I know that the family is ordained of God. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ had a plan from the beginning for everyone to gain a body and be able to multiple and replenish the earth so that we could have joy. It's really wonderful that Heavenly Father has given us that experience. And it's so wonderful that we have the opportunity to be apart of that plan. I know that families can be together forever. The veil can not stop us from being spiritually together. Our family members can always be with us if we are living righteously.
Here's some more text for my Practicum final. It's a testimony of all my topics! I wish that I could go into more detail on each and every one of these. Enjoy! Family-
I know that the family is ordained of God. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ had a plan from the beginning for everyone to gain a body and be able to multiple and replenish the earth so that we could have joy. It's really wonderful that Heavenly Father has given us that experience. And it's so wonderful that we have the opportunity to be apart of that plan. I know that families can be together forever. The veil can not stop us from being spiritually together. Our family members can always be with us if we are living righteously.
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Practicum-Teachings of the Living Prophets- This past semester I've been taking a wonderful religious course called Teachings of the Living Prophets. We learned about the lives of our modern prophets and their teachings from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I have spent many hours trying to find these quotes. I wanted to share them with you guys so that you have an idea of what I believe in! Enjoy! Family
1. “Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.”- The Family: A Proclamation to the World, The First Presidency and Council of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, read and announced September 23rd, 1995. 2. “Kristina’s difficulties are completely ordinary for a young woman learning how to be a mom and a wife—yet the prevailing attitude among her generation is that life’s difficulties are a threat to one’s well-being and should be refused. Do she and her husband argue at times? Then she should leave him, they say. Are her children annoying her? Then she should send them to day care. “Kristina worries that her friends don’t grasp that trials, and even suffering, are a normal part of life—and maybe even part of a good life, if that suffering teaches us how to be patient, kind and loving....” -The Doctrine of Belonging, D. Todd Christofferson, October 2022 It was a beautiful bright school day in the small town of Uvalde Texas. Children would be getting out of school in less than a month and summer was just around the corner. Mothers had kissed their children goodbye for the day a few hours beforehand. While just a few yards away, an emotionally outraged 18 year old boy had crashed a truck nearby the elementary school with two AR platform rifles in hand, ready to fire. We all are too familiar with how this tragic story ended.19 children dead and 2 adults dead. 21 all together. Two days before school got out. How does this effect us? This may sound awful to consider but why should we even be concerned about their deaths and the particular way that they passed away? Hopefully, everyone knows the answer to the last one or has an answer. We all know that anybody who chooses to use a firearm to kill another person not for protection but for a form of suicide or for a recreation purpose is clearly not mentally healthy on the inside.
But how in the world can we know beforehand? How can we find out who is mentally unstable before they purchase a gun? And how can we differentiate that between those who are mentally stable but happen to have the same mental illnesses as somebody who would possibly start a mass shooting? So while being suck inside, you may or may not have noticed symptoms of corona-virus, but you have DEFINITELY noticed symptoms of having anxiety or depression. Fear not! For I have too been dealing with it, but I know how to help you to feel not as anxious or depressed. The first little bit of the article will focus on what you can do to help control your anxiety. The middle will help with what activies you can do to help control anxiety AND depression. The last little bit will just focus on activities that you can do, to help control depression. I hope that this help you! Please let me know in the comments if you'd like me to personally contact you, (I'm VERY open to video calling on messenger 😊 or if you REALLY need a hug, I can help out with that 😉 unless you're not a girl. Then this may be awkward for you. Please feel free, if you're a guy and need bro hugs to ask one of your guy friends for a hug) ANXIETY- Activities to help reduce itSo most people usually are getting anxious, as of lately, because they are spending A LOT of time focus on the news. My first advice for that would be S.T.O.P. Although it's great to stay informed and up to date on what's going on, it can REALLY have a toll on your mental health. Instead, set a certain time everyday to check on the news for a bit, but limit your amount of time that you look at it. Ex: 30-20 mins, every day at 6pm. Another good point would be to notice how you're feeling as you're scrolling through social media. Are you getting anxious? Are you getting nervous? If so, put down the phone and get up to get a drink of water. Walk around outside for a bit or do something that