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How to Make Sleep Gummies That Make You Feel Great the Next Day

December 16, 2021 by Kristen Lawrence

If you’ve been tossing and turning at night lately, sleep gummies may help you out. Everyone needs their beauty rest, as sleep deprivation leads to physical and mental illnesses. Not to mention, feeling tired during the day makes you downright grumpy and uninterested in daily life.

Getting better sleep helps ward off illnesses and keeps you functioning in optimal condition. Unfortunately, millions of people today have insomnia and other sleep disorders.

Our modern world doesn’t nurture our biological needs, so illnesses of all kinds have become common. This category includes insomnia, with an estimated 50-60% of the global population suffering from it at any given time, according to research.

These figures are alarming. That means more than 3.5 billion people may have insomnia, a public health crisis indeed. What can we do to solve this problem plaguing society?

Enter sleep gummies. You won’t have to worry about daytime fatigue or insomnia with this sleep remedy. Made with all-natural ingredients that complement your body’s circadian rhythm, you’ll find yourself dozing off in no time.

Most store-bought sleep gummies have added sugar and other harmful ingredients to exacerbate sleep problems. Sugar spikes your insulin and increases cortisol, which doesn’t bode well for a good night’s rest. If you want to steer clear of the additives, make sure to follow this recipe for healthy, natural sleep gummies.

How to Make Sleep Gummies That Make You Feel Great the Next Day

Are you ready to try to get more rest?

Gather these tools:

Large bowl to mix ingredients
Spoon
Squirt bottle
Molds of your choice for the sleep gummies (bears are a solid choice)
Large pot

Ingredients:

2 cups tart cherry juice (not from concentrate)
1/3 cup honey or sugar-free alternative (monk fruit, stevia, etc.)
4 teaspoons magnesium powder
1/2 cup gelatin powder

Directions:

First, pour the cherry juice into the pot, then slowly combine the magnesium powder. The magnesium will create a foamy texture.
Next, turn the heat on low and add in the honey. Stir gently while the mixture warms.
Stir for about three minutes or until the magnesium completely dissolves.
Then stir in the gelatin, whisking until thoroughly combined. Heat on low until the gelatin dissipates as well.
Now, transfer the liquid into your squirt bottle. You could pour it right into your molds, but the bottle makes the process less messy.
Fill up the molds or a 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 glass baking dish coated with coconut oil.
Place the sleep gummies in the refrigerator for about 2 hours to harden.
Once they’re firm, remove and transfer to an airtight container. Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Sleep Gummies Recipe Notes

Before you begin, make sure to reread the label on your gelatin. Sometimes people confuse gelatin and collagen, but your recipe won’t turn out correctly if you use the latter. Gelatin makes the sleep gummies rubbery, firm, and, well, gummy. Collagen, however, merely dissolves in liquids and doesn’t harden when it’s cooled like gelatin.
Keep in mind that gelatin is an animal product. If you’re vegan, opt for one of these plant-based alternatives:
- Agar-agar. This vegetarian gelatin substitute comes from a variety of seaweed plants.
- Guar gum. It’s derived from a legume called guar beans.
- Xanthan gum. Perhaps the most popular veggie alternative to gelatin, it’s made from fermenting simple sugars with a certain bacteria.
- Carrageenan. This product also comes from seaweed, a red variety called Irish Moss.
Adults should have one to two sleep gummies about one hour before bed. Children should eat just one close to bedtime.
If you’re making these for children, make sure to ask their doctor first about the magnesium powder. You can still make the recipe as is without it.
Not a fan of tart cherry juice? The honey or sugar-free alternative will help lessen the tang a bit. You could substitute with a different liquid, but it’s not recommended. We’ll explain why below.

Nutrition and Benefits of these Sleep Gummies

Tart cherry juice. It’s not very publicized, but tart cherry juice can help immensely with insomnia and other sleep problems. Tart cherry juice naturally contains melatonin and the amino acid tryptophan, which induce sleepiness. Proanthocyanidins, the ruby red pigments in tart cherry juice, contain an enzyme that lowers inflammation and slows the breakdown of tryptophan in the body. This allows it to circulate in your body longer, promoting sleep. A 2014 Louisiana State University study found that tart cherry juice increased sleep duration by nearly ninety minutes per night in older participants.
Honey contains plentiful antioxidants and can help stave off colds, coughs, and respiratory illnesses. It’s also anti-inflammatory, which means it can ease any pain or discomfort and promote relaxation. (If you’re not using honey, feel free to skip this part. However, alternative sweeteners like stevia and monk fruit also have benefits).
This critically important mineral plays a vital role in a restful night’s sleep. Magnesium helps activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which enables you to feel calm and relaxed before bed. It also helps regulate melatonin levels, which govern sleep-wake cycles in the human body. Finally, magnesium binds to GABA receptors in the brain; GABA calms the nervous system and is used in many sleep medications like Ambien.
The last ingredient, gelatin, contains nearly all the essential amino acids. One of these, called glycine, can help you fall asleep faster and achieve deeper sleep by increasing serotonin levels.

Final thoughts on these sleep gummies that will knock you out cold

Sleep medications and supplements don’t hold a candle to these potent sleep gummies. Containing calming ingredients like tart cherry juice, magnesium, and gelatin, they’re the perfect antidote to insomnia. Plus, they only take a few minutes to make and last for one or two weeks. Not to mention, it will seem more like eating candy than a sleep supplement!

If you decide to make these sleep gummies, let us know if they help you get more shut-eye!

How to Validate Your Partner’s Feelings in 5 Easy Steps

December 16, 2021 by Lakeisha Ethans

Validation is one of the most critical aspects of casual and complex communication in a partnership. It communicates understanding, acceptance, respect, and genuine care for your partner’s thoughts and feelings.

