Hey, it’s your girl Afifah, back with another post. Lately, I had ditched my idea of starting a blog about gender equality because I realized that I wasn’t a very serious person. Doing a serious project puts me under a lot of stress and makes me want to do the topic less, it makes me feel like I’m forced to do something I don’t want and that clearly tells me I’m not passionate about that topic, especially if I give up on it. First I was a little hard on myself for quitting so soon but soon I realized that quitting is a part of life and we can learn from our mistakes, like the way I learned that I’m not a serious person. I might have quit one project but fortunately, a fellow classmate and good friend of mine, Katy, had an idea of doing a project with me that I would love to explore.

(Picture Credit:MEME TN)

Katy had introduced the topic of dancing to me. I know that Katy is pretty passionate about dancing, she had started dancing at the age of 4 and grow to love it and in the age of 9 she grow to love dancing so much it became a part of her, it became her passion. Because of her expertise in dancing she agreed to teach me how to dance and make me feel confident in dancing and once I do feel confident, I will teach her how to dance bollywood, which I think is really cool, teaching the teacher. Since Katy is kind of an expert dancer, I’m confident in her teaching me how to dance. We also discussed about how we would share our dancing improvements in a YouTube channel called Dance Exchange.

(Photo Credit:CC0 Public Domain)

Starting a YouTube channel is kind of a tough job because we have to keep our audience entertained, which kind of relates to one of the ISTE Standards, Creative Communicator. We have to express ourselves through the videos and how our day is going but also keep it interesting and fun, which can be a very hard process because people are different and they might have absolute different thoughts on the way we should present our “vlogs.” Also, in starting a YouTube video, we have to edit our vlogs a lot, which take up most of our time but in the end we do have fun dancing.

(Photo Credit: nikon ninja)

Dancing wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, I thought it be effortlessly and gracefully, like I saw in a dance video, but instead it was the exact opposite. While learning ballet from Katy, I learned that it wasn’t as simple as I thought it would be. I was confused on how to do most of the dance moves that Katy had taught me about and when I did know the steps, I would keep messing up. I looked more like a zombie swoon while I was dancing, not a graceful ballerina like my friend Katy. Katy only started with teaching me the easy basic dancing, like Ballet and soon she will teach me Contemporary, and Hip Hop. I haven’t dance for that long but I can say one thing, “simple dancing” isn’t really easy.  

(Picture Credit:MEME TN)

The Benefits Of Gratitude

Gratitude can help us improve both our emotional and physical health. Gratitude can include writing little notes to friends or writing what one is grateful for in a journal, they're endless ways to practice gratitude and no matter the way one practices it, you will wake up 10% happier. Gratitude makes people feel more thankful for the things around them and have a more positive vibe to them, gratitude makes one come alive and really pay attention to the little things around them. Weather you know it or not, we express gratitude everyday. We express gratitude when we get an A in class or get a promotion at work and the feeling that we get because of that is what we call gratitude.

Gratitude doesn't just make you feel better about yourself, it also helps you become a better person. Research has shown that gratitude makes a person less selfish and makes them happier about ones success. For example, someone gets a promotion at work and you didn't, instead of feeling envious, you feel happy about their success and celebrate with them. Sometimes when someone does feel envious, they take a look back at their happy memories and feel grateful for what they have, we become optimistic. Gratitude changes little bits of our life but it makes an big impact to our everyday lives.

One of the little things that Gratitude changes in our life is our health. We become a healthier person by practicing gratitude. Physical symptoms, like anxiety, depression, etc. are decreased by 16% by gratitude. We spend 19% more time exercising, which lower risk of getting diseases like type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. Gratitude even effects our sleep because of gratitude we get better sleeping quality and spend more time sleeping, which I personally struggle in. All of these can help extend our lifespan by a few months, maybe even years!

Gratitude also helps people socially. Gratitude increases self-esteem, which leads to easily trying to meet new people and talking to them with kindness, which helps keep a longer relationship and because of that there is a less feeling of isolation and loneliness. Gratitude also helps us keep more open-mind towards others and lets us be more forgiving.

Gratitude can effect our lives if we choose to do it. We can become better emotionally, physically, and socially, maybe even more. Who knew something so little could change peoples everyday lives? I didn't until now. Even practicing a little bit of gratitude can effect us so much. Start by small steps and write about 10 things you're grateful for and see how it effects your life.

Research sources 

"The 31 Benefits of Gratitude You Didn’t Know About: How Gratitude Can Change Your Life." HappierHuman. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2017.

"7 Scientifically Proven Benefits of Gratitude." Psychology Today. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2017.