Showing all posts by Nicki Cawood

In Mental Health

Suffering From Stress? Recognise The Signs

Author Nicki CawoodPosted on
Suffering From Stress? Recognise The Signs

Modern life seems to be designed to stress us out. Work, