#rsch3020

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Blog Post 1: The Importance of Self-Love

As a young woman and a psychology major, I have found that self-love is very significant to both men and women of all ages. I would like to focus my research on how to fulfill self-love and its importance psychologically. Self- Love is extremely important to living well and reaching fulfillment. It influences who we pick for our life long partners, the image we project at work, school, or our communities. Its how we as individuals cope with the problems in our everyday lives. It is also important to our welfare and well-being, and we as human beings need to know how to bring more of it into our lives. Self-Love is a popular term that gets tossed around in normal conversation, but what really is self-love? Is it something that can be found in a beauty makeover or a new wardrobe? Can you get it by reading something meaningful or inspirational? Or, can a new relationship/sex partner make you love yourself more? What is true self-love? I ask myself that at the wake of every morning and when I lay awake at night. According to Psychology Today, Deborah Khoshaba Psy. D. states:

“Self-love is a state of appreciation for oneself that grows from actions that support our physical, psychological and spiritual growth. Self-love is dynamic; it grows by actions that mature us. When we act in ways that expand self-love in us, we begin to accept much better our weaknesses as well as our strengths, have less need to explain away our shortcomings, have compassion for ourselves as human beings struggling to find personal meaning, are more centered in our life purpose and values, and expect living fulfillment through our own efforts” ( Khoshaba, 2012).

Deborah also goes ahead and mentions a seven-step prescription for self-love and these steps include: Becoming mindful, Acting on what you need rather than what you want, Practice good self-care, Set boundaries, Protect yourself, Forgive yourself, and Live Intentionally. According to Deborah following these steps will allow someone to reach full self-love, it only takes time and patience. You may only have to choose one or two of these actions and you will eventually begin to accept and love yourself more. You can only love a person as much as you love yourself. Finding self-love will allow an individual to encourage others to express themselves in the same way. The more self-love you have for yourself, the more you are prepared to love others in healthier forms and building relationships that attract people and circumstances that support one’s well being. Choosing self-love as a research topic is very meaningful for me as an individual and a developing woman. Diving deeper into research for this topic will be beneficial for my understanding and hopefully, I will be able to educate others on finding self-love, and when it really means. I am also interested in learning how to apply it to psychology and how it affects individuals differently.  

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Blog 4 ll Introduction (Draft)

“The first time I called myself a ‘Witch’ was the most magical moment of my life.” – Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon

Magic has long been a source of mystery, lure, and enchantment drawing in those filled with curiosity and excitement for something new. To some, hearing of magic conjures ideas of the witches and wizardry they see happening in today’s witch-obsessed media. Although these depictions are fun, true witchcraft is deeper and richer in history and influence. Witchcraft as a pagan practice is a multifaceted practice often derived from several different religions, cultures, and traditions around the world. Over time, these influences served as a conduit for the development and adaptation of Witchcraft throughout time. The most contemporary form of witchcraft takes place within the neopagan movement. However, during the resurgence of witchcraft as a dedicated pagan practice, some of the historical elements have been illegitimatized or otherwise disregarded. The connection between the new and the old may be restored by observing how traditional witchcraft has shaped modern paganism and the neopagan movement.

[thezodiacwriter-blog]

Blog 4: Honestly, I don’t know what to title this

     I find it harder to feel motivated lately with finding new articles and ideas for this research paper. It's becoming difficult to grasp a concept in what exactly I want for this paper, I know what I want to have and talk about and who I need but its irritating because I feel no matter how much work and research I put into this paper, I still feel like I’m not accomplishing everything. I did like the workshop day, it helped getting started somewhere but now I feel like I’m so behind and I feel bad for not having as much as others. Another dilemma I find is searching for peer reviewed articles that fit into what I need for my paper so I started to venture off and look for online sources like news articles and biographies that give me more of what I need information wise.

      I can’t shake the feeling of not knowing exactly where I am supposed to be in terms of the paper, I know we are still working on finding information and gathering up ideas in order to use everything we find for later but it feels like I have to rush myself because the small amounts of work that we’ve been doing. I guess it's because I’m so used to a heavy workload by writing the paper as I research (which is what your are not supposed to do) so this must explain as to why it feels like I haven’t done any work since claiming a topic. But I understand that this is only the beginning, writing a good paper shouldn’t be written on a whim, it takes research, knowledge and a good idea in order to gather everything together in creating this paper. Good papers can not be written overnight, this is something I have to remind myself while going into this class.

