While most of this blog has focused on mediation, and techniques that are a direct offshoot of meditation, I understand meditation is not for everyone. I could go on and on about how much meditation has done for me, and how much I like it, but for some it would not change anything. There are also people who tried mediation, done everything right, and still just do not like it. For many, even if meditation is not working, they are left looking for ways to relax. They may turn to their phones or to Netflix, but the truth is these are not relaxing practices no matter how hard you try to turn them into one.

Lucky for all of you “anti-meditators” there are ways to relax that do not include direct mediation or technology. While these techniques do have a meditation basis, they are more alternative versions. The first technique is the “happy” or “calming” place technique. Everyone has that one place that calms them down and gives them piece of mind. In a moment of stress, pause, and think of this place. Do not just think of it in passing, imagine every little detail. Go through each of your senses and imagine what you would experience with each one in this relaxing place. What would you see, hear, feel, taste, and touch? Go through each sense and describe it. You will find that with very little effort you can transport yourself to this place. Once you finish with each sense and really experience the place and the relaxation you associate with it, you will feel much better. The sense of calm you associate with the specific happy place will transfer onto that moment and you will feel a sense of calm wash over you.

Another relaxation technique for someone who may be more body-minded and not have the patience for sitting still during mediation is progressive muscle relaxation. The idea is to intentionally tense each muscle, and then to release the tension. You should start in your feet by tensing the muscles in your toes by curling them. Notice how your foot feels when it is tense and hold this tension for five seconds. Now let them relax and notice how it feels to relax. Continue this progression all the way up your legs, muscle by muscle, and then through your body up to your head. When you finish this practice, your whole body should feel a general sense of relaxation and a release of stress. While it is understandable meditation is not for everyone, there are other less mediation focused ways of relaxing that can be both useful and helpful in times of stress.

Abortion for many years has been the heated center of a debate in America, dividing up candidates and families alike. People on both sides of this issue choose strong and often harsh arguments to make their respective points. As time has gone on, this debate has become more and more contentious, and both sides do whatever they can to get their point across.

Logos is used to persuade and make arguments sound more reasonable, however the tendency to strip down logos to a “bare bones” version can lead to points that often come off as ridiculous and even upsetting. A good example of this tendency is a pro-life bumper sticker that is currently for sale online which states, “One half of patients who enter an Abortion Clinic don’t come out alive.” It seemingly uses logos through an unsupported and quite possibly fake statistic. The logos used in this bumper sticker is not as much logic, as it is a call to consider the nature of an abortion clinic.

The “fact” that is put on this bumper sticker urges the viewer to take what they presume happens within the confines of an abortion clinic and consider it in a new light. The creators of the bumper sticker want viewers to consider all of what they beleive are the worst parts of an abortion clinic and throw it in the viewers face with a harsh and critical conclusion. Whether or not the actual logos on the bumper sticker is factually correct does is not of huge importance for the overall effectiveness. Instead, it is used more to invite assumptions and conclusions from the viewers about the way abortion clinic operates and the results of these operations. The phrasing is so harsh, shocking, and to the point that even the lack of factual accuracy contained in the words still gets the point across to the viewer.

Many of the strategies discussed in this passion blog have danced around the idea of mediation without calling it meditation. Mediation can be an elusive concept, especially for people who are particularly busy, such as college students. People who are not educated or do not know anything about mediation tend to jump to conclusions about the nature of it. They assume to mediate you have to be sitting in the woods or on a colorful carpet, and have music chiming around you, but none of this is true or necessary.

For a long time, I jumped to conclusions about what it meant to meditate. I wanted nothing to do with it and I did not think I would help or benefit me in any way. To be perfectly honest, I simply did not have the patience for mediation. At the time I felt it was more worth my time to sit and watch Netflix when I wanted to relax rather than work to get in touch with myself. What I soon found out was that no matter how hard it tried, Netflix could never ease my mind in the same way meditation could.

I really wanted to like mediation, but I just could not figure out how to get it to “work.” I would start with good intentions and usually very energetically, but as the mediation session would go on, I would soon become bored and my mind would wonder. I was no longer paying attention, but rather thinking about the next thing I had to do or what I had just done. There were also times when I mediated and got so bored, I fell asleep. I was frustrated because it was just not working for me, and no matter how much I tried my stress and anxiety only increased.

The biggest realization I ended up making about mediation, and the thing I would say to other college students, is that you need to make mediation a routine. Mediation is one of those things you need to practice, it does not just come to you. When I committed to mediation and got serious about using it to reduce my stress, little by little I got it to work. It was not that one day I woke up and it worked, but over time, and the more I did it the more it became natural, and the more relaxed I felt afterwards. The first step to successful mediation is to start incorporating in it in daily, and the rest of it will work itself out and fall into place.

