Interdisciplinary Psychology:

            For me the trip to EMP was a pleasant experience. I got to know people that I never talked to before, and I got to know people better that I know beforehand. I was in awe of the guitar sculpture at the beginning of the day, I have always wanted to make something like that, not necessarily guitars, and have never done it. When I saw that I was amazed that someone could actually do something like that and make it look so beautiful and majestic. For the entire I day I spent walking around with one classmate in particular and while checking the exhibits out we talked about other things, like the movies that we liked, what science fiction things we were into, and a common video game we play. Before this day I really had not talked to this classmate and probably never would. I am the type of person who likes to stay within my own little group and I made a snap decision that this classmate would not have fit in, and after talking with him I realized that I was wrong. He would have fit in great with my social group if I had just giving him the chance but I had made a decision before talking to him that he would not, I was glad that this trip let me have the chance to be proven wrong.

For my day I decided that there were certain things that I wanted to get done.

1. I wanted to make some thing
2. I wanted to teach someone how to do something
3. I wanted to help someone
4. I wanted to learn something new
5. I wanted to be stress free

For the wanting to make something I got my chance as soon as I went to work. I found out that that there was an art project going on with the children at work and I decided that I would join in on what they were making; I had not been able to express my artistic side for awhile.

ELEVATOR RIDE

            For the two mood lifting activities I chose to do them after a hard stressful day of work and the other when I was felling burned out on homework.

            For the first activity after a stressful day at work, I went back to my apartment and sat down to play my video games, which usually work to calm me down and get me in a more relaxed mood. How ever on this particular day the video games did not work so I decided to try my fall back activity for when the video games don’t work, which is to listen to music. When I listen to music to come down I listen to a lot of upbeat good felling oldies. After about a half hour of listening to this music I was dancing around and felt to be in a less stressful mood, not quite ecstatic but not as stressed out, so it was mood lifting. 

            While reading An Introduction to Positive Psychology I was drawn to the wellness, health psychology, and positive coping chapter. This chapter fascinated me because I have always had trouble coping with things that have happened in my life. When problem situations have occurred in my life I usually try to ignore them or downplay them, such as with the death of all of my grandparents within the same three month block. And with not coping with things in an appropriate way for me, I have become somewhat closed off from being able to experience the joys in life because I am always trying to stop the negative felling from flowing in.