Category: Lifestyle

Guide To Better Living · Health · Lifestyle

Putting The “Light” In “Twilight Years” – What We All Really Need In Old Age

jacquelineobyikocha4 Comments
Aging, The Beauty of Old Age, As You Get Older, Mental health
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Old age, it’s one of those things that we consider to be so far ahead in time that we don’t need to worry about it. But old age creeps up on us sooner or later, whether it’s planning for retirement by starting up a pension in your 20s or 30s, or we have a moment in life that makes us realize how fallible we are. Preparing for old age is something we can all do, regardless of how are young we are, and what are the best ways to do this?

Financial Security

Not just the aforementioned pension, but if you live in places where you need to pay for your medical treatment, it is essential for you to start a pension pot as well as a medical fund pot as soon as possible. While there are many organizations that can help with regards to medical payment, such as GoMedigap, – that helps pensioners with Medicare costs – you can find out more from GoMedigap.com, but it’s your prerogative to start preparing for your twilight years in the financial sense. It’s heartbreaking to see so many people in their old age struggling to pay bills, or living without the essentials in life, and this appears to be the way of the world currently. So it’s in your best interests to start preparing for a more enjoyable later period in life.

Looking After Our Mind

It looks like there are more cases of Alzheimer’s and age-related cognitive decline than ever before. And you might have seen relatives succumb to Dementia, and how upsetting it is for the caregivers.

Looking after our brain isn’t a difficult task. The trick is, much like physical exercise, we need to be doing enough to stimulate our brain muscle so it can grow. Essentially, this is all about doing stuff that you find challenging. And while it may sound like you’re going back to school, do things that are stimulating, but stuff you enjoy.

This could be playing more computer games, as they have been shown to have a positive impact on brain development, or it could be something as simple as having a strong coffee while playing Sudoku. Caffeine has been shown to have a positive impact on the brain, and Sudoku is one of those complicated puzzles that you can do anywhere. If you’ve always wanted to learn a language or an instrument, these are options too. But we all seem to think that our brains get worse as we get older, this is not the case!

Learning About What Makes Us Happy

In old age, we can all start to feel somewhat isolated, especially as people our own age starting to pass away, and you might not feel that people aren’t listening to you anymore. It’s important for us to know what makes us happy. It’s not just beneficial to us in old age, but it’s beneficial to us in life. We can spend our whole lives not knowing what really makes us happy because we focus more on other people. Your happiness is paramount to ageing, but it’s also important to how you live your life.

And of course, making sure that you appreciate life, by getting out regularly into nature, is something simple that we can all benefit from. There’s an article on TheGuardian.com explaining more on why we need to get out into nature. Not only is it beneficial for our minds and bodies, it helps us gain a perspective on what really matters in life. This, ultimately, is what will help us keep a sense of perspective as we get older.

This is a collaborative post.
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Health · Lifestyle · Wellness

4 Things That Are Messing Up Your Immune System

jacquelineobyikocha5 Comments

Energy is one of those things that we are constantly chasing after in life. We need energy to concentrate at work. We need energy to keep up with the kids. We need energy to keep our relationships and love life healthy. Energy is what keeps us moving and if you’re feeling constantly tired and sluggish, then it’s important to know how you can replenish your energy and get those levels soaring back to their best. Before you can understand how you can boost your energy and repair any cracks in your immune system, you need to understand that our energy levels are not something that is passive. The choices that you make from food choices to hours you choose to sleep have a direct effect on your energy levels. Those social media buffs that are constantly perky and peachy? They’re likely living a life that ensures that they have bags of energy to work with. And you? When you’re feeling tired, sluggish and can barely function, that depletion is a direct result of your own choices.