For my paradigm shift essay I will be looking at media trends in America, and more specifically how the media and the way people consumed information in America changed over time. I will be looking at this topic in reference to the impact these changes had on the political atmosphere of America and other aspects of American politics.

In a day and age where everyone gets worked up about the nature of the media, journalism and technology, and how it impacts so many aspects of politics, it is natural to wonder: how did we get here? When you start to trace the history of politics and media back, even just a few decades, the results are fascinating. The way the public is reached has changed over time and can give us great context as to what is happening now, and potentially what may happen in the future.

The starting point of the paper is going to be the “Party Press Era” which lasted from around 1780 to the 1830s. This describes the start of newspapers in early America, and their large political affiliation. The next era occurs after the invention of the penny press where newspapers became a type of “mass media.” This era goes from the 1830s to the 1890s. The 1890s to around the 1930s is the next era, and when “yellow journalism” was popular in the media. In the 1930s radio become popular and the nature of media shifted again. This era where radio was the dominant force of media lasted from around 1930 to the early 1950s. In 1952, the first TV political ad aired, and other political developments were made on Television.  TV became the new media medium for political issues. The first televised presidential debate was another advancement and a new era, beginning in 1960, often called the “Golden Age of Presidential Television” (lasting from 1960 into the 1990s). The next era came after the expansion of the internet in the late 1990s. From this point until social media become the dominant force around 2008, the internet played the largest role in politics and journalism. The last era of media transformation in relation to politics starts in 2008 and continues to today. Today social media is the primary source information and the way politicians choose to communicate.

My main question for this project will be:

How did changes and trends in media influence impact politics and the political atmosphere in America?

Some subsidiary question to guide my paper include:

How did the changes in media coincided with developments in technology?

How did the public and their consumption of media influence the way media and politics changed?

In what ways did the evolution of past media build and shape the current social media trends in politics?

It happens often without you noticing it. You are sitting there, maybe with friend, maybe in class, and you start to think about it. The thing, whether its school work, appointments, or whatever else is the cause of stress, it sneaks into your thoughts. You keep thinking about it, stressing over every little aspect, and you feel yourself floating away from the moment in time, and floating into your thoughts, floating into your anxiety. In that moment you are not present in what is going on around you. You are not existing in that moment, but instead in your head. No matter how hard you try to refocus it is just no use. You are too far away, too distracted. You become frustrated, just wanting to be able to turn it off, and move on, but anxiety is not that easy.

While this part of stress and anxiety can be the hardest part to control and move past. There are ways to “ground” yourself and bring you out of that perpetual cycle in your head. “Grounding” literally implies bringing you back down to earth which may seem like a funny way of thinking of it, but for people who have struggle with this phenomenon, it is accurate. Bringing yourself out of your headspace and back into reality can be a useful way of combating anxious thoughts.

One of the easiest grounding strategies is called “5…4…3…2…1” and it both distracts you from whatever is taking up your headspace and brings you back into the present moment. The sequence has you check in with all five senses and make lists. Start with sight, and list five things you can see. It could be things like, “I see the tree outside,” or “I see the cup on the table.” Next move to touch and list four things you can feel in that moment. This could be anything from your feet on the floor to your hands touching something. Next list three things you can hear. These could be things like the people talking next to you, or the birds outside. Now list two things you can smell. If you struggle with this step just list two of your favorite smells. Examples for this include, the beach or a crisp fall day. Lastly list one thing you can taste. Again, if you cannot taste anything in that moment, list your favorite taste, for example, pizza. In the moment you may get frustrated if you cannot think of examples, but it is important to stick with it all the way from five to one. You will find that when you stick with it and finish what you started you will feel both calmer and more present.

https://copingskillsforkids.com/blog/2016/4/27/coping-skill-spotlight-5-4-3-2-1-grounding-technique

1943: “He is Guilty for the War”

2019: Trump and Israel

When is the shock of an ad too much, and when does it simply go too far? The answer can be shown in a Dettol Soap ad depicting a man who presumably just committed a murder needing more than just “ordinary” soap to clean up. The ad’s overly graphic visuals, the way it misreads the audience’s relatability, and how it understates the logos, makes viewers question the intended message.

While trying to convey a “messy” situation the creators display incredibly disturbing visuals. The man in the foreground has an arm covered in blood, and splatters are seen on his shirt. There is also another man in the background also covered in blood with a knife sticking out of his chest. This display is far too vivid for a soap ad, and is overly shocking and appalling to viewers, distracting from the commercial appeal.

