a cooking pot and twisted tales
Thoughts and Tales…A Lifestyle Blog with a Zing.
Helena loves chasing rainbows even when everyone thinks that she’s cuckoo.
They remind her of her dad and the stories that he shared with her throughout his life.
He was particularly fond of rainbows and his last words to her before he passed were ‘anytime you see a rainbow, I am somewhere there riding it.’
Written in response to the FFAW photo prompt above. Thank you, Mark, for the photo and PJ for hosting.
It takes standing in the light to see one’s shadow, but even when in the dark it’s right there with you, keeping you company and urging you to step out of the darkness and into the light.
Guess which shadow is mine 😉
Mundane Monday challenge is created to find beauty in everything.
Humans, as a whole, tend to be a rather skeptical species. In some ways, that’s beneficial; our ancestors who were sceptical about being able to survive a fall off a rock, for example, did humanity a huge favour.
In other ways, our skepticism can cause real and genuine harm to the way we live our lives in the modern age. We demand proof of everything, which is definitely beneficial to our survival, but also rather limits us.
One only needs to mention anything that sounds remotely “New Age-y” to a certain section of society, and they will recoil in horror, and immediately insist they would never try that. Of course, this helps to protect against true quack therapies, but it also means they cut themselves off from practices and treatments that offer a genuine benefit to their physical and mental well-being.
Below are three such options that are dismissed, even scorned, as nonsense – but that, in actuality, could greatly improve your experience of life.
Meditation is often derided; “it’s just sitting doing nothing!” the critics will cry, insisting that any improvements are circumstantial, insisting that meditation is a waste of time and energy.
The reality is very different. We know, because it’s been tested, that meditation has a seriously positive impact on the human brain. This isn’t quackery; these conclusions have been reached via fMRI brain imaging, showing the literal physical benefits of meditation.
If you suffer from stress, anxiety, or just want a little more time to relax, then meditation is a wonderful option to pursue.
You don’t have to look too hard for counselling to be dismissed by critics. These critics argue that emotions just have to be pushed to one side, rather than wallowing in our feelings with counselling– this is the despite the fact that “pushing feelings to one side” is not considered to be effective emotional control.
Counselling has been shown, time after time, to be hugely beneficial for human mental health. It helps to ease problems, come to conclusions about your behaviour, and focus yourself on the direction you ultimately want to travel. The likes of Sunset Community Counseling can help to ensure you live the best life possible by providing the emotional outlet we all need.
Counselling is beneficial for your mental health and your emotional well-being, and the positive effects can last for years.
Acupuncture sounds like a stereotypical quack remedy, but it’s not. There is scientific support for the efficacy of acupuncture, especially when handling long-term chronic pain conditions.
If you say this to a skeptic, they will say that it’s “just a placebo”. However, isn’t an improvement — even one due to the placebo effect — still a benefit? Anything that lessens pain or eases anxiety is beneficial, surely?
Acupuncture is a useful tool that is worth considering for physical, mental, and emotional health.
Hopefully, the above will allow you to embrace the possibilities and give you the tools you need to enjoy your life to the fullest.
I think if you manage to live life without feeling any stress, then you’re a superhuman and should be showered with medals and awards. It’s near enough impossible not to be overcome by stress in the modern world. There’s always something to worry about, something to make you anxious at all times. Your stress can build for months, even years, on end before you eventually just crack and it all becomes too much for you.
How can you deal with all the stress in your life before it takes its toll and pushes you towards an imminent breakdown? It’s tough, but you’ll be glad to know some ideas can help you lower your stress levels and cope with life before it gets too much for you. Here are some ideas I think you’ll benefit from.
Everyone has a happy place. It’s that place where they just feel more relaxed and happy than usual. For some people, their happy place is lying in bed listening to music. For others, it’s spending time with their children or going outside to exercise. We’ve all got that place where we feel comfortable with life. It’s crucial that you find your happy place and retreat to it as often as you can. It gives you a break from the stressors of life and lets you feel happy for periods every day. Even a brief stint in your happy place can clear your thoughts and help you live a more peaceful life.
The mere thought of therapy gets some people recoiling and puts them on the defensive foot. I think there’s this misconception that therapy is for people with severe mental problems or something. But, if you’re stressed, it can do wonders for you and your mind. There are many different ways you can go to therapy, as it shows on this site, you can have group sessions as part of a partial hospitalization program. Or, you can go to a specific therapist on your own and talk to them. Either way, speaking about your feelings and getting advice is one of the best ways you can relieve stress.
