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Give Me Qi: Life Force and Natural Energy

Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Alexa Mellardo
Her Campus Placeholder Avatar Erica Markle
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Suffolk chapter.

With hectic days filled with internships, classes, jobs, and that morning ritual caramel macchiato run squeezed into our city-savvy schedules, every collegiate is on overload.  In the midst of the coldest season of the year, it is easy to feel negative with a major case of wintertime blues.  Although yoga and zumba classes are fun ways to eliminate stress, it is important to take every single positive approach to feeling good…both mentally and physically.

“Qi” is a Feng Shui concept of “life force” and “natural energy.”  It is critical to improve your natural energy and well being to the best of your ability, which, in turn, will stimulate good health, serenity and happiness. To make this concept work, it is essential to alleviate any and all obstacles in our lives that cause anxiety. It is a sensible and positive step to feeling your optimum best.

Here are steps you can take to become a healthier, happier you:

·      Do a thorough check of the people around you.  Limit the time you spend with downers…no one likes a Negative Nancy!  It’s obviously important to be there for friends who are experiencing difficult times. But if it’s a pattern with them, it may be time to re-evaluate the time you dedicate to certain friendships.

·      Increase the time you spend with positive, productive friends.

·      Don’t dwell on the past.  What’s done is done.  Get over it and move on!

·      Avoid gossip.  Everything about gossip is negative…and toxic.  People who spread it are usually miserable, so refer to step # 1 (you should be avoiding miserable people anyway!).

·      Exercise regularly.  Even if it is a 15 minute walk or run every other day or so.  You will feel better, look better, and it is a start to a healthier you.  When the weather gets nicer, it is simply refreshing to take a run along the Charles River or sprint up the hills in Beacon Hill.

·      Eat better and drink lots of water to cleanse your system.  Be conscious of including more fruits and vegetables in your diet, and eliminate snacks (don’t tempt yourself salivating over sugary desserts on Pinterest)!  Protein shakes make quick, easy, and delicious snacks, in addition to fruit parfaits with yogurt, honey and granola.  Give a Blueprint juice cleanse a try once a week!  You will truly feel so much better.

·      Make some “you” time, whether it’s going for a mani and pedi over the weekend, checking out a trendy new café, or bringing a book to the park.

          ·      Purge through your closets, drawers, and jewelry.  Discard (donate/consign/sell) anything that you really don’t wear or does not fit well.  Eliminate excess stuff in your life!

·      Pocketbooks and wallets are magnets for extra baggage.  Clean them out. 

·      Delete unnecessary phone messages, emails, and documents on your computer.

·      Be sure to have an organized system in your room or apartment.  Find a sensible place for your belongings.  If everything has a home, it’s not overwhelming to find things when you need them…and much easier to put things back.

·      A peaceful, stress-free quality of life is healthy, happy and wise.

·      Money (or lack thereof) can be one of the greatest causes of stress.  Just a few pretty obvious rules: Don’t spend it before you have it.  Start spending less.  Try to find ways to make and save more. 

·      Don’t have pity parties. Everyone has issues to deal with.  Figure out what yours are and be productive trying to fix them, rather than wasting time complaining about them.

·      Don’t beat yourself up.  Make a detailed list of the things that you need to improve in your life, and address them one by one.

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My name is Alexa Mellardo and I am currently a sophomore and Broadcast Journalism major at Suffolk University, located in the heart of one of the most charming cities in the world: Boston. A passionate journalist, I am fortunate to be doing what I love to do….writing! When I’m not composing articles for two awesome online publications (hercampus.com and also collegefashionista.com) and attending classes, I intern at a trendy magazine in the city. In between, I love to shop and spend time with my friends and my boyfriend. I have two addictions: shopping and cupcakes. In light of that, what better place to be than just blocks away from Newbury Street, Charles Street and Quincy Market? My quaint, vintage brownstone apartment in Beacon Hill is where my two best friends and I keep it strictly classy and fashionable. We turned our apartment into a comfy fashionable haven, and we enjoy relaxing and entertaining our friends. Living in such an awesome city provides a wealth of opportunity, fun, and culture to embrace. My dream is to one day be a respected, well-known broadcast journalist.
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Originally from Connecticut, Erica attends Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts. She is a senior, majoring in public relations, and minoring in marketing. She founded Suffolk's chapter of Her Campus along with co-Campus Correspondent, Mackenzie Newcomb. has interned at a few start-up companies including Quincy Apparel and Good to Go Organics. She was also a public relations intern at Regan Communications Group, and is currently the advertising/marketing intern at The Improper Bostonian Magazine. Erica also works on Newbury Street at Jack Wills University Outfitters, a British clothing company that is expanding across America. She is very interested in the world of fashion, and hopes to make it big doing marketing/PR for a fashion magazine or as a publicist in New York City or LA upon graduation. In her free time, she enjoys shopping, hanging out with friends, going to the beach, reading, writing, and dancing.