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quarta-feira, outubro 28, 2015
How To Boost Your Budget This Christmas
Tech trade-in sites such as Mazuma offer a chunk of cash in exchange for unwanted mobile devices, which can be handy for cashing in when you upgrade or switch deals. With our viewing habits increasingly moving online, our DVD shelves are often a bloated and unused repository for clutter these days. High street exchange stores like CeX are a great way to cash in on your unwanted media and technology, and redeem for cash or in-store credit.
But saving money doesn’t necessarily mean selling, clearing or working extra hours. Simple changes to your day-to-day lifestyle can yield a remarkable saving. Taking a packed lunch to work, cycling rather than taking the bus, or moving your weekly shop to a more affordable supermarket can save as much as £30 to £40 a week. And who knows? Your budgetary innovations may open up new experiences and cost-effective habits that stick around beyond new year.
Every saving will add up to something special. By combining these online and offline solutions, you can find real wiggle room in your budget for festive frivolity.
The days are getting shorter, and our budgets are getting tighter. With Christmas on the horizon, the prospect of funding the festive season can feel like a little too much pressure on the purse strings. Don’t panic though – there are many simple, stress-free ways to make a little more money in time for yuletide. Relax and indulge your friends and family this year by building your very own Christmas bonus.
Playing the markets
There are any number of nifty solutions for making money online quickly. Many cannot be actioned overnight, and require a long-term strategy and effort. However, some sites allow you to sign up and start earning money almost straightaway. Sites such as Swagbucks allow you to ‘put cash back in your wallet’ by completing quick surveys when you search, shop, watch and browse online. There are loads of these sites out there, and there’s good money to be made – users often earn upwards of £200 per year. For the dos and don’ts for this form of money-making, check out this guide.
Taking part in simple market research is also a healthy budget booster. Create a profile then accept ‘tasks’ on sites such as Streetspotr, Roamler and Field Agent. You will be expected to pop in to shops and businesses and carry out a basic request, such as taking a photograph or checking a price. You earn money for every mission you complete, which will add up sharpish if you can integrate the tasks into your daily routine. Many of these sites work with nationwide high street brands – so it could be delightfully simple for you to make a little extra money on your walk to work, or during your lunch hour. Signing up for a real-world research recruitment agency can also be very lucrative. They’ll book you into evening focus groups, perfect for fitting around your schedule.
Declutter for Christmas
While a spring clean may not be seasonally appropriate right now, it can still have a transformative effect on your home. Decluttering is proven to boost productivity and improve mood – and can lead to a little extra cash if you can sell those unloved shoes or superfluous home-wares online. Marketplaces such as eBay can seem tremendously old hat these days, but there is still a huge audience and money to be made if you have the time to promote and post your unwanted paraphernalia. If you’ve got clutter to conquer, selling online can be the fastest way to monetize your miscellany.
Saving money for Christmas? Do you have any other top money-saving tips to bolster your budget? Let us know!
Featured photo credit: Lights up the darkness / Susanne Nilsson via flickr.com
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Here’s How To Breathe If You’re Stressed Out
I know what you’re thinking: “Breathe? I know how to breathe.”
It’s so easy, even a fish can do it.
And you would be right. But there’s a right way to breathe and chances are, you might not be breathing as effectively as you could be.
Over time, you learn to breathe a certain way. It can either be by inhaling too much air, taking shallow breaths, or unknowingly holding your breath. The way you breathe eventually becomes something you do as a habit.
Is the way you breathe just getting you by, or are you breathing in a way that optimizes how you work and perform?
Why does it matter how I breathe?
Improper breathing can harm your sleep patterns and the way you feel during the day. Your breathing habits also have a negative impact on your muscles, brain, nervous system, and heart.
To break it down, here are a few risks you’ll face with breathing incorrectly:
- Your nervous system gets overly excited, making you anxious and stressed out
- Increased muscle tension and tightening blood vessels makes your heart work harder, increasing blood pressure and tiring you out faster
- Your brain receives less oxygen, so it’s more difficult to use your brain to think through situations logically, which also creates dizziness and headaches
Not good. However, learning the proper way to breathe helps you to think and work better, and it’s also better for your health in general.
For instance, breathing correctly provides these benefits:
- Reduced blood pressure, which is easier on the heart and helps you become more relaxed
- Your nervous system experiences equilibrium, lowering stress levels
- Oxygen flows more easily to the brain, helping you to think with more clarity
While tense muscles and a quickly beating heart was useful back in the day to prepare yourself for running away from a lion, we don’t tend to encounter these types of problems nowadays (phew!). Instead, most of our stress and nervousness stems from mentally-related issues.
For example, you might find yourself short of breath when someone is berating you, you need to make a difficult decision, or you’re suddenly swamped with an onslaught of paperwork.
When we start breathing the wrong way, it works against us because we can’t think through issues and we sometimes freeze up instead.