But if you don’t know how to validate your partner correctly, knowing how to start is tough! If you do it incorrectly, you could drive them away instead of closer to you. Don’t fret, though – we’re here to help! Here’s how to validate your partner’s feelings in five easy steps.

1. Step 1: Listen Well

To acknowledge emotions and validate them, you have to be listening well. No one is going to feel validated if you’re barely paying attention. Stronger relationships can emerge when both parties are willing to take the time to listen to the other truly. If you want to validate your partner’s feelings, listen well. You can do this by:

·Giving Full Attention To Them

Turn off your devices, put aside anything and everything else, and focus on your partner 100%. That’s how you listen well! If you’re currently unable to provide full attention to a partner, tell them that and ask if you can speak later. Express that you want to fully devote yourself to listening and explain that this is the reason for the rain check. You can also indicate presence by holding their hand, rubbing their back, or performing another form of appropriate physical contact.

·Using Micro Validation

To validate a partner, you start from the very beginning. When you listen, please encourage them to continue with micro-validation. This involves using small, appropriate phrases and words of acknowledgment to show you follow what they’re saying. It also gives them the sense that you’re really, genuinely listening. They’ll start to feel validated already!

·Matching Their Energy

When your partner approaches you, start by trying to match their energy. This will help validate them before they’ve even gotten to the heart of the matter. If they seem to be a little sad, be sympathetic and gentle. If they seem excited, happily and curiously match their hype. If they’re nervous, be comforting and welcoming. Try to adapt your energy as you go and avoid making assumptions about the energy they want from you. It’s important to match and mirror, not make your own thing!

·Turn To Face Them

Use your body language to show your partner that you’re listening. Turn your whole body or head towards them and make comfortable levels of eye contact. If you happen to be doing something else during this time (with your partner’s statement of comfort with that), this is extra important. Turn to look at them often, give attention cues, and do even more micro-validation.

·Paying Attention To Nonverbal Communication

Research shows that 70% of human communication occurs nonverbally. That’s why listening to your partner’s feelings can involve observing their body language and taking note of their tone and expressions. This will allow you to understand them on a fuller scale.

·Do Not Interrupt Or Interject

The goal for this first step is to listen. Do not ask your questions until there is a natural lull or your partner is waiting for your response! This is the time to focus on listening and understanding, not what you’ll say next.

2. Step 2: Clarify and Ensure Your Understanding

You’ll want to ensure correct understanding to validate your partner’s emotions. This will allow them to elaborate, correct a miscommunication, or at least feel understood by you. You can do this by:

·Asking Questions To Clarify

Encourage your partner to elaborate on their feelings by asking clarifying questions. You validate them by showing that you’re interested and are listening. It also gives you the chance to ensure that you have things right. You can also initiate further discussion with these questions. Your partner will feel more encouraged to open up.

·Identifying The Emotion and Acknowledging It

Being able to state the emotion that your partner experiences shows you’re not shying away from identifying it. You can ask for their confirmation of the feeling or repeat their prior statement of the emotion. This works even before a partner has begun talking to you. If you notice your partner’s strong emotions, commenting on them with kindness can be a helpful start for a conversation that will validate them. For example, saying, “You seem nervous. Is that what you’re feeling?” can kick things off nicely, clarifying their feelings and your openness for discussion.

·Mirroring Their Statements

Mirroring is a common sign of empathy, according to studies. The process involves repeating your partner’s words back to them in your own words. This allows you to validate them by clearly conveying your understanding of their words. They’ll feel heard and understood. It can feel a little weird when you first try it, but mirroring is a big deal for validation and reinforcement of that validation!

3. Step 3: Fully Acknowledge and Validate The Feeling

When your partner has expressed themselves and the conversation has paused, you can validate them. It is crucial to Fully acknowledge and express your understanding of their emotions and experiences. Your partner came to you for support, and you can validate their feelings by doing the following:

·Normalizing Their Feelings And Reactions

“Normalizing” in this context means assuring your partner that their behavior or emotions aren’t “crazy.” You want to clarify that they’re valid in your eyes and that you think there is some justification for their actions or emotions. This can help a partner who may be afraid of overreacting or being “weird.”

·Admitting It If You Can’t Relate

It’s strange, but sometimes, a great way to validate a partner is by admitting when you can’t relate to them. Saying that you can’t imagine how hard something is can be super validating for them. It’s you using your empathy to show that you’re there for them even if you can’t fully understand their exact predicament. It sets the tone for future discussions by offering your capacity to walk a mile in their shoes.

·Genuinely Walking A Mile

Since we mentioned walking in their shoes, it’s worth noting that you must genuinely do that! This means acknowledging your partner’s personal history and experiences contributing to their feelings and actions. Reflect on the experiences shaping their emotions and validate and normalize their links.

·Not Letting Disagreement Drag You Down

Even if you disagree with your partner, you should seek to validate them! Express your understanding of their feelings, and they’ll become more open to you. After all, loving your partner means hearing their different and unique perspectives! Plus, the created openness may present opportunities for you to offer a differing view in the future, but don’t do that unprompted! You shouldn’t lie that you agree when you don’t. But acknowledge truths, assure and comfort them, and stick to validation first.

·Communicating Acceptance

When you validate someone, you show them that you accept their thoughts and emotions. You don’t need to relate or agree to abide. That acceptance is part and parcel of having a partner! It’s also important when your partner expresses their emotions regarding you and an action you performed. Instead of reacting with a defense, clarify that you accept and understand their perspective before stating yours. This leads to healthier discussion and conflict management.

