Having Discipline is Key to a Healthy Life

When teachers discipline their pupils they teach them to not speak when others are speaking, to listen without critiquing, and to respect others around them. The same happens with children and their mothers. Kids are taught to go to bed early, brush their teeth before going to bed, and to do their chores and homework first before they go out to have fun. Well, when it comes to taking care of our body and our mind, we must have the same discipline in ourselves. It starts with not relying on others to tell you what to do. It’s important to always meet out physical and emotional needs before trying to do the same for others, otherwise that would not even be possible. Of course, how could I save someone from drowning without breathing myself first? It isn’t possible.

In order to have discipline, one must listen to the needs of our body. Mother’s if you are feeling tired or fatigued, listen to your body, take a nap instead of something else that could be altered in your schedule. Father’s if you are running late for work, and have not had breakfast, don’t wait to get home, buy lunch somewhere during break time. Students if school is loading you with homework, do it, with mini breaks to snack and and rest. Everything is possible one step at a time. Also, everyone should have a bed time no matter how old they get. Getting enough sleep is always necessary, no matter what. However, this discipline must come from you! You must be the initiator of those healthy actions. If someone has to tell you to shower, or do your bed, or take a nap because you look tired, you are already failing somehow in organizing your time and making the best use of your energy. Therefore, consider listening to and meeting your needs before others.

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Alejandra Costello is one of America’s most organized person ever! I love watching her youtube videos because I always learn new tips and tricks on how to keep myself the most organized. I actually learned about when I first stumbled into one of her Youtube videos and now I can’t stopping watching them. Since my blogs are about self care, and keeping organized, I thought everyone should know why I care to even be that way. Thanks to Alejandra, I am motivated to be the best me I can be! P.S. her videos are fun to watch! You won’t believe how organized a person can be!

I would love to interview Alejandra one day because I sometimes can be like her in a way. For example, when I have something I need to do, I feel so stressed when I don’t do it. Then I blame the mess I have in my desk or kitchen, and I procrasinate on my responsibilities. Instead, I like to clean and after everything is organized, I like to do my work. I can prevent this type of procrasination by not having any cleaning to do. Therefore I have so many questions about dealing with stress. If I could interview Alejandra I would ask questions such as:

1. How to you cope or live with other messy people living with you? Does it become an obsession to clean after them?
2. How do you find new ideas or what inspires you to figure out new ways of organizing things?
3. What is one your favorite things/rooms/areas to organize?
4. What is difficult about your life?
5. Are you ever too tired to place things back where they should go?
6. How do you organize your time?
7. Do you have a daily routine?
8. Do you cook? Because that always takes up alot of my time?
9. Do you have a problem enforcing your rules on other people living with you, if not, how do you get them to obey you?

It’s a Friday afternoon, there is nothing to do and you’ve got all evening to relax and enjoy a good Shakespeare film. There are popcorn kernels popping in the microwave while whole house smells of buttery goodness. The room is dark and the only sound thats present is your tv and your breathing. It might as well be a good movie that your are watching and that is why you have chosen The Merchant of Venice. A sympathizing film that will for sure make you cry with its ending!

The Merchant of Venice written by William Shakespeare, is also a film worthy of watching. If you are interested in comparing book to movie, this film offers plenty of comparing and contrasting opportunities as it has a lot to show and compare. It’s a film worthy of watching and writing an essay on!

A negative and positive experience

When I tried the vegan diet for the first time, I expected it to sort of be like a fun project. I thought ” Hey it’s a chance for me to learn new recepies and try out different foods!” I liked the idea about saving animals and going green because less meat meant less processing and packaging right? Except it was not fun at all. It was stressing having to find all the ingrediants at the store. Like mustard seeds, what are those? Himelayha pink salt? What’s it taste like? I suppose it should taste like Salt, so what is the difference? Some of the ingrediants I was looking for weren’t familiar to me and I had to look online to do research. I also had to travel alot farther to get the ingrediants I was looking for. After I bought the ingrediants, I still had to make the recepie and just ended up throwing everything away because I didn’t like how it turned out. I found out that there were vegan meal kits that could be delivered to my door, but that was just too expensive for me. It was $80 for just four meals. Thats like what I would earn in a day. That was just not an option. The first meal I prepared was was the first and last. I decided to go eat at a vegan restaurant every once in while instead. That sounds alot more reasonable. Props to everyone else who is vegan!

