... and blood pressure as well as decreasing perspiration and respiration rates. [Emotion tool kit, 2003]. To start relaxing you need to stop thinking about the problems, the urgent things you need to do, find a quiet place in which you can rest without being disturbed. Then, you begin to take deep breaths ... with pleasant thoughts, people, things and places that will get you relaxed. There are many tapes, videos and books that enhance relaxation. Finding the moment of the day to meditate is very essential to experience relaxation, peace, and clarity. Planning ahead People who plan things ah...

• Word Count: 1082
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... once again glanced behind him where I now could see a man in the distance approaching. I moved a step farther up the canyon, but it was an involuntary movement and I felt embarrassed in front of the donkey. "I must congratulate you for your excellent physical condition and superb diet," I replied honestly after I'd regained my composure. The donkey didn't seem to notice much after that so I made up ... my mind to leave. I continued up the stream determined to find the source of the water that produced such sweet grass. Perhaps at its ... source I could discover its secret. The donkey re...

• Word Count: 1577
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

The articles I read about Matthew Shepard, by James Brooke were horrifying. To think that human beings could do such an awful and hurtful thing to a fellow person just because they are ... happen everyday to all sorts of people. Matthew was hated against just because he was open about his sexual preference. He was tied to a tree, beaten, and was left in the freezing weather, begging for his life. Knowing that this just happened four years ago is a frightening thought. After so many years of learning how to be equal with other races ... been a part a hate crime that was so extreme. I've seen...

• Word Count: 296
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... Descartes argument is based on the first person narrative style of his Meditations on First Philosophy. It is much more than a style; it is his main way of reasoning. It begins with ... existence because only he can know of his conscious intelligence. It's feasible to question other's existence because certainty begins only with knowledge of oneself. As soon as Descartes creates the basis of his argument he can make more inferences as he moves on to different meditations. He now has an immovable point "I am, I exist, this is certain. ... , willing, refusing, and also imagining and sensin...

• Word Count: 314
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

I feel many mixed emotions when I think of J. Alfred Prufrock. Initially he brings feelings of pity because many people find themselves in this same position. They put the person of their affection so high on a pedestal that they would appear to be unattainable. There is very little realism in their train of thought. Also he seems to have ... to lose. He will forever love this woman from afar and his lack of boldness will only make him miserable. I make the assumption that he feels that as long as she doesn't reject him there will be forever the possibility. So that by never actually asking h...

• Word Count: 282
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... who keeps on clinging "to a dream world that can so easily be shattered into jagged pieces, as illusion is destroyed by reality". Living your past during the present, might be troubling and confusing. Amanda, the mother, keeps on talking about her past and she keeps on thinking that everything should be like her past. She wants Laura, especially, to be like her ... . Amanda keeps giving her lecture about how she had many gentleman callers knocking her door when she was young, since Laura is the fragile and shy type of girl. She is very unrealistic, because nowadays for her it is full of ...

• Word Count: 300
• Approx Pages: 1
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... you be able to relate to them? If you didn't know your friends how would you be able to help them? If you didn't know the skills of your work, how would you be able to work? In my eyes it all comes down to one thing, and that is knowledge ... . The bible says, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge", and if you think about it, it's true. When I talk to people my age we ... cars, videos, clothes, sporting events, and things of that nature; they know everything. I can't remember having a conversation about the government with anyone my age, because it's something they don't know a...

• Word Count: 301
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... all must keep in mind that no matter what we choose at some point it affects others. An example would be my senior class. Each of us are merely choosing the rest of our life, planning what college to go to, what to study, with hopes of being successful someday in that area. If you think about that, and wonder ... if you didn't go to college what would happen. In the future when you have a family will you be able to provide for them what they need like someone that chose college could. I know most of us don't want to ... sit down and think "What if...?" At these point in our lives, no on...

