But by telling you to skip the occasional workout, I don’t mean that you should ignore your body! Instead, I wanted to share a technique I just discovered. It’s called One-Moment Meditation, and it comes from a book called (drumroll please) One-Moment Meditation! The idea behind this technique is that it’s a short, simple meditation. And the best part? Once you’ve had some practice, you can do it anywhere. So it’s perfect for those moments when you wish you could restart your brain like a computer.

This video takes you through the basics of the One-Moment Meditation technique. I tried it and loved it. It made me feel relaxed, energized and happy. What are you waiting for? Give it a shot!

Garnet is a student at Columbia University in New York City. She is “that person” who starts dancing at a party when everyone else is standing around, and if there were a Facebook stalking Olympics, she would be a gold medalist. She also loves cheesy 90s music, and almost died of happiness when Vanilla Ice retweeted her. Once. Follow her on Twitter @garnethenderson.

If you’ve read my previous posts, you would know that I am a pretty active person. I started playing tennis at a young age and about a year ago, I received my Turbo Kickboxing certification. As much as I love working out and pumping iron in the weight room (you can’t blame me – that’s where all the ripped guys hang out!), one thing I’ve always hated is running.

At the gym, running on the treadmill gave me a headache as soon as I stepped off the conveyor belt. Outside, the bugs just enjoyed flying into my face….and my teeth.  It just wasn’t working for me. I was not a runner and I was a-OK with that.

That is, until I realized the many health benefits of running. Obviously, it keeps you in great shape, but, more than that, it relieves stress. I’ve mentioned before that stress is bad on the body and that exercise helps you through it, but running specifically gives you a natural high. Running long distances allows your breathing pattern to stabilize and gives a similar effect as meditation. The perk? You’re burning a few more calories when you run!

After realizing a good run would make me saner, I thought I should challenge myself and decided to give running another try. To make sure that I kept to my goals, I decided to sign up for the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in San Francisco.

I had heard of this gorgeous run late last year and the thought of actually running it has always been in the back of my mind. I finally decided to sign up earlier this year and recruited a few of my good friends to do it with me. I train by increasing my mileage every week and working on incline trails (read: this run will be HILLY!). To combat the problems I had before, I decided to run trails with nice scenery (to avoid boredom) and just cross my fingers that I wouldn’t eat another bug (because its gross).

Running one mile used to intimidate me, but I am excited for the 13.1 mile goal I have set for myself. It’s a lot (and I mean a LOT) of work, but I know that the results will worthwhile… especially since we are given a Tiffany’s necklace when we cross the finish line. (What? Everyone needs a little motivation….) I feel accomplished and proud every time I go a little further and can actually feel my body changing with every passing run.

I think it is good to try new things in life (not to mention, switch up your workout routine). You don’t have to sign up for a marathon, but challenge yourself to do something you never thought was possible. Whether you start small with a 5K race or swimming 40 laps, or set high dreams of being in the Olympics, know that anything is possible when you set your mind to it. The feeling you will get afterward is indescribable.

So I challenge you gorgeous CollegeCandy readers to go above and beyond. Until then…October 17^th – here I come!

What are you going to challenge yourself to do today?

Got something awesome everyone needs to know about? A really great local band? An awesome website? A product that truly changed your life? A great deal on spa services? Email your “The Know” ideas to Jill@collegecandy.com and I’ll pass them along to everyone right here, every week. Make your kindergarten teacher proud and share!

You know that hunch you get when you know something just isn’t right? Or when something aligns so perfectly in life that you just play it off as a coincidence?

What if it was really your dead grandpa trying to clue you in on something big or your spirit guide/guardian angel helping things along?

I know, to the average person I sound crazy. But I swear I’m not. I’m just your average 20-something girl who believes in the idea that there are spirits around us guiding us through life and that if we listen closely enough, they are willing to communicate. And while this is a new idea to me, Psychic Medium Rebecca Rosen discovered her gift of communicating with those who have crossed over back when she was in college (as if worrying what to wear to formal wasn’t a big enough challenge!).

When I first saw Rebecca Rosen in high school at an audience reading, I was blown away. With the risk of sounding off the wall, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that my own grandfather had come through (and hey, if I’m crazy then so is Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox who are also clients of Rebecca’s). Then when I interviewed her last August (over the phone mind you) I was even more convinced when she acknowledged my grandmother’s ring that I wear on my finger every day in hopes of good things to come.

So after my own amazing experiences, I believe that Rebecca’s new book “Spirited” is totes something worth being in The Know about, whether you are a big time believer (uh – me) or the most skeptical skeptic. In the book, she goes into her own personal struggle and she got this gift, and explains how we don’t NEED mediums or psychics to tap into this for ourselves. She believes that everyone can communicate with their own crossed-over loved ones and guides, we just need to develop our own intuition. Even for those who don’t believe it’s possible to talk to “dead people,” Spirited breaks down great meditation exercises to quiet your mind, look inward and tune in to yourself – something that we all can benefit from.

Spirited will teach you that perhaps there is no such thing as a coincidence, and that gut feeling you have? Well Rebecca would say, it’s there for a reason. She will also teach you how to strengthen that ability so “coincidences” and hunches happen a lot more frequently – only this time you will know better than to chalk it up to chance.

Also worth being in the know about? Rebecca’s current book tour; she is hitting a bunch of cities and doing audience readings/book signings in each one! And much like our annual bar crawl, it’s a total CME (Can’t Miss Event) in my book!

Well, maybe my second installment of Spring Semester Freak-Out Remedies will help ease the pain. In this episode, we will be discussing meditation. The easy kind. None of that lotus-position hour long advanced yogi stuff. Let’s be real, almost none of us has time—or the back strength—for that.

Meditation, even in its simplest form, can bring your body and mind back from crazy land. It’s a centering practice, an easy way to feel rested in only a few minutes. And best of all? You can do it lying down!

Step 1. Make sure you have at least 15 minutes of quiet time. 15 minutes where you know the roommate won’t be around, when no one’s going to be knocking on your door, and there’s no rush to get down to the dining hall. If you have more time, awesome, but 15 minutes is a good place to start.

Step 2. Shut off all your lights. Close your curtains. You don’t need to be in pitch dark, but the atmosphere should be calming and quiet.

Step 3. Make sure you’re in comfy clothes. Tight jeans and tube tops does not a calm girl make.

Step 4. Lie down on your bed, but stay above the covers. Getting under the sheets is too much temptation. We want you to relax, not fall asleep. Make sure you’re laying on your back with your feet a comfortable width apart. Let you arms recline against your sides, palms up.

Step 5. Breathe with acknowledgement. What does this mean? It’s just a fancy, hippy way of saying be conscious of your breath. Listen to your inhales and exhales, think inhale, exhale, picture your lungs filling and letting out air.

Step 6. Block everything out. This is the hardest step. A lot of us have trouble keeping our minds completely blank, me especially. I’ll get thirty seconds in and then think, yes! My mind is blank! Which is, of course, counterproductive. The best way to keep your head clear is to focus on your breathing. Keep thinking inhale, exhale. Breathe deeper and deeper, allowing yourself to ‘fall into’ the breath. If thoughts creep in, gently push them out. Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of time to think about things later.

Most importantly, let your body relax. Meditation is all about coming back into yourself, realizing how awesome your limbs and lungs and heart are. The better you get, the longer you can stay in this peaceful state and the more rested you feel after only 15 minutes. If you’re like me and have a hard time taking a nap in the middle of the day, meditation might just be for you. Because your body is not going completely unconscious, you don’t have to deal with that woozy ‘nap drunk’ feeling when it’s all over.

…Just think, next time you’re walking back to your dorm after European History with that new hottie, you can ask him if he’s ever meditated before, and when he looks at you with surprise, smile and say, “I do it all the time. It really centers you.” He’ll be so impressed with your earthy ways he might even ask for a private demonstration, and you’ll have these handy steps to make it seem like you’ve been doing this all your life.

You might even want to work in an extra step which requires all practitioners to be naked…

He’ll never know.