By: Ronald Leung

Did you know that excitement is a type of stress? When you’re planning an exciting birthday or party, stress drives you to do a really good job – because you really care about what you’re involved in. How does this differ from that nasty exam lurking months ahead? As cheesy as it sounds, it’s in our attitude. Hey, don’t expect anyone to suddenly become excited over an exam compared to a weekend hangout but slowly, the only way to really combat stress is to look at the challenges you have in a more positive light. Even the small things – choosing a file folder at Titles, or what to eat at Centro can all be related back to stress, just on a minuscule level. It’s just your brain looking out for you – it wants the best for you.
The next time you get stressed, try to turn the situation around. Think about what could be positive about that horrendous roadblock you see up ahead.
So the next time you see an upcoming midterm (don’t try to pretend you didn’t know you had one until the weekend before), really and I mean really try to plan out your studying time. Okay, who really wants to study? Hopefully, images of your crazed/binge-eating/exhausted/dazed self the night before the exam is some motivation. And if you do it long enough – gasp – it’ll become habit and soon stress will turn from that sleepless force to a more gentle coach. I think we’ve all had our fair share of stress, it’s time to turn the tables to take advantage of the benefits of stress.

By: Joshua Patel

Stressed by midterms and need some fresh air? Haven’t yet explored the waterfalls the tour guides all rave about?

One of the major physical features that mark this city’s beautiful landscape is the Hamilton Waterfront Trail. The trail is managed by the Hamilton Waterfront Trust, a charitable organization that makes it possible for everyone to enjoy the trail. Located in the North end of Hamilton, this trail offers a multitude of attractions and services to visitors, apart from its natural beauty. The trail is a beautiful place to get some fresh air and observe the beauty of the harbour.

 

The Hamilton Waterfront Trust offers a Harbour West Trolley Tour –a guided trolley tour that follows along 12 km of the shoreline and gives visitors a view of the natural and manmade features along the trail.

The Waterfront also offers winter attractions, with an NHL-sized outdoor ice rink, located on Pier 8. A concession skate rental stand is also available if you forgot yours back home.

If you’re looking for a place to dine or grab a snack, the Discovery Centre area has several quality restaurants that can cater to your needs.

An expanded trail system also gives you easy access to other areas such as Cootes Paradise, the Royal Botanical Gardens and Dundurn Castle.

Some other recreational activities that you can do along the trail are take a jog, bike or even join a real-world treasure hunt through Geocaching.com. For those of you who don’t know what this is, it’s a high-tech treasure hunt where users can use their smartphones or GPS devices to find caches that are hidden along the trail and discover what are stored in these hidden packages.

For you art-lovers, Pier 8 hosts a number of different murals along its fences from local art students.

So take a study break this month and discover a little bit more of the Hamilton waterfront than you knew of before.

By: Ilia Ostrovski

 

Medical advances are continuing to push the boundary of how long the average person should expect to live. This trend of increasing life expectancy underscores the importance of measuring quality of life as individuals age.

With this issue in mind, three Canadian researchers submitted a joint proposal to the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) to launch one of the largest clinical explorations of the topic to date. In November 2001, their proposal was accepted. On Sept. 28, after eleven years of planning, the study’s lead principal investigator, Parminder Raina of McMaster, finally announced the official grand opening of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA).

Raina is the director of McMaster’s Evidence-based Practice Center and specializes in clinical epidemiology and biostatistics. His area of interests is the epidemiology of aging, injury and knowledge transfer. Before the launch of CLSA, Raina was the lead investigator for the Hamilton site of the Canadian Study of Health and Aging, which explored the epidemiology of dementia. Currently, he holds the Raymond and Margaret Labarge Chair in Research and Knowledge Application for Optimal Aging.

Raina was joined in the celebration by some of the 160 researchers from all across the country who are collaborating on this innovative project. The study’s co-principal investigators are Christina Wolfson from McGill University and Susan Kirkland from Dalhousie University. This study will collect data from 50,000 men and women between the ages of 45 and 85 and will continue to follow up with its subjects for at least 20 years.

