October 31, 2017

Crafting A Relief Center To Provide Help In Hard Situations

This post has been contributed.



If you stayed up to date with the news this summer and fall, you are likely aware of the global catastrophic weather effects which displaced many people and destroyed many homes. From massive hurricanes to earthquakes and forest fires, there always seems to be something tragic occurring around the world which affects livelihoods and the integrity of people’s homes.


It’s a natural response to want to help out the people affected. In some circumstances, this can take the form of a humble effort of donations, whether that’s clothes, food or money. Sometimes, people provide shelter if living nearby those residents having a hard time getting back on their feet. There are those incredible people who’ll stop at nothing to open a relief centre, to give the community a grounding point to stage relief efforts.


If you feel as though this is something you’re interested in, we’d like to provide you with a list of handy tips to craft this. While you will for sure be helping your fellow citizens out, you may also be able to turn this into a small business or nonprofit organization, depending on how you gate access to your firm.


Here’s what you need.


Communication Networks


You need to be able to get the word out fast, no matter what that word is. Having connections with local charities, government departments and emergency services will make sure your center is a hub from which all recovery can be based. It’s important to stay upfront as to how you’re helping people. If it’s providing temporary accommodation, helping with food basics or even light medical help, you should make that perfectly clear so that the community knows exactly how and when your services should be required.


Medical Help


While you can’t expect to rival hospitals and clinics, your relief center may be able to stock some medical equipment, as well as one or two medical professionals to either help or defer a visitor elsewhere. Look to www.foremostequipment.com to provide you with the medical equipment you need, as they provide easy acquisition and reasonable prices. Your in-house medical professional may be able to save lives with these providing the place is correctly cleaned and is happy to undergo specific clinic audits.


Store


One of the most conciliatory events that takes place in a natural disaster or some form of community tragedy is how the collective bands together to help out those affected. It’s likely that once you open your doors as a relief center, you will be bombarded with items that can help your relief efforts. From bed linens to non-perishable food items to clothes, all of these will need to be stored in sizable storage containers. Make sure they are labelled and efficiently organized and that your space allows from all these excess goods.


Utility


Thankfully, disasters do not happen all the time. You will need to keep the lights on, so monetizing your firm is somewhat useful. Sometimes, relief centers can gain lucrative charity contracts, from which you can earn a salary.


Sometimes, you’ll have to work with the community yourself, turning the space into a local hall for party rental, AA meetings, or some such other activity. Luckily, while major disasters do not happen constantly, there will always be a professional reason to hire your hall out to people in need. Doing this can make your relief center financially viable and earn you a respectable wage for your efforts.

With these tips, you are sure to become a force for good in the community.
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October 30, 2017

Can You Be Prepared For Anything Without Being An Anxious Mess?

This post has been contributed.
 
In this day and age, it seems none of us really know what’s just around the corner. This is why many people are choosing to prepare for just about every eventuality. However, it can be tough to do this and not look over your shoulder constantly, anxious at what could come next.
 
Providing you’ve prepared for the future in the best way you can, then you should be able to relax and have peace of mind. It may seem easier said than done, but we’re going to discuss what you can do in this post.
 
Stock Up on Non Perishables
There are a few reasons you should stock up on non perishable food items. Maybe one day you’ll get snowed in. Maybe one day you’ll simply arrive home from a long day starving hungry with nothing in the fridge. Stock up on things like oatmeal, quinoa, pasta, canned vegetables and beans, and rice.
 
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Get Plenty Of Sleep
Getting plenty of sleep will help you coming into cold and flu season, as it strengthens your immune system. People who get 6 hours sleep a night or less are much more likely to catch a cold or the flu - four times more likely, in fact. Plus, a shortage of sleep can leave you feeling stressed out, which again, lowers your immune system. Get plenty of sleep and your immune system will be strong and your stress levels low.
 
Pack Up Your Car
Nobody wants to get stuck in a broken down car, but it happens. Make sure you have the essentials in your car just in case. You’ll want some jumper cables, a toolkit, jack, a lug wrench, and even some warm clothing. A first aid kit and a flashlight will also come in handy. Just because you’ve called a tow truck doesn’t mean you won't get stressed out and feel all helpless, so make sure you have what you need on board.
 
Come Up With An Emergency Home Escape Plan
Anything could happen when you’re at home; a fire could break out, burglars could get in - we won’t list anymore as this post is supposed to make you less stressed, not more stressed. However, there are things you can have in the house alongside food to help you in these situations. Coming up with an emergency escape plan is also a good idea, so brief the whole family on the best way out. There are more resources that can help you at home, like those on Prepared Bee. The more prepared you are the less frightened you’ll feel.
 
