March 5th, 2011
Samy Ouzeau
You have been studying hard. Need a laugh? Have a vodka.
Friday is coming, and after such a long and tiring week reading journals, attending lectures, doing coursework and flirting, it’s time to get wasted. Time to let all the stress out and have the best night ever. You may deserve to have fun but I am not convinced that you HAVE TO get wasted, or even drink a drop of alcohol to make the most of your night. I’m aware that within the student community it’s a tradition to drink and that you don’t want to be the odd one out. I’m also aware that, like many of us who are uptight, we have to drink to really have fun. If you are tired of drinking or want to save money, but still have a memorable night, then continue to read because I’ll tell you everything you need to know to have fun without drinking.
Misconceptions about drinking.
If drinking, for some of us, fills most of our university time there must be good things about it. However, most of these good things are misconceptions which you can find below:
-Fun. We believe that we have a better time when we drink. We believe that we enjoy ourselves more, laugh more and that everything around us seems great. We are enjoying ourselves more because we stop caring about the eventual judgment from others and forget about our social inhibitions. Don’t get it wrong, alcohol is not the main cause of such liberation. In reality, it is more the thought of drinking alcohol that suppresses our social inhibition rather than alcohol itself. Whilst it is true that alcohol can help, an experiment conducted have demonstrated that participants, who were told to drink alcoholic drinks, but were given non-alcoholic drinks, were behaving similarly to those who were given alcohol. Such experiment strongly suggest that what really affects us is not the alcohol itself but rather the thought of drinking alcohol and what we have associated with drinking alcohol.
-Confidence. With several drinks we’ll be most likely to be able to do things that we’re unable to do when sober, such as approaching a stranger. You may believe that alcohol gives you wings but that’s a lie. What gives you wings is how much you believe that you have been drinking enough to do something you fear.
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February 14th, 2011
Samy Ouzeau
Do you feel as if there is something missing in your life? Perhaps, you wish that you found the special one to fill a lack of love and happiness. Wherever this special one is hiding, you’re sick of seeking, not finding anyone and remaining single. For how long can you deal with the absence of love in your life? I know that there are times where you can feel very lonely, perhaps even restless and it can be difficult to deal with this.
It’s understandable that you feel this way. Many of us do, me included. I used to focus so much on finding love. Regardless all my efforts, there was no payoff. And it can only result in the experience of negative feelings.
But I don’t want to be unhappy and unloved! Does it have to be like this? Is love and happiness only exclusive to those who are lucky enough to find someone who can love them back? What if I didn’t find anyone? I surely don’t want to stay feeling like this my entire life. What do you want? Some people are very happy being single, so why not you? YOU ARE SINGLE AND YOU ALSO DESERVE LOVE AND HAPPINESS!
Once I was fed up of feeling down because I couldn’t find anyone, I started seeking information about feeling loved. I find out various ways to be truly happy and feel loved. Valuing my relationships with my friends and family was one them.
Everything is relative in life. We value what we don’t have and give less important to what we already have. Why should we value the relationships we have with our family and friends? What would you like to gain from a friendship that makes it so valuable? Love? Support? Trust? Someone who you can talk to about anything?
As I started being more emotionally open to my friends and family, they did the same back. As a result, my relationships became more meaningful and more rewarding. I did little things such as showing appreciation for knowing them. I started telling them how much they mean to me, how much I value our friendship and that I love them. But these little things made a big impact on how I felt emotionally. I started to feel more loved and more appreciated. I was enjoying myself more than ever and I was happier. I felt like all the times I felt lonely, I was just blind to what I already had – I was looking for more. But what I had was more than enough.
So, what can we do to value our relationships with our friends and family and spread some seeds of love?