YOU KNOW that will calm your nerves. Ex: breathing exercises, mediation or yoga. Make sure your sources are reliable! The most accurate sources are CDC and the World Health Organization. Focus on what you CAN control. Ex: Washing your hands frequently for at least 20 seconds, avoid touching your face, keep 6 ft distance between you and others when you have to go outside, follow all recommendations from health authorities and most importantly get PLENTY of sleep. (if you find yourself getting too much sleep, it may end up leading to depression rather than anxiety) Plan for what you can do. Concentrate on things that you can problem solve or change, rather than circumstances beyond your control. Draw a plan of action of what you can do now, and follow through with that plan. Play a board game. Do something that'll help take your mind off of the situation. You could even do a puzzle or play a game or two or three of Sudoku! Have a pet? Pet them. There's something about petting a dog or cat (I guess this can also apply to other animals like birds or pigs) that's really soothing that calms us down. Have something blue. This sounds really weird but literally the color blue creates a feeling of peace and calmness in your mind. Whiter it be finding bed sheets in the house that are blue or wearing the color blue more often, the color blue can surprisingly help reduce A LOT of stress just by looking at it. For me, dark blue works the best. IF THIS DOES NOT HELP WITH EVERYTHING, PLEASE CONTINUE DOWN AND READ WHAT MORE STEPS YOU CAN TAKE 😄 Anxiety and Depression-Activities to do.All of these activities should be able to help with both anxiety and depression. If you are just dealing with one or the other, these activities should be able to help either way. I did mention in my anxiety portion to do yoga and mediation, but these can both really work to help control depression as well! If you've never done breathing exercises before, a good example would be to breath in for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds and let out as much air as possible as fast as you can for the remaining time. There are also good breathing exercises on google, if you'd like to search that up instead. Eat healthy. Simple as that! And eat well balanced meals. NEVER skip a meal! And no unhealthy snacks. Limit alcohol and caffeine. These can really intensify your systems. Exercise daily! This will give you the energy and strength to better control your emotions and life in general! Welcome humor, feel free to put on one of your favorite funny TV shows but don't spend too much time on them! (in the depression section, I will explain this more) Talk to friends and family over video calls! I know that it's not SUPER ideal but trust me, It's better than not doing it at all. My most important advice with this, that will help the most reduce any sort of anxiety or depression is to be I-N-V-O-L-V-E-D with the other person on the screen! PLEASE DO NOT be the other person on the screen who is not making an effort to make quality time out of it. If you are not trying to make time for the other person on the screen ex: watching YouTube videos while talking to them or having your screen face the ceiling or a wall, it WILL NOT BE QUALITY TIME because you are not making effort and you will be wasting YOUR TIME and THEIR TIME. Keep a journal! This is a really incredible time in history! You can write about your stresses, how you're feeling and how you're day is going! If you feel like this is useless, you can either name your journal or you can dedicate your writing to your future children. That way, you have somebody that you can write to and talk to and it won't feel worthless. 😊 Plus, you never know! You could end up getting it published! 😄 DEPRESSION- Activities to reduce it.Make a schedule. Like legitimate hour by hour schedule. This may seem odd, but it honestly helped me a lot! Especially when I first lost my job due to this whole pandemic 🙂 (no worries, I have a temp job rn) Do a hobby you enjoy. Or you can create a new hobby! Or pick up a old hobby that you had to stop doing because you didn't have enough time before. Ex: learn a language that you've always wanted to learn, learn a new dance routine, or pick up that instrument that you had to let go of after high school. Any book series that you haven't gotten the chance to read yet? Now's your chance! Schedule this in EVERY DAY. Water your plants. If you don't have one, then buy one! There's something about taking care of another living thing that helps reduce depression but also increases stability in your life. Also, the color green is a soothing color that helps create a feeling of peace. The color blue does this too but green can also help out as well. Don't spend so much time watching videos and TV/Netflix. Although, we pretty much can now watch as much as we want whenever we want, there's something about watching too much TV, spending too much time on social media or even watching too much YouTube that can really increase your depression levels expediently. My recommendation would be to only watch up to 2 hours of TV/Netflix/YouTube at the most. Anymore than that can start to increase levels of depression. If you find yourself still being depressed with that much screen time in your life, reduce your hours and find a good balance for you. On your first day doing this, you may need to not have any screen time at all for a period of 24 hrs. **My recommendation for Tik Tok if you choose to watch it would be less than this. Only 20 mins a day. Most