• Word Count: 446
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... to teens is key to selling to them. At one time "MTV" ratings were about as high as can be. Then the modern teen's idea of what's cool changed. People lost interest and the ratings plummeted. "MTV" needed a new edge to get back on top. So they created a new show "Total Request live ... (TRL)". The way the show worked was that people would call in and request the songs they wanted to listen to and the video would get played. This ensured that what teens thought was cool was being played and subsequently ratings went ... see a celebrity endorsing something. This is another way to appeal t...

• Word Count: 341
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... how insignificant they may seem, all serve a purpose and have consequences to them. In "The Necklace", Madame Loisel chooses to not tell her friend that she lost the necklace and spends 10 years of her life trying to pay for the new one. That is a consequence, or an effect. The choice that she made served as a blessing in disguise. You see, before, Mme. Loisel ... was a quite materialistic driven person, who longed for the riches that she thought made a woman. After undergoing those ten very unpleasant and horrible years, she became a real woman. One with grace and inner beauty, whom ev...

• Word Count: 255
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... living on this planet Y2K crossed your mind a few times before that night. Most people now think that Y2K was a big lie that the media formulated to use for advertising, but is that the truth. If there were another explanation it would be on this very piece of paper you are holding now ... . During his nap a man interrupted his beautiful dream of having a great day of golf with buddies, this man was a tall red looking figure with a huge head. The red figure interrupted by saying, hello Franklin. I don't have much time, I needed to tell you something, it is of great importance and has to ...

• Word Count: 335
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... share. In some situations there personalities clash and in others they flow together for the good of both of them. They both follow the code of chivalry, but they both follow it to a different degree. There thoughts on personal honor are on the same level, but Roland takes it to far. Roland's way of life is ... both. One such example would be when Oliver thinks it would be best to call Charles for help in a battle they could possibly lose. Roland thinks they have the situation under control, when they clearly do not. Roland is also very rash, he is more of a do first think later kind o...

• Word Count: 334
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... about his appearance and how he thought that people were always thinking negative things about him. His life to him is worth less because of the fact that he has nothing to live for. Prufrock said that he was going to attend some party but had some negative feeling about if ... before, since he has "known them already." "Should have been a pair of ragged claws, scuttling across the floors of silent seas." Self-pitying remark that he would have been better as a crab at the bottom of the ocean then himself. Prufrock's inactions always lead him into questioning himself. Prufrock compares h...

• Word Count: 393
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... also in adolescence. So, I see easily people who are in trouble. There are two characters, which tell adolescent life. Holden, a protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye, and Paul, a main character of Six Degrees of Separation, represent our adolescence very well. They do not have any direction to live and ... and teachers help us. But Holden and Paul do not have any of them. Holden has his parents, but they are helpless and never appeared in the story. Therefore Holden and Paul could not think their future. Holden and Paul are immature. They lie to others and they have no direction. Howeve...

• Word Count: 561
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... can't see? Worse, how can one describe something he doesn't understand? Plato advocates reflective understanding in this essay. To do so, one must realize their errors by facing realism, as the prisoners do by turning their heads. Plato teaches how humans would likely to acquire knowledge and concepts by its physical properties and appearances; we would be mistaken if we levied ... the concept, knowledge, and grasp of one object by the same level. Reading this essay by Plato teaches the philosophies and concepts of life. There could be many different opinion and perspective on any given...

• Word Count: 251
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... he wakes up and something has come to him. Something happened during his sleep that had aroused these fantastic senses that are needed to flow together the lines of poetry. Now the poem comes easily and fluidly. There is no forcing of lines and there is no hesitance of rhythm. It's all flowing together like a small stream ... during a warm spring day. I also like how during the story the author goes into detail on how he had come up with the lines. He describes how he and thought up the lines and why they are present. To me as a young writer things don't always flow together as ... non...

• Word Count: 312
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... which Anna makes a poor judgment when it came to her daughter. One good example of this is when she and Leo are making love while Molly is in the bed with them. Most parents would never even think of doing this. She should have stopped until Molly had calmed down and was back in her room sleeping ... . I am sure that many parents get "caught in the act," but would never think to continue making love while the child is still in the same room as them. What would she have done if Molly woke up? I really don't think this thought crosses her ... when Molly should have been her priority. Anothe...