Tired, Stressed, Fatigue

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Of course, there are times in life that the reason for our depleted energy levels isn’t a choice. Chronic illness, stress and depression all contribute to low energy levels, and it can be very hard to boost your energy levels when your immune system is being attacked. Medications can drain your energy and when your body is fighting as hard as possible against an illness or infection, it’s companies like https://www.herabiolabs.com that are going to be the rescuers rather than a concoction of ginger and cayenne pepper. Science is currently developing in leaps and bounds when it comes to medication and understanding the diseases that hit us, compromising our immune systems and making us feel weak. In the meantime, though, we need to do everything possible to work on our bodies and our health, so that even when illness does inevitable hit we can be ready to fight it. We have the choice to create the energy that we live with; whether that is low or high. If you can feel yourself flagging, ask yourself whether you are ready to fight for your body to work in the right way. It doesn’t take much; a few changes a day could change your life in a good way. Below, you can find some ways you are draining your own energy levels and how you can get your energy levels at their best again.

Stress. Earlier on, I mentioned stress as a reason that we can feel low in energy. When our mental activity is at a height – ie, when stressed and overthinking things – it can be very difficult to pull it back. It can take an awful lot of energy for your brain to comprehend what’s going on. Long periods where we feel stressed can leave us very fatigued and bogged down, and this is all created with brain power. It’s called burn out, and those who have suffered it before will know exactly how draining it is to deal with. The first thing to do when you’re feeling sick, tired and run down, is to work out whether your thoughts are running away with you – literally.

Communication. For the most part, communication is a good thing. Talking to people that we love about how we feel can never really be a bad thing, can it? However, in this world of hyped technology and constant need to talk to people and check social media, you are draining your batteries faster than an iPhone. Sometimes, taking a step back and quite literally switching off our modes of communication can make a massive difference to the way that we feel. Blue light technology has an awful lot to answer for, and it’s important for you to put down the phone and the tablet and look at the world around you for a moment. Recharge your batteries to be able to work at the maximum efficiency available.

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Saying ‘Yes’. Are you a ‘yes man’? A yes man is someone who will say yes to everything. Overtime? Yes. Extra work? Yes. Extra time at the gym to get fit? Yes. Sometimes, saying yes is not a good thing. Being a people pleaser can drain your energy as fast as that ‘yes’ escaping your lips. It’s lovely to want to help everyone, but it’s also exhausting, and it can do you no favours to say yes to everyone around you. You need to remember that you have needs and you need to come first, sometimes. The last thing you need to know here is that it’s absolutely fine to say NO once in a while. If people get offended by that, you need to breeze on by and ignore it; you are important, and you should be remembering that you come first.

Sleep. Those who lack energy often find themselves unable to sleep, as well. Sleep replenishes those stores, much like a SIMS character; when the bar is empty, you cannot function. A lot of people nowadays struggle to get more than a few hours of sleep every night, but it’s so important for your basic functions. Sleep helps your brain to work through the day to day stresses and issues that you are battling against. Without it, you cannot work your issues through and they weight in your mind the next day. It’s a nasty cycle of stressful thoughts and lack of sleep and low energy. The way out of it? Any of these natural sleep remedies can help you to switch off and refresh.

There are literally hundreds of things that you can do to boost your immune system, but ultimately it’s going to come down to the choices that you want to make to make yourself feel good again. You matter and if you want to move forward in life feeling whole and healthy, your energy levels have got to matter to you, too. Take the time to fix them, before all you’re doing is not fixing them.

Health · Lifestyle

Coach Yourself Back To Full Health

jacquelineobyikocha17 Comments

The list of things that you could be doing to damage your own health could go on forever. Some things you know you’ll be doing wrong, but you’ll actively be ignoring. Others you’ll be blissfully unaware of. We’re so bad at damaging our own health because we believe we’re young, unbreakable and that nothing we do is going to damage our health as long as we give it all a rest as we start to really age. All of this is wrong, the earlier you start coaching yourself back to full health, the sooner you’re going to feel like a completely new person. Follow our life coaching advice below and you’ll be reborn in no time.

