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It is indeed possible to lose weight without ever spending a dime on a gym subscription. Simply put, you lose weight when you burn more calories than you consume daily. To get started, aim to consume 300-400 fewer calories than your daily requirement and fit in a basic aerobic exercise such as walking, jogging, or cycling for at least 30 minutes a day into your daily schedule. Stay adequately hydrated and sleep for 7-8 hours every day. Good luck!

To whomever it may concern, I hope this post finds you well. I have hit my 7th and look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for taking the time to read my posts and comments. I hope that you have found them to be well written and informative, while also shedding light on my own personality through topics that are personal to me. I am excited to have the opportunity to write, if I am accepted, as I enjoy writing a lot and feel that I thrive putting together the written word.

Incarceration is never a positive topic, but it needs to be talked about. There are bad people out there, we all know this. There are people who will be in prison the rest of their lives because they have done really horrible things that can’t be forgiven and they are punished to the utmost. There are crimes that are committed that deem an individual unsafe to society and rehabilitation and release would not be fair to the victims and mankind. So they are locked up to never be let out. While it is fair to doom a criminal of that variety to a life behind bars, there are also prisoner serving significant amounts of time for crimes they either did not commit, or the evidence was misleading, causing them to be deemed guilty, when they are not, or are not to the extent they are being punished for. Incarceration affects the mental state of a person to an extent that a lot of people don’t fully understand. Prisoners go through fears that free people will never feel. Fear of missing major life events, losing your loved ones, death of family and friends, fear of dying themselves, fear of not having every day necessities, fear of not having enough food, fear of having no life beyond what they are currently experiencing In confinement. You might be thinking that some of those fears you experience too, but not all at once and occurring simultaneously with imprisonment. The justice system is crooked, very much so. I have friends who are incarcerated and struggle tremendously. We can’t just brush this issue aside and pretend like it doesn’t exsist. Because it does, and prisoners are humans too. I admire those who have the determination and courage to fight against the justice system and advocate for a better system. If you are one of those people, thank you.

This is an interesting topic and also a great point. I am considered a millennial and I struggle with finances significantly, as I have also noticed that many of my peers do as well. We see those that are considered our elders prospering in riches, with stable, well paying careers, while the youth of today struggle to find their purpose and are distracted by things that weren’t distractions to those that came before us. Times have changed and my generation needs to step up and take responsibility for their financial goals and responsibilities.

Any therapist or psychiatrist will tell you that working with individuals diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder is one of the most difficult psychiatric disorders to treat. You might be wondering, what is BPD and what is it like to have it? Well…It’s painful, exhausting and you feel like you will never get better. BPD can be genetic, but is typically a result of significant trauma. BPD is the defects to your personality that are your brains way of protecting you when you are being traumatized. Some symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder, include, but are not limited to, severe fear of abandonment, paranoia, unstable and intense emotions, frequently changing goals and interests because there is a lack of identity, dissociation, experiencing extreme ways of viewing oneself, such as, “I am amazing like a god” to “I am evil and I am nothing.” Given the mentally invasive nature of this disorder, many people suffering from it don’t seek treatment, or give up half way through, either because they feel they are not improving, or they have grown to become paranoid and start to believe their therapist is plotting to use their sensitive treatment information against them. This is a common fear of those with BPD. While this diagnosis is quite intense and causes significant instability in a person’s life, it IS possible to achieve long term recovery. Through cognitive behavioral therapy and EMDR, or other treatment modalities that might work for some individuals but not others, those suffering with BPD can learn to have healthy relationships and thrive in life. The most important aspect of someone seeking treatment for BPD, is the stable support system that the person has. Anyone with BPD should surround themselves only with people who understand their diagnosis and are willing to foster a peer support and healing relationship. It can be hard dealing with a loved one with BPD, but positive consistency in their life can be a major advantage for recovery. If you or someone you know has this disorder, please don’t lose hope that it can get better and stay that way. You are not doomed.

I love this post! These are all really great ways to handle a child’s temper tantrums. I taught preschool for 3 years, and in my experience, keeping yourself calm helps to douse the fire a bit. Desperately trying to stop the tantrum usually doesn’t work. I feel it’s best to allow the child to have the tantrum so that they will eventually tire out, but as you stated, finding something to distract the child is helpful in taking their attention away from whatever was causing them to become upset.

Isn’t it amazing to think that we are solely responsible for our happiness and mental wellbeing? Severe mental illness aside, we have the capability to turn anger into love, anxiety into excitement. That being said, it takes practice, especially because most of us have been conditioned to believe that the way we feel is because of her, him and everybody else besides our own self. I like how you mentioned gratitude. Being grateful for what we have has a huge impact on now only how we feel, but also our ability to thrive in life.

I appreciate that you have brought up this topic, because music and sounds in general have a significant impact on how we feel. This is why music therapy is frequently brought into hospitals, elderly homes and other institutions where healing takes place. Music is a wonderful tool to enhance your mood and the great part about it is, you can listen to music almost anywhere!

