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Breathe

To my SFU group! I know some of you follow my blog…so if you didn’t catch my email today here goes:

Hello! Hope you are well! I’ve received a series of phone calls and emails over the past week regarding your papers. First, I want to encourage you, right now, to take a deep breath…in through the nose…out through the mouth…and then take those lips and curl them into a big smile!

You’ve got this! I’ve had the opportunity to assess you all over the past 4 months and everyone in this class is capable of completing this term with a gold star. These papers are simply a compilation of your experience and an opportunity to intersect the literature that you’ve read.

What gets you through graduate school is perseverance and creativity. I tell you, I’ve been through a series of cohorts, and just when I thought it couldn’t get any better than the Pink Unicorns…Michael and his crew show up with the Salad Buffet…and then when I thought I had hit the peak…Naseem and her posse show up with the disco ball! Dammit! Your presentations have been stellar performances and examples of the effort and energy you’ve invested. It’s heartwarming to witness your collaboration and sense the empathy you feel towards each other. I’ve been inspired, moved, and ignited by all your contributions.

So, my friends, these papers are just a small rope swing over to the other side.

What I want to recommend is that you provide a framework, like a house, to your papers. You want to take me on a journey through your narrative and so lead me carefully… making sure that those things that are important to you are stressed via the words you use and literature you cite. It’s okay to lead me wandering and wondering but do so with intent. Your final few paragraphs should summarize your paper, driving home the main point/s you want to convey.

Also, I would recommend OWL @ Purdue on citing references:https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

I’ll talk with Robyn about doing a short presentation next term on APA. Citing is important but shouldn’t distract from the overall flow of your thoughts and ideas hitting the paper.

Feel free to contact me. I’m always here.

hugs,

j.

Embrace

Embrace via Eric Kilby
Embrace via Eric Kilby

Warm partner contact is related to lower cardiovascular activity
Grewen KM1, Anderson BJ, Girdler SS, Light KC.

Abstract: The authors investigated the relationship between brief warm social and physical contact among cohabitating couples and blood pressure (BP) reactivity to stress in a sample of healthy adults (66 African American, 117 Caucasian; 74 women, 109 men). Prior to stress, the warm contact group underwent a 10-minute period of handholding while viewing a romantic video. Followed by a 20-second hug with their partner, while the no contact group rested quietly for 10 minutes and 20 seconds. In response to a public speaking task, individuals receiving prestress partner contact demonstrated lower systolic BP diastolic BP, and heart rate increases compared with the no contact group. The effects of warm contact were comparable for men and women and were greater for African Americans compared with Caucasians. These findings suggest that affectionate relationships with a supportive partner may contribute to lower reactivity to stressful life events and may partially mediate the benefit of marital support on better cardiovascular health.

(Thank you Jolene for sharing and for making me hug you until it became uncomfortable, then really uncomfortable, to sort of okay, to okay, to wait don’t leave me! Ha! 🙂 And then to find a research article supporting the 30-second hug! Bonus! Beware: I’m giving hugs until your oxytocin releases. Bahaha!)