4. Step 4: Offer Help, Feedback, Or Encouragement, If Applicable

Your partner will not always want their encouragement, help, feedback, or advice. Remember, you shouldn’t be giving unsolicited advice to anyone, much less your partner! But sometimes, they will want that help.

If you don’t have feedback or advice, you can communicate this to your partner and focus on encouragement. But there are times when you will have something you can offer. In those situations, it’s essential to continue the validation while providing this assistance. Here’s how to do so:

·Lead With A Statement That Validates

Before you get into the feedback session, lead with validation. This sets a positive tone and ensures that your partner knows you think they’re valid, regardless of your opinion or advice. This means you should avoid using the word “but,” which can quickly invalidate your partner after your positive statement. Use “and” instead!

·Don’t Use Absolutes

Absolute statements like “you always” or “I never” are pretty much always untrue. They can also quickly put someone on the defensive. Using “often” or “rarely” instead will be much more accurate, and you won’t get shields put up.

·Use “I” Language

“I” language involves focusing on communicating your opinion without dragging your partner down. Sentences that start with “I feel…” or “I think…” are great ones to try using.

·Relate to a Similar Experience

If you have a similar experience to share, now is the time to do it. This can validate a partner by showing that you’ve been here before and that you understand. Don’t insinuate that you know exactly how your partner feels. Just build a connection off of shared knowledge. Also, don’t spend the whole time on yourself! Use your experience anecdote to check back in with your partner again, returning the focus to them and connecting you closely.

5. Step 5: Re-Validate The Feeling Again

Remind your partner that you still find their emotions to be valid. This helps to reiterate your complete understanding and kindness towards your partner. The reinforcement helps to end the dialogue positively and healthily. This can emotionally uplift your partner and remind them you’re on their side.

This is especially true because, for many, sharing feelings can be a frightening experience. You must be open and vulnerable and may face hurtful backlash from someone you love. That’s why re-validation is so crucial! Thank your partner for trusting you, validate how difficult it may have been to talk about, and make sure they know you appreciate them for it.

If your partner feels especially validated, they may decide to continue the conversation and open up even further. If this happens, that’s awesome! Re-state your readiness to discuss the topic further. Just repeat the steps once more to continue perpetuating the positive cycle of validation and happiness in understanding.

Final Thoughts On Some Effective Ways To Validate Your Partner’s Feelings

Validating a partner can take practice, but it’s easier when broken down into steps. Listen, clarify, fully validate, acknowledge, offer feedback, and revalidate. It’s that simple!

Australians Reveal How They Can Build Roadways Out of Recycled Waste

December 15, 2021 by Kristen Lawrence

In Australia, construction companies have begun building roads from recycled waste, adding to the country’s arsenal of climate adaptation tools. It leads the way in sustainability, generating more solar power than anywhere globally.

Currently, Australia produces eight times the global average of rooftop solar per person. Now, its citizens have something else to feel proud of in the fight against climate change.

The concept of plastic roadways began in 2018 with the local Tasmanian government. It wanted to recycle single-use plastics and other waste cleverly. After some deliberation, they came up with the idea of creating roadways from soft plastics and glass. It’s the first road of its kind in Australia.

The 500-meter (1,640-foot) road outside the city of Hobart consists of around 173,600 plastic bags and packaging. Workers repurposed 82,500 glass bottle equivalents that would’ve otherwise been sent to a landfill as well.

In addition, construction materials included toner from approximately 5,900 used ink cartridges and over 33 tonnes of recycled asphalt. These combined materials created the 330 tonnes of asphalt used for road construction in the town of Snug. Experience exceptional crane sales with Boom & Bucket, where quality equipment is available at competitive prices.

The council decided to build the road to help the environment, Kingborough Councillor Richard Atkinson told Australia’s ABC News. While the product costs more, Atkinson said it would save the council money in the long term. It’s estimated that the road will last fifteen percent longer than a typical asphalt roadway.

Other roads made from recycled waste already exist in other areas of Australia. South of Perth’s business district, the government recently added extra lanes to Western Australia’s Kwinana Highway. This wouldn’t stand out in normal circumstances; however, this stretch of the road consists of untraditional materials.

Australians Reveal How They Can Build Roadways Out of Recycled Waste

Two stabilizing layers beneath the asphalt consist of 25,000 tons of recycled concrete. 90% of these materials were derived from the demolition of a football stadium in Perth.

While Australia sets a great example to the world, roads comprised of recycled waste are still rare. Under the National Waste Policy, federal, state, and territory governments aim to recycle 80% of building and construction materials by 2030. However, currently, only about forty percent of these materials get recycled.

Of the 74 million tons of waste, Australia produced in 2020, about 22.9 million tons consisted of masonry items. Plastics, on the other hand, comprised only 2.5 million tons. Of the 61.5 million tons of waste managed by waste recovery companies, 44% came from construction materials. Meanwhile, households and local governments contributed only 20% of waste.

Much of the concrete, steel, timber, asphalt, concrete, drywall and other materials could become recycled waste. Unfortunately, the majority sits in landfills because of economic policies. It costs less to buy new items and throw them out compared to reusing or recycling them.

In addition, choosing mix on site concrete can significantly reduce waste. Since the concrete is mixed exactly as needed, there’s no excess, which not only helps your budget but also minimises environmental impact. Explore more about how mix on site concrete delivery works in practice to see how this approach could be beneficial for your project.

While this practice makes companies more profitable, it robs the Earth and its inhabitants. People and ecosystems end up paying a high price for our economy centered around limitless growth. However, you can’t have infinite profits on a finite planet. That’s where a circular economy would come into play–making entirely new products from recycled waste,

Methods to Reduce Carbon Footprint from Construction

As construction and building activities account for 40% of greenhouse gas emissions, it’s vital to enforce more sustainable policies. The United Nation’s International Resource Panel found that countries could reduce these emissions through several significant avenues.

