One of the resolutions that you should try to embrace this year is the one where you stop feeling guilty for buying yourself things and start treating yourself instead. Treating yourself to new things isn't a bad thing to do. In fact, it’s recommended under the self-care umbrella. It can always be difficult to justify those random treats that you like to buy - especially when they’re at the cash register - but that doesn't mean that you should say no to them. 

Easing up on yourself and planning 2022 to be the year that you start putting yourself first is a smart thing to do. A part of that is going to be allowing yourself to buy things exclusively for one reason: because you want them. You do not need excuses, you do not need justifications and you do not need guilt to be any kind of reason why you want to buy something that’s just for you. From buying the best opal jewellery to choosing a new appliance for your hair care routine, you are allowed to just get something that makes you happy. You are allowed to buy something just because you want it. Here are five reasons that you should treat yourself - no guilt allowed.

Image Source: Pexels

1. You will feel so much better. Taking the time to treat yourself is so important for your personal wellbeing. Life is supposed to be full of the things that you enjoy doing and if that includes buying things for yourself, you’re on the right track. You can feel refreshed and energised simply by choosing something for you that doesn't involve anyone else.

2. Your mood will massively improve. When you choose to squeeze in treating yourself over treating other people, you’re going to lighten your mood, boost your energy and feel good on the inside. If you want to take a spa day and go and get a massage, go and get one. No guilt required when you’re literally improving your mental health!

3. You recharge your ability to give. How much of yourself can you give and give without giving back to yourself? The answer: not much! There’s only so much that you can give to others before you have to replenish yourself. When you treat yourself, you’re going to be able to give back to others in a way that makes sense. Your ‘me’ time is a gift not just for you, but for the people who love you!

4. It can be your motivation! Setting your own personal reward system is a smart thing to do when you want to feel like you have rewarded yourself. The light at the end of the tunnel is that you are going to be your own inspiration, and the treat you want the most is going to be the motivation you need!

5. You won’t burn out. When you have time to treat yourself, you’re going to prevent yourself from burning out. You can avoid any chance of illness and burnout when you treat yourself well!

 You’ll want your wedding to be as special as possible. But if you’re environmentally-minded, then you’ll also want to have as minimal an impact on the natural world as possible. The good news is that you don’t have to choose between one or the other. It’s more than possible to have a wedding that is memorable for all the right reasons and which also has a small carbon footprint. In this blog, we’re going to run through some of the best tips. Take them on board, and you’ll have a bona fide eco-friendly wedding! 

Pexels - CC0 Licence

Limit the Number of Guests

The more that you have at your wedding, the bigger the carbon footprint. While you might want to have three hundred people attending your big day, there’s a lot of value in keeping the number to a minimum. For one, as we said, it’ll be better for the environment. But you’ll also find that you save a lot of money and that you’re able to create a more intimate, cozy environment. We have the idea that big weddings are best, but that’s not always the case. 

Earth-Friendly Invites

It’s not just on the big itself when you should think about your impact on the environment. You should try to have an eco-wedding from the very beginning. For example, let’s think about your invites. The impact will be minimal if you’re only inviting a small number of people, but there are still ways to keep the environmental impact at a minimum. It’s all about the materials that you use. Recycled paper or upcycled wood and fabrics will be better for the environment than other materials. Alternatively, you could just send your invites electronically -- that’ll have more or less no carbon footprint whatsoever.

Sustainable Goods 

Now onto the big day. It’s a good idea to think about everything that you’ll need for your wedding day, and then see how you can do things in an eco-friendly way. There’s nearly always a way! Let’s take the main stars of the show, the rings and dresses, as an example. For your rings, you can look at ones that have been made with lab grown diamonds; they’re much more eco-friendly than diamonds that were mined from the earth. For your dress, you could look at ones that have been upcycled, which are second hand, or which have been made with the environment in mind. 

The Right Venue 

If you’re going to have an eco wedding, then you’ll need to choose the right place to get married. It’ll do little good if you work hard to minimize your impact, only to find that the venue doesn’t care about the environment! When you’re looking around places, be sure to ask about the green practices that they follow at the venue. If they can’t reply with anything, then it’ll probably be a good idea to look elsewhere. In this day and age, you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding an eco-friendly wedding venue, especially if you live in a cosmopolitan area. 

