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Stress Free July 27, 2022 Tests, traffic, loud neighborhood - it's all so overwhelming and stressful but who has time to relieve stress when it's constantly building and building? Well I hope you do because studies have shown that too much stress leads to headaches, higher blood pressur, an upset stomach, memory loss, disrupted sleep and increased risk for heart attacks. Stress does a number on your mind and body draining your immune system and messing with your ability to concentrate having sore muscles, shallow breath, increased heart rate. These are all signs that you might be too stressed out. We all know that you can't take fewer classes, you can't quit the basketball team or resign from your work. I get it. But here are a few tips that will help you feel calmer inside when you're outside life gets too hectic. **Stay in and recuperate**. When stressed, you might feel the need to tackle everything on your to-do list all at once but that sets you up for burnout and failure. Instead, find a simple routine tasks to complete at home like doing the dishes or vacuuming. Studies show that completing a repetitive task allows your brain to pare down and focus the perfect cure for a worried scattered mind. After you finish cleaning your house, **Clean yourself.** Clean yourself means a warm bath or hot shower will boost your mood. Studies have shown that the sensation of warm water triggers responses in the body and brain similar to those triggered by emotional warmth. So think of your next shower like a soothing liquid hug. If you guys find stress keeping you up all night try **progressive muscle relaxation just before bed.** That is a fancy way to describe clenching up every muscle in your body for a few seconds and then letting go lie on your back and start with your forehead continuing through your tummy, down through your thighs and finally you do toes. Repeat as needed until every muscle is completely relaxed. Most importantly, Sleep like a baby to get out for good vibes. A good sleep means you habe the energy to do things you can enjoy without stressing out.

Calm down It doesn't take a lot to make me angry. What about you? Did some schmuck cut you off on the freeway? Maybe your boyfriend accidentally shredded that birthday card your grandma sent you so you freaked out you scream, maybe a vein pops out of your forehead. It happens to everyone. But did you know that anger is actually affecting your physical health? Hey, anger is inevitable, okay? You can't just stop getting angry. Even the world's most sedate person has uttered a few choice words in traffic. Well, that expletive fest really make you feel better, well punching a wall really calm you down. The answer is no. Sorry, but recent studies have shown that angry reactions are pretty harmful to your physical health. A study found that people with anger management issues tend to get sick more often. Their anger actually weakens their immune system. The Journal of the National Medical Association added that people who respond negatively to anger are 9 percent more likely to have a heart attack. Hey! That might not sound like a lot but come on, it's a heart attack. Every percentage point counts. Other studies have linked anger to everything from coronary disease to high blood pressure. Now that we all know that excessive angry outbursts are bad for you, Here's how you can manage that anger in four simple steps. All you're going to need is that handy-dandy notebook, a little bit of time and a teeny bit of self-awareness. Control your breathing When something pisses you off, instead of screaming or laying on the horn, take deep breaths. Spend 2 to 3 minutes breathing deeply in through your nose and out through your mouth. Jmagine inhaling calm blue air and exhaling that red toxic air. Relax your muscles Unclench your fists. Make a conscious effort to loosen those shoulders and slump a little. Great posture is awesome but for now let those muscles unwind. I promise it'll help. Get it out Once you're relaxed and breathing deeply, grab your handy-dandy notebook. If it's a road rage thing, obviously please pull over but when you get a chance, write down exactly what made you angry. Seeking context It's important to put your anger into context by thinking rationally instead of emotionally. Think about it. Are you gonna be angry tomorrow and probably what about a week from now, maybe a month probably not a year. I don't think you'll remember but by examining your anger this way you can displace yourself from it and you'll be able to process your anger without letting it take over your life. Let's recap! You need to find a healthy way to process your anger or else you could run into some really nasty health problems. Remember to relax and breathe evenly and then work through your anger by writing it down and contextualizing it. I can't promise you won't get angry ever again but hopefully with this, you found a way to deal with it a little bit better.

Goodbyes? July 24, 2022 Adulthood comes with many new exciting starts. Maybe lots of us knew how to start doing things but do you know about how to end things after year of growing and learning? Saying goodbye is a difficult thing that adults sometimes have to do. So how to say goodbye? A big part of many life transitions is saying goodbye to people whether you're changing jobs, are graduating or moving to another place to study. It can be really hard to say goodbye because it feels really final and uncertain. So what are dofferent tactics you can use when you're handling a big change? The easiest way to bid farewell if you're pretty awkward about goodbyes is these days called ghosting in the dating world. It means you just suddenly cut off contact with the person you were seeing but ghosting also applies to friendship. Goodbyes as well ghosting is definitely the way you want to go if you're looking to avoid any hard conversations or emotions. Gross right? Ghosting isn't the greatest option if you want to be considerate of other people's feelings. But if you're in a situation where you feel like you're in danger, your safety is always going to trump someone else's emotions and you should never feel bad about ghosting in those situations. But if you're not in danger, I encourage saying goodbye even if you feel weird about it. It's healthy to acknowledge it if the change might be a little sad and it's also okay to acknowledge that the change is great and that you're ready for a new chapter. Sometimes one of the best ways to say goodbye to a big group of people is to host a party before you hit the road. Going-away party can help keep the mood light and it can be really fun to see everyone one last time. It's also a time saver if you're busy getting ready for your life change and maybe can't see every person individually. The disadvantage to a big party is that sometimes you don't get to have quality time with everyone one-on-one but it's up to you. You can also reach out to friends and schedule get-togethers individually. When you're seeing someone for what might be the last time in a long time or ever, there can be a lot of pressure to make the goodbyes. A really like significant moment I can think of some graduation parties that were way more stressful than they need it to be just because we felt like they had to be perfect. But really, it doesn't have to be a big deal. Sometimes you're saying goodbye to your friends or family in the middle of a hectic moment and you just want to get on the road. It's okay to admit in that moment that you're not your best self and you can't wait to talk to them once the move is done and everything is settled. Saying goodbye doesn't have to be as permanent these days as it used to be. Long ago, saying goodbye meant that you can maybe send letters or Telegraph's to stay in touch. Saying goodbye is pretty different these days because we're always just a cell signal away from being able to talk to anyone we want. When you're saying goodbye, you might want to set up ways to stay in touch ahead of time like you can plan a regular zoom meetup or facetime call or text each other, send silly snapchats. Digital communication isn't a replacement for senior friends but it can really help you stay connected to each other's daily lives. There's also something to be said for mailing postcards back and forth. It can feel really meaningful to have a physical object sent by someone you care about. So whenever you feel that its difficult to say goodbye, there are some tactics not just what I've wrote on this article. And when you find it, maybe you can share it too by leaving a comment on this. Thabks for reading.

