MINDFUL MONDAY: SCIENCE BEHIND AND MIND GARDENING ADVOCACY

By Samantha Nicole P. Jorillo

Dopamine And You

Understanding the impact of phone addiction

By Neil Brandon D.L Vildad

Alearner’s life is typically one of stress. It is easy to get caught up in the bustle of it all between their demanding education, several extracurriculars, and household chores. It is crucial to occasionally break away from this pace and pay attention to one’s surroundings and thoughts. According to scientific evidence, this state known as a”mindfulness” improves lifestyle and health in general.

The idea of mindfulness has gone a long way since its beginnings as a Buddhist practice in East Asia. Cassandra Villacorte, chairman of the Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao (ESP) and guidance teacher currently incorporates two minutes of a guided mindfulness practice every Monday in her ESP lesson. The activities are intended to aid Grades 9 and 10 learners in unwinding and reducing tension at the beginning of the week.

The concept for Mindful Monday was first put forth by Flor Abel Vilog, a master teacher in En- glish who currently serves as mentor of Villacorte.

“We encourage learners at Ponciano Bernardo High School to take some time to just rest and breathe since we are aware of how anxious learners are owing to the rigorous curriculum,” Vilog told The Hillside Chronicle

The majority of the feedback on Villacorte’s Mindful Monday series has been favorable. According to May Villafuerte from Grade 9 Aguilar, she finds serenity in it. “I feel motivated and ready to do learning activities,” said Villafuerte. “It’s good that Ma’am Villacorte is concerned about our mental health,” she added. “Many of the Grade 9 students in this class are forward-looking, and although that is wonderful, Villacorte emphasized the importance of the present moment.” I know I am doing it because learners come in and praise me for what I’m doing, but I still believe we can do more,” Villacorte told The Hillside Chronicle

Some learners could, however, choose to ignore the activities and carry on with their classwork and chats. “Sometimes, my classmates are too disruptive, so I can’t hear the task,” said Joshua Pingul from Grade 10 Mabini. Even though it may seem inefficient to focus on nothing but your breathing and thoughts as you wait to go to work, the benefits of mindfulness extend well beyond the brief time you devote to it. Understanding mindfulness and how it affects our brain physiology can help us appreciate its benefits.

Studies show that mindfulness techniques may help people manage stress, cope better with serious disease, and reduce anxiety and despair, according to a newsletter published by the National Institute of Health on June 3, 2022. Numerous practitioners of mindfulness report feeling more at peace, more energized, and more confident. The anterior cingulate cortex, the part of the brain most crucial for developing motivation, receives more blood flow when mindfulness is practiced.

Arnie Anota from Grade 9 Aguilar stated, “The mindfulness announcements make me feel more motivated to work in school.” “The more awareness you practice, the better. Two minutes of mindfulness should have a respectable impact. It’s great when learners do things mindfully throughout the day when they are awake. If learners respond wisely in all circumstances, they will be saved from negative perceptions that burden the mind,” Villacorte said.

MY classmates put their hands in their pockets to pull out their phones as the lunch break nears its end. The contagious atmosphere of giggling and laughing fades away as our classroom becomes silent. The only thing I can do now is bring out my phone because the screen has destroyed the energy in the room. People of all ages and from all walks of life can be impacted by addiction. Dopamine, a basic neurotransmitter that our bodies produce to cause us to experience joy or happiness, lies at the center of it all. When a person makes a three-pointer or earns an additional five Instagram followers, dopamine causes a surge of delight. However, addiction may develop when the body produces excessive amounts of dopamine.

In the video clip uploaded by the Queen City Podcast Network on Facebook on June 10, 2022, Dr. Anna Lembke, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University of Medicine and chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic joined the “Champagne Problems Podcast” on their latest episode titled, “Finding Balance in a Dopamine Nation.” As explained by Dr. Lembke in the podcast, “Everybody passively creates dopamine, and depending on what they are doing, their bodies release more or less of it. These starting points represent the typical levels of a person’s bodily processes, or homeostasis. When homeostasis is upset, a person’s body works to restore dopamine levels to normal. As a result, once the first dopamine dosage wears off, people have less baseline dopamine, which frequently makes them feel unhappy.” The come-down, according to Dr. Lembke, causes people to seek out even more dopamine-inducing activities, further lowering their dopamine levels at rest. When the first dopamine high wears off, attempting to experience that surge of happiness really results in a depressive state.

Who says Christmas should be cold?

By John Vincent M. Manatad

Even if it is starting to resemble Christmas, why does it still seem like summer? Christmas may not be as freezing as it was in the past since the “Philippines is one of the countries most impacted by climate change,” a Science teacher told The Hillside Chronicle.

Grade 10 Science teacher Mary Joy Umerez at Ponciano Bernardo High School remarked that the Philippines and other developing nations were frequently the victims of the negative impacts of other countries’ high carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

As of 2016, China and the United States collectively accounted for more than 40% of global CO2 emissions, each releasing more than 10,065 million tons of CO2 and 5,416 million tons of CO2. According to the report of the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) in 2022, the COVID-19 pandemic was a major factor in the 5.3% decline in worldwide fossil CO2 emissions in 2020 compared to 2019. The world’s CO2 emissions returned to their pre-pandemic levels in 2021, when they nearly reached the level of 2019 at 37.9 GT, which is just 0.36% less than in 2019. The 2022 EDGAR report read, “In 2021, China, the United States, India, Russia, and Japan remained the world’s largest CO2 emitters. With 126, 922, 662 tons of CO2 emissions, the Philippines came in 36th place, accounting for 0.35 percent of global emissions.

“I think that the emissions are negligible to our country. But what do you observe when it comes to disasters brought about climate change? We, alongside the developing countries suffer,” Umerez told The Hillside Chronicle.

By 2050, the Philippines should prepare for temperature increases of 1.8 to 2.2 degrees Celsius, according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA).

“The intensity and the bitterly cold temperature abruptly halted, and they are now gradually fading away. Climate change is the cause. Therefore, especially around Christmas, we are truly feeling the consequences of climate change,” Umerez said.

“In the past, here in Ponciano Bernardo High School, when the Christmas season hits, we no longer need to use electric fans, but the longer it gets, the hotter the weather gets,” she added.

Actions versus Climate Change

In the article titled “What you need to know about the COP27 Loss and Damage Fund” that was published by the UN Environment Program on November 29, 2022, it was stated that the “United Nations Climate Change Conference or COP27 agreed to establish a “Loss and Damage Fund” to aid countries vulnerable to the climate crisis in their disaster response and resilience efforts.”

But for Umerez, the fund served as nothing more than a temporary fix to placate weaker nations. “What if the countries that we considered developed, experience the disasters of climate change? Will they be able to give the support and aid for countries that need them the most especially the Philippines?” she said.

By seeing the comedown when my classmates put their phones down, I have discovered how to determine whether they are hooked to social media. Because my classmates were constantly looking at their phones, they could not truly be present while I was with them. They constantly appear joyful when using their phones, but after they are done, they appear distant. I can tell this is because social media’s initial thrill has worn off. In experience, after recognizing I was wasting too much time online, I have even gone as far as to Google how to limit my screen time. Having an accountability buddy truly helps me restrict my phone use after some study and research.

Before the podcast ended, Dr. Lembke suggested that we should manage the spaces we use our gadgets in, establish time restrictions, and follow digital manners. “And by taking these steps, we may achieve balance and see that life is significantly better when we are not addicted,” she said.