Practice Mindfulness
Any event can be stressful. It all depends on the person and the context, so we couldn’t possibly list everything here. However, one way to be ready for any stressful event is to become more mindful. This involves staying focused on the present moment and accepting your feelings. When you’re more mindful, you’ll feel far less stressed over things and feel able to regulate your emotions.
 
There’s no need to be on the brink of a breakdown when you have the above tips.
 
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October 22, 2017

Talk Is Tough, But It’s Gotta Be Done

This post has been contributed.
 
We live in a world that is becoming more open, free and inclusive as the years go on. There are currently parts of the world that exist in the past, where time has seemingly stood still and men and women are not all equal to one another. However, for the most part in the developed world, we are becoming more even. There is one thing in the world that most people can agree on, and this is that some topics in life are still largely untouched and are taboo to talk about. We don’t openly speak about these topics, for fear of offending or causing upset to others. The problem with this, is that topics can never move on from being taboo if we’re silent about them, and so the catch-22 continues.
The fact that in 2017 there are still subjects we shy away from addressing shows that, as a society, we do still have an awfully long way to go! If you rewind time by 100 years, you’ll find a plethora of taboo topics that are now brought up in common conversation. Homosexuality, death, sexism, racism and gender norms are some of the topics that were once forbidden to be addressed in civilised conversation. Thankfully, in the last two decades we have become far more awake to these issues and we discuss them more. Of course, not everyone is going to have the same opinion on each topic out there; we’d be a pretty boring species if we all believed in the exact same way of living. If you’ve ever watched movies like this one, you’ll know what could happen in a society where we all think the same!
There are a lot of topics out there that we do still need to speak about, however, and that is exactly the point of this article. We need to break the silence and become comfortable with talking about the uncomfortable things in life. The generations that come behind us need to come into a world that is open to talking about the hard things – it makes it far easier to have a conversation with someone if you know you can be comfortable in what you’re talking about. We’ve put together some of the taboo topics that we still avoid in current society, and why we should be breaking down barriers and getting the real issues the awareness they deserve.
Dying
Death is one of the biggest topics in the world to debate about, but it’s one that never gets spoken about enough. It’s a funny concept, given that one of the only things – aside from birth -  that is equal and guaranteed to every single human being on earth is death itself. It remains a topic of taboo, causing awkwardness, embarrassment and in some cases, denial.  As humans, we don’t like to talk about things that could potentially hurt feelings or upset, but the practicality behind it means that death is something that must be addressed before it happens and not afterward. Being practical about death means ensuring you live a life that keeps you secure; setting up a will, setting up life insurance, arranging obituaries and making a point to learn about Afterlife.co are all things that we should be doing before we die. No one wants to leave a mess behind for their family, and death can be messy. It’s emotional, upsetting and knowing how to grieve is often hard. The thing is, if we don’t discuss death with our loved ones, we can’t know how to gather our support systems that help us to cope. Open up about fears surrounding death, and you’ll find other people equally willing to discuss it, it’s just that no one wants to go first!
Disabilities
Generally, conversations that surround disabilities are about the inspiring subjects. We talk about which Paralympian is an inspiration to their generation. We talk about the person we know with a hidden illness who is soldiering on regardless. The rights surrounding disabilities, discussions about ableism and broaching the subject of accessibility – and the lack of it – are all topics that get touched upon but not discussed in depth. Those who are able talk about disability though they have no real idea about how to handle a disability and how to live with one. The trouble with disability being a taboo topic, is that no one knows how to bring it up or discuss it, meaning there is always going to be offence caused. Is it offensive to ask the reason a wheelchair is required? Probably, but learning about disability can only be done if questions are asked in the first place. For the good of those who deal with a disability – be it physical or a learning difficulty – we need to learn how to broach the topic in a way to help others understand.
Mental Health
It is only in recent years that society has moved from hiding away people with mental health issues and facing the topic itself head on. Mental health issues come in many forms, from depression, anxiety and eating disorders like anorexia, to ADHD, Asperger’s and Autism. We have only begun to scratch the surface of understanding how the human brain works, and it’s because of this that mental health is a topic to be reckoned with. The stigma that surrounds mental health issues is huge, and while we are thirty years ahead of an age we would employ electroconvulsive therapy for postnatal depression, we still do not discuss it. The main feeling with mental health issues is that they are to be shamed. We all want to be able to put on a front and show the world we can cope with whatever is thrown our way. When we cannot put on that front, we are supposed to stay hidden away and not show the world we aren’t dealing very well. It may be hard to talk about, but we need to so that we can better understand the issues.
Sex
It’s long been a topic of shame, but sex is still a highly taboo topic around the world. We publish magazines and posters with sexual content and we make new films that are increasingly racy, but when it comes to discussion, sex is off the table – so to speak. Teenagers are taught to avoid sex rather than teach them the consequences, and not just pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. No one wants to discuss the emotional consequences of sex and how such an act can affect your mental health. It’s the most natural thing in the world and without it, we wouldn’t be here. But we keep quiet and stoic about it, because it’s still viewed as a dirty topic. We need to break down that barrier and get comfortable talking about it – otherwise having children is going to be an issue!
War
Our world has been in a constant cycle of war for many years now. Countries are at each other’s throats over oil, land, gold and other issues but we often turn the other cheek and ignore it. The birth of the internet has meant that we are more in tune when the world is in conflict, as the news is given to us minute by minute. However, we support troops and cheer on our armies and commend bravery without thinking about the cost. The lives lost in war are often not the lives of the people that are being targeted, but innocent people that have nothing to do with the conflict itself and just happen to be collateral damage. We don’t discuss that part of the war, as generally it wouldn’t be in the agenda of those who fuel war. It would be nice to live in a society of total peace, but it’s not discussed enough from both sides to realise that we are all human and we can all live in one place without the fighting.
Religion
One of the biggest topics of taboo is religion. There are many of them in the world and everyone believes theirs is the ‘correct’ one. Debates always end up heated when religion is involved, because the passion of belief is very strong. Learning about the religions of others is a good way to be open and accepting of other cultures and how things are done, but opinion and ego generally win the conversation instead.
 