Health, Coach Yourself Back To Full Health, Wellness, Addiction, Breaking The Habit, Healthy Lifestyle, Health Insurance

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Cutting Out Serious Habits

We might as well start with the serious things first. The sooner you cut out the things that might seriously be damaging your health, the better you’re going to feel within most likely a few weeks. So, one of the main ways both Americans and Brits are damaging their health is through alcohol consumption. One little tipple a night soon turns into two, two turns into a heavy drink at the weekend, and before you know it you’ve got a problem that you don’t like to talk about. One thing you could consider is a rehab facility. You don’t necessarily need to be fully addicted to alcohol, we’re talking having a drink in the office to get you through the day. It could just be an evening problem that you believe is getting out of control. Just a week or two away can change your whole life. Another serious issue that a lot of people suffer from is smoking, and it is highly addictive. The best thing you can do here is to purchase an E-cig pen. They’re the best way to cut out the majority of harmful chemicals from cigarettes that you’ll be putting into your system.

Finding Your Health Plan

This is essential. You should have a plan for pretty much everything in life, but none more so than with your health. Having a plan gives you something to stick to, therefore making more long-term results possible. So do a bit of research and find out what plan might work for you. If we’re talking diet, you want to ease yourself into it. Start with dieting for a few days a week, the increase it by a day until you’re ready to tackle it full time. As for exercise, you can follow the same sort of principle. Light exercise once or twice a week, then increase the duration, intensity, and frequency of your workouts.

Sticking To The Changes

The last thing you want to do is to relapse and fall back into your old ways. So, the best thing we can advise is to make sure you’re reminding yourself of why you started to coach yourself back to full health in the first place. Pinpoint the exact moment that you said enough is enough, and keep that in the front of your mind.

Life · Lifestyle

Making Important Decisions About The Future

jacquelineobyikocha5 Comments

We all get to a certain point in our lives where big decisions need to be made. You need to start thinking about the future, about the next steps you want to take and the actions in which you want from your life. But, what would you class as an important decision for your life? What would impact your life the most? I wanted to share with you some of the scenarios that would be classed as an important decision, perhaps you can relate to some of them yourself.

Happiness, Future Decisions, Lifestyle,

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Deciding on your career

A big decision to make when it comes to your future is to decide on your career. Many people make this decision fresh out of school and it can actually be quite a difficult one to make. After all, how do we know what we might want to do for the rest of our lives at that age? Thankfully, people make this decision many times over, and career changes are often on the cards and can sometimes suit you better later on in life. If a career change is on the cards for you, don’t worry too much, just go with what your gut is telling you.

Getting engaged

Getting engaged is an exciting time for anyone. It is a great way to show commitment to the one you love, and sharing your engagement rings can be a great way to feel united as one. Planning a wedding, on the other hand, can be tricky, but it certainly can be a memorable experience. The engagement itself can be a big decision though, it might be something that takes you by surprise or something that you have planned.

Getting married

Which brings me nicely on to my next point the decision to actually get married. Getting engaged doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to get married. You can actually stay engaged. But getting married is a big decision for the future, you need to decide if you do it and how you go about it. Certainly, this is a lot to think about.

Having a baby

Often when you have been with someone for a while, or have gotten married the questions about starting a family starts to become a regular occurrence. However, it is actually a big decision to make in terms of the future, so it is something that you must think about. As well as deciding you want to, in many cases, it doesn’t always happen straight away for some, and it certainly can be an a optional rollercoaster to embark on.

Jumping on the property ladder

Finally, one less major life change, but an important decision anyway is to consider getting on the property ladder. It can be a great way to set yourself up financially for the future, as property tends to increase in value over time. Many people do this to ensure that they have some form of stability in their retirement years.

I hope that this helps you to become more aware of some of the big life decisions you need to make.

This is a collaborative post.
Family · Guide To Better Living · Lifestyle

…And I Slept Off…

jacquelineobyikocha19 Comments

 

Whatever is it about being out in nature that makes me doze off on my mat after a brief while is a great thing. Does  this happen to you?

Going to the park with the children is pure bliss for me and whilst they frolic, I read and simply doze off to the divine sound of birds chirping, doves cooing, sounds of children’s chatter and laughter…and I wake up feeling renewed, refreshed and full of pleasure and gratitude.

