Growth Mindset: Jugaad

Jugaad- "Frugal Innovation"

Creative problem-solving in the face of extreme limits by Navi Radjou

Review: Multitasking

Week 10 Review: Multitasking

Multitasking (Web Source)

Reading Notes: The Mahabharata Epified Part F

The Mahabharata Epified: Reading Notes (Part F)

 

I was really interested in Urvashi's curse because even though Arjuna was only trying to show her respect by refusing her hand in marriage, it enraged her and she cursed him. It was also interesting to see Indra involved in lessening the severity of this curse, given his history of being cursed.

 

Urvashi's Curse (Web Source)

 

 

Bibliography:
The Mahabharata Epified Reading Notes (Web Source)

Wikipedia Trails: From Draupadi to Drona

Draupadi

I read a little more about Draupadi after watching the epified videos this week and was led to the article on the Upapandavas.

Draupadi in Virata's palace, by Raja Ravi Varma (Web Source)

Upapandavas
The Upapandavas were the five sons that Draupadi had by each of the five Pandava brothers she married. They were killed in battle by Ashwatthama.

Ashwatthama
Ashwatthama was the son of Drona.

Drona
Drona was the teacher for most of the key players in the Kurukshetra War.

Reading Notes: The Mahabharata Epified Part E

The Mahabharata Epified: Reading Notes (Part E)

 

I really enjoyed hearing more about Draupadi's story. When I initially read it, I couldn't believe how incredibly unfair the entire situation seemed. It was nice to hear this story told with a little more outrage from several people involved, including Draupadi herself.

 

Draupadi in Virata's palace, by Raja Ravi Varma (Web Source)

 

Bibliography:
The Mahabharata Epified Reading Notes (Web Source)

Review: The Pause Button

The Pause Button

I saw this infografic while scrolling through the announcements on Friday and it seemed fitting for the week of midterms, less for pausing to prevent issues and more for pausing to find peace.

Practice the Pause by Lori Deschesne (Web Source)

Learning Challenge: Why do we sleep?

Why do we sleep?

One of the Ted talks I watched this week:

"Why do we sleep?" - Russel Foster

Growth Mindset: Try Something New for 30 Days

Try Something New for 30 Days 

One of the Ted Talks I listened to this week:

"Try Something New for 30 Days" 

-Matt Cutts

Reading Notes: The Mahabharata Epified Part D

The Mahabharata Epified: Reading Notes (Part D)

My favorite part of this reading was hearing about Arjuna's exile again. I felt like this version of the story gave me a very different perspective on the events that took place as well as more respect for Arjuna.

Arjuna Grabbing his Bow and Arrows (Web Source)

Bibliography: The Mahabharata Epified Reading Notes (Web Source)

Learning Challenge: Getting Motivated

This week I have been starting my day with a TED talk and so far it has been a really motivating way to begin each day. Here's one that I watched earlier this week by Kelly McGonigal. She talks about rethinking our perception of stress and the benefits of a positive outlook.

How to make stress your friend

Growth Mindset: Grit

I have been listening to one TED talk each morning on my way to work or school this week and I have really enjoyed all of them. However, this morning I found this particular talk where the speaker mentioned Carol Dweck to be both interesting and inspiring.

Grit: The power of passion and perseverance

Week 8 Review: Spring Cleaning (Fall Edition)

I saw this on today's calendar feed and really liked it! This is definitely how my weekends go.

Interior Life by Grant Snider (Web Source)

Week 8 Growth Mindset

Now that I have completed all of my prerequisites for medical school, this year is about taking all the classes that just didn't quite fit into my schedule before. So, I am completing my honors requirements, working on a Spanish minor, taking neurobiology courses, and taking humanities courses that help me learn more about cultures that I am interested in and/or grow my writing skills. All of these things are very important to me and I see them as a way to continue pursuing my goal of lifelong learning, but it also forces me to grow in other ways. I am accustomed to balancing a heavy work and school load, but my classes are usually 4 or 5 hour classes, as opposed to 3 hour classes. My classes this semester are all 3 hour classes, making this a much different course load than my standard schedule. I think that in striving to take on new challenges, I sometimes take on more than I should. 

Growth Mindset meme (Web Source)

Week 8 Reflections

 Reflections

Reading
My reading notes could definitely be formatted better in order to transition more effectively to a story. I have not written many stories this semester because I find the Wednesday deadline to be extraordinarily challenging to meet every single week. It feels like I am constantly making a sacrifice between finishing my reading for the week and writing a story. I love the readings, so I usually finish those, but it takes much more effort to write a story.

Writing
I think that my stories are typically well written, if I am able to complete the story for the week. I find myself having plenty of ideas for stories as I write my reading notes, but unless I write the story during the weekend before that week, I am often unable to write something that reflects the quality of work that I would like it to. I will say that I am very excited about writing my storybook and that a lot of thought has gone into the structure and plot of the story.

Connecting
At first, commenting on others blog pages was challenging and I was not sure how to really comment on a post introducing someone to me that I had never met. As the semester has progressed, I have found the process of doing this to be much easier and I now consistently write more than required.

"Eye of the Parrot" (Web Source)

Learning Challenge: Increasing Efficiency/Tech Tip: Embedded YouTube

So, this isn't exactly a learning challenge from the Learning by HEART page, but I think it fits into the principles that Learning by HEART really tries to promote. I struggle finding time to maintain my studies and work schedule, but I am fortunate enough to constantly be surrounded by people who inspire me to put in as much effort as I can to what I do each day. While I do take time to listen to music or read something unrelated to school or work, I do occasionally utilize even my most sacred relaxing time (driving to work, which takes just under 30 minutes and ensures I do nothing but drive during that time) for something that is related to work or school. This week, I chose to listen to this TED talk on my way to work. Now, I know it may seem like overkill to utilize this time for learning, but it was less of a necessity and much more of a way to keep me engaged and excited. I absolutely love what I do, but I will admit to occasionally finding myself feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything. Sometimes I take a break, maybe work on a simpler assignment for a different class, or listen to some music in Spanish to practice my listening skills, but sometimes I choose to dive a little a deeper and confront that feeling head on by getting engaged in an interesting, and perhaps more manageable part of what I am working on. This technique REALLY helps me to stay motivated and tends to attack the problem, rather than avoid it.

