Category: Women Issues

How To Sleep Better In 2023, According To A Sleep Hygiene Expert

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While alot of people make New Year’s resolutions geared toward healthy eating and exercising, not many prioritize their sleep—which can seriously undermine all of your other efforts.According to the American Sleep Apnea Association, a staggering 50 to 70 million Americans struggle with sleep disorders like insomnia, sleep apnea and narcolepsy.Not getting adequate sleep can severely impact your physical and mental health in the long term— decreasing brain function, weakening the immune system and increasing the risk of various diseases including diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease and depression. Additionally, sleep deprivation can also negatively affect your mood and short-term memory.To help you catch more zzz’s in the coming year, here are eight expert-backed tips to try right away:

  • Take your sleep seriously. “Sleep is one of the most important things in life. It’s necessary for healthy brain function and resiliency. It can even help you lose weight and live longer. So if you’re not getting enough sleep, it’s likely because you don’t prioritize it as much as other aspects of your life,” says Martin Seeley, sleep expert and CEO at MattressNextDay. “Taking care of yourself and making time for rest will pay off in spades over time—so try to make sleep a priority every single night,” he adds.
  • Turn your electronic devices off at least an hour before your bedtime. The blue light emitted by the screens of your digital devices like smartphones, tablets and laptops can mess with your sleep cycle by disrupting your circadian rhythm and melatonin production. Therefore, it’s best to stop using any electronics at least one hour before bedtime, says Seeley. “If you have trouble falling asleep without checking your phone every few minutes or watching TV before bed, try downloading an app like Twilight or Light Timer (for iOS) to limit screen time during the evening,” he suggests.
  • Get up at the same time every day —even on weekends. One of the easiest ways to ensure that you’re getting enough sleep at night is to set an alarm every morning and stick with it. If you find yourself waking up early one day but sleeping in late another day, it can be hard to get back into a rhythm with your sleep schedule. “By setting an alarm every single day and going to bed at the same time every night (which will help you wake up at the same time), you’ll be able to maintain a healthy pattern of restorative sleep without having to worry about missing out on important hours during the week or staying up too late during weekends,” Seeley explains.
  • Avoid pressing ‘snooze’ on a morning alarm as it’s counter-productive. Research suggests that hitting the snooze button can have more of a negative effect on your day than a positive one. This is because a five-to-ten-minute snooze time only gives you enough time to go into ‘light sleep’ as it waits to enter the deep sleep state, otherwise known as REM. When the alarm goes off again your sleep cycle gets disrupted, making you feel tired and groggy despite it being the start of your day.
  • Drink at least four glasses of water throughout the day to keep your energy levels up. Even mild dehydration can leave you feeling sleepy, tired and irritable. Staying hydrated is not only proven to be energy-boosting but it can improve your cognitive performance, too. Seeley recommends drinking a glass of water as soon as you wake up.
  • Exercise for 30 mins to stimulate all of your brain’s good chemicals. Exercising stimulate brain chemicals like endorphins and serotonin that promote relaxation and help you fall asleep faster. “Try taking a walk outside for 30 minutes after dinner or doing yoga in the morning before work—both options will help reduce stress and increase energy levels throughout the day, so you can stay alert without feeling exhausted by midday,” adds Seeley.
  • Better yet, exercise outside. While this may not always be possible in winter, just 10 minutes spent in the sun can help boost your serotonin levels and stop you from feeling sleepy. Plus, “moving more is proven to help you sleep better, so you should try to move as much as you can throughout the week. It will help you feel tired at night and you’ll sleep better,” notes Seeley.
  • Try this meditative technique if you struggle to stay asleep. Resist the urge to check your phone when you wake up in the middle of the night as bright lights can interfere with your body’s production of melatonin and can stimulate wakefulness, which is not what you want. Moreover, checking the time on your phone will lead you to subconsciously calculate the hours left until you need to be awake—which will consequently make you more anxious and keep you up for longer, says Seeley. If you’re struggling to sleep, try this meditative technique known as a full-body scan. Simply close your eyes and breathe slowly. Next, focus on your face and think about relaxing each of the muscles in your face. After thirty seconds to a minute, move onto your neck and do the same thing for thirty seconds. Then your shoulders and then your arms. “Essentially, you want to relax every muscle until you make your way down to your feet,” Seeley explains.