In today’s world, the Law of Attraction has become a common topic, and while it may seem woo woo to skeptics and non believers, it has proven to be a very real, very obtainable practice by successful people, if you just get your mind right. What I mean by that, is simply that you must align the vibration of your beliefs and emotions with your desired reality. Know it is yours and feel as though it already is, and it will be. Now, let’s take this a step further. We all have 7 chakra centers within our body, that play a major roll in our mental, physical and spiritual health. I want you to stop for a moment and consider how powerful your ability to manifest could be, if you used each unique chakra to fuel your dream into reality! Here I will list each chakra center and its defining principle in relation to The Law of Attraction, as well as how exactly you can utilize these principles to create your desired reality: 1. 7th chakra (crown)- Consciousness creates • The crown chakra is where your manifestation will begin. You will use your conscious awareness to draw attention to your dream. This can be done by consistently meditating on your desire, setting daily intentions and asking big questions (“What would it feel like if this were my reality right now?” Or “How might my life begin to change and improve if my dream were manifested into reality?” 2. 6th chakra (third eye)- Vision vitalizes • Manifesting with the third eye chakra requires you to look within yourself to discover your life purpose through identifying past patterns, dreaming about your ideal life and becoming confident in what you want to manifest to fulfill your purpose. This could look like, spending time in silence, strengthening your ability to imagine through consistent practice and trusting your intuition. 3. 5th chakra (throat)- Conversion catalyzes •Now that you have a dream that you want to manifest, it’s time to start communicating your desire to people in your life who have your best interest at heart and even to yourself by developing an internal dialogue with your chakras. Get excited and share with your loved ones what you are trying to manifest or broadcast it by posting about it on social media, a podcast or write a song about your desire and perform it. 4. 4th chakra (heart)- Love launches • Now you are starting to see your dream take shape and form in your life. It’s time to allow relationships to blossom that will assist you in co-creating. Embrace asking for help and strengthening your support network. Connect with your heart and ask yourself what you love about your dream. 5. 3rd chakra (solar plexus)- Power produces •It is time to take action. The solar plexus calls for you to be proactive and align your will with your desire. Also, a word of advice that I have for you, is that many people fear the action step and stay in the upper chakra levels listed above, and never see their manifestation come into fruition. Try not to worry about how your dream is going to become reality. This is where people get caught up. The details don’t matter, the universe will take care of it for you. 6. 2nd chakra (sacral)- Pleasure pleases • It is here that we embody the water element of the sacral chakra by nourishing our dream through sustainable practice, getting rid of what doesn’t serve the purpose of our dream and learning to attract what we need first, then what we want. 7. 1st chakra (root)- Matter matters • As our dream enters the final stages of manifestation, it’s important to honor the root chakra by fulfilling our commitment to our dream by finishing any projects related to it. Celebrate, rest and enjoy your efforts! I hope you find this information helpful, as I have found it to be so myself once having practiced this technique and actually seeing my dreams manifest into reality. I urge you to give it a good try, and if you do this right, you will be surprised at the life you can create with just your mind!

Ask any gardener, and you'll hear horror stories about a plant infection gone wrong. This year, as I grew cucumbers in containers on my porch, I noticed singular webs across the stakes of my trellis structure. Thinking nothing of it, I swiped the webs down and went about my business. Unfortunately, that was a huge sign of spider mite infestation, and I missed it. My cucumber plant, which was healthy and sprawling, ended up producing just one cucumber for the season, as the mites destroyed the rest of the plant. To save yourself trouble, check for these signs of spider mites: Webbing between stakes or other plants - this is how the mites travel and how they got their name Small bugs on the underside of leaves - that's their feeding ground A mass of small bugs at the top of a plant stake - a sure sign you have a population problem Leaves that are slowly losing color and firmness - spider mites eat chlorophyll, so as the infection continues leaves will become brown and lifeless If you see these signs, it is not too late! Here are some things you can do: Make sure your plants are well watered - spider mites thrive in hot and dry conditions. Be especially careful if your area is going through a heat wave. Get a natural pesticide spray - these usually contain neem oil and other ingredients that are non-toxic to humans and pets. Remove webbing, clean the underside of plants leaves, and cut away affected areas. Once a leaf is infected to the point of being brown and droopy, it's far too late - be proactive in cutting diseased parts. Get beneficial mites. Also found on Amazon, there are predator mites you can release in the garden to eat spider mites. They are harmless to the plants and will not cause further problems. Ladybugs can be used for this purpose as well.

A popular way to handle tasks, the Eisenhower Matrix is a grid containing 4 quadrants like such: 1 | 2 _______ 3 | 4 From left to right, quadrant 1 is labeled "Urgent" and quadrant 2 is labeled "Not Urgent". From top to bottom, quadrant 1 is labeled "Important" and quadrant 3 is labeled "Not Important". Each label corresponds to a quadrant in the following manner - Quadrant 1 : Urgent and Important Quadrant 2 : Not Urgent and Important Quadrant 3 : Urgent and Not Important Quadrant 4 : Not Urgent and Not Important With this framework, the idea is to organize your tasks in accordance with the matrix to assist in prioritization. Roughly speaking, each quadrant has an associated action. Quadrant 1 : Urgent and Important : Do it Quadrant 2 : Not Urgent and Important : Schedule it Quadrant 3 : Urgent and Not Important : Delegate it Quadrant 4 : Not Urgent and Not Important : Delete it For example, let's say you need to schedule an appointment for your dog as the vet. You could place this under Quadrant 2, but what if your dog swallowed a handful of chocolate? Suddenly this task belongs in Quadrant 1. What if you want to watch the big game on Sunday? That could belong in Quadrant 4, meaning you shouldn't do it. But what if your friend from another state is visiting for the only time this year, and they want to watch the game with you? Well now we're back to Quadrant 2. Like any tip or hack, this method will not ease the difficulty of life, and context is required to make the most of the tool. The next time you find yourself in a tizzy of "there's too much to do!", try writing the top 5 or 6 things that need to happen, then prioritize accordingly.