How to overcome lifes most stressful changes

How to Overcome Life’s Most Stressful Changes

Below are the accepted top three stressful occurrences and events in life, that most of you out there are likely to experience at least once, and suggestions on how to tackle them. These times can be life-changing. The best way to deal with these is to accept that they are happening and to take ownership of them. You are in control of your destiny, and yes, these are stressful events, but you can overcome them with a little planning and mindfulness. Reading this article is a great place to start.

It is important to anticipate this stress, as much as is possible, and to deal with it, or in the worst cases, such stress can become debilitating.

Death of a Loved One

The first point to make is that the death of a loved one is a tragic occurrence and it will affect different people in different ways. It will essentially also depend specifically upon the context of such a passing and whether it was expected after a long chronic illness or not. Regardless of this, it is likely to be an incredibly stressful period in your life. Grief is something that needs to be worked through. Yes, it sounds cliched, but it is indeed a process. Talk to family and friends and if grief is long-lasting, then you need to seek professional advice in the form of some form of grief counseling. This is also likely covered by Medicare, so do your research and find the right care in your time of need.

Divorce

If you can see it coming, you may have time to plan it through. If it’s a sudden shock, then it may be even more stressful. The best thing to do is to ensure that you have appropriate professional advice and legal support like Brown Dahan so that you understand the process and your family is protected. Once the process is underway make sure that you are not isolated; it’s a common occurrence for those going through a divorce to lose contact with friends and family as the other partner may still be in touch with these friends, making it uncomfortable. There are support groups out there - join one and feel free to talk it through, and vent.

Moving to a New House

This must be planned through if it can be. Boxes, packing, taping, protecting, and transporting your prized possessions must be done in a manner that is safe and cost-effective. If you are doing a self-move, make sure you hire the appropriately sized vehicle and test drive it to see if it will get into any narrow entrances and gates to your new home. If you’re hiring, make sure you go for removals with pedigree - check reviews online and ensure that your possessions are both safe and insured.

If you look at any of these so-called most stressful events in your life in a more positive light, each one of them can be dealt with in a way that will serve to reduce stress. You can overcome even the most stressful of events with a little mindfulness and the right external support and advice.

Is It Worth Paying For Cloud Storage On Your Phone?

 Buying a phone isn’t as simple as it used to be. A few years back, you bought a phone and that was it, but these days, there are more options than ever when it comes to storage and a lot of people have trouble deciding how much storage they need. The ones with the most storage are naturally more expensive, but if you watch a lot of movies or download music on your phone, you probably need the model with the most built-in storage, right? 

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Actually, there is another option. Most companies offer a cloud storage service for an extra charge. You will get some storage for free, but if you want to use more, you have to pay a monthly or yearly fee. The prices are not unreasonable (99 cents per month for 50GB) but a lot of people wonder whether it’s really worth it or not. This article will break down some of the benefits of paying for cloud storage on your phone to help you decide whether it’s right for you. 

You Get More Space 

The most obvious benefit is that you have more space to store files. If you take a few photos and use a couple of social media apps on your phone, you probably don’t need to pay for cloud storage. But phones are multimedia devices capable of listening to music, watching movies, and playing games. If you use your phone for all of that stuff, you may need to think about paying for cloud storage. 

A high definition movie, for example, could take up between 1GB and 3GB. If you’re a movie buff and you download at least a couple of movies a week, you’ll soon max out the built-in storage on your phone. If you want to keep your library without deleting anything, you’re going to some extra storage. The same is true if you shoot a lot of videos or download a lot of music on your phone. 

You Can Back Everything Up

Backing up your data is so important because, if your phone gets lost or stolen or you break it, you could lose a lot of stuff. Some of that might be sensitive personal information but you also need to consider the photos and videos you have on there. If you take a lot of family photos, they have great sentimental value and it would be such a shame if you lost them all. 

