Category: Art

In life, we all have to deal with negative instances. They’re not pleasant, but they’re all part of the eighty-some years we have on this planet. When you initially think about it, the idea of having everything go your way seems like something that we’d all enjoy. It makes sense as negatives in life don’t tend to be received well by anyone, right? Well, there’s a slight flaw in the idea. That’s down to the fact that the good times are only good because we measure them against the bad. We’re able to decipher which is nice and which is not. We need such a balance in order to appreciate the positives that eventually come our way.

It’s important to recognize the negatives and the struggles in this life. It’s important to face up to them and battle them head-on. This kind of action never sounds nice at first, but we need adversity in order to grow. It’s helpful, however, to not only embrace the struggles but to enjoy them, too. This almost masochistic outlook, again, seems questionable immediately, but there’s a method to such madness.

If you’re wondering why this kind of approach might be something you need to consider, then you won’t be on your own. People are always worried about the unknown; the idea of entering a new way of thinking can be pretty awkward. Allow this article to put some worries to bed right now, though, as we go through a few reasons as to why life’s struggles should be entertained and enjoyed.

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You’ll Get Used To The Feeling; You’ll Become Stronger

When you work out or condition your body in a certain way, the muscles and nerves begin to get used to everything. The weight becomes easier to pick up regarding the first instance; your pain begins to subside quicker in the second. If you continually do something over and over again, you become trained in it.

The same applies to your mind. If you constantly face adversity, then you won’t feel as nervous as you did some time before. You’ll get used to the feeling of facing challenges, and they won’t be as daunting to you as they might be to others. Nobody is born ready for struggle; they simply condition themselves.

Your Maturity Will Increase  

When you go through struggles in life, you become less of a sheltered individual and more of an experienced one. The idea of maturity usually stems from age – if you’ve been around a long time, then you must be more mature than those younger than you, right? Well, that’s not strictly true. Maturity comes from the things you go through in life, and being able to know how to handle them. A wise older human is one that has been through lots and knows how to get out of situations comfortably. Struggles turn a person from reckless and emotional into calm and calculated, which are the kinds of traits you’ll want.

You’ll Gain Lots Of Confidence

You not only gain knowledge and wisdom, but the ability to back yourself also comes from this stuff. Whenever you enter the presence of a confident and charismatic person with lots of charm and self-belief, you immediately feed off their energy. Now, they weren’t born like this – the reason why they’re confident in whatever they do is because they’ve been through all kinds of things and have learned how to deal with them.

Take, for example, the idea of traveling to the other side of the planet and living there for a few months. If you’ve never even left your hometown, this idea seems horribly stressful. Let’s say you got past it and enjoyed the trip. When you go to do it again, how would you feel about it? Pretty good; pretty relaxed. It’s all about doing things and gathering experience as you go through awkward periods and struggle. 

They’ll Teach You That You Should Never Give Up 

Getting past certain pieces of adversity can be very satisfying. When you get past the finishing line and bask in the victory, you realize that everything you went through was worth it. When you look back on the struggle you went through; you often get the idea that giving up would’ve been a terrible idea. You’ll then hesitate when it comes to giving up on things in the future. Your mental strength will increase in this respect, too. You won’t be giving up on things unless there really is no other option.

You’ll Get Used To Knowing When You Need Help

Something that many people struggle with accepting during adversity is that they need help from someone or something. Going through negative times can give you all the humility in the world. Sure, many of you would seek help whenever you feel like it, but lots of human beings have egos and pride to keep! Struggle allows you to let others guide you, which is absolutely a positive and something that will benefit you going forward. It doesn’t matter whether it’s guidance in terms of keeping a failing business alive or needing help from something ultra-sensitive by getting some canesten thrush treatment to save your skin. This kind of relinquishing will suit you going forward as you’ll realize that a problem shared is a problem halved.

You’ll Be able To Help Others Out

This point is kind of following on from the last point in that is around the theme of getting help. If you’ve been through some difficult times, then you’ll have the knowledge and experience required to face it again and get a more successful outcome. You can then impart this kind of wisdom onto others who are facing equally difficult times. We’re talking about how YOU benefit from these instances, but doing good things for others is also a big part of life. 

