Driving Test Success: Overcoming Nerves and Anxiety

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Even the most cool, calm and collected person can buckle under the pressure when it comes to their driving test. It’s not a particularly nice experience for anyone, and after months (sometimes years!) of practice, it all comes down to a short period of time in the car with the examiner. While a little bit of nerves can be helpful, as heightened adrenaline can help you perform better, the dry mouth, sweaty palms, knotted stomach and racing thoughts aren’t going to be doing you too many favors. If you suffer from anxiety disorders and feel this way a lot of the time for no apparent reason, it’s important to go and speak to your GP so you can get the right treatment. But if you’re feeling this way in response to stress such as your driving test, here are a few ways we can overcome the situation. 

Practice Grounding Techniques

When you feel like your thoughts are racing ahead, grounding techniques can help to bring your focus back to the current moment. This can help to promote feelings of calmness. When there’s something stressful like a driving test on the horizon, it’s easy to get caught up in your own thoughts. Anticipation, stress and worry can quickly spiral out of control, you might find yourself thinking ‘I can’t do it’ or even thinking of ways that you can get away from the situation. You might start thinking the worst or picturing failure in your mind. If you just focus on bringing your thoughts to the here and now, it can help to calm the physical symptoms of anxiety. You will maintain a much better state of mind, and can go into the test feeling more relaxed and more confident. Meditation works well as a grounding technique, you could also ask yourself questions such as ‘where am I’ or ‘what is the date?’. You could focus on your breathing, or name things in the room you can see around you. It’s very simple but really does work. 

Practice Positive Thinking

Our state of mind really is everything. If you feel happy and positive about life, you’ll find you will come across more opportunities. If you feel down and are always looking for the worst (you may be doing this subconsciously without realizing) chances are you will find the worst. The difference between an opportunity and a challenge is just the way you look at a situation. Being more positive can help put you in the best state of mind, and if you do happen to fail, you will bounce back more quickly. Practice visualising success. Tell yourself ‘I can do it’- find a mantra or positive quote that resonates with you and repeat it daily. When negative thoughts creep in, do your best to push them away and focus on the positive. 

Use a Herbal Remedy

Products such as Kalms and Rescue Remedy are safe herbal remedies which can be bought over the counter, and can help promote relaxation and calm. Herbs such as lavender have also been shown to be effective. You could drop some essential oils into your bath in the week leading up to the test, or make up a pillow spray and use it to help you drift off to sleep. While herbal remedies alone won’t completely stop your anxiety, coupled with positive thinking and other techniques to change your thinking they can be very effective. 

Get Enough Food and Sleep

Anxiety can really do a number on your body. It can lead to sleeplessness, and let’s face it- everything always feels worse when you’re exhausted. Feelings of nausea might mean you don’t want to eat, and without the right sustenance, you will never be performing at your best potential. Practising the above techniques will help you to reduce your levels of stress so you can eat and sleep well. The morning before your test, have a healthy breakfast that will fuel your body and brain, and help to set you up for success. 

Remind Yourself That It’s Not The End of the World

Finally, the great thing about driving tests is if you fail you can just come back and try again. Be sure to remind yourself of this when you’re having a major panic! It’s not a life or death situation, no one is going to die if you fail and nothing bad is going to happen. It’s not like school exams where you have to worry about your future. If you pass right away, that’s fantastic! If you don’t, pick yourself up and go again. Failure feels awful at the time, but actually, it can make you all the more determined and also more grateful when you finally do get your licence. There’s always a lesson to be learned in failure so use it as experience and you’ll know where to do better next time. 

Why You Need Fresh Flowers In Your Home

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If you love flowers but don't have any inside your home - why haven't you? You shouldn't have to wait for your other half to buy you a bouquet - there's nothing wrong with buying flowers for yourself, as technically, they're for your home, so it doesn't count.

Don't you want to get that lovely warm feeling every time you walk into a room? Plus flowers don't cost a lot. You can easily buy a bunch once a week without it making an impact on your bank account, but such a little thing can go a long way.

Here are all the benefits or having fresh flowers in your home.

Flowers refresh memories

Have you ever been out somewhere and smelt some food as you walk by a restaurant, and been pulled into a fond memory of when your Grandmother used to make you her special dish? Well, flowers can have the same effect, by releasing certain smells that may be familiar to you, triggering some of your favorite memories. So choose flowers that remind you of the happy moments in your life, and then they'll be with you every day.

Flowers stimulate creativity

If you have children, take them to the store and tell them that they can each choose a small bouquet of flowers for their room. They will not only look appealing, but they may spark your children's creativity due to the vivid colors and interesting form. Not only that but it will also encourage responsibility, as you can put them in charge of watering and feeding the flowers when need be. This also applies to you, get some flowers for your desk at work and see if they inspire you.