Morning Routine that works So you wake up in the morning, you're groggy, you jump out of bed, take a quick shower, get dressed really fast, scarf down some breakfast, snatch up that bag and you are off to the races. This sounds way too hectic if you think there has to be a better way you would be right? So let's start the day off with these three super morning routine tips and slow that hectic down. Who wants to start their day off in a giant hurry? Not me and not you. It's hard enough to get up and get going sometimes but if we can put a morning routine in place, we can make every day a great day from the very start. Some of the most successful people in the world do these things each and every morning. Why do we do them? Because they work. Make a tomorrow list A successful morning starts the day before. That's right! Today started yesterday. Before you go to bed, write down three things you would want to accomplish tomorrow. As you sleep, your mind will work through this list and when you wake up review that list then go out and do it. As the syaibg goes "eat a live frog the first thing in the morning and nothing worse can happen the rest of the day." You're probably saying what do frogs have to do with this? Nothing! Frogs have nothing to do with this but if you tackle the biggest thing on that list first, the rest can only get easier. Early to bed, early to rise Getting enough sleep is one of the most important things we can do. Good sleep helps us to be more productive and concentrate more. It helps us to be healthier and it makes us happier all great reasons to get enough sleep. How much is enough? They say seven to nine hours and as kids need more. Kids need more and what about this early to rise thing? Well, some of the most successful people in the world do just that. You know who gets up before 6 am? Apple CEO Tim Cook, Howard Schultz the owner of Starbucks, Michelle Obama and Ben Franklin. I know that is way early, we don't have to get up that early but here's why they do. There is much less going on in the world before the sun comes up and that leads us to our next super tip. Get moving and slow it down Exercise is so important in our lives for so many reasons but making it a morning habit reduces our stress, gives us an extra energy boost, gets our mind clear of distractions, it can help jumpstart our productivity. In other words, it makes us feel awesome and ready to conquer the world. We don't have to run a marathon. We just need to get moving. So get moving or sit still? Wait! I just said to get moving. Yes I did! We all have tons of things on our mind and we can get overwhelmed by all of it. One great way is to slow this all down so we can concentrate on the important and good stuff. Slow it down. Your mind and body will thank you for it. So what is your morning routine? Kindly comment on this article. 🙂 Image source c/o unsplash.com

An enemy within you We have this one common enemy and it is within ourselves. What I'm talking about? Let's find out. In the 1930s, the term "rat race" became quite popular implying the daily grind of workers in urban communities in an endless struggle for a better life just to end up with no time to enjoy it. Several decades later, this daily grind has become the norm and many people are looking for ways to squeeze in more productive time into their schedule. It's common to hear phrases like "we all have 24 hours in a day" referring to how a few people have become more outrageously successful than others despite having the same 24 hours. One thing is clear, it's all about work, work, work. We've become accustomed to denying our body the much needed rest and in many cases taking some time from work is seen as a privilege that should be earned instead of a necessity. Despite this feeling lazy is inevitable even for the most productive ones among us and although this is generally frowned upon the question is are we just being lazy or is our body trying to say something to us? Terry sits at his desk staring at the computer screen in front of him. He knows he should be working but he feels tired and unmotivated. Instead of working, Terry decides to scroll through his social media feed or watch his favorite tv show thinking to himself he'll get back to the work he has to do after a few minutes. But hours pass by and before he knows it time has fled by so quickly that he hasn't done anything. Most of us, like Terry, do feel this way sometimes and while feeling lazy is unavoidable going couch potato for days on end becomes a problem. If you do feel this way sometimes it's perfectly normal and you are not alone. In 2010, a study was carried out on why some criminals get a fair parole hearing in court while others don't. At the end of the study, the researchers made a surprising discovery, it wasn't the type of crime that determined the judge's final decision. One would expect the judgment fits the crime right? Well not entirely. Now I'm sure you're thinking if not the crime then what could decide the fate of these criminals? As complex as this may seem the answer is quite simple. According to the study, the final verdict of these judges was most influenced by the time of day the criminals whose hearing fell within. The early hours of the morning had a 65% chance of getting a favorable hearing but as the time went on judges became strict in their judgment regardless of the crime. So are the judges just being lazy or is there a sinister force behind their decision? As unbelievable as this may sound, there's no conspiracy here, it's just biology but the human mind is a powerful tool and laziness for the most part is a mental game. Can't we just push ourselves harder and work through it? Several years ago, stories of people dropping dead in Japan began to circulate around the internet as it turned out it wasn't a pandemic or a serial killer on the loose but it was Kiroshi which translated from Japanese means death by overwork. As crazy as it might sound, people were literally working themselves to death and it wasn't just a couple of dozen people, there were over ten thousand deaths recorded from kiroshi. This fact clearly indicates that there is a limit to how far we can push ourselves. At first, the case of the unfair parole hearings may seem unrelated to the kiroshi reports but on taking a closer look, a pattern begins to emerge and one thing that the two cases have in common is mental exhaustion. Remember the judges we talked about well after having a lunch break they were more likely to give fairer hearings as they had restored their energy. Unfortunately as time went on, the energy reserves deteriorated and the judges once again became stricter with their decisions. The brain is a powerhouse and is responsible for coordinating the entire processes of the human body and just like your physical body the brain gets too tired and when this happens it sends off signals to let us know that it's getting overworked and it needs to cool down for a while. Common signs of these are feeling lazy, unmotivated and stuck but while some people may push themselves beyond this mental threshold, the consequences could be deadly. There is no doubt that mental exhaustion makes us more likely to become lazy and science backs it up. This is because there is a constant battle for dominance between two crucial parts of our brain - the older limbic system and the prefrontal cortex. The limbic system controls our emotions and behavior and its main focus is in the present the now. It compels us to engage in activities that make us feel good in that moment. So while the limbic system favors immediate self-gratification, the pre-frontal cortex is responsible for planning long-term goals. So imagine Terry needs to study for this really difficult test and his brain would need to exert a lot of energy to understand the concept. Now this doesn't sit quite right with the limbic system which is more concerned about Terry's survival. So it questions why Terry would expend so much energy studying for a test. Now the pre-frontal cortex struggles to explain why writing the test is important to Terry who needs to make good grades so that he can get good jobs in the future. To the limbic system, this is a waste of energy so in his head Terry has an ongoing debate as to whether he should study for his test or defer his study in preference for doing something that would give him immediate satisfaction like playing a game or going out with friends. Now the part of Terry's brain that will win this battle depends on Terry's energy level. If terry is mentally exhausted, he is more likely to procrastinate and instead of reading for his tests he will decide to engage in any activity that requires lower mental energy such as watching tv or scrolling through social media. This also explains why the judges failed to give a fair hearing after a while having to make several decisions on if a criminal is eligible for parole or not. The judges become mentally exhausted and the more rational part of the brain the prefrontal cortex loses the battle leaving the limbic system in charge. When this happens, the judges are prone to give in to the easiest decision and that is parole denied which doesn't require as much mental energy. Unlike physical exhaustion, mental exhaustion or mental fatigue is more subtle and does manifest itself as laziness. The reason is that when you're mentally exhausted, your willpower is low. Willpower is the fuel you need to make good decisions like going on a run instead of sleeping for one more hour or studying for a test instead of watching tv and while you may feel physically capable of doing these things, your brain sees it as an unnecessary waste of energy. Being that the limbic system controls emotions and behavior, you begin to feel less motivated and disdain for the things that you would otherwise enjoy doing and when this happens you procrastinate and engage in less productive activities. In essence you become lazy. So how can we deal with this? One of the most effective ways you can prevent this is by taking some time to rest. Now laptops have become an essential part of our everyday life and like our brains the processor occasionally needs some time off and how do you do this? Well mostly when the laptop suddenly becomes annoyingly slow and takes ages to perform a simple task and when this happens 99% of the time your next action is to reboot the laptop. That's what rest does to the brain and just like your laptop springs back to life after a quick reboot. Rest clears your brain and restores your willpower leaving you energized and able to make better decisions. One final thing that I want to share is learning when to take a break and I know from my own personal experience that that is easier said than done. Most people push themselves for as long as possible and only take a break when their brain has completely stopped working. Unfortunately this is too late and you will be struggling to recover quickly. A much better approach is to integrate consistent breaks into your working schedule and rest before you are completely exhausted and with little five to ten minute breaks you will feel energized and productive all day long. Image source: https://unsplash.com/photos/Gx1raEg_3Zw