10 Simple Ways To Start Eating Healthier

Margaret Mead had rightly said, “It is easier to change a man’s religion than to change his diet.” For most of us, changing unhealthy eating habits is a Herculean task. In fact, according to a 2012 study, more than 50% of Americans (that were polled) felt that doing their taxes is easier than figuring out how to eat healthy.

From misconceptions like equating healthy eating with bland food and unrealistic fitness goals (think v-cut abs and thigh gap) to contradictory food studies and unsustainable fad diets, there are numerous factors that make healthy eating seem like a complicated affair. But it doesn’t have to be so overwhelming. “Healthy eating should be varied and delicious,” says Fiorella DiCarlo, an NYC-based registered dietitian. “ The more stimulated your palate is, the more likely you are to adhere to eating nutritious food.”

Here are ten easy-peasy tips to start eating healthy this year (and actually stick to it):

  • Choose whole foods instead of processed. Swap your frozen pizza and instant ramen with whole foods like fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. They are packed with essential nutrients like protein, fiber, healthy fats, vitamins and minerals as opposed to processed foods which contain empty calories. “Commit to adding veggies to your lunch and dinner and fruit to your snack,” suggests DiCarlo.
  • Say no to sugary drinks. The average American drinks around 45 gallons of soda each year, according to the Beverage Marketing Corporation. Other than the obvious risk of Type 2 diabetes and obesity, consuming sugary beverages can also cause liver damage, premature aging and anxiety. So, instead of sipping packaged juice or soda, go for unsweetened beverages or infused water.
  • Keep healthy food readily available. When you get hungry, you’re more likely to eat the first thing you see on the counter or in the cupboard. Keep healthy food in easily accessible and visible places in your home and workplace. Put some fruits in a basket and place it on the kitchen counter, store healthy snacks at eye level in your pantry and stock up your fridge with small batches of cooked whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables. At work, store quick bites like almonds, pistachios and dried berries in a jar and place it on your desk or in its top drawer.
    • Try the “Outer Ring” technique while buying food. Author James Clear suggests using this smart strategy while grocery shopping. “Only shop on the outer perimeter of the store. This is usually where the healthy food lives: fruits, vegetables, lean meats, fish, eggs, and nuts. If you only shop on the outer ring, then you’re more likely to buy healthy foods,” he explains.
    • Go nuts for nuts (and seeds). From protein and healthy fats to vitamins and minerals, these superfoods pack a serious nutritional punch. Similarly, seeds like chia, flaxseed and pumpkin seeds are nutritional powerhouses too. They are an excellent source of vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals like calcium, zinc, and magnesium. You can add them to your favorite baking recipe, sprinkle them over your cereal or simply munch on them instead of a candy bar.
    • Eat more fish. The American Heart Association recommends eating fish (particularly fatty fish like salmon and mackerel) at least twice a week. Loaded with omega-3 fatty acids, this superfood improves brain and heart health and may reduce the risk of diseases like Alzheimer’s, dementia and diabetes.
    • Use whole grain flour in baking recipes. For some guilt-free indulgence, use whole grain flour in your baking recipes. Whole grain flour includes the bran and the germ which make it more nutritious than its refined counterpart. Start off by subbing half of the flour in the recipe with spelt flour (or any other whole grain flour of your choice) and see how it works. Here are some handy tips for baking with whole grain flours.
    • Eat in smaller plates. Science says that eating on a large plate tricks your brain into thinking that you haven’t eaten enough. Eat on a smaller plate to feel full quicker and avoid overeating. Moreover, the color of your plate could impact your food intake as well. According to a study conducted by Cornell University, people eat less when there is a higher color contrast between the plate and the food. If the color contrast between the two is lower, we tend to eat more. For instance, if you eat pasta with alfredo sauce on a white plate, you’ll probably eat more as compared to eating in, say, a blue plate.
    • Count nutrients, not calories. If you want to improve the quality of your diet, focus on the nutrients in your food instead of calories.  “Our energy intake can only depend on our ability to extract that energy from food,” writes blogger and nutritionist Rhiannon Mack. “All calories are not created equal – it is the quality of the calorie that has the most impact on health, not necessarily the quantity,” she explains in a post that appeared in Move Nourish Believe.
    • Add more probiotic foods to your diet. Consume probiotic foods “like Kefir to improve healthy gut bacteria which is responsible for digestion, extraction of nutrients from food and building the immune system,” says the nutrition expert. Probiotic foods like yogurt, apple cider vinegar and soft cheeses are also gut-friendly.

