Amanda Alvarado

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Improving your self-esteem isn’t as simple as clicking your fingers and magically changing your perspective. Nonetheless, with a little bit of time and perseverance, you can start to appreciate yourself. These are some small ways to start gaining body confidence.

Take care of your hair.

While your hair might not feel as important to your overall body confidence as the size of your waist or the quality of your skin, for instance, it plays a big part in your physical appearance. If you want to start gaining body confidence, then you should start by taking care of your hair. Nobody has the privilege of choosing the hair they get at birth. Whether you are brunette or redheaded and whether you have straight hair or frizzy hair, you have to learn to love what you’ve got.

Most importantly, you have to look after what you’ve got. Go easy on the hair products; some are better than others, but you don’t want to damage your hair. Don’t dye your luscious locks too often, and try to avoid drying your hair too vigorously (or at all) with a towel or a hairdryer. Of course, if you’re self-conscious about your appearance because of hair loss, then you might want to find a specialist who offers a hair transplant for women. That way, you can start to regain your body confidence by learning to love your hair again. If you want to feel comfortable in your own skin and appreciate your appearance, then you have to be brave enough to take bold steps in the right direction. Remember that you’re worth it.

Make sure you stay healthy.

If you’re worried that you’re too skinny or too curvaceous, then stop. That’s not a healthy way to view your body. In fact, the only thing that really matters is staying healthy. Forget about the pictures you see on Instagram of models with unattainable bodies (remember, Photoshop is a powerful tool). Forget about the contradictory beauty standards set by the media. You’ll always be too thin or too fat if you listen to that noise. All that really matters is keeping your body healthy.

If you’re naturally skinny or naturally curvaceous, then embrace your beauty. As long as you’re eating nutritious meals and staying physically active, then you’re treating your body as well as possible. This will also improve your mental health, and that’ll help to make you feel more confident, too. Forget fad diets because they won’t give you the sustenance you need. And forget the waist trainers; just make sure you keep your body moving. An active lifestyle and a good diet will work wonders for your physical wellbeing and, as a result, your emotional wellbeing.

Be kind to yourself.

If you really want to start gaining body confidence, then you need to be kind to yourself. It’s as simple as that. Nobody else would be as rude to you as you are to yourself. Think of it that way. It’s time to start standing in front of the mirror and coming up with positive things to say. Start making a list of the things you like about your appearance. Once you start focusing on your beautiful body, you’ll slowly start to appreciate yourself. At the end of the day, your opinion on your body is the only one that matters. So, stop being your own worst critic. Be your own best friend.

xx,

Amanda

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Feeling uninspired? You might just need to take some time to be out in nature.

Nature has a true sense of power to it. That is because long after you and I are gone, nature will still be here with all of its bountiful harvest. The trees will still grow leaves, the flowers will still bloom, the wind will still move across the mountains. We often think that we are the centre of our universe, and that’s because to us, we are. But the natural power of nature came long before is and will remain for the rest of time.

For this reason, it has and will always be a strong creative inspiration for humans all across the world. Finding your creative aspirations and inspirations in nature can be a great means of helping you find your inner voice, of connecting with yourself once more or influencing a work you are hoping to achieve. This is why painters continually practice their technique trying to depict the natural majesty of nature. Finding your creative aspirations through this effort could be the best thing you have done for yourself in some time.

Let us see what that might look like:

Time To Meditate & Think

A little time simply in the presence of nature can inspire you to no end. Not only can it give you raw creative power to admire, but also time to meditate and think. Let us say that you are going to write a novel. How might you prefer to do this? Sitting in an inner-city apartment at night? Or perhaps sitting in a log cabin overlooking a beautiful mountainous range, or a villa on the sea front with almost no one around? We do not intend to be presumptive, but we would assume the latter option is the most important. There’s something about being only with yourself and nature that can help spurn the best thoughts, especially when walking along the beach or sitting within a park.

Time To Explore

Exploration is essential to the human sense of discovery. When was the last time you managed to explore? We would hazard a guess and say you may not have for some time, or at least on a timeline you would prefer. This means that finding time to explore, through heading on a beautiful road trip using Austrack campers, or engaging in a sport such as long track hiking or even skiing can help you connect with nature, focus on an exciting or meditative activity, and allow it to unlock your best thinking and personality as a result. This might seem like wishful thinking - but you’ll know the effects when they are there.

Time For Direct Inspiration

JRR Tolkein, legendary writer of The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings, gained his inspiration for The Shire (a well-known location within his stories) from the Yorkshire Dales he walked during his time living in Headingley, Leeds. The same could be said for many great works of art. Sometimes, direct inspiration is required, and practically worthwhile to consider ahead of time. When you care for direct inspiration, your art can become imbued with creative thinking.

