7 Apps to Have on your Phone

I am the kind of person who would use her phone for everything. If I lose my phone I pretty much lose everything, which sucks to be honest. But I like to use my phone to the maximum and use every little gadget it can give me. So I made a list of my top use apps for health or for school work which you should have:

Soy el tipo de persona que usa su celular para todo. Si pierdo mi celular, pierdo abolsumatamente todo, lo cual puede ser un poco mal, la verdad. Pero me gusta usar mi celular al máximo y aprovechar cada herramienta que me da. Hice una lista de mis aplicaciones favoritas para el colegio y para la salud:

Pacifica

I started using pacifica a few months ago and I’m still trying to get use to using it daily. But it is an amazing up to keep track of your health. Pacifica gives you the chance to put how much water you had, or how many hours of sleep you got. My favorite feature are the guided meditations, they have from small breathing exercise to a few meditations which help you sleep.

Empecé a usar Pacífica hace unos meses y todavía estoy tratando de acostumbrarme a usarla todos los días. Pero es una gran aplicación para mantenerte al día con tu salud. Pacifica te deja poner cuánta agua consumiste o cuántas horas dormiste. Lo que más me gusta de la aplicación son las meditaciones guiadas, hay desde ejercicios de respiración hasta meditación que te ayuda a dormirte.

Nike+ Run club

I started using this app over a year ago I think. It has been of great help to start running. I used to hate to run and now I do it three times a week. The app allows you to choose a plan, how much time would you like to spend on and basically everything so you’ll actually get the workout done. I choose to run 5K now, which is a nice start, but hope to go on to 10K or 20K!

Vengo usando esta aplicación hace un año más o menos. Ha sido increíble para empezar a correr. Odiaba correr y ahora corro 3 veces por semana. La aplicación te ofrece varios planes de los cuales podes elegir para entrenar. Yo elige para correr 5k ahora, lo cual es bueno para empezar, pero espero llegar a 10K o 20k.

Tide

Tide is a great app to use if you have a hard time concentrating on things. The app uses the pomodoro technique, which consists of working in periods of 25 minutes or more and take a break in between, once you’ve done that four times you take a longer break. The app allows you to choose the amount of time which works best for you. If you leave the app in this work interval you lose your block of 25 minutes, and need to start again. I love to use it when I have to study for exams, usually when I have a long text to read, it helps me concentrate.

Tide es una gran aplicación para usar si te cuesta concentrarte. La aplicación usa la técnica pomodoro, la cual consiste en trabajar en intervalos de 25 minutos o más y tomarse recreo entre cada uno de ellos, hasta llegar a los cuatro y tomarse un recreo más largo. La aplicación te deja adaptar los recreos e intervalos según sea mejor para vos. Si en los intervalos de concentración salís de la aplicación perdes ese tiempo y debes comenzar de vuelta. Me encanta usarla cuando tengo que leer textos extensos, ya que me ayuda a concentrarme.

Swork it

SworkIt is another amazing app to workout. The app has four options: Strength, yoga, stretching and cardio, which all offer different work out according to what type of work you want. I like to use yoga in the morning to wake up my muscles and do a little bit of stretching. I also use stretching after I run since it offers standing when I can’t lay on the ground and head to toe stretching so all your muscle are cool off after working out.

Sworkit es otra gran aplicación para hacer ejercicio. La aplicación te da cuatro opciones: fuerza, yoga, elongacion y cardio, las cuales todas ofrecen diferentes ejercicios de acuerdo al tipo de ejercicio que quieras. Me gusta usar el de yoga a la mañana para despertar los músculos y estirar un poco. También usó la opción de elongación para estirar después de correr, ya que ofrece la opción de estirar de pies a cabeza y parado para hacer cuando no te podes tirar al piso.

MyFitnessPal

I’ve been using MyFitnessPal on and off for a few years now. It is an amazing app to keep track of your meals, workouts and water. My Fitness Pal also, allows you to put you weight and lets you know how your progress.