Pixabay - CC0 License

Trying to get someone to change their behavior may seem very difficult, especially when it comes to those big issues in life. If you push somebody to help themselves the problem can backfire. They will end up retreating into their behavior. So what can we do if we are trying to help someone when they don't want to be helped? 

Look at it from Their Perspective

Getting a better idea of their perspective can improve your ability to tune into what may help them to change. This means asking, listening, and not being judgemental. When it's something like an addiction it's important to remember there's a variety of treatments available. There is a guide to treatments for addictions on https://www.sunshinebehavioralhealth.com/texas/longview/, but you have to remember that if someone is not willing to change something, are you actually looking at it from their point of view? There could be a very good reason why they don't want to change a certain behavior or had it. Because it may be the one thing in their life that they feel is theirs, or it could help them with pain. It may even provide them with a sense of purpose. When you start to look at it from their perspective, you may be surprised what you will find. 

Reassure Them

If they are engaging in behaviors where they may feel ashamed, you will need to communicate and reassure them that you are not there to judge but are there to understand and to support them. This will give them that little bit of reassurance that you are on their side. Sometimes when we ask people to try and change their behavior the person being asked can take it as a slight on who they are. So if you ever want to help someone through a difficult time or they are indulging in behaviors that will be detrimental, you've got to make sure they don't feel ostracized. Additionally, you have to remember that forcing someone to change is not going to get the result that you want. The article on https://medium.com/illumination/stop-forcing-those-you-love-to-change/ provides some useful insights into this. Rather than providing any form of criticism or forcing them to change, you've got to remember that they should change in their own time. In the meantime what you need to do is to show you are with them and will not shame them any further for actually needing help. Because we have to remember that many people still don't like the idea of asking for help because they think it's a weakness. 

How Likely Are They Going to Change? 

People who do not look for help are not always against the idea of change, but you will have to realize that they may not be ready for it just yet. And this is where we have to assess their motivations to change. Taking the opportunities to explore with them what they need to give them the starting blocks to change can you understand what needs to be done. For example, many people have to be at their lowest ebb in order to realize that it's time to ask for help. And this is not an easy thing to witness; when someone doesn't want to be helped it's not necessarily that they don't want you to help them but they would rather help themselves, but in order for this to occur they have to hit a certain threshold. But they also may feel that admitting there is a problem could bring more shame. But this is where additional coping skills or outlets can be helpful. 

Show Them the Other Side of the Coin

When trying to help people to change you've got to encourage them to see what it would be like if they made alterations to a certain behavior or habit. Asking them to picture a life that is not necessarily better, but different, may help them to understand if they have a higher purpose or make them realize that there are people in their lives that truly care. When we are trying to help someone this is the very essence of telling them that we care. But when people are undergoing problems in life, they will feel they are on their own. As a result, it's very likely they don't feel loved, and sometimes it can be frustrating, but you have to remember you cannot for somebody to change their behavior. What you can do is stay away from moralizing or blaming. Focus on listening and being there for them in other ways that you can be there to support them to change for themselves.

 People are comfortable with routines. However, there is no denying the power of consistency in people’s lifestyles. Many attest that consistency helped their weight loss journey, while others are grateful for the benefits of staying consistent in their work that lay the foundation for a new business. 

Picture by 11417994 on Pexels

Nonetheless, an absence of change forces people to look inwards. They may start questioning themselves; what they do, why they do it, and how come they’ve followed this approach for many years. 

The search for true purpose starts with the process of questioning one’s lifestyle. The rest, much like everything in life, will require a special kind of attention. 

1) What Are Your Strengths? 

No one is on the same playing field. Take a personality quiz or purpose quiz. Their results might surprise you. A step to finding true purpose is first discovering what kind of person you are. 

Some people are more critical; others thrive in creative projects, while the rest may succeed with physical activities. One size doesn’t fit all. For this reason, the path to unlocking true purpose will be distinct for everyone. 

2) What Do You Enjoy?

Hey, you may not be good at expressing yourself, but you might enjoy communicating with others. 

When your strengths don’t align with what brings you joy, experimentation comes into play. Venture into the unknown. If you enjoy basketball but can’t dribble, then you need to practice. Once again, consistency is key here, even if this concept was why you looked for change. 

Ironically, to change one’s lifestyle to achieve a purpose, consistent habits are part of the formula. 

3) What Do You Want To Achieve?

