The thing that surprised me the most from the article, "Why we find it hard to meditate" is that throughout the article there was a constant insistence that people should meditate because of the benefits, but throughout the article there was no mention of what the benefits were. Thus, at the end of the article I was left wondering what the benefits of mediation are, so I googled them to find that there are an array of physical, psychological, and spiritual benefits. I learned that meditation is highly beneficial, but people come up with excuses not to meditate when in reality almost everyone can take ten minutes out of there day to meditate. Personally I do not meditate. My obvious reason is that it has never occurred to me that I should meditate, but other reasons include that I am one of those individuals who says I do not have time. 

Personally I am an optimistic, so overall I thought the article, “What can the rhythm and flow of a pendulum teach us about balance and personal growth” was pretty accurate in the sense that after the rough periods in ones’ eventually there are smooth trails to come. I also agree that for individuals to grow as an individual they must be faced with hardships in which they can overcome them and learn from those experiences. I do not agree in the fact that the article says we must accept our lows. What I mean is that there are individuals that are encountered with extreme hardships that you would not wish upon anyone, so I feel that in these cases it is hard to accept your lows because no one deserves to come to terms or content of being placed in extreme hardships. In my personal life I feel like I would not want to have a balance of both opposites; naturally I would want my pendulum leaning towards the positive things in life. Currently it seems that my pendulum is not balanced because there will be certain days or times of the day were I am really happy and then there are times where I feel stressed and overwhelmed. With my time here at Loyola I hope to be able to find a balance within myself in the sense that I find a method that allows me to not stress over every little thing or when I am faced with stressful situations. 

W.E.B. Dubois’s quote is the mindset I try to model. I know that sometimes I tend to be that person who makes up excuses of accomplishing certain task today and leaving them off for the next day. I do not like doing this because I usually do not go back to that task or if I do it is not until several days. My view is why not do what you can do tomorrow today, that way you will feel more accomplished.