The ad also misreads the intended audience’s relatability. The creators of the ad most likely thought viewers would find this ad funny and relatable, however it is very hard for most people to relate to someone who has just committed murder. The element of comedic relatability intended with this audience backfires, as the creators totally misinterpret what the audience would be able to identify with.

The logos in the ad is understated, hurting the rhetorical appeal.  The logos on the ad, seen in the statistic about the effectiveness of the soap on the bottom, is the one thing this ad has going for it.  The logos is effective at showing how good their soap really is, but it is only in fine print at the bottom of the ad.  For the ad to be effective, and maybe a little less offensive, it would have benefited the creators to make this a more pronounced element of the ad.

Controversial ads are nothing new to our society. Companies are constantly thinking of the new campaigns that leave an impact on its consumers, which many times is through shock. There is certainly a limit to how much is too much, and the Dettol ad exemplifies this idea.

Most people do not take time on their normal day-to-day to stop and take time to reflect on all the good in their lives. This is especially true for those who are so distracted and stressed by other things swirling around in their lives. The being grateful does not have to be reserved for Thanksgiving dinner. Taking time to be grateful can be a powerful tool to remain focused and keep an anxious mind at rest.

I first started to think about gratitude and what it meant a few months ago while mindlessly scrolling through Instagram. I follow a man on Instagram named Shane Burcaw who has a condition called Spinal Muscular Atrophy which slowly degenerates his muscles. Sounds like a sad story, right? It is exactly the opposite. He does not let his condition stop him from living his best life and enjoying all the things he has. That day on Instagram, I saw one of his posts where he listed what made him smile that week. He went through each day of the week and recorded one thing that made him happy. Some of the examples were simple everyday things that just meant a lot to him in that moment, while other things were more significant.

The time in my life when I first saw this post was a time marked with very high stress. The things I would stress over would be the only things I would think about, and I desperately looked for something that would redirect my mind and pull me out of this funk. That day I saw the post I decided I would also try to record one thing that made me smile each day. Once I started, I realized how easy it was, and how much more I paid attention to what was going on around me.

I have been recording one thing that makes me smile for a few months now, and it has been a simple, yet effective way of keeping myself grateful for everything around me. Not only has it been helpful for me to reflect on each day, but it also helps when I am having a bad or stressed day. It forces me to look for a good in a day of bad, and essentially refocuses my mind. Also, now that I have acquired a few months’ worth of things that have made me smile, if I have a particularly bad day I sometimes go back and read over what I have written. It never fails to bring a smile to my face.

When overly stressed or anxious it is very easy to fall down the spiral of negativity. For example, you find out there is a large project due this week. The first thing your mind probably thinks is something along the lines of, “I cannot do this, it is never going to get done in time.” It is all too common for our minds to go to the worst-case-scenario in the face of stress. When it seems to be coming at you from all sides the easiest thing to do is jump to conclusions, but this practice is unproductive and ultimately destructive to your wellbeing.

A significant part of the out-of-control feeling associated with excessive stress and anxiety stems from the negative tone the brain likes to take in these moments. Changing the negative anxiety-driven conclusions to positive ones is a fool proof way to regain control and calm your mind. Multiple research studies revealed the benefits associated with changing this natural negative thought tendency to a positive one. People who implemented positive thinking into their lives admitted to improved levels of anxiety and stress. The results of these studies may mean a solution to stress could be redirecting your self-talk in a more positive and productive direction.

The easiest way to begin the practice of positivity is through affirmations. You probably already use affirmations every day, but chances are they are negative in nature. The key is replacing these negative affirmations with positive ones. Your mind is a beautiful and easily reprogrammable thing, and once you start to prioritize your positive affirmations, you will be able to focus on what you can do instead of what you cannot do.

Start making positive affirmations part of your daily life. They do not have to be fancy to be effective. It could be something as simple as, “I can do this.” The important thing is that it is helpful to you. Repeat this affirmation through out the day. A key is not to just repeat it in the moments when your really need it (although this is important), but consistently throughout the day, even when you are not stressed. Make sure to relax as you repeat the affirmation, and listen to the words you repeat so you can really take them in. The more you commit this practice to your daily routine, the more effective it will become. It is time to retrain the brain, ease your stress, and put on your positive pants.

https://www.successconsciousness.com/positive-affirmations.html

https://www.anxiety.org/positive-thinking-may-lessen-anxiety-gad-pathological-worry