7 Steps For A More Confident You This Year

We aren't all born with oodles of self-confidence. In fact, people aren't actually born with self-confidence at all. It is something they develop as they age and develop. But here's the problem. While many of us can become more confident, some of us become less so as time goes on. People can put us down and make us doubt our own abilities. We can fail at certain things and see our confidence levels drop as a result. And we can be naturally anxious when faced with dilemmas and obstacles in our life, and this can also cause us to lose confidence if we let our anxieties get the better of us.

So, the message for you dear reader is this. Don't worry if you're not as confident as you want to be. Don't be alarmed if your confidence levels haven't yet reached Empire State Building proportions. We aren't all as brave and fearless as we want to be. However, we can still take steps to build our self-confidence, and if you're relating to you, this can include the following.

#1: Unfollow the people who make you feel insecure

People have a powerful impact on our lives. Some of them can lift us up, and some of them can put us down. So, if there is anybody in your life that makes you feel insecure, stop following them. And by 'following' we aren't talking solely about social media. And we're obviously not talking about stalking them. Rather, we are thinking of those people whose every word you hinge on; those people that you base your thoughts and feelings of self-worth on. If they make you feel rubbish, distance yourself from them! This includes the people you have to be in close proximity with. You don't have to take to heart the hurtful words they feed you, so block them out and replace their words with something more positive.   

#2: Surround yourself with the people who support you

As a follow on from the last point, spend more time with the people who make you feel good about yourself. We are thinking of those people that you feel comfortable spending time with; those people who leave you with a smile on your face and with feelings of elation. Of course, we aren't talking to people who will lie to you just to make you feel good. We aren't referring to people who will insincerely pamper your ego. Rather, we are thinking about those people who genuinely care for you and who want to help you be the best person that you can be. If these people make you feel good and give you a boost to your confidence levels, spend as much time as you can with them. In these pandemic times, this might mean regular Zoom calls or conversations on the phone. 

#3: Focus on your appearance

If there is anything about your appearance that is knocking your self-confidence, deal with it. Again, we know it's easier said than done, but there are some basic things you can to help yourself. If you're too afraid to open your mouth because of wonky or discolored teeth, a trip to the dentist might be beneficial to you. If you feel down because you're carrying excess weight, you might want to download a few workout apps to help you shed the pounds. These are just a couple of examples, but we're sure you catch the drift. And when talking about your appearance, consider the clothes you wear. Sometimes a new outfit can reinvigorate the way we feel, especially when it is something that is smart and more comfortable to wear, so add something to your wardrobe if you have the spending power to do so. 

#4: Be your own cheerleader

It's great when other people cheer us on, but when they're in short supply, we sometimes have to do it ourselves. We know this can be hard to do when we're feeling rubbish, as we tend to put ourselves down instead of lifting ourselves up. But try to avoid this if you can, because you should be able to think of reasons why you should feel encouraged. At the start of each day, keep in mind the successes you have experienced in the past. Remember all of your good qualities and list them in your head. You might even write down some of these things and stick them to your wall, as you will have something to remind you of how wonderful you are. You might then start the day with a positive mindset, and that could do much to shape how the rest of your day goes. Here are some affirmation quotes to help you cheer yourself onwards. 

#5: Just do it!

Do what, we hear you ask? Well, that depends on you. For those things you really want to do but have been too afraid to try, let this year be the year of change. If you know you need to go back to school to get a new qualification, just do it! If you have been putting off driving lessons for years, just book them! If you have been too afraid to ask the girl or guy of your dreams out on a date, just open your mouth! And yes, we know we are simplifying things here, especially when you have excuses and fears that get the better of you. But here's a motto worth remembering:

If you want something you have never had before, you have got to do something you have never done before! 

So, don't let this year go by without trying to attain your goals. Yes, you might have to find money to achieve some of them. You might need to commit to research for advice on the way forward. And you might even need to seek the counsel of another for guidance and support. But do what needs to be done, as your confidence levels won't rise if you let your anxieties rule your thoughts. When you have achieved what you may have thought impossible, you will receive that boost to your self-esteem.

#6: Give yourself a break

Listen, there will be times when you fail. It sucks, but failure doesn't have to define you. When you make mistakes this year, pick yourself up and try again. If you persevere long enough, you will eventually stop falling. And if you can't stop falling, enlist somebody to help you conquer your obstacles. This is better than giving up, especially where your self-confidence is concerned. So, give yourself a break. Don't beat yourself up every time you do something wrong. You're not perfect, but you can get better. And this applies to all other aspects of your life. Show yourself more grace instead of dwelling on the negative side of your life. There will be things about you that are good, so concentrate on them while seeking to improve anything that is in your power to change. Your confidence levels will grow if you do.

