WHOA lansi

Do you use social media in your daily life? Do you think it adds to your relationships with others, or takes away from them? And furthermore, do you think social media adds more positive or negative to your life? Write about your relationship with social media, and talk a bit about how you got started, and what role it plays in your world.

Oh, social media. I feel like this topic comes up often in conversation. I use many different forms of it often: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. I was one of the first of my friends to get a Facebook account, after the American friends I met in France insisted I join so we could easily keep in touch. I think I jumped on the Twitter bandwagon in 2008 & I joined Instagram a few year later when I finally got an iPhone. 

Everyone has different things that keep them going. Sometimes it’s the people around us, other times it might be what’s waiting for us on the other side of hard work. Whatever it may be, there’s usually some sort of motivation to get up every day, get things done, or maybe even go the extra mile. With that said, what would you say is your biggest motivation in life? Has it always been this way? 

Photo by @wanderingseth

I read this prompt on Sunday & have been thinking about it since. I knew that many people would post that their children are their biggest motivation, but I know this isn’t the case for me. We’re not there yet. I hope that someday it will be my biggest motivation, but that’s not what either of us wants right now.

We all encounter challenges on a daily basis. You may consider yours something small, like having enough time in the day to accomplish everything you set out to do, or it may be a bit bigger- perhaps something you have to overcome mentally or emotionally, or even a struggle when dealing with a difficult person. Whatever the case, take a look at your daily life- what would you say is your biggest challenge? Or if you have a past struggle you were able to overcome, how did you do it? This week, write about a challenge you currently deal with on a day to day basis, or discuss one you managed to get past.

I find this question a difficult one to answer. Are there people I find challenging to deal with? Yes, of course, there are. I’m not always an overly patient person so this is definitely something I struggle with regularly. I also tend to let go of that type of thing very quickly though. In the moment, I express my frustration, but it usually doesn’t carry over into my day to day. (The only person I see literally every day is N anyways. We tend to get along most of the time.)

I’d definitely say I sometimes struggle to accomplish everything I’ve set out to do for the day too. For the most part though, I’m fairly successful in my endeavours. Every once in a while I’ll overload my expectations, but I wouldn’t say this is a huge challenge for me.

If you had unlimited resources, what political or social issue, or area of scientific or medical exploration would you fund? Do you have a cause that is dear and near to your heart that you’d put your time, energy, and money into if you had the means? Tell us about it, along with a bit of background explaining where you’re coming from.

3haus Photographics

When I first read this prompt, I thought for sure I’d find a social issue to write about. That seems very me for some reason. I’ve always gravitated towards the arts side of things so science and medicine aren’t something that naturally jump out at me. I was never bad at science. Really, I was never bad at school. Most subjects came fairly easily to me so even though I regularly say I’m bad at math, that’s not entirely true. I’m disinterested in math. I didn’t excel at the subject because I decided I didn’t want to.

But this post isn’t about whether or not I was good at science or math or even english. This post is about something I hold very near and dear to my heart: health. In a world where we are, literally, surrounded by illness, it’s easy to see how important health is to happiness. If you don’t have your health, things can get pretty grim, pretty quickly.

I read a lot of research on the subject & find it very interesting. It also really bothers me that there seems to be so little being done to treat the cause behind an illness. Sure, we have lots of treatments for the symptoms, but I can’t help but think how great it would be if we could treat the root cause.

I personally believe that what we put into our bodies directly influences what we get out of them. & not just in terms of energy & competition. Proper fuel in sport & fitness does tend to generate more favourable results, however, I think there’s more to it than that. That may be slightly controversial, but I really believe it’s worth looking into. It makes sense to me that what we put in our bodies could be having an effect on some of the illnesses we’re seeing. & I think that’s worth exploring.

So if I had unlimited resources, I would dedicate them to that research. It’s currently not feasible to do these types of studies involving food since the necessary funding for such a thing would be huge. There are so many things you can’t control as well. It would definitely be a huge undertaking, but one that I think is worthwhile. I know I’ve personally benefitted from changing the things I eat & thinking about what I put in my body so I think having a better understanding of what’s truly happening could be a step in the right direction.

While there is a lot of information out there on the subject, there aren’t a lot of studies out there. I think the medical community would be more accepting of diet as a form of treatment if there were.

It’s hard to choose just one issue, of course, but this one is a big one for me. Having seen huge changes in people I know from changing their diet (& in myself as well), it’s hard knowing that it’s still not widely accepted in the medical world.

You can check out Danielle’s response over on her blog & find the links to many other posts in the comments.

They say hindsight is 20/20, and with good reason- looking back at something always gives us a better view. We’re often able to really see how our choices and decisions then shaped our today, and examine what we would have done differently given the chance. When looking back though, we often look way back, but for this exercise stay a little closer to present time and look back just 12 months. If you could go back just one year, what would you tell yourself? What advice would you offer about everything you’ve experienced?

This past year has felt like a big one. I’ve echoed this statement so often on this blog that I’m second guessing myself now as I say it, thinking everyone’s tired of hearing about this year. Here I am, believing wholeheartedly in the truth behind it, though.

Guys, this year.