7 Items I Can't Go A Day Without

Is your IPhone your life? Can you go a day without using that favorite shade of Mac Lipstick or playing your favorite video game? What items do you have that helps you get through your day and make life a little bit easier? I want you to try and imagine a world without these items, and think about just how you would get through days filled with chores, work, school, responsibilities, and priorities.

In this post I am going to share with you my 7 everyday items I can't see myself without, and maybe we will have a few in common! Be sure to let me know

• IPhone 5s- I know I am a little dated with the old version of the IPhone, but this 5s has some sentimental value that makes me not want to give up on it just yet. Right before finals week my laptop suddenly stopped working and my 5s came to rescue. I drafted papers, screen-shot study guides, researched, and did everything you can possibly name to get through finals with this phone.
• IPhone 5s Charger- I had to give respect to my 5s charger, this charger is probably the fastest most reliable charger I had ever owned and it definitely gets its use every day.
• Beat Solo 2- If you are like me you can't get through a day without listening to music. I listen to music walking to class, while I am in the training room, before practice, after practice, on game day, while I'm cleaning, and pretty much all the time. Having a great pair of headphones is a must.
• PlayStation 4- My Ps4 is definitely something that I use every day. I like to get a game in or throw on Netflix after a long day or just for some ME time.
• Chapstick- If you don't own chapstick please comment and tell me how you do it. Seriously, having chapstick is very important to me lol. Having dry lips is probably the most annoying feeling in the word, next to being hungry, getting a bad grade, and love.
• Dolce & Gabbana Pour Homme- This cologne is by far my favorite, it is really not much to say besides the fact that I like to smell good lol. The only other cologne that I use is Burberry Brit, but I use the Dolce & Gabbana more often.
• Dell XPS 13 (Touch Screen)- Finally, I know most people now-a-days have smart phones, and as I mentioned before my IPhone 5s pretty much allowed me to do things that I would normally use my laptop for, but not having a laptop for a while help me realize how much I really used it. For a long time I owned a MacBook Air and loved it, when it gave out on me I decided to try something new, so I decided to go with the new Dell XPS 13 with the touch screen. So far I do like it, even though I am still getting adjusted to having a Windows laptop after have a Mac for long, but I am finding myself doing more with it.

The things we own is pretty much a reflection of who we are and what we do. Share some of your favorite items and why you own them. You will be surprised how many people will relate to you, whether they own the same things or they want them for the same reason.

Side Note: My last post Three Truth, One Lie if you haven't figured out the answer, it's #1! =)

When to Endure? When to Be Free?

There are so many people, places, objects, hopes, and dreams in my life that I hold dear to my heart. I believe that I do my best to protect all of these things and fulfill every goal that I set for myself. Whether it has to do with school, my relationship, my financial obligations, or just personal goals, I make every effort to insure that everything goes well. But More often then not I come across dilemmas that make me question if only one, or all of these things are worth putting energy into. For a long time I have wanted to understand when to endure a situation or free myself from it. This question is something that I had struggled with for a while, just because I've always had a conflicting battle between being rational and striving to make dreams come true. I didn't know if being realistic about the situations was the answer or just an excuse not to keep chasing something that showed only possibilities. I didn't know if having desires was the true dynamo that would lead me to a commitment or was just simply my downfall. Don't get me wrong, in certain situations I do believe the best way to move on is to be realistic. Based on what has happened, things that has occurred that made me debate between the two, how I felt at the time, and what would be the good and the bad from both points of view. On the other hand, sometimes I am encouraged by hopes that I have for myself, the thought of defying the odds really motivates me at times, and is something I use often if I truly feel that it can be done. I had always gone back and forth between the two, and because of this I've learned to look at these circumstances and ask myself if it really mattered? the most important thing would be that a choice was going to be made and I believed in it. Overtime I have noticed that understanding who I am can get me through anything, especially figuring out when to cut lose or to hang on to a quandary. Understanding the type of person I am helps me realize who I want be, what career I want to pursue, what type of person I want a relationship with, and what I am capable of achieving. Understanding who I am gives me the ability to perceive what is most important, what benefits me, what will lift me up, and most importantly what I will not let weight me down. I've come to the conclusion that hanging on and letting go is apart of the journey of many decisions that I will go through to better myself for myself. Whether or not I make the right choices all depends on how I feel and if I am making the decisions for me.