      I have noticed by using these online journals to update on myself on where I am and to figure out what I still need to do. It keeps me consistent and focused on what I want for my topic and how I can go about in doing so. I prefer the online journals over the writing journals because it’s still work, I am happy to say that by using this platform to ground myself and keep me in line has showed significant improvement in how I usually do research papers. Usually I do my work last minute and I don’t have a concrete thought or the best sources that I could have, like forcing myself to use a source that doesn’t help my paper but having to because it’s the only source that has anything to do with pheromones in children (this is an example of a research paper I did 2 years ago that needed major revision). However what this researching process has taught me is not allowing sources like that to be used in my paper. If I don’t need them, then it's okay to toss it and look for something else.

[mfries7-blog]

Blog Post #2: The Process

After walking out of class on Tuesday, I felt like I had a better grasp on what I wanted to research than I had walking in. I was introduced to new terms and was given the opportunity to really think about how both of the research topics I walked into class with can be transformed into a question that I can work with to provide a solution to a problem. I have ultimately decided to utilize the theories of postcolonial ecologies presented by Elizabeth DeLoughrey coupled with other postcolonial theory to analyze how the increased commercialization of natural spaces is negatively affecting the natural environment and native cultures. With a jumping off point being Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, my specific analysis will be primarily focused on the regions surrounding the Seven Summits, with the greatest emphasis placed on Mount Everest and Sherpa culture.

During class on Tuesday, I was able to start asking myself questions about this topic, analyze how I could take my interests that formed in my Postcolonial Literature seminar and tie those together with my interests in environmental degradation and fascination with world cultures. I started my research trying to gain a better understanding of the theories of postcolonial ecologies, or a critical study of spaces combining postcolonial theory with ecocriticism that works to analyze colonization and imperialism at the root, the very land and spaces that peoples occupy. I would like to gain access to this book, but have not yet had the opportunity to get it, so my understanding of this concept is still very basic. But in combining this minimal information with other concepts I have learned in previous courses, I am beginning to see how this idea could be applicable to my overall study.

I also wanted to being to dig deeper into Sherpa and mountaineering culture, something that yielded immediate results as to the effects of Western influence from the first article I opened. It was a piece published in National Geographic entitled “Sherpas: The Invisible Men of Everest” that showed the world the latent culture that makes Everest expeditions possible, but are never recognized for their work, news of their efforts being overshadowed by the feats of Westerners summiting the mountain. “The Sherpas themselves had striven to live up to the ideals Westerners projected onto them—augmenting the qualities they often did possess but also wanting to be the kind of people they were imagined to be.” This was said by Vincanne Adams from the University of California, San Francisco. It’s a quote that epitomizes the very issue that I hope to tackle with my research, the alteration of a cultural climate that is perpetuated by the need to continually conquer a space, the mountain. It’s an issue that spans the entire globe, which is why I hope to incorporate research about the other six Summits into my analysis.  

My research for this week was extremely basic, just minimal digging into certain topics to gain a better understanding of the research climate already in existence as I begin to dive deeper. My goal is to greatly expand my knowledge on these topics in the coming weeks, specifically on postcolonial ecologies so I can gain a better grasp on how that idea can be implemented into and provide a strong foundation for my research.

[toriend]

Research Findings: Women in Sports Coverage

After narrowing down a topic last week, I began to do some minor research just via the internet due to time constraints. However, this upcoming week and the weeks to come, I hope to further my research through various platforms and truly utilize our school’s library as well as the Denver Public Library if time permits. The finalized topic that was chosen last week was to research women’s sports in media coverage and reveal the statistics and relative information. I will focus solely on women’s sports that include soccer, basketball, softball, as well as action sports that include surfing and snowboarding. By primarily researching these specified women’s sports, I hope to reveal true numbers that will provide an enlightened perspective for these sports’ audiences as well as any readers who decide to read such a piece.

One of the article’s I found derives from the University of Southern California, USC, entitled “When it comes to women in sports, TV news tunes out,” which actually discusses a study that was conducted by Cheryl Cooky, Michael Messner, and Michela Musto. The study is titled “’It’s Dude Time!’: A Quarter Century of Excluding Women’s Sports in Televised News and Highlight Shows” and is a great example of what I want my end product to look like, except with updated research and information considering this study was published in June of 2015. Although, it’s only a two-year difference, a lot can occur within that time period. The article gives an overview of the study and how male dominated this industry has always been, and still is to this day. The study was done on Los Angeles network affiliates and ESPN’s SportsCenter and revealed that these broadcasts “devoted only 3.2 percent of airtime to women’s sports, down from 5 percent in 1989” (Good, 2015).  Meanwhile, while women’s sports continue to receive little to zero coverage by the media, “men’s sports coverage of the Big Three – football, basketball and baseball – has increased” (Good, 2015). In fact, this study reveals that “broadcasters devoted 74.5 percent of their sports reports to Big Three coverage, up from 68 percent in 2009 [and] Big Three sports coverage continues well into the off-season, continuing storylines about terms and players even when no actual games are being played” (Good, 2015). For example, the NWSL, otherwise known as the National Women’s Soccer League, is tuned out by baseball season and the off-seasons of basketball and pre-season hype of the “American Way,” also known as football. In the meantime, these women soccer players are being aired live via YouTube instead of an actual sports cable network like their male soccer players in the MLS.

