Dear Anita

The spring semester is quite busy for me with many assignments but I think I’m managing. I had my first quiz in Organic Chemistry lecture class on Friday January 31st and I hope that I did well on it, think that I may have gotten at least a 75. I have a quiz in Genetics tomorrow and I am hoping that it goes well. My meditation class is helpful in helping me destress from my school work. Some meditation techniques I’ve learned are breathing meditation which is focusing on deep breaths and counting to ten as well as body scan which consists of thinking of drawing down the energy of the universe through the head and into the heart and allowing the heart to fill with positive energy that helps heal the whole body, the teacher uses mantras like “I am energy and my emotions flow easily through my body, all tension releases and I am healing.” A third meditation technique that I have learned is the muscle relaxation meditation where a person tenses all their muscles and then lets them go and the mantra is “I am releasing the tension in my body, my muscles relax and my mind is at peace. I am healing my body and mind, tension fades and my mind and body are one with the energy of the universe.” These meditations have been very helpful for me in destressing and maintaining a positive attitude when I feel stressed about my classes. My first Organic Chemistry lab experiment was January 28th and since I took lots of notes in my lab notebook the experiment went well. My lab classmates were helpful and provided advice as well and the professor thoroughly explained the lab experiment. I have a mentor from Student Success Services program at Stockton and since I am part of student Success services the mentor helps me focus on building my academic skills. I am going to seek my mentor’s advice about lab notebooks because even though the lab notebook isn’t graded by the professor I will be using the lab notebook on the final exam so I want to make sure that the notebook is organized so I am seeking advice from my mentor who has taken Organic Chemistry before and knows about lab notebooks and procedures. The professor didn’t check the Prelab for the first experiment because he said that it was just a warm up, however he will check the Prelab for the second experiment on Tuesday February 4th. So I will be working on a Prelab which summarizes the second experimental procedure and gives a detail of what the purpose of the experiment is that will be due Tuesday. I will likely meet with my mentor so I can gain insight into Prelab guidelines because the Prelabs are checked by the professor before students can begin lab experiments and I want to make sure that I have a decent Prelab for the next experiment that I will be doing on Tuesday February 4th. I also have a lab report due February 4th that will summarize what I did in my first experiment in lab class. I have already completed the online quiz and lab procedure notes for Genetics lab for Wednesday February 5th. I am working on the lab report for the first experiment, the Prelab for the second experiment (professor will check this one but didn’t check Prelab 1 because it was a warm-up) and an online lab quiz for Organic Chemistry lab due February 4th. I just finished my notes for genetics class chapters 2-3 today and I worked on reviewing chapters 1-3 because the quiz for genetics lecture tomorrow is on those chapters. My meditation class has a research summary due Thursday and I have to pick a meditation topic to research and this topic will also be a presentation that I will do likely in April towards the end of the semester. It’s quite a busy semester but I think that meditation helps me keep a positive attitude and the counselors at Stockton are helpful to help me understand my feelings when I feel stressed. Thank you to tinybuddha and Anita for all your help as well because I feel better writing things down and when going back to read them I feel like I understand myself better.