Exploring Learning Challenges

Learn by H.E.A.R.T.

Health/Happiness, Empathy, Attention, Reading, Time

While strengthening your intelligence is very important when it comes to your education, so is strengthening other parts of your mind! After reading through the different learning challenges, I am eager to explore each of them. Below are some of the key things I would like to focus on for each category:

Health/Happiness
- Look into health resources on anxiety. I have anxiety, especially when it comes to taking tests, so finding more resources on how others handle their anxiety would be really refreshing (like this blog post).
- Live my life according to these life lessons from Buddhist teachings. I have enjoyed studying eastern belief systems for years, and always feel so happy when I read about them. They are so uplifting!
- I am going to try the Happiness Jar! I will most likely write a blog post on it at some point, but I am going to try it out now just to see how it goes! Starting out this semester has already proven to be tough and I think focusing on the positive will really help me through it! 

Empathy
- I had already watched the Brene Brown video on Empathy, and it had really helped me understand the difference between empathy and sympathy. It can be hard to really grasp the difference. I am going to strive to be more empathetic this semester, and less sympathetic (being the nerd I am, I would like to study the science side of it, like this post)! 

Attention
- I think this challenge will be really, really helpful (I will probably start on it first). When I am studying for a class, it can be easy for me to get caught up on the "big stuff" - the topics that seem most important. However, it is important to pay attention to the small things as well. Also, I think breaking my studying into segments, with breaks every now and then, will make the study session more effective!

Reading
- This is probably the challenge I will focus the least amount of time on, because I LOVE reading and feel pretty confident in my reading style. Writing about why I love reading, and what influenced my passion for books as a young child, will definitely be fun! 

Time
- Watching the video on The Science of Procrastination was really interesting. I have a VERY bad habit of procrastinating. Reading this post really put my time into perspective - I am guilty of the "I'm busy" excuse, when really I am not all that busy! I would like to look into managing my time better and making the most out of my free time! 

Learning Challenge Goal: focus a little on each of these categories (some more than others), and learn how to learn better! 

I hope to spend my hours (that I usually waste on Netflix) growing as an individual. (Kenna Griffin)