• Word Count: 502
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... at what time to ask them. As stated from http://mcweb.mc.maricopa.edu/users/Mahoney/class/Jason/thinking.html "Critical thinking is the act of not taking thinking for granted." This I found especially interesting because if you take thinking for granted there is nothing there. As defined in ... of being a critical thinker are that you will be well equipped to tackle any situation thrown in front of you because you will ask the right questions at the right time to get positive results. Critical thinkers find it satisfying to know when to say "no" to an idea or opinion and to ... know wh...

• Word Count: 372
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... family seem to be to each other. They often do things to each other without thinking or caring about how they will effects will be for the people in their family. Laura's three sons Kade, Everett, Peter and even her husband Hugh have different ideas about religion than Laura, because they ... what they were told about religion Laura felt they were all against her. Laura felt that, no matter what the cost, she must convince her other three children to believe that their brothers were wrong to feel the way they did about religion. Kincade describes Luara's trying to turn his siblings agai...

• Word Count: 444
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... Hamlet's first soliloquy (1.2), he expresses his despair due to his mother's hasty remarriage after the death of his father. When he think of how his mother changed from a grieving widow to the bride of his hated uncle, Hamlet exclaims "Frailty thy name is woman!" He leaps from the single example of his mother's impulsive behaviour and condemns all women for all time. This ... is the first of many comments by Hamlet and others, about the sometimes mysterious ways in which people change. Every thought in Hamlet's first soliloquy is painful. Hamlet reveals his own frailty when ... a mont...

• Word Count: 307
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... a short story in which Morley Callaghan describes that Alfred's view has changed very much. Alfred is afraid of growing up and becoming an adult at the beginning story. However, he begins to understand something about his mother after his mother helps him when he is caught stealing. In this story, Callaghan ... aware of people's age. There is segregation between Alfred's behavior and his thinking when Mr.Carr tries to contact his mother to deal with the bad situation that happened to Alfred. Actually Alfred tries to be mature, and he wants to act like an adult, but his "childish hope ... ...

• Word Count: 568
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... after he learned you didn't send my letters?"(Butler, 179) is a quote said by Dana when she learned Rufus Weylin lied to her about sending the letters to Kevin. This is clearly not an act of sympathy because he did not want Kevin to take Dana north, and wanted to Dana to stay with ... doubt an uncaring human being. Rufus Weylin is an evil man because he supports slavery and abuses people both physically because he "owns" them. The first instance where he abused someone physically was when he beat her senseless. "One morning after he had overdone it, Alice came downstairs with her whole ....

• Word Count: 681
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... would be careful using opinions from a writer that usually writes fiction as a supporting source. An exert from Mark Twain's book Letters From the Earth about the damned human race he has many opinions in which I agree with but he ventures off into what seems to me as fiction stories included. ... up killing each other over their different beliefs. This was an extreme way to state his point but is far from "gospel". So the reader will be less likely to believe you or your argument when using sources that are fiction. Another way to use critical thinking is to evaluate ... , numbers do no...

• Word Count: 517
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... her new marriage and all. I miss Ma, I haven't seen her in years, and Ma always looked real young for her age. As I sit, I think of the train ride here, it was a long ride and folks didn't seem too happy. One older white man told me to get up out of my seat. I don't ... would she be happy to see me? I forced myself to knock. As soon as I did, I heard footsteps coming toward the door. A short, slightly overweight woman wearing a white apron answered the door, Ma, she looked the same as the day I had left her, but happier. I reminisce on how Pa acted when I said I wanted to be a writer. H...

• Word Count: 559
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... me apart and making me go absolutely insane. There was also this part of me that didn't want to tell anyone because I wanted to be sick, the thought of losing weight was so strong that I was willing to risk my health for it. It didn't matter how much I tried to talk myself out ... even possible and a whole new world opened up for me. Because it is something special about losing yourself within yourself, having a clear mind and just being in the moment. I went into some very deep meditative states where I felt my whole body floating above my physical body, also known as astral projection...

• Word Count: 696
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School