Throwback to EC2014 Monday Morning - Tara Ravi Day 126 of 2014 Watch and listen, she speaks the truth. Much respect to her. Enjoy. P.S I still miss Eastercamp Peace

Oh hey, that’s me! Thank you for your kind words

goodnight and don’t worry about any mistakes you made today. come up with tangible ways to do better next time, and keep your head up.

@lemon-socks thank you for making me laugh while I had the flu. (btw I had a coughing attack cause I was laughing, but it’s all good)

boi @nice-worm

No vuelvas.

NURYA POE

Don’t try going back to where you gave it all and weren’t valued for it.

y’all should reblog and put in the tags what your first concert and your last concert were, and what your next concert will be if you know

Did you guys know Lynz sang a song about Gerard while they were dating? It was impossible for me to find but I eventually I found it! It’s so beautiful and you can really tell she loves him.

Isolation

I am now imagining a trio of dysfunctional vampires or immortals or something. And 2-300 years later, one of them is still That Fucking Guy.

it’s not technology, buddy, it’s just that no one agrees with your entitlement to their attention

HEYO

a concept: me, in bed with many blankets, the windows are frosted but i am toasty, my homework complete and i fully understand the material

Nothing better than when a language starts looking less like alphabet soup and more like words and sentences.

guys this has honestly helped me so so much. basically when i’m doing lets say an assignment late at night, this app automatically adjusts the colour of the screen (dw you don’t really notice it) it is just SO much easier on the eyes and i highly recommend it. 

+ it makes it easier for you to go to sleep because the colour is telling your brain that its sunset so time to go to bed.  they even have a study on this 

+ reblog to save your fellow studyblr friends

download it here

Learning a Language Despite the Difficulties

Learning a language is difficult enough as it is, but it can become even more difficult when faced against social anxiety, depression, or your own introversion. Particularly when most language learning tips seems to start off with “talk to people!” as if talking to people in your native language weren’t already hard enough. I currently have depression and have had it for the past two years, I also suffer from anxiety which used to be near crippling but has become much better thanks to DBT therapy. I am an introvert and a very shy person, though I do not suffer from social anxiety. I hope I may still offer some wisdom, take it as you will. This applies to the rest of my advice as well, if it works for you then I am happy to have helped, if it doesn’t, I hope you find something that does.

Depression Depression, as those of you suffering from it know all too well, makes you not want to do anything. Everything, even existing, is a chore. And as much as you wish you could just stay in bed, in the end it’ll be far better for you if you don’t, trust me, the only reason I drag myself out of bed every morning is because I know I’ll be slightly less miserable if I do. Here’s some tips and encouragement for powering through your language learning goals despite your depression.

1. Take care of yourself: This may seem obvious but it needs to be said. If you’re on medications, take your medications. Keep yourself fed (remember, average human needs like 1,500-2,000 calories a day, make sure you’re getting your proteins, fats, and carbs), exercise even if it’s just meandering around the block (I do this a lot, meandering is the only reason I’m still moving). 2. Motivation will often be impossible to find, so forget motivation and build habit and discipline instead. Habits and discipline will keep you going when you’ve got nothing else. Even if you’re just going through the motions, you’re doing something and you’re moving forward. Check out this and this. 3. There is evidence that learning a language can actually help depression. Not only are you accomplishing a goal, but you’re also exercising your mind which has more than just the one benefit. If you can power through this you might wind up feeling a little better on the other side. 4. Make it as fun as you can. Which at times will feel impossible, but do what needs to be done, it’s the little things that make it different. Listen to music in your target language, it doesn’t require much effort and you’ll be training your ears in your target language while doing it. Write your notes in bright colors, get notebooks with your favorite color, make things bright. Not only is there evidence that bright colors can help improve mood, but having a color you really love around can make things seem a little bit better. Not just with colors but surround yourself with things you love, if that means all your notebooks have the Avengers on it then so be it, and if that means that you need to spend a little extra money on that one particular moleskin notebook you just need, if you have the money, consider it an investment. 5. Figure out what works. Know your learning styles and methods and work with them. This is important for everyone but even more important when you have depression. Doing things that don’t work is just going to leave you feeling discouraged and upset and it will become all too easy to give up. Work on developing techniques so that you can keep your learning moving, because if you feel like you’re successful it will become much easier to keep coming back to it.

https://www.languagetrainers.com/blog/2015/02/19/how-learning-a-new-language-can-help-you-fight-depression/ https://blog.mondlylanguages.com/fought-depression-bylearning-language/

Social Anxiety Social anxiety can make picking up the telephone seem like a herculean task, and that’s in your native language. But you don’t have to have social anxiety for social interactions to be difficult. I myself don’t have social anxiety but am instead just a generally shy person, and I cannot imagine the struggle for those of you who are far beyond “just shy”. Here I offer the things I do to help me overcome my own personal shyness, though it may be harder for you to do these things particularly if you have a more intense form of social anxiety. Just know it won’t be easy, but I hope you keep working at it, the rewards can be amazing.

