Studying Millennials

I'm going to take the liberty of making a rare (for this blog) foray into the political realm. This afternoon I noted an article on a New York Times blog that cited a Pew Research Center report on the Millennial generation in asserting that those born after 1980 seem to be more pro-government than our recent generational predecessors. Happily, the blog also linked to the Pew Center's report, a 150-page PDF file entitled, "Millennials: Confident, Connected, Open to Change." Sadly I don't have the time right now to read it all through, but I look forward to perusing it and seeing what the "experts" are saying about my generation.

Lenten Discipline: Be Present

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, the official first day of Lent. During this forty day period, many Christians choose to "give up" something in a fast designed to remind them of Christ's sacrifice.

I used to try to give something up for Lent. The problem was, I usually wound up just resenting and ultimately breaking that Lenten fast-- probably because I was younger and my thoughts and motivations for doing it were not strong enough to keep me going. Eventually I simply "gave up" giving things up for Lent.

Last year, I decided to transform my Lenten fast into a Lenten discipline that would help me to focus my mind on the faith issues that matter at this time of year. I committed to journaling on a daily basis, a practice which focused and calmed my mind, giving me an all-around better experience. I appreciated Lent as never before, and still continue the practice of journaling to this day.

This year, I have committed to try to really "be present" in everything I do, especially when I am with other people. In our busy and hyper-technological society, there is a tendency both to watch the clock for when you have to run off to the next meeting or class or whatever, and to spend more time texting other people than paying attention to the real person you're with. I have always tried to fight against this tendency, but I think it would be beneficial for me to focus on this as a commitment during Lent. I'm still in the process of figuring out exactly what it's going to mean, but it will probably involve silencing my phone when I am talking to someone, and it may well mean giving up listening to my iPod on the Metro.

I picked this Lenten discipline last night, and circumstances immediately put it to the test. Just as I was about to get ready for bed, my friend A. came tearing into my room. He had just had a fight with one of his close friends and needed someone to listen and help him cool down. I closed my book, listened, and he left in a much calmer state. Then I walked down the hall to brush my teeth, and ran into my friend T., who was having a bad night. I listened to her rant, then went and got ready for bed. Just as I was about to go to sleep, my friend J. texted me, asking to borrow my sleeping bag for someone who needed a place to stay that night. Being responsive to all these people and being present for them was very rewarding, and I'm glad I got to do it, as always. I just hope that last night isn't going to become a model for the next forty days, or I am going to be incredibly sleep-deprived within a fortnight!

Blogging Delinquency- and Just One Thing

I know, I know-- I have been a terribly delinquent blogger. Despite the fact that I promised myself (and my readership) that I would post at least once a week, and despite having tons of free time during DC's "Snowpocalypse" last week, it's been a while since I've blogged. My apologies.

Here is my brief offering for today, courtesy of Rick Hanson's "Just One Thing" newsletter. I'll post a link to the full article when it's online, but today Dr. Hanson urged his readers to enact a practice of taking more breaks. (Maybe like the one I took from blogging?)

The modern, pedal-to-the-metal lifestyle produces chronic stress and tension, and related physical and mental health issues. It also crowds out creative pursuits, friendships, recreation, spiritual life, and time for children and mates. As a therapist, I often see families where one or both parents work 50+ hours a week; the job is an elephant in the living room, crowding everything else to the margins.

Imagine for a moment that you are sitting comfortably somewhere during the last year of your life, and looking back and reflecting. Do you think you are going to wish you had spent more time on the job or doing housework?

Or wish you had spent more time relaxing, hanging out with friends, and looking at the stars?

Because our ancestors actually spent more than twice as much time relaxing as we do today, in between running away from saber-tooth tigers I guess. Go figure.

Dr. Hanson also offers a number of tips for taking more breaks. These include:

• Give yourself permission.
• Renounce everything else.
• Take lots of micro-breaks.
• Shift gears.
• Get out.
• Unplug.
• Make your body happy.
• Go on a mental holiday.
• Keep your stress needle out of the red zone.
• Be grateful.

Good advice, indeed-- hard to follow, though. This will be something I will be thinking more about, as I am currently in the process of deciding what my Lenten discipline is going to be this year. I try to pick something that I've always intended to do, and something that will help me focus my mind on where I think it should be. Will update when I decide.

CollegeHacker, Part 1

Lifehacker is a popular and immensely useful site for people looking for "tips, shortcuts, and downloads that help you get things done smarter and more efficiently." Zen Habits, on the other hand, is about "finding simplicity in the daily chaos of our lives," via articles and tips like the ones I posted last week. Between the two of them, there's a lot of useful philosophy on how to live a more simple and effective life, and a wide variety of handy tips. I read Zen Habits whenever there's a new post and often peruse the archives when bored, and I check Lifehacker...well, actually I don't check Lifehacker that often. I usually wind up overwhelmed by all the articles they are posting on the front page and I haven't figured out how to escape that yet. Still, I have found some good stuff on there, like these recent pieces on The Cordless Dorm and the Top 10 Tools for Better Reading, Online and Off.