The more indecisive you are, the less productive you will be. Make a choice, believe in it, and believe in yourself - Don

Take A Risk

Now that the new year is among us, I welcome 2016 with open arms, a smile, and clear a mind. With the experiences of 2015 and the years before, I want this year to be filled with risk. Now when I say risk, I don’t mean choices between life and death. I don’t want to go sky diving, or drive a 100 miles per hour blind folded through 42nd street. Taking a risk is not just a choice between life or death, but it can also mean a choice between getting hurt or being safe emotionally. I think that sometimes we are afraid to give life a chance because of the threat of being embarrassed or not living up to expectations. We don’t fully love who we want to love, we don’t study what we really want to study, and we don’t choose to be who we really want to be, because there is a chance that it might not work out. This year I will not let the threat of getting hurt stop me, I am going to make choices that may not be rewarding at the moment, but will payoff in the long run. I am going to make choices that I tend to stray away from because it makes me feel uncomfortable, and I am going to continue to be who I am. I've realized that taking a risk is a necessity if I want to actually live an eventful life, gain knowledge, and connect with people. If there is no actual reward in the end, so be it, but nothing can take the experience from me, and the ability to say that I tried.

The Yellow Block

 What was the first thing you thought of when you looked at this yellow block? Did you think of summer? did you get excited? , or did it make you a little happy? If so then according to color psychology, it did exactly what it's suppose to do! 

Not so long ago I was scrolling through Instagram's "popular page", when I came across a photo that was posted by the rapper/singer Dej Loaf. The post was a photo of a yellow block (like the yellow block above), a smiley face, and a thumbs up. Having more then a thousand people that liked the post, it caught my attention. I wanted to know what was so special about this post, and why so many people liked it. So I started to scroll through the comments looking for a hint of why this post was so popular. I then read a comment that said "yellow is suppose to bring warmth and happiness, thanks Dej Loaf." I had no clue what this person meant by this comment, all I saw was the color yellow, but it had my attention. So I decided to take sometime to try and feed my brain with a little bit of knowledge, and figure this thing out. I finally came across something called Color Psychology. Color Psychology is a psychological field that studies colors and how they influence our behaviors. Simply put there are colors that promote certain psychological affects on the human mind. For example, in the red area of the color spectrum there are colors known as warm colors, which include red, orange and yellow. These warm colors makes us feel emotions ranging from feelings of warmth and comfort to feelings of anger. Then there are colors on the blue side of the spectrum like purple, green, and of course blue. These colors are said to makes us feel calm and also sad, along with numerous amounts of other colors and feelings to go along with them. There is also a sub-area of color psychology called Chromotherapy, which is a therapeutic way to use colors to heal. Learning this I thought that the yellow block deserved all the likes that it received. The color yellow is the most visible color to eye, and it is said to promote cheer, happiness, and warmth, making it a great color to choose to make someone's day a little bit brighter. Sharing colors that promotes  positive feelings is a cool way to communicate with people emotionally, so one day you should give it a try and post a color block and see what kind of emotions you can evoke!

"Color is the place where our brain and the universe meet"- Paul Klee

Is Being a Stoic The Key To a Better Life?

 

I just recently learned the meaning of stoicism and what it means to be a stoic. I've heard the words thrown around from time to time, and not to long ago the words caught my attention in the TV series Gotham. Yes, it took a TV series based on DC comics to make me want to expand my knowledge and vocabulary, but that is the way the world works. This is how stoics think, briefly put they believe in accepting the things that we as individuals have no control over and making the best out of any situation. Stoics have a reputation of being emotionless, commonly compared to Spock from Star Track, but this can be interpreted in many different ways by many different people. From what I've learned Stoics may be misunderstood based on emotion, I think that stoics believe they have control over their own emotions and what situations they want to put in an effort to react to. Whether or not they want to show them is their choice and no one or nothing else's, which may come off to others as being emotionless or dry. But how would a stoic react to life's challenges? How would one advise another to react to other people? And most importantly how would they face the thought of death? Marcus Aurelius, the stoic roman emperor, would simply say "Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present."