Having a cloud storage account that automatically backs up your files will stop that from happening, so even if your phone is damaged or lost, all of your files are still there, ready for you to recover them. However, it’s worth remembering that many phone insurance plans also have a backup function included with them. So, if you are already planning to buy insurance for your phone and your storage needs aren’t that great, it may not be worth paying for cloud storage. If you are only buying it for the backup benefits, you are essentially paying for the same things twice. On the other hand, if you need extra space, the backup is just an added benefit.   

Files Are Accessible On Multiple Devices  

Uploading to the cloud usually means that you can access your files on multiple devices, especially if you are an Apple user. You can upload photos to iCloud from your phone, laptop, or iPad (visit https://backlightblog.com/how-to-upload-photos-to-icloud-from-your-iphone-mac-or-pc for a guide on how to do this) and they will appear across all three devices. That means no more messing around sending files back and forth via email. 

Having your files accessible across all of your devices is useful for a lot of reasons. If you want to keep your photos organized instead of having them in a huge list on your phone, you can start putting them in folders as soon as they are automatically uploaded to your computer. You can use your note apps on your phone while you are out and about and then pick up where you left off on the computer when you get home. Once everything is seamlessly integrated, you will find that you get a lot more out of your devices. 

It’s Easier When You Switch Phones 

Getting a new phone is exciting but it can be a bit of a pain. On your old phone, you had all of your apps, your photos, and your numbers stored and arranged just how you like them. Now that you’ve got a new phone you have to back all of that stuff up and then restore it to your new phone, then spend time setting it up in the same way that you had it organized before. This isn’t the end of the world if you only use 3 apps and you don’t really like taking photos. But if you shoot hours of video and download music and movies, it takes ages to restore everything. However, when you have cloud storage, it’s quick and easy to set your new phone at the click of a button. 

It’s Often Cheaper Than The Alternatives

People are put off by the added cost but when you consider the alternatives, cloud storage is often cheaper. The price of phones varies a lot depending on the amount of storage space they have. A 16GB iPhone 12, for example, costs you $799 to buy outright, but that price jumps to $949 if you want 256GB of storage. Check out https://www.techradar.com/uk/reviews/iphone-12 for more detailed information about how storage affects the price. If you’re paying a monthly contract for your phone, your payments will be significantly higher if you want the version with more storage too. When you consider that it’s only $2.99 a month for 200GB of cloud storage, you can see that it’s often the cheaper option. 

You may decide to buy an external hard drive instead of cloud storage. Although it’s only a one-off cost, it will be significantly more expensive and you also run the risk of it breaking. 

Although it seems like the added cost might not be worth it, when you consider the benefits, most people would be better off buying cloud storage for their phones.

A New Diet Path Could Be The Key To Getting Your Digestive Health On Track

 A Few Diet Tweaks Could Be Key to Better Digestive Health

How can we help maintain our guts in top condition? The answer is simple: tweak our diets. Though wholesale changes to diets are difficult to implement and even harder to stick to, a few switches can reap many benefits. There are plenty of foods that can irritate our stomachs, including caffeine, alcohol, and spicy foods. Read on to find out how to hack your diet for optimal gut health. 

What can I have?

There is much dispute over cocoa, wine, coffee, and tea. Is it bad, or good? What we do know is that dozens of studies have shown that none of these are toxic, per se, in small amounts, however, they can cause issues for some people. Self-awareness is key in this regard. 

So it may be time to start looking deeper into how you react to different foods. Are you intolerant to something? Do you have an allergy? Either of these can cause a range of symptoms, some of which may be hard to pin down. 

If you are unsure, you should talk to your doctor about any symptoms you are experiencing. You can also look to getting a test from the likes of Intolerance Lab to see if you have any intolerances. Knowledge is power after all. If you have a mild intolerance, cutting out the culprit could make you feel a lot brighter and resolve any niggling gut issues.