It’ll Give You The Oomph To Enter More Battles 

Should you ever be faced with something initially terrifying again in the future, you’ll have the excitement to take them on again. You’ve been through it before, so you’ll know what you’re doing this time. Even if it’s been a while since you last went through something awkward, you’ll forever have the memory of kicking its butt.

You Get To Enjoy The End Result More

We touched on this in the intro, but it needs to be emphasized a little more. If we go through positives all the time, then they’ll get boring. We’ll even start to get a little depressed about the lack of variety in life. Our brains are strange like that. We need to have balance, and we need to have a few bad results in our time in order to really appreciate the good times. Have you ever completed an easy goal and not really been satisfied by the victory? You probably have. It’s so much more rewarding when you get through huge trouble and strife.

Sometimes The Struggle Is The Fun Part  

This kind of thing is prevalent in the likes of businesses. A lot of people start a business or work on a passion of theirs because they see the bright lights and heaps of cash at the end of the line. The truth is that the journey is the fun part; the struggle is the actual fun. You don’t realize it at the time, but it’s true. Once the game is over and you’ve got all the success, you’ve little to play for afterward. Again, it sounds masochistic in a way, but the effort you put in and the graft you go through can often be the exhilarating part of it all.

So, you’ve been working hard on your blog, gaining fans, followers, readers, and you’re making some money – your blog has finally taken off. So what do you do now? Well, the work is not over, now the key is to keep it going and to build on your success, so how do you do this? What are the next steps, and what should you do once your blog takes off?

Image by kalhh from Pixabay 

Celebrate

First of all, you need to recognise what you have achieved and celebrate. You have worked hard; you’ve done a good job and achieved your goal. This isn’t something that should go uncelebrated, and while it’s good to be looking forward and working on the next step, you also need to celebrate your achievements along the way and give yourself a pat on the back. Enjoy yourself, kick back and relax, treat yourself and then get back to the hard work again.

Use your platform for good

Now that you have a platform – a little corner of the internet, that is yours, use it for a good cause. Whether you want to raise awareness for something close to your heart or you can help out local causes by using your connections and giving them a voice, do whatever it is you can to make a difference and support those who need it. 

Invest back into your business

Now that you’re making money off your blog, it’s easy to want to spend it and enjoy your earnings. However, the smartest thing to do now would be to invest back into your business. Upgrading equipment, investing in a cheap VPS so that your readers have a better experience on your site or learning about how to take your blog to the next step are all beneficial ways to spend your money and put back into your business. 

Create a maintenance plan

Even if you’re not ready to look at the next step just yet, then it’s important that you create a maintenance plan to keep your blog going at the level it is now. 

Diversify

What else can you do now? Could you teach other people how to have a successful blog? Could you host talks and workshops that people will pay for? Is there anything relating to your blog and what you talk about that you could sell? For example, if your blog focuses on mental health, could you sell bags and mugs with positive messages on? Could you write a book? Could you start vlogging? There are plenty of options which complement blogs, and having a successful blog makes them a lot easier to do. 

Get help

If you do feel like taking a break or easing off a bit so that you can work on something else, then try getting some help to keep your blog ticking over. There are plenty of writers and content agencies out there who could write blogs for you so that your site is kept up to date, but it also frees up your time. 

Stress is a common emotion. The majority of us experience it at some point or another. From an evolutionary perspective, stress is actually really useful. It helps to alert us to potentially dangerous situations and can trigger our fight or flight response. But at the same time, many of us now experience stress without a justified cause. So, it’s important to acknowledge experiences of stress and to tackle them. Of course, if your stress feels unbearable, and seems to be set off without any logical cause, you may need to reach out to a doctor who could diagnose underlying mental health conditions, such as anxiety. They will then be able to guide you on a journey that helps to treat your condition – perhaps with medication, therapy or a combination of the two – and will help to ease your symptoms and provide you with a better quality of life. If you are battling depression, then it’s best to consult a doctor to get started with a treatment like TMS. But if your stress is low-level and simply situational or circumstantial, you may want to try out some of the following stress-busting activities!