With this advice, we hope you can find your creative aspirations in nature to the extent you would most enjoy.

Take some time this weekend to get out in nature!

xx,

Amanda

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Choosing a career path isn't easy and can cause a good bit of stress. Right?

Right from a very young age, we are expected to have an idea of what career path we want to follow. Even children just starting school are asked what they want to be when they grow up. It’s not the reality that we would have a single career goal in mind that we will work towards our whole life, it’s not in human nature. It’s more likely that we will swap and change our opinions and careers several different times.

It’s very rare that we will stick to one career path but none the less we are encouraged to choose one, so where are we supposed to start with that? Whether you're looking for a new career path or are just settling on one, have a look below at some of the things you should consider when choosing yours:

Think About What Interests You And Keeps You Motivated

A big step toward choosing the right career is by making sure we are choosing something that we’re actually interested in. You’re most likely in the wrong job if you sit there and dread going in to work. While passion alone isn't the only thing to think about for becoming content in your career, it is still considered essential. Having a career in something that will keep you motivated and interests you is the first step to success.

Have A Look At Online Tests

If you’re completely lost to what you're really good at or what you're strengths and weaknesses may be then it may be a good idea to look at career assessments that you can take online. You probably took these types of tests in school or college but let's face it you grow up and change even after college so it may be time to think about re-taking this sort of test especially if you're really lost with the direction you want to take. You are even able to take tests that will indicate the ideal careers to suit areas that motivate you and show you what you need to study in order to get this sort of role. Remember though that this isn’t the be-all and end-all and it’s not always good to base your whole career path off of an online assessment.

Intern

This isn't always an option if you’re already set into a financially secure position however an internship could be a great way to try out an industry or type of career before committing. This works particularly well if you have no prior experience and want to build on your skills for potential full-time positions. Even if completing an internship doesn't lead to a career that you want it’s still beneficial and great on any CV.

Find A Mentor And the Right Support

When finding a career path it’s important to make sure you have the right support. Whether you require Disability Employment Providers, a mentor or extra support from your family it’s important to speak up and research the best options for you. Having a mentor is a great way to take your career up a step and make sure you’re on the right path. Make sure you take note and advantage of everything they have to offer, someone who can mentor you in a career that your keen on can be very valuable when it comes to securing a job. Another way you can get support is to ask to complete unpaid work experience where you shadow people who are already in the career you're looking at.

Speak To People

One of the easiest ways to discover a new career is to speak to others about theirs. Having a resource such as LinkedIn is a brilliant way of achieving this. You can come into contact with people that you wouldn’t normally and it’s fantastic for reaching out to people in careers different from your field.

Have A Plan

Everything comes together with a plan. Without having some sort of plan in place for your new career path you will find it extremely difficult to achieve your goals. You should also think about what the entire career entails, there is no good in thinking about becoming a blog writer to then realize that you hate working with computers. You should think about where you want to go and how you're going to get there.

Obviously, career paths are never set in stone and it’s never too late to change the one that you have embarked on.

Do you have any other advice that could help someone looking for a career path and how they can find one to suit them? Please share your experiences and tips in a comment!

xx,

Amanda

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Getting your clothes tailored a pretty great thing to do!

Up to the mid-1960s, a lot of households were still used to make their outfits. The dresses were sewn at home and, as a result, they used to fit a lot better than our one-size-fits-all high street fashion. Unfortunately, as more and more women joined the workforce, there was nobody left at home to make new clothes. The boom of high street fashion can truly be linked to the moment when women became a major actor in the work environment.

However, even though you might have a handful of favorite brands, you have to deal with outfits that are not entirely suited to fit your body shape. After all, there are as many different body shapes as there are people. You know that you can’t expect the sweet little dress or trousers you’ve found in the shop to work for you without tailoring. As more and more fashionistas are turning back to tailoring to make their shop-bought outfits work for their body, it’s time to ask yourself one crucial question: Can you profit from tailor-made fashion?

There is no one single body shape

Buying clothes in shop can be a disheartening experience, especially when you find it incredibly difficult to get cuts that work for you. Going up a size to give your boobs more room is not the kind of thing many buyers like to do. Indeed, a lot of female shoppers navigate their way through a shop by size numbers. Many are worried that buying a bigger size mean they are putting on weight. That’s why more and more individuals are looking for custom-made outfits that are designed specifically for their body shape. Working with a tailoring company can help to alleviate the trauma of the size. For a tailor, you are not a number on the label; you are a complex and sophisticated shape that the cloth and cut embellish.

