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Sometimes (maybe often) when you ask people how they’re doing, their responses include a word that has become rather common in our conversations: busy. Many individuals describe themselves this way—life can be filled with chaos and seemingly endless tasks. However, it’s still important to make sure that people make time for activities they enjoy and that benefit their overall well-being.

Dallas-area resident and Fit Social Club instructor Libby Shewski, who also played collegiate volleyball and now coaches club volleyball, said she thinks it’s important to prioritize exercise because it’s part of one’s overall health and quality of life. Not only does it keep a person in shape and help him or her maintain a higher quality of life, but Shewski also finds that it improves her mood and is helpful for her mental health. After all, “exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy.” (If you can finish that quote from a famous movie that was robbed of any Oscar nominations, be the first to email or DM NatNews for a special prize.)

“We make time for what’s important to us and what we want to make time for,” she said. “Find an exercise routine that is manageable to you, fits into your schedule, and is something you look forward to. Sometimes this may mean sacrificing something (a lot of times it’s sleep), but I find when I prioritize exercise, even though I want that extra hour of sleep, I’m actually more productive throughout my day.”

Dallas resident Drew Mbiam, who runs with Train Pegasus and Pint Striders, believes that making time for working out is essential to ensure that a person isn’t so bogged down by work and other stressors that he or she doesn’t have the energy or motivation to do much else.

“Regular life tries to force people to sit and be stagnant,” he said. “Workouts and fitness provide balance.”

Working out can also help expand your social circle, and the people who enjoy the same forms of exercise as you do can serve as valuable accountability partners who will help you stay consistent. Shewski recommends attending a workout class, especially for someone who is new to exercise.

“At Fit Social Club, you can work out and develop connections with the instructors and other regular attendees, and places where you feel like you belong will help you keep coming back,” she said. “That’s the easiest way to make it a habit.”

And such healthy habits offer a variety of positive impacts, including a longer life expectancy—one of the many reasons Dallas-area resident Carolyn Macduff Levanway thinks it’s important to take care of one’s body and exercise on a regular basis. In order to balance her career, social and family activities, and workouts, she said she’s developed somewhat of a routine.

“I go to work, and then I immediately go for a run,” she said. “If I have plans after work, I’ll run early in the morning. If exercise is truly important to you, you’ll find a way to fit it in your day, even if you can’t do the entire workout.”

And prioritizing running and other forms of working out has helped Macduff Levanway in a number of ways, including increased levels of energy and a sharper mind overall.

“Exercise builds mental toughness, and a lot of us work mentally tough jobs,” she said. “Exercise makes living, breathing, and working just a little easier.”

As Shewski mentioned, people make time for what they want to make time for in life, and the aspects of their lives that they prioritize often come with sacrifices in other areas. For Mbiam, he chooses to wake up early to make sure that he has time to run each morning and spends less time staying out drinking and/or partying, even if getting out of bed is still a struggle sometimes.

“My body works a lot better than I realized,” he said. “I went to a yoga class and showed up some of the regulars one time. But when I wake up, I still feel like a box of old computer parts.”

Not everyone’s schedule is the same, so it’s important to do what works best for you. Making concerted efforts to fit workouts in can certainly affect you in a variety of positive ways, though. For Shewski, her mood automatically improves when she works out as much as it does when she steps outside in the sunshine.

“I feel a sense of accomplishment when I complete my workout,” she said. “I love working out in the mornings because completing that workout inspires me to complete another task, which inspires another, and so forth and so on. I’m way more productive when I exercise, I’m happier, and my body feels better. I’m able to be a better mom, wife, and coach.”

Concrete, which is not the same thing as cement, is used more than any other material in the world—20 billion tons are put to use every year.

There are more than 7,000 languages spoken in the world, and about 43 percent of the global population is bilingual. In the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, almost 22 percent of Americans can speak two or more languages.

While Spanish is the most popular language to learn in the U.S., some individuals desire to speak other languages for various reasons. Houston-area resident Darla Hogaboom said she has always wanted to learn French and decided to pursue that interest when her husband needed to learn the language for work in West Africa.

