It’s crucial to look after our mental health. I felt this more than ever in the last two years of my PhD. Long hours of work, high stress, uncertainty and pressure all were weighing on me. Through podcasts and some other sources I landed on two tools that saved my mind from blowing up! Meditation and Stoicism! I started meditation with the help of a great App called Headspace, although these days I don’t practice meditation daily, I can tell that it was quite helpful and would give a a level of clarity and calmness that I could never get.

These days I’ve gained a huge appetite which lead me put on a few kilos. Today I tried to trick myself so I reduce the calory intake! I skipped breakfast (I often do) and delayed my lunch until around 5pm, moreover I didn’t just cook anything I made a vegetarian dish, sort of a stew but with zucchini, tomato and bell peppers and a bit of potatoes. Since it had lots of liquid the plan was to count on the fact that it’ll stuff me and therefore prevent me from nibbling on snacks and other high calory food.

Another week went by, lots of great things happened and some progress was made, but not enough. I can do better, and I will do better. Every hour should count, and every day I should get closer to my goals. Life is tough, especially if you don’t want to be average. I gotta work harder and smarter. On a completely different note I’m thinking about writing longer pieces with more depth!

Snow is beautiful and I had very much missed it. I remember when I was a kid, winters were often snowy and we would always go out and have all the typical winter fun activities such as making snowman and snowball fights. Unfortunately it’s a couple of years that sometimes winters come and go with not even a few days of snow fall and snowy white landscapes. This year however winter is delivering at least for one instance of decent snowfall and it’s going to last for a few days.

Privacy preserving everything. This past week we witnessed a mass migration from WhatsApp to Signal. Users fearing their privacy and afraid of how Facebook would use their private data migrated to Signal, another messaging platform which is run by a non-profit and provides end-to-end encryption and favourable privacy policies. One aspect of this migration was quite interesting because masses were encouraged by what I would call celebrities on the Internet, such as Elon Musk or Edward Snowden.