Week 6

2/10/14

Grounding today was interesting for me. Usually I try to stop the music that's constantly playing in my head and concentrate on my breathing. Usually I feel very grounded and that I have an awareness of my surroundings. However, today I gave up and just let the music continue. I'm not sure how this affected me exactly, but when we opened our eyes, I felt like I was returning from some space outside of the room and that I'd really gotten out of my body during those five minutes. I also felt like my limbs were tingling, although from a lack or abundance of oxygen, I'm not sure. Overall it was a very different experience.

2/12/14

It was weird listening to myself read my paper. Your own voice always sounds different recorded than it does in your head. While my paper read okay overall, I did notice some awkward phrases. After reading through Karen's paper, which was very elegant and enjoyable, I also noticed that it sounded a little distant. It made me realize that I needed to add a bit more of the personal side to my paper. There were also some spots that were simply grammatically incorrect. Overall, it was a useful experience.

2/14/14

Today I learned how to best navigate the databases at SCU and realized that sometimes the words you think best relate to your topic are not always the ones that get you the best results.

Synthesis 6

            This week seems to have a theme of re-envisioning things from different perspectives. In grounding I decided to take a different approach to how I meditate and didn’t focus on blocking the music in my head. This led to a very different grounding experience, in which I was actually less and more grounded in a way. I wasn’t grounded in that I felt like I was floating off in some distant space outside of the classroom. However, this was also very grounding in that it gave me a relaxing escape into some peaceful nether-region.

           In this same re-envisioning theme, reading through Karen’s paper and seeing how she approached the assignment gave me a new perspective on personal connection integration. Similarly, hearing my own voice read my own essay out loud gave me a new perspective on the overall tone of my paper. Hearing it with this “new” voice (my audible one versus the one in my mind) helped me to hear my paper and how detached it sounded, which in turn contributed to my desire to significantly change some areas before the final draft was due.

           Finally, re-envisioning came into play with our database exploration this Friday as well. For background information, the topic I am looking into is in what ways Facebook affects adolescent self-concept development. The first time I searched for articles in the databases, I used Gail’s recommended search terms: (teen* or adolescent*) along with (Facebook). I didn’t get many results back, and those that did show up weren’t all that relevant. This was frustrating. However, I ultimately decided to take a different approach and decided to drop (teen* or adolescent*) and try using (ident* or self-concept*) instead. Interestingly, I received far more sources, many of which were relevant to my topic. I think it’s interesting how coming at different activities with the slightest difference in perspective or approach can entirely change its outcome.