#lookpat

💭🍎☕️ some studio snapshots as we prepare for our final hand in tomorrow

Some of you may already know I run two Duolingo clubs: Japanese and Spanish. The Japanese one has taken off, filled to the brim and spots fill as soon as they open! I want the same thing for my Spanish club.

When you join, you instantly make several new friends and get accountability and motivation. The weekly XP challenge is always a blast and as a bonus, there's even a WhatsApp group dedicated to the club for free time chatting or language practice!

Please help me make this club a great learning environment and join me with the club code 6Y9R3Z!

Welcome to the second installment in this series! We’ve previously talked about presentation techniques and making a good first impression. Now let’s move on to what I’m sure is many people’s chief concern about presenting: dealing with nervousness.

The first and only thing you need to know is that nervousness is a completely, 100% natural response to being put on the spot. Literally everyone gets nervous, and if someone says they don’t, there are 3 reasons:

They’re lying, and/or think ‘nervousness’ only refers to shaking hands and armpit stains.

They’re a narcissist to some degree.

They’ve done presentations literally every day of their lives and have an incredible routine most of us will never, ever achieve.

Nervousness is a response that activates our fight-or-flight instinct, akin to what would happen in a life-or-death situation. It is all about fear of the unexpected. Think about this on a complete caveman-level. If you’ve once heard a bush rustle, and then immediately after, a grizzly bear charged out and ate your caveman friend alive in front of you, then, of course, you’re going to be wary of every bush rustling in the future. It is not logical, but it is natural. Your nervousness exists to force you to do something and change this uncomfortable situation – only, in a reality filled with interviews and screenings and presentations, you can’t always do that. What you can do is identify your reason for feeling nervous, and then apply some tools to minimize your feelings or just get them under control, because I’ll tell you right now that you can never make nervousness completely go away forever. Let’s take a look at the most common, broad reasons to feel nervous when you’re presenting.

I: You are worrying about others’ opinion of you.

Totally normal. Everyone does that. It’s part of being a social creature, hailing way back from when not being an accepted part of a group meant death. When you’re in front of an audience and feel like you’re under pressure or heavy scrutiny (because you are), then the natural course for your brain to take is that there is something wrong somewhere – and since it’s not with your audience, it must be yourself who is at fault! This is a lie. There is nothing wrong. It just feels that way because you are in an unnatural situation, and it’s good to remind yourself of that sometimes. All the time, really.

II: You are reading the body language of your audience wrong.

The next time you’re seeing a presentation – not giving one – take a look at people around you. What do they look like? I’ll bet you right now that almost none, if any at all, are smiling, or even looking interested. They probably look quite bored, or sour. That’s because they’re relaxing their facial muscles completely. They (and you!) are in a pack right now; safe from scrutiny or judgment. Why would you need to waste energy on fitting in? Go relax your face and body completely, and then stand in front of a mirror. You don’t look approachable at all. And as a presenter, this can very easily be interpreted as hostility, because when people relax completely, you cannot read them, and that is intimidating. In short, trying to gauge how well your presentation is going based on your audience’s body language is never going to work out for you. It is a terrible indicator of anything. Presenters who fall into the trap of being too unnerved by their audience’s body language often overcompensate in one of two ways: Either by making too many (horrible, un-situational) jokes or by giving up completely and turning into robots just reciting what they need to say without any emotion or movement. You cannot let your audience’s body language overwhelm you. Ignore it.

III: You are afraid of making mistakes.

Aren’t we all? Yes, absolutely. But mistakes, like nervousness, are entirely natural and unavoidable. Embrace them; get them over with. Acknowledge them without making them the new focus of the presentation. Mistakes are actually good – they make you seem more human, which instantly contributes to a good mood as was discussed in the first post; they make your presentation unique and ensures that your audience at least remembers something from that day, and can also help shake them out of a stupor if they’ve gotten bored or distracted. Repeat after me: Mistakes are good!

Tying this in with what I mentioned about the brain’s determination to find flaws somewhere, there is often the misconception that everything has to be 100% unproblematic and perfect. It’s an easy leap to take that if one person is yawning during your presentation, then everyone thinks that this is the most boring crap they’ve ever laid ears to. Only that’s not true at all – you have to keep in mind that nobody loves everyone and that perfection in the human eye doesn’t exist. You will never, ever, please 100% of your audience members; you will never, ever, ace every interview you go to. You will never be able to please 100% of the people you meet, so stop trying, and stop thinking that that’s what you have to do.

