it bother me because that would go against the whole point of this project. I want to be good to myself, no matter the circumstances. So on that note, I want to start the next week fresh. 

I've actually pulled out a notebook (like it's actually physically sitting next to me right now) that I will use to document my self-good-doingness (totally a word) (okay, I lied, not a word). I've decided that my "theme" for the week is forgiving myself for my mistakes + learning from them, starting today. That's kind of hard for me to handle. I'm not sure how to differentiate the ideas of forgiving myself and learning from my mistakes. 

So just for starters, today I realized that I can be really rude to H when I'm stressed. It just happens. I say things to him that I don't mean unkindly but in my own preoccupation, I say things that I wouldn't say to anyone else. And part of that inevitable comes from a comfortable relationship, so that's great. But if I'm honest, I subconciously assume that I'm "more stressed" than he is or that my work is more important, even though I know neither of those are always true. And as equals in a relationship, I need to practice more respect for him because I love him. 

In the spirit of being good to myself, I'm publicly saying that I forgive myself. But that doesn't mean I'll forget about it, nor does it mean I'll act the same way (on purpose). 

How do you learn from your mistakes even if you've forgiven yourself? What can you forgive yourself for in the name of being good to yourself?

The corn on the left shows the damage that a Lepidoptera (corn pest) can have on corn. The corn on the right is the genetically modified corn that is resistant to the Lepidoptera larvae.

Bt corn is an example of how biotechnologists can manufacture genetically modified organisms (GMOs or GM foods) that aid mankind's survival. In this case, a gene from a soil bacterium (called Bacillus thuringiensis if you want to impress anyone at a dinner party) was found to produce a protein that can kill Lepidoptera larvae, a type of corn borer that likes to nom on corn. Scientists isolated this gene and inserted it into corn DNA, so then when the larvae try to eat the corn, they get poisoned (poor larvae). Farmers can use this new kind of corn as an alternative to using pesticides that target the corn borer. And less pesticides = less chemical pollutants in our water. Yay! There are risks, of course, but Bt corn is on the safer side of genetically modified organisms. 

And if the idea of eating genetically modified organisms weirds you out, just know that if you've had corn, soybeans or beets (random) today and live in the United States, you've most likely had genetically modified food. 

Introducing: Six Weeks of Wellbeing

(source)

Hello lovelies! How is your Thanksgiving break going? I'm in Florida with my family and I've been cooking all day which makes me super proud of myself haha. This girl cannot cook at all. I even took a picture of my potatoes to send H's mother since she's always trying to get me to cook. Y'all should be proud of me.

I want to tell y'all about a sort of project I'm doing for myself and invite you to join in. If you recall, one of my goals for the rest of the year was to do something good for myself everyday for the rest of the year and write it down. And I'm really excited about this. I'm putting more thought into building health into my life: healthy relationships, healthy eating + exercise, and healthy attitudes. 

If you'd like to join me, you're more than welcome to! At the end of each week (ending on Wednesdays), I'll be sharing some of the things I did during the week to improve my wellbeing. I'd love if you commented and shared what you did!

This project will be going on for six weeks--five weeks until the end of the year and one more week to start off 2014 on a good foot (can you believe it's almost 2014?! I feel like 2002 was yesterday).

So how about you? Are you in? Let's dedicate some time to our own wellbeing! 

Your turn: I plan to do things like call my grandmother, write thank you notes, and exercise. What ideas do you have for improving your wellbeing? 

4 Simple Goals (Before 2014!)

(source)

Hello dears! It's been a day of highs and lows. Classes were less than great today but I met my supervisor for my internship (with my town's Storm Water Services) + we planned out my time there + different projects I'll be working on. I'm most excited for a toxicology project we're planning on a local stream that involves collecting algae + bugs + identifying them under microscopes. AHH microscopy!! Macroinvertebrate testing! So much exciting!!

....and I lost you all. ANYWAYS. Point is, that was super exciting for me. For real, I want this internship to start like yesterday. What's been exciting for you today?!

Shifting gears (sorry, I'm incapable of making non-awkward segues), I want share some goals of mine. If you've been around here long enough, you know I'm like beyond analytical. If you looked it up in the dictionary, it would just be a whole page picture of me. I mean, I'm the girl that plans out my day to the minute. So of course, goals are totally up my allie (...see what I did there?). SO, since I already make weekly goals all the time, I had to come up with a new idea. How about goals for now until the end of the year?!

