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Isha Jog

Expect nothing. Appreciate everything.

Miss Windy City 2019: Competing with the Miss America 2.0 Format

January 8, 2019

While the time between Christmas and New Year’s is usually one of relaxation, social gatherings with old friends, and simply unwinding, I decided to go the opposite route: trained and competed in the Miss Chicago/Miss Windy City 2019 competition on December 29th.

For those of you who don’t know my background, my involvement with the Miss America Organization began at the age of 17 when I placed first runner up for the state teen title as Miss Northern Suburbs’ Outstanding Teen 2012. After aging up to the Miss division I held the titles of Miss Gold Coast 2016 and Miss Northern Suburbs 2017. All of those were great experiences so I always figured I would keep competing until I age out.

And then 2017/2018 happened. With all the changes in the organization, I was hesitant and apprehensive about competing again. Although I loved the idea of the new changes and competition format, I honestly thought being too used to the old format for the past six years would be a disadvantage in competing.

Well, after competing in the 2.0 formatted local, I can honestly tell you that it was wonderful. Here are my biggest takeaways.

CONTINUE READING

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Happy Diwali!

November 12, 2018

I challenged my mom Gauri Jog to choreograph and record this dance with me ten minutes before our guests arrived for Diwali dinner. It is such a pretty song! “Nainowale Ne” from the movie Padmaavat.

It is always so much fun to perform with my mom. We will be posting more dance videos soon!

Wishing all of you and your families a very happy Diwali!

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9 Best Email Newsletters to Wake Up To

October 30, 2018

It’s 2018 – there’s no excuse to not stay informed and educated about what’s going on in our world. One of my favorite ways to stay up to date on news, trends, and inspiring stories is through my morning emails. Of course, it’s a lot of information to digest so I pick and choose which ones to fully read every day, but I wanted to share all the ones I’ve found most useful. Feel free to click on the links to subscribe to them!

What I wake up to:

Here’s a quick list of the 9 awesome newsletters that I start off every morning reading:

1. The Newsette
2. theSkimm
3. The Presidential Daily Brief
4. PRSUIT
5. mindbodygreen
6. Morning Brew
7. Living with Confidence
8. A Note from the Universe
9. Spire & Co (only on Mondays)

~ Further details into each subscription ~

CONTINUE READING

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10% Happier by Dan Harris

October 18, 2018

So excited to kick off my Book Club posts, where I’ll be writing reviews of some of the books I’ve been reading this year. I’ve been going through a list of a self-help & meditation books recently, but I have to say that this one is that first one so far to actually resonate with me. Truthfully, my life has changed after reading this book.

Disclaimer: Do not read these reviews until after you have read the book! Spoilers ahead.

The author, Dan Harris, is a TV news anchor from New York City who has been on Good Morning America and Nightline. In this debut novel, he walks us through his discovery of meditation and mindfulness. As a reporter, he was given the role of reporting on faith segments around the world. Through this role he got the chance to meet and interview influential leaders like Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, and the current Dalai Lama.

Harris, like me, was very skeptical about meditation. We all have that voice in our head and frankly it is hard to turn it off, even for a minute. Below I’d like to share some of my favorite quotes from the book.

It was a rigorous brain excercise: rep after rep of trying to tame the runaway train of the mind. The repeated attempt to bring the compulsive thought machine to heel was like holding a live fish in your hands. Wrestling your mind to the ground, repeatedly hauling your attention back to the breath in the face of the inner onslaught required genuine grit. This was a badass endeavor.(page 101)

I feel the same way about meditation. It sounds great in theory, but man it’s difficult to actually do. Plus on top of that, we are all busy individuals. Fitting it into our day along with work, social life, exercise, etc seems almost impossible.

