Tag Archives: Health

Self-awareness

So it’s good for my health to write blog posts!

Aside

Writing your way to happiness, Tara Parker-Pope [New York Times article]

The scientific research on the benefits of so-called expressive writing is surprisingly vast. Studies have shown that writing about oneself and personal experiences can improve mood disorders, help reduce symptoms among cancer patients, improve a person’s health after a heart attack, reduce doctor visits and even boost memory.

Now researchers are studying whether the power of writing — and then rewriting — your personal story can lead to behavioral changes and improve happiness.

I guess I should keep doing this writing thing then…for the good of my health. =)

~Jen

Rants and reflections, Self-awareness

The feelings you have when your friend nearly dies

My good friend nearly died last night* Thursday. His heart stopped on two separate occasions, and both times CPR and a defibrillator had to be used to restart his heart. So, one could argue the semantics about it and say he actually died twice.

He was coming out of surgery for a relatively routine, low-risk sort of elective procedure for his shoulder. That it turned into one of those medical dramas that you wish to only view on television is terrifying.

Continue reading The feelings you have when your friend nearly dies →

Jeneral findings

Jeneral finds of the week: 2015-01-04

It’s a new year! Good/interesting/provoking finds I’ve stumbled across this week: 2015-01-04

  • If you’re a Serial fan (like I am)…here’s part 1 of 3 of an exclusive interview with Jay, the prosecution’s key witness that Sarah Koening was not able to get interviewed for Serial. It has another timeline and a motivation for the inconsistencies to date. It’s great to hear his point of view, and I understand his wariness to be involved with Koening’s efforts, but now I wonder if there is any way forward with the disruption this has obviously caused in his life.
  • I’m not usually a fan of sharing “listicles” (a glorified list of something that passes as an article), but this one from NPR Monkey See is a very good one for a list of 50 Wonderful [Cultural] Things from 2014.
  • An awesome comic to educate about vaccinations in an entertaining format. If only those with an anti-vaccine stance would be open-minded enough to take a read.

~Jen

<–Previous week’s finds

Jeneral findings

Jeneral finds of the week: 2014-12-21

Good/interesting/provoking finds I’ve stumbled across this week: 2014-12-21. (I realize I’m a day late…life happens)

  • This past Thursday saw the conclusion of season 1 of Serial podcast, which I loved. Of course, there are the inevitable parodies made since then, but this one by SNL is really hilarious, and holiday seasonal to boot! [su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9XpS6mIZfI” width=”480″ height=”300″]
  • This article has an interesting view about how the success of sharing Uber economy is predicated by the growing and continued income inequality. It describes some of the reasons I feel uncomfortable with the concept.
  • When I saw this article headline from the Washington Post about these YouTube videos created by this woman of sounds to purposefully induce a physical reaction called Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR), I was skeptical to say the least. “It’s like showers of sparkles,” says Maria, speaking as herself. “It’s like warm sand being poured all over you, trickling over your head and down into your shoulders. It’s like goosebumps on your brain.” Then I watched one…and I seriously got the tingles in the back of my head! I suppose I shouldn’t be so surprised, it was similar to the wonderful tingle-y feeling I get from having my hair brushed. This one is her most-viewed video, do you get the same tingles?

~Jen

<–Previous week’s finds

Rants and reflections, Self-awareness

The Summer of Jen – an update

When I shared the news of my leave of absence from Accenture back in March of this year, I envisioned that during my leave I would set out to accomplish goals in 5 general areas. Here they are verbatim:

  1. Career Calibration – I need to figure out where I want my career to go in the next 3-5 years, what I find fulfillment and enjoyment doing, and how to best accomplish this.
  2. Health – Physical and Mental – I’m going to sort out my exercise and sleep regime, spend as much time outdoors as I can this summer, *not* commute in the car an hour each way, and hang out with my family without having to worry about the daycare pickup time
  3. Learning and Creation – I will commit myself to publishing something at least once a month (let me know if you want in on the distribution – I promise not to post too many selfies of ). I’m also toying with the idea of teaching myself to develop an app in one of the mobile technologies. Also will devote time to actually watch some of those TED talks that I’ve bookmarked away.
  4. Community – I have neglected contributing back to my community in the last few years. I want to devote some of my time this leave to volunteer. If you know of any organizations looking for someone with my skills and enthusiasm I’d love to hear about it!
  5. Home affairs catchup – to address parts of my home life that have been neglected over the last few years, e.g. long-term financial plan, home decluttering and organization, buying drapes for the windows, actually doing some gardening

Continue reading The Summer of Jen – an update →