Unlike previous longitudinal studies on similar topics, CLSA will take a multi-faceted approach to examining the aging process. By analyzing the gradual change of psychological, social, medical and biological parameters, the investigators hope to address a breadth of important issues concerning the maintenance of good health in the latter years of life.

CLSA will use 11 data collection sites, four telephone interview centres and three data analysis facilities across the country. The McMaster Innovation Park is one of CLSA’s particularly prominent facilities. It houses the study’s National Coordinating center, the Bioanalysis and Biorepository Center and the McMaster Data Collection Site.

"The CLSA is more than a study,” said Yves Joanette, the Scientific Director of CIHR’s Institute of Aging. “It represents a unique platform that will be used by researchers from all disciplines and fields for decades to come thanks to the range of information that will be gathered and analyzed."

By: Alisha Sunderji

 

With the dark days of winter fast approaching and tan lines fading like those summer memories, tanning beds are a tempting option for maintaining that healthy glow. Equating tanned skin to good health however, is a myth. A tan is your body’s response to an injury, as skin cells respond to damage from ultraviolet (UV) rays by producing more pigment. Using a tanning bed or sun lamp isn’t much better, as some beds can expose you to upwards of 5 times more radiation than conventional seaside tanning. The World Health Organization has classified tanning beds in its highest cancer-risk category, placing it in the same league as tobacco and asbestos. Most people are well aware of the relationship between exposure to UV radiation and skin cancer. Yet, we still flock to the beach in the summer, or worse, our local tanning salon, in pursuit of golden-brown hues.

A recent study published in the journal Addiction Biology cited that people who frequently use tanning beds experience changes in brain activity during their tanning sessions that mimic the patterns of drug addicts. Researchers found that several parts of the brain that play a role in addiction were activated when people were exposed to UV rays. Just as the brain associates a reward in response to the consumption of drugs, and high sugared food, UV light triggers a similar positive response. The term “tanorexia,” used to describe excessive tanning, has been coined by popular media, (playing off anorexia nervosa, an obsessive desire to be thin). A study in 2005 by the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that a large proportion of sunbathers met the psychiatric definition of a substance abuse disorder, based on their answers to a variation of a test often used to help diagnose alcohol addiction.

As with alcohol, not everyone who is exposed becomes hooked on getting that “tanner’s high.” But there certainly are abusers, notably among adolescents and young adults, with one in five university students identified as being “tanorexic.” The appeals of tanning lie beyond the aesthetic, from providing relaxation to being a form of socialization.

The added benefits of tanning pale in comparison to its negative consequences, namely the fact that people under the age of thirty who use tanning machines increase their risk of skin cancer by 75 per cent. There are different definitions of what constitutes too much tanning, but the underlying message is clear: even brief exposure to UV radiation can cause mutations in the DNA of skin cells. Accumulate enough mutations and skin cancer can result.

Tanning in pursuit of vitamin D is often cited in defense of tanning beds. For the majority of the population, incidental exposure to the sun combined with normal dietary intake of vitamin D, provides adequate vitamin D intake for a healthy body throughout the year. During the winter, many head to tanning salons as a solution for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), a.k.a. winter depression. “People often think of sunbathing as the antidepressant essence of light exposure. Wrong! Light therapy acts through the eyes, and requires visible light, not UV,” writes Michael Terman, PhD., Director of the Center for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms at Columbia University in New York.

In the immortal words of Katy Perry, “California gurls, We’re unforgettable, Daisy Dukes, Bikinis on top, Sun-kissed skin, So hot we’ll melt your popsicle,” - the concept of linking tanning to beauty and health might be around for a while. There are some alternatives to roasting on the beach like a beef patty, such as using bronzer or tanning cream. For the endorphin release, exercise can be a healthy and effective coping mechanism. These simplistic suggestions aren’t in any way attempting to dismiss the seriousness of tanorexia. Over-using tanning, as a form of self-medication or otherwise, demands professional help. For the less serious cases, if the statistics aren’t enough to scare you out of the bed, taking active measures in the tanning salon, from wearing protective eyewear to waiting at least 48 hours between sessions to allow time for cell reparation, can make the process a little safer. The pursuit of beauty has often been convoluted, but the stakes have never been higher, so perhaps a change in the status quo is only a matter of time.