Martina Otto, the head of UNEP’s Cities Unit, cites the following strategies for slashing emissions in the construction industry:

Sustainably managing and harvesting timber. This action could reduce carbon emissions by between one to eight percent in G7 nations by 2050.
Designing buildings using fewer materials. This change could save eight to ten percent of emissions by 2050.
Consider passive cooling and heating, along with natural light. Reducing energy use in this way would lower the carbon footprint of buildings.
Construct buildings using sustainable products. For example, a 2020 study found that agro-wastes such as sugarcane bagasse, rice husk ash, and bamboo leaves could bolster construction processes. The study found that these materials boost durability, reduce costs and improve sustainability.

According to the panel’s models, eco-friendly practices could reduce emissions from residential building construction in the G7 nations and China by at least 80% in 2050. They estimate it would slash emissions by 50-70% in India.

Other Countries Building Roads from Recycled Waste

It’s not just Australia that’s hopping on the plastic road bandwagon. Countries such as India, Mexico, the Philippines, Ghana, the United States, and the United Kingdom have adopted them also. In fact, the first plastic roadway appeared in India about twenty years ago. About 60,000 miles of roads have been constructed from recycled waste.

In Ghana, only 23% of roads are paved, so there’s a huge opportunity for development in the small country. In 2018, Ghanian President Akufo-Addo announced the ambitious plan of creating a completely circular economy by 2030. Then, much of the 1.1 million tons of plastic produced each year could serve as material for paving roads.

By diverting waste before it enters landfills, it reduces the amount of plastic pollution in the environment. Expanding roadways in Ghana using green technology would create jobs and boost the economy. It’s a win-win for both people and the planet.

Final Thoughts on How Countries Are Building Roads Out of Recycled Waste

Countries like Australia, India, and Ghana have proven the old saying that one man’s trash is another’s treasure. In this case, they’ve used recycled waste to build roads, helping to reduce emissions. Laying asphalt for roadways and other construction activities contributes about forty percent of yearly carbon emissions worldwide.

In addition, Chapman’s Construction says that using already existing materials to construct roads significantly reduces emissions since no production or manufacturing is required. The only emissions would come from machines used to lay the asphalt. Hopefully, more countries around the globe will follow suit and build roads with recycled waste. This collective effort would mark a massive step in beating climate change.

15 Gratitude Quotes That Will Make You Happy All Day

December 15, 2021 by Sarah Barkley

One of the first things children learn is to say thank you and show appreciation. This polite expression is beneficial in many ways, and you might not realize how great it can be for your life. These gratitude quotes can help you remember to be more thankful, promoting happiness in your life.

Gratitude is a universal idea, crossing all genders, ages, and nations, and it can make you happier. Not only does gratitude bond people, but I can make those around you feel better, too. When they know that you’re thankful for them and what they do, they’ll feel good and want to keep doing those things.

Additionally, expressing your appreciation will make you feel good about yourself and your life, too. Being thankful allows you to bring joy, meaning, and clarity to all situations in your life. It can positively change everything in your life, including your career and personal life.

Fifteen Gratitude Quotes That Will Make You Happy

Spend your time and energy focusing on all you have right now rather than on the things you want. If you wish to experience joy all day, remembering these gratitude quotes can help you. They’ll inspire you to express gratitude, and you won’t forget about all the good things in your life.

1. “Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgiving, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.” – William Arthur Ward

With gratitude, you can make every day into a day of thanksgiving, as Ward explains. It makes every task more joyful and makes every opportunity seem like a blessing. With these benefits, you’re sure to experience happiness all day because you see the good in your life.

2. “Gratitude opens the door to the power, the wisdom, the creativity of the universe. You open the door through gratitude.” – Deepak Chopra

You also experience power, wisdom, and creativity when you express gratitude. The only way to open these doors is by giving thanks whenever you have the chance. Don’t miss out on living the best life possible by not appreciating what you have right now.

3. “Stop thinking of gratitude as a byproduct of your circumstances and start thinking of it as a worldview.” – Bryan Robles

Your circumstances in life don’t make you appreciative because it is all about your mindset. As Robles explains, you must think about gratitude as a worldview. When you think of it this way, it becomes a natural way of thinking, allowing you to experience happiness all the time.

4. “Gratitude unlocks all that’s blocking us from really feeling truthful, really feeling authentic and vulnerable and happy.” – Gabrielle Bernstein

With gratitude, you’ll experience truthfulness and authenticity. Additionally, you’ll experience joy as you stay true to yourself and stay open to stronger bonds in your relationships. Spend time each day giving thanks for all that you have, and you’ll unlock so much in your life.

5. “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” – John F. Kennedy

You can’t simply say that you’re appreciative of something and now show it, too. Vocally express your gratitude, and then live by the words you say. As Kennedy explains, showing that you appreciate what you have is the best way to express yourself.

6. “Develop an attitude of gratitude. Say thank you to everyone you meet for everything they do for you.” – Brian Tracy

Every person you meet brings something to your life, whether good or bad. If you think that someone didn’t add value to your life, you still learned something from them. You might have realized that spending time with negative people isn’t a good idea, or you may have learned that not everyone can be trusted.

However, you’ll typically learn positive things from the people you meet. They might teach you something, help you, or support you in your endeavors. Whatever people bring to your life, make sure to express gratitude.

7. “The real gift of gratitude is that the more grateful you are, the more present you become.” – Robert Holden

Gratitude can help you feel joy because it allows you to become more present. When you live in the present, you’re more aware of the good things and people in your life. You’ll focus on spending time enjoying and loving everything you have right now.