Helping yourself

It is widely known that the wider the variety of fruits and vegetables you eat, the better for your digestive system and overall health. With vegetables, in particular, there is no dispute: they are low in calories and are packed full of vitamins and minerals. The more you eat of them, the lower your risk of many hundreds of illnesses. A diet high in a wide range of vegetables can even help stave off winter bugs, which is brilliant news. 

When it comes to vegetables, it's not only quantity that counts, but diversity. A good guide is to eat the rainbow, including vegetables from across the color spectrum: green (broccoli), yellow (pepper), purple (aubergine), red (radish), and orange (carrot).

You should try to eat at least five a day, and if possible, look to include 16 different types of vegetables every week (including green leaves and green sprouts). This may seem like a lot, but all it takes is a few dishes rich in vegetables, such as vegetable lasagna and a salad here or there. 

This will certainly contribute to a better gut because vegetables are full of our friend fibre. A lack of dietary fiber is often the reason why some of us occasionally suffer from constipation. 

Planning meals for the week ahead is a good way to keep track of what you're consuming and making sure you eat a wide variety of veg. An added benefit is that it makes grocery shopping a bit easier, and can help you control your weekly food budget.

Property Investing In The Professional Sector

When you are searching for an investment opportunity, in the back of your mind you always hope that it will be somewhat of a niche. This way you know that you will be able to make a decent profit as you won't have to deal with such a high volume of competition. That being said, it's where you invest, how you do so, and for how long that matters the most. If you want to invest in somewhere niche and not have it be such a risky move that may possibly go belly up quickly or lay dormant for such a long time, then you should seek to invest in the professional property sector. This sector is for the professionals of the world, seeking condos, penthouses, and apartments in various cities and towns around the world. But why this sector and not any other?

   

 Apartments on the rise? 

Take a look at the landscape in the high-rise building industry. So many companies are forcing their employees to only work from home. It seems like this will be the norm in the future and we think that it's going to throw the high-rise industry into chaos. It will eventually mean that we will need to convert office space into living quarters. You can expect to see high-rise buildings being used for this purpose in the next decade. So, it's going to mean that a lot of competitive pricing will need to be implemented in the current and future apartment sector so professionals can be given more space to live and work in major cities. 

Some governments know already 

There is various chatter among the ruling classes that something has to be done about this. Singapore for example has been running a hdb grant scheme that allows for up to $80,000 in a grant for those that are earning from $16,000 a year. This means that workers that have a low income can become homeowners or at least, condo owners in the city-state. With more and more people owning or renting a home or apartment, it means that the housing industry will need to create new homes. Well, if high-rise buildings specifically for offices can be converted, this solves the problem. As you can imagine, this means more housing for the current residents of Singapore but then, more space for foreign professionals coming into the country. It's a remarkably far-sighted plan which has done wonders for the property market in Singapore. Now is the time to invest and take this grant if you are eligible. Use the money to convert office space into living space.

   

Where to invest? 

Ah, this is the golden question, isn’t it!? Where to go. Well, it seems like the city with the most high-rises shall become the hotbed of activity in the next decade. As ever, it's going to be in Manhattan, New York City. however, places in London will also become subject to the same cultural shift. We suggest that you read this article about the change in high-rise building culture and physical designs regarding interiors. We recommend that you consider your options mainly in societies that have high populations and also, smaller cities that have a high percentage of foreign talent like Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, and Toronto.

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What to look for

You have to keep your pulse on the markets, which includes the property industry. You should read up on articles that show you the shifting sands in the property industry, especially in cities with high-rise buildings. So, read articles in Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Wall Street Journal. However, you can also work with investment firms and property development companies that are looking for investors or clients to work with. It's quite common for investors to give their money to investment firms that will be investing in properties undergoing conversions. 

However, you should work with companies that have consistently been investing in apartment buildings such as Berkeley Group. They will be buying up properties that are failing. So office buildings will, literally, be switching ownership in the next year or so, and this provides the gap you need to start investing. Rather than inviting yourself, you can work with a professional company that does this for a living.

