The gut-brain connection is exactly what it sounds like, a connection between your gut and your brain, but it might not be what you think. In the gut-brain connection, studies have shown that anxiety can link to stomach problems and stomach problems can link to anxiety. People might often ask “Do you have butterflies in your stomach?” or “Do you feel nauseous” and these are usually asked to see how you might be feeling at the time, whether that be angry, anxious, sad, among many other feelings. 

With that being said, the connection goes both ways. Your gut can send signals to the brain and the brain can send signals to the gut. As a result of this, your brain and gut can communicate with each other on how they might be in trouble and as an outcome, we see the issue we all deal with from time to time; feelings and emotions that we do not want.

Some common symptoms that you might find include, but are not limited to:

Anxiety

Anger

Depression

Sadness

Nervous

Nauseous

Heartburn

Abdominal cramps

Loose stools

After learning about the gut-brain connection, ask yourself, have I ever felt this connection before? Has this ever affected me? Why did this happen to me? Who or what might have caused it? Will it happen again? 

The gut-brain connection is no joke. There will be times in your life when you might have a presentation, go to an interview, run around, talk to new people, or do any other activity, and these can and most likely will cause some level of stress, anxiety, and nervousness. 

Overall, all of these feelings and emotions are entirely normal, but, if they happen too much, at random moments in time, for no reason, seek some help and do some extra research on where your specific problem might be rooting out from. When seeking help, ask a friend, teacher, boss, parents, and even a doctor; after all, studies have found that psychologically-based approaches lead to greater improvement in gut-brain connections. 

Sources:

• https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/the-gut-brain-connection
• https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/the-brain-gut-connection

Hello everyone, in this blog we’re going to be discussing the topic of being indecisive. For some people, one of the most important decisions of your life is right around the corner(choosing the university you wish to go to) or maybe you have a difficult decision you need to take because of the circumstances of your life, and this is why we want to do this article so you can make the best decision possible. The most common reason why people are indecisive is the fear of making the wrong decision. This is because you can think about how others would think about the decision that you’re making or maybe the stress of the consequences of your actions.

Being indecisive isn’t that bad because you second guess your decisions which gives you the time to think about it more, but if you think about it too much it’s going to be a problem. Because this could turn out in a bad situation, this is some ways to overcome this indecision:
1) Forget the fear of making a bad decision- think about the pros and cons of the decision so you can be sure of making the right decision.
2) Tune into your emotions- people tend to overthink the situation because the information that you researched isn’t helping in assuring your decision, think about what is best for you as a person.
3) Practice on the small stuff- Start by making a small decision so you can be ready for a big decision
4) Ask yourself: Would this affect me in 10 years?- If your answer is yes you should think about the decision precisely, but if your answer is no, then you shouldn’t worry about it that much. This could help in calming you down and relieving stress.
5) Learn to trust yourself- Don’t doubt yourself too much and trust yourself in the decision you make. If you thought about it well and thought about every situation possible(good or bad) then you shouldn’t be doubting yourself so much.

We hope that this blog has helped you in some way. Feel free to approach us in any situation or doubt you have. Thank you and Goodbye!!!

References:
https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/analysis-paralysis#overthinking

Being present is not as easy as it sounds. We spend most of our day worrying about something that happened yesterday or overthinking about the future. Being present means being focused on one thing only, without having distractions or thinking about other things. Once you begin to become present you tend to be happier and more complete. You can fix your problems not only in a physical way like exercising but also in a mental way like meditation.

Some ways to become more present:

1. Practice mindful eating- When we do this we can engage all senses and take the time to savor a meal.
2. Pause screen time- Allow yourself sometime each day to turn off your phone. To think about your priorities, how you are feeling, and things you never think about when you are too busy.
3. Build a routine- Routines help us stay on track, having a routine that’s focused just on you helps you become more aware of things.
4. Journal– Setting your goals and reflecting on your day helps you get better at staying present. 

Even though this takes time and effort, in the end, all will be worth it.