Accessible fashion needs customizable items

However, the variety of body shapes and body abilities – and disabilities – offers a new challenge for tailors. Indeed, fitting clothes on an abled-body requires working with a dummy. However, you can consider offering add-on modifications for dummies using cut-outs. Indeed, sewing dummies are typically made to be symmetrical, and even though many are customizable, they are not suited to represent handicapped bodies – which makes clothes making more difficult. Additionally, wheelchair users would appreciate fashionable modifications to add to their wheels, such as a cover that can be cut out from vinyl – a machine such as vinylcuttingmachineguide.com can be a good option, for instance. When it comes to tailored fashion, we need to consider inclusiveness as a priority.

People crave uniqueness

The advantage of tailoring is that it taps into our need for personalization. Indeed, personalizing your fashion outfit such as by embroidering your name at the back of your denim jacket or by transforming your basic tee with tie-dye colors puts you back in control. As an individual, our need to custom pieces starts with simple transformations – Zara, for example, offers a customizable jacket – on high street items. For DIY and craft shops, the uniqueness fever is the most profitable trend. By sharing tutorials, craft shops can attract more buyers.

Whether you prefer to entrust a tailor with the creation of your dress, or whether you work as a fashion stylist who wants to offer inclusive outfits, there is a lot of opportunities for creative professionals to maximize the custom-made trend.

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Ever thought about buying custom clothes?

Buying clothes can be so difficult for a lot of people. Everybody has a different body shape and sometimes, you’ll find that everything you try on just doesn’t quite fit right. But have you considered custom made clothing? People only tend to get certain things custom made, usually for special occasions, but it might actually be a good idea to get most of your clothes tailor made, whether you’re a man or a woman. Simple things like t-shirts are fine to buy off the rack but when it comes to suits or dresses, it’s worth paying the extra money for custom made because there are so many benefits. These are some of the reasons that both men and women should wear custom made clothing.

The Perfect Fit

The most obvious reason to get custom made clothing is that you will get the perfect fit. If your clothes don’t quite fit your body shape properly, they won’t look good and you won’t feel good wearing them. A lot of people don’t realize just how much difference there is between high end custom made suits or tailored dresses and the clothes that you’ll find on the shelves. A few small alterations can make all of the difference and the clothes will look so much better on you. The better fit also means that your clothes will be a lot more comfortable as well.

Personal Style

Finding your personal style is important, but it can be tough because you might not be able to find exactly what you’re looking for when looking around a store. But if you really want to add your own personality to an outfit, there’s no better way to do it than have it custom made. You have no limitations, you can decide exactly what you want your outfit to be, and have it made, without making any compromises. It gives you so much more freedom to experiment with different styles and come up with something that is unique to you.

Fabrics

Custom made clothes also give you more choice over the fabrics that you use. This is good when trying to find your own style, but it’s also great for comfort. If there are certain fabrics that irritate your skin, for example, you can avoid those. If you get cold easily, you can choose slightly thicker fabrics that will keep you warm. You will also get a better quality of fabric with custom made clothes, so they’ll last longer.

Quick Shopping

Shopping for ready to wear clothes can be so time consuming because you can’t always find what you’re looking for or find the right sizes. But you don’t need to worry about that with custom made clothes. You can walk into the store with an idea of what you want, get measured up, and then you just have to wait until it’s ready. No more walking from place to place, trying to find something that works.

Custom made clothing is a bit more expensive than buying ready to wear, but there are a lot of benefits so it’s definitely worth considering.

xx,

Amanda

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Ever just not feel like yourself?

We’ve all been there. Sometimes it lasts for a day, a few weeks, or even a month... but you just don’t feel like you. It is like you're having an identity crisis and you look yourself in the mirror and ask, "Who am I?"

There are a many reasons this could be happening. Maybe, work has taken over your life and you’re not sure what you actually enjoy anymore. You might feel so far away from yourself that you’re wondering how you’re going to be able to get back to being that person again. It’s a pretty common issue, right?

However, there is nothing more important than feeling like you again, and there are many ways to get back to who you truly are. We’ve noted down some of them here, for those looking to begin the journey.

Think about what you love

Sometimes, we feel a little distant from ourselves because we’ve neglected what we love. Perhaps you love to play the guitar, or to go on long walks through the woods and chill out, or maybe you love to turn the music up full blast in the kitchen, and spend the afternoon baking a cake? Try to remember what you love, and make time for it. These are the things that define who you are!

Reconnect with friends

Another reason that you could feel like you’re losing yourself a little is because you haven’t had enough time to spend with your nearest and dearest. Having a night with your friends, and reminiscing about all of the things that you’ve done in the past, could be just what you need to feel like you’re back to the normal ‘you’. And let’s be honest, there is nothing that a laugh with your pals can’t fix.