Early bird catches the early worm Being able to read some interesting article and write something out of my mind is a blessing for me. I can improve my reading and writing which I can use too on my Occupationa english test. I promised myself that I would read at least 10 articles and wrote one everyday but due to some circumstances I can't commit. But I will try my best to do it. So how is everyone here? I hope you are all doing great. The weather here right now is so hot so I'm just here at my room with the aircon on. Hehe. Goodluck to my electric bill this month. 😅 Okay for today, I want to write about what my coach on OET Said about early riser. He explained it with an idion, an early bird catches the worm and I agree with what he said. So here is a way to become an early riser and catch those early worms. Not everyone wants to be an early riser but I always did. Most of the people I wanted to emulate with my life were waking early in the morning, making the most of their day. It was something I desired to be true of me but was never able to accomplish until my mid-20s. I decided to change my habits. Nowadays I wake up at 6am cheerfully and excited to get started with the day and everything changed in just one month's time. If you've ever wanted to become an early riser, here are the exact steps I took. Step 1 I set a 30-day experiment like what I saw from a video of someone I can't remember. He talks about the 30-day experiment and how it makes habit change seem more possible. He puts it this way, we often psych ourselves out of getting started by mentally thinking about the change as something permanent before we've even begun. But what if you thought about making the change only temporary say for 30 days and then you're free to go back to your old habits. This doesn't seem so hard anymore. he continues. 30 days is a long enough period to see if you like the changes in your life and after 30 days if you like the change it's easier to mark the behavior as already a habit. Now you can try the 30-day experiment for any life change that you're interested in but for me it became the month-long experiment that turned me into an early riser for good. I chose a 30-day period and committed to waking up every morning at 5 00 am it's just for 30 days. Surely, I can accomplish that I would tell myself and so can you. Step 2 Set your feet on the ground. Look out the window every morning. When my alarm went off I gave myself only two instructions feet on the ground, eyes out the window. Feet on the ground as in stand up and eyes out the window as in literally look outside. These were the only two disciplined steps that I required of myself every morning not burdensome not difficult just two small actions in my head. As a matter of fact I just repeat the phrase feet on the ground eyes out the window. Those steps became incredibly effective especially on the days that I struggled to get up. They weren't difficult but once you complete those two steps you've won 80 percent of the battle. At that point, it requires a conscious decision to go lay back down and fall asleep plus depending on when you choose to wake if there's sunshine outside. The sunlight boosts your mood and literally biologically helps you stay awake but even if there is no sunlight feet on the ground eyes out the window after completing those two simple steps motivated by my desire to be successful. Step 3 Go to bed when you're tired. Waking up early will mean that you get less sleep if you keep the same bedtime. So the most important change to become an early riser is to learn going to bed earlier but what time should that be? You let your body tell you. Change your thinking from I go to bed at blank pm and change it to I go to bed when I feel tired and let your body tell you when that is. It takes a little getting used to especially if you're used to wasting hours at the end of the day watching television or scrolling social media. But you remind yourself that you're only trying this out for 30 days and I can almost guarantee that after a few weeks of learning to listen to your body and going to bed when it asks you to, you'll love the new approach rather than simply letting the clock tell you how late you should stay up. Step Find a motivation for the morning. Waking up early is easier when you have a purpose to it. In most cases, your home will be quiet when you begin waking up early so use the time intentionally. During my 30-day experiment I was working to minimize the sentimental items that had collected in my room. It was a project I wanted to complete but I knew it would take time. Decluttering my became part of my morning routine. I'd wake up at five, declutter a box in my room for an hour then I'd make breakfast, get ready for review and be fully ready by the time I need to work. Step 5 Awake is awake. There's a difference between awake and cheerful and some mornings that was helpful to remember. There were certainly some days when I felt alive and excited to be up but there were other mornings where I was simply dragging myself out of bed. I was the only one awake in my home, so my sloggy mood didn't affect anybody else. I'd often have to remind myself that my goal for the 30-day experiment wasn't necessarily to be a fully joyful "Pares" at 5 am, my goal was simply to be awake and over time as I appreciated more and more, those early hours in the day joyfulness came more naturally. Step 6 Adjust after 30 days. Make a decision on how you want to continue. You can keep your designated wake up time or you can adjust to a new one or you can throw out the entire idea. If you've enjoyed the mornings, believe you're living more intentionally and don't feel like you're missing too much. Late at night almost certainly you will have begun reshaping your sleeping habits. You can keep your designated wake up time 5 am for example or you can adjust to a new one. After my 30 day experiment I had completed most of the work in my room but I still really enjoyed the review that I was doing in the early mornings. So I kept my 5 a.m wake up for monday, wednesday and fridays. On tuesdays and thursdays, I'd wake up at 6 which is when I wake up most days. I hope these steps would make you an early riser like me. So go and catch those early worms. https://unsplash.com/photos/VwMVWPqxSbU Image source:

Take control of your Habits I've been out for a day because I have so much errands that I need to do first. Adulting is very tiring. Lol. So how is everyone here? I hope you are all doing good. By the way, do you have any habits? Or did you develop a habit to change your life? Yes, me too. At first I was so unproductive and was just pursuing happiness through material things. Little did I know, that this was wrong. So I did was change some bad habits of mine and develop some. You'll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The direction of our lives is decided more by the daily choices we make than anything else and these choices are more influential to the person we are becoming than we often realize. Habits become ingrained automatic and creep into our lives so subtly that they become routine. So if you want to change your life, start by changing one thing that you do every day. Here's a list of seven simple daily habits that will positively change your life. Each of them have changed my own life personally and I know they will for you as well. 1. The three item to-do list The three item to-do list has literally revolutionized my days every morning with my cup of coffee. I write down the three most important tasks that I need to complete that day. The short three item list will keep you focused on your priorities but more than that it will allow you to feel a sense of accomplishment. At the end of the day, it removes the constant feeling of I never got enough done and it replaces it with I accomplished my most important work 2. Exercise every single day When I lived in my Aunt's place, my Tito would always ask are you getting exercise? In fact even now, though we only talk every couple years on the phone, he always asks me so are you getting regular exercise? I used to think my Tito was concerned with my physical health which I'm sure he was but as I have embraced a daily practice of exercise, I have learned the benefits are not just physical but they're mental and emotional as well. My Tito knew that physical activity was an important key to a healthy and productive life. Don't overthink exercise daily, this doesn't need to be a three mile run or two hour tennis match, go for a walk, stretch, mow the lawn or work out to a youtube video. 3. Turn off your television Not only are the negative effects of television detrimental to our lives the opportunity cost is just too great. There are more life fulfilling things that we can do with our lives than watch someone else live. When I decided to turn off the television years ago I was immediately forced to begin filling my evenings with other things and surprisingly it wasn't hard to find more important things to do. We started spending more time together as a family, we spent more time outdoors, I visited the gym more. I took more control over my life and my decisions and all of these good habits began when I turned off television. 4. Practice gratitude daily Say a prayer, keep a journal, meditate or just discuss the high points of your day over dinner with your family. Whatever works best for you, express gratitude at some point every day. Gratitude reframes our circumstances. It drives out discontent, it focuses us on the good things in our lives, it brings intentionality and attentiveness, it more appropriately positions our attitude to the world around us. 5. Write something down every day sit down Write something anything you want, it can be a three sentence post on instagram, a three paragraph journal or a three page blog post that you share with the world where your writing ends up means far less than the impact it has on you personally. The habit of writing will force you to see the world in a more observant way. You'll rethink conversations, circumstances, relationships. I live better when I write things down because it forces me to become more observant and I'm a better person today because I started writing years ago. 6. Reset your kitchen every night before you go to bed In a practical sense, it will help brighten your mood in the morning. After all, there are a few things less desirable to do in the morning than clean up yesterday's mess. And so, this habit of resetting your kitchen helps brighten your morning and it spills over into other habits of keeping your home tidy. By the way, if resetting your kitchen every evening seems too difficult, you'll find it easier if you own less stuff 7. Eat together I realize of course if you live alone this habit may not apply but I fear that there are too many people living together who are also not applying this habit. So if you're a parent or a spouse or a partner or even a roommate, make every effort to eat one meal together every day. When shared with others, food becomes this bonding experience that's difficult to replicate. Anywhere else, meals around a table are one of the rare moments where we face each other sitting down to talk. It's difficult I believe to be an intentional parent or spouse without sharing meals together. Again this habit may not be possible for everyone but if it is, don't neglect to make it a priority. There are many who would gladly switch places with you so pick a habit from this article and begin practicing it daily just one. Once you take control of your habits, you begin taking control of your life. Image source: https://unsplash.com/photos/uejtDqpJ7ig

