Read More, Read Better

Read More, Read Better

Many of us are looking for more ways to enjoy our time at home in these stressful circumstances. Some of us have turned to books. But how can we make sure we get the most out of them?

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THE 3 MOST COMMON ISSUES WE BRING TO THERAPISTS

When it comes to mental health, we all have a daily choice: Practice peace or practice stress. As a psychotherapist, I am commonly asked for solutions to the following questions:

How can I be happier?

How can I learn to trust myself and others?

How can I get rid of anxious thoughts so that I can focus on my priorities?

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but hunkering down and working on the basic components of a satisfying life can go a long way toward achieving mental peace and emotional well-being. The following tips can help with this practice:

1. Happiness is largely determined by how you handle stress. Listen to your fears, and spend time every day quietly thinking about them. Sit with them, and maybe even thank them. Ask yourself: What lesson am I supposed to learn?

And be patient with the slow pace of problem-solving. Time moves fast when we’re having fun, but life and its problems are meant to be savored. The beauty of sitting in the muck is knowing that you’ll find your standing posture eventually. Transform your fears into faiththat life will turn out OK.

2. Security. Know that the world is basically a safe place, where most people possess good will. When you trust in that, you believe that things will work out the way they are supposed to. Most important, you trust yourself to solve problems. While it can be hard to find the good in the world, especially given around-the-clock access to bad news, the truth is there are more positive events every day than dangerous, scary or negative events.

3. Direction. Listen to your thoughts; they are the cornerstone of your mental health and the key to executing a healthy plan of action. Try this three-step process to deal with your stress:

Reframe. When negative thoughts invade your brain with catastrophic “what ifs,” make a conscious effort to look at the big picture. The Helicopter View exercise can help: Imagine that you’re looking down at your problem from a helicopter. As the helicopter takes off, rising higher and higher, the view zooms out to reveal a bigger and broader picture less focused on the ground-level details. When you pull back from an emotional situation, you can see things more clearly and rationally.

Relinquish the need to control a situation or another person: The “my way or the highway” mindset and other inflexible, rigid, or concrete behaviors keep you miserable and stuck. Letting go provides you with the clarity and direction necessary to focus on the things within your control and let go of what you cannot control (such as people, weather, and traffic, for starters). Put your energy into what you are able to influence and be OK with being powerless over other situations. In short, stay out of your own way.

Reset to relax: Take a “brain break” and experience a lighter sense of being. You are neither a prisoner nor a passive participant in your life. Seeing yourself as an active, capable member of society means you’re not confined to playing defense and waiting for the other shoe to drop. On the contrary, playing offense means your actions are calm, confident, measured, proactive, and purposeful. (Mindfulness-based exercises can help you change your mindset. Click here for a short video on the basics of meditation.)

The difference between peace and chaos can be as simple and profound as committing 10 minutes a day to practicing better mental health habits. It can help you let go of stress and clear space for peace of mind, happiness, and more fulfilling relationships.

Just completed and submitted the final version of my Extended Essay !!! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖° 

So I compiled lists of words that I found super super useful in making it easier for me to finish any essay !! Here is a masterpost of some sort with transition words + key vocabs grouped together for easy access as well as an IB IOC ‘cheat sheet’ I used for my english LAL orals last year (though most commentaries follow a similar structure so its generalisable) ~

Good luck with your essays !!!

… oops just realised I forgot to bullet point one of the lists 

Can you link your job interview tips? I can never find them :(

I know… I’m working on an index sort of thing to help people find posts. Stay tuned!

The Interview

1. Work on your interviewing skills. Your resume will get you through the door, but your personality is what will eventually win you a job. Extroverts have an easier time turning on the charm, but introverts may have to work harder to gain the same ease of conversation. I would recommend seeing some amateur theater or live music performances in your community. Go to a high school musical, see the college Drama Club’s new play. You want the chance to see different levels of confidence in people. Just by watching the performers you’ll be able to easily see who is comfortable being the center of attention and who is not. Let the mistakes or triumphs you see on stage influence the movements, eye contact, and tone of voice that you will use when addressing potential employers. Also, if you don’t want to actually go out, there are loads of community theater youtube videos.

