10 Activities All Mentally Healthy Single Parent Do

As a  single parent, enjoying mental health means 

having a sense of  well-being, being able to function in everyday life and feeling confident to rise to a challenge when necessary. 

Just like your physical health, there are actions you can take to increase your mental health. 

Boost your well-being and stay mentally healthy by following these 10 Tips: 

1. Connect with others 

Develop and maintain strong relationships with people around you who will support and enrich your life. The quality of our personal relationships has a great effect on your well-being. Eliminate those who are a drag on you and saps your energy.

Putting time and effort into building strong relationships can bring great rewards.

2. Take time to enjoy 

Set aside time for activities, hobbies and projects you enjoy. Let yourself be spontaneous and creative when the urge takes you. Do a crossword puzzle; take a walk in your local park; read a book; draw pictures with your kids; play with your pets - do whatever you like.

3. Participate and share interests 

Join a club or group of people who share your interests. Being part of a group of people with a common interest provides a sense of belonging and is good for your mental health. Join a sports club; a band; a dance class; a theater group; or a book club.

4. Contribute to your community 

Volunteer your time for a cause or issue that you care about and get your children involved. Help out a neighbor, work in a community garden, or do something nice for a trend. 

There are many great ways to contribute that can help you feel good about yourself and your place in the world. An effort to improve the lives of others is sure to improve your life too.

5. Take care of yourself 

Be active and eat well - these help maintain a healthy body. Physical and mental health are closely linked; it's easier to feel good about life if your body feels good. 

You don't have to go to the gym to exercise - gardening, vacuuming, and dancing all count. Combine physical activity with a balanced diet to nourish your body and mind and keep you feeling good, inside and out.

6. Challenge yourself 

Learn a new skill or take on a challenge to meet a goal. You could take on something different at work; commit to a fitness goal or learn to cook a new recipe. 

Learning improves your mental fitness, while striving to meet your own goals builds skills and confidence and gives you a sense of progress and achievement.

7. Deal with stress 

Be aware of what triggers your stress and how you react. You may be able to avoid some of the triggers and learn to prepare for or manage others. Stress is a part of life and affects people in different ways. 

It only becomes a problem when it makes you feel uncomfortable or distressed. A balanced lifestyle can help you manage stress better. If you have trouble winding down, you may find that relaxation breathing or meditation can help.

8. Rest and refresh 

Get adequate sleep. Go to bed at a regular time each day and practice good habits to get better sleep. Sleep restores both your mind and body. However, feelings of fatigue can still set in if you feel constantly rushed and overwhelmed when you are awake. 

Allow yourself some unfocused time each day to refresh. For example, let your mind wander or just daydream for a while. It's OK to add "do nothing" to your to do list.  

9. Notice the here and now 

Take a moment to notice each of your senses each day. Simply be in the moment - feel the sun and wind on your face and notice the air you are breathing. It's easy to be caught up thinking about the past or planning for the future instead of experiencing the present. 

Practicing mindfulness, by focusing your attention on being in the moment, is a good way to do this. Making a conscious effort to be aware of your inner and outer world is important for your mental health.

10. Ask for help 

This can be as simple as speaking to your doctor or your friend about where to find a counselor or community mental health service. The perfect, worry-free life does not exist. Everyone's life journey has bumps and the people around you can help. If you don't get the help you need first off, keep asking until you do.

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Humans Don't Have Instincts. Humans Have Intuition: Here are 4 Ways to Use Your Intuition for Personal Gain

Instinct is defined as an unalterable behavior pattern that is universal for a species -- that is, every member of the species can be expected to do it.  

Intuition is defined as a kind of immediate knowledge or awareness not based upon some logical process -- a form of insight that brings together appropriate relationships between the elements of a problem or situation.

The key distinction to be made here is that by definition instinct can only be applied to animals while intuition can only be applied to human beings.

Intuition allows you to discover unseen realities and hidden truths. It alerts you to problems and warns you of risks and dangers you might not otherwise detect. It is that sixth sense -- that faculty of the mind that operates independently of reason and logic. 

 It is a way of sensing something that produces instantaneous comprehension and can occur spontaneously.

Certain qualities make you more sensitive to intuitive experiences like relaxation, patience, and self-control. 