By: Johnny-Wei Bai

 

For years, people have recognized that physical exercise improves cardiovascular and mental health, controls weight gain, and enhances academic performance. In fact, some even estimate that 20 per cent of premature deaths could be prevented by regular physical activity. Despite the benefits of physical activity, recent studies show that 85 per cent of Canadian adults do not fulfill the recommended 150 weekly minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise. Looking at the bustling activeness in young children, one may wonder at what stage of development this drop in exercise level comes about. Well, it is known that decline in physical activity occurs most drastically in adolescents transitioning into early adulthood, especially from high school into college/university.

To further explore this phenomenon, a recent research study was headed by Matthew Kwan, a post-doctoral fellow at McMaster University's Department of Family Medicine. Participants for this prospective cohort study were recruited from the Canadian National Population Health Survey; in total, 683 adolescents of ages 12-15 were followed until they turned 25-27 years old. During this period, scientists looked at factors such as physical activity, education status, binge drinking, and smoking levels in both males and females. Comparing such a wide-range of factors allowed researchers to evaluate whether decline in physical activity is truly as big of an issue as other, more publicized health-risk factors.

Results showed that the average physical activity level across all participants decreased by a drastic 24 per cent, with a steeper decline in college/university males than in females. This difference across genders, however, may be because females in this study generally exercised less than males did, even in high school. Other health-risk behaviours, such as smoking and binge drinking, predictably increased during the high school-university transition, likely because of reduced parental influence and greater social pressures in post-secondary settings. Although levels of drinking and smoking began to plateau in later years, physical exercise levels continued to decline in adulthood.

Kwan’s findings suggest that an increase in unhealthy behaviours in early adulthood puts university and college students at greater risk of future health complications. It is commonly known that excessive smoking and drinking can cause various cancers, lung conditions, and cardiovascular diseases. McMaster researchers claim that in addition to the usual focus on preventing negative behaviour, health promotion strategies should emphasize the benefits of positive health activities such as physical exercise. Kwan called for greater efforts in targeting the decline in physical activity levels in adolescents to encourage healthy life-long habits.

By: Paulina Prazmo

 

“Stomp out Stigma,” “Move for Mental Health” and “SOS Rally” are some phrases you might be hearing and seeing around campus this week. Mental Illness Awareness Week – running September 30 to October 4 is the reason why.

Whether it’s a topic that you have personally dealt with, something you have helped a friend go through or simply a topic you are genuinely interested in, mental illness is something that quietly surrounds us every day, and this week we’re talking about it.

What if you’re the type of person that can recognize that something is wrong in your life but feels anxious just thinking about it? You can’t figure out if it is in fact a mental illness, let alone take action, if you can’t think about it. Depression? Anxiety? Multiple Personality Disorder? Bipolar Disorder? Just a few terms that might have been creeping around the back of your mind. During our interview, Mariette Lee, president of COPE McMaster, and Debra Earl, the Mental Health Team nurse at the Student Wellness Centre, set the record straight about mental health and mental illness. Further still, they provide information about what “getting help” and “stomping out the stigma” really consist of.

COPE is a student mental health initiative club focused on awareness of mental illnesses. Lee begins by saying that the top mental illnesses experienced by university students are depression, anxiety and academic stress. Though these mental illnesses can flare up in university, one in ten Canadians will experience an episode of major depressive disorder, according to a 2009 study by the Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatment. Earl gave some 2011 statistics - straight from McMaster students - saying that 40% of Mac students experience depression, 30% experience anxiety and 30% experience other diagnosable mental illnesses.