In addition, the MLS athletes are aired on various channels; not just one. This is very similar with the WNBA and the NBA where the women’s games are aired on small television stations, rarely, and receive very little media attention in regards to their team stats and pregame and post-game coverage. For example, when it comes to women’s basketball, specifically for college, women’s games are always held in the early afternoon whereas their male basketball athletes are aired in the evening and receive majority of the media attention. I’m interested to see where this study leads to my future findings of the topic in hopes it will reveal new statistics, or the same.

Reference

Good, Andrew. (5 June 2015). “When it comes to women in sports, TV news tunes out”. Retrieved from USC.edu

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Blog Post 4 ll Confusion

      Because of our last workshop day, I have been feeling more and more lost with the purpose of my research essay. Part of me wants to focus on historical components and leave it that, another part wants to define the individualistic nature of the craft, and the other part has no idea. I feel completely split between what I am interested and what I can focus on but seeing as we are coming up on the fourth week of classes, I have to decide. That fact is not a comforting one.       One of the reasons I am struggling so much is because, as someone who takes from several practices and several origins, it’s difficult to focus on the actual craft itself in terms of history. I feel like no matter what I do, I won’t be able to nail anything down. I’ve considered looking at the practices of my ancestors, but that knowledge isn’t readily available because of the Christianized state of my most immediate, living family. My next consideration with this is that I focus solely on my own presence in the community, but even then, it seems too broad. I attempted to narrow it down, but it felt like it wasn’t doing it justice. I am having a hard time nailing anything down even in thought.       As I continue to think, I think the least broad way I could go about this is by looking at the craft as it relates to feminism and possibly sexuality. This is a topic I had decided on weeks ago but moved away from as research continued. However, thinking on it again, those two aspects are important to me and my craft as they drive much of it, and I know it is something I wouldn’t mind looking into in depth. The issue is that I love everything about my “religion”, and I want to touch on everything I can, but I know I have to have a focus to avoid it ending up being too broad and too specific at the same time. If my focus is on sexuality and feminism in witchcraft, that makes things quite a bit easier, but it means some of my research has to be redone to focus on this topic instead. I am worried about the time I will need to get a grasp on what this assignment means to me.       In class, we talk a lot of out the importance of our research, and I feel as though I am not considering this “correctly”. To me, my research matters and holds importance because it’s very personal to me and it’s a topic that isn’t widely talked about (at least correctly) in the first place. Does that make it inherently important? I don’t think it does, but I find myself not being concerned for the “importance” of my work because I see that a piece of work is only as important as it is to the one who created it. My topic is probably a synthesis of work that’s already been done, but I don’t see this type of research as much else these days. I am concerned about whether or not I will add anything at all but only because that is what I was told to think. I don’t see any work to be useless, but is this train of thought worth the anxiety it causes? I don’t know. This concern is causing me a lot of issues, though. What is my point? I don’t know. What am I saying? I don’t know. I have a lot of answers to find.