There is more joy in pursuing less than can ever be found in pursuing more There is more joy in pursuing less than can ever be found in pursuing more in many ways. This is a message that we already know to be true. It's just that since the day we were born, we have been told something different. We have been told that possessions equals joy, that the next purchase we make will make life easier, happier, more luxurious, more meaningful. And I think because we've heard that message so many times from so many angles, we begin to subtly believe it as a result. We begin to spend our lives working long hours to make good money just so we can buy more stuff but when we again hear the simple message that there is more joy in pursuing less than can be found in pursuing more it rings true in our hearts because deep down we know it to be true. We know that possessions don't equal joy and we know that our life is too valuable to waste chasing them. It just helps to be reminded from time to time. So today, remember that our lives are short and we only get one shot at it and the time goes by quick. Once we use it up, we can't get it back so let's make the most of our time. Possessions steal our time and our energy. They require unending maintenance to be cleaned and fixed and replaced, repaired, removed. They steal our precious attention - time and energy and we don't even notice it until it's too late. Remember that our lives are unique, that our look, our personality, our talents and the people who have influenced us have made us special. Our life is exactly like nobody else and just because everyone else is chasing material possessions doesn't mean we have to too remember that our lives are significant that far more than success. Our hearts desire significance to know that our lives mattered this is because significance lasts longer but possessions are temporal. They perish, spoil and fade and most of them these days by design. Meanwhile our lives were designed to inspir. So let's make footprints worth following. Nobody ever changed the world by following what everyone else was doing instead people who change the world that live differently and they inspire others to do the same. Possessions may briefly impress people but they never inspire. Remember that our lives are important. It is our heart and our soul that make us valuable and so don't sacrifice your important role in this world by settling for possessions that can be purchased with a card of plastic. Our lives deserve better joy, happiness and fulfillment are found in the invisible things of life, love and hope and peace and relationships. They're not on sale at your local department store. So let's stop looking for them. People who live their lives in pursuit of possessions are never content. They always desire newer, faster or bigger because possessions never satisfy our deepest desires. Be reminded today that your life is far too valuable to waste chasing material possessions and let's find more joy today by choosing to pursue better pursuits rather than more things.

Time and Money Good evening everyone. When you say money and time, what do you think? Is it one more important than the other. Maybe yes and maybe no. Time is more valubale when it comes to spending it correctly but money on the other hand can bring you the time. Imagine this, if you don't have money, how can you live without food, shelter, etc.. Confusimg right? So how about you can get both? Sounds better. So here is my topic today - Time and Money. Ever wish you had more time or money?According to one study, 80%of working adults wish they had more time to spend with their friends and family. In a similar study 60% of working parents always feel rushed and the New York Times recently called the current american generation the most stressed, tired and rushed of all time. No doubt many of us know firsthand this to be true. What if there was a solution? What if there was a way to have more time available in your life and more money as well?There is a solution and it's available right now without spending a penny literally. The solution to the problem is shop less. According to the U.S. bureau of labor statistics, the average American spent 22 minutes a day shopping in 2019 that's the equivalent of over 130 hours every year, over 10 000 hours in a lifetime spent shopping and it should be noted that that survey is more conservative than most. Some studies show that the average number might actually be closer to 400 hours every year, eight hours per week shopping. Almost everybody I know would take more time or more money if it was offered to them. Here's the good news, you can have more of both. Do less shopping. Some might say yeah but I have to shop my family needs food and toiletries and my house needs cleaning some of these shopping errands are non-negotiable and you would be right to live is to consume and there is a certain level of shopping that will always need to be maintained. According to the same studies only 25% of our shopping is spent on necessities, the rest is spent on non-essentials amounting to 18 thousand dollars per year for the average American. Wouldn't we all like an extra 25 hours and 1500 a month? alA second argument might go as follows yeah but what am i gonna do with extra money and extra time if i can't spend it shopping? The answer is anything else in the world. Surely there are more important things in life than what is on sale at your local department store. All those things you want to do with your life, you should go do them. We are a generation struggling to find both time and money. Given that reality, it's surprising how many of us choose to use the little free time and money we have to spend on shopping whether going to the mall browsing websites or simply looking at the lives of others wishing we had all the stuff they own. Shopping depletes two of our most finite resources time and money. So if you want to have both time and money, Shop the necessities and shop less to non necessities. Image source https://unsplash.com/photos/COoxOZZtwzA

Them is you Do you ever notice something that needs to be done? You wait around for someone to tell you to do it or think that it's someone else's responsibility. You think it's up to them. Well, what if them is you? As a human being, we are great at noticing things that need to be done like the trash needs to be taken out, our clothes needs to be ready for tomorrow's work or I need to start that project. A lot of times we think this is someone else's job like our parents, maid, etc. We say they need to do that or I'll wait until they tell me to do it. Maybe it's time we just get it done. This is called taking initiative and it's a huge lesson we all need to learn. We see something that needs to be done or maybe there's something we want to accomplish. In order to get it done and make it happen, we have to know that it all begins with us. It begins with you. We have to begin to think that no one is going to do it for us. When we can get in that mindset, we are taking responsibility, we are taking initiative and taking initiative is cool. Here are my super simple examples for taking initiative and learning that day is you #1 Let's say I spilled the coffee at dinner. I sit there and watch him run off the table and onto the floor. What a mess but we don't do messes so we say "sorry, I spilled my coffee can you clean that up?" We've all said, it we think they have to do this remember they've is you. So let's get up and do it ourselves. Now, that's taking initiative and taking initiative is cool. #2 A new guy has just moved in down the street. We think they should come over and introduce himself so we wait for him to do that and they don't. Maybe, they're in their house thinking you should come over and introduce yourself. So they wait on us and there we are just waiting. remember them is you. So here's an idea. Take the initiative to go knock on the door and then BAM you have made a new friend. It's all because you took initiative and taking initiative is cool. #3 We decided that we want to take piano lessons. We go each week to see the piano teacher. Out parents have even bought us a keyboard but we go to our lesson and then just walk by the keyboard every day without practicing. What are we waiting on? We want to get better right? We want to learn right? Are we waiting on someone else to tell us to practice. It's not up to anyone else but us. Remember them is you. So it's up to you to get it done. So get it done. That's taking initiative and taking initiative is cool. So there are some super simple examples of taking initiative and learning to be responsible as we go through life and the more we can see what needs to be done and then we just go do it the better outcomes we are going to have and not just better outcomes, we are more likely to have the outcomes we want. Image source https://unsplash.com/photos/MHS7g_q-6mE

