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Planning for Your Master’s Degree Program

11/30/2019

You're currently working as a teacher in one of the international schools in the Philippines. You're in your second year. You're having a blast teaching the kids in school and when you're not working, just enjoying the country's tropical weather and sandy beaches.

But you've given yourself up to three years only for this posting. Part of the reason you took this job was to reflect on what you want to do next in terms of your career. Taking a post-graduate program is one of your many plans. You haven't focused on that as well. But now you might have to since next year would be your last year for this posting. You need to get the ball rolling. But how do you choose a program?

Here are a few things that might help you decide:

A Brief Profile of Post-graduates in America
In 2018, an impressive 21 million Americans aged 25 and older, obtained a master's degree. This is twice the number in 2000. A study by the U.S. Census Bureau also revealed that people with higher degrees are 3.7 times better income earners than those who quit high school.
Decision Time
Taking a master's program is still considered by many as having huge benefits career-wise. But choosing the program you want to enroll in, as you very well know, isn't a straightforward decision as it seems. Here are a few things to consider while you're in your deliberative process:

Understanding your context. A vital step to take is to understand your background and relate that to why you want to pursue post-graduate studies. Are you pursuing a program because it is the "in" thing right now? Or do you want to build your expertise in a specific area so that you can land your dream job? These are the things that you need to reflect on, which will help you determine the program you want to pursue.
Vet your options. You'll need to invest time in researching universities, the programs they offer, and even the method of learning. There are now options to complete, for example, an MBA online. Scrutinize the university and the program that they offer. Make sure that the course contents suit your needs best and how you want to apply your learnings in real life. You will be surprised to find that similar programs in two different universities have different course contents.
Leverage your strength. There are programs where you will be evaluated based on your essays or written work. If this isn't your strong suit, then maybe you should consider another program. Find out how your learning will be measured. Perhaps it's best to select a program where you can be evaluated based on the practical work that you do in the field rather than what you can produce inside a classroom.
Cost. If your work as a teacher allowed you to save money for your graduate program, then kudos to you! For any aspiring graduate students enrollees, funding their master's program is an obstacle. Depending on the school, tuition fees could be anywhere between $13,000 to $20,000. You add the cost of accommodation, books, and other materials, and travel for an internship, and you'll be looking at a number far higher than this price range. Obtaining a full or partial scholarship is the only way to go. Find out what the different university departments are offering in terms of scholarship.

You'll find other lists with much more than the items mentioned here. But this should at least set you on the right track.

by Iconic Chica Mag contributors

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Sleep and Exercise: How Are they Connected?

11/30/2019

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Many of us struggle with poor sleep. Poor sleep creates a vicious cycle that is very difficult to get out of - and it is a cycle that leads to a variety of physical and mental health problems, including stress, anxiety, and general irritation.
Further, simply getting enough sleep exposes you to dozens of benefits; think of it as a nightly recharge - your body gets

battered and depleted throughout the day, and at night, sleep is the healing process.

Getting a good night's sleep is especially important if you are an athlete, no matter how serious of an athlete you are. Most every athlete knows that there is some connection that exists between sleep and working out, but the specifics are often not understood.

The reality of the links between sleep and exercise is two-fold - the relation is powerful and deeply beneficial in multiple aspects of your life.

Sleep Improves Athletic Performance

I know, this is a pretty powerfully sweeping statement, but this knowledge does come from reputed studies and a wide variety of personal stories.

The bottom line: the better you sleep, the better you will perform. This is regardless of the type of exercising you do, whether you play on a local (or national) basketball team, run competitively, or just go to the gym a few days a week.

The reasons for this are pretty straightforward. When you work out, again regardless of the type of exercise you are performing, your muscles are tearing apart and your energy and fluidity levels are decreasing.

Like I mentioned earlier, your body physically gets battered, even if you don’t get injured, per se. Now, sleep acts as a recharge - it literally heals you. When you are asleep, your body is in a heavily relaxed state, your heart rate is low and slow, and your body doesn’t have to work as hard to keep you functioning.

This means that it can devote energy and resources to repairing cellular damage and standardizing fluid levels. The result is that you wake up in better condition, with greater energy, and so are better prepared for another hard day of training.

More important, though, is the result of your athletic performance if you are under-sleeping. Sleep deprivation increases levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which increases inflammation, and reduces the production of glycogens. Basically, you’ll be more fatigued and less focused, as well as having to deal with greater levels of stress and irritation that come from not getting those magical 8 hours.

People Who Exercise Sleep Better

I mentioned earlier how the links between exercise and sleep are two-folded. Just as sleep helps your athletics, your athletics help your sleep. People who exercise report better sleep, in general. And people who exercise at incredibly vigorous levels report higher and more consistent quality of sleep.

The reasoning behind this biological reality is, again, pretty straightforward. You may not remember this, but when you were a toddler, your mom or dad probably took you to a park or had you run around in the backyard, to tire you out. And after each highly-intense play-session, you would promptly fall into your daily nap.

While you may have outgrown naps, exercise tires out your body, which makes better sleep more attainable. There are a few biological reasons for this. When you exercise, your core temperature hugely increases and there is evidence that the drop in temperature once you are done exercising promotes sleep.

Exercise is also proven to be a strong method of reducing anxiety and depression, two things that are strongly linked to insomnia. With lower stress levels and a mind and body that are both tired and relaxed, sleep comes easier and feels better.

While those two statements provide the basis for the cyclical link between sleep and exercise, there are a few other facts that are good to know.

Less Time Sitting Is Always Better

We live in a society where the gross majority of people spend much of their days hunched and seated, over a desk, typing away at their computer. There has been a lot of research conducted on the health implications of sitting, and the results are largely negative.

Sitting results in muscle strains in your back and neck, as well as your wrists, and is also incredibly restrictive. Studies have found that people who sit less, sleep better. The specific numbers are at 8 hours - if you can sit less than 8 hours a day, you will likely experience an improved quality of sleep.

With that, people who exercise, by the nature of exercise, spend less of their day sitting. Yes, there’s the car ride to the gym, but at least one or more hours of your day is taken up with physical activity - that helps your body stretch out, helps you feel better, and keeps you out of your chair.

So, not only does exercise tire out your body for sleep, but it also contributes to a healthier lifestyle, which makes your sleep even better. See more tips on how to live a healthier life on this site.

There Are No Time Restraints

There is a pretty consistent misconception that exercising close to bedtime is bad for your quality of sleep. Luckily, this is just a misconception.

In reality, you can exercise at 6 A.M or 9:30 at night, you’ll still sleep better. Although, for best sleep-related results, the later on in the day you work out, the better. For this, mid-to-late afternoon is optimal, depending, of course, on your schedule.

The links between sleep and exercise are clear and double-edged. One helps the other, which helps the other, and so on. Whether you are getting good sleep or bad sleep, the result is a vicious, unending cycle, that simply gets worse (or better) the longer you are in it.

If you consistently work out and get your 8 hours of sleep, that process will simply continue. If you get consistently bad sleep, you will, likely, keep getting bad sleep, and your workouts won’t go well, which helps contribute to the poor state of your sleep.

The point: sleep is your body’s natural (and magical) way of healing and recharging. It is of utmost importance to your overall health, in a myriad of ways.

And exercise can help your sleep become even better - higher quality of sleep is the one thing that everybody seems to constantly be seeking. All you have to do to hit those Z’s is to hit those weights.

by Daniel DeMoss

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