I’m already missing this. The infernal heat of the UAE is slowly creeping up on us. By March, the Sun will turn on its rays in full blast. Anyways, let me get every last dose of natures bounty before it presses the pause button.

I even record the sounds – I have one as long as 20 minutes – to enjoy in the forthcoming months of dryness and heat.

What’s your pleasure?

Health · Lifestyle

Get Your Health On The Right Track

jacquelineobyikocha11 Comments

As they say, there’s no time like the present. Your health should be the most important thing in your life. But sadly, it is often left to last. We put bad lifestyle choices, as well as diet, before the thought of our health. The implications of this as we age are so big. I’m sure we can often admit that it is the fact of not knowing what exactly what is needed to get our health back on track. It goes so far off track, that getting back to the right place just isn’t even in sight. Well, we’re here to show you it isn’t. All it takes is a few minor changes and you can be as healthy as ever. One by one, we’re going to tackle the issues you might have, and get you feeling the best you ever have. Read on to find out more.

Health, Lifestyle, Healthy Living, Ageing, Cholesterol, Exercise

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Things That Can Be Prevented

There are many things that we can prevent that often goes wrong with our health. In fact, so many things that we could go on forever. But we’ll start with the main ones that can cause you hassles. Your eating habits are something that can have massive implications for your health. Eat well, and you’ll hardly have any issues. But we’re living in an era where the easy foods to make, the processed and the ones high in fats and salts, are the ones we’re filling our diets with. Which is understandable.

We work all day, potentially have families to look after, and there just isn’t enough time in the day to cook healthy foods… is there? Well, no, that’s not the case. Yes, a microwavable meal might be easier and quicker to do, but a few of them a week and you’ll be piling on the pounds, and your cholesterol will be going through the roof. Eating a diet that is dominated by fatty foods causes issues such as high cholesterol.

High cholesterol leaves deposits on the arteries within your heart. The more they’re clogged up, less blood is flowing to your heart. Eventually, it will lead to heart attacks or heart disease. To get your diet on the right track, you need to start experimenting with the healthy foods available to you. Fill your diet with lean meats, or tofu replacements etc. if you’re vegan. Plenty of vegetables and fruit and fewer carbs will leave you feeling amazing. You really won’t realise how much a bad diet will affect you as a whole. Not only the physical symptoms, but the grogginess and general feeling of being sluggish will be gone. You’ll have so much more energy, your weight will drop, and you’ll feel so healthy.  

Lifestyle Changes

A bad diet can be part of a bad lifestyle choice, but we all know we’re guilty of a few outside of the diet. One we know a lot of you won’t do is exercise. Exercise is so vital to a well functioning body. It helps to promote healthy bone growth. Increase muscle density, and improve the function of your cardiovascular system. Fitting exercise in around work and family, especially if you’re going to the gym, is just not an option for a lot of people. But how about just a nice 30-minute walk after work to wind down. It isn’t strenuous, and walking in some people’s eyes is actually better for you than running. It puts less stress on the joints, and tones up the muscles more.

A brisk walk opens up the airways, promotes weight loss, and relieves stress. Being out in the open with your own thoughts often clears the mind more than you would realise. Other lifestyle changes we recommend you do is cut down on alcohol consumption. Even if you don’t think you drink a lot, the odd binge each month has more of an effect on your body than if you were having a casual drink each weekend. Over time, it reduces liver function, damages your skin, and increases the risks of stroke. For a lot of people, it is also the reason for weight gain.

Aging Issues

Some things to do with our health we just can’t help. Many things happen to our bodies as we age, whether you like it or not. One of the most obvious is the physical signs of ageing such as fine lines and wrinkles. But they aren’t really going to affect your health, perhaps only your mental health. But things such as hearing and sight loss are something that just can’t be stopped. Once your sight stops deteriorating, you’re best off getting some done about it sooner rather than later. Despite maybe not liking the idea of glasses, the help your eyes so much.