The most common symptoms of mental illnesses begin with “withdrawing and isolating from activities, friends and struggling with emotions,” said Mariette Lee. “If I see someone I know from COPE or from class, and suddenly I don’t see them for a while, that would start to worry me about the possibility of them going through a hard time,” she added. Another important gradual symptom to look out for has to do with sleeping patterns. “You might be sleeping less because you’re lying awake and worrying, or you may be sleeping more because that’s how you are dealing with the parts of your body getting tired and you lose energy staying in bed all day,” said Debra Earl. Eating patterns might also be affected: “Usually people lose their appetite, but sometimes people find that they eat more because they find comfort in food; it gives them something to do,” Earl said.

A big and very important symptom for students is when they experience a loss of interest in academic life. Earl explained, “A student might not be performing as well as they want to be. They might have just failed their first exam, or they didn’t bother doing their first assignment. It bothers them, but at the same time they don’t really care. They lost that caring factor.” That scenario is a very common indicator that something is definitely wrong. Students suffering from a mental illness typically do not notice the changes because they are gradual. “They try to blame it on another reason as to why they are feeling they way they are. We need students to be aware of what the signs and symptoms are so they can recognize it and know when to seek help before falling apart,” Earl continued.

The Student Wellness Centre, along with other professional services here at McMaster, has both counselling and medical services. This is one of many resources that students may go to and receive help on campus. Student groups, online communities, specialized books and other off-campus services are also readily available.

“Unfortunately it’s usually the stigma of coming in and asking for a mental health appointment that stops students from coming in for that first appointment,” said Earl. The way mental health and mental illness are perceived can make it hard for someone to reach out. Even if you are a person that is not necessarily suffering from a mental health illness, there are things you can do to help those around you. “What we can do socially, starting from the littlest things, can help with another person’s mental health. I wish more students, faculty members and staff at McMaster [would] be more aware and more cautious of the social and educational spaces that they occupy because they are not the only ones in it. We also share a space with people who are living with mental illnesses and you might not even be aware of it,” Lee said.

For many students living with a mental illness, it takes weeks, months or even years to finally open up to a person about how they have been feeling. They become masters at hiding their struggles and have a hard time making any steps to becoming healthier. Earl said, “I think ignorance creates stigma. We need to break down the stigma and educate people about mental illness. People need to be asking ‘how do I know myself if I have a mental illness?’ ‘When do I go for help?’ ‘How do I go for help?’ Those are the questions people need to be asking themselves.” She also stated that 20-25% people will be affected by mental illness.

Awareness about this severe prevalence, as well as available help to those in need, is not as widely advertised as it should be. Earl added, “The campaign [Stomp Our Stigma] is about the elephant in the room. Mental illness is in the room, but we don’t talk about it. It’s a large proportion; 25% of people suffering is a big percentage. If you think about 25% of people having cancer it would be outrageous. We don’t have that same kind of outrage about mental illness.”

So take the time to really move for your mental health. Take the time to stomp out depression, anxiety and mood disorders. Take the time to learn the 101 of mental health. And most importantly, take the time to realize that you are not alone, not as a sufferer, and not as a supporter.

By: Erin Rooney

 

We’re almost a month into the Fall term now and as the days get ever colder and midterms seem to have crept out of nowhere taking us by surprise, it’s not uncommon to hear people around campus moaning about the ‘crazy’ amount of work they have or dramatically claiming it’s going to give them a ‘mental breakdown.’ We’re probably all guilty of making statements like this at one time or another and whilst we might not mean anything by them, our use of language in this way makes light of the manner in which our society relates to issues surrounding mental health.  Seemingly throwaway comments like these show how language is a part of our society’s often discriminatory attitude towards mental illness; a part that we’re not necessarily aware of but that can reinforce the stigma attached to mental illness nonetheless.

Alisa, a McMaster student and active member of the Mad Student Society for the past 3 years, described the significance of everyday language to perceptions of mental health. “Negativity is very embedded in our culture in regards to disability. That’s how the media talks about it, using words with frightening, scary or bad connotations. Through this, mental illness is treated differently to other forms of discrimination such as racism and sexism which are less socially acceptable,” she said. As a member of MSS, Alisa is part of a society that tries to explore these labels attached to mental illness and reclaims some of them for self-identification. Members might refer to themselves using a wide variety of names from ex-patients to psychiatric survivors, some calling themselves crazy or along with the society’s name, ‘mad.’ “In our community, people use a whole variety of terms around disability and mental health issues that we may choose to use or reject but by reclaiming words like mad, nuts and crazy we can give them a more positive usage,” explained Alisa. In this way words that were once used to insult can be used to celebrate differences instead of stigmatising them.