#7: Do more of what you're good at

We aren't telling you not to try new things. However, you should also add to the mix those things that you know you are good at as you are almost guaranteed to feel better about yourself when you do. So, think about your skills and work on those. Whether you're a painter, a musician, a writer, or something else besides, do what you're good at and benefit from the confidence you will feel when you do or create something great. Then do them some more, especially if they bring you happiness and joy in your life. After all, you owe it to yourself to feel good inside. 

So, here's to a more confident you. Do whatever it takes, as this time next year, you might be in a better place than where you are at the moment.

Take care and thanks for reading. 

The Rules Of Friends With Benefits

The friends-with-benefits situation is an age-old thing. There’s no shame in it. In fact, having a friend with benefits can be very convenient, as you get the fun without the future, if that’s what you want. However, there are rules for being friends with benefits that should be carefully followed, so the relationship thrives.

There is a lot to love about the idea of no strings attached sex with someone that you like and respect but don’t want a future with. However, friends with benefits can be tricky if you don’t set any ground rules. Are allowed to tell other people that you’re hooking up or is it a secret? It is okay to cancel a hookup in favor of a real date with someone else? Should you be both be getting tested somewhere like Tarrant County if you’re also seeing other people? What happens if one friend starts to catch feelings for the other? How will you address this? When the line starts to blur, things can get messy, and your fun hookup can become a source of drama. 

To avoid confusion, awkwardness, and disappointments, here are some things to keep in mind. Every friends with benefits arrangement is different, but these are some of the hard and fast rules that you should pay attention to before getting in deep with a friend. 

Choose Someone Honest

You need to make sure that you are both open about everything. Both of you should be on the same page in case one of you starts to develop feelings for the other. The same rules apply if one of you wants to end the arrangement. You both need to be okay with the end result, so trust and communication are key. It could be worth using an app such as SkipTheGames to find your friend with benefits, that way you both know exactly what you are getting into with no risk of confusion.

Speak Your Mind

The main point of having a friend with benefits is to have fantastic sex. Be upfront about what you like and don’t like in bed, and encourage your partner to do the same. You don’t have to try anything that you don’t feel comfortable with, but let each other know what you’re into and see if you have a shared sexual fantasy that you can live out. 

Ensure You’re Emotionally Ready

Casual can quickly become anything but casual if you aren’t emotionally prepared for it. Some people are able to disassociate the act from the emotion, but others do struggle to do this, which is okay. A lot of people are programmed to feel connected to someone after they sleep with them, so you need to make sure that you’re okay with having sex with someone that won’t lead to anything deeper. 

Practice Safe Sex

Always practice safe sex. Use condoms with your friend with benefits. Condoms prevent you from getting pregnant with a partner that you aren’t interested in long-term, but they also make sure that you stay free from STDs. This is important when you’re having sex with someone that you aren’t monogamous with. You don’t want to risk messing up what should be a fun time for you both. 

Keep Your Eyes And Heart Open For New Relationships

In other words, try not to get too comfortable or close yourself off from finding someone that want to have an actual relationship with. You don’t want to miss out on getting to know someone great for you just because you have an arrangement with a friend. 

Don’t Have Sleepovers

Having sleepovers can confuse things. You want to keep yourself from getting emotionally attached, so sleeping next to your friend with benefits, and waking up next to them, is very intimate. Say good night, take a shower, and get into bed feeling relaxed, satisfied, and comfortable with the fact that they went home. 

Don’t Cuddle

In a similar vein, be careful with cuddling. If you have an arrangement where cuddling is on the table, then, by all means, cuddle up. Otherwise, try not to do this. Cuddling also encourages intimacy, which is a no-no with your friend with benefits. You want to try to keep things simple, and a cuddle can complicate things. 

Don’t Expect Bells And Whistles

Don’t expect anything that is like an actual relationship from your friend with benefits. You shouldn’t be going out of your way to plan anything that is romantic for the two of you wither. Don’t have fancy dinners, bring flowers or gifts, or play games. When you have a friend with benefits, you’re only having casual sex and maybe some conversation, and that’s it.

Build Healthy Bones: 6 Natural Ways

Building healthy bones is crucial for stability and general well-being. Minerals are incorporated into your bones right from childhood all the way to early adulthood. By the time you're in your 30s, you've already achieved the peak bone mass.

Failure to have enough bone mass may lead to fragile bones that break easily.

Luckily, several lifestyles and nutrition habits help in building strong and healthy bones.

Let’s have a look at these six natural ways of building strong and healthy bones.