1. Break your comfort zone. You’ve probably heard this a million times and it can be pretty annoying but it’s actual good sound advice, so long as you do it right. Take things small, you don’t have to jump 2 miles out of your comfort zone but you can take a baby step out of it. Figure out the closest thing that’s out of your comforts zone (but still completely out of it) and do it. Maybe try turning off anon when you go to send someone an ask. Most of the people in the Langblr/Studyblr community are sweet as hell, and you can always ask them to respond privately if having a ton of people view your ask with your URL on it makes you nervous. 2. Text is easier than speech. Use this to your advantage. If meeting people in real life is too much find people online. If you’ve met some people in real life but practicing your target language with them is difficult, try practicing it via writing. Text them in your target language, ask them to correct your practice sentences, whatever it is, just start out a little bit out of your comfort zone until your comfort zone expands, and then move back out again. 3. Keep interactions small. Eventually somewhere along the line of the language learning journey you are going to have to talk to people in real life. And it’s terrifying. To try to make it less terrifying take control of as much as you can and keep it short. Keep interactions 1 on 1, set time limits so even if it’s not going well you have a prearranged time limit (it makes it easier to leave). If you’re concerned about things getting awkward when you meet start off with “I have a ton of homework so I probably can’t stay long” and if you’re just really not feeling good about it or you’ve maxed out your social interaction for the day you can pull out with a polite “I really gotta go do homework.” 4. Remember that eventually at some point in time you are going to have to do exactly what you’re terrified of. But there is a reason the most effective therapies for anxiety involve some kind of exposure therapy. The fact of the matter is the fear is probably not justified, either in intensity or duration or even the fact that you’re afraid of it at all. The fear is still crippling, and your brain is probably spinning circles around itself trying to justify your fear, but trust me when I say life is so much better when the fear is gone. But the only way you’re ever going to stop being scared of something is to do it, because that’s the only way you can ever prove to yourself that all the horrible things your mind is imagining won’t actually happen. So get out there and do what needs to be done so you can be an effective language learner and get all that you want out of life. It’s going to be seriously fucking hard at times, but start small and keep going and it will get easier.

For the Introverts Some of the tips in the social anxiety category can probably apply to you. I just want to acknowledge that introverts and extroverts are very different, and also remind you that it’s okay to work within your limits. Language learning may seem like a task for extroverts only, but remember, you manage to be an introvert in your native language, don’t you? So you sure as hell can do it in another language. Do what needs to be done and figure out what works best for you. You can so totally do this! http://www.omniglot.com/language/articles/introextrolanglearning.htm

All of the yes.

I actually started learning Swedish to help fight depression. It was the first thing in a long time that caused even a little spark of interest, so I forced myself to dig into it and keep going. In the 298 days since I started, I have missed only 2 days (praise the Lord for streak freezes). I love the OP’s comments about motivation. Absolutely spot on. Motivation is a flighty beast and can not be relied on, especially when depressed. Habit and discipline are key. That’s not to say that there weren’t days and weeks when I was motivated - there were times that I loved languages and Swedish, and the amazing online language community helped with that. But when motivation goes down you just have to keep sticking with it anyway.

It has been incredibly helpful as it has been an exercise in teaching myself that I can do things! I may not be able to learn as fast as others, and sure I’m only going to learn one language at a time, but I’m still sticking on and still learning. I nearly caved in and stopped so many times because I don’t know if I will ever really be fluent or if there was any point at all. It often seems doubtful. But the process became the point of it, and the process of keeping going has made me realise that I can not only do things but persevere. That alone has been a massive confidence boost, which has helped me to fight depression enough to get back to my physiotherapy studies, and enjoy them. That was huge. 

I also have anxiety issues, mainly social anxiety. Again, the OP is 100% right on every point here (at least for me). I admit that I haven’t done a whole bunch of talking with natives yet, and I’ve done very little messaging (a work in progress). But through Swedish, being forced to step out of my comfort zone for physiotherapy, and taking on more at my youth group, as well as a bunch of other miscellaneous life experiences, I’ve taught that relentlessly fearful part of my brain that it can chill a bit. I’m not only slowly expanding the borders of my comfort zone, I’m making it easier to expand those boundaries.

Never did I think I’d ever become the person capable of striking up conversations with random strangers, let alone in a language that I was still in the process of learning. But what this post says has really worked for me. Taking it in gradual steps from writing first and then to speaking has made the transition not seem like such a big feat.

I’d rather fight Aliens than fight you. 😊

Shoutout to all of the assimilated POC that were never taught and never learned their native language(s) and are going back to do it now or plan to in the future, you all rock and I’m rooting for you hardcore 👏🏽👏🏾👏🏿