Reference:

https://www.headspace.com/articles/how-to-be-more-present

Welcome back, in last week’s blog we learned about how to find good friends. We explained that a healthy friendship would be one that’s loyal and accepts you for who you are in good and in bad times. Also they will support you, comfort you, and help you when you are most in need. To compare, a toxic friendship would be one that puts you down, gossips a lot, breaks your trust, compares you to other people, and puts themselves as the center of attention all the time.

Even though it might not seem as much, a toxic friendship can affect you. They can become draining and mentally exhausting. It can affect your confidence, you might feel unsupported, and you might feel lonely.

Here are some tips if you realized you have a toxic friendship:

• Have a conversation- Talk to your friend. This will help you understand their point of view of things. 

• A second chance is OK- Sometimes people don’t know that they are hurting you in some sort of way. Some people do need a little extra support to know what’s right and what’s wrong.

• Set Boundaries- Explain to your friend what things they are doing that you don’t like. Make it clear that you won’t accept something.

• Take some time alone- This will help see how your life changes without the toxic friend around. This would help you sort your feelings and get clarity.

• Move on- In the end, you will feel better and be proud of yourself for walking away from a toxic friendship.

References:

• https://www.google.com.pr/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjMnby_x4z0AhXBMd8KHQQPB7EQFnoECBAQAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fau.reachout.com%2Farticles%2Fdealing-with-a-toxic-friendship&usg=AOvVaw1CdWsOickF-6LfKyHpG1LK
• https://www.google.com.pr/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjMnby_x4z0AhXBMd8KHQQPB7EQFnoECAIQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthline.com%2Fhealth%2Ftoxic-friendships&usg=AOvVaw3USPFhaxZPdsygD1Q8XgXq

By: Jan Santiago

Hello everyone! In today’s blog, I’m going to be discussing the topic of good friends. In life, your personality and the way you act are influenced by the people that you care about. This could be friends, your favorite artist, family, teacher, etc. But the most that influence you are your friends. They’re always with you and are the people you mostly hang out with, so for the better, those friends need to be a good influence on you, in other words, good friends. 

In definition, good friends are loyal and accept you for who you are during the good and bad times. They support you in a lot of ways and can give you comfort and help when you most need it. However, no matter how important it is to have good friends in life, they’re still people that are struggling to find them or know that the friends that they have now are a bad influence on the person, and that’s why we’re here to help!! These are some ways that you can find some good friends:

Overcoming nerves

When it comes to socializing, a lot of people get nervous to meet new people but when they start talking to them they feel normal. Overcome that nerve to meet new people, you never know if that person could be an important person in your life.

Break out of your comfort zone

What I mean by this is to be more extroverted by going to parties, volunteering at your local theatre, among other things. There, you can meet new people in your local town that you can hang out with.

Meetup 

With the friends that you made, plan some things where you can get to know each other better and to see if they’re really what you are looking for.

Meeting apps

With the technology right now, there are even applications on your phone that can guarantee you to meet new people. You can download those types of apps and start meeting some good people, with the precaution needed.

Gaming

You can also meet new people while online gaming. In there, you have a greater chance to find people that have similar interests, and obviously, with all the precautions needed.

In conclusion, good friends are really important in life because they help you with many things and it’s important for everybody to have people like this in their lives. That’s it for this article. If you need more information you can contact us on our social media platforms; Goodbye!!

References:

https://www.lifehack.org/794675/good-friends

https://wonderopolis.org/wonder/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-good-friend

By: Arturo Zayas

Hello everyone, I hope you’ve all been enjoying your week! Today, I will be digging deeper on how to become more productive in your daily life as you move on in school, your work, or anything you might be going through at the moment.

I ask you, do you really know what productivity is? Before continuing on, please think about that question and come up with your own answer. Well, productivity is the ability to work efficiently with yourself or others to be able to come up with an amazing result. In productivity, efficiency is extremely important since it’s used to complete the most tasks in the shortest amount of time possible while also having a great outcome. Overall, you will see a change in your everyday life, not only physically but mentally as well.