Do not confuse intuition with hope, emotion, or intellect. Rather, it is developed through trial and error. Moreover, it cannot be explained. You know when you have it.

Awakening intuition is about learning to trust yourself. You need to let your intuition guide you and then be willing to follow that guidance directly and fearlessly.

Intuition can be developed to produce genius in individuals thought to be mediocre or even of inferior intelligence. Here then are four tips for developing your intuition:

1. Learn to tune into intuitive experiences and to recognize their quality. 
Intuitive impulses are a form of sensed perception and are distinguished by a vague sense of being certain or almost certain.
2. Be aware of soft facts as well as hard facts. 
 Soft facts are less formal or obvious such as impressions, feelings, inclinations, and vibrations. Hard facts are logical, objective, and overt. Soft facts are hunches, intuitive, and invisible. Hard facts are obvious, conscious, and tangible. In most situations both soft and hard facts will reveal themselves.
3. Intuition is commonly experienced within the context of choice.
When a choice need to be made, intuition will signal stop or go. This faculty is developed by comparison and contrast. By comparing your subjective experience with the eventual correctness or incorrectness of your choice, you can eventually sense the expression which will match up.
4. Be true to your intuition.
Extraneous factors will often intrude, such as social pressures, wish fulfillment, greed, impatience and so on which can alter the basis for your decision.

A word of caution. Do not rely solely upon your intuition. Study the situation. Use the other side of your brain and do your research. After you have done your research, then let your intuition guide you to your final choice. Intuition is something to be used in conjunction with your logical, rational abilities.

Now you know that the next time you hear a commentator, analyst, broadcaster, etc. associate the term instinct with human beings, it is charitable to say that you are listening to someone who is just being imprecise in their thinking. But, really it's just stupid to say this.

Now its your turn. Do you trust your intuition? If so what experiences have you had?

Leave your comments below. 

How to Make Stress Work for You

At any time, financial conditions can become a source of stress and can significantly complicate both your personal and family life .  

Although stress is a commonly used term, a useful definition of stress for this article is that it is an uncomfortable experience especially when it is overwhelmingly based on personal events and circumstances. This experience is not lost on the self-employed.

Worry Can Take It's Toll on Your Well-bring
Worry over job loss, mounting bills, and family responsibilities can take its toll on your personal well-being. In that the number one thing that couples argue about, even in good economic times, is money, financial stress can take its toll on marriage and other committed relationships. 

Psychosomatic illnesses can result in insomnia, high blood pressure, migraines, stomach disorders, loss of appetite, a reduced desire to engage in fun activities, and irritableness. Even anxiety, depression, and panic cannot be ruled out. Other family members will begin to wonder about the changes in your behavior and the deterioration in your relationship with them.

Know the Sources of Stress
An American Psychological Association survey conducted in 2008 found that eight in ten people identified money (81%) and the economy (80%) as a significant source of stress in their lives. Other sources of stress include housing costs (62%), and job stability (56%). Two years after this study, the situation worsened. Government programs were not and will never be the solution. 

The terrible Obama economy, the only administration that didn't realize at least a 3% growth in our economy, added $10 trillion to our national debt. This was more debt than all the other previous Presidents combined. He essentially borrowed from our future and piled debt on our children and grandchildren.

You Must Survive and Grow
Now that the Obama era is over and with our economic conditions has significantly improved, you as a self-employed person have a great opportunity to survive and grow. And beyond that, be the expert that your stressed out clients look to for help. You have to manage stress in your life by learning all you can about what causes stress in your life, and what works for you in dealing with it. And, then you must make stress work for you rather than against you. 

A wider view of stress is that the uncomfortable experience, correctly identified, should be welcomed and accepted. Use stress to invigorate your creativity and resourcefulness -- to wake up the creativity inside you thus allowing you to invent ways to circumvent or overcome challenging events and circumstances and to help you in your work with your clients.


How do you manage stress in your life? Leave your comments below.

8 Secret Steps to Easy Blog Writing

Writing a blog should not be a difficult or arduous task. 

• Rather it should be a pleasurable outpouring of your position on an issue; 
• an expression of your strong feelings about a current event; 
• an exposition on a topic on which you have done some significant research; 
• or maybe just sharing a particular point of view on something you have some real interest in.

Blog Writing as a Release

As an independent consultant the writings I often do include writing reports, designing programs, evaluating programs, and developing proposals to acquire grant moneys along with helping new blog writers get off and running. 