Possibly the worst thing you can do when stressed is bottle up your emotions. So many people do this to try and hide the way they’re feeling. Young men are particularly guilty of this, but it applies to us women too. The more you bottle things up, the bigger the emotional explosion will be when you have a breakdown. Instead, don’t be afraid to let your emotions go. If you feel like crying, have a good cry and let it all out. If you’re angry, then let your anger out on a punching bag or pillow. Just don’t keep everything bottled up, it will do more harm than good.
I truly hope that the advice here will help anyone that’s feeling a bit down and stressed. By actively trying to deal with your stress, you’ll go a long way to avoiding a big emotional and mental breakdown.
For those who may be unable to make out the inscription on the photo:
Greetings from Koobi Fiora/Lake Rudolf April 1965
The first few months after you set up your business are the most crucial ones in your whole time as a business owner. It is the time you will figure out what it really means to be the owner of a business, and you will know whether or not you have the financial and mental strength to run it. If you want to make sure that your first few months go smoothly, here are some of the things you will need to think about.
If you are starting your business alone, then the leader will be you, however, if you are coming together with a group of people in order to run a business, someone is going to have to be the leader. Although it is nice to think you are all equal and have the right to make the decisions, within the business there always needs to be a clear leader if you are to succeed. If you love being in business but aren’t great on the leadership side of things, leave that to someone else to do instead. You can still be the owner without being the leader.
As a new business owner, you will likely be very optimistic and believe in the magic of business from the off. However, it is important not to stray from the truth and make sure that you keep your head firmly on your shoulders. It is crucial that you project your cash flow at least six months into the future in order to understand where your company will be REALISTICALLY in six months time. A small profit is not enough to keep you in business, so remember that. You can also benefit from looking at the best small business credit card companies in order to give you a buffer in that first few months once you know that you can afford to keep up the payments. Always make sure you have a buffer to fall back on should you have a slightly less profitable month.
When you begin in business you need to bear in mind that you are not an expert. Just because you have built something for yourself does not mean you should be giving lectures on business in colleges around the country. It is incredibly important to know that you don’t know everything and to be willing to learn new skills every single day. If you are not great at a certain aspect of the business, simply get someone in who is experienced. Business is a huge learning curve, and you need to be thick-skinned to deal with the tension it will put on your mind.
You might be the owner of a company but that doesn’t mean you should be the leader. As we discussed above, you need to play on your professional experiences and skills to find your role in the business. It might mean employing someone to be the leader, someone to cover marketing and someone to cover sales whilst you handle the finance. Make sure you play to your strengths.
in a nutshell…
Live your life, live your life loud, live your life happy!
Never say that someone held you back from becoming who you want to be. They can only try to hinder your steps ‘cos the only person you become is the person that you choose to be.
♦
I’ve missed sharing mundane Monday photos and jumping back into it…with enough gusto I hope.
In our materialistic society, it is ever more difficult to resist the lure of stuff. We want our houses to be beautiful and filled with beautiful things; we want to go on holidays so that we can upload snaps to Instagram and show off our worldliness; we want everything and we want it now.
Unfortunately, this attitude can lead to some serious money troubles. High-interest loans might sound tempting but they can saddle you with far more debt than you thought possible and truly ruin your lifestyle.
Bad debt will always let you down and you should break up with it sooner rather than later.
Bad debt is usually high-interest with a long repayment schedule that threatens your ability to make ends meet each month. Essentially, it is a debt that the customer won’t be able to repay. These debts are often in the form of credit cards, personal loans or payday loans.
Unfortunately, all of these loan types are marketed to people like you who want a better lifestyle now and don’t want to have to wait. And once you are on their list, more loan companies will market to you and encourage you to take on more debt making the problem worse and worse as your interest costs get higher and higher.
Money is fundamental to living and if you are constantly worrying about whether you will have enough to do a food shop or pay your bills, your stress is going to increase dramatically. This will also have a knock-on effect on the rest of your health making you feel unwell and more susceptible to infections.
Even when your debt has brought you lovely things, the real effect is that you will look at those things and worry more about them being taken away than enjoying having them. You will probably regret that you stretched your finances so far in the first place. No amount of stuff is ever worth risking your health for and if you are worried about your financial future, you need to deal with the problem as soon as possible.
When you are spiralling into further and further debt, it might seem that living a debt-free life is now completely out of reach. Don’t give up. However bad your debt problem is, there are government credit card debt relief options that can help find the best way to manage your finances and reduce your debt to zero, essentially helping you to get a fresh start.
These options range from financial counselling to help you create more sustainable spending budgets to bankruptcy. Whatever you choose, always ask a financial advisor for help and look for companies accredited by either the NFCC or the FCAA to help you out.
Reaching your debt-free goal will take time and determination. It can take years of effort to get back to a debt-free lifestyle that is sustainable and stress-free. But it is well worth it.
Start today.
a cooking pot and twisted tales 
