Aladin!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone is having a good break! 

I've been asked to house sit a mansion in my parents stake, which has been awesome! My husband and I have invited our friends over to hot tub and play games last night, and tonight we had his family over. One thing we did was watched the new Aladin with three of his quadruplet younger siblings, and oh my goodness, I love that movie! 

Some things I loved about it: Jasmin's voice was super good, there were lots of humorous things throughout the movie, and the graphics were just very nice, I loved who they got to play Aladin, the dancing was very fun, and I also love the story line. Also, my husband pointed out to us the moment in the movie when the Disney castle was built in the sand! See if you can spot it next time, or maybe you did spot it!

I love the message that Genie tells to Aladin something like, "I can make you a prince on the outside, but I can't change who you are in the inside." This is such a sweet message, thinking about how we are all sons and daughters of a Heavenly King. I think we all have felt pressure to dress a certain way or change our outside appearance for others, but those who we really should care to be friends with should love us for the person we become on the inside. That being said, I still really like cute clothes! 

I've heard people say, "Disney is making money off of recreating movies from our childhood" and I just have to say, I love that! It was fun to watch this movie! Next I want to watch Lion King! 

Hotel Rwanda

After our lecture on Tuesday when Dr. Coyne recommended Hotel Rwanda, I went home and watched this movie. I read a book once when I was younger a true story about the Rwandan genocide and it was so heart-wrenching to read a true story of what a survivor who had to experience such trauma, but at the same time it was so engaging. My experience watching Hotel Rwanda had a similar effect on me. I just could hardly even understand how a society could get to a point where they honestly thought they needed to kill off a group of people like the Hutus did to the Tutsis, killing around 800,000 men, women and children total. Like Dr. Coyne talked about in class, media did play a role in the genocide.

I wanted to learn more about this role that media had, and so I googled it and found the below link that explains more about the potential role the radio(RTLM), newspaper, etc. propaganda, "played in both inciting and prolonging the violence"(The Conversation US, Inc). One interesting fact from this article is that those who had killed in this genocide attributed killing more to the fear of the victims and the conversations they had than they did to the radio... 

Thinking about the movie and if I were a Tutsi or a righteous Hutu trying to save my Tutsi friends, I can not imagine the fear that I would feel if I had turned on the radio inside the hotel to only hear evil people encouraging the genocide. 

http://theconversation.com/debate-continues-about-the-medias-role-in-driving-rwandas-genocide-114512

MedCircle and Grad School

I have been watched quite a few MedCircle videos on different mental illnesses which have been just fascinating. It is incredible to me the experiences that people face in life, and often how the brain responds, as well as how genetics can also play an important role. I have mainly taken interest in videos on Dissociative Identity Disorder(DID) and Borderline Personality Disorder(BPD).  In the MedCircle videos I watched on DID I learned from Encina Severa who has DID, and one of her alters - or different "people" inside her who take over her body who have their own character and likes - came out on camera. To describe what goes on when this happens Encina Severa used an analogy of driving a car and having someone take control of the wheel and throwing her in the back or throwing her in the back with a bag over her head, or into the trunk of the car, to describe the different feelings that happen when different alters take over. These included being able to see and hear, just being able to hear, and not being able to see or hear. This was extremely fascinating to learn about! I think it is so cool how much we can learn on the internet. 

I have become quite fascinated with the mind and how it works which has lead me to decide to apply for grad school. I have spent much media time this week on the internet beginning the process of applying for BYU Clinical Psychology Program. This has meant reading about the professors in the department, signing up to take the GRE, studying for the GRE because it is in less than 2 weeks, and reading more about the program. I also need to apply for other schools graduate programs because I know BYU's is very competitive. Wish me luck on the journey :) 

Here's a link to one of the videos about Encina! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0kLjsY4JlU

Oh Yummy Bread!

About a month or two ago my grandmother gave me her Bosche and since then I have been baking bread about every week. I turned to the internet to find a recipe on wheat bread that is delicious.

Just Monday, I texted the sister I ministered to see how she was doing and the conversation seemed polite, but likely not to go anywhere. So, I told her I was planning on baking bread and asked if I could bring some by to her. I keep my recipes on my phone so I got that out again just yesterday and baked her some bread which opened the door for me to have a great conversation with her in her home and get to know her and her family a little better.

Then, tonight when my husband and I got home, he asked if he should put our browning bananas in the freezer, I instead just said I could make some banana bread and so again I got out my phone and went to the banana bread recipe I like to use (this one I used my Kitchen Aid for). We both look forward to enjoying that yummy bread now as we wait for it to finish cooking. 

Food is a great way to bond us together and make others feel loved, and recipes are the only shot I have at making anything good!

Maybe I could get your input. I feel like recipes are a form of media, whether it be from the internet, a recipe book, etc. Would you agree? 

Here are the recipes I have loved to bake: 

https://www.modernhoney.com/best-homemade-one-hour-whole-wheat-bread/

https://cookieandkate.com/healthy-banana-bread-recipe/

OCD: Scrupulosity

Hello! I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

I have struggled with OCD for quite some time, I saw someone on my mission about it, but did not want to take medication for it or anything. A little while ago, I read a post on Facebook from a sister I used to minister to a while back in a singles ward I was in. She shared about getting help for OCD and how she has and is continuing to overcome it with help. I always respected this girl, I thought she was darling and so sweet. Seeing post about getting help made me also want to get help. Recently my OCD has come in a form that is a little much for me, and so I set up an appointment with Dr. Au from the BYU Student Health Center, and got started on OCD medication

However, thoughts and fears came to me pretty strongly while waiting for my appointment and I found myself at Winco, not being able to focus on finding my groceries because my brain was going a little nuts so I stopped in the aisle way and researched OCD again on my phone and found some things on  religious OCD or scrupulosity. I read about it a bit in there and this helped ease my brain a bit, I have found myself reading a lot about scrupulosity and OCD and found a good youtube video as well. This helped me to realize that I wasn't this terrible person that OCD starts lying to you and makes you think you are, and I also felt more prepared for my appointment with Dr. Au. I also downloaded a book called The OCD Mormon. As I have been reading this book I have been able to relate to the author Kari Freguson who describes many thoughts that I have felt trapped such as her first time going through the temple having a fear of not being good enough, feeling the need to over confess to a bishop and it never being good enough, and then how OCD has changed forms throughout her life. I have seen this, like I will overcome my OCD in one way, and then it manifests it differently another season.

I have turned to a good book in the past called You Are Not Your Brain that has also helped me. It is really cool to me that there is awesome help at the tip of our fingers for medical conditions whether it be OCD, or something else, there is so much written on these things online and it can be so very helpful. If anyone is interested the church has a good article in the September Ensign on Scrupulosity that I found this week. It was helpful for me to read this.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2019/09/young-adults/understanding-scrupulosity-religious-ocd?lang=eng