    Other than that, increase your water intake to “at least two liters a day,” DiCarlo suggests. Also, don’t shun fatty food. “Naturally occurring fats like fat in dairy products allow you to feel fuller longer and to better absorb fat-soluble vitamins like Vitamin-D,” she explains.

Obesity Causes Breast Cancer? 15 Breast Cancer Rumours Debunked

Breast cancer awareness is on the rise and so are the tumorous rumors surrounding it. See how many of the following 15 myths/facts you know or have heard of to avoid serious repercussions.

 

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5 Great Reasons To Retrain As A Plumber

If, like many people, you are considering starting your own business and becoming self-employed, you may want to retrain as a plumber before you start and then open your own plumbing business. There are many great reasons to choose this career, and here are just a few of them.

Job stability

There are a handful of professionals who are always in demand. Doctors, nurses, veterinarians, and undertakers, for example. You can also add plumbers to that list. For many people, the water systems inside their houses are completely unfathomable, and when they go wrong – as they must from time to time – they will need an expert (you) to come and fix them. A good plumber should always be able to find customers.

Career advancement

Due to the fact that plumbing is a licensed, regulated trade, everyone who is qualified has the opportunity to move up to master level if they want to. Imagine the referrals and phone calls you would get if you ran your own plumbing business and you were a master plumber. Your profits would increase.

A varied day

Although as an entrepreneur you will have to do your paperwork and administrative tasks, for a lot of time, you will be on the road, in the fresh air, meeting new people. You might install boards from JustWedi in someone’s shower in the morning and fixing a leaky faucet in the afternoon. You may work in a house, apartment, even in industrial areas. No two days will be the same, and you’ll also have a great work-life balance if you work for yourself. You can plan your day out to fit in with your other commitments, and you’ll feel much more relaxed and happier for it.

Benefits to you

Training as a plumber has many benefits, but those that help your own body and mind are some of the best. Since it is an active job, you will stay fit and healthy physically. It also requires a lot of brain power to solve puzzles when it comes to how water is piped or why something is leaking when it shouldn’t be. Having an active mind is also beneficial. Not only that, but a different kind of advantage is that you will never have to pay for a plumber again; you can do all the work yourself in your own home and save yourself a lot of money.

Job satisfaction

Not all jobs come with a built-in job satisfaction, but plumbing does. When you walk away from a finished job, and your client has clean running water that is safe to drink, or they can have a great shower, or their boiler is working again, you can pat yourself on the back and feel good about yourself. It makes it so much easier to get up for work the next day knowing you’ll make people happy, and you can sleep at night with a smile on your face.

What Business Solutions Can Help Your Business Grow?

If you are looking to expand your business and see growth in the near future, there are a number of business solutions that can help you achieve this. In the next post, we will cover what these are and how they can benefit the future growth of your business. Keep reading to learn more.

Marketing

Marketing is one of the best ways to help give your business the boost it needs for growth and expansion. If used correctly, it can help increase awareness of your business and reach new customers, as well as help you maintain the loyalty of existing customers. Before investing in marketing, you need to think about which form of it is most suitable for your business and will help you reach your target audience. Work with your team to come up with a marketing strategy that you think would work best for what you are trying to achieve with your marketing. For example, is the goal to keep existing customers interested? Reaching a new demographic of people to help expand your business horizons? Or reach out to other businesses for partnerships? You can then base your decision on marketing based on this. Some examples of marketing strategies include:

  • Content marketing
  • Social media
  • B2B (business to business)
  • B2C (business to customer)
  • SEO (search engine optimization)
  • PPC (pay-per-click)

Accounting

If your business expands, takes on more work or hires more staff, the amount of accounting workload involved will increase. Therefore, it can be helpful to use accounting business solutions to help streamline your business and ensure that accounts are well managed. This may mean outsourcing some of your accounting work outside to the company or using accounting software to help your HR department with its workloads.