First off, let’s see what your breathing looks like.
Trying using these tools to evaluate your breathing (Hint: You have these already)
You’ll need two things:
Your hands!
Using your hands is an easy and effective way to evaluate how you’re breathing right now.
While there are machines out there that evaluate muscle tension and heart rate, such as electromographs, electrocardiograms, and pneumographs, we won’t get into those. Your hands are good enough right now to use as feedback devices.
Right now, we’ll be doing an exercise now that involves your hands and your breathing.
To begin with, place one hand flat over your chest and the other on your stomach, where your diaphragm lies.
Now, breathe how you normally do on a regular basis. I know, it’s tempting to alter your breathing for this exercise, but try to resist. Breathe as if you were doing a simple task, such as surfing the net.
How did it feel? What did you notice?
Make a mental note of what happened before moving onto the next step.
With one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach again, try breathing short breaths with your mouth so that your breathing is shallow.
This time, what did you notice? How did it compare to your regular breathing?
You might have noticed that your chest expands and contracts, while your diaphragm doesn’t move as much. This is similar to how you might breathe when you’re under stress. Your breaths become shorter, your shoulders hunch up, and you feel your chest tightening.
Or, conversely, you might hold your breath when you’re in a tense situation.
Even if you think that your breathing remains regular when you’re stressed out, breathing is something we do subconsciously. It’s very likely your breathing changes according to your mental or physical state.
So today, we’re going to go over proper breathing to improve your health and help you remain calm under stressful situations.
How to Breathe
Ever hear someone tell you, “Just take a deep breath”?
While that’s correct, it’s only part of the story. The other important component of breathing properly is to exhale all that air. When someone tells you to take a deep breath, what might end up happening is that you breathe in a lot of air, but end up holding it in and forget to breathe for awhile (it happens).
So step-by-step, we’ll go through the breathing exercise together.
- Just as you did before, place one hand over your chest and the other over your stomach.
- Sigh, as if you just had a long day. Let your shoulders drop and your muscles relax. At the same time, don’t let all the air out of your lungs – the point of sighing is to relax your upper body.
- Close your mouth again and pause. Stop breathing and count to three.
- While keeping your mouth closed, slowly inhale air through your nose. Be aware and mindful of the way you inhale. Your stomach should expand, while your chest remains relatively still. Once again, pause and count to three.
- Finally, breathe out by opening your mouth and letting your stomach go back in. This is your diaphragm contracting.
- Once again, pause.
- Repeat the process from steps 3 to 7.
It’s best to try breathing like this when you have some spare time to yourself. Do it when you’re in a calm mood and without distractions that can make you tense. Even setting aside two to three minutes a day to go through this exercise will help you to practice getting better at breathing calmly.
How was it?
If you get anxious or stressed easily, the breathing exercise outlined above may be difficult at first. You’re likely not used to taking slow, deep breaths and pausing in between breaths.
That’s fine! Proper breathing takes time to practice. Let your hands provide you with feedback on how well you’re breathing.
How did you find the exercise?
Featured photo credit: Andreas Ivarsson via flickr.com
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Inspirational Quotes About What True Love Is
True love is a very beautiful and mystical element in life that many people don’t understand. It is something that people look for and hope to find one day and experience with another human being. Some people search for years to find that feeling, while others find it when they’re young.
Either way, once it’s found- it is something to never let go of. But the mystery lies in the fact that there is not one set definition of true love. Every person feels true love’s power differently and has their own experience.
But there are some people who have a great understanding of what true love really is:
1. “True love is not a strong, fiery, impetuous passion. It is, on the contrary, an element calm and deep. It looks beyond mere externals and is attracted by qualities alone. It is wise and discriminating, and its devotion is real and abiding.” -Ellen G. White
2. “The course of true love never did run smooth.” – William Shakespeare
3. “True love stories never have endings.” – Richard Bach
4. “True love brings up everything- you’re allowing a mirror to be held up to you daily.” – Jennifer Aniston
5. “True love doesn’t happen right away; it’s an ever-growing process. It develops after you’ve gone through many ups and downs, when you’ve suffered together, cried together, laughed together.” – Ricardo Montalban
6. “True love cannot be found where it does not exist, nor can it be denied where it does.” – Torquato Tasso
7. “True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young at heart.” – Honore de Balzac
8. “Life is a game and true love is a trophy.” – Rufus Wainwright
9. “True love is selfless. It is prepared to sacrifice.” – Sadhu Vaswani
10. “True love doesn’t come to you it has to be inside you.”- Julia Roberts
11. “True love bears all, endures all, and triumphs!” – Dada Vaswani
12. “True love lasts forever.” – Joseph B. Wirthlin
If you liked these quotes, there’s plenty more at BrainyQuotes
Featured photo credit: http://ift.tt/PJbXZv via flickr.com
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