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Try Practicing Mindfulness

By now, the vast majority of us are familiar with mindfulness. It’s by no means a new practice (it has been around for centuries), but the past few years have seen it gain extreme popularity in the Western world, so you may know others who practice mindfulness, you may have read about it, or you may have even given it a try yourself. If you haven’t tried mindfulness yet, now is a good time to get started. Put simply, mindfulness is a practice that focuses on being aware of everything that’s going on around you, but allowing you to let it pass without judgement. This helps you to simply observe the world at peace. It can be great for your mindset and can help to alleviate feelings of stress. To get started, you don’t really need anything in particular. Just a comfortable place to sit without distraction. There are plenty of online tutorials and apps out there. These will help to teach you the basics and can guide you through the journey until you’re comfortable practicing mindfulness independently.

Engage With Arts and Crafts

Some arts and crafts projects are consuming and all-encompassing and can help you to take your mind off things. Some arts and crafts projects help you to relax and are something simple that you can do while you watch TV or simply look out of the window. Which you opt for is entirely up to you, but both can offer comfort during stressful times. There are so many options that you may need to go through a little process of trial and error until you find what’s right for you. But some popular options include knitting, macrame, collage, kits from vizuarts.com, water colours, oil painting and more.

Exercise

Exercise may not be the first thing on your mind when you’re feeling stressed. But various studies have found that exercise can actually be effective in alleviating feelings of stress and managing stress. When you exercise, your body reduces production of the stress hormone cortisol. It is also more likely to release feel good hormones and chemicals, such as serotonin, helping to lift your mood. There are plenty of types of exercise out there, so find the best for you. Some people enjoy going for a jog or a run out in the fresh air. Some people prefer calming forms of exercise, such as yoga. Some feel released with dance. Experiment with different options until you find something that suits you. It’ll also help to keep you physically healthy, so it’s a win-win option all round!

Take a Bath

Most people find taking a warm bath relaxing. You can add different products to make the bath smell nice and then you can sink in, soak and relax. This is a simple pleasure, as long as you have a bathtub, and can really help to ease you up.

It’s important to keep an eye on your mental health, so always note experiences of stress and see if you can find a cause and a healthy way to deal with things. You’re never alone and there’s plenty of support out there – from medical support to family and friends, helplines, support groups and more. These are just a few calming ventures that can get the ball rolling and actively reduce your stress levels. Try them out and see if they work for you!

Making a living from photography is a dream for many people. The issue is that most of them have no idea how to start. With that in mind, we think it’s vital that everyone makes use of the latest technology. In this article, you’re going to learn about some of the ways in which you could begin to make a profit from your images. We’ll start with something any photographer can do right now, and finish with a way to improve your portfolio and make lots of valuable contacts. Becoming a professional photographer isn’t as difficult as it once was. Anyone with the right talents could make a fortune these days, mainly thanks to the rise of the internet. Considering all that, let’s begin.

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Sell images on stock photo websites

There are many different websites dedicated to stock photos these days. Anyone who wants to make money from those domains just needs to open an account and upload some images. News companies and bloggers around the world use services of that nature when they release a new article. The paid images on stock photo websites are usually of a much higher quality than anything available under creative commons. That means any organization worth its salt is going to spend money to make their articles look more appealing. If you want to make the most money, you should search for trends on those sites. Uploading images related to business or marketing is usually a wise move. That is because there are thousands of blogs covering those subjects.

Launch a website to sell your services/images

Alongside the stock photo sites, you should also launch a personal web portal that displays your work. That is if you don’t like the idea of registering on freelance sites. You can use it to gain clients and to showcase your abilities. Maybe you want to focus on a particular photography niche? Well, you just need to mention that on your site. Also, make sure you publish a contact page that contains all your details. That way any interested parties can get in touch with the click of a button. When you’re site is operational, you should promote it using social media and Google Adwords for the best results. Just make sure you get the targeting options right, so you don’t waste your investment. There are guides online that will show you how to do that.

Choose the right niche

Choosing a niche is always a wise move for new professional photographers. It will help you to carve out a business in the industry. Some of the most popular niches include real estate photography, wedding, band, or product photography. Also, it’s much easier to market your services to people if you select one of those specialist services during the early days. That is because Facebook will allow you to target people based on life events. So, you can push your ads towards individuals who’ve just got engaged for example. You could also target those in bands or who attend live music gigs. You get the idea, right? It just makes your life easier while you’re still finding your feet.

Now you know how to kick-start your photography career, we hope you see lots of new websites appearing online. At the end of the day, making money out of something you love is satisfying. So, you should work hard to achieve your goals. We just hope the information on this page will help to simplify the process.