Office buildings might become a thing of the past, or perhaps, a far less frequent type of building in the world. Now is the time to start investing in condos and apartment buildings that are rapidly altering the property landscape.

Take These 7 Steps to Boost Your Confidence and Self-esteem

 Low confidence and self-esteem pose negative effects on all aspects of your life; health-wise, relationships, and work. Lack of self-confidence and esteem instills fear that holds you back from pursuing your dreams and living wholly.

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Boosting your self-esteem and confidence opens you up to a whole new world of opportunities, psychological well-being, and improved relationships. Here’s how you can achieve that:

1. Accept Yourself and Avoid Comparing Yourself to Others

 Comparing yourself to others results in self-doubt and insecurities that translate to low self-esteem and confidence. Comparison comes in many forms; looks, income, and other individual differences.

 Comparing yourself to others results in feelings of envy, and the more you experience them, the worse you feel about yourself.  The first step to boosting self-confidence and esteem is accepting yourself and where you are in life. Focus on your skills, attributes, achievements, and grow from there. Remember you're unique, and so is your race.

                 2.  Take Proper Care of Your Body

Caring for oneself mentally, physically, and emotionally determines how you present yourself, your performance, and your confidence levels. To care for your body, here are some practices that will boost your self-esteem:

Take care of your physical outlook: This is regarding how you present yourself to the world. Wear clothes and shoes that you're comfortable in, and for the right occasions. This way, you eliminate self-doubt in your looks and radiate with confidence. 

Check your health regularly: Poor health can take away from your performance at work, in your relationships, and life in general. It leaves you feeling less confident in yourself. You can prevent this by having mental and physical checkups. Get a diagnosis and prescription for your condition, or take Simply CBD oil.

Exercise and eat right: Fueling your body with a nutritious diet and exercise leaves you feeling energetic, healthy, and strong, which results in good feelings about yourself. It also contributes to healthy sleep hygiene that results in better performance and positive traits.

                 3.  Be Compassionate to Yourself

Life is full of challenges, and this requires that you practice more compassion with yourself. When you make mistakes, experience setbacks, or fail in any aspect of life, remember to treat yourself kindly. Nothing exists without imperfections, and once you realize you can do better, it boosts your self-esteem and confidence. Be your first friend and cut yourself some slack. In the end, everything will fall into place. 

                4.  Focus on Making Change Where you can

To be the best version of yourself and boost your self-esteem, you must embrace change. Establish those areas in your life that make you unhappy and work towards changing them. Read self-help books or seek professional help where necessary. 

Write down areas in your life that need change and segment them; those you can and can’t control. For things that you can’t change, learn how to accept and live with them. 

                5.  Engage in Activities that make you Happy

Spend time engaging in activities that make you happy. After work, practice your hobby, meditate, take a class in an area of your interest, go out, or watch a movie. Ensure that you have time for fun activities daily to boost positive thoughts and ultimately, your confidence. Be responsible in your ways of having fun to ensure you protect your reputation, especially around workmates. 

                6.  Set Goals and Celebrate Wins

Life can be stressful when you’re feeling stuck, resulting in low self-esteem. Set measurable goals that you can achieve daily to help you see that you're making progress. Goals don't always have to be financial; you can set goals to clean up, visit a friend, or go shopping. Have long-term goals as well, and ensure that your short-term goals contribute to their achievement.

When you achieve all your goals for the day, no matter how small they are, celebrate. Reward yourself and note it down on your gratitude journal. This way, you have more confidence in yourself to do more because you have the motivation. 

                7.  Be Helpful 

Make a point of being helpful to those around you. It could be at work, in the parking lot, mall, or at home. When you find someone experiencing challenges and you have the ability and will to help, do so. You will find that making someone’s day better will leave you feeling good and confident about yourself. 

                8.  Bottom Line

To achieve what you want in life, you need to have self-esteem and be confident. They impact our health, relationships, and performance at work. Embrace every opportunity and live happily without fear and self-doubt by boosting your self-esteem and confidence.