Grab a pen or pencil and write down at least ten goals you can’t seem to get out of your head. Your dreams may involve improving your health, changing careers, starting a business, traveling, building better relationships, or

Picture by Sophkins on Pixabay

After writing the ten goals, think about them carefully. Evaluate how much time it will take to achieve them, their difficulty, and their level of importance. 

For example, say you wrote down “Learn how to draw,” “Speak another language,” and “Dress better.”

Learning how to draw may or may not be a critical goal to achieve. However, you must first think about how proficient you are at drawing. For some beginners, drawing is a skill that takes three to six months to learn. 

On the other hand, learning a language is a skill that takes an average of two years to understand. Meanwhile, dressing better may just demand you to search styles involving websites, flower girl’s dress outfits, and informative videos. 

Every goal has come with obstacles, and it is up to you to decide how to tackle them. 

 When your child transitions from baby to toddler and starts exploring your home on their own, a whole new level of parenting begins. You need eyes in the back of your head and at ground level to see what your interested child has in their sights.

Image credit

Baby proofing is vital to protect both babies and your home from the destruction little fingers and mouths can cause. After all, you need to keep your little one out of harm's way, and there are plenty of evident and hidden dangers around your house. 

But before you rush out to a retailer such as Foryourlittleone to buy babyproofing items, you need to identify which areas of your home need to be baby-proofed.

Get On Their Level

You need to get down on your hands and knees and see your home from your baby’s level. Take pictures, write lists, make notes and be as thorough as possible, so you know precisely what needs to be babyproofed. If they are starting to crawl and toddle, chances are more significant dangers can be safe now; you need to figure out what is within their grasp to make everywhere safe.

Cover It Up

These include electrical sockets, outlets, anything that can cause baby harm, and get it covered. Low opening windows, pet food bowls, low hanging decor or ornaments, or doors that can be opened from the bottom all need covers to keep little fingers out.

Lock It Up

While you are checking which cupboard doors can be opened from baby height, you need to identify which ones need locks on. This goes for front-loading laundry machines, refrigerators, supply cupboards, pantries, and so on. Use safety gates to block access and keep your baby safe.

Up High

Not high fives, but anything your baby can grab at and explore that could be dangerous needs to be moved up high out of reach: chemicals, pet food, small objects such as tealights or decorative stones, etc. Get them up high and out of the danger zone.

Secure It

If you have free-standing appliances or furniture that can be easily moved, secure it to the walls or close it off using safety gates. If an item of furniture, for example, isn't attached to the wall, the weight of your toddler pulling themselves up against it or knocking into it can cause it to topple on them. TVs and furniture that have tipped over have caused the death of 450 children since 2000. That is almost two deaths per month from unsecured items around the home. Eliminate this risk by securing it with a strap to a solid wall.

Alarms

Alarms can alert you to many incidents around the house. Video baby monitors allow you to get first-hand access to what your baby is doing. Still, alarms for carbon monoxide or smoke can help you avoid danger by quickly alternating you to a problem. You can never be too careful, especially with electrical equipment. Electrical appliances and items in the home were involved in the start of over 5,000 fires in the US alone in 2020. Working smoke alarms can save your life. Check them every month.

 As an adult, it’s important to be acute in making tough decisions. This can even go for the position that you may have at work as well. For any leader, there are going to be times where you have to be mentally tough. There may be situations where you need to be mentally sharp and make good decisions quickly. This doesn’t even need to be for work, this can even include your everyday life such as being a parent, caretaker, or any other role. It can be a little tough to be mentally strong because it means you’re having to adjust your emotions, how you think, and even your choices all around.  Just like with physical strength, it’s something that comes over time, as it’s being developed. Here are some tips for building up mental strength. 

Image credit 

Begin by exercising your mind

While your brain may be an organ, it still needs exercising just like your muscles. Growth and development are things that take time, and both just can’t be pushed out within a snap of a finger. It’s important to push yourself as this is going to be the way to build up mental strength. This type of strength is built up through the choices that are made each day. It takes daily talks to strengthen this endurance, just like with regular muscles.  

There’s nothing wrong with emotions

We’re all human, and we all have our own problems. Not every problem can be faced head-on, some problems just develop over time. It’s so important to recognize mental health, and it’s also important to have patience for it. Also, if this is something that is affecting you, then it may be best to look into some top mental health treatment centers. We can all be vulnerable and there isn’t anything wrong with that at all.

