Learning Challenge: Happiness Jar

My plan is each day to write down something that made me happy each day for at least a week and place it is a "Happiness Jar." I think this would be a really cool project to continue. Maybe I could write down something each day and at the end of each week reflect on the things that made me happy that week. I think this project could even be a year long. That way not only in hard times, but each day I would have something that would remind me of the happiness I have in my life. I chose this image as inspiration to make a jar for each year. This jar is specifically for memories, but I think I could expand it to happiness.

Happiness Jar: PageHardware

Learning Challenge: Being Busy Kills Creativity

Being Busy Is Killing Our Ability to Think Creatively

You need to take time out of your day to relax/meditate. The benefits described in this article are that it allows you to have that time to think creatively and daydream which is important to a healthy mind. What I learned from this article was that being busy diminishes your ability to be creative. This really makes sense. When I am busy, I can only think of what I have to do and what I want to do, I do not really have time to think and ponder on question or reflect on my day, let alone be creative. One thing I am now curious about is all the ways you can unplug from the world and just take some "me time." I plan to look up different ways to divert your attention when having a busy day.

(Funny Cat Meme about daydreaming: Web Source)

Learning Challenge: Reading Out Loud

For me, reading out loud helps me to slow down and not "speed read", which to me means I read it but not really read and understand. When I do not take the time to read out loud I have found that I will read what I am supposed to, however, I do not retain the information or make connections to the story or material like I do when I read out loud. For me reading out loud is different from silent reading because it allows me to make connections that I might have other wise missed and also allows me to retain information better than just reading silently. The only disadvantage of reading out loud is that it takes longer, because you make more connections and ask yourself questions. Reading out loud is definitely something that I will continue doing.

(Funny Meme about Reading Out Loud in Class: Image found on Pintrest: Photo by LoveThisPic)

Learning Challenge: Design Thinking Empathy

The article I read is, "Design Thinking for a Better You." One thing that I already knew, is that when facing a question the first thing to do is to find out the real concern before answering. Honestly, the word empathize was what I learned from this article. Typically, when I hear the word empathy I think of feelings and too many emotions, but the idea of using feelings to figure out problems and their solutions is something that I have never thought of and find really fascinating. I am now curious to explore empathy. In the past, I have taken empathy quizzes for my classes, and my scores are not very good. When I saw empathy as a topic to explore and read about, I was instantly drawn to learn so that I can improve my empathy skills. I definitely feel that design thinking will be useful in my life and my future career, so I will be trying it out.

(Empathy Map from Brand Manual)