Tales of a starry night

It’s not admirable, even though it’s glorified. You hear in the stories that ‘such and such’ tragic thing happened in their lives which caused their change. Well, guess what, those who’ve achieved things did it with conscious change and conscious change of their environment. The news fail to mention all the effort that it took for them to get there. The reality is that what think about wake up calls are fake. After one happens it still takes years for them to make all the changes you see today.

Waiting for a wake up call is just an excuse. Some logic you’ve convinced yourself in order to not act.

You’re scared of taking actions because what if it doesn’t make a difference?

Well, what do you have to lose?

Some time?

Guess what: you’ll get that back!

You know how? Once you still living well, and look after your body and your mind’s health, you’ll finally have the energy to clean up after yourself, do all the things you’ve always wanted to do. And finally get your life back!

For example, for every hour you exercise you get a day of health. I would have said an extra day of life, but what’s the point of living extra days when you’re older unless it is pain-free, free of suffering, full of peace and happiness.

You know what - if you’re waiting for a way up call, this is it!

WAKE UP!

Stop wondering, ‘Hmm one day I’ll change.“

Inaction and laziness is caused by either lack of physical energy or mental energy.

You can get physical energy by upholding the 5 pillars of health I’ll talk about later.

Lack of mental energy is caused by the wrong mindset.

What’s the point anyway mentality. I’ll do it later delusion.

The kind of helplessness society has carved into your mind so you don’t think for yourself and remain consumers. Because they think that the economy depends on it. Not realising freethinkers drive it all.

By the way, guess what! It takes massive energy to resist. Energy makes way for more energy. Action leads to more action. Just think of what your ‘resistance to positive change’ action has caused. Disappointing habits, that leads to a constant cycle of problems. But if you could just turn that energy to nourishing your mind and body you can get massive return on investment you will wonder why you didn’t start sooner.

The root cause of those thoughts is fear. But do you want your life dictated by fear or a life lived well and full?

You can do it.

I know because I’ve been there. I know change is hard.

You have to trust me on this: I believe you CAN do it. Despite what others think. Including if you don’t believe you can. You need to act on the faith that you and your life will be amazing, if not better.

Faith is confidence in certain knowledge. Confidence usually happens if you have experience. Which is why I suggest using the first thirty days on a trial basis, just to prove you can, and as long as you done it a couple times a week for the first month, you gain the confidence in yourself, believe that it’s possible. I have confidence in the knowledge that you can do it. Prove it to me, better yet. Prove it to yourself. The amount of self-satisfaction you get is indescribable.

If it possible for a human being to do it, why not me? Why not you? We live in a world where you have the freedom and free will to choose our life path. Design it. Shape it into whatever pathway you want. The power is in your hands.

(here are some study tips straight from my psych notes)

1. interest: the brain prioritizes by meaning, value, and relevance so u remember things better if ur interested

find a study partner

do extra practice or research

teach it to someone else (this works so well!)

2. intent: be actively paying attention. very little learning actually takes place without attention

use a concentration check sheet (every time u get distracted, put a check on ur sheet. this is supposed to program ur mind to pay attention)

while u read, talk back to the author

ask questions during lectures (this is scary ik!! but do it!)

3. basic background: make connections to what u already know

preview and skim the material before u read it. or google it!

write out a list of vocab words before a lecture and leave some spaces between them to fill in during the lecture

read ahead of lectures

watch crashcourse tbh

4. selectivity: start by studying whats important

look for bolded words, graphics, pictures, chapter review questions in ur readings

listen for verbal clues like emphasis and repetition during lectures

make urself a study guide as u read and write down questions for urself to answer later as review (kinda like cornell notes)

5. meaningful organization: u can learn/rmr better if u group ideas into diff categories

apply vocab words to ur life

make flashcards and sort them (try not to have more than seven items in one category!)

use mnemonics

6. recitation: saying ideas aloud in ur own words strengthens synaptic connections! when u say something aloud u r forcing urself to pay attention

after u read, ask urself questions

talk abt what u learned w/ classmates outside of class

again, teach someone else

7. visualization: ur brain’s quickest and longest-lasting response is to images

convert info into a chart or graph

draw it out

make a mental video of a process

look at picture/video examples

8. association: memory is increased when facts are consciously associated w something u already know. memory = making neural connections

ask urself: is this something i already know?

9. consolidation: give ur brain some time to establish a neural pathway

make a list of what u remember from class

review notes at the end of the day, every day

stop after reading each prg to write a question in ur notes

make ur own practice quiz

10. distributed practice: we all know cramming doesnt work but we do it anyway! but yeah short and frequent study sections work better

make a daily/weekly study schedule

create a time budget/time tracker (track everything ur doing for a week and see how u can be more efficient w/ the time u waste)

divide the reading/vocab by the number of days before an exam and do a little bit each day (u can use sticky notes to divide ur reading)

other tips:

stop stressing! this sounds stupid and it isnt going to be easy, but anxiety causes u to lose focus. try ur best to think positively. sleep a lot. minimize ur caffeine intake. take a walk maybe

when u need to remember something, look upward or close ur eyes (when ur eyes are open ur using visual parts of ur brain that u might not need to be using)

find a rival! (like the person right above u in class rank) secretly compete w/ them (envy can improve mental persistence bc it makes u focus more intensely) but dont overdo it! 

walking and sleeping build memory storage in ur brain

eat flavonoids! (grapes, berries, tea leaves, cocoa beans make neurons in the brain more capable of forming new memories + increase blood flow to the brain)