By DMA Senior Avery Kryspin

In my senior year of high school, I began taking a course called Optimistic Mindset. Now, I have never heard of such a course and I had no idea what to expect going in. Honestly, I really enjoy the class, and I actually find what I learn to be quite useful in my day to day life. We learn about different aspects of human psychology as well as how we can use them to our advantage! For instance, did you know that you will most likely relieve a lot of stress by meditating on a regular basis? I actually started meditating more, and I really did notice a decrease in my stress levels. Another activity that I found to be beneficial to my mental health was recording things that we are grateful for in an online journal. Personally I found the reflection aspect of this practice to be really happy and uplifting. I love looking back at all of the happy things that I’ve been grateful for in my life. For example, it makes me really happy to just think about how grateful I am for my friends. I have so much love for people, and I love to let them know, so this exercise is a nice little reminder for me.