With this positive mindset, you’ll not only feel happier, but you’ll feel more appreciative, too. The more often you express gratitude, the more you will experience. It’s a cycle of positivity that promotes feelings of fulfillment and meaning.

8. “Gratitude makes sense of your past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” – Melody Beattie

Showing gratitude does more than show others that you appreciate them. It also goes further than being appreciative of what you have right now. Gratitude can help you find happiness by adjusting your mindset to view your past, present, and future accurately.

When you express gratitude, your past will start to make more sense. You’ll begin to understand why things happened the way that they did, and you’ll learn to accept it. Additionally, gratitude helps you find peace within and determine which path is right for your future.

9. “Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.” – Epictetus

It doesn’t matter how many things you have in life or how expensive your possessions are. When it comes to being appreciative, all that matters is that you have few wants in life. Don’t spend your time wishing you had more.

Instead, spend your time appreciating what you do have right now. Even if you don’t have a ton of material possessions, you still have plenty. When you realize that and start living a gracious life, you’ll become much happier.

10. “When gratitude becomes an essential foundation in our lives, miracles start to appear everywhere.” – Emmanuel Dalgher

The more appreciative you are, the more positive things you’ll notice all around you. Miracles always happen if you have the right mindset and know to look for them. Practice gratitude each day so that you don’t miss out on the wonders happening in the universe each day. Reading this list of gratitude quotes is an excellent place to start!

11. “Gratitude is one of the most medicinal emotions we can feel. It elevates our moods and fills us with joy.” – Sara Avant Stover

When you express gratitude, you’re sure to feel better overall. You’ll experience a boost to your mood, and you’ll be filled with joy, as Stover explains. This gratitude quote will help you remember the importance of expressing your appreciation for everything you have right now.

12. “Happiness cannot be traveled to owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.” – Denis Waitley

Many people spend their lives searching for happiness without realizing they can’t find it that way. If you want to experience happiness, you must stop trying to earn it, own it, or consume it. It’s not something you can buy or track down, as it is something you must experience every day.

You can only find happiness if you live each day with a positive attitude. Spend every minute of your day expressing love, grace, and gratitude. Once you start living this way, you’ll quickly experience joy every day.

13. “It isn’t what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.” – Dale Carnegie

When it comes to finding happiness, it isn’t about materialistic things. As Carnegie explains, it isn’t about who you are, where you are, or what you do that determines your joy. Instead, the only thing that can bring happiness to your life is your mindset.

Things won’t always go the way you hoped they would, but you must express gratitude anyway. With this mindset, you’ll find happiness unlike anything you’ve experienced before.

14. “Today I choose to live with gratitude for the love that fills my heart, the peace that rests within my spirit, and the voice of hope that says all things are possible.” – Unknown

This gratitude quote is one of the best ones to write down and put in an area you’ll see often. It reminds you to live graciously, embrace love, and find peace within. Additionally, this gratitude quote also serves as a reminder that anything is possible if you set your mind to it.

With all of the positivity in this gratitude quote, you’re sure to experience feelings of thankfulness. As you start to show more appreciation for what and who you have in your life right now, joy is sure to follow. With gratitude, love, peace, and hope, you’ll begin to see the beauty all around you.

15. “In our daily lives, we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but the gratefulness that makes us happy.” – Albert Clarke

You can’t spend your life searching for joy, thinking it’ll finally make you feel appreciative. If you live with that mindset, you’ll always be unhappy because you’ll continually search for something you can’t find. You must experience gratitude first, and then happiness will follow.

If you aren’t happy with what you have right now, you won’t be content with more, either. Material possessions won’t bring you the joy you desire, but gratitude will. Plus, when you express gratitude, you’ll find that more good things come your way.

Final Thoughts on Gratitude Quotes to Help Have Happiness All Day

Feeling and expressing gratitude is the only way to find happiness. If you want to be happy all day, you’ll want to keep finding things to express gratitude about. It isn’t hard to find something to appreciate, as you have good things and people in your life.

Additionally, you can express gratitude for the world around you. The world is full of beauty, and all it takes to experience it is walking outside. Once you start expressing gratitude daily to help you find happiness, you will see all the great things around you.

If you ever struggle with appreciating what you have, return to these gratitude quotes. The words of wisdom will inspire you and remind you of why you must be happy.

10 Ways to Celebrate Life’s Small Successes (And Why You Should!)

December 15, 2021 by Lakeisha Ethans

People often focus a lot on tremendous accomplishments. While that’s a beautiful thing to do, one must remember that big wins aren’t highly frequent. However, small successes occur with greater frequency. This means that if you only want to focus on big, obvious wins, you might miss out on all the small but beautiful victories you have under your belt.

It’s natural to have some trouble celebrating things that feel small to you. If you’d like to start, there are many ways to help yourself enjoy those victories. Here are ten ways to celebrate life’s small successes and three reasons you should!

10 Ways To Celebrate Life’s Small Successes

You deserve to take a moment now and then to pause and be proud of your accomplishments.

1. Write Down Your Successes

Many people journal as a tool for reflection, expression, and progression. It’s also commonly used for writing down goals, aspects of gratitude, or memories from the day. Why not do the same for your successes, too?

Studies have shown that writing things down in handwriting is beneficial to memory and brain function. When you record your successes through writing, you engage your brain to remember better the win and the methods you used. You’ll also be giving your brain a nice boost in learning and reflecting on that small success! Writing down small successes also lets you:

Look back on your accomplishments when you need inspiration or motivation.
Keep track of your progress towards various goals.
Learn and commemorate various lessons from your progress and victories.

