IMPACT

Happiness has been, at times, like the green light in The Great Gatsby – an illustrious prize off in the distance that I could never quite reach. That is until I became far more observant about what influences my state of being, pulling apart variables and finding the factors that affect my happiness the most. For over seven years, Hugo Huijer, founder of Tracking Happiness, has tracked his sentiment levels every day. Through this meticulous study of his own emotions, he discovered ten core factors to his happiness. They are: Love Exercising Relaxing Career Friends Family Sleep Hobbies Traveling Health “Feeling happy leads to good life outcomes.” (Happiness Lab) Each individual may have a different top 10 factors of happiness, but I found these to be good points of discussion to briefly wa...

“I made it here,” I wrote to a mentor of mine while the sound of xylophones quietly trickled in the background. Direction has been an ever-evolving map for me. Instances where the paper folds over have placed creases in what I had assumed was my intended road. Hot take, but I must say the notion of Calvin’s perceived pre-destination certainly doesn’t consider the natural flow and state of things. I watched an interview with Zane Lowe and Ed Sheeran the other night about Ed Sheeran “returning to music” after an 18-month hiatus. He took the break after concluding years of touring for his records, the size of which exploded beyond anything he had perceived. It came from one idea – do a massive stadium tour and ensure that as many people hear and experience his music and story. But that was th...

The sun brings life to our planet. Photosynthesis. Plants, algae, and some bacteria take in oxygen and carbon dioxide from the soil and the air. They capture energy from the sunlight to make oxygen and chemical energy stored in glucose. The carbon dioxide is offset as chemical energy. It’s fascinating how the sun can spur this cycle; how a ray of light can give the gift of renewed existence day after day. With our continued observation of humans like flowers within a garden, it’s scientifically undeniable how good sunlight is for us. Sunlight is most known for helping us produce Vitamin D. More and more research shows that Vitamin D plays an essential role in regulating mood and reducing the risk of depression. Now, I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. The Pacific Northwest is notori...

Time passed so seamlessly when I was young. I had a wild fascination with trains. You’d walk into my room and see a Thomas the Tank Engine bedsheet set, train toys scattered about the floor. I would bring their world to life every day, hours passing by faster than the whirling train cars around my room. I can remember my joy; nothing else seemed to matter. One of the most powerful things I’ve ever possessed is the power of imagination. I knew how to love myself through projections that helped define a more loving reality to reside in. I had a sea of possibilities swimming within my head that I could dive into at any second. My dreams became bolder and more encapsulating, compensating for the instability around me. Toy train cars were not the only thing colliding at the time. I was the prod...

Wisdom. The highly regarded philosopher Plato believed that Wisdom was one of four core virtues of the soul. To be wise is to wield information against ignorance through positive action. When times get tough, it is easy for us to reject all that we have come to know, seemingly willfully ignorant of any advice life has supplied. I’ll be the first to say that such a reaction is valid and fair regarding our mental health. It is a return to what we knew; a familiar setting where we might potentially hurt ourselves and others. Yet if we continue to do repeatedly, our support network may be strained. Perhaps this reads as harsh, implying “you better be able to listen to yourself at all times and snap out of it.” That is not the case at all. Wisdom builds up over time. What is suggested here, and...

The past week has not been easy; humans unhinged at the ends of barrels and fuse of warheads. Chaos is on the airwaves, straddling every knuckle of your hands with an involuntary authority that pulls your cheeks to a grimacing expression. The garden is on fire, the flowers have long gone away in the fields where oil etches slurred lines into the soil, and explosions eclipse the sunsetting sun, setting the horizon ablaze. In the clutches of survivalism, we are not allowed to possess a state of positive wellbeing that we deserve as living human beings. Taking in the world in mere seconds as news articles swirl and sentiments are shared can be overwhelming – the horror when history books flicker their pages in frantic song and come to life to write another chapter. For me, this shortcircuitin...

Why care? It sounds harsh, but it is valid to ask. Why ought we care about the wellbeing of others outside of ourselves? During the past couple of years, navigating and learning your world as it was in lockdown, there was little brain space to consider how a public health crisis impacted other age groups. That wasn’t selfish; it’s hyper self-awareness in a trying time to keep yourself healthy. To adapt to that phrase of a “new normal.” As the word pandemic begins to be replaced with endemic, we ought to look around to check in on our neighbors in a meaningful way. I’d like to focus on one group in particular: college youth. There is a mental health crisis among college students today in the United States. There is a crisis occurring within a body of over 19 million people in our nation. Fo...

Individual desire can be deadly. Longing can lash all of our roots. Today, let my writing be a subtle question. A musician might tell you of the following ambitions: they want to be the best in their genre, play X or Y music festival and be released on Z label, or be on A playlist. This musician, let’s say a DJ for the sake of letters on a keyboard, hasn’t played a prime slot at a club in his home city yet. Other people are playing all the good slots with the main promotion groups. This DJ feels that it’s a competition, and they must beat others to grow worthy of playing at a club. This DJ is in a state of judgment as often “becoming the best” invites. Judgment comes from Ego. Esteemed psychologist Carl Jung refers to the ego as the conscious mind itself – our emotions, moods, and thoughts...