Take ownership of your choices

A lot of the time, we don’t feel at our best because we’re not making choices based upon what we want to do. Maybe you’re trying to impress your friends, your family members, or your partner, instead of just trying to act for you. Whether you’re Googling ‘plastic surgeon near me free consultation’ but you’re worried that people will judge you, or you’re thinking about a career change, make choices for you!

Spend some time alone

Let’s be honest here, you can lose yourself simply because you haven’t had the time or the space to breathe, and just be you. Take yourself out for dinner, and think about your life in perspective. Take a book and go and read in the park alone. Or even just journal for a while when you find some solitude. Being the real, happy you means that you have time to think about who that is, whilst in your own company.

Don’t beat yourself up

One thing to remember is that you may be feeling that you’re not the real ‘you’ right now, just because you’re not progressing through life at the speed that you want to. This doesn’t mean that you’re not the ‘you’ that you need to be, and this version of you could be waiting somewhere 6 months down the line. Don’t rush, and don’t beat yourself up about any obstacles in the way. This is how you learn!

You got this! You'll find yourself again.

xx,
Amanda

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Mental health is extremely important.

Seriously, mental health involves our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Essentially, our mental health directly affects how we think, feel, and act. Definitely important, don’t you think? Unfortunately, America struggles with mental health as a whole and a lot of us think that finding ways to improve it is unnecessary or even embarrassing. I want you to know that I am here for you and that working on improving your mental health is not embarrassing by any means.

One thing that you need to remember is that if you are struggling with your mental health, you are not alone. One in five Americans experience a mental health problem each year and across the world, depression is the leading cause of disability. In addition, 6.9 percent of adults struggle with major depression in the US and 18.1 percent struggles with an anxiety disorder. I hope you know that you are not alone because mental health is an issue and improving it is so very important. I've talked about how I struggle with anxiety, which is just one way some of us struggle with our mental health.

Here are a few ways that you can improve your mental health and wellbeing...

Eat Balanced Meals + Exercise

Although eating a balanced meal will not help with your direct mental state immediately, I truly do believe that getting healthier will help us look and feel better. Eat those greens and get in that exercise in order to start feeling better about yourself and you could see a big difference in the way that you view yourself and the people around you. I definitely went off the past couple of months, but over the past few weeks, I've gotten serious about putting good food in my body and getting some movement in every single day.

Maintain Healthy Relationships

Loneliness is an epidemic in the U.S. right now, according to Psychology Today. More people than ever are feeling isolated and that can result in feelings of anxiety and depression. A study discovered that loneliness had the same impact on one’s life span as obesity and smoking. Loneliness, the study found, shortened a person’s life by 15 years.

One of the best ways to protect your mental health is by prioritizing your relationships. As much as I love alone time, I also need to be around people. We are meant to live in community. When we maintain healthy relationships, it gives our lives meaning, makes us feel accepted and reinforces that we have people we can rely on during times of adversity.

It’s important to remember that asking family members or friends for help if you’re struggling isn’t a sign of weakness, but rather strength. There should be no shame or embarrassment in asking for help. I'm always here if you need to talk to someone and there are also a number of professional help centers that you can reach out to also.

Prioritize Your Sleep

Sleep is insanely important. If you are busy running errands, taking care of the house, going to work, and just trying to balance it all, you might struggle getting enough sleep, which is definitely understandable. I think that most people do struggle with their sleep, but being deprived of sleep will only enhance and emotional and psychological problems. One study found that people who reported having insomnia were four times as likely to develop depression. Crazy, right? Good sleep is not just about getting seven to nine hours of sleep each night. It’s also about feeling restful and good when you wake up the next day. Make sure that your bedroom promotes good sleep. Use neutral, light colors for the walls and decor, make sure it gets very dark, and if you need to, turn on a sound machine. Also, blue light blocking glasses are great to wear before bed, too!

Get Help When You Need It

It is so important to get help when you need it. A great place to start that is not intimidating at all is with the therapy groups at Ray of Hope Counseling Services. They say, “The various therapy groups at Ray of Hope help you improve conditions such as anxiety, addiction, or depression, especially if you are feeling isolated. Experience the rewarding experience that a therapy group can provide you. Groups can act as a support network and a sounding board. Other members of the group often help you come up with specific ideas for improving a difficult situation or life challenge, and hold you accountable along the way.”

Ray of Hope Counseling Services not only offers therapy groups, but they also offer individual counseling, as well, if you are more interested in a one-on-one help. You are able to get individual counseling in one of their seven convenient locations in Georgia, or if you live out of the state, or if you are too busy to go in, you can also do your counseling session online, which I thought was really neat!

I hope this helps you and if you are struggling, please talk to someone. You aren't alone. I struggle, too, and there is no shame in that.

xx,
Amanda

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