What I've discovered, however, is that not all of the ideas offered by these two blogs are directly applicable to my life as a college student...at least, not without some modification. That cordless dorm piece on Lifehacker is very much an exception...and not being obsessive about the number of cords on my desk, it's not hugely relevant to me. Still, I find a great deal of validity in many of the principles offered by Zen Habits and blogs like it, and have for the last two years been experimenting with how I can best modify some of those principles to suit my uniquely collegiate lifestyle. Here are some of the things I've come up with:

1) The Morning Routine. This is probably the number one case-in-point for a concept that I got from Zen Habits and adapted to suit my needs. Since I tend to go to bed rather late, I usually wake up about an hour and a half to two hours before my first class (or internship), then shower, do my stretches, eat breakfast, get dressed, and check email/Facebook/weather/Google Reader. I have grown to immensely value the chance to get my morning off to a relaxed, peaceful start, rather than jumping out of bed, throwing on whatever is closest, and rushing out the door. Since my first classes are never until 10am, it's usually only painful to do this on Wednesday, which is the day I have to be out the door by 7:45am to go to my internship.

2) Exercise. Obviously, this habit is not unique to any blog that I could point you to. Doctors, nutritionists, and many other professionals have been pointing us to the need to get exercise for longer than I could say. Leo's brand of exercise is a lot more intense than mine. I've never been much for gyms, or really for exercise in general, but I have decided to make a renewed attempt to do some form of exercise on a near-daily basis. To accomplish this, I instituted what I call my "daily constitutional," a walk around the neighborhoods near my school. A couple of days a week, the daily constitutional will consist of walking back from the Metro after my internship, but the rest of the time I walk a loop just for the sheer pleasure of this. My rule about this, though, is that I can't listen to my iPod or talk on the phone for more than a couple of minutes while walking. It's all about getting exercise and fresh air, and has become a very nice time for me to center myself in the world around me, outside classrooms and offices and the dorm.

3) Take this Sabbath Day. OK, I don't actually mean that literally. For me, Sundays are often my busiest day of the week. I am one of the planners for Sunday evening worship at the campus chapel, I sing in the choir or play my instrument, and I often help to lead the service. On top of that, there's always homework to do for the upcoming days. But what I started doing last semester is taking one day off each month to completely decompress. No homework, reading for class, group meetings-- just R&R. It's the greatest feeling in the world-- especially if you plan your life so that you can afford to take that one day off without falling hugely behind in your work (which tends to make your Sabbath Day more stressful than it's really worth).

Ten Favorite Zen Habits Articles

One of my major inspirations for writing this blog was my consumption of Zen Habits by Leo Babauta. Leo's ideas and tips have helped me along my own path toward simplifying and improving my life, and although I find that not everything he recommends works for me (after all, he's a married father of six who lives in Guam and I'm a college student in Washington, DC), many of his ideas can be adapted to suit my life better. I plan to write more soon about how I have adapted some of Leo's ideas to work for me, but for now here are some Zen Habits pieces that I regularly peruse when I am looking for an inspirational pick-me-up.

1) Handbook for Life: 52 Tips for Happiness and Productivity. Just like it sounds, this piece offers a number of helpful tips for streamlining your life, and making it happier, simpler, and more productive (three concepts that, in my opinion, are closely linked).

2) 55 Ways to Get More Energy. Everybody has those days-- or times of day-- where your energy just fails and all you want to do is take a nap. How do you get around that when you really need to stay awake and do work? Guest author Greg Go offers some awesome tips.

3) 10 Simple Ways to Live a Less Stressful Life. I am increasingly of the opinion that stress is an overrated part of life. While it has some benefits when present at a reasonable level, our normal high-stress lives are both unhelpful and dangerous. I am quite jealous of Leo, who lives on Guam and works from home, but he does know a lot about how to reduce stress from his previous high-stress job. These ten ideas are useful because they are basic enough to work in almost anybody's life, with maybe some modifications. Reducing stress is a valuable lesson.

4) 12 Ways to Decompress After High Stress. So even after reading #3, some stress still managed to creep into your life? Don't worry, it happens. It's inevitable, actually. But I agree with Leo here-- it is imperative to decompress and let your body rejuvenate after a period of insane stress. Here he presents 12 ideas on how to do that.

5) 12 Ideas for Establishing a Calming Routine. A good way to maintain calm in your life is to establish routines that help you to center yourself on a daily basis. Whether you prefer your quiet time in the morning or the evening or both, it's worth looking into.

6) Feeling Down? 7 Ways to Pick Yourself Back Up! 'Nough said. These are very practical tips for pulling yourself out of a standard day-to-day melancholy.

7) How to Actually Execute Your To-Do List: or, Why Writing It Down Doesn't Actually Get It Done. My name is Carolyn and I am a list-maker. I admit it freely. I rely on lists to keep myself organized, but for years I had issues actually doing the stuff on the tasks list. I've since gotten a lot better at "just doing it," and articles like this one helped a lot with that. Goes through a lot of the common obstacles to getting things done, and offers tips on overcoming them.

8) Let the World Pass You By. I live in Washington, DC, which is one of the biggest go-getter places I've ever been. What ever happened to just sitting and watching the world go by? Leo reflects on the same idea.