1. Vegetables Are Great for Your Bones

Vegetables are readily available and quite affordable. They also provide rich vitamin C that stimulates the production of bone-forming cells. The antioxidants found in vitamin C protect bone cells from getting damaged.

High intake of yellow and green vegetables increases bone mineralization in children and maintains a great bone mass in adults. More so, it lowers the risk of osteoporosis.

2. Eat Enough Proteins

about 50% of your bones are made of protein. Low protein intake minimizes calcium absorption, which may affect bone formation.

On the other hand, high consumption of proteins leaches calcium from bones. Therefore, you need to consume protein moderately- at least 100 grams per day. High protein intake lowers the risk of fractures.

3. Consume Vitamin D

Vitamin D is an essential element required to keep teeth, muscles, and bones healthy. Vitamin D deficiency may cause bone deformities such as rickets.

Most nutritionists may request you to order vitamin D test frequently to know the levels of vitamin D. Sunlight is the greatest and free source of vitamin D.

Other sources include red meat, egg yolks, oily fish, and fortified foods.

4. Strength Training

Engaging in strength training helps you build and maintain healthy bones. This is one of the best fitness tips that promote the formation of new and string bone.

Strength training is both good for muscle mass and protecting you against bone loss. It increases bone density. More so, it enhances the quality of your life and manages chronic conditions.

5. Avoid Low-Calorie Diets

There are fad diets all over that advocate low-calorie meals for weight loss. This is not a good idea. You might lose some pounds but develop weak bones.

 Creating a rebound hunger will slow down your metabolism and lead to muscle mass loss. This is harmful to your bone health. Avoid diets that provide less than 1,000 calories per day.

Low-Calorie diets can cause a lower bone density in obese, normal-weight, or overweight individuals.

6. Maintain Stable, Healthy Weight

Being overweight puts pressure on your bones. That’s why you should maintain a stable and healthy weight to support bone health.

On the other hand, low body weight contributes to reduced bone density and leads to bone loss. Studies also implicate that obesity can impair your bone quality and risk fractures.

The Bottom Line

Having strong and healthy bones is essential at all stages of life. This is something you shouldn't tend to take for granted. These natural remedies are affordable and readily available to maintain healthy bones. 

How to Easily Get a Quick Cash Loan

Taking out a loan is something that requires careful forethought and deliberation. If you do not carefully plan out your loan and just take one out on an impulse, you can find yourself in trouble in the future and may have your financial record and credit score besmirched for years to come. Taking loans out, while useful at times, is not something that should be done frivolously and without careful thought, we assure you. The consequences of being careless with loans can be a massive detriment to your life and prevent you from getting a mortgage, among other things.

In this article, we are going to tell you how you can easily get a loan and the consequences of not paying back a loan on time. We hope you will heed our warning when it comes to careless borrowing.

Here is how you can easily get out a quick cash loan and why you should always pay it back on time.

Wait for a Second, Do You Need It?

Before you go ahead and take out a loan impulsively, just take a deep breath, sit down, and ask yourself: do you need it? Many people take out loans for no good reason at all and find themselves in a lot of trouble later down the line. Yes, getting a loan can be of great benefit in some cases, but in others, it is not. We hope you will seriously ask yourself whether or not a loan is at all necessary for you, or if you are just being impulsive and want to buy something that you do not need. Only take a loan out for purchases that you cannot live without.

Find a Lender

Finding a trusted lender is the most important thing when it comes to quickly get a loan. You, assuming you do want a cash loan, will need to find a payday lender, who will transfer you the money the same day. Payday lenders vary from country to country, so if you are in America, find a top-rated lender by scanning reviews and financial advice boards, and if you are in, say, Singapore, find a top rated money lender in Singapore, so you do not wind up borrowing from a shark. Only find trusted lenders.

Interest Rates

Interest rates are something that you absolutely must think about before you take out a loan. You need to do some research and establish what the interest rate of your proposed lender is. If you borrow with high interest, you could end up paying back up to five times what you actually borrowed. You should be able to find information about a loan company’s interest rates on their website. Be sure to check out the interest rates so that you can ensure you are not being conned and that you will not lose out on a lot of money for no good reason.

Repayment Schemes

You also need to ensure that the company you intend on borrowing from has reasonable repayment schemes. Many payday lenders are sharks and hounds when it comes back to paying back loans. They will force you into a repayment scheme you cannot manage nor afford, and will hound you until you pay it back, likely taking some kind of action against you to force you into paying it all back immediately.