Stay positive

One way to look great and feel great would be to practice positivity. Sure, it’s important to stay realistic in certain situations, but it’s also very important to embrace positivity as well.

Stay mindful

Mindfulness is very important. It's a part of taking control of your focus as well as your intention.  If you want to stay resilient and be mentally strong, then you need to make time in your schedule to practice this. It’s important to have an accepting attitude, not judge, and to just stay curious when you’re being approached.

Be prepared to fight

Maybe not physically fight, but you should know and accept that there may be some storms. It’s important to take on these storms and be prepared to fight. This way, you’ll be able to come out of this storm stronger when the blue skies appear.

Stay grateful

Sometimes, in our busy lives, we just forget to practice gratitude. This has been very popular over the years because of how strong of an impact it truly has. There are plenty of journals, apps, and even books that assist with practicing gratitude. But in the end, it’s all about stopping, and appreciating all the big and small things that surround us. It’s important to be grateful and to not neglect what’s around us. This can truly transform your day. 

(Image credit)

Camping can be seen as something only people who love nature partake in or when you have young children as it is a cheaper alternative to going on holiday and staying in a hotel. Camping can be so much more than that though. Yes, one of the advantages is that you can spend more time in nature but that is a wonderful thing. Being in nature has proven to help reduce stress and anxiety and contributes to you feeling generally calmer overall. It gives you a chance to enjoy peace and quiet so you can enjoy the simplicity of nature. 

One of the other benefits of campings is that it is quite a physical exercise when you think about everything you would be doing. Putting up your tent and managing your shelter will be the first tiresome part as well as digging a hole for the toilet, collecting wood for fire and you may even be hunting your own food in the wilderness. That will take strength, stamina and patience to be able to hunt your own food. You will need to make sure you have the best equipment to aid you with it. So things like your firearm, a tactical flashlight and 18650 battery for tactical flashlights. As it is quite a physical activity camping you may find that it will also help you get into better shape

When you are camping you spend a lot more time outside, so you are soaking in that great Vitamin D. Vitamin D is good for your body and can do incredible things. It helps fight disease, it could contribute towards helping reduce the risk of getting multiple sclerosis, developing the flu as well as also decreasing your chance of developing heart disease. Research has also proven that Vitamin D can help to reduce depression. It showed that it could play an important part in regulating mood and helping to combat depression. People were tested with scientists who found that when someone with depression had Vitamin D supplements they had noticed an improvement in their mood and symptoms. 

If you struggle to get a good night's sleep, let’s face it, in the rush and stress of everyday life, lack of sleep is a common complaint these days. Camping can actually help increase the quality of sleep that you have. The most obvious one is that you are away from modern life, unplugged you might say. You won’t have a temptation to sit and binge Netflix all night when you can sit and admire the stars. So by staying away from screens more you are exposed to less of the ‘blue light’ that is emitted from electronic devices. This has been shown to interfere with restful sleep. You also are quite more in camping, you don’t have sounds of traffic, machines and people partying at all hours. 

There are so many more benefits to camping and being outside more, so if you are looking for a resolution for the new year. Then camping more should be one of them for sure. 

 Games are a source of entertainment for millions of people around the world. They provide an escape from reality and engage our competitive nature. There are countless benefits to playing games, both physically and mentally. Let's take a look!

Image (CC0 License)

You want to get fit and be healthy, right? This means you have probably started going to the

gym or doing some form of home workouts. You might have done a bit of research as well,

and somewhere along the way you've encountered talk about women lifting weights. 

Traditionally - and the emphasis is really on traditionally here - weightlifting is a male-dominated

sphere. It's something we associate with men rather than women. As such, there have been

lots of opinions around the idea of women lifting weights. In the past, these opinions were

taken as facts, and a lot of people have grown up with a specific view that women should

avoid lifting weights. Apparently, it's not good for your health, you will look like a man and

get too muscly, and so on and so forth. 

Well, you're about to learn that statements like these are simply myths without any evidence

to support them. Today, you will see some of the biggest myths about weightlifting for women,

and they'll all be debunked! As a result, you should see the truth about lifting weights and how

beneficial it can be for your overall health. 

Myth #1: Lifting weights will make you overly bulky

We have to start with the most overused myth of all. You have all seen workouts that are

designed 'for women', which usually means they contain either no weights or very light

ones. This is because there's a misconception that women will become very muscular

and overly bulky if they lift heavy weights. 

This simply is not true at all. 

Why?

