Trying To Cure My Seasonal Depression

      Reflection:  This blog was dedicated to finding ways to "cure" my seasonal depression. Though nothing can instantaneously change any circumstance, and my seasonal depression didn't magically go away, this process taught me a lot about self-care.  I learned that many of the times when we are feeling low, the most we can do is show up for ourselves in the smallest ways. By doing things like going on a small trip, shopping, or decorating my room, I put myself first and was able to alleviate stress. I'm still struggling with myself for I'm not where I want to be mentally or physically, but I know that it's vital to put myself first at times.  The semester is winding down to an end and though winter break will definitely help me feel more at ease, I realize these problems may re-emerge 2nd the semester.  But with the knowledge and experience I have from this experiment, I know I just have to show up for myself in small ways, and that's what really cou...

      Surprising My Best-friend With a Girls Day :  I absolutely love spending time with my friends, but with the mix of school and work it's hard to really take time and appreciate the time I spend with them, and not stress about the million other things I should be doing. I knew one of my close friends was going through a really stressful period in her life too, and instead of doing our usual study sessions where we cry about life, I decided to surprise her and take her out.  I picked her up after yet another week of long classes and took us out for dinner at our favorite place to eat, MOD Pizza. We sat there for nearly an hour just eating our pizza and talking about all the things we had gone through this week. Considering we don't go to the same school- we had a LOT to catch up on. Afterward, we weren't ready for the night to be over and instead hit every store in the suburban area that we could find. Instead of club-hopping on a Friday night, my bestie...

     Decorating My Room:  I'm a huge fan of decorating- there is just something beautiful about taking the time to craft a space based on the season and make it feel like you. But this fall semester has seemed to fly by so quickly that I never had the proper time to really sit down and decorate my room the way I used to. Each weekend I'm either too busy to get out of bed or catching up on the weeks of homework I'm behind on. But I realized decorating is a form of self-care for me, and though I may not be feeling my best self during this time, it was important for me to show up for myself. So despite it being only a week before Thanksgiving I went through my old stash of Fall decor and decorated one small area of my room.  Considering how small the area was on my wall, it didn't take very much time to decorate at all. I spent around 15 minutes savaging through materials and creating a fall shrine that felt right to me. This year's decor was the most minimalist I'...

    Cooking With My Mom:  Like I said in a previous journal entry, I'm not a huge fan of cooking. But if there's one cuisine of cooking that I especially suck at, it has to be my own ethnicity's cooking: Indian food. Don't even get me wrong- Indian food is amazing. I grew up on it and I love all the spices and flavors it has to offer. But when it comes to cooking it, I just seem to naturally mess everything up. There seem to be so many rules but at the same time no rules at all. You see, whenever I witness my mother cooking Indian food it all seems to be a mess, but then at the end, it all comes together and tastes better than I would have imagined. When I try it's just a hot mess from beginning to end.  However, I realized if there's one person I'm going to ever learn Indian cooking from, it's my own Indian mother. As I'm usually too preoccupied in my own world to really sit down and learn a recipe from her, I decided it would be a fun way to not on...

    Pet Store Therapy:  I think anyone without allergies to animals can agree that the more time they spend with a pet, the happier they are. I mean who can deny a cute little puppy or kitten- they just exude love and adorableness.  And though I've tried to convince my parents for 20 years to let me buy a dog or cat and keep it in their home, they always say "Hell no". So after 20 years of rejection, I decided that it's better to settle than keep fighting a hopeless battle.  Instead, whenever I'm craving some friendly pet love I either head to a friend's house who has a pet, or to a local pet store. So as I've been getting more stressed with classes and spending more time in my bedroom, I decided to take a trip to 'Petland', a pet store not too far away from North Central College.  After my usual Friday classes, I spent nearly an hour playing with a multitude of dogs and cats, for they let you play with an endless amount.  The variety of personalit...

    Trying a New Recipe:  I'll be honest; I hate cooking.  Yes, a large portion of my hatred towards cooking is purely my laziness to prepare a meal, but another large part is the disappointment I feel when I try a new recipe and it doesn't work out.  But despite this major stupid flaw of mine, I realize how therapeutic and fun cooking can be at times. I mean if all the chefs on YouTube look happy when they're doing it, maybe I can reach that same level of happiness too, right? So to try something new and uplift my mood I decided to try the viral TikTok pasta that everyone and their mother has been talking about. The recipe is pretty simple for it requires only cherry tomatoes, a block of feta, some seasoning, and pasta. So when I saw the simplicity of this recipe I knew that it was calling my name. I followed the TikTok video and in nearly an hour I had created my very own feta-tomato pasta.  The recipe, like I said, wasn't difficult at all! Instead, there...

    Taking A Small Trip:  Vacations and mini trips seem to be a must for many adults. I mean, how long can one go living in their boring suburban town without some excitement? The answer is not long.  The last time I went on a full-fledged vacation was 2 years ago and that was to visit some elderly grandparents in India. And as much as I would love to take a break from my day-to-day classes to fly overseas, the reality of that is very low right now.  Thus, I decided another way to treat myself was with a little vacay to a friend's college town. Specifically, I decided to visit one of my best friends at UIUC for fall break! I had never gone to UIUC by myself, thus this trip was very exciting for me as it gave me a sense of independence. I took a Saturday morning train using the Amtrack and ended up in Champaign a few hours later.  Though there wasn't much to do in Champaign other than go to bars and eat out a lot, I had fun getting out of my small town and v...

   Retail Therapy:  A little bit of retail therapy never hurt anyone...right? It's a well-known adage that shopping can cure most problems. So as the weeks of school have gotten tougher, I decided that I needed to treat myself and do a bit of   ✨ shopping ✨ Considering I'm not rich yet, I did my little bit of retail therapy at my local grocery store: Walmart. Walmart has quite literally everything from food to clothes, so it was only natural of me to study every inch of the mall to deem what was the best way to treat myself.  Truthfully,  I didn't purchase too much, but just casually spending time in a store and getting to see all the variety of products they had was oddly therapeutic for me. Maybe it was the time I got to spend away from home and seeing other faces than the ones I typically see, but it was overall a fun experience.  I ended up buying a cardigan as well as a bag of Lucky Charm Marshmallows. Yes, you heard that right.  They we...

  Eating Out With Friends:  As a college student, my budget is pretty tight. So spending more than $10 on a meal is quite absurd to me. This has resulted in my go-to eating spots being Taco Bell, Chick-fil-a, McDonald's, and other easy food places where I end up eating my meal in my car. Alone. Sad. However, in the spirit of trying to find ways to cure my seasonal depression, I decided to go out with my friends for a meal! Eating out is always fun, but eating out with close friends and trying food you've never had before is even more entertaining. On a Friday, after a long day of classes, I picked up 2 of my closest friends and went to T.G.I Friday's, a place I had never tried.  We ended up getting the loaded cheese fries and 2 cajun spicy pastas. The food was sub-par and I would probably never go there again (especially after reading o the bill), but the night itself was fun. Being able to spend time with friends and talk about our mundane day-to-day lives helped me unwi...