Here are some ways to be more productive in your everyday life:

1. Make a system or schedule that fits and is right for YOU.
2. Own an agenda, to-do list, or anything else where you can write down your tasks.
3. Focus on the most important tasks first, such as homework and studying first rather than going to the beach with friends.
4. Get rid of tasks that aren’t of any need.
5. Plan events or tasks days, weeks, or months in advance.
6. Say NO to procrastinating.
7. Take breaks to be able to rest from all the hard work you’ve been through.
8. Get a good night’s sleep, eat a filling breakfast, meditate and/or pray, and do other things that will enhance your mood for the day.
9. Spend time with family, friends, and others as this will boost your mood and morale, leading up to a more productive time.
10. Focus on yourself!

Overall, it can most definitely be difficult, challenging, and some might say impossible, but if you really want an outcome and a change, you will use every step listed and more to become much more productive in your life. 

Resources:

https://www.activecampaign.com/blog/habits-of-highly-productive-people

Hey guys! For this week’s topic, I am going to talk about maturity and growing up. From what I have heard from my friends, most of them have wanted to grow up fast, but do we truly know what being matured and the responsibilities we have to go through as adults are. Growing up is not an easy task; it comes with many trials and errors.

What is growing up? Growing up is advancing to maturity, developed into an adult. Maturity is when a person is fully grown, can reason a course of action, and does not get too happy or too sad about the final results. 

Things to know if you have grown up or matured:

1. You listen more and talk less- Hearing more will give you more confidence in what you are talking about and you will gain more information. You let other people shine. You stopped gossiping and think that it’s useless.

2. You read more- You spend time reading, learning more, and becoming more aware of your things.

3. You take care of yourself- Taking care of yourself is essential, this will help you do better in life. You speak up for yourself. You don’t hurt yourself for others.

4.  You take time more seriously- You cut off people who waste your time. You enjoy being productive and spending time alone.

5. Your circle of friends is a bit smaller- You realized which friendships in your life truly hold great value and which ones do not. You cherish the friends that are always there when you need them.

To sum it up, growing up is a beautiful thing and it’s something we are all going to go through. It may be tough but we will learn from those mistakes and become better human beings.

References:

https://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/signs-that-you-have-matured.html

By: Jan Santiago

Hey everyone! For today’s blog, I am going to talk about self-love. Self-love is really important in your life because it affects you a lot, for example, confidence, how you act with others, etc. For people that are not familiar with this topic, self-love is all about appreciating yourself, accepting who you are, and it can be shown in many ways such as: 

• Prioritizing yourself 
• Being nice to yourself
• Setting healthy boundaries

Self-love helps you make healthy decisions for yourself and makes you happier overall. However, for some people, finding self-love is a hard task no matter what. That is why I am writing this blog today! Some simple ways to practice self-love are:

• Stop comparing yourself to others– This action is natural, but it doesn’t mean it’s good. There is only one you on this planet and that’s who you should focus on.

• Don’t worry about others’ opinions– You don’t have to satisfy everyone because you come first.

• Trust yourself– We doubt ourselves too much; you should have confidence in what you are doing.

• Put yourself first– You should think about what makes you happy.

• Be kind to yourself– This is not an easy task with all the negative people in the world, but you shouldn’t be hard on yourself; celebrate the little things that you accomplish in life! 

To sum it up, finding self-love is all about being kind to yourself no matter what other people tell you. If you wish to know more about this topic, let us know!!

References:

https://www.bbrfoundation.org/blog/self-love-and-what-it-means

https://www.healthline.com/health/13-self-love-habits-every-woman-needs-to-have

 Hello to anyone reading this! My name is Ana and today I’m going to be writing on: overthinking. I feel like overthinking is a topic that is not commonly talked about, even though it’s a really important topic. Like, we all overthink sometimes, but when we overthink a thought for too much time it’s draining. If you’re a bit confused about what overthinking is, it’s the act of thinking about something too much. Here are some examples of myself when I overthink: What would’ve happened if I did this?, Did they like me?, *Practices a whole conversation in my head to talk to someone about*. In the process of overthinking your stress levels go up and your power to make decisions leave your body. You start blaming yourself for things you didn’t do and worrying about scenarios that may or may not happen. 