Language reclamation is just one side of MSS’s far reaching mandate. Set up in 2005, Mad Student Society offers an alternative support community to the counselling or therapeutic services commonly offered by universities and schools, for students with any experience of the mental health system. Instead MSS is based around the idea of the peer support group. Peer support is different from typical group therapy in that it has no involvement from mental health professionals or organisations. It is purely a space for members to support each other and discuss their experiences away from the medical sphere of things. Elizabeth Carvalho, another active MSS member, said “peer support has much more of an emphasis on equality and united mutual support. It creates a community of people with similar concerns and interests where friendships develop. It’s actually quite a radical idea!” As well as helping students navigate their way through higher education, MSS tries to help students gain self-advocacy and provides them with alternative pathways to access their rights outside of the mainstream medical systems usually favoured by university administrations. With as many as 1 in 5 Canadians experiencing mental health issues throughout their lives, the highest majority of these being teenagers and young adults aged between 15 and 24, it is clear that adequate support and understanding in schools and universities is hugely important. By offering an alternative to the more formalised medical support of universities Mad Students Society has created a community that helps protect the rights of members in higher education, and an environment where positive mutual support is encouraged.

MSS runs monthly formal support meetings in 3 cities with Hamilton’s group getting together on the 4^th Thursday of every month at varying locations. As well as this, more informal continual support is available through MSS’s online forum listserv where members can communicate further about their experiences and organise events. For more information about MSS contact Elizabeth or Alisa through the MSS Facebook page at fb.com/MadStudentSociety or see their website at madstudentsociety.com

By: Palika Kohli

 

I have been a vegetarian for the past five years of my life. Despite the increasing popularity of the vegetarian diet, I still constantly get hit with the question: why?

It’s possible I get asked a little less than some people. After all, the Indian-vegetarian-girl fits a certain stereotype, and for many, my religious background is sufficient explanation.

Except that it’s not. I may have been raised in a Hindu household, but growing up, there was nothing - no food, no pet, no person – that I loved more than chicken. It was only as I got older that I began to learn about the environmental consequences of eating meat products and by-products. This awareness eventually caught up with me, striking a particular chord. So I finally removed meat - that is, all products that I describe as being “once alive” – from my diet.

I learned afterwards that this personal choice and description had a name: ovo-lacto-vegeterian. There are many varieties of vegetarians to describe almost any combination of dietary restrictions. Here are some of the specific labels for various degrees of vegeterianism:

Semi-Vegetarians: basically these people don’t eat red meat, but eat just about everything else.

Ovo-Lacto-Vegetarians: people who consume both eggs and dairy products, but no fish, meat or poultry.

Ovo-Vegetarians: people who eat eggs, but no other meat or dairy products.

Lacto-Vegetarians: people who consume dairy products, but no other meat or egg products/by-products.

Vegans: people who don’t any animal products or by-products whatsoever. Instead, they opt for meat “alternatives” – food that is high in protein, like tofu, soy, lentils, peanut butter, etc.

Raw Vegans: raw vegans don’t eat any meat or meat-related products, nor do they eat food cooked over 48⁰C (118⁰ Fahrenheit). They tend to limit themselves to fruits, vegetables, roots, fresh juices, nuts and the like.

When considering vegetarian diets, most people are concerned about a decrease in protein intake. No need to worry though - most vegetarian foods contain at least a little protein, from nuts (which are high in protein), to soy, wheat, and even dairy products. What vegetarians can also do is something known as ‘protein-complementing’. Protein complementing is when two different foods containing higher amounts of certain amino acids are paired up. This compensates for the other food’s lack of the amino acid and ensures that people are still obtaining their necessary amino acids.