One Way to Deal

One way you can deal with feeling nervous is to visualize it. You need to separate your nervousness from your body and your self. Just like studying, drinking, or working, it’s not something you are, it’s something you do. So visualize your nervousness outside of your body. It can look like anything – a blob, a blueberry pie, so long as you know that it isn’t you. And then go give your nervousness a good old TEDtalk - out loud, very important it’s out loud. Tell it how happy you are that it looks after you and keeps you out of danger, but this is a completely harmless situation, and you’re actually excited and happy about this. Tell it positive things, and only positive things. Take 1-5 minutes to do this. Do it the night before you have to present. Hell, find a secluded bathroom an hour before you have to go up and perform this exercise. If you suffer from anxiety or stage fright, fear not; I will address some more tools to manage this in the third and last post.

Thank you so much for reading this far! Visit this tag to see the posts in this series in order Third and final post going up tomorrow!

i’m always trying to find ways to lessen my impact on the environment but being a uni student means that most of the time i’m trying to find a balance between realistic long term actions and sustainability. so below, i’ve shared some of the ways i currently help lessen my environmental impact as well as some habits i’d like to slowly integrate into my life in the future.

bring your own water bottle - i think this one is pretty straight forward. i’m very lucky in the sense that my university provides a lot of refill stations. i usually pack my water the night before with my lunch so i don’t have to stress about it the next day. plus!! with my own water bottle, i can add lemon slices or mint etc. in winter, i like to use a thermos and bring honey lemon water, hot tea, or just not chilly water.

pack your own lunch - this not only helps you save money but also makes sure you know what you’re eating. i have a perfect sandwich sized container as well so it means i don’t have to use plastic wrap for anything. since i’m a vegetarian, most of my meals are pretty straightforward and feature rice, pasta, eggs etc. that i can buy in bulk with less plastic packaging as well.

bring your own utensils/keep cup - if you enjoy coffee, either sit in the cafe or bring your own reusable keep cup! my university is really conscious about this so all the nearby cafes let us bring our own cups and sometimes you even get discounts for not using single use cups. when i do go out to eat as well, i try to bring my own utensils so i don’t have to use the single use plastic (or even those wooden chopsticks) this also applies to straws for bubble tea or smoothies.

switch milks - i know a lot of people already have coconut, soy, almond milks with their coffee/tea due to lactose intolerance/other medical/personal reasons. many coffee shops do charge for plant milks but if they don’t then it’s an option since the dairy industry produces a lot of methane (also plant based milks are healthier). i don’t personally buy milk often because i don’t drink it so it’s not a big dent in my budgeting but if it is then don’t worry about it.

reuse notebooks  - on top of recycling my scrap paper, i reuse notebooks that i never finished. instead of organising my notebooks in terms of papers or courses, i separate them by area of study so it means that i can use the same notebook for 3/4 years for politics or english. otherwise, i use the backs of notebooks to write practice essays, do past papers, doodle, do random brain dumps etc. essentially i treat unused paper in notebooks like loose leaf.

buy pen refills and do pen audits - find out what pens you actually use!! i know for me, i’ve felt pressured by the studyblr “aesthetic” to buy stationary that i don’t have a use for and it just results in unnecessary consumerism. i use roughly 10 pens at most as well as some art supplies but for my pens, i try to use refills instead of replacing the entire pen. in the future, i’d like to also stop using correction tape and be comfortable enough to just cross things out. i have to use a wide range of pencils for art but in general use, i simply own 3 mechanical pencils and refill the lead instead.

carry a reusable shopping bag - recently, my country banned single use plastic bags so now everyone uses reusable shopping bags or no bags. although you can buy brown paper bags for 20 cents in supermarkets, you never know what you’ll need to carry around so i like to bring a tote bag.

invest in a quilt - i am super guilty of getting cold really easily and that means i usually have the heater/thermostat on in winter when i’m studying but recently i’ve come to realise that i abuse that a lot. so instead of automatically going to turn on the heater, i try to see if i’m wearing enough first or getting a quilt to put on my lap when i feel cold. this way i don’t have to rack a super high power bill in winter.

change your mailing options - previously i’d get mail from my bank regarding bank statements etc. now i’ve opted for monthly statements online instead saving the paper that they’d use mailing me, similarly i no longer sign up for coupon books, circulars, random magazines etc.

thrift shop your clothes - i feel like this is a really big trend in my city but i’m trying to only thirft shop my clothes now instead of buying new. the thrift shops that i have access to are really good quality and it’s basically a reseller where people who bring their clothes in get 50% of the sale. this does mean that clothes are pricier than big chains like h&m but it also means that you have to think about the purchase for longer + a lot of the finds are super unique and will most likely last longer.

mend your own clothes - in a similar sense to thrifting, don’t just throw out a shirt because it’s missing a button. a 20 minute youtube tutorial can make sure that shirt remains a staple item in your wardrobe. plus sewing leads to darning your socks, knitting, crochet, or even making your own clothes.