2. Practice makes perfect. Come up with a list of questions that an employer might ask you, and ready your answers confidently. Have a friend “interview” you and have them rate you based on how you respond. If your friend is too positive about your performance, get another one to interview you. You want honesty, you want critiques! If you have no friends or relatives who are able to help you, record yourself answering questions using a webcam. Luckily, there are lots of posts about job interviews on the internet. This is a good one.

3. Talk yourself up. In the interview, you never want to even imply that there is an aspect of the job that you can’t handle. You don’t want to outright lie, but exaggerate your skill levels knowing that once you get in the door, you’ll be competent enough. Never say “I don’t know that skill” say “I’ve heard a lot about that skill, and I’m interested to learn more”.

4. Ask questions. After the interviewer has asked you all their questions about the prospective job, make sure to ask them several questions in return. The more, the better. Really, truly, honestly. Ask them so many goddamn questions that they feel like they’re being interviewed! These questions should be as specific as possible and should show your interest in the company. Tie in any tidbits of information that you picked up on during your interview, and reiterate important points. Remember, people love talking about their jobs. Use this to your advantage. Get your interviewer talking about the different aspects of what they like and dislike.

5. Follow up. Send a “thank you” email to your prospective employer directly after meeting them. Thank them for taking the time to meet with you, and let them know that you look forward to hearing from them soon. This will show that you have initiative and follow through. Employers love that shit.

Feel free to message me directly about any of this information! I literally got an incredible job by beefing up my resume and talking myself up.

Job Hunting Masterpost

Asking Questions

General Job Advice

How to Include Dungeons & Dragons on Your Resume

How to Write A Cover Letter

How to Write A Cover Letter 2

How to Write A Resume (Like A Boss)

Job Hunting Support

Job Interview Outfits

My Post on Job Hunting

Professional Email Address (For Resumes)

Resume Tips

Strong Words to Use on A Resume

Talk Yourself Up!

Tips for Teenagers

1. Familiarize yourself Really get to know the work that you will be analyzing. Whether it‘s a poem, short story, or play, make sure you read it over a number of times. It also doesn’t hurt to do some background research into the author and his/her writing styles. 

2. Annotate While reading, annotate the work and jot down some of the formal language you noticed. For example, the use of literary and formal features, themes, characters, tone etc.  Here is a link to some of the basic and most well-known literary devices:  https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/575/01/

3. Theme/Topic  Choose the theme that you want to focus on (this may be a general, universal theme or specific literary features). The theme/topic may also have been assigned by your teachers. 

Essay topics can range widely in specificity:

Romantic and familial love in Shakespeare sonnet #   

John Milton’s use of paradoxes and juxtaposition to create a stark contrast between Satan and God in Book one of “Paradise Lost”

4. Find supportive evidence Once you know your theme/topic, make sure you have enough supporting evidence to write a good essay. If not, you either want to go back and find more, or change to a more easily supported topic. 

For example, you don’t want to write an essay on a poem’s use of metaphors, when all you can find are examples of the use of imagery.

5. Outline Writing an outline really helps when writing any essay. I like to use a certain layout that I find is really effective in helping me structure my ideas:

Topic sentence: Evidence #: Literary Feature: Importance (of the literary feature):

6. Putting it all together Really take advantage of your outline when writing your essay! With all your ideas laid out, it’s really about putting your thoughts into coherent and fluent sentences. 

Tip: Make use of transition words, as well as complex, compound, and simple sentences, in order to make your essay really flow

7. Revise, revise, revise.  Nobody can write a perfect essay on the first try. Editing may include asking you friends to peer edit, or even your teacher/professor for suggestions.

8. Take a step back If you have the extra time, it helps to leave your essay for a while (a day), before coming back to it. Sometimes taking a step back can really go a long way.

friday 19th april • 32 days until a levels

trying to revise for my lit paper two today but it’s just not seeming to go in - the last couple of days haven’t been great tbh for studying and I’m starting to panic because exams are so soon! but I’m pushing through! we’re almost there!

(click for better quality)