Women juggle many things. Emotional wellness plays an important role in staying healthy and strong. While many may say that multi-tasking has its roots in personal choice and that one simply need to learn time management, it is important to understand that women who indulge in a lot of activities need to take a little moment to care for themselves.

Here are some tips to do the same!

1. Always believe that anything is possible, but remember that it is not wrong to put your own interests first when you most need it. Remember, happiness is not about wealth and money, but about the intangibles.
2. Let go of the little things. Don’t be a nitpicker and worry about what others think of you or will think of you if you choose to or choose not to do something.
3. Embrace change. Always be open to learning – if you look at every opportunity around you as one that can help you learn and evolve, you won’t be resistant to change.
4. Love without fear, give without fear and live without fear. This starts from being centred and grounded in yourself. If you love unconditionally, you will feel a lot lighter at heart.
5. Accept yourself the way you are, but strive to improve, no less. Yes, it is good to change, but change only for the better, and if it will benefit you and your loved ones.

6. Always eat well. It is important that you eat well, and eat nourishing food. Foods that have a rich supply of vitamins, folic acid, omega-3 fatty acids and salts keep your brains sharp and active. An empty stomach can also cause your mind to slow down. Starving is a big no-no!

7. Get enough sleep! If you give your body at least six to eight hours of sleep each day, your mind is sharp, alert and remains with good memory. You are less susceptible to stress when you rest well. Otherwise, your mind is full of thoughts and it destabilises your capacity to think.

8. Exercise regularly: Keeping your body fit and exercising regularly gives you physical strength to withstand stress. Exercises also keep your mind fit, allowing you to blow off steam from all the demands of life and work. Yoga and breathing exercises specifically help you fight stress and keep calm.

9. Be social: The more you talk to people around you and interact with them in real time, the better your mind is at staying healthy. Interactions have been confined heavily by technology, and these things tend to stunt your social skills. Talk to people, have simple and light-hearted conversations and engage with others for a healthy mind.

10. Indulge in a skill: Keep up with your hobbies and talents, enjoy a skill and hone a hobby. The more you do to keep your creative juices flowing, the more vibrant you become, inside and out. It gives your mind a fantastic workout that will allow you to be more alert and sharp. Doing puzzles and playing games also allows you to keep your memory, logical and decision-making skills and thinking skills alive.

11. Laugh out loud! Watch sitcoms that are funny, read a funny book, listen to jokes and perhaps even join a laughter club. The more you laugh, the more you allow your mind to soak in cheerful fervour. A cheery disposition sets in, making you capable of taking on life’s stresses without tension.

It is important to make sure that your mind, just as your body, gets all the nourishment it needs, to stay healthy. Don’t neglect your mental health – remember, you deserve happiness!

References:
http://awomanshealth.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
http://www.helpguide.org
http://articles.mercola.com

http://www.heartandsoul.com

Picture Courtesy:

hubspot.net

public-domain-image.com

 

How often have you seen a painting on the wall or a sculpture in a museum, and felt incredibly moved by what you saw? Have you found yourself feeling moved or healed by listening to music? Art has a fantastic healing effect that can help shift your mind and body – and indulging in art therapy is one of the best ways to ensure that you remain healthy, while also being fully in tune with the world around you.

Here are some of the advantages of art therapy.

1. Indulging in art as a passion can help you get things off your chest without actually having to talk about it. It can help you calm down and address a situation better.
2. Art therapy is a helpful way to channelise your energies into something that is more expressive, more creative and more healing centric.
3. Art therapy is an extremely useful way to address trauma. Sometimes, the impact of a trauma may be too disparaging on the health and mind of an individual – and this can culminate in illness. By siphoning out the impact of the trauma, the mind is liberated

4. You don’t have to be an artist before you take it as therapy – you can draw or paint or sing or dance to your heart’s content, and it doesn’t bind you with rules of any kind. It leaves you feeling accomplished because all that you create is purely a result of your own effort.
5. Art can work as a brilliant meditative ritual and channel your inner creative process.
Indulge in some of these simple art therapy projects:
6. Design your own handmade cards for your loved ones. Pour in your emotional attachment into your design and allow it to guide the final product.
7. Listen to music and indulge in a round of dance, with which the energy in you is creatively channelled.

