Posts

Stressed out? Breathe.

Being an international student and juggling a full time job (or multiple part time jobs) and your studies is bound to be a stressful experience in your life. I know it is to me. In the past months I have experienced many of the most common stress symptoms, such as back and neck pain, accelerated thinking, irritability and difficulty concentrating. So in addition to seeking professional help, I found out about a natural coping mechanism that all of us can use in our daily lives, not only during stressful times but as part of a wellness routine - I’m talking about breathing exercises. The first time someone suggested that I should take breathing classes, I laughed at them. “Why would I pay someone to teach me how to do something I’ve been doing since the day I was born?” It turns out they were right - most people, myself included, usually breathe by inflating their chests, when the correct way of breathing is by expanding our belly.  The so-called diaphragmatic breathing consists of inha
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Soft skills - how to improve charisma

  Soft skills - how to improve charisma In 2019, when I decided to immigrate to Canada, I also decided I would take the opportunity to make a major change of career. I was completely bored after working in the legal field for 9 years and was longing to try something new. So, since I was already moving to a new country and restarting my life from scratch in so many ways, why not look for a more exciting, fulfilling job as well? Easier said than done. The first obstacle I faced was actually deciding what I wanted to do for a living. In a booming economy like Canada’s, where many different jobs are well-paid, the possibilities are endless. And since all my previous work experiences were related to law - a field I wanted to avoid at all costs - I couldn’t even rely on a well-known starting point from where to draw, so to speak, my career path. I would *really* have to start from scratch. Right? Wrong. That’s when I realized that even if I chose a completely different career, there were som
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Managing perfectionism to improve productivity

As cliche as it sounds, if I was asked in a job interview “what is your greatest weakness?”, the first thing that would come to my mind is “I’m a perfectionist”. I know it can be a valuable asset in some situations, but the truth is, when I started a new phase in my legal career, 3 years ago, as assistant to a judge, my perfectionism posed an extra obstacle to thriving in that position. In summary, as assistant to a judge it was my duty to analyze all the cases assigned to him, discuss any complicated cases I didn’t already know how to solve, and then write a decision for the judge to sign. All that should be done in a given period of time (around 60 days from the date each case was received in his office) and, believe me, the number of cases he received weekly made it impossible for a single person to properly analyze each one and write a decision that 1- addressed every topic raised and 2- took into consideration all the hundreds of documents provided by the lawyers. In addition to
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