Here's the link to the TED talk I listened to on my way to work. It's about neural plasticity, nature, and nurture and where the field of neuroscience is headed.

Nature, nurture & neuroplasticity

big think (Web Source)

Wikipedia Trails: From Karna to Anrita

Karna
After finishing the third part of the epified version of The Mahabharata, I looked up Karna on wikipedia to learn a little more. I learned that in one of the versions of Karna's death, the goddess of Dharma was protecting him from Arjuna's arrows. This led me to the next article on Dharma.

Arjuna Killing Karna (Web Source)

Dharma
I knew already that the concept of Dharma was fairly complex, but I had thought of it as someone acting in accordance with their fate. However, there is no one word that actually can serve as a translation for the concept of Dharma. I also found a new word, Adharma.

Adharma
I found the words used to define Adharma very interesting because they were not exactly the opposite of fate. Instead, it meant something more along the lines of evil or wrong. It just reminds me that different cultures have different opinions regarding fate.

Anrita
After reading the article about Adharma, I read about Anrita, a son of the god Adharma. I found it really interesting that each of these concepts was personified as a deity. 

Growth Mindset: Diving Headfirst

I saved this meme because it is exactly what I feel like I have to do every time that I start a new week. Keeping up a delicate balancing act is hard, but as long as I can continue to stay motivated and dive into each week like the growth mindset cat, I can keep achieving my goals.

Growth Mindset Cat Dives Headfirst (Web Source)

Review: The Difference Between a Family Dinner and Cannibalism

Punctuation Saves Lives (Web Source)

I saved this announcement from Tuesday this week because it is one of my favorite grammar infographics. It humorously illustrates how important it is to use commas, a punctuation mark which I feel is highly undervalued.

Reading Notes: The Mahabharata Epified Part C

The Mahabharata Epified: Reading Notes (Part C)

Karna

My favorite part of this video series was learning about Karna. Despite all of the roadblocks he faced, he continued to work hard towards his goal in order to overcome his family's status. Although he technically was adopted into that status and he was of a higher status by birth, he works to overcome societal constraints and represents a much different type of character than we are used to seeing in these epics.

Karna and Krishna (Web Source)

Bibliography: The Mahabharata Epified Reading Guide (Web Source)

Reading Notes: The Mahabharata Epified Part B

The Mahabharata Epified: Reading Notes (Part B)

Ekalavya's Story: This was my favorite story from this video series because it gave me a completely different perspective of Arjuna. I did not realize that he had exhibited such jealousy or that Drona had done anything so unfair. This could make a really story for this week's readings.

Ekalavya Cuts off his Thumb (Wikimedia)

Bibliography: The Mahabarata Epified Reading Guide (Web Source)

Reading Notes: The Mahabharata Epified (Part A)

The Mahabharata Epified: Reading Notes (Part A)

I really enjoyed this reading guide! I feel like I really retain more by watching the epified videos, and I even went to the Epified YouTube page to see what other videos they do.

When I read The Mahabharata by Narayan, I felt like this whole first section that really provides the background for the epic was passed over. I know I read about all of it, but it just didn't seem to really stick with me and watching the first nine videos of the series really helped establish that background for me.

I found it really interesting to hear about all of the secrets that kept popping up for the different characters involved, especially Satyavati. It just reminds me how complex the entire story is and that past lives come back to ensure each person receives what is truly just.

Devavrata Takes a Vow of Celibacy (Web Source)

Bibliography: The Mahabharata Epified Reading Guide (Web Source)

Week 6 Review: The Three Little Scientists and the Big Bad Wolf

As a science major, I really enjoyed reading this comic. It definitely appealed to my sense of humor.

The Three Little Scientists and the Big Bad Wolf by Tom Gauld (Web Source)

Wikipedia Trails: From Krishna to Jyotirlinga

Krishna
I was reading the online reading guide this week for Narayan's Mahabharata, when I noticed that Krishna, one of Vishnu's avatars, made an appearance. I was curious to learn more about Krishna, since my storybook really tries to tie different stories together throughout time. As I was reading this article, I noticed that one of his wives while he was Krishna, was Lakshmana, another name for his previous love, Sita.

Hindu Calendar
After reading about Krishna, I came across a link to the article on the Hindu Calendar. I think the way that different cultures organize time is fascinating and so I wanted to see some of the differences between my concept of how to organize time within a year and how Hindu culture organizes time.

Hindu Calendar (Web Source)

Maha Shivaratari
After looking at the Hindu Calendar article, I found this article about Maha Shivaratari, a festival celebrated in Shiva's honor during the winter season. During this festival, some religious devotees take a pilgrimage to Jyotirlingams, which led me to the next article.

Jyotirlinga
Jyotirlingams are shrines devoted to Shiva, and translates to The Radiant Sign of the Almighty Shiva.

Growth Mindset: So You Had a Bad Day (week)

So, my past few weeks have been particularly rough, trying to juggle work, school, secondary applications, and financial aid issues. AND to make matters worse, I am now sick. But, there is hope! I have been slowly but surely making progress towards getting everything accomplished and when I was looking through our class announcements this morning, I couldn't help but feel a little better as I came across this Growth Mindset Meme:

Growth Mindset Meme by Paula Nimigean (Web Source)