8.Give your fear and anger expression in the form of a painting. Once you express it in colour and diagram, you will tend to feel a lot better.

9. Listen to music of your inclination – if you’re feeling angry, listen to something with beats, and try to get the anger out of your system. If you’re feeling sad, listen to an uplifting tune and dance along.

References:
www.huffingtonpost.com

Retail therapy really does help. We’re not kidding you! While a lot of focus goes on the inward and introspective side of healing oneself in body, mind and soul, it is equally important to create a favourable external environment that will impact the person positively.

To this end, it is vital to ensure that you allow yourself to indulge in the things you like – and retail therapy is one way to do that. The key to getting retail therapy right is to follow these simple ideas:
1. Allow yourself the shot to remain in control. Shopping and retail therapy allows you to stay in charge, since it lets you decide what to buy and what not to. This will let you feel like you are in charge, and help you dispense with the negativities that are stressing you out.
2. You know what you like, so don’t hesitate and just go get what you would actually enjoy. Indulge yourself, and allow yourself the luxury of buying exactly what you like, in the perfect size, colour and style.                                                 PC: hotlegaladvice.com

3. Watch people shopping, and spend time talking to storekeepers, stylists and vendors. You might just learn a trick or two, or even find yourself landing a good deal!
4. Shop with an open mind, browse when you can and just look through things you may not otherwise even look at. Who knows, you might just find something inspiring and fun!
5. Sometimes, spend on others as well. Giving gifts is also just as satisfying as getting gifts!
6. Make the most of your shopping spree and win loyalty points! Chances are that if you’re reading this article, you’re probably a shopper at heart.
7. Try on clothes, and indulge in new looks, new styles and be adventurous. You might find something incredibly new and something that suits you perfectly well.

                                               PC: syndicdecopropriete.net

Feature Image Courtesy: cliparts.co/

References:

https://helloheartapp.com/shopping-reduces-stress/
http://www.stresshack.com/shopping-to-reduce-work-stress.html

Life breezes past without so much as a spot of fresh air to breathe in. There’s always so much to do, and there’s always somewhere to be, something to see, someone to talk to or something to remember. With all this going on, one seldom finds room to indulge in the comforts of life. And yet, it is important to do that – to sit back, relax, and to allow yourself the unconditional pleasures of me-time. Here are some ways to do that.

– Sit back and take a nice, long hot bubble bath with some lavender bath salts for a shot to unwind.

– Take up a hobby and do something you love. Keep it simple and less activity oriented, so that there is nothing demanding on your mind and body.

– Always eat an Iron fortified meal after a particularly long drawn and tiring day, because it will help you energise yourself and regain your strength.

– Make it a point to connect with your friends, whether online, on the phone or in person. Talking to someone is always a good way to relax yourself.
– Do some yoga, or meditate for a bit.
– Take a power nap, but try not to oversleep lest you lose your night’s rest.
– Go for a walk outside – whether you live by the beach or in the heart of the city, find a comfortable spot and keep yourself occupied with a walk.
– Digitally detoxify and unplug yourself from work and if you think it will help, social media.
– Spend some time with your loved ones, or a pet. It helps to stay emotionally buoyed.

– Watch an old movie, or an outright mindless comedy that helps you laugh and stay emotionally charged.

References:
http://www.idiva.com/news-style-beauty/feel-tired-at-the-end-of-a-long-day-change-that-with-these-10-ways-to-rejuvenate/15121679
http://listovative.com/how-to-relax-feel-better-after-long-tiring-day-simple-tips/

Picture Courtesy: thinglink.com

Have you seen a Russian Nesting Doll? It has an outer shell in the shape of the doll: except that it can be twisted open in the centre like a bottle, and then, within, you’ll see another, which houses more within. There is a greater meaning attributed to these dolls – they aren’t just toys for children to play with. The underlying meaning of these toys is that we are all really layers within. We carry baggage, we carry memories of the past, and along with it, the emotional imprints of the bygone.

