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.

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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! 

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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. 

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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. 

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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

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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.