Hace un par de años que vengo bajandome y eliminando MyFitnessPal. Es una gran aplicación para mantener un monitoreo de tus comedias, tu ejercicio y el agua que tomas. My Fitness Pal, tambien te deja poner tu peso y vas viendo tu proceso.

Lumosity

I need to credit my brother here. Lumosity allows you to do three games per day to work on different abilities, like memory, speed or attention. The concept of Lumosity comes from having a physical personal trainer, but instead of working the body you work the mind.

Tengo que darle crédito a mi hermano aca. Lumosity te deja hacer 3 juegos por día para trabajar en diferentes habilidades mentales como memoria, velocidad y atención. El concepto de Lumosity viene de la idea de tener un entrenador personal fisico pero en vez del cuerpo concentrarse en la mente.

Keep

I know iPhone has its own notes app but I find Keep way better. With Keep you can connect from your phone and your computer, I like the idea of having my note in my computer as well. Keeps also allows you to share and edit notes with other gmail users, which has been pretty useful to do groceries with my mom or for school work.

Se que iPhone tiene sus propias aplicación de notas pero me gusta mucho más Keep. Con Keep te podes conectar tanto en el teléfono cómo en la computadora, me gusta la idea de poder usar Keep en mi computadora. Keeps también te deja compartir y editar las notas con otros usuarios de gmail lo cual a sido muy útil para hacer  las compras con mi mama o para trabajos de la facultad.

What are your favorite apps to use?

Love

Pili

Alive

Hi, hello. I don’t think that you remember me, since I haven't been in here in years. You are more than welcome to look around my posts to remember me.  But I am here now, and I am back. So, I don’t have any good reason why I didn't post, I guess I was lazy? I was tired? Or I was getting my shiz together. I was really getting out there and trying to figure out a couple of things which need to be figure out. Yeah, I’m not making much sense. I made a list to sum up my life this last few months:

Hola, hola. No creo que se acuerden de mi ya que hace años que no estoy acá. Están más que bienvenidos a mirar otros posts para acordarse quién soy. Pero estoy acá, ahora y he vuelto. No tengo una buena razón por la cual no subía post, ¿capaz era vagas? ¿Estaba cansada? O capaz, tenía que componer. Estaba allá afuera y tratando de descifrar algunas cosas que debían ser descifradas. Si, ya se, no tiene mucho sentido. Hice una lista para resumir mi vida estos últimos meses:

1. I am driving now. Yes, Pili is finally getting out there and goes to school on her own, she buys her own donuts and she gets her cold coffee alone.

1.  Manejo ahora. Si, PIli por fin salió y ahora va a la universidad sola, compra donas sola y va a comprar café frío sola.

2. I’ve been traveling. I went to Europe twice (I’m working on getting myself to write about this) and I went to Paraguay once (which I only wrote an extremely personal diary entry about).

2. Estuve viajando. Fui a Europa dos veces (Estoy trabajando en escribir sobre esto) y fui a Paraguay una vez (solo escribí una entrada extremadamente personal para mi diario).

3. I became one of those obsessively healthy people. Nah, I’m kidding. But I started running, going back to spinning classes again and I saw a nutritionist to eat healthier. So, maybe I am a healthier person.

3. Me transforme en esas personas obsesionadas con la salud. Nah, mentira. Pero si empecé a correr, volví a ir a clases de spinning y fui a una nutricionista para comer sano.Entonces, capas si soy una persona sana.

4. I got a photography Instagram. I love photography so much, it has been a passion of mine for years. So I decided to share with people in my new Instagram.

4. Me hice un Instagram de fotografía. Amo la fotografía, es una pasión mía hace año. Entonces decidí compartirlo con las personas en mi nuevo Instagram.

A little catch up on my life this few months. I promise that I WILL write this year. I have so many ideas and I missed the blogging community so much. I know I say this every year, but since last year was the year to get my life together, I now promise to blog more, I promise to be here more often.