If one would agree that life is a journey, then it naturally follows that we are travellers. And we owe it to ourselves to travel light. Imagine making a trip on an airlines to your dream destination. Imagine carrying massive bags and bags of things that are unnecessary – but you simply can’t get rid of it – on the journey. Imagine how terrible that might be. You’re left lugging the bags wherever you go, or you wind up being worried about the safety of all your baggage. You owe yourself the freedom of travelling without all that heavy baggage that’s just, simply weighing you down.

To show you, in practical terms, let’s try an exercise. For every painful memory you have stored in your body, take one potato. Put all the potatoes inside a polythene bag and seal it tight. Write the date on which you start this on the polythene bag with a marker. For fifteen days from that date, carry the zip-lock bag everywhere you go: to work, to hang out with friends, to eat out, in public transport, to the gym, even to the toilet. Carry it on your person while awake and place it near your head, beside your pillow, at night. By the tenth day, it will start smelling. But continue, by all means. You will find people around you complaining. Fewer people will tolerate your presence around you. Fewer still will continue associating with you.

This is, in every sense of the term, a metaphorical representation of what your painful memories and baggage does to you. It creates a sense of inner heaviness that manifests in the form of symptoms: depression, anxiety, stress, relationship issues, lack of productivity at work, frugal concentration, and even physical ailments. That’s really only the tip of the iceberg. Imagine living your whole life this way.

Don’t end the year with baggage. Travel light. Be happy. Waltz into 2016 with happiness in your heart. Leave the ‘old you’ behind in 2015 and start the new year as ‘new you’. This is a gift you can give yourself, and believe you us, this is one gift with the longest lasting effects, ever.

An article from SeekSpark

Did you know that you don’t have to stay under pressure to get the best out of life? It’s a new year, and there’s room for a new you – a you that’s built on happiness, peace and a lot of comfort, without any stresses. Here are ten simple tips that you can use to build the life you want, and discover the new you!

1. Take less and give more: There is so much joy in giving, and in allowing more and more people to benefit from your generosity. Take, by all means, but not more than your needs require.
2. Work less, live more: Spend time doing things that you like and make you happy. Indulge in a hobby and a passion, and stay away from time-wasters. Make it a point to work and leave work back at work, and come home to spend time with yourself.
3. Do less, achieve more: Hard work is definitely important in this day and age, but smart work is what makes hard work succeed. Spend time working smartly, and allowing your hard work to gain direction. This will help you accomplish better.
4. Do less, BE more. Spend time to introspect and to accomplish as much as you can within yourself. Give yourself the space, time and bandwidth to be yourself, and to allow your inner personality to shine.
5. Speak less and listen more: The lesser you speak unnecessarily, the more you will be able to listen. Be a compassionate listener, and spend time with wise thoughts from intelligent speakers.
6. Buy less and recycle more: Try to avoid mindless spending and find a way to make use of things that you think are rendered useless, better. Old notebooks can be used to recycle paper, use empty bottles to make décor and brighten up your spaces.
7. Stock less and de-clutter more: Don’t clutter up your spaces – stay minimal and allow your spaces to breathe. Remember, a clutter free space represents a clutter free mind.
8. Be less angry and more compassionate: Try your hand at empathy. It is easy to get angry with people around you, but hold off on that anger – especially because it gets you nowhere. Try to understand where the other person is coming from, and practice compassion.
9. Control lesser, allow things to flow more: There are many things beyond your control, and there’s nothing wrong in admitting it. Allow things you cannot control to go on, as it does, and walk around it like it is not an obstacle that will affect you.
10. Be less cynical and dream more: Allow yourself to enjoy the happiness and creativity that being a dreamer brings with it. Indulge yourself in the spaces and the freedom that your ability to dream and indulge in your creative pursuits allows you.