Blog writing then is a release from that type of demanding writing. As I write this, I am experiencing a release from my normal and typical writing directly associated with making a living.

Blog Writing Simplified

Blog writing, simplified, can be broken down into eight specific and easy tasks:

1. Identify the substance of what you want to write about.

2. Work on the title of the blog. The title is extremely important. It will determine whether or not someone actually decides to read your blog. Make the title a catchy and intriguing one.

3. Develop a strong lead paragraph. This is important because, after the title, the paragraph must make the reader wants to further explore what you have to say.

4. Keep your main points you want to make to no less than three and no more than nine. Two are too few. Ten are too many.

5. Support each of your points with facts and data. If you choose to quote a so-called expert, keep it to a minimum. The important thing is to make sure that your facts and data are from reputable sources.

6. Keep your sentences short and concise. Write in the active voice. And, write to the reader. Let the reader know that you are talking to him or her.

7. Use bullet points if they are appropriate to your blog and avoid jargon unless you are willing to explain what it means.

8. Conclude your blog with a summary of your main points or a simplified restatement of the essence of your blog

There it is. Blog writing should be a release, but also valuable to the reader. Consider it to be therapeutic and have fun doing so.

I'd like to know your thoughts. Leave your comments below.

4 Secrets of Setting Goals in Life

We are all increasingly bombarded by events beyond our control. Wars, inflation, recession, and other outside stresses impinge on our emotions. 

When we add these events to career, family, health, financial, and personal problems, it is apparent why stress overload is such a common problem.

While these realities are here, with its rapid changes, our delicate human nervous system remains unchanged.  We continually search for firm ground on which to stand and meet our problems. 

Goals and Setting Goals in Life is that firm ground. 

Have a Goal Oriented Plan for Your Life
The truth is that if you don't have a goal oriented game plan for your life and personal development, you may well lose control of those events upon which you can exercise control. For example, you may feel reasonably secure in your career today, but are you prepared for a second, or perhaps a third career if circumstances make such a decision necessary?

Things happen unexpectedly - - career crisis, health problems, and family problems - - and, without planning you will end up being a reactor rather than an actor in life.  

Goal setting makes you an active agent in molding your life and enables you to be clear what you want. Keep in mind that not much of life is accomplished without specific, smart goals.

The pleasure of taking control of your life is, by itself, worth the effort. It prepares you for the inevitable changes that occur as you pass from decade to decade through marriage, children, career changes, retirement, and so on. 

It gives you a full perspective on your life. You can see, perhaps for the first-time, whether or not you are structuring your life to realize your potential and achieve personal fulfillment.

Here Then are Four Principles to Follow:
1. Define your goals clearly 
The failure to establish clear goals is one of the chief obstacles to achievement and personal fulfillment. The art of goal setting lies in your ability to focus on one well-defined objective at a time. A clearly defined goal is one that is specific and measurable and one that is set within a specific time frame.

2. Put your goals in writing 
Goal writing is the tool for achievement and fulfillment. Your goals must mesh with your commitment and your purpose in life. Successful people in all walks of life have found that goal writing can provide the energy and the will to achieve them. Writing down goals forces you to be specific. Your goals become more real and you avoid the dangers of vague, indefinite objectives.

3. Record baseline data 
In setting goals in Life, you need specific information about your present actions in order to establish a basis for change. It is important to have a complete and accurate record of where you stand now if you are to establish a goal for change. 

For example, if your goal is to double the amount of time you spend walking each week, keep track of the time you currently spend walking and figure the average. In setting baseline data, don't rely on memory. Make a record as it occurs and give yourself a long enough period of time to get a fair average. Good baseline information is the foundation for setting successful goals.

4. Break goals into sub goals 
Trying to make the transition from present performance to a desired goal in a single jump can lead to early failure and loss of confidence. Sub goals are stepping stones to success. A big goal is not a measure of your present status. 

It is a target -- something you need to attain ultimately. You shouldn't feel like a failure if your goal is not achieved tomorrow or the next day. You need the smaller sub goals that are just beyond your current ability but still within the realm of present possibility.

These goals can be very supportive as they help build your winning streak. Most importantly they can provide the foundation for successful activity.


Do you set goals? What has been your experience?