According to Buddha, we have three habitual responses to everything we experience. We want it, we reject it, or we zone out. Mindfulness is a fourth option, a way to view the contents of our mind with a nonjudgemental remove. I found this theory elegant, but utterly unfeasible. (page 104)

The reason I resonated most with this book is because the author is so refreshingly honest. He never preaches, instead he walks us through his thought process while approaching these difficult to understand topics. It was also really neat to be able to read his behind-the-scenes explanations of events that the world simply saw on TV, like when Paris Hilton walked out of an interview with him and also when he had the panic attack live on Good Morning America.

My favorite “lesson” from the book was the one about non-attachment. This is because many times when people start meditating, letting go of external stresses, other people assume that the Zen-ness will cause the said individual to be less ambitious or craving of success. Harris explains how this isn’t the case, with a line from the book saying something like, “I said be simple, not a simpleton.”

Non-attachment to results + self compassion = a supple relentlessness that is hard to match. Push hard, play to win, but don’t assume the fetal position if things don’t go your way. (page 212)

The best example of this to me right now in my life would be applying for a job. Prepare well, use your resources, present your best self…and then let it go when it comes to the results. We cannot control the external factors. Whatever the outcome may be, it’s important to know we gave it our all. On to the next one!

10% Happier was published in 2014, turns out he published a sequel, a how-to guide, last year! I look forward to reading it soon and learning more about his journey.

Thank you for reading this brief review! Message me to chat further if you’ve read the book or are planning to, would love to continue this discussion!

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How I Navigate Through S.A.D (Seasonal Affective Disorder)

January 15, 2018

For the past five years I have battled severe Seasonal Affective Disorder. When I first heard about this type of depression, I couldn’t help but think it was just a made-up diagnosis for people who felt lazy, unmotivated, and sad in the wintertime. In fact, I so badly wanted to discount it that I used to laugh when former roommates or family members would bring it up to me as a concern, telling them that “everybody gets sad in the winter, c’mon we live in such a cold city”.

But the fact of the matter is, seasonal affective disorder is a very real diagnosis that affects about three million people every year in the U.S.

If you have low energy, feel depressed nearly every day, have problems sleeping, and have difficulty concentrating during a particular season of the year, I would urge you to look into it, it’s the first step in combatting the situation and feeling better.

Here are some of the steps I have taken to treat these symptoms over the past few years:

1. YEARLY DOCTOR’S CHECK-UP/PHYSICAL

One of the first things that I did during my lowest point was get a physical examination done, the blood work results showed that I was extremely deficient in Vitamin D. While a normal level should be between 30 and 100, my results showed that I was at a 7. There is a proven correlation between low levels of Vitamin D and depression, so this made sense. I immediately started taking the vitamin supplements and am already feeling the positive effects.

2. DELETING (NOT DEACTIVATING) INSTAGRAM

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to spend less time on social media, but I do this for many other reasons than just decreasing screen time. When you are in bed feeling lousy, it is almost hurtful to your self-esteem and mind to be scrolling through photos of people with their curated lifestyles of perfect bodies, relationships, careers, vacations, and friends. Nobody has the perfect life but when you are feeling low and constantly viewing other people’s edited, always fascinating highlight moments, it is hard to  remember that. I deleted the app off of my phone and have already decreased the number of times I felt the temptation to check in.

3. GET A FABULOUS PLANNER

Some of the symptoms of seasonal affective disorder include feeling anxiety, general discontent, and loneliness. Staying organized keeps me busy and keeps my mind from pondering upon anxious situations from the past. I find it soothing to label in my workout of the day, meal prep, important deadlines from work, and other obligations into my planner. It also reminds me that even on the bad days, there is something really exciting or fun to look forward to in the near future.

4. MINDLESS CRAFTING + POSITIVITY

Sometimes during these harsh winter months I feel like I just end up hibernating at home and keep cancelling social obligations. Then with that new free time I just acquired, I sit there feeling sad, lonely, and unmotivated. One way I combat this is through mindless crafting. I’m not really an artist, so what I count as being “crafty” is literally just collecting screenshots of wonderful and powerful quotes I see through the day from different social media channels, emails, and books, and I write them into my book of quotes. I always feel a sense of peace and calmness when I reach into my purse to read through this book or to add a new quote.

5. GYM TIME: GROUP CLASSES

There is so much research that says that working out immensely improves your mood when you are feeling down and helps you release endorphins, the body’s own natural anti-depressant. In my particular situation, although I understood that exercise was important, the idea of going there alone and having to manage my hour there by deciding my workouts didn’t motivate me enough to leave my bed. This is when I discovered the beauty of workout group classes. Through apps like ClassPass you can do anything from strength training to cycling to Zumba, all with someone guiding you in a social atmosphere. I have become way better at actually completing a workout by attending classes instead of chilling on my bed just counting down the reasons why I could skip that night’s solo guided sweat session.

6. TAKE THAT MENTAL HEALTH DAY

At my work, we have very limited sick days. Many of us try to brush off days when we feel under the weather and still stumble through that day of work or of classes and studying. After way too many years of doing this, I finally learned that it is perfectly okay to take that mental health sick day once in a while when you need it, it can immensely help the situation right then and there instead of prolonging it for weeks on end. We have our bodies and our minds for a lifetime, it is important to treat ourselves with respect and love.

7. VIDEO CHAT OLD FRIENDS

Being social doesn’t have to involve getting dressed up, stepping into the cold weather, and making that effort to meet people at a bar or coffee shop. During these cold winter months I have f0und it rather comforting to make a hot cup of tea, snuggle up in a warm blanket, and FaceTime or Skype some of my long-distance friends.

8. REFLECT

Some days are definitely worse than others, and in those moments I have thought, “I am seriously never going to get through this.” As many of my close friends know, my last semester of college was particularly rough, for non-academic related reasons. I truly did not think I would I would survive that whole situation with my sanity intact. Thankfully, I am here one year later feeling happier, healthier, and stronger than I have ever been. Thinking back on difficult past situations that we pushed through reminds us of our inner strength and how much we really can handle.

9. ADD SIMPLE TASKS TO THE TO-DO LIST

My seasonal depression tends to hit the hardest around January, right when everyone is making their New Year’s resolutions. I added unnecessary stress to myself by creating lists that have giant goals like “start my own company” or “train to run a marathon”. While it is fantastic to have big ambitions and slowly chip away until you reach them, it is unhealthy to just see those big goals all the time and beat yourself up for not reaching them in an unrealistically short amount of time. This is why I started making every day simplified to-do lists that contained the most basic every day parts of my routine like taking a shower, meditating, and shoveling snow. I started going to bed every night feeling accomplished for getting many minor yet significant items accomplished, rather than feeling frustrated for totally failing every day.

10. DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH

While researching seasonal affective disorder and its treatments, I found a lot of unique information. Like I mentioned at the beginning, I really did not think this even existed. Watch this video to learn more about the science behind the disorder.

There are many other treatments I haven’t mentioned in this post, because I wanted to focus on the ones that I have had direct experience with. Other treatments include light therapy, medications, psychotherapy, and stress management. Thank you taking the time to read this post! If you or anyone that you know may be feeling the effects of seasonal affective disorder, feel free to send me a message so we can chat more about it. Remember, life is too short to spend at war with yourself! With the right tools and resources we can take steps towards living a more positive and fulfilling life.

 

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Hi! I'm Isha - a twenty-something blogger living in the beautiful city of Chicago. I love to read, swim, and cross things off my never-ending bucket list. Thanks for visiting!

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How I Navigate Through S.A.D (Seasonal Affective Disorder)

How I Navigate Through S.A.D (Seasonal Affective Disorder)

Miss Windy City 2019: Competing with the Miss America 2.0 Format

Miss Windy City 2019: Competing with the Miss America 2.0 Format

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My Favorite Dance Video Projects

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