Taboo topics can only stay taboo if people refuse to open their eyes, minds and mouths and discuss them. The world itself is a work in progress, with countries still developing and opinions still taking time to become current and equal. If we all made a point of opening our mouths about the tough topics, they would no longer be tough and the barriers that are always up can be broken down. Society as a whole would be far happier if they were brave enough to be open with each other, and if you believe that your opinion is all that counts it’s time to realise you can hold more than one opinion in your mind, even if you don’t agree with it. Be bold and break the silence – goodness knows we all need to.
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October 18, 2017

The Dirty Stains in Your Life That Are Difficult to Wash Out

This post has been contributed.
 
Dirty stains in your laundry are hard to wash out. No matter how much you scrub your clothes and apply detergent, it’s going to take a while for them to disappear. Sadly, if you try too hard to clean them out, you’ll start to damage your clothes and there will be irreparable damage. Unfortunately, this also applies to the stains we have in life too.
 
People do stupid things all the time. Whether it’s arguing over a disagreement, creating a misunderstanding or developing bad habits, it’s all too common to get into trouble and forever make a stain on your life.
 
Source: Pexels
 
Bad Health Habits
 
Smoking, drinking and stuffing yourself with fast food can all lead to an early death. Even worse, it’s usually the small unnoticeable things that cause your quality of life to lower. The problem with unhealthy habits is that you don’t notice them. For some people, it’s normal to cough all the time because their lungs are filled with tar from smoking. For people that eat too much junk food, it’s normal to have stomach problems all the time or have difficulty moving around due to their weight. These aren’t normal things, and the later you realise that you have a bad health habit, the harder it will be to erase that stain from your life. Practice healthy habits, stomp out bad habits and you’ll be able to live a long and carefree life.
 
Criminal Record
 
Whether it’s a DUI that landed you in hot water or an argument that got personal, it’s surprisingly easy to get a criminal record. This can have a serious effect on your ability to find work in the future, and you may feel guilty for something you’ve done that was ultimately your fault. It’s best to try and get out of these situations as early as possible, but there are times when you get into trouble with the authorities due to someone else’s negligence. Don’t let these people push the blame onto you, call a defense lawyer to fight in your corner so you don’t end up with a criminal record for no reason. If you’re adamant that something wasn’t your fault, there’s no reason not to argue your case. A criminal record can become a deep stain on your life, so wash it out early to prevent it from settling in.
 
Poor Credit History
Are you good with money? Do you get a lot of extra income from hobbies in addition to your main job? Then you’re probably financially secure and have no real troubles managing your money. However, for the rest of us, money can become a struggle. Whether it’s low wages or bad budgeting, it’s important to take your financial situation seriously. If you have poor credit history, then you’ll have trouble securing loans in the future or funding for a business venture. Poor credit sticks with you for a long time, so make sure you erase it early by managing your money properly.
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