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Blog Post 2 ll Decisions

      This time around was significantly more difficult to approach in that it was more than just picking a topic, but less than finality. I found that I had absolutely landed on researching Witchcraft, but the struggle between focusing on comparison, understanding, an exclusive concentration, or an inclusive concentration was the culprit of my indecisiveness. Ultimately, I have decided that, if only for a moment, I want to focus on the exclusivity of Witchcraft as it relates most to female witches or those who practice and identify as female. This direction was taken because I want to look mainly at femininity as it encompasses sexuality, feminism, nature, exploration, expression, and fluidity. I feel as though I will most likely reduce these focuses more as the research process continues, but as of now this is the goal most suited for my fundamental objective.       The assignment given to us led me to create this primary layout of goals and concentration: I am trying to learn about the femininity tied to Witchcraft and the exploration and exploration of sexuality, nature, and fluidity because, as a witch myself, these topics intrigue me and push me further into the knowledge, origin, and practice of Witchcraft from a contemporary and historical standpoint. Ultimately, I want to help inform others of Witchcraft not only as a practice, but in a religious context as well. I find the distinction between religion and practice to be different. Although everyone who practices Witchcraft does invest in the craft, not everyone sees it as a religious backdrop for their own lives.       While looking into this, certain subjects came up that I felt needed to be addressed more than others. Firstly, the distinction between Wicca and Witchcraft is necessary. Although some see them as the same, that is a broad statement to make and reduces each of their differences. These two terms and concepts are often confused for each other, or at the very least meddled together. However, not every Witch is Wiccan, and not every Wiccan identifies as a Witch. There are, of course, those overlaps and those must not be forgotten. Though, to put them into the same category, specifically in the presence of someone who sees them as distinct, can be considered insulting and should be avoided. Secondly, this research will focus on female presenting members of Witchcraft but will not exclude the existence of males. Males practice Witchcraft just the same as females, but in this case, a female perspective will be explored in a way that does not require or insist on a male’s experience. Next, the difference between religion and practice needs to be addressed. A religion includes consistent practice, or pursuit, where practicing often does not include the ideology that is included in religion. For example, one can meditate but meditating does not have to be religious for one as it is for another. The same goes with prayer, conjuring, and other forms of practice. The main disagreement between the two is the ideology the person practicing has. As with anything, this is a personal choice and a personal conversation. However, it does not reduce or dismiss any person from the customs of Witchcraft. Lastly, the misconceptions of Witchcraft should also be addressed. The media sensationalized and romanticizes alternative religions in a way that makes it harmful for those who practice. This type of representation is inaccurate and does not serve as a way to bring information, but rather as a way to glorify. Before someone decides to open themselves to these practices and what Witchcraft and other alternative religions or practices look like, these misconceptions should be understood and cleared.       This topic is still under development, but I have a general idea of what I truly find interest in. More than anything, I think it is most important for me to be able to dispel certain things and invite others. I need this to be an exploration of myself and my heritage while simultaneously providing information and outlook to those who are not on the inside. Witchcraft is powerful and I hope my work in this will be, too.

[altmidnight]

Blog Post 1 ll Direction

     Currently, my interests are most heavily focused on alternative religions, most specifically that of witchcraft. I am not necessarily sure what approach I will end up taking but as it stands right now, I am thinking of the perceptions surrounding “mainstream” religions and “alternative” religions. I do not plan to view witchcraft as a practice exclusively, but as a religion furthered by practice. This distinction is important because I find more often than not that many people who claim to be religious, no matter the chosen religion, tend to not practice or exercise devotion in the way that some feel is expected or necessary. My goal is to further my understanding by looking at those devoted to the practices at hand and use that as a means of comparison. This interest comes to mind first and foremost because I am a devoted and practicing witch, but because I find the comparison between “mainstream” religion and “alternative” religion to be exciting as well.

     Another avenue I thought about taking was looking at the origins of witchcraft and comparing it to the origins of more popular religions to see if there were any notable similarities that they have and to try to discover where the root of negative connotations against witchcraft was planted. As much as I wish the answer would be as simple as early American scares like the witch trials of Salem, I feel it may be more likely that these views come from a time further back than that and probably from a different land altogether.

     Although I practice, I do not know much of the history further back than what I was taught. I do not know many origins and I am not sure they can be found easily from a credible source. This is one of the deciding components of my thought processes surrounding the direction this could go. If I cannot find history that would suit my needs, I am not sure I would even be able to make a historical comparison. If that were the case, I suppose a contemporary comparison would be the only way to approach this.

     Lastly, if neither of these approaches would work out, then I would want to look only at witchcraft and ask questions pertaining to the perceptions people have about it. For instance, does witchcraft have specific connotations because of media, or is there history that truly impacted the views people have? I wonder how much the general public knows about witchcraft as a whole. Given the various branches and methods of practicing, I find it hard to believe that many would know much. Although my assumption of that comes from personally knowing people who don’t know anything about it at all but have loaded opinions, my main reason for making this assumption is my own views on Christianity. Christianity is one of the most widely practiced religions I have experience with, but I hardly know anything about the written truth of it. My perceptions come from the interactions of those who consider themselves part of this as well as media, mostly. However, this is not an accurate measure of what is truly written because, like anything else, everything is up for interpretation. My concern is, is this the case with witchcraft and witches? I am not sure how many people are knowingly coming across witches and those who practice honestly and fully, but I doubt there is enough accurate and truthful knowledge circulating for everyone to have an objective and impartial opinion.