“We decided to take it together, but then he got too busy traveling and wasn’t able to finish,” she said. “So, I finished alone. Then when we moved to the Middle East, I had time on my hands, and there was a big French community where I lived, so I joined the Franco-Omani school and picked it back up. I did a semester there, then COVID-19 hit, and I had to stop. Fast forward three years, and I find myself once again in Houston, and this past January, I made a promise to myself to see it through a little further. So, I joined the Alliance Français Houston and picked up where I left off. To further my progress, I have signed up and been accepted to the Institute de Français in Nice, France, and will take an immersion course this summer.”

Like Hogaboom, Dallas resident Elizabeth Cruz became fascinated with the French language because she had a trip to Paris planned, so she used the free app Duolingo to help her learn. However, she was unable to dedicate as much time as she had hoped to practice consistently.

“I didn’t commit to it,” she said. “I just wasn’t actively opening the app every day.”

Dallas-area resident Josh Odegard took three years of Spanish in high school but said he only worked the bare-minimum amount to pass the class. Years later, he didn’t think he remembered much from those days, but he said he recognized some words and phrases when he overheard some coworkers speaking Spanish, which led him to try to start learning it again and listen to an audio course while he was working.

“I only gave it 10 percent of my attention, so I would let one lesson play over and over all day until I knew every bit of it,” he said. “I thought it was fun for a while, but eventually I got bored.”

A couple of years ago, Odegard decided to pick up his Spanish learning again when he discovered Duolingo. He said he was dedicating at least 15 minutes every day and was learning much more, but after five months, the app made a major change, and he no longer enjoyed using it.

“I looked online for a fix, but hundreds of people were also complaining, and no one had a fix,” he said. “I didn’t get bored this time, but I just couldn’t stand the app, so I gave up.”

Over the years, Odegard tried to learn a few other languages, including Portuguese, Farsi, and Yiddish, but he said he didn’t really stick with any of those for very long, particularly because of the difficulty he experienced with pronunciation.

“There are words in other languages where your mouth and tongue move in ways that they don’t move while speaking any English words, so it took a lot of practice,” he said.

But Hogaboom believes that it’s OK not to speak the language perfectly and doesn’t think individuals should worry so much about sounding silly or incorrect.

“In my travels, I have found that Americans are mostly the ones to be hesitant to speak a foreign language for fear of sounding fake or wrong,” she said. “I think the accent is what is the most challenging, but we have to remember that when foreigners speak English, they don’t have an American accent. So, as long as the grammar is correct and you’re doing your best, it will always be appreciated.”

Regardless of what language an individual chooses to learn or how he or she learns it, there are certainly benefits doing so can bring—especially for those who enjoy venturing around the world—in terms of being able to communicate with a variety of people.

“I think it’s fun to know multiple languages,” Cruz said. “It’s helpful for travel, and I love to travel!”

As a fellow travel enthusiast, Hogaboom believes that being able to speak another language provides extra knowledge that can prove to be invaluable.

“Even if it doesn’t make you money or you don’t use it every day, it’s always beneficial to know more today than you did yesterday,” she said. “And you never know what tomorrow holds. You could find yourself in a situation in which it benefits you or someone else.”

WEEKLY PHOTO OP

Some NatNews dear readers celebrated significant accomplishments in the Texas Big Star Half Marathon on Saturday

Monday, April 15: Jackie Robinson Day; Boston Marathon; Tax Day
Tuesday, April 16: Free Rooftop Movie — Selena at Sundown at Granada
Wednesday, April 17: Stars vs. Blues at the American Airlines Center
Thursday, April 18: Cool Thursdays Concert Series — Simply Tina, Tribute to Tina Turner at the Dallas Arboretum; Dallasites101 Lipgloss-Making Class at MYX Blend Bar; Swiftie Soirée at Waterproof
Friday, April 19: Silent Disco at Klyde Warren Park
Saturday, April 20: WRRC Saturday run from Taco Joint; Spring Market at Grandscape; Dial Up the 90s Music Fest at Legacy Hall
Sunday, April 21: The Tortured Brunch Department — A Taylor Swift-Inspired Brunch at Legacy Hall