Disclaimer--yeah, I didn't come up with this. These girls did.

1. Exercise twice a week, consistently. I know this is the less than the recommended amount and all, but let's face it, I've got stuff to do + I just can't commit to much more. That said, I'll aim for 3-4, but let's be realistic.

2. Do something good for myself everyday. As long as I go out of my way to do it, it counts. Eating fruit for dessert instead of that glorious key lime pie in my freezer, going for a run, doing yoga, spending time outside--all count!

3. Journal 5+ days a week. I'm really just going to set the bar obscenely low and challenge myself to a sentence a day. Like I said, let's be realistic.

4. Love myself. It's just not happening enough lately. And let's be honest, I'm one rocking female, so it needs to be happening.

What are your goals for the rest of the year?

it's not rocket science.

I feel like most people have a skewed view of science. For instance, the majority of you probably believe that blog posts should not be about science and you're already done reading this. But if you haven't already clicked [x], let me explain to you why we should have blog posts about science.

What should we blog about? Our lives and our passions, right? For me, science is both. I know that science might not be what everyone wants to read about, but I've decided to truly embrace every blogger's motto--"I blog for myself." 

I consider one of my main goals in having this blog recklessly owning my own quirks in order to inspire other women (like you!) to embrace their own individuality. Quirks are good. They aren't something we keep to ourselves. Because that's borderline shame, and that's so not okay.

So to transition into what (I hope) will be a regularish post on science, I'd like to show you that science really is for normal people! In order to do that, I'd like to share with you some articles on science of all kinds that I've found interesting lately.

Has DNA Really Solved the Mystery of the Yeti? // The Guardian. Hint: it hasn't. Basically a geneticist named Bryan Sykes got ahold of a piece of hair that has been claimed to be from a yeti, founded in the Himalayan Mountains. After doing some testing, it seems to be related to an 40,000 year old polar bear jaw found in Sweden. This led him to think there may be an undiscovered bear population in the Himalayas.

Fat May Be Linked to Memory Loss // Life Science Network. Yet another reason to work on losing a little weight. "People with high amounts of abdominal fat in their middle age are 3.6 times as likely to develop memory loss and dementia later in their life."

Fishermen in Peru slaughter dolphins to use as bait for shark fishing // The Guardian. In an underground investigation, Ecostorm (an environmental agency) has discovered a ring of Peruvian fisherman killing dolphins for bait (which is illegal, as it happens).

Neanderthals Used Toothpicks to Alleviate the Pain of Diseases Related to Teeth, Such as Inflammation of the Gums // Science Daily. I mean the article title's kind of long enough that I think you get the gist without me summarizing it...

Sleep allows brain to wash out junk // Science News Magazine. A new study shows that sleep can clean out unnecessary particles from our brains, including proteins that can lead to Alzheimer's. So it's possible that sleep is linked to the next step in preventing Alzheimer's, how about that?!

Well friends, thanks for sticking with me. Listen, I'd love some feedback on a post like this. I know it's different, but I hope maybe some of you liked it. And if you didn't, please don't be mean and stop reading this blog altogether. I understand that you might not like everything I post. But I hope that my blog brings you something of value. Back on point, let me know how you liked this post and if you didn't (really!).

What kinds of science do you find interesting? What do you blog about that's a little unique, just because you're you?

This is what an INTJ looks like.

I didn't know I was an introvert until maybe a year ago.

I suppose I knew what I was like, but I didn't know that was the name for it. I always thought introverts were quiet and didn't have many friends--that's not me. 

But I've found out that introvert means, according to my favorite definition, that I draw my energy from being alone, not with people. And that is so me.

Once I found out I was an introvert, I actually wasn't too happy. Introverts are supposed to be awkward and loners, right? But I'm not like that. Well actually I might be awkward. But endearingly so, possibly?

Anyways, I'm owning my INTJ status.

Need more proof that I'm awesome? Marie Curie, Jane Austen, and Michelle Obama are all INTJs. Take that, world.

(This post is part of Blogtember. Read more about INTJs and find out your personality here.)