Who are you? Who are you? No, really who are you? What do you believe? What sets you off? What motivates you? What makes you feel the way you feel and why do you feel like that these are tough questions that we don't always have the answer for? But, with the little self-awareness, we can get to know ourselves better and thrive at home, in school and in life. Yes that's right, life! But what is self-awareness? You might hear people talk about self-awareness as an important skill but what exactly is self-awareness? Simply put, it's the ability to tune into your own feelings thoughts and actions. It's about recognizing that how you act and what you say affects yourself and others. It lets us know that we are good enough, have value in this world and helps us achieve our goals. I know that's a lot to take in but let me try to make it simple. here's are the reasons why self-awareness is so important for all of us. We can self-reflect - when something bad happens or something good, we can take a step back and really think about the situation - see what we did right and see what we did wrong. We can see how we might handle that situation differently then we can do more of what's right and less of what's wrong. So think about it, learn from it. Recognize our strengths and weaknesses - what are you good at and what are you not so good at? When we realize this, we can begin to achieve greater and greater things. We can focus on those things we excel at and get help with the things that we know we aren't so good at. It's how we can reach our goals but here's the best part when we know our capabilities and strengths, we have the confidence to leave our fear of falling behind and say hello to the confidence to go for it. Manage our emotions - understanding and recognizing your emotions is vital for your well-being. They are your body's way of communicating with you about what is going on. For example, if you've been let down, you may experience anger, fear, sadness so take notice because people who are good at noticing how they feel can calm themselves down or just their behavior are more likely to do well in life - have healthier relationships, manage difficulties, make better decisions and overcome setbacks. We can communicate how we feel in a way that others can understand. Who doesn't want to be understood? We consider others - once you are skilled at recognizing your own emotions, managing them and communicating them, you can help others do the same. When we are really good at understanding how our feelings affect mood, performance and communication, we will be able to tell when the people around us are feeling a little bit off and we'll be able to respond in a way that is helpful to people We can take criticism in life - there's gonna be haters, we can't control what others think, that's just how it is. We ignore haters but when people have constructive criticism about what we do, how we act or what we say in certain situations, we should listen, maybe we can gain a new perspective and open our eyes to things we overlooked, were never considered. It's not always easy but learning to receive feedback with an open mind helps us grow into better people. Becoming self-aware is not easy and there is so much more to know. So practice understanding you and you will learn to self-reflect, manage your emotions, know your strengths and weaknesses, consider others and learn from feedback. So who are you? Image source https://unsplash.com/photos/D44kHt8Ex14

Happy International Woman's Day Hello everyone! We have just celebrated the international womans day. So I decided that I will write today will be dedicated to all the woman out here Strong women find it hard to hide anywhere. They find themselves because their aura speaks for them. They're always competent, bold and daring and energetic. They give a great vibe - a self-confidence that you can spot a mile away. This doesn't mean they're perfect. They also make mistakes but they never allow their mistakes to hinder them. So when they fall, they get up and keep pushing till they get the desired results. They know what they want in life and they go full-out for it not depending on anyone for what she wants her self-confidence drive and ambition come from within and she's certainly a force to be reckoned. A confident strong woman does differently that sets her aside from others She takes care of herself very well So many people go in search of money and success and forget about the small but very important things such as self love and self care. They forget that without these, they're already a shoe without a lace. A strong woman knows that taking care of herself is paramount if she wants to attain the height she desires. She believes that moving from one point her life to another point can be very tedious and tasking. Therefore to be able to cross over all the hurdles, she has to take the time out to care for herself first and be fit for the journey ahead. She does not depend on anyone The name strong woman is enough to let you know that she's not afraid of being alone. She doesn't need anyone standing in front behind or even beside her to help her achieve whatever feat she wants to achieve in life. It's not that she doesn't want to be with anyone but she knows how to set her goals and go for them. She learned long ago that no one would come to save you unless you save yourself and with this mantra she can fight her own battles and do whatever she wants to do without anyone holding her. This alone makes her practically unstoppable. She doesn't have any time for excuses A strong woman never allows the circumstances of life to decide her next line of action no matter the situation she goes with the trend and doesn't allow anything to get in her way of success because she knows that if she doesn't do it nobody will do it for her. She believes that she's more capable of achieving what she wants. She knows that excuses will only hinder her from getting to the point where she wants to get to. She knows that they always get in the way of results and that she doesn't want. She knows that she's the only thing that can limit her from getting what she wants and that her true power lies in herself. She has no time to complain She believes that a person that complains is a slave to the situation at hand and can never rise above it and as such is limited. So instead of making unnecessary complaints, all she does is rise above the challenges and move ahead. She knows that there's no problem without a solution and she makes sure to get the solution to any issue without whining about it. Life as we know can be frustrating sometimes but the strong woman doesn't let it hold her down for long as she always gets back up on her feet and continues to try again until she eventually succeeds. She knows that complaining doesn't do a person any favours but rather it only drains her energy. So instead of wasting that energy complaining, she'd rather put it into something more useful and make the best out of nothing. number five she challenges herself continually She doesn't believe in the word satisfaction She believes that if a person gets too comfortable, they become stagnant, lazy bored and depressed and they eventually stop growing. So to stay away from such feelings she always sets herself new goals and aspirations to tackle. She always exposes herself to new challenges to keep her mind busy even if the challenge means for her to read a new book. The new challenge can be anything it could be working on a new business or learning a new skill or even learning a new recipe. She always challenges herself to learn new things and expand her knowledge and skills. I knrw that lots of woman are strongly confident on their own way. Again, Happy international womans day! Image source https://unsplash.com/photos/Av_NirIguEc