Well, it all comes down to testosterone. Women simply do not produce anywhere near as

much of this hormone as men do. To put this into context, the average male testosterone levels range between 280 and 1,1000 nanograms per deciliter. The average female levels are

between 15 and 70 ng/dL. So, you can see there's a huge difference in how much testosterone

is produced. This is crucial as this hormone is a growth factor that's responsible for helping your

muscles grow bigger and bulkier.

Instead, when women lift weights, they will grow muscle mass, but it won't be substantial. You

can expect to see harder and more defined muscles, but nothing compared to the bulkiness of

a man. In fact, you'd need to take something like the T-booster supplements seen on steelsupplements.com to get anywhere near the testosterone levels required to become overly bulky. So, don't let the

thought of becoming big and muscular put you off weightlifting; it isn't going to happen, you will just

be more toned and defined!

Myth #2: Lifting weights is dangerous for women

If you're not shaking your head in disappointment/disbelief at this myth, then you should be! In a way,

the mere suggestion of lifting weights being dangerous for women is incredibly sexist. Why on earth

would it be safe for men but not safe for women? Where's the logic behind this statement?!

Needless to say, this is not true in the slightest. 

There is the same risk of injury for men as there is for women. If you train correctly and use the

proper form when lifting, you should be fine. Now, is it dangerous for women to try lifting the same

weights as a man? Sometimes, yes - but it depends on the two people involved. Generally, men

are stronger than women based on genetics. So, it is going to be harder and therefore more

dangerous for women to try and replicate a lift that a man has just done. 

Still, to claim that lifting weights is dangerous for women is just not true. Perhaps things got

lost in translation along the way, but there is no reason to be scared about lifting weights or

going heavy. Listen to your body and stay within your limits to reduce the risk of injuries. 

Myth #3: Lifting weights is bad if you want to lose fat

Another classic lift that stems from people just not really knowing what they're talking about.

Sorry if that sounds harsh, but it's the reality of the health & fitness world - particularly in the past. 

You see, the opposite is actually true; lifting weights is excellent if you want to lose fat!

This myth stems from people misreading the scales after a period of weight training. If you step

on the scales after lifting weights for a month or two, there is a decent chance that your weight

will increase. Now, people look at this and instantly make the assumption that lifting weight makes

them gain weight. Well...that's technically true, but there's a huge caveat to consider. 

Bodyweight is a composition of so many things; bones, fluids, organs, fat, and muscle. Interestingly,

muscle weighs more than fat. So, if you lift weights and build muscle, your body weight could go up

because you're adding more muscle. However, your body fat percentage is likely to go down.

This is because muscle takes more energy to burn than fat, so, the more muscle there is on your

In short, your overall weight could increase, but your body fat percentage will go down. Provided you follow a good diet, you can definitely lift weights and lose fat, becoming more slimmed down and toned. 

Myth #4: Women should only use light weights

This kind of blends in with the myths about weightlifting making you bulky and being dangerous.

Nevertheless, it deserves its own spotlight as it is a very silly myth indeed. 

If you want to see progress, you need to push your body. The easiest way of doing this is by increasing

the weights that you lift. 

Too many women will pick up the lightest weights and do a set of reps with them. If you struggle to

reach your rep target with these weights, they are heavy enough for you. But, what tends to happen

is you get 10 reps out without breaking a sweat and keep using this weight. If that happens, you're

not really training your body to its full potential, and you won't see the benefits of lifting weights. 

A good rule of thumb is to pick a weight that makes you struggle to get the last reps out if you're

going for 10-12 per set. Once it becomes easy to reach these targets, you increase to the next

weight, and so on. It's called progressive overload and it helps you get toned and defined muscles. 

Why should women lift weights?

You've seen the myths, so now it's time to give a little breakdown as to why women should lift weights:

• You will improve your muscle tone, which helps you look more defined and boosts your confidence.

• It will help you burn fat without needing to do lots of boring cardio. 

• It will improve your overall strength, which helps you perform regular activities with more ease. Things like carrying the shopping will soon feel so much easier for your body to do. 

• It will improve joint stability, reducing the risk of injuries and pain when you're older. 

Put simply, there are no reasons for women not to lift weights. If men can do it, why can't we?

You have definitely heard of all the myths above many times before, so hopefully this provides

more clarity on the topic. As an overall conclusion, lifting weights is good for your health and can

make you a fitter person with more confidence.