Logistics and storage

If your business needs to make deliveries or store stock, then finding the right logistics and warehousing solutions is an important decision. It will affect the day-to-day operation and organization of your business, as well as how your services are represented to customers. If you are looking for a 3PL Company in Texas, then SCHC offers high quality and securely controlled storage solutions for your business, to give you peace of mind that your inventory is securely managed. Make sure when looking for a logistics company that you use a provider with a good reputation and excellent customer communication. They will be involved in representing your business, so it’s good to be selective about who you choose.

IT

IT can be a huge area of ​​many businesses and vital to the smooth running of your operations. IT solutions help ensure that the IT department of your business and the tasks involved are streamlined and operating at their best. This will help ensure that you keep up with important areas such as customer service, accounting, marketing and orders. IT solutions will help ensure that your business is able to scale and meet demand, while operations, projects and campaigns run smoothly.

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The post I Made $850,000 From My Personal Brand: So What Is a Personal Brand, and How to Build One? appeared first on BEYOUROWN.

What Are The Core Basics Of Omni-channel Marketing? By Cedarwood Digital

Omnichannel marketing is an integral part of most digital marketing campaigns, but getting all channels to effectively work together and report on them as one can often be a challenge, so how do you master the basics of omnichannel marketing and actually do it? does it work for your business?

Cedarwood Digital is one of Manchester’s leading digital agencies, working with a diverse set of national clients to improve their business’s visibility online through organic, earned and paid channels. With 12 years of Digital Marketing experience under her belt, Amanda Walls founded the business six years ago, which was recently named the UK Small Business Agency of the year in 2021, now Amanda shares some hacks on understanding omnichannel marketing.

Create branding guidelines and consistency

Regardless of the brand or service, when approaching an omnichannel marketing campaign, consistency is key. Users can take up to ten touch points before they engage with a brand and if you’re putting your brand in front of your target market, then having a consistent tone of voice, guidelines and material will help keep that user journey as smooth as possible. Ideally start with a brand guidelines document, one central hub where you keep everything including graphics, colors, fonts, tones of voice, branding approaches – basically anything related to how the brand should come across. Remember to reference this at every point of the omnichannel journey.

Understand your consumer

Once there is an understanding of how the brand should come across, the next step is to understand who this is coming to – who is your audience? Audience profiling plays a key role in omnichannel marketing because, when it comes to building a funnel and identifying the right channel for the right stage, it’s important to understand what that audience looks like and most importantly, what their wants and needs are. Audience profiling and building personas is a great way to start and this can be done through either initial market research, competitor analysis or just your own data and product knowledge!

Plan and identify your funnel

Building a funnel is essential to omnichannel marketing; the marketing funnel should consist of a number of different stages, usually Top Of Funnel (the research stage), Middle Of Funnel (the consideration stage) and Bottom Of Funnel (The Purchase/Engagement stage). At each stage in this funnel, a different channel or a different approach to channel should be used. In the initial stages, building a funnel and mapping each channel to each stage of the funnel will help you identify which funnels you need at which stages and help you develop an effective overall strategy.

Test your channels individually and together

Test and Learn plays an important role in any omnichannel campaign; this means looking at each channel initially individually and evaluating how it works to advance your business objective. After you have evaluated each channel, individually test it in cooperation with other channels; an example here might be using Display and Paid advertising together. Display advertising is usually used to drive brand awareness but may not be sufficient alone to drive conversion; by using this in conjunction with other more direct channels, such as Paid advertising or Meta remarketing, you can drive conversions. Often you need multiple touch points to drive conversions, so it’s important to put a value on each element in this journey and really assess how much value each channel brings and how they work best together.

Understand attribution

For anyone looking to undertake omnichannel marketing, attribution is key. Each channel will usually have its own preferred attribution strategy but, unless you can bring all of these together in one place, you could find yourself over-allocating to certain channels or under-allocating to others. Solutions to this can be found by using platforms like Google Analytics, along with additional features like UTM codes to help bring all the different channels together into one platform with one attribution model. In turn, this allows all channels to be shown together and a better understanding of how each one performs individually and also works together with the others.

By following the tips outlined above, you’ll be well on your way to creating a successful omnichannel marketing experience!

Effective Ways to Improve Recruiting and Finding Good Talent

Finding good talent and recruiting the right people for the job is a very important part of any business. In fact, many companies will have a dedicated person to help them with this or use an outside company like TalentSpa to do it for them.

Recruiting the right people is a challenge in itself. Just like a soccer team wants to buy the best players to win the league, the same can be said about business. The better your recruits are, the better job they will do for you. This can affect many areas of your business, your operations can improve, and your sales could improve, which will generally help your profits.

In order to recruit the best people, there are a few changes you may need to make to make your business as attractive as possible. Below are our effective ways to improve recruiting and find good talent.

Have a strong vision to move forward

When people are looking for new jobs, they want to feel that the company they are going to is ambitious, stable and takes care of their employees. From the outside in, you want to represent this in everything you do. Part of doing this is have a strong vision moves forward What are your goals in the future? Do you look like an ambitious company? Do your employees know what you are striving to achieve? Mission statements help with this and having regular company meetings to show your employees that you’re doing well can help.

Ask questions that make them feel special

If speaking to the potential candidate, you are keen on them, let them know that. Make them feel special and ask questions they will appreciate. You want them to want the job, but at the same time you want them to feel like you want them to work for you too. If they don’t feel special and they are that good, chances are that other companies will want them to work for them and will try their best to poach them from you.

Clear career progression

The best employees are very serious about theirs careers. That’s why you want to show potential employees that you take your staff’s careers seriously. What are you doing to support their career? Is there a clear career progression they can get on board with and get excited about? Do you regularly offer promotions? To work with the best clients? And willing to invest and support them through training programs? Showing you care about their career could be the difference between them working for you or working with another company – remember these are the best recruits you want working for you.

We hope the above tips will help you recruit the best talent at your company. What tips do you have for finding good talent? Which of the above tips do you most agree with? Is there something you want to share that will help our readers? Let us know in the comment box below.

How You Can Lower Your Work Stress

Chances are good that you’ve read a lot about work-related stress and burnout over the past couple of years. So many people out there have experienced burnout, and the truth is that it’s easier to find ways to lower your stress levels before it happens than it is to repair the damage that’s been done after the fact. With that in mind, here are some easy ways to help you reduce your work stress.

Set clear boundaries

Let’s start with one of the most important measures you can take. One of the biggest factors in job stress and burnout is that it’s much easier to take your work home with you these days, and it’s much easier for your employers to contact you when you’re at home. If you work from home anyway, then the boundaries can disappear quickly. You must be firm about when you start and stop your work for the day.

Don’t overdo it on the caffeine

It can always be tempting to start smashing the coffee when you’re pushed to a tight deadline. But this can be the start of a vicious cycle where you’ll start sleeping poorly because of all the caffeine, and then you’ll need more caffeine at the start of the day to get you going. It’s about time you consider replacing some of those coffees with caffeine-free alternatives. Chamomile tea is famous for its calming qualities, and CBD tea can be even more relaxing. Visit The Good Level to find out more about the benefits and charms of drinking CBD-infused beverages.

Give yourself more light

If you still work from home, like many of us, then you need to make sure that your workplace is located somewhere that doesn’t make you feel more stressed than you need to be. If you can find a room that is solely dedicated to work, then that’s a good start, but you also need to think about lighting. It is not just to help you look better during video calls. It’s about helping your mental health. If you can’t find a space next to a window, then look at what other light sources you can bring in. You’ll also want to think about adding a SAD (seasonal affective disorder) lamp before the winter as well. This can make a big difference in alleviating your stress.

get organized

When you’re overworked at work, it can be hard to see the forest for the trees. Each new assignment is the most important thing, and even the most experienced manager can struggle to juggle all of their different responsibilities. One of the best ways to get around this issue is to make sure you are as organized as possible. Find a layout that works for you, whether it’s a spreadsheet, a cork board, or lots of different post-it notes, you have to find a way to sort through the chaos and find the order you need.

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