Are you overwhelmed? Do you feel constantly overwhelmed by all the things you need to learn, all the things that you need to do in order to achieve your most meaningful goals? When it comes to getting to the next level of our career, the way that we define success for ourselves. One of the most important things to call is to constantly be learning so that you can grow and contribute more meaningfully, become bigger and better versions of you. Oftentimes, I asked myself questions related to overwhelm - what do I do, when I am so overwhelmed with all this new things I have to learn? And then because i have so much to learn with the overwhelm , I feel like I want to give up. I feel like it's not going to get anywhere. I feel like I'm not going to make progress. Or have you felt this way? That maybe it's just going to take a long time to be able to get to where I want to be and that leads you feeling overwhelmed. How do I handle feeling overwhelmed? Is there a way to overcome it? We've been taught throughout society, media and our parents as well and friends have been programming us to believe that feeling overwhelmed is a bad thing. So we assign these judgments to certain feelings, like feeling sad, feeling angry, overwhelmed, that's all a bad thing. But what if there's no such a thing as a bad emotion? Because all emotions serve a purpose. There's a reason why we have feelings, there's a reason why we feel overwhelmed or depressed or sad or frustrated. There are reasons why. Because your emotions are pointing you towards what's true in your life. So when you feel overwhelmed, I'm congratulations! Because it means that you are elevating to brand new ways of thinking that you have opportunities. You have more choices, you have tools that you have access to, you just don't know where to begin. Compared to before, if you're not overwhelmed it means everything's familiar to yo. It means nothing's different. There's not a whole lot of choices, everything's comfortable, it's manageable. This means that growth is also at a cap as well. So overwhelm is a very positive thing. The thing with feeling overwhelmed is that it causes us to feel like we're back at square one. But that's a myth, you are not back at square one because back at square one means no overwhe but feeling stuck, not having as many choices as you have right now, not having the tools that you have right now to choose from or the new knowledge that you want to dive into and you know, it's inspiring and worthy knowledge. So that's absent. So you're not at square one. So what do you do? The question is, well then what? What do I do with the overwhelm? The key is not to try to get rid of the emotion. Because overwhelm is a human emotion and we try immediately, when we feel angry, frustrated, sad, all those negative emotions. The first thing we try is, I gotta get rid of it, but you can't get rid of an emotion without at the same time getting rid of the positive emotions as well. Here's what I mean by that. You feel overwhelmed right now but on the other side of that overwhelm is possibility, fulfillment, performance to a whole new level, fulfillment and satisfaction is on the other side of a overwhelm. So if we get rid of overwhelm, you think about the things you need to do to get rid of it? That's going to take away the possibility of achieving those meaningful goals. So the key is not to get rid of overwhelm, the key is to understand what overwhelm represents and therefore we can formulate control over our reaction to overwhelm. Remember thst overwhelm represents possibility. It represents already growth access to new knowledge and deeper levels of thinking, critical thinking as well. That's what overwhelm represents. So then how do we react? How do we inspire our reaction to overwhelm? And that is to know that the key is to gro, to continue growing from this. Because what do you want at the end of the day? Each and every one of you what you desire is to master a skill so that you can be fulfilled in your life and in your career, Isn't that it? The essence of what you want, the end of the day, you want to be fulfilled, being grateful, really satisfied with what you've achieved. That's the end and that's the essence of what we why we're doing any of this in the first place. Why do we work so hard at our jobs? Why do we work so hard to study in school? Why do we get several degrees? Why do we invest in our personal skills? Why do we do put ourselves through this pain? Because at the end of the day, we want to have the best quality of life fulfillment, satisfaction that's what we want, right? So then, our reaction to this overwhelm is from that place of understanding what overwhelm means. We can react to it by saying "okay, if that is the essence of what the aim of life is, why i'm doing this in the first place? All I gotta do is start with what I know and let what I know grow." So this is powerful starting with what you know. Right now, you know new things. Inevitably, you're going to know new things. So now, you're starting with a whole new level of knowledge, knowing and understanding a whole new level. So then, you start now with what you know now which is different from what you knew before. You just start there and you let what you know grow. There's so many things that maybe you need to reflect on and spend more time on to gain a deeper level of understanding. Sure there's a lot of different rabbit holes you can go down, right? So many, but what if you just have to start with one? Literally, you start with one, which one do you start with the one that most inspires you. Image source https://unsplash.com/photos/sxQz2VfoFBE

Are you scared of the future? Good afternoon everyone! How are you guys doing? Me. I've been out of the house for almost a day. I went to the church this morning, buy some groceries, visited my parents tombs and pay some bills. Quite a productive day isn't it? So for now, I got my read.cash time before going to read notes for my review too. As usual, will be writing what come to my mind. Lets think for a bit and see around us if we can get an idea what to write. What if you heard a knock on your door in the middle of the night and you are alone? You aren't expecting someone to come over too. What will you feel? I'm talking about when you're scared of the future. I'd say about ten years ago or so I was pretty terrified of the unknown but I'm not anymore. I'm really not scared at all. I have really flipped the coin on this one. So today I'm gonna share with you my secrets on how you two can start feeling exhilarated about your future. If you're feeling scared when you think about the future, there are a couple of things going on overall. You're buying into a lot of fears of what's to come that your mind is conjuring up. Maybe you're afraid that you'll be in the same negative cycles forever or you're looking at all the quote/unquote bad things in your life and think this is never gonna change or it's gonna get even worse, right? I'm single. I'm never gonna find the one. If this is the space you're in now because what happens is you become a self-fulfilling prophecy and you will create that ugly future that you are so terrified of. Take my word for it. For example, let's say I'm scared, I'm never gonna be successful, whatever success means to you. What happens? What do I do when I feel nervous or scared? Well, my creativity gets blocked, I retreat and I don't take action and what's the result of that? I'm not successful. Fear will eat you up and spit you out my friend. So you must learn to handle it and manage it. So how to go from feeling like a little scaredy-cat to feeling completely enthusiastic about what's ahead? Set goals and work towards something you're passionate about When I was in my teens, I was nervous for my future because I had no direction at all. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life and when you're in that space, it's very easy to live from a place of fear. Once I identified my dream and I created a plan of where I want it to go, the future became my friend. When you have a clear vision, the future becomes less uncertain because in a sense you already know what's gonna happen. You can see it in your mind and there's less guessing this is a fantastic place to be in. Trust in a higher power whether that be God or the universe Let the higher force guide your path. Know that you're being taken care of in the process of living an authentic life Open yourself up with the powerful belief and mantra I came across a mantra the other day that was very simple and it was I wonder what's gonna happen next and when I say this out loud it instantly creates feelings of excitement and wonder. It opens me up to the possibilities that are in store for me unlike fear that closes you off completely. Some of my other favorites are "the best is yet to come and good things are going to happen." I love these and I use them in every area of my life. Once you develop a strong positive belief system, you're gonna be more than okay and you're gonna achieve everything you've ever dreamed of. As you work toward it, you will not be scared of the future anymore and in fact you'll feel excited about where your career is headed or who you're gonna end up with. The way to create a great future is by creating a great present. I hope by reading this, you'll gonna have an idea to fight the fear of the future or unknown. Image source: https://unsplash.com/photos/cugryvziO_M

@#$%^& A pleasant good day to everyone. Let us first thank God for another day that He gave. Remember to always spend these precious time He gave us in a good way. So how are you guys? Me, I'm doing great. Just finished reading some articles here on read.cash that caught my eye. If you want me to read your article too. Please leave a link on the comment section. So time to write something up again for you guys. I hope that you won't get bored no matter what topic I wrote. Thanks in advance. Did you have any nicknames in childhood that you didn't like? How did you feel about it? If so, it must not have been a pleasant experience. You've probably witnessed how a word could provoke a quarrel or even a fight and although you may have thought that with time such children's jokes about appearance and names would become a thing of the past, it's not the case. In the adult world, insults are scaled up. Adults divide more into us and them, inciting violence against others entire nations, ethnic groups, groups of people by skin color, religion, sex or abusive comments regarding weight and appearance. These insults are amplified to such an extent that there are now laws throughout the world that govern what is called hate speech. The boundary between hate speech and freedom of speech is not always simple to identify. According to a 2018 report by the OSCE, international law which protects the right to freedom of expression, everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds regardless of frontiers either orally inviting or in print in the form of art or through any other media of his choice. In other words, we have the right to disagree with others and this right is crucial to any democracy. So where is the red line? Let's take a look if a person says he or she hates the national dish of a neighbouring country it's not hate speech, it's just a person's opinion. However, if a person says he or she dislikes the national dish and uses offensive stereotypes about these people suggesting to cause them harm then it is hate speech indeed. Do you see the difference how can we define hate speech? Today, if someone is indignant, dissatisfied or angry where are they likely to go? "Online." Even if you're not looking for a quarrel, striking news or a headline might irritate you in a second. On an almost completely unregulated depersonalized network, people have trouble controlling their aggression and do not hesitate to use negative sharp language. . Ethical journalism network has developed five criteria to assess media content in order to overcome spreading of hate speech by journalists. The position or status of the speaker - when people who are not public figures engage in hate speech, it might be wise to ignore them entirely. The reach of the speech - a private conversation might not do as much harm as hate speech disseminated through mainstream media or the Internet The objectives of the speech - who can become victims of such speech? is the speech deliberately intended to attack or diminish a certain group of people? The content and form of the speech - journalist should ask themselves, is the speech or expression dangerous? The economic social and political climate - when times are hard, journalists should avoid increasing the tension. They can reflect on the content of the story but without directly quoting hateful speech. Frequent stereotyping can lead to discrimination or even violence. We should learn to recognize harmful stereotypes in offensive words and make efforts to counteract them. If you see others spreading unacceptable content, do not pass it by. Be sure to report it on the spot. That's it for today. I hope that I wrote this well. So time for me to review. Have a great day ahead. Image source: https://unsplash.com/photos/5otlbgWJlLs