importantly, make sure you take care of yourself. Brush your teeth, comb your hair, brush your hair, take a shower, take a bath, don't get too much sleep but enough that it'll make you energized for the day and use a bath or shower bomb. Because you are DA BOMB! Lastly if you feel like you are getting depressed because of loneliness, particularly loneliness, get out and and talk to someone. Like get out of the house. Yes, this may not be OK, but mental health is just as important as physical health. I'm mostly talking to people who live by themselves who could not easily get effected by coronavirus. If you are somebody who can easily get affected by coronavirus, all I have to say is that I AM SO SORRY FOR YOU. If you need anybody to talk to, especially during this time, please message me and I will call you and we can have a good quality time video chat. So like I said, this (in the paragraph above) is for people who can not easily get affected by coronavirus, and who are not going to be in contact with people who can get easily get affected by the coronavirus. Not only that, but these are people who have physical touch as their love language (yes love languages don't just work for couples, it works for friendships too.) When I say physical touch in friendships, I don't mean kissing. That would be gross. I mean hugging, high-fives and just pats on the hands, arms or knees. Or even holding their arm and squeezing it affectionately can mean a lot. IF YOU ARE DEPRESSED TO THE POINT WHERE YOU ARE HAVING SUICIDAL THOUGHTS, REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE LOVED BY SOOOO MANY INCLUDING ME. TALK TO A LOVED ONE AND A CLINICAL PROFESSIONAL. YOU ARE NEEDED. WE LOVE YOU AND I DEFINITELY LOVE YOU. Lastly, for everyone whither or not you are depressed or anxiousEngage in your religious studies. If you are not religious, meditation works great. But again if you are religious, DIVE INTO THE BIBLE. Read your verses everyday! Discover what the bible needs to you because as of right now, you can't really go to your pastor! Feast upon your gospel learning and seek hope, peace and comfort through Jesus Christ. He is our Savior and Redeemer. A particular book that I engage in everyday is the Book of Mormon. It has blessed my life more than any other book on this earth. It is truer than any other book on this earth. Discover Jesus Christ and who He is through this book. If not, the Bible does offer a lot but I know that the Book of Mormon is priceless and more valuable than any other gemstone in this universe. **These links that I've provided can help you get these books for free! Missionaries affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ can help you receive them and understand them better, if you're not familiar with Bible-like language. ConclusionI just want everyone to know that I AM NOT A CLINICAL PROFESSIONAL. If your anxieties and depressions are still bad, even after trying ALL OF THESE AT ONCE (because one of them at a time doesn't work) then please contact a clinical professional. They will know EXACTLY what you need. I can only help out with the basics.
I hope that this has helped everyone and that it has reduced some anxieties and depressions, even if it might not have fully helped reduce them. I'm glad that I can be of help. 😊 If anyone has any other tips that they'd like to provide, feel free to leave them in the comments below! I'd love to hear more advice! Until next time, I love you, be safe, be healthy (mentally and physically) and make sure to take care of your loved ones. -Last thought: Should I make a post specifically related to love languages and COVID-19? Let me know in the comments below! This music is by the one and only, incredible David Archuleta. He was the runner up on American Idol awhile back but is now fully committing to make music that inspires others wither it be through mental health or the gospel. This song in particular helps people to want to go and do the Lord's will. Hope you enjoy :) Being a singer, I've been told that in order to sing at my best, I need to find a connection. Some sort of connection but defiantly a connection. In my Marriage Skills class at BYUI we were asked to share what we've learned through social media! I decided that I would share what I've learned through here and then proceed to share it on Facebook and possibly Instagram, just because I really think that it's important advice for anyone in any sort of close relationship. Sooo, here we go!
Just this past week I had an experience that made me strengthen my testimony of the Savior, prayers being answered, and of God's love for me individually.
So to kind of catch up on my life and what I've been doing recently, I have just moved to Provo Utah. Since moving here, I have been able to find a job and have actually started going to school through BYUI Online. It has literally been wonderful. With the struggle of trying to juggle school and work at the same time, the things that I had been doing on a weekly basis have been harder to fit in. I now find myself trying to do laundry at the same time as doing homework and trying to fit in grocery shopping within a two hour time period between work and my ward's family home evening. (I use the bus to go places so usually an hour's worth of that time is used just sitting on the bus 😅) This also has made going to the temple much more difficult as well. |
AuthorI am college student attending BYU-Idaho studying Marriage and Family Studies :) Archives
April 2023
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