While it is possible that for some people, becoming a vegetarian means that their choice in food is limited – it doesn’t have to be! Starting here at Mac, there is the wonderful Bridges café, which is great for those who are going to miss eating meat-like food. There is also Creation X within La Piazza at the Student Centre, where you can get the vegan version of all their wraps.

For off-campus, here’s a list of fantastic vegetarian/vegan restaurants in Hamilton.

August 8: 1 Wilson Street. Of the many local sushi places, this is definitely one of the best in Hamilton.

Bangkok Spoon: 57 King St. West, Dundas. This restaurant serves some of the most delicious Thai food in the area. You can order just about everything and ask for it to be made “without the meat”!

Basilique: 1065 King Street West. Right around the corner from campus in Westdale village, Basilique has amazing pizza and Mediterranean food options.

Earth to Table Bread Bar: 258 Locke St South. Lots of options and some of the best specialty pizza out there!

The Himalaya: 160 Centennial Parkway North. A small restaurant with a more specialized selection of vegetarian Indian food.

Mex-I-Can: 107 James Street North. Right on bustling James Street, this is a super cute Mexican restaurant that offers amazing vegan options (like cooked cactus!).

Vegetarian food isn’t just for vegetarians: a varied diet is important whether you eat meat or not. If you’re interested, want to know the names of more restaurants or cook yummy vegetarian recipes on your own, contact the Mac Veggie Club at macveggieclub@gmail.com.

By: Miranda Babbitt

 

Currently slouched in my dorm’s wannabe rocking chair, I see the remnants of a KitKat bar and bag of chips while a bowl of fruit sits abandoned behind my laptop’s screen. Let’s be honest, nobody eats like a normal human being during Frosh Week. This is the essence of what every girl or boy fears when entering university. Even with the mere word, “freshman”, a certain number slyly creeps next to it, waiting on the tip of your tongue. “Fifteen, fifteen, fifteen.” As soon as I utter these two words, “Freshman Fifteen,” the eyes of adolescents nearby darken in sheer, unadulterated dread and horror.

Especially us girls do not take these apparently inevitable extra pounds lightly (pardon the pun). It often seems a pact to try and avoid it. Plastered across some of the athletic clubs posters in the booths during Mac Clubsfest was one of their most powerful incentives: “Avoid the Freshman Fifteen!” Just down my hall, one of my friends has devoted herself entirely to rowing, a sport she hasn’t ever dabbled in until she saw those words, her savior, to avoiding the terror of gaining fifteen extra pounds.

Others yet, (maybe including myself, maybe not) have adopted a sort of “YOLO” or should I say, “YOFO”, attitude towards it all. The rows upon aisles of not-exactly-the-healthiest options conveniently placed by the cashiers are a source of my quick surrender into Freshman Fifteen’s rich, salty goodness. Clever move, Centro, clever move.

However, my fellow Mac Students, I believe the Freshman Fifteen is a myth. Now you may have heard this before, and brushed it aside in favour of the worry-induced adrenaline. But it is imperative to know that honestly, you can escape it pretty easily because the Freshman Fifteen is in fact the Freshman Five.

There. Breathe. Put down those running shoes you had for the third workout of the day. Finish that bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. Pat your wheezing friend on the back. We’re not joining the army, folks. We are not actually in a metaphorical war with our raging hormones and metabolisms in the face of our freshman year. We’re exploring the next stage of our lives where every meal hasn’t been planned and made by mummy for when you get home from school.

And how do I know this is so? Science. Studies galore. If you even type freshman fifteen into the all-knowing mother of technology known as Google, you will find “myth” and “exaggeration,” belittling those menacing words.