2. Share Your Successes With Others

People often don’t want to share their successes with others because they feel they are bragging. They may also feel ashamed about a minor victory, thinking it’s not worth sharing.

But that’s not true at all! Sharing your successes with the people around you can help you condition yourself for even more significant future victory. You surround yourself with positive people and fuel yourself with pride and support, making you more motivated to achieve even more! You can share things with:

Friends
Family
A partner
A support community
Colleagues
Social media

3. Get Yourself A Small Gift

What better way to celebrate a small success than with a small gift? It’s like buying yourself a congratulatory present! It doesn’t have to be expensive or even very grand. Picking up a new clothing item, a lovely book, or going out for a yummy meal can all be good gifts for your success.

But you also can give yourself a small gift that isn’t shallow or material! For example, you might:

Pamper yourself with a self-care night at home
Spend a weekend watching a series you want to binge
Sign up for a hobby group or class to further invest in yourself
Put aside some money for retirement, savings, or emergency fund

4. Reflect On Your Successes

A great, productive way to celebrate a small success is by reflecting on it. After all, what more amazing way is there to congratulate yourself than by showing yourself what you’ve learned?

Set some time aside to think about your accomplishment. You’ll gain some good, unique insight into your achievement and yourself and build confidence. Ask yourself questions to get yourself going, like:

What skills did I gain from my efforts?
How did I overcome the challenges I faced?
What did I enjoy most about the journey here?
What strengths of mine shone through?
Did I handle things OK?
What would I like to improve on next time?

5. Be Grateful

Successful people are often grateful people. There’s a lot of positive thinking that is born from genuine appreciation. For each small success, don’t forget to celebrate through gratitude! You can be grateful for:

Those who supported or encouraged you.
Those who provided assistance, advice, or feedback.
Your skills, capabilities, and talents that brought you here.
The circumstances and privilege of your life.

If there are people you’d like to thank in more detail, why not write them a thoughtful thank you note? You can even give them a small gift or take them out for a drink or meal! The more gratitude you express, the happier your life outlook will be.

6. Do Things That You Love

Sometimes, the most delightful way to celebrate a small success is simply by catering to yourself. Take some time to do the things that you love! When you do so, you’ll be refueling your mind, body, and energy. Taking a moment to cheer for your wins helps facilitate future victories by boosting motivation. You can do things like:

Buying yourself a gift, as previously mentioned.
Playing games, sports, or instruments.
Take yourself out on a date.
Entrenching yourself in time for a hobby.
Going somewhere new.
Spending time with loved ones.

7. Let Yourself Get Excited

Adults are often looked down upon for expressing excitement in a big way. But remember what it was like to be a child who could be thrilled by even tiny wins? That childlike wonder keeps your heart young and your mind fresh! The longer you do while denying yourself this enthusiasm, the harder it’ll be to develop that trait again.

Why limit the depths of excitement and happiness? You can celebrate a small success by simply being happy about it. Jump up and down, cheer for yourself, and smile as wide as you like! Why hide the feelings you have when you can share them with the world and yourself?

8. Take Time Off

There’s so much guilt in today’s hustle culture about taking time off for yourself. But it’s a great way to celebrate a small success! It allows you to recharge and refresh yourself to perform even better when you return.

Taking time off is a crucial factor in reducing symptoms of metabolic syndrome, including high stress levels, says research. So you’ll be doing both your mental and physical health a huge favor! There’s nothing wrong with taking a vacation day or two, whether you opt to travel or relax at home.

When you do not constantly focus on your big or small goals, you give your mind the chance to be free. The break is crucial in returning concentration and creativity to you when you return. So go ahead and treat yourself to a short holiday!

9. Acknowledge Them

A small success is often overlooked. It’s hard to remember to acknowledge something that seems trivial. That’s why one of the most important things you should do to celebrate life’s small successes is to recognize that success.

Pat yourself on the back. Take note of what you’ve accomplished. Don’t downplay the things you’ve been able to do. You deserve to celebrate!

10. Shift Your Mind To The Positive

Human beings naturally tend to focus on negative things, even when a big or small success is present. As you bask in the glory of victory, it’s easy for your brain to start thinking about failures or ways you could have done better. That sort of reflection is acceptable, but it shouldn’t be your primary focus.

Shift your mind to positive things and consider all the little steps you took. Remember that this is a moment that you should be celebrating! By accepting your wins, no matter how flawed they are, you’re opening yourself up in a healthier way to future improvements.

3 Reasons Why You Should Celebrate Life’s Small Successes

1. It Keeps The Success Cycle Going

The success cycle is an expert-proven phenomenon that illustrates how people can burn out and lose drive when a small success isn’t celebrated. The process works as follows:

You perform an action that leads to a successful result. You feel good about yourself because you celebrate or acknowledge that success. This motivates you to perform more action for more results, and so on.
You perform an action that leads to a successful result. You don’t celebrate or acknowledge the success, so you don’t get the fulfilling, rewarding feeling of success. Thus, you become tired and perform less action, leading to fewer results, and so on.
You perform an action that leads to an unsuccessful result. You celebrate it as a small success, considering it a step of learning towards progress. This motivates you to perform more action for more positive results, and so on.
You perform an action that leads to an unsuccessful result. You beat yourself up over it and don’t see the upside. So you become tired and perform less action, leading to fewer results, and so on.

That means the trick is to maintain a positive success cycle – and you can do that by celebrating life’s small successes!

2. It Improves Confidence

When you celebrate a minor success, you boost your confidence by congratulating yourself for your capabilities and strengths. This confidence allows you to continue your trend of progress and forward momentum.