Flowers make great decoration

If you have a boring looking table in your living room and aren't too sure what to do with it - flowers are just the thing you need, introducing the space with some pretty colors of your choice. Pair them up with a stunning vase from MERS Goodwill, and you'll have the perfect feature. Plus, your money will have been put towards a great cause.

Flowers improve your mood

Whether you have just got back from work after a long hard day, or you've been running errands and now you just want to relax at home, think of how uplifted you'll feel when you walk into a room and see a lovely bouquet of flowers smiling back. Seeing something visually appealing will take your mind off the negative things, and refocus you to see the beautiful things in life.

Flowers are inviting

What better way to welcome guests into your home than with a warm, vibrant essence of nature and life - flowers. You can decide on what emotion and atmosphere they bring to a room by the breed and color of the flowers. For example, if you are looking for something quite passionate and romantic, red roses are just the thing, whereas white roses give off more of a regal and pure feel. While an array of different colored lilies will not only smell incredible but show a playful and daring side to your home.

Common Mistakes Women Make When Buying Shoes!

Most women have complained that their feet hurt at least 100 times in their lifetime, if not more! Of course, we reason with ourselves: no pain, no gain, right? Wrong! You don’t need to be in pain in order for your feet to look fabulous. In fact, if you avoid the mistakes mentioned below, you can ensure your feet don’t hurt again.

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Beware Of The 5 Unhealthy Habits You Develop In College

Everyone has little quirks that they know they shouldn’t do. Little things that you know are not the best side of you. It’s likely that you’ve developed bad habits during your life. And surprisingly enough, most of your bad habits tend to come from your experience in college. Don’t worry, though, everyone starts to get used to the freedom of college life and accidentally indulges in the odd bad habit – or maybe a couple of them. It doesn’t mean that you’re now stuck for the rest of your life with dealing with your college habits. You can break out of them easily if you begin aware of what they are. After all, a habit is only a way of behaving. It’s never written in stone, as you are the one in control of your behavior. Here are the 5 worst college habits that you might have kept. 

Natural is still best to de-stress your tress

Striking a life balance is no easy task to do. It requires hard work and dedication which sometimes can be strenuous to achieve. Can you imagine how overtaxing it is to juggle between your career and providing for your loved ones?

Studies have shown that stress is commonly caused by interrelationships, such as having to deal with work issues and family-related complications. If left unresolved over time, it could lead to immune deficiency, which later on, might cause other parts of our body to show signs of disruption like hair loss.

Many of us could attest to that. It’s like always autumnal equinox whenever we experience chronic hair fall, most especially at the prime of stress. At its peak, our white blood cells attack no less than the follicles, thus causing alopecia. What’s more, anxiety could drive your mane into a prolonged resting phase, which is called telogen effluvium.

Stress experienced by the body or beyond our coping resources could trigger hair loss symptoms, which, if not addressed properly, could result to early baldness. Worried about this? Fret no more. You can beat it simply by relaxing, eating or flexing some muscles. 

Never underestimate the power of sleep. If you feel that you are over your head in dealing with anxieties, choose to rest it off for a while and recharge.

Let’s get physical to de-stress. It helps release endorphins, or what is known as the happy hormones, that can be beneficial in relieving the tension.

Destress by watching stage plays like the timeless story of Tony and Maria and their fateful love affair as the electrifying classic WEST SIDE STORY. Read more on http://www.novuhair.com/2017/07/novuhair-natures-answer- to-hair- loss-supports- west-side- story-musical- at-the- theatre-solaire/

Eat more fruits and veggies. Having these as a staple in your diet will bolster your immunity from disease, which in turn, knock out stress. We can all benefit from the vitamins and minerals of the healthy food we consume.

It’s best to complement these simple regimens with a topical solution that’s safe to keep your crowning glory at its robust state. NOVUHAIR, nature´s answer to hair loss, is made up of 19 natural ingredients that work in synergy to help remedy stress-related hair loss and promote healthy tress and scalp. 

The challenge in preventing these mane problems is to keep your locks healthy with proper care and let it grow naturally sans subjecting your hair to temporary relief with the use of harmful chemicals. Go natural.

NOVUHAIR contains natural extracts, herbal oils and essences, such as lavender that is also known to relieve stress. It also has a scent that leaves a calming effect.  

NOVUHAIR is available at Mercury Drug and other leading drugstores nationwide. For more information visit www.novuhair.com, like the brand’s official Facebook Page, Novuhair Official, and follow on Twitter at @NovuhairNatural. You may also call NOVUHAIR hotlines at 4136570 and 09228830575 and order online through lazada.com.ph and regaloservice.com.