The more your eyes are straining, the quicker they’re going to deteriorate. The retina is one of the main reasons for this, as they can degenerate over time. Your eyes are susceptible to other degenerative diseases, more of which can be seen on this website. Ears are the only other issues we come across. But a lot of people are worried about hearing loss, and the thought of having to wear a hearing aid. Unlike your eyes, your ears won’t get worse through straining. But it will become annoying for you, and the people around you, if you’re struggling to hear anything. All you need to do is visit an audiologist to put you on the right path.

Mental Wellbeing

Your health is often affected by your mental health, and vice-versa. The more clear your mind is, the more focused you will be on your actual health. One of the main issues that affect our mental wellbeing is stress. There are so many things in life that can cause stress, and it is hard to avoid them. Walking, as we’ve said, can reduce your stress levels. But we simply recommend talking to a friend and working through whatever is stressing you out. It could be money, overworking etc. Find solutions to your problem, and soon everything with your health will fall into place.

Finance · Lifestyle

Good Debt Vs. Bad Debt

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Moneywise, Financial Matters, Good Debt Bad Debt, Money sense, Raining money
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When it comes to debt, most of us would probably like to be completely free of it altogether, but for most of us that simply isn’t practical – not all the time anyway – and actually, there are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ debts to have. For example, if you’re using debt to acquire something that is truly essential to your life, or to do something that will actually enrich you in the end, then it cannot be said to be bad now, can it? The key is to be able to make the distinction between good and bad.

To help you differentiate between debts that are okay and those that should most probably be avoided, here are some examples of good and bad debts:

GOOD DEBTS

Student Loans

There can be few things better than borrowing money to advance your education so that you can earn more money over the course of your life, Sure, there are probably some people who regret their student loans, but for the vast majority, they are a debt worth taking on.

Loans for Medical Bills

Although it’s much better to spend your money on medical insurance, if that isn’t possible, or your insurance doesn’t cover the kind of treatment you need, it is obviously sensible to take out one of the best low-interest personal loans to pay for your treatment. After all, there is nothing more important than your own life, and no debt worse than a death!

Mortgages

Taking out a home loan can be pretty daunting, but by buying your own property, instead of effectively throwing your money away on rent, you are investing in your future, and many home loans are actually cheaper per month than rent, so you’re saving money too. It’s a no-brainer.

BAD DEBT

Credit Card Debt

You might not think so since their use is so ubiquitous in our society, but credit card debt is almost always a bad choice. Why? Because credit card interest rates are much higher than the average personal loan rates, which means that your spending can spiral out of control pretty quickly.

Non-Essential Debt

Whether it’s loans, credit cards or store credit, any time that you use credit to buy the non-essentials in life such as expensive clothes, gadgets that you could easily do without and a lifestyle that is really beyond your means, it is a bad decision that will leave you much poorer in the long-term.

Money Borrowed from Your 401k

It is possible to borrow money from your 401k, but most of the time, when you do this, it represents a bad debt because you will be hit with lots of early withdrawal penalties if you don’t pay it back on a timely manner. The only circumstances when it might make sense is if you have a medical bill to pay or you want to invest in a property that you can live in.

The Bottom Line

Financial matters in the modern world can be difficult to deal with and many of us will need to borrow money, but as long as we know the difference between bad debts and good ones, this need not be a worry if we can stay on track.

Health · Lifestyle

3 Aspects of Well-Being That People Dismiss – When They Shouldn’t.

jacquelineobyikocha11 Comments

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

Balance, Meditation, Health Wellness, Alternative Therapy

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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.

Counselling

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

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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.

In conclusion

Hopefully, the above will allow you to embrace the possibilities and give you the tools you need to enjoy your life to the fullest.

Health · Lifestyle

Dealing With Stress When Life Becomes Too Much

jacquelineobyikocha29 Comments

Stress, Dealing With Stress, Therapy, Get Grip of Your Emotions

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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.

Find Your Happy Place

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.

Go To Therapy

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.

Stress, Therapy, Anxiety, Peace, Inspiration, Lifestyle
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Let Your Emotions Go

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.