Miss. Velasquez's Blog

For 17 years of my life I have danced classically. I danced ballet, jazz, tap and lyrical. I found myself being the most comfortable with my body, spirit and mind during those years of my life. I unfortunately had to stop dancing because I became extremely busy with my undergraduate years. I practiced dance extensively for hours a day, I would start practice around 5 in the evening and sometimes wouldn't leave until 10 at night or later. Sometimes, although we finished practice early, my teammates and I would just stay in the studio to create new choreography and just have fun. My most favorite type of dance is ballet. Classical music was used to dance ballet, like Igor Stravinsky, Maurice Ravel, Don Giovanni and so many more. I developed a love for classical music, I still listen to it now although I've been out of the studio for about 5 years now. My ballet teacher was a hard-core Russian ballerina whose been dancing since she was two. She always wanted our hair tied back in

A few years ago after a trip to Ecuador (of course), I met a shaman on a trail in the Yasuni National Park. I remember being so comfortable with him telling him life stories and sharing good laughs, even though I met him the same day. He shared much of his wisdom about mental health and physical health through meditation, yoga and diet. I was never taught in school about mental health and I wish I was because it is so vital in our world. We live in a society of always rushing to get somewhere and tense environments because everything and everyone is competitive. All of this stress builds up and makes us become unhealthy! We get headaches, break out with acne, over eat or under eat, become depressed or procrastinate, etc. As a student, there are deadlines to be met, meetings to attend, homework to do, tests to pass and so on. But what about time for oneself? In a school day there is no class that teaches students techniques on how to destress and I believe students need that. Teachers d

As the spring comes to an end, I start to get into a health kick. I start eating more greens, vegetables and fruits. I also love making smoothies! It's one of my favorite things to drink during the summer for a refreshing thirst quenching drink/meal. If you want to make smoothies regularly, it's a great idea to stash some fruit in the freezer. Not only will they retain their nutritional value and flavor, they will instantly chill your smoothie, so no need to add ice. Before your bananas have a chance to turn brown in the fruit bowl, peel and slice them, then freeze on a sheet of baking parchment on a tray until solid. You can then store in sandwich bags and throw into your blender whenever you need them. Even fruits that don't usually freeze well, like strawberries and melon, are okay to freeze if you're using them in a smoothie. Most supermarkets now sell frozen smoothie packs, which are often great value and give you a good mixture of fruit. Below I share one of my