If you don’t believe you can do something, chances are you’ll be unable to do it. Focusing on small successes instead of so-called “failures” or obstacles prevents you from feeling powerless. It maintains confidence, so you don’t feel defeated. This allows you to face harder and harder challenges with high self-esteem continuously. That confidence also won’t be too overly dependent on big, evident success but any step taken towards small goals.

3. It Makes You Happy

When you celebrate life’s small successes, you feel happy. And, to be honest, that happiness in itself is a pretty good reason to keep celebrating! Instead of focusing so much on seeking sources of joy, you can create it yourself by finding meaning in your work. Each success can bring you more purpose, which fuels your life satisfaction.

Happiness is a by-product of various factors in our lives. It’s also something you have to choose to have in your world. It doesn’t simply appear out of nowhere. Engaging fully in your life and celebrating each step helps create that by-product. Keep cherishing your progress, and you’ll find that this can be a catalyst for genuine happiness. That sort of thing is so hard to find!

Final Thoughts On Ways To Celebrate Life’s Small Successes And Why You Should

Life is full of small successes, and each one is worth noticing and celebrating. Even if the celebration is relatively small, what matters is that you’re proud of yourself and your progress!

6 Reasons Why Thought Suppression Harms Your Mental Health

December 15, 2021 by Lakeisha Ethans

Anyone who’s ever tried to manage an emotion or thought will have attempted to simply not think about it. But somehow, that never seems to work out the way it should! Even if it seems to have positive effects at first, that suppression always comes back to bite you. It could be minutes, hours, or days later, but sometimes the effects are more long-term.

All of those thoughts stewing in your head can crowd your brain. You might think you’re doing your mental health a favor by shoving your negative feelings aside. But you’re not, and if anything, you’re likely just exacerbating them to extreme levels. Don’t believe us? Here are six reasons why thought suppression harms your mental health.

1. Suppression Increases Pain

The emotions that you feel in life can be painful, especially when they involve negative thoughts. It’s only natural for human beings to try and avoid this pain by suppressing it. But according to studies, such suppression only increases the experience of this pain. In short:

When you experience pain, trying not to think about it makes you more likely to try and escape it.
Suppressing feelings of pain can cause increased feelings of distress, including physical symptoms in blood pressure and heart rate.
When you use coping techniques or simple acceptance, you’re able to withstand more pain for a longer period of time.

The fact is that life is full of negative events and potential suffering! You’ll experience pain no matter how much you try to avoid it. Learning to accept that pain is part of your living experience can be central to preserving emotional health.

If you want to build resilience to various forms of physical and mental pain, work with that suffering. Understanding that this is where you are and learning to cope with it is better than pretending you’re not there at all. After all, you can’t deal with something you refuse to look at.

2. Suppression Rebounds Thoughts

Have you ever tried to make yourself not think about something? As it turns out, the second you tell yourself “Don’t think about that”, your brain immediately thinks about it! That’s how useless thought suppression is, and there’s a pretty famous study about it. It’s commonly referred to as the White Bear study. In the study:

Half of the participants were asked not to think about a white bear for five minutes. When they thought about the bear, they had to ring a bell. The other half was a control group.
All participants were then asked to think about a white bear for five minutes. When they thought about the bear, they had to ring a bell.
Throughout the process, all participants had to vocalize their thoughts.
While trying not to think about the bear, participants still thought of it at least once per minute.
Participants who tried to suppress their thoughts at first ended up ringing the bell twice as much as the control group.

This study makes us see just how counterproductive thought suppression is. The more you try not to think about something, the more powerful it becomes later. It’s like the thought fights back! This is commonly known as “thought rebound”, which means everything you try to push away just bounces back to you like a boomerang.

When applied to white bears, this effect of suppression just seems amusing. But what happens when it’s applied to feelings and more serious thoughts? What about negative thoughts that you attempt to suppress? This is a serious and concerning problem! It’s easy to see how your mental and emotional health can be harmed through thought suppression when you look at these facts.

Worse still, this effect still occurs even when the suppression isn’t as directly instructed. When you’re encouraged not to think of something via manipulation, studies show the same rebound effect still occurs. As such, even small methods of suppression can be harmful and deplete your positive thoughts!

3. Suppression Affects Your Sleep Negatively

Have you ever noticed that negative thoughts tend to reign supreme when you want to sleep? It’s in the dark, wee hours of the morning that your mind scrambles and you toss and turn. And, according to research, the more you try to suppress your thoughts, the harder it’ll be to sleep!

As it turns out, the more desperately you try to sleep, the harder it’ll be for you to actually do that. You’d actually have a better chance of falling asleep if you listen to music that’s loud and stressful! So you should certainly be approaching bedtime with a more relaxed, spontaneous perspective. If you don’t care if you sleep or not and just let things happen, you’ll be able to drift off despite your feelings.

But that’s not all that suppression effects. It can also infiltrate your dreams! Remember the white bear rebound of thoughts? Sometimes, that rebound can sneak up on you in your dreams. Those nightmares you’ve been having can be a result of the things you don’t want to think about. That’s supported by studies!

The good news is that dreams can be useful in dissecting your suppressed thoughts. Lots of people suppress things subconsciously and your nightmares can be an informant of those unintentional feelings. Keeping a dream journal to log what you experience at night can be beneficial to unpacking more complex and buried suppressed thoughts.

4. Suppressing Emotions Preserves Them

When you suppress how you feel, what you’re really doing is bottling them up. And what happens to things that you bottle? Well, they’re preserved. Studies show that trying to suppress thoughts and emotions can allow them to fester. This makes them stronger, more powerful, and much more detrimental to mental health. You can put yourself at risk of depression and anxiety when you continually bottle everything up.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that you should constantly complain about every single minor gripe you have. You still need to work on reframing your mindset to be full of gratitude and positive thoughts. But when you do feel sad, it’s okay to let those feelings out. Cry, rant to a good listener, write in a journal, or express yourself through creativity. You’ll be better off for it!