Tik..Tik.. Every Second counts I'm a bit surprised when I opened my account, lots of notification from the green robot that they called Rusty here. I was just amazed. Lol. I'm starting to love this platform more and more. I can enhance my reading and writing skills while I'm earning. It's like hitting two birds with one stone. By the way, how are you? Yes, you are. I hope that you are fine and you can achieved all your goals in life. ☺ So now, what to write again? Tik...tik...tik... The sound of my wall clock makes when it is quiet. Got now an idea. Lol. And I knew you got some idea what will I write, don't you? Okay. Time to be serious now. Let's go! Time is free but it's priceless. You can't own it but you can use it. You can't keep it but you can spend it and once it's lost you can never get it back. The average person lives 78 years. We spend twenty eight years of our lives sleeping and that's almost a third of our life but thirty percent of us struggle to sleep. Well, we spend ten years of our life working but over fifty percent of us want to leave our current jobs. Time is more valuable than money You can get more money but you can never get more time. We spent nine years on television and social media. We spend six years doing chores, we spend four years eating and drinking, we spent two and a half years grooming, we spent two and a half years shopping, we spent one and a half years in childcare and we spent one year commuting, that leaves us with nine years. How will we spend that time? Time is limited Don't waste it living someone else's life. There's good news and there's bad news. The bad news is time flies the good news is you're the pilot. Imagine you wake up every day with lots of dollars in your bank account and at the end of the night it's all gone whether you spent it or not. And then the next day you get another, what would we do with it? Everyday, there is time deposited into your life account and at the end of the day once they're all used up, you get a new one. We would never waste it, it was money. So why do we waste it when it comes to time? Those time are so much more powerful than dollars because you can always make more dollars. You can't always make more time to realize the value of one year. We think that it's people wasting our time but it's really us giving them the permission to do that. And in reality, these two people live inside us. Don't let someone be a priority when all you are to them is an option. Some of us lose the people most important to us because we don't value their time. Some of us don't recognize how important someone is to us until they're gone. Inside all of us are two voices - one voice that wants to uplift and then there's the other voice that holds us back. This battle between the two voices and guess which one wins the one that we listen to. Image source: https://unsplash.com/photos/BXOXnQ26B7o

Socially Free: Not minding others what they say to you A little gloomy weather today at our place. Bead weather indeed but I need to get up to do some works. My routine since I started joining read.cash is to read articles form otger users, leave some comments and write something up for others to read as well. This routine makes my brain prepared for my review on occupstional english test. Speaking of OET, I've got a notification from this little green robot that my article "OET my gateway to reach my dreams" has been upvoted. Yehey! Thanks randomrewarder. https://read.cash/@Respa/oet-my-gateway-to-reach-my-dreams-38842ad2 So what to write now? Haha. You can say that I was just typing while thinking of what to write. So expect that this isn't good as much compared to other article out there. But I'm doing my best to think to make this more interesting to you. It's show time. 😆 I've got an idea now what topic to write. It's about the secret to not caring about what other people think of you. If you understand this secret dynamic, it is going to help you massively when you interact with people in the outside world. Let me tell you a story first. The other day I was working at a hospital and they asked me if I could pick up some medicine from the local doctor's office and the pharmacy on the high street, I said "all right, no problem." It was a nice sunny day, so it was the perfect opportunity to get some fresh air and visit two different locations. The first place I went to was the doctor's office and as I entered the office, I was greeted by their receptionist or in other words the secretary. The second I made eye contact with this lady and spoke to her about the request to collect some medicine, I was greeted with massive hostility - rude, eye contact attitude, standoffish behavior, no manners, disrespectful tone. And you could just feel the anger coming off them. I don't really care because I'm aware of this secret dynamic that I'm going to tell you about. But just from an observation perspective, you could tell this person had the mindset of the world's a horrible place everyone's out to get them and it really showed in their bad attitude. Anyway, once I collected the medicine from the doctor's office I made my way to the pharmacy on the high street just down the road. The second I entered the pharmacy I was greeted by the staff in that location and they were friendly. They were polite, they were well-mannered, they were smiling, they made good conversation, they were respectful. I appreciated that and I enjoyed my time there. I collected the medicine from the pharmacy and I made my way back to the hospital. So why is this story so important and why does it relate to you? It's important because no matter who you are, you're going to encounter both types of people in your everyday life. It's inevitable. It doesn't matter who you are, what you look like, what type of social status you have, you're going to encounter both types of people and you need to be aware of that. A lot of you who have anxiety issues - self-esteem issues, depression etc. - make the common mistake of associating the angry person's bad behavior towards you. Okay, you make the mistake in thinking that they're responding that way because it's you who's talking to them when in reality they're responding that way to everyone that they come across. It's not just you. You think it's just you but that's due to your self-esteem issues and anxiety. On average, this person is going to be angry, frustrated and miserable towards most people they come in contact with. It would be nice if we could follow them around all day with a camera so you could see that I'm teeling the truth. Don't make the mistake of believing that they are responding badly specifically towards you okay? This is what some people are like because it's ingrained in them and they will continue that behavior onto other people they come in contact with. In other words they were gonna behave like that whether you were there or not and it's really important you understand this because this is something the angry person is dealing with internally. It has nothing to do with you. On the flip side when you encounter someone friendly and positive, what tends to happen is you will minimize those interactions because something that is negative stands out more and is focused on more by the brain naturally. Let's go back to the angry people that you encounter because those are the type of people that will cause you emotional distress and add to any internal issues that you're dealing with. You see when someone presents you this behavior, you can't take them seriously because what you need to understand is there's a lot of angry and messed up people out there especially in the social media age. There's also a lot of good people but you know they're easy to deal with. We're focusing more on the angry people because this is where the issues come up. Whenever you come across these people in real life, don't take them seriously and don't interact with them any more than is required. Get away from these people as soon as possible. Don't reward these people with your precious time, manner, energy, all responses. Keep it to a minimal. Save all that good stuff for the nice positive people who are respectful, well-mannered and who treat you right. Essentially you have to come to terms internally with this social dynamic that some people are going to act really positive towards you, some people are going to act negative towards you and some people will be indifferent. It happens to everyone that's really important. You draw this internally because sometimes you might go out and about in your daily life and you might come across four to five of these angry, miserable people before you find someone positive. You can't take them seriously because if you take the behaviors of an angry person personally, you are going to suffer emotionally. And the ironic thing is, that has nothing to do with you. They were going to be angry regardless of whether you were there or not. Do not associate or interact with these people more so than you have to. You're gonna have to deal with these weirdos at some point because they're out there and there's no escaping them unfortunately. What we can do is keep our interactions with them to a minimal. Don't let them infect you with their toxic, negative energy and also just bear this in mind with an attitude like that they're going to have a very rough and bad time in the future. To be honest, you essentially attract what you are. Bad energy attracts more bad energy just the same way as good energy attracts more good energy. Let me just summarize the key takeawYs of what I wrote. You're gonna have to deal with these weird people at various stages of your life Do not take them seriously, they're weird and you don't associate with people like that. Leave them to mingle with other angry, rude people and let them be miserable together. Minimize as much time as you can with these people Their behavior is a reflection of them not you, so do not take it personally Don't let their energy infect you Be okay internally with how this dynamic plays out in real life because it's always going to be there no matter who you are Stay awesome and focus only on the good people. Dismiss the bad people from your life as soon as possible and don't give them much attention. I do hope that you have a good time reading this article of mine. And let us all be socially free. image source https://unsplash.com/photos/TyQ-0lPp6e4