Watch your health, set goals, celebrate wins, and make the changes that you can. Be helpful to others, engage in activities that make you happy, practice being compassionate with yourself, and avoid comparison to others.

Creative ways for online businesses to save money

Starting a business can be very expensive! Overheads can be huge and, in the early days, income can vary greatly. Increasing sales is one way to boost profits, but so is saving money. 

Luckily, there are lots of ways you can reduce these costs and create a financially healthy business without compromising on quality or your customer’s experience. 

Here are some simple ways to save money when running an online business: 

1. Use a website builder

Your website is probably the most important aspect of an online business. It’s where your customers and clients will go to check your credentials, and to browse your catalog. 

Because of this, it’s essential to make sure your website is professional, attractive, and easy to use. However, web design services can often be costly. 

If you want to save money, a great way to do it is to build your own website or online store. This is much cheaper than hiring a developer, and tools like Squarespace make it really simple. 

Or, if your business is selling products, building an e-commerce store with a platform like Shopify is a great option as it provides lots of solutions for online businesses. 

2. Avoid office space costs 

Thanks to technology, so many online businesses can now be run remotely. This saves loads of money without it affecting the quality of the business operations. 

If you do need office space, you can still save money by sharing with another business, using an office part-time, or converting a space in your home into an office space. 

3. Hire contractors and freelancers 

Another major cost for businesses is paying staff. Full-time employees are a huge expense, which isn’t ideal for smaller online businesses. 

Using freelancers or independent contractors can be a big money saver. You can avoid onboarding and training costs as they will already be experienced in their field. 

Additionally, you only need to pay contractors for tasks that need doing. When hiring employees, you need to pay them regardless of how busy you are. 

4. Take advantage of automation

Time is money! Wasting time on simple or repetitive processes means you will probably end up spending more than you need to. 

Although there are a lot of business tasks that do need to be carried out manually, you can avoid paying someone (or spending time yourself) on some of them. 

Automation can be used for basic tasks, such as social media posts, proofreading, computer backups, data entry, and email marketing. 

Not only will these tasks be completed to a high level of accuracy, doing this also frees up time. This time can be used to deal with more challenging parts of running a business. 

5. Utilize free online tools 

Although paying freelancers and using automation do work well, there are still lots of tasks you can complete yourself without spending too much time or money on them. 

There are plenty of online tools available, such as: 

Build your own logos using LogoCreator.io

Create your own graphic design work using Adobe Illustrator

Make infographics using Piktochart 

ColorStory can be used to edit photos 

Create your own artistic text using Wordswag

Send professional email marketing campaigns using WordChimp

Manage your business accounts using Quickbooks

These are just a few examples, and there are many more available! 

If you want to maximize your business success and get the most out of your budget, it’s important to consider costs, deadlines, and your own skills. 

There will, of course, be occasions when you will need to pay a professional to do your work. But, if you’re on a budget, using these tools is a great alternative to save money! 

Post provided courtesy of Tymon Walker.

How to Make Easter Special for Your Kids

In addition to Christmas and Halloween, Easter is a favorite holiday for adults and children alike. It is not only a hugely important date in the Christian calendar, and for lots of people, it marks the beginning of spring and a celebration of new life. After several months of winter, the milder weather and longer days make everything seem brighter. Of course, for children, Easter is also a time for chocolatey treats, but it can also be a time of great fun. This guide includes some ideas to help you make Easter even more special for your kids this year.

Get crafting

Easter provides wonderful inspiration for crafting projects, and there are plenty of ways to get stuck in, from creating handmade Easter cards and decorations to decorating eggshells. Stock up on paint, glue, glitter, crayons, stickers, and gems and let their imagination run wild. Click here for Easter craft ideas for kids.