The trick is emotional acceptance instead of suppression. This means that, when you consider your emotions, you have to welcome them and validate them, even if you don’t dwell on them. As such, you should:

Be kind to yourself without passing judgment or critiquing yourself for your emotions.
Take the time to sit with and fully experience your feelings without intellectualizing or evaluating them.
View your emotions through a realistic lens, so you don’t distort or constrict them to be different.
Appreciate both the negative and positive aspects of various emotions and experiences.
Not focus on getting rid of your emotions, instead allowing them to naturally come, go, and pass.

5. Suppression Decreases Awareness Of Action

Managing mental health well can often be about developing a better awareness of yourself, your actions, and your roots. In other words, if you want to increase positive thoughts, you have to be more in tune with yourself. That’s why mindfulness is so effective for mental health!

When you don’t understand your behaviors, you can feel like you’re spinning out of control, and you may be confused. Awareness combats that, and suppression is the enemy of awareness. Research shows that when you suppress your thoughts, you develop a separation between your behavior and yourself. This manifests by:

Unlinking your thoughts with your behavior, preventing you from properly analyzing the roots of your issues.
Feeling like you are not the direct cause of your own actions, decreasing accountability and capacity for reflection.
Forming a deadly cycle; you need to be aware in order to notice the effects of thought suppression. But thought suppression makes you less aware, which makes you suppress thoughts more!
Making you feel out of control because you don’t feel like you’re the one living your life or performing various actions.
Damaging your ability to give yourself credit where it is due, as you don’t perform actions willfully.

6. Suppressing Feelings and Thoughts Causes Emotional Explosions

In today’s ever-advancing social climate, people are constantly having to revisit old beliefs that they were raised with. Realizing that you have a problematic set of beliefs can be difficult. In order to unlearn them, you have to do so much soul-searching and confrontation of inner, subconscious negativity!

But many people choose to handle their unintentional emotions and prejudice by simply putting them aside. If they suppress their negative thoughts, surely that’ll make them go away, right? Wrong! Research shows that suppression of such feelings can actually make you more likely to act upon them. Worse still, the way you act on them can be extreme, resulting in lashing out and personal dislike.

As it turns out, accepting your way of thinking can be beneficial to managing your reactions. This even counts for situations where you like your set of beliefs and have to be around people you dislike because of it. By allowing yourself to feel your emotions without suppressing them, you don’t have all that bottled-up rage waiting to blow up.

Feelings need an outlet in order to be safely expressed. If not, the pressure continues to build until you diffuse it or it has to diffuse itself with a huge reaction. In more minor forms, this can make you irritable. In more major forms, poor management of emotions like these can lead to abusive, toxic, and dangerous behavior. Think about all the serial killers who had so much anger inside them! It’s an extreme example, but it illustrates the point. You can handle your feelings when they’re simmering, not when they’re boiling and about to blow up.

Final Thoughts On Some Reasons Why Suppression Harms Your Mental Health

Given their intent, a lot of thought suppression’s effects are quite ironic. They always seem to make things worse, never better. Facing your feelings and negative thoughts head-on is a much better way to deal with them. If you don’t do this, your mental health could suffer tremendously.

Do you suffer significantly from negative thoughts and thought suppression? Remember that there’s no shame in reaching out for help! A mental health professional can guide you through your thoughts and teach you better coping and management techniques than suppression.

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How to Make Sleep Gummies That Make You Feel Great the Next Day

Gather these tools:

Ingredients:

Directions:

Sleep Gummies Recipe Notes

Nutrition and Benefits of these Sleep Gummies

Final thoughts on these sleep gummies that will knock you out cold

1. Step 1: Listen Well

·Giving Full Attention To Them

·Using Micro Validation

·Matching Their Energy

·Turn To Face Them

·Paying Attention To Nonverbal Communication

·Do Not Interrupt Or Interject

2. Step 2: Clarify and Ensure Your Understanding

·Asking Questions To Clarify

·Identifying The Emotion and Acknowledging It

·Mirroring Their Statements

3. Step 3: Fully Acknowledge and Validate The Feeling

·Normalizing Their Feelings And Reactions

·Admitting It If You Can’t Relate

·Genuinely Walking A Mile

·Not Letting Disagreement Drag You Down

·Communicating Acceptance

4. Step 4: Offer Help, Feedback, Or Encouragement, If Applicable

·Lead With A Statement That Validates

·Don’t Use Absolutes

·Use “I” Language

·Relate to a Similar Experience

5. Step 5: Re-Validate The Feeling Again

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10 Ways To Celebrate Life’s Small Successes

1. Write Down Your Successes

2. Share Your Successes With Others

3. Get Yourself A Small Gift

4. Reflect On Your Successes

5. Be Grateful

6. Do Things That You Love

7. Let Yourself Get Excited

8. Take Time Off

9. Acknowledge Them

10. Shift Your Mind To The Positive

3 Reasons Why You Should Celebrate Life’s Small Successes

1. It Keeps The Success Cycle Going

2. It Improves Confidence

3. It Makes You Happy

Final Thoughts On Ways To Celebrate Life’s Small Successes And Why You Should

1. Suppression Increases Pain

2. Suppression Rebounds Thoughts

3. Suppression Affects Your Sleep Negatively

4. Suppressing Emotions Preserves Them

5. Suppression Decreases Awareness Of Action

6. Suppressing Feelings and Thoughts Causes Emotional Explosions

Final Thoughts On Some Reasons Why Suppression Harms Your Mental Health

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