Despite its apparent exaggerations, I took it upon myself to scour the Internet for some tips to avoid the said Freshman Five all together. And no, it’s not going to be as mind-numbingly simple as saying, “Well, just eat a salad,” because hey, smartass, sometimes I’m going to want a burger. Maybe even a double bacon cheeseburger. You can glare at me all you want, eyes throwing daggers over that bowl of cottage cheese and celery, but I’m not going to adopt the diet of a bunny rabbit to keep off extra weight (as cute as bunnies are). Here are some reasonable, achievable tips:

 

1. Start your routine as soon as possible and stick to it for two weeks without faltering. As soon as daily jogs or elliptical-machines are in your routine, you will – gasp – crave exercise.
2. Don’t leave for class without a breakfast! And a medium coffee from Tim’s doesn’t count. Your metabolism is most likely a lazy fellow, and he’s going to stay in his peaceful little slumber until you kickstart him with some nutrients. Think fruit plates from the salad bar, granola bars, or even whole grain waffles you can slip in your common room’s microwave before class, topped with decadent Greek yogurt.
3. Make your meals look like a rainbow. No, that doesn’t mean a pizza with black olives and brown mushrooms. Choose something with veggies of all colours, protein in the form of chicken or ham, and some calcium from white or chocolate milk.
4. Join something. Anything. It can be as specific as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (who knew?) or Beginner Yoga. Something along the lines of Zumba seems to be the craze lately. Try it out.

 

To get down to the gritty, the freshman fifteen really is just psychological. The campus is not forcing food down your throat, nor is the gym glaring at you every time you walk by it. And hey, bikini season’s over. It’s sexy winter parka time.

By: Jennifer Bacher

 

What is happiness? It is often pursued but not everyone achieves it. It cannot be bought or sold and it helps people but can also cause problems. So how do we find it?

Being in University is probably the most stressful, fun, tiring and rewarding four years of your life. With only a week into the school year, many have not felt the pressure of university just yet but brace yourselves - it is coming. Essays, tests, presentations, conflicts and bad marks are only some of the exciting events lurking behind those 40lbs textbooks and cramped lecture hall seats. You will eventually start to wonder if you’ll actually make it to Christmas.

Well, speaking as a veteran, it's easier than you think! One word: happiness. This state of mind will relieve stress and calm anxiety. Here are 10 easy ways to stay happy this school year:

 

1. Go for a walk: One of Hamilton’s best-kept secrets is that it is actually full of nature - who knew? Nature will calm your mind and body allowing you to free yourself from the busy life of a student. Just put on some running shoes and go for a walk through Cootes Paradise. Thirty minutes will do wonders for the mind.

2. Enjoy the simple things: Sip a nice cup of coffee, read a good book, or listen to some music. Taking 15 minutes out of your day to relax will help to revitalize your mind for that big essay that's due tomorrow.

3. Watch TV: There is nothing better then just sitting on a comfy chair with a hot chocolate (or iced tea, since it's been so freaking hot) watching your favourite episode of Friends. Allow yourself to escape into another reality for an hour and relax.

4. Go out with your friends: Whether it is out to lunch or just an hour conversation, spending time with friends will help you work through problems and to find support in your daily lives. Social connections boosts happiness and health!

5. Exercise: Not only is working out good for your health, but according to many specialists (this one’s for you, Dr. Oz) it can allow for a change in your mood for the better. Whether it’s running, Pilates, or playing your favourite sport, exercise helps you take your mind off of stress and can help with fatigue.

6. Meditate: Meditating helps to relax the body and reduce stress levels. It teaches us to live in the here and now instead of worrying about the future or past. It can also help with concentration problems. Try a form of Yoga, Tai Chi or even just meditating on your own.

7. Volunteer: Helping people is a rewarding way to feel happy and can also help to boost life satisfaction. Find a charity you can relate to or find a program at McMaster.

8. Cooking: Whether it is just for you or you invite some friends over, cooking can be a form of relaxation. Completing a difficult recipe will give you some satisfaction and imagine how delicious the meal will taste!

9. Make goals: Write a list of long-term and short-term goals. Post them in your room where you will see them everyday and as you accomplish a goal check it off. Not only will it keep you motivated, seeing what you have accomplished will keep you positive and focused. Don't forget to reward yourself when you accomplish a goal!

10. Do what you love: It is fairly simple but people often forget that if you love what you are doing it will bring you happiness. Be passionate about what you are doing whether it is school, work, or recreational.

 

You may not always feel the happiest, but doing something that helps you forget your worries for a while will be beneficial in cheering you up and will make it a bit easier to barrel through those assignments.