Personalize their egg hunt

The egg hunt is often the highlight of the Easter holiday for children, but you may be able to take the fun even further this year. A great idea is to have more than one hunt. When the kids wake up in the morning, tell them that you (or the Easter bunny) have hidden a personalised Easter box somewhere in the house or garden and give them a series of clues to help them find it. When they have found their own Easter box, you can set up the next hunt for chocolate eggs. Of course, you do not necessarily have to make the hunt all about chocolate – why not hide some new toys too?

Make it fair

If you have more than one child taking part in the hunt, you might want to take steps to ensure that the treats are distributed evenly. When one child is older and faster, knows the area better, or is simply more competitive, you may find that they end up with more than their fair share. Instead, consider color-coding the eggs, labeling the toys, and telling the kids they are only allowed to hunt for their own. This is also a good tactic if the kids are of different ages, as you can choose age-appropriate hiding spaces. Of course, if you want to retain some of the competition, you could hide one special egg, representing a special prize for the child who finds it. 

Create a trail of Easter bunny prints

Younger children who still believe in the magic of the Easter bunny will love waking up to find Easter bunny footprints around the house or outside. You can do this easily using some powdered sugar or flour and a template. 

Relax your candy policy…but not too much

One of the best parts of Easter is the mountains of chocolate and sweet treats, and once a year, it does no harm to let your children indulge themselves, so try not to be too strict about their diet for the day. On the other hand, tummy aches are no fun for anyone, so keep an eye on how much they are munching their way through and consider setting some boundaries or rules. Finally, make sure everyone gives their teeth an extra good clean before bed.

5 Money-Saving Tips

There is always at least one good reason to put away some savings, whether it’s for a holiday, a new car, or just as a ‘rainy day’ fund to help you out in emergencies. Most people do manage to put away savings each month, but this isn’t always easy to do. Between paying for rent, bills, food, and other general living expenses, it’s not uncommon to find yourself with depleted funds by the end of the month as you wait for your next paycheck. If you have been struggling to save and want to change that, here are a few useful tips that might help you achieve this:

1. Buy Stores Own Brand

How much do you spend on your grocery shopping each week? You might find that you can reduce your spending by choosing to purchase the store's own-brand products rather than bigger, flashier brands they stock. These are usually much cheaper than big name brands and could end up saving you a lot each month on shopping for the basics like food, cleaning products, toiletries, and so on. 

2. Use Discount Codes

As well as choosing to buy cheaper products, take the time to search for discount codes and vouchers online. This way, you can still treat yourself to the bigger brands you love, but without the higher cost. You could also use them to save even more on your grocery shopping or when you’re buying the necessities for your home as well. Some discount codes providers can even offer you the opportunity to win real money, so you can get a cash bonus while you save! 

3. Keep Track of Your Spending

Another good way to make sure you’re managing your finances better is to keep track of your spending. It’s easy to purchase items without thinking about it all adding up, especially if the things you’re buying aren’t expensive individually. However, even a few dollars here and there can quickly add up and make a big dent in your monthly budget. Make a note of your purchases by going through your previous bank statements and see where you can make some cutbacks. 

4. Keep Your Savings Separate 

If you don’t already have a dedicated savings account, you should get one as soon as possible. Keeping your savings separate from your current account will make keeping track of your spending much easier and will help you avoid accidentally spending the money you wanted to save. You should double-check what kind of interest rates are available with your bank's saving account options to make the most out of your money.

5. Set Goals

Finally, if you want to make sure you’re staying on track when it comes to saving money, set yourself realistic goals to work towards. You need to work out your monthly expenses and see how much you have leftover from your paycheck after you have deducted them. Then decide how much of that leftover money you want/can afford to put into savings so that you don’t end up dipping into them at the end of each month to make ends meet. If you are saving for something in particular, give yourself a time frame for when you need to have a certain amount of money saved, as this will help to keep you motivated as well.

Saving money isn’t always easy, but it’s important to have something set aside in case you need it in the future. Use these five simple tips to help you to get started.