-If you relate to any of this stuff I’m going to be listing some tips that may help you calm down when you suddenly start overthinking!

1. Let Go of The Past: If you ask yourself “what if” or “I should have” remember that the past cannot be changed, so there is no use thinking about it. 

2. Don’t think of what can go wrong, but what can go right: If you start thinking negatively, stop, push your thoughts on the positive side! It’s not like it’s the end of the world.

3. Put things into perspective: Will that problem still be relevant in 3 years? The answer is probably no, so calm down and don’t let that affect you.

4. Don’t stress about the future: You are still young and you have your whole life ahead to figure that out! You are not supposed to have your whole life figured out, so focus on the present.

5. Go with the flow: This is one of my personal favorites. When you feel left out of something, just ignore it and focus on having a good time. 

• I hope you guys learned from this blog because I was looking forward to writing on this topic! If you liked this blog, write a review on our page ☺.

Reference: https://www.omaritani.com/about 

By: Dalimar Rentas

Hey guys! Welcome back, this week’s topic is all about tips to prepare middle schoolers and high schoolers for their high school experience. When I was in 8th grade, I was very nervous about becoming a freshman. I remember that I spent all summer watching Youtube videos about how I could prepare myself for high school. Personally, don’t take tips from movies, high school is very different from what you have seen in High School Musical. Sadly, you won’t see people dancing on top of tables in the school cafeteria singing that it’s finally time for summer. Now let’s see some tips.

Freshman Year:

• Get involved in school activities such as:
  • Extracurriculars = This includes sports, clubs, and anything you like to do on the side
  • Giving back to your community = This includes helping in your church, a youth group, and other organizations

• Taking your work seriously
  •  Colleges check your grades from freshman year to senior year so it’s better not to slack off
  • Start developing good study habits that would help you throughout high school and college.

• Develop good time management skills
  •  Practicing time management skills in freshman year will save your time when you arrive at college and have to turn in assignment deadlines.

• Take advanced courses
  • If your school offers it you should take advanced courses. Challenge yourself if you can, it will do good in the end.

Sophomore Year:

•  Take the PSAT
  •  It’s a good practice for when you have to take the SAT. Plus if you get a good score you might qualify for a National Merit Scholarship.

• Start researching college costs
  • We all know college is very expensive and searching up scholarships you want to apply to will make things easier
  • College financial aid is also very complicated, but becoming familiar with the process early will make things easier when you’re a senior
  • If you’re eligible to apply for any financial assistance now, even better.

• Your future
  •  Don’t stress if you still don’t know what you want to do there is still time left
  • It’s often helpful to start thinking about what makes you happy and what your future goals might be as a sophomore.
  • Your decision might change in senior year but it helps to take off some pressure

Junior Year:

• College Fairs
  • Going to college fairs will allow you to talk to college representatives 
  • You can ask any question you might have 
  • Learn more about the programs they might have 

• Take the SAT and ACT
  • Taking them early is the best option so you can retake them if you need to
  • Some colleges are test optional so you might not need to turn the test results in
  • Studying in advanced will get you a higher score
  •  Start studying at the end of sophomore year 

• Research colleges
  • Start your college research 
  • Visit colleges
  • Determine where you want to go based on location, your major, financial aid, and size 

Senior Year:

•   Narrow down your college list
  • Make a list with 5-10 universities
  • Base them on reach/dream, match, and safety

• Fill out your application
  • Follow the directions and double check everything 

•  Complete your college interviews

•  Make your final college decision
  • Making sure you understand your financial aid letters when you get them with your acceptance package.

References: 

https://www.collegexpress.com/articles-and-advice/admission/articles/find-college/college-prep-each-year-high-school-what-do-all-4-years/