Does working hard have to be painful?

It is often said that in order for a fitness workout to be successful, it is necessary to endure pain. I'm sure that all of you have heard of the saying, "No pain, no gain," which is a popular belief among both men and women in terms of exercising. However, the necessity of pain during a workout is put into question in this article, Feeling Pain written by Pirkko Markula.  Markula focuses on the feminine aspect of the issue, in which he says that women have adopted male principles in that they often ignore and endure the pain they experience while exercising because they feel as if pain is an essential element of fitness. Many women think of pain as just being "part of the game," such as in running and other physically demanding sports. However, this article addresses the fact that women athletes must learn to differentiate between the different types of pain that one may endure.

There are two different types of pain that one may experience while exercising -- good pain and bad pain. Good pain refers to the everyday "hurt" that is associated with muscles  whereas pain in joints, ligaments, and bones indicate bad pain. One must have the ability to stop when they realize that they are enduring bad pain and when it becomes too much for his or her body to handle. While pain is considered an essential aspect of many sport women's experiences, it can become a problem when the female chooses to ignore pain and allow it to become "numb" to their bodily feelings, such as in dancing. In the article, the author talks about a study that he conducted of dancers and their experiences with pain. He found that dancers are known to accept pain as a necessary part of their culture and many have said that they need to be in pain in order to know that they are pushing their limits. They have some difficulty, however, trying to distinguish between pain and injury and thus, do not always realize when they pass from feeling pain to actually injuring their bodies. They have the determined mindset that as long as they have the ability to move, the pain can be ignored.

While exercising, it may be difficult to feel as if you are really working hard without enduring some kind of pain. However, this article supports that the most important part of exercising is learning when the pain has the capability of passing from just a simple "hurt" to a possible injury. Pain is an expected and accepted aspect of exercise culture. During physical activities, bodily pain is usually a sign that something is wrong. While dancers and athletes are aware of this fact, they feel as if they cannot afford to stop due to the requirements of their performance culture. So now, I am asking you for your thoughts. Does working hard have to be painful? Do you think that exercise needs to hurt in order to attain maximum performance? How can you distinguish between good and bad pain during an exercise? How is an exerciser to know when to push his or her body or when to stop?

Is being grateful the gateway to happiness?

With Thanksgiving just past the corner, I'm sure some of us all remember exactly what we said we were thankful for around the table. Family, friends, college acceptance- I think it's a pretty safe bet that we all took a moment to remember the things we're grateful for before digging into whatever kind of turkey and potatoes you had on the menu.

This really only happens once a year, though, we need a specific day to remember what we're thankful for, and oftentimes with some prompting. But what if we took time out of every day to remember what we're grateful for? This article by Mary MacVean says there's long lasting evidence that, if we took a second to stop and allow ourselves to feel grateful for what we have, we'd greatly decrease our chances of depression and stress-related illnesses.

The article says that being grateful leads to acknowledging that humanity is, in essence, good, and that thought alone can lead to a reduction of stress. Gratefulness allows us to remember that we have people in our lives to help us out if we need it, and that we wouldn't be the person we are if we'd been completely alone, that other people help to shape us.

But is taking time our of our daily lives to be grateful too much of a stretch? While Thanksgiving is a specific day meant to be used to express our thanks, even it is being pushed under the rug in favor of consumeristic events, like Black Friday, and the rush to Christmas. Is it really feasible for us to use this idea of taking time out of our days to think of what we're thankful? Or are we always going to be too caught up in the here and now than to stop and think.

What do you think? Could you see yourself doing it, or is being grateful always going to be overshadowed by thoughts of the things we need or want, rather than what people have already helped us achieve? Even simpler than that- do you think it makes sense that being grateful could help relieve stress and ward off depression?

Can Eight Minutes Change Your Day?

           I’m almost positive that everyone has had one of those horrible days when it seems like your world is close to ending. You might think that there’s no possible way you could be happy after failing a test, forgetting a project or just having too much to do after school. Think again, according to psychology professor Sonja Lyubomirsky, forty percent of our happiness may be within our power to control. In the article “The Happiness Diet,” she explains a recent study, she found that found people who thought about happy life events for eight minutes every day for three days felt increased life satisfaction four weeks later than they had prior to the study. She calls this theory the “40 Percent Solution. In her book, "The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want,” she lists various activities to make yourself happy. Psychologists have been using these “happiness activities” to help their clients achieve true happiness in their lives.

            Lyubomirsky mainly focuses on the differences between happy people and unhappy people and how to increase the number of the happy ones. She looks at happiness as a diet. You can’t eat healthy one day and expect to lose ten pounds; you have to work at it. Just like a diet, you need to work on your happiness all the time as well. You can’t do one happiness exercise and expect to be happy for the rest of your life. You have to do it every day and really put effort into boosting your own happiness. I know you may be thinking that you barely have time to breathe during the day…where are you supposed to find the time to make yourself happy. Just remember it only takes about eight minutes of your day and it will probably help make you motivate and more productive with your work.

            Many people believe the myth that weather can add to your happiness. That people in Florida where it is always warm and sunny are happier than people in Maine where it is usually cold. Weather actually has nothing to do with it because you become adapted to the weather wherever you live. However, if you move to Florida you may have an increase in your happiness for a little bit because the warm and sunny weather is new to you. But after a while you will adapt to it and that happiness will return to normal. This is one reason why people like to go on vacation so much: change of scenery. Variety changes the way we look at things and that helps us to truly enjoy what we have.

            Happiness not only will give you a new outlook on life but it can improve relationships, creativity, social life and leadership skills. Happiness has so many benefits to it, why live a life controlled by all the negatives. So I challenge you to ask yourself: What makes you happy? Do you think that eight minutes can change your whole day? How can you change up your everyday routine? Would you look at things differently if you were in a better mood?

Shop 'til You Drop

As Christmas approaches, most of us will be spending more and more time shopping and in this article, "Consuming Passion: Human psychology shapes the shopping experience" Kay Randall explains the tendencies of shoppers. Randall also describes the different types of products and methods used my different groups of people based on age and gender.

Randall differentiates the two methods based on gender. Men are more goal-orientated thinkers who decide what they need before going to the store, as soon as they arrive they find it and check out. Women, however, shop for the experience and usually for nothing in particular, they are waiting for an item to spark their interest. And females tend to take much longer shopping than men because we love to try things on.

Not only are women better at coordinating outfits from items throughout the store, but they are quite more capable than men. Men have difficulty pairing a shirt and pant together unless it is displayed for them, otherwise they will purchase only one of the products and move on. That is why it is important for retailers to place outfits in the same display for men while women do not need that aid. Also, stores tend to place candy and gum on the lower shelves, like at the check out at pharmacies, so children are tempted to grab it and beg their parents to purchase it. Even elderly people are targeted in stores, by sales on certain products at certain times of the day because most elderly people do not work and have a fixed income, they also spend time shopping because of their retirement.

Randall also presents the different types of products in a store, such as pain killers or cough medicine have minimal display because people will purchase these utilitarian products when necessary and will not leave a store without it. But luxury items like Godiva chocolate or fancy electronics are displayed to attract attention and interest. If successful, these displays will draw people to purchase these hedonic items, but people will take in to consideration the price and quality of the good more so than if it were a necessity.

There are a lot of factors that draw people to purchase goods: the store ambiance and aroma and customer service are just two examples. Retailers know how to get your attention and mainly your money, especially during the holiday season.

Do you agree with Randall's research? How do you complete your Christmas shopping? What process works best for you? Do you find yourself easily tempted by the candy and gum at the cash register of CVS, do you think this method is productive in business?