Social Anxiety Over the last decade we're more engaged in social media and technology and to be honest none of us really interact with each other like we used to back in the old days. You know what we used to ring each other on the phone or to hang out you have to go and meet each other in person. Nowadays we can, this tweet to each other, facebook messenger, whatsapp, etc... So how can knows what social anxiety is? What is social anxiety? Social anxiety is the persistent fear of a social situation or you may be exposed to the negative judgment of others is also the fear that you will do something in these social situations that may be embarrassing and humiliating. Now some examples of these social situations include meeting new people, attending a social event such as a party, a work, public speaking, starting a new job, starting a new school, dating, visit a new environment. It's really important to note here right that if your anxiety is very severe and you find yourself in these social situations you will endure it with massive discomfort and if why these social situations is an upcoming event that you have to attend there's a good chance you might try to avoid it altogether. There's numerous causes of social anxiety. These include bullying, family conflict, isolation past traumatic experiences, sexual abuse, chemical imbalances in the brain and much more. The thing is you know all of us have had bad experiences in the past but unfortunately some of us never really get over those traumatic events and this naturally causes issues for us later on in life. There's many different components to this disorder but I'm gonna focus on one component which I believe is at the core of this mental health problem and that is your assumptions and internal beliefs. Again, we all have assumptions and beliefs about the world around us, about people, about ourselves but those who suffer from social anxiety tend to have the following beliefs and if you're reading this and you do suffer from social anxiety see if any of these resonate with you. I assume that people have x-ray vision and can always see how I'm feeling on the inside If others see that I'm anxious they will find this unacceptable and reject me I assume that if I make a fool of myself in front of others, they will look down at me and negatively judge me I assume that I need to impress others in order for them to like me I automatically assume that when I'm in public, I will be negatively judged I will withdraw from any social situation due to the fear and assumption that I'll be scrutinized, humiliated or that I'll do something to mess the entire situation up and caused myself embarrassment There are times where all of us feel like this to a certain degree but with social anxiety sufferers they tend to have these assumptions and beliefs on a regular basis - in every single social interaction or social event. The issue with this is there are assumptions and internal beliefs directly influence how we perceive the world around us - how we interact with other people and even how we perceive and interact with ourselves. If you're a social anxiety sufferer and you have these assumptions, when you come into contact with one of the social situations that I written above, it's gonna trigger anxiety even the for of attending one. Social situations may trigger anxiety. Once the anxiety is triggered, a range of symptoms is going to take place in your mind and your body. For example, your mind will start racing with thoughts usually negative ones, your body will become stifled and stiff and you'll find it difficult to maneuver, your fight-or-flight response will get activated and cause you to sweat, trembl and blush, your heart will start beating faster, your breathing will be more heavy and rapid and basically you'll begin to act in a way in which you normally wouldn't do if you're in a safe comfortable environment. You'll also begin to engage in what psychologists call safety behaviors and these are designed to reduce the social threat. For example, if you're speaking to someone you avoid eye contact or just in general you avoid meeting eyes with anyone in public. You'll start to censor what you have to say in order to be accepted and you'll also try and find a way to escape the feared social situation. When the anxiety is triggered, you also become extremely self focused and that is where you put all your attention on your inner body and you start to assume that what you feel on the inside must be a reflection of what people are thinking on the outside. The reason this is done is because our emotions are massive motivators. In fact they're probably the strongest motivators in this entire world and influence everything we do. Just to recap Social anxiety is the persistent fear of a social situation where you may be exposed to the negative judgment of others. It's also the fear that you'll do something in these social situations that may cause you to feel embarrassed, ashamed or humiliated. There's many causes of social anxiety includeing bullying, conflict, isolation, traumatic experiences, sexual abuse, chemical imbalances in the brain and many others. There are many components to social anxiety but we focus o assumptions and beliefs and these assumptions skew and influence your perception of the world around you, of other people and even of yourself. Once these assumptions come into contact with a feared social situation, it triggers anxiety. Once the anxiety is triggered, symptoms such as sweating, blushing or trembling take place. Your figth-or-flight response becomes activated and your mind starts racing with negative thoughts. You begin to engage in safety behaviors which are designed to reduce the social threat. I hope I've outlined it clearly enough for everyone to understand it's important to remember that social anxiety affects people differently. Some people might have social anxiety very severely and they might not even know to leave the house or go to any social event whereas others might have a little social anxiety and be able to go to social events but not cope with it. It does vary from person to person.

OET my gateway to reach my dreams It was a sunny day here and I was just done reviewing some notes for my OET exam and now I got time to write something to post here. So I'm getting the hang of it how this platform works - write anything to your hearts content as long as it doesn't attack anyone or explicit, engage to other users and make friends, and have patience to get the attention of the random rewarder. 😁 I've posted yesterday about a short introduction of myself and I got 11 views, 4 likes, 3 subscribers and some comments. I also got upvote from users @renren16 @Sergee0213 @Kraine sorry for the tag but thank you from the bottom of my heart. A warm welcome indeed. So I just want to share why I'm reviewing for OET that stands for Occupational English Test. OET is one of the requirements you have to pass to be eligible to work as a healthcare professional in United Kingdom. So it is noticeable that the reason why I'm reviewing is because I want to work at UK. So why do I want to work at UK instead here in the Philippines? For my fellow Filipino here in the platform, I knew that some of you might have an idea of the reason why. Nurses here in the Philippines are exploited - overworked but underpaid. Sad reality it is. I used to work on a government hospital wherein tha nurse patient ratio is 1:50 with few resources. I remember before that I need to buy my own mask, syringes and gloves from my own pocket just to be sure that I am safe and can give care to my patients. And you know what? We are underpaid, don't have any health benefits, and sometimes it took 2 months before we can get a fraction of our salary. In the Philippines if you are a nurse, you can't reach all of your dreams - a house, a car, savings for future family, etc. So I decided to try my luck at UK if ever I passed all my exams. Good working environment, benefits and a good working salary. Don't bash me for this post but this the reality. Filipino nurses don't have a future on their own country. We are unappreciated so we are looking for other countries who can see our worth. Image source https://unsplash.com/photos/yo01Z-9HQAw

Why I'm here? So I just joined this platform maybe an hour ago before posting this article of mine. Did check the interface and also check the "first post" section so I can get an idea on what to write first. So I've learned that self introduction is more gaining attention for any new user taht just joined the read.cash. Let me introduce myself too. Hello everyone! I'm Resty, 26 years of age and have a little business in our area. My close friends calls me Pares so I've decided to use it for my account here at read.cash. I am living with on my own since 2016 when my mother died because of a heart attack (I miss you mom 😔). I don't know my father since he left us when I was just young. My hobbies are reading manga and manga, watching animes and netflix series. I used to play basketball before but since I need to focus on our small business so I can feed my mouth, I stop playing. I am not a talented person and I admit that I'm not that intelligent (you can see on how I construct this article). I heard read.cash before, maybe last year but didn't tried to join because I am not that good at writing. So what made me join now? I am planning to take an OET so I can apply as a nurse on UK. So I needed to enhance my vocabulary. So the main readon I joined now is because I knew that I can enhance my reading, thinking and writing skills here. The money (if ever that bot notices my works) will be just as an extra reward. 😉 Btw, let us pray for the world to be more peaceful. I hope that the war will come to an end. Image that I used came from this link: https://unsplash.com/photos/ocAo7MwGfHY