Un pequeño resumen de mi  vida estos meses. Prometo que este año voy a escribir. Tengo tantas ideas y extraño tanto la comunidad de bloggers. Sé que digo esto todos los años, pero como el año pasado fue el año de descifrar mi vida este año prometo subir mas cosas al blog, prometo estar acá más seguido.

Love,

Pili

Breathing and Pounding

I’m a writer and like every other writer I can’t take things lightly, I can’t help but feel more than what others feel. Also, as a writer I like to imagine I have something going on my mind that is different than the rest of the world.

I should probably tell you the medical definition of panic attacks, but I’ll make it personal, and tell you mines. Panic attacks usually happen in stressful, anxious situations, situations where I do not feel comfortable, or situations which are trigger to previous time I had felt anxious. Then it all starts: heart pounding, breath quickens, tears threaten, feeling disoriented, and scary thoughts. Everything at once. Everything without a head ups. Everything without you knowing why. And everything stops abruptly, but like any strong feeling, the hangover reminds. Why? Why did that just happened? Why did I feel all that? Because you have panic attacks, because you have anxiety, because you feel too much at once.

I don’t think there is a perfect way to explain when I get anxious, of course I get before a big exams, or a presentation, but I also get it in a crowded cafeteria, I also get it when I have to talk on the phone, or when I have to ask for something in a store. It is not the normal before an exam anxiety, is “I have to deal with humans” anxiety.

It started around December/January when I struggling with sleeping at night, I will turn and turn but it wasn't just I couldn’t find the right position. I would close my eyes and my mind wouldn't shut up, at the time I didn’t have any obligations, so I was not struggling with exams or deadlines, they were just thoughts. My breath got quick, my heart beat loud… and so on and on. I thought it was only stress, but somehow it felt more than stress. I talked to my mother and she pointed out anxiety and panic attacks. I’ve heard of them many time but somehow they felt a little bit distance to me, like I was not allowed to deal with them, I was never involved in a traumatic experience, was I? It was always stress to me. But as I did more research (always trustworthy sources), I realize that  everything felt real, I was struggling with how anxiety was describe by people. Being honest, it scared me. Was I going to deal with it always? Was it going to stop me? Does it sucks?

It does sucks. It sucks because sometimes you can’t go out, sometimes you need to leave a classroom because it is too much. It sucks because people don’t understand. It is so hard to explain to someone how you feel when you are anxious, just like someone suffering from depression can’t explain depression to someone, because it is not just sadness, it is more. It is not just feeling anxious, it is more. It is not just a final, it is more. Maybe that is what we can call it, “it is not just...it is more.” Not just a phone call, not just a photo, not just a message, not just pain, not just talking in class, it feels ten times heavier, ten times harder to proceed. It sucks, anxiety just sucks. Every word feels heavy, when someone brush you off, it is not just to the side, for me it is out of your life, you don’t want me anymore. We feel everything, ten times how a regular person does.

I am learning to slowly live with it. As I write this, I can tell you that last night I toss and turn for hours because my heart was loud, my breathing… I am in this slow process of understanding that is ok to feel everything, is ok to allowed myself to avoid a phone call, it is ok to allowed myself to have some nice tea and a book just to relax. I am learning  to understand what are my triggers as well, since December is just a right around the corner and lots of memories and flashbacks are coming to me. I am learning that pulling away from some people has help me to understand why I was so suffocated a few months ago. I am learning that taking sometime off from your regular life and from certain people helps me feel better. I have yet to find an actual method to make myself feel better when the world is loud, music helps, writing helps, reading helps, swimming helps, even friends help. I am open to anyone telling me how they deal with anxiety and panic attacks as well. I hope everyone understand a little bit better why I sometimes need to be alone and understand that many things you do in your daily life, to me are hard. And I hope after finally opening up about this I can feel a bit better about being scared of making a phone call.