consider epilating/laser hair removal - i used to go through so many plastic razors during summer because i was someone who preferred no hair. i know there are many people who don’t mind their body hair and that’s great! for those of you who do however, considering an epilator (multi use) or even laser hair removal (permanent). both are more expensive however they both also use less plastic (compared to fornightly/monthly throwing away of razors)

bulk make your own snacks - i really want to make my own museli bars in the future since i eat them a lot. usually i try to limit my snacks to things like carrot/celery sticks, fruit, nuts, berries etc. but i try to not get individually packaged snacks (they can be more expensive as well since you’re paying for convenience). this is definitely something i can work on but i’d like to be able to bulk make my own granola, museli, dips etc. in the future.

replant your vegetables - this is a lot more achievable for me since the place i live is rural in land style. currently my family has a multitude of fruit trees, tea trees and we’ve recently gotten into reusing our vegetable scraps. for celery/cabbage/lettuce/etc. you can replant the root area. the same goes for spring onions (which are super easy to grow! and garlic cloves!) most vegetables are quite easy to grow with just a bit of googling. even if you don’t have a lot of space but would like to give this a shot, consider adding some herbs to your indoors plant collection.

visit farmers markets - unfortunately, this isn’t that big a thing where i live but i remember going to a few as a kid and the produce is much fresher, the atmosphere is lovely, and it’s a good way to source food and products. many stalls also sell premade items like jams, sauces, baked goods, soap etc. so if you find yourself busy then it may be a possible investment to buy from farmers markets.

some other habits: composting, public transport, bicycling, bamboo toothbrushes, natural home cleaners, raising your own animals, beeswax wraps, cloth napkins/handkerchiefs, buy in bulk, use rain water to water your plants, invest in a menstrual cup, choose wooden over plastic

disclaimer: you don’t necessarily need to buy anything to be more environment friendly!! some things on this list do suggest it but look at your life currently, if you don’t drink coffee or tea on the go then there’s no need for a keep cup etc. invest in products, don’t just buy them because they’ve been advertised.also, i’d like to iterate that whilst climate change is a very real and very scary threat,  personal use by the general population only results in a small part of it so please don’t feel like you’re letting anyone down if your personal situation or any part of your life prevents you from doing more than a few things to help the environment. as long as you’re not being dick to the environment and taking 4 hour showers, using 500 plastic straws a day then doing your best is enough. if you can’t do anything more in lessening your environmental footprint, then that’s okay. other people might be able to so even just spreading the news could help a lot.

if you have any other habits that you do not in this list then please tell me as well so we can all learn from each other !

yesterday’s mood: i went to a faculty meeting as a first year fine arts representative yesterday and it made me realise how much i missed meetings - ended up treating myself to a qq passionfruit green tea from gong cha!

26/08/2019 

two roads diverged in a wood, and i— i took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.

- the road not taken, robert frost, 1918

since dark academia has had a resurgence recently and encourages us all to memorise poetry and quotes, i’ve made a little list !! note: the resurgence of dark academia excludes the racism, sexism, overall rudeness, discrimination, and class elitism that was a major aspect of previous dark academia periods. if your modern dark academia includes these concepts, do not interact with this post.

―  

“In anything fit to be called by the name of reading, the process itself should be absorbing and voluptuous; we should gloat over a book, be rapt clean of ourselves and rise from the persural, our mind filled with the busiest, kaleidoscopic dance of images, incapable of sleep or of continuous thought.”   ― Robert Louis Stevenson, A Gossip on Romance. 

“Gentle book hunting is a pleasant occupation.” - Oliver Edwards, Mock Laurel. 

“What, after all, is more seductive than the prospect of sinning in libraries?” ― Michael Dirda, An Open Book: Chapters from a Reader’s Life.

“And the great White Whale sped away. And the sea rolled on as it had been rolling for five thousand years . . .” ― Herman Melville, Moby Dick

“You speak an infinite deal of nothing.” ― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.” ―  Oscar Wilde, De Profundis. 

“O teach me how I should forget to think” ― William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

“All books are divisible into two classes: the books of the hours, and the books of all Time.” ― John Ruskin, Sesame and Lillies

“Time, which sees all things, has found you out.” ― Sophocles, Oedipus Rex

“I am haunted by the ghost of my father, I think that should allow me to quote Hamlet as much as I please.” ― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

"I wasted time, and now doth time waste me." — William Shakespeare, Richard II

"By all means break the rules, and break them beautifully, deliberately, and well." — Robert Bringhurst

“While art thrives on the blazing colours of scandal, literature blossoms on the dark soil of tragedy.” ― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gladfly

"If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking." — Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood