FroshMemo Archived Issue 26 Spring 2021

Check your degree progress and plan Fall 2021 courses:

• Check your Degree Progress Report (DPR) to ​review remaining requirements ​and plan for fall courses.
   
• ​If you have questions about your DPR or need support, please make an advising appointments with your ​assigned advisor from ​the Undergraduate Advising Center through Navigator.
  • ​Your advisor can assist you with reviewing the Degree Progress Report and can help you plan for next semester.
  • Your advisor can also help you affirm your choice of majors and can offer referrals to faculty advisors in your major (if needed).

Meditation, though often thought of as being a practice for the spiritually inclined, is actually something that anyone can practice, at any point in their day!  Oftentimes, we see an activity such as meditation as being low on the list of priorities in our daily lives, and thus it can easily be swept under the rug of the list of “To-Do’s” in an average day.  However, I would like to pose the argument that this should be one of the most essential activities that we, especially as college students undergoing an unprecedented worldwide event, should try to complete daily.  Between the stressors of various assignments, midterms, and the quizzes involved in academic life, as well as the outside tension that may be present in our personal lives, it can be quite simple to slip into a mental or physical funk.  However, these are issues that may arise that can largely be reduced or diminished entirely by simply taking some time to yourself to observe your breathing, enjoy some quiet, and recenter oneself.  

One such study by the name of “Mantra Meditation Programme for Emergency Department Staff: A Qualitative Study” viewed the effects of meditation in emergency responders, providing results that coincide with the power of meditation.  Results from study describe that, “Meditation might represent a viable tool to develop attention and awareness, improve emotion regulation and improve their capacity to cope with stress, which may impact their workplace well-being, wider health service, patient safety and quality of care” (Lynch et al., 2018).  While this is useful information, one might be wondering, what do emergency responders have to do with college student stress?  Simply think of the responsibilities these responders are often tasked with and the stresses these tasks bring, these professionals having been proven by research to undergo the most stress out of any profession.  If meditation can aid in reducing the impacts of tension on these individuals, ponder on the impact it could have on our own lives as college students now!  Personally, meditation has been a way of fixing myself in the present when my head is often caught up in the past or future, and helps in both observing the emotions I feel and what to do with them, and I hope some of you can experience the same.

What’s the 411 About the 415?

Dear Alli,

First, it was the time change, and now, it is the weather change. As the weather warms, how do I keep cool?

Your Fellow Gator,

April May

Dear April,

Do not sweat! This cold-blooded reptile knows a thing or two about how to keep cool! The following is a list of recommendations on how to keep cool:

• Drink water throughout the day
• Make/Eat a popsicle
  • Link to “26 Insanely Easy Two-Ingredient Popsicles”
• Wear light-colored, breathable clothing
  • Fabric suggestions: Cotton, Linen

See ya later, Gator!

XOXO,

Alli

P.S. Do YOU have questions without answers? Ask Alli by filling out this form!