The vegetarian diet continues to stand as the most reasonable diet plan for most people. Vegtables are easily recognized by many and they are available almost anywhere for cheaper prices. Although it isn’t a completely animal product free diet, it beats eating meat every so often. It’s a great way of keeping healthy and of preventing many types of cancers. Not only that, it prevents further animal harm as well. Trying out the vegetarian diet meant cooking and blending a colorful mixture of healthy foods. One recepie, such as lentil soup with many vegetables inside a bowl looked beautilful when it was made by myself. I added salt and pepper to my liking and it turned out great! Roasted brussel sprouts with lemon juice and olive oil are also the best! There are so many options in terms of recepies that are available and easy to make. It’s no wonder there are so many vegetarian people.

As a college student, I guess it’s normal to expect lots and lots of paperwork back from professors. Not to mention when your majoring in English prep for teaching; thats alot of papers to keep track of. I live with many people, it’s difficult to stay organized when I have little space to do so, meaning I stress all the time because I am always searching for papers. I recently found a way to avoid this. I know I can’t have my own office, so what I did was make my own space in a small corner of the house. Here’s how to do that.

First I found a corner wall. It is in my living room area. This corner whelp avoid destractions especially from window areas where people passing by tend to interrupt my concentration. I bought a small desk, one with file cabinets, and I bought file folders to label categories of papers. I made my desk face the wall and away from the tv and the sofas. I don’t want to watch tv while I am concentrating. One problem that I am still trying to fix is how to not get distracted by the noise when other people are in the room, but for now that is the only space I have. The bathroom tub would be too uncomfortable. Anyway, at my desk I placed a stapler, my laptop and a pen. Inside the cabinets is where all extra things like calculators and printing paper are. I have a rolling chair because those are the most comfy and I have a nothing on the walls, no mirrors , nothing to distract me. I also have a carpet because the floor is cold when I try to study in the mornings. The secret to having a nice studying area is to keep it as effecient, clean, and organized as possible. Next in my living room, I have light blue walls because that color is soothing and non distracting to me. I keep the lighting low when I study because It also helps me feel cozy.

Informal: 

Hey guys..here is a tip: doing things right the first time means saving time and effort. Sometimes in the morning when I am still not quite awake, or when I am feeling lazy or maybe very tired, I get up and look for clothes. Rather than clumsily taking shirts out of my folded pile. I try to first take the whole pile out, find the shirt I am looking for; split the pile exactly where the shirt is; and then take the shirt out. Next I place the pile back together and I place it back in my closet without making a mess. This saves me a lot of time even when it may appear to take twice the time. Well, no actually, because It would have taken me longer later in the day to fold everything again. There is this saying that goes: a person is not tidy because he/she cleans all the time, rather a person is tidy because they don’t make a mess. This goes and can be applied to everything. Things like putting papers back in their folders when they are not needed anymore. Eventually papers and backpacks, desks and living rooms or whatever it be, will maintain itself organized all the time. Now, how is this important to our self care? Well, when we can save ourselves some time, we leave time for other important things like cooking, showering, studying, and doing the things we like without having the extra stress of a disorganized space. Space is critical. How we live affects our moods and our thinking. Isn’t it true that thinking clearly is easier without clutter? For me it is at least. 

Formal: 

Establishing good habits requires maximum effort, but is quite simple when a strategical method is practiced. Repetition is key. Something like placing items back where they belong when we time is short,  is a great way to prevent oneself from having to search for lost items later on. 

Have you ever considered making some significant changes in your life? When I first became a college student I noticed that keeping myself organized would be much more difficult than I thought it would be. My freshman year, I suffered from lots of stress caused by poor time management skills and bad habits. I skipped breakfast most days and I did everytging last minute. Well, I am here to share some tips about how to improve your life in general and thus make time to care for yourself as well.

But first, I would like to share the story of how I discovered I needed to change some lifestyle habits.

When I was in high school, I took chemistry, one of the worst subjects for me ever. To make things worse, I was horrible at taking notes and I didn’t understand things when they were explained the first time. Therefore, I gave up on the class and I failed. Now that I am in college, I help my cousin with her chemistry homework and I realize that its fairly easy and I can’t seem to understand it. Why now? Why didn’t I understand before? Well here in college I realized that its because I should have read the chapters before class. Only then would I be able to understand what the teacher was saying. I think my teacher never made that really clear, but the point is that I learned I must prepare for things before things catch me unprepared. It works for everything and I will gladly prove it later on. The question how to make time for preparation?

Make time for preparation by preparing! Preparation is an investment in time. I will also prove this true in some of my future blogs.