Go Outside, Feel Better

The holidays can be a wonderful time of year, but they can also be a source of stress: getting along with family members, buying gifts, shopping and preparing food, and traveling to various locations can be tiring and overwhelming. This year especially, I find my stress levels abnormally high as I contemplate the events going on in the world and the future. Luckily, there’s one small thing that you can do to make yourself feel better, and it doesn’t involve any medication:

Get outside and find some nature.

El Niño, From the Mountains to the Sea

In case you don’t know, I’m back in California, enjoying the warm weather and being back on campus. Even though I’m now needing to study a lot more than I was during my traveling episode of 2015, I’m still managing to find time to go on adventures and travel to different parts of the state on the weekends. I’d like to share two of my adventures with you within the context of a phenomenon that has been hitting up the media a lot recently: El Niño.

Music and the Environment

While it seems like I’ve been interested in environmental issues for forever, there is one thing that I have loved for longer. That thing is music.

Music is a way for me to momentarily forget everything around me, and simply focus on making art in the present moment. When you’re part of a music ensemble, it is no longer about you – you are part of something bigger than yourself, and everyone else relies on you to pull your own weight. Music can take us to our highest highs and our lowest lows in a matter of seconds. It’s a language that’s all around us, and can help us communicate our deepest fears and desires when plain speech fails us.

Sometimes All You Need Is A Walk in Nature

With finals coming up next week, it’s been more and more difficult for me to escape from campus and have some good outdoor adventures. So two weeks ago, I decided to take a “nature walk” through campus to appreciate all the nature we have right here at Stanford. Although it is very far from true wilderness, Stanford does have lots of trees, gardens, groves, and meadows to enjoy. Our campus is very big, but I still chose to walk instead of biking around. This gave me an opportunity to stop and smell the roses in a very literal way, and to have time to notice the small details and really appreciate everything around me.