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February 2nd, 2011
Samy Ouzeau
During my second year of University, I was a “good” student. I went to all my lectures unless I had a good reason for not going. No, having a hungover is not a good reason. However, during my final year, I was “too busy” with doing coursework, sorting my life out, partying and I was too tired to wake up at 7 AM to learn. So, I only went to the afternoon lectures that were interesting me. I only went to one lecture in the second term (I hope my mum doens’t read this post!). Reflecting back on my second and third year, I’m now convinced that getting out of bed and attending lectures is a key element if you want to study less, struggle less for revisions, know more and get better grades.
When the exam period arrived, I had to go through several topics that were unknown to me as my attendance was something like 3 out of 20 lessons. As a result, I spent a lot of time trying to make sense of all the information that was given to me. At this point, I wished I had gone to all the lectures. I now have to read a boring text book to make sense of the course content. Due to the fact that I didn’t go to my lectures and didn’t know what was relevant and what was not, I made sure that I understood and remembered most of the given information. It took me such a long time…
Perhaps, for various reasons, going to class is useless as you don’t expect to learn anything – an incompetent and/or boring teacher, a boring and/or difficult topic. Whatever your reasons, you might just sleep a bit longer or watch TV and go through the lecture slides in your own time. But this time never comes until some time before the exams. Whatever your reasons, not attending lectures is not worth in the long term. In the short term, it might appear appealing but, in the long term, you’ll regret not showing up.
Imagine that in a week time you have an exam and that you didn’t attend any lectures and didn’t go through your lecture slides. Imagine yourself reading and not making any sense of what you’re reading. You know that you have a lot of work to do, but you have to understand what you’re reading in order to learn it. You start reading a book, hoping that you’ll understand, but you’re just stuck. You spend the entire day reading. You call some classmates who are themselves too busy to answer your call. You don’t have time for all this! Frustration kicks in. You wish you could learn within a couple of hours but instead it’s taking way more time than it should. Why is it happening to me? It’s happening to you because you were too lazy to get up out of bed or because you were trying to be smart and save time to do other things.
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January 30th, 2011
Samy Ouzeau
“There is more refreshment and stimulation in a nap, even of the briefest, than in all the alcohol ever distilled.” Ovid.
It’s 3.20 PM and I have just finished writing an essay. I now have to run to University to hand it in. I have 40 minutes left and it takes about 35 minutes to get to University. I only had 5 hours sleep, but there is no time for being tired; I have to run as quickly as possible to make it on time; Worrying thoughts start polluting my mind; “What if I didn’t make it?”; “what if the train was delayed?”. I start over worrying and becoming seriously agitated. Lucky enough, I didn’t have any problems with the transport, otherwise, I’ll have been screwed. I just gave my essay – a couple of minutes before the deadline. I have done it!
As I start recovering from this emotional roller coaster, a thought about another essay waiting for me suddenly haunts me. At this point, I think: “How on earth am I going to finish this 2000 words essay overnight? I haven’t started it, it’s due tomorrow and I am exhausted.” I eventually get home without falling asleep in the tube. As I start realising how crazy my night is going to be, and how unfamiliar I am with overnight essays, I start panicking. It may be my first overnight essay, but I should make this first experience a success. I start motivating myself by using positive affirmations: “I CAN DO THIS!” I then… go to sleep!
Why I took power naps.
No, I didn’t sleep all night and I didn’t get a zero. I actually got a better grade than my other two essays which were done over a week! Power naps, which are short sleep, increased my energy level and refreshed my brain. With a fresh brain, your thoughts and ideas are more likely to flow. You’re less likely to find yourself half asleep in front of your computer trying to figure out what to write.
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January 27th, 2011
Samy Ouzeau
“If constructive thoughts are planted positive outcomes will be the result. Plant the seeds of failure and failure will follow”. Sidney Madwed
I recently wrote an article on how to make and use positive affirmations effectively and I thought that it will be a good idea to inspire you a list of positive affirmations that you may want to use to increase your motivation level and will power.
Positive affirmations for studying.
Studying comes easily to me.
I love studying.
My memory is really good and I can recall with ease.
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