Media Development in Family

This past weekend my boyfriend was playing a game that I had not seen in years. The game is called Ballz and consists of shooting balls toward blocks and each time it touches them the number goes down until it is gone (0). Once I saw him playing I knew I needed to play again. I used to love that game so much and I was super good at it. I re-downloaded the game and immediately got sucked back into it. I played for the next three hours straight while we were relaxing and watching TV. Once he was getting ready to go home for the night and I put my phone down I realized how I was feeling. I was an anxious mess. I had let this game take over my life in such a short time. I deleted the game but the anxious feelings stayed. Since I played this game years ago I have discovered that for me I need to play games with levels. The infinite nature of games does not work for me, I get too invested and I lose myself. I only play games on my phone to get my mind off of things for a little bit. I want t...

 This week I was listening to a General Conference talk from President Nelson from October 2018. It is called "Sisters' Participation in the Gathering of Israel." In this talk, he gave four invitations. One of them was to do a 10-day social media fast. The second invitation was to read the Book of Mormon between now and the end of the year. I want to combine those two together and try to increase my spirituality. I plan to start my social media fast tomorrow and put the time I would spend on social media into reading the Book of Mormon instead. On average I spend between 1-2 hours on social media each day. Although not all of that time will be put toward reading the Book of Mormon, I want a majority of it to go that way. Other ideas of things to do instead of social media time are to read, meditate/ pray, call family, bake or cook, and clean. I invite you to join me :) Let me know how it goes!

This past weekend was the semi-annual general conference for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of which I am a member. These two weekends a year we get to hear from our church leaders who give us guidance and hope and share the love of the Lord, Jesus Christ. These weekends are always my favorite each fall and spring. I start thinking about questions I have about life and making predictions on where temples will be announced. My friends and I create a menu of snacks and meals to keep us awake and nourished. However, at the end of the weekend, despite the spiritual high of the messages given, I often feel like blehhh. This weekend was one where I felt even more of a bleh feeling. After sitting on the couch for 10 hours watching a conference over the weekend, I just felt bad. (The candy and soda I was consuming the whole weekend might have contributed.) I received answers to prayers, guidance on my career, and hope for my future but still came away from the weekend feeling ...

 I love reading and I always have. The last books that I have read in this year so far are: One L: The Turbulent and True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School Hannah's War Poison for Breakfast The Hate U Give Expanding the Borders of Zion Life with Big Al: Early Alzheimer's; a Caregiver's Diary A Monster Like Me A Brilliant Night of Stars and Ice Tuesdays with Morrie I Cried to Dream Again: Trafficking, Murder, and Deliverance-- A Memoir The Mundane Diary of an Oxygen Thief When Breath Becomes Air All of these books caught my eye when at a bookstore/ library or were needed for a class. Overall the content of them is drastically different in each. "A Monster Like Me" for example is a children's novel. Although the message of the book can be for any age, the content and language were geared toward children. Other books like "The Hate U Give" and  "I Cried to Dream Again" are more for adults, showing themes of racism, ignorance, and rig...

This week we talked about music in class. I realized how much music affects my mood and how much it affects the music I choose to listen to (or to avoid it). Walking to class today I was getting frustrated by some people nitpicking my work so I decided to do the thing I do the majority of the time I am annoyed and search on Spotify "angry Taylor Swift." I listened to some bold reputation-era music and it made me feel justified in my annoyance and get over my sightly unjustified emotions. Once I got to class, we started talking about music and the reasons why we listen to it. I had done the readings before class but didn't remember the things until we reflected upon them in class. In class, we listened to Savior, Redeemer of My Soul  and I cried. This week is my five-year baptism anniversary and those emotions combined with the song made an impact on me. I love Jesus Christ and love how much has brought me closer to Him in the last few years.