References:
http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-23020/18-sacred-intentions-to-set-for-2016.html
http://www.psychicsuniverse.com/gallery/spirituality/attracting-positivity/10-positive-ways-start-new
http://lifestyle.allwomenstalk.com/ways-to-start-the-new-year-on-a-positive-note

This new year, make a commitment to your health, both in mind and body. Your state of mind of an individual affects his physical wellbeing and wellness. As they say, you are what you think, and a healthy mind means a healthy body. Staying healthy is really a choice: and before you decide to dismiss this as a run off the mill statement, hold on. There are many people in the world who have proved this. Here’s your guide to some of the healthy resolutions you should be making this year!

– That you will spend time in the outdoors and with nature: Allow your mind to breathe while your body does, expanding with space and light and soaking in good vibes. Go for a walk in the mornings or the evenings, and admire the scenes around you without worrying about anything.

– That you will exercise regularly: The more you exercise, the more your body begins to release endorphins, or feel good hormones. This, in turn, keeps your mind relaxed and body healthy, all because you feel happy.

– That you will eat healthy: When you deprive your body of food and energy, you wind up struggling under depression, anxiety and withdrawal symptoms that also make you feel fatigued and exhausted. Eating healthy helps your body stay supple and your mind, robust.

– That you will get enough rest and sleep: When you remain active each day, your body uses up a lot of its energy and needs to recharge. To do this, it needs sleep. When your body loses sleep, it loses the capacity to function normally, and the mind becomes tired and fatigued, so you fail to coordinate and remember things, and stay in a good mood, too.

– That you will drink enough water: When your body is dehydrated and loses its water and essential salts, which in turn leaves the mind bereft of its supply of energy. Dehydration can cause the mind to struggle with fatigue, anxiety and forgetfulness.

– That you will spend time in the company of others: Be gregarious and allow yourself to laugh and spend time with people around you. Don’t stay cooped up indoors and in isolation

– remember, cry and you cry alone. Laugh, and the world laughs with you!

– That you will, sometimes, do just nothing: Sit back on your recliner or lie flat on your back and admire the skies above, and enjoy spending time just relaxing. When you do nothing, your mind and brains recharge quicker and you become more productive.

– That you will refrain from unnecessary substance abuse.

References:
http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-18642/9-extraordinarily-simple-ways-to-get-healthy-happy.html
http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/5-ways-to-stay-happy-no-matter-what-happens/
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/10-scientifically-proven-ways-stay-happy-all-the-time.html
https://www.livealifeyoulove.com/how-to-stay-happy/

http://www.webmd.com/women/features/20-new-years-resolutions-you-can-really-keephttp://www.adecco.co.uk/news/10-new-year-resolutions.aspx

http://www.bodyandsoul.com.au/health/health+advice/galleries/5+healthy+new+years+resolutions+you+should+make,28187

Running around to buy, wrap and prepare your gifts this season? Sure. It can be crazy and harrowing. Here are a bunch of tips to keep in mind to make you stay free of stress this season!
1. Keep only the important and the priority tasks on hand. Don’t add onto your list of to-do tasks when you know that you can do away with some tasks that can either wait or don’t need your attention.
2. Cut back on the gift list: don’t go over the top and run after gifts that you know will be too much on your mind and body to discharge. Limit highly prioritized and specific gifts to children, draw names, or organize a gift exchange.

3. Wrap as you go. Who needs to spend Christmas Eve catching up on wrapping gifts? Sticky notes will help you keep track of gift contents!

4. Cook in advance, and get the family to join you on cooking together so it feels lighter on your shoulders.

5. Send out e-greetings, or make a phone call, or send out WhatsApp greetings. They are easy, inexpensive and fun to send. 
6. Go simple on the décor, don’t go over the top! Cleaning up is your task, remember?

7. Keep parties to potluck or communal giving parties rather than take on the task of cooking everything by yourself.

8. Get the family to join you on cleaning up afterwards. Use paper plates or plates made of recycle-able and bio-degradable material.
9. Stay at home with family! Staying home and welcoming guests over, to working on projects together is a wonderful way to spend the holidays, just sitting back and enjoying yourself, all with the joy of the festive season.

References:
http://christmas.organizedhome.com/reality-check/ten-ideas-stress-free-holiday-season
http://www.realsimple.com/holidays-entertaining/holidays/christmas/the-hectic-holiday-handbook