9) Sounds of Silence: How to Find Some Quietude in Your Life. I defy even Leo to try to find quiet while living in a dorm on a university campus in a city. However, I agree with him on the value of silence, and I do my best to find my quiet time on a regular basis-- usually it winds up being on a walk on side streets late at night. But without some degree of quiet, how are you supposed to really be able to think and relax?

10) 21 Easy Hacks to Simplify Your Life. Leo's written a lot of pieces on simple living, but this is probably what I would consider his "101" course on the topic. Basic and beneficial ideas to start off anybody's move toward simple living.

Whew.

Week One of Semester Two of Junior Year is complete. Based on my experience during this first week and my projections of due dates, etc., here are some predictions about my life this semester:

1) It would be most beneficial for me to learn how to read and walk at the same time without walking into stuff.

2) Even if I can't do that, I will probably be carrying a book around with me just about everywhere, on the off chance that I have a few free minutes.

3) This is because I have two classes in which I have to read a book a week. On top of three other reading-intensive (but not quite as intense) classes.

4) Seeing my friends is, once again, going to be heavily centered around eating. Partly because we all like it, but mostly because everybody's gotta eat, so meals are the only time that people can squeeze in a bit of socializing.

5) If I'm not going to be eating with a friend, I will be eating and reading.

6) Every healthy simple living habit I have developed will simultaneously be necessary and put to the test this semester. The inclination to get up earlyish, doing my stretches, eating breakfast, taking a walk almost every day, attempting to stay away from junk food, getting to sleep at a reasonable hour-- I am going to need all these skills, but they are going to get really hard.

7) Same goes for every good academic habit I have been attempting to develop over the past three semesters.

8) Planning ahead is going to be really, really important for my papers if I don't want to pull many/any all-nighters. Also if I want to maintain and improve my GPA.

9) Extra stuff-- like meetings for the USMA (the club I'm in here), applications for summer internships, figuring out housing for next year, etc.-- are all going to be really challenging. I may have to take a careful look at which are really necessary and which are not.

10) I am definitely not going to be blogging every day or even close to that. New goal: write on here once a week. It may simply be updates like this, or thoughts related to simple living that I spent part of the week musing about. But yeah...I wouldn't be looking for posts more than once or maybe twice a week, if that week is particularly quiet.

Lululemon appears to be an athletic company of some kind, possibly focused on yoga, but they've come up with this manifesto of ideas on how to live your life. I'm not sure that I would personally go for all of them, but it's good food for thought.

the lululemon manifesto

• Drink FRESH water and as much water as you can. Water flushes unwanted toxins from your body and keeps your brain sharp.
• A daily hit of athletic-induced endorphins gives you the power to make better decisions, helps you be at peace with yourself, and offsets stress.
• Do one thing a day that scares you.
• Listen, listen, listen, and then ask strategic questions.
• Write down your short and long-term GOALS four times a year. Two personal, two business and two health goals for the next 1, 5 and 10 years. Goal setting triggers your subconscious computer.
• Life is full of setbacks. Success is determined by how you handle setbacks.
• Your outlook on life is a direct reflection of how much you like yourself.
• That which matters the most should never give way to that which matters the least.
• Stress is related to 99% of all illness.
• Jealousy works the opposite way you want it to.
• The world is changing at such a rapid rate that waiting to implement changes will leave you 2 steps behind. DO IT NOW, DO IT NOW, DO IT NOW!
• Friends are more important than money.
• Breathe deeply and appreciate the moment. Living in the moment could be the meaning of life.
• Take various vitamins. You never know what small mineral can eliminate the bottleneck to everlasting health.
• Don’t trust that an old age pension will be sufficient.
• Visualize your eventual demise. It can have an amazing effect on how you live for the moment.
• The conscious brain can only hold one thought at a time. Choose a positive thought.
• Live near the ocean and inhale the pure salt air that flows over the water, Vancouver will do nicely.
• Observe a plant before and after watering and relate these benefits to your body and brain.
• Practice yoga so you can remain active in physical sports as you age.
• Dance, sing, floss and travel.
• Children are the orgasm of life. Just like you did not know what an orgasm was before you had one, nature does not let you know how great children are until you have them.
• Successful people replace the words “wish”, “should” and “try” with “I will”.
• Creativity is maximized when you’re living in the moment.
• Nature wants us to be mediocre because we have a greater chance to survive and reproduce. Mediocre is as close to the bottom as it is to the top, and will give you a lousy life.
• lululemon athletica creates components for people to live longer, healthier and more fun lives. If we can produce products to keep people active and stress-free, we believe the world will become a much better place.
• Do not use cleaning chemicals on your kitchen counters. Someone will inevitably make a sandwich on your counter.
• SWEAT once a day to regenerate your skin.
• Communication is COMPLICATED. We are all raised in a different family with slightly different definitions of every word. An agreement is an agreement only if each party knows the conditions for satisfaction and a time is set for satisfaction to occur.
• What we do to the earth we do to ourselves.
• The pursuit of happiness is the source of all unhappiness.