Credit

You need to ensure, before taking out a loan, that you have a good credit score, otherwise you will not be accepted. Your credit needs to be good enough to take out a loan to begin with, otherwise, it will go down when they search to see if you are eligible for a loan, further marking your credit score, meaning you are less likely to be accepted for loans in the future. Your credit score is a valuable thing, as we will explain in the next paragraph, addressing what happens if you do not repay your loan.

Not Repaying Your Loan? Big Mistake

If you do not repay your loan on time, the lender can send forward the case to debt collectors who will add interest on top of the loan and then come to your home to collect it. They may force entry, or they may send you to court. Either way, it is not an experience you want to have. Additionally, the lender will add a mark to your credit score, which will bring it down considerably and will stay with you for at least six years, this is called a default.

In this article, we hope to have told you how you can easily get a quick cash loan. We hope that you have enjoyed this article and that you will come back and visit us again soon. Thank you for reading the article, folks. Be safe!

Important Things to Consider Before Buying A Massage Chair

Massages have existed since time immemorial and have been used for relaxation and healing. A modern variation of the massage is having a chair massage you.

A massage chair is one of the most inspired inventions of our age. It brings massage therapy to your home without having to rely on anyone else.

A massage can do many things for your body. It can help you with your posture, circulation and relieve pain among other things. Massage chairs can indeed offer a luxurious and convenient way to experience the therapeutic benefits of massage in the comfort of your own home.

Therefore, having a massage chair in your home can be a fantastic idea. However, there are several things you should consider before buying a massage chair such as:

1. Budget

Before you even start your search for a massage chair, you should set a budget. It is a significant investment that will affect your body’s health and your bank account. Therefore, you should create a budget that seems adequate to you.

The prices of massage chairs range widely and will depend on a lot of factors. If you have a budget, you will have a fantastic guide of what price range your massage chair should be in and what features to choose from. However, if you are on a budget meal and want to still feel relaxed, getting an electromechanical massage machine can be an alternative solution for you as it is more affordable and convenient.

Therefore, you should evaluate your finances and decide how much you are willing to spend on a massage chair. Ensure that you live within your means and don’t go into debt buying a massage chair.

2. Features

You will also want to seriously consider which features you would like your massage chair to have. The features you want will be closely linked to the use of the massage chair. If you are using the chair for back pain relief you will need different features than if you want a massage chair to just help you relax. Modern massage chairs have so many features that most can do just about anything for you.

There is a wide variety of features to choose from for your massage chair. You should note that the more features your massage chair have, the more it is likely to cost. 

People looking for a relaxing piece of furniture like to click for Osaki massage chair that provide a range of advanced features, which offer everything from heat therapy to full-body massage options. Investing in a chair with additional features can enhance your relaxation experience, but it's important to balance your budget with your needs

3. Dealer

A crucial consideration to make will be where you will buy your massage chair. Unlike other pieces of furniture in your home, a massage chair is not something you easily pick out in a store. You should choose a dealer who sells as many types of massage chairs as possible. You should check out primemassagechairs.com for more information. Doing your research beforehand will be of a lot of help. The dealer you choose to buy your massage chair from will affect the cost of the chair as they may have different payment plans. You should always ensure that you have a guaranteed warranty when you buy a massage chair from any dealer.

4. Location

You will have to seriously consider where you are going to place the massage chair. It is not a piece of furniture that you would like everyone to have access to unless you allow it. Moreover, most massage chairs are massive and take up a lot of space in a room. Therefore, you will have to ensure that the chair is in a spacious room where the chair does not impede on anything else.

The location of the massage chair will depend on whether you want the chair to stay in the same place or to be mobile. If you get a massage chair with wheels, then portability will be addressed.

5. Rollers

Massage chairs use rollers to massage your body when you sit on them. There are different types of roller technology which is a consideration you will have to make before buying a massage chair. There are essentially three types of roller systems available: 2D, 3D, and 4D. 2D rollers are the oldest and only move in two dimensions.

3D rollers perform in and out movements as well as horizontal and vertical movements for a more comprehensive massage. They were the first rollers capable of performing a deep tissue massage. 4D rollers are the most advanced roller system available today. The difference between 3D and 4D rollers is that the former has manually controlled speed systems whereas 4D rollers have automatic speed adjustment.

6. Durability

You are probably going to own and use a massage chair for several years. Therefore, you need a chair that is durable. You should get a heavy-duty massage chair especially if you are going to be using it every day. You should also consider your size and weight when evaluating the durability of the massage chair. The chair should be easy to repair if it does get damaged. Maintenance costs can really pile up for a weak and hard to fix massage chair.

There are many considerations to make when purchasing a massage chair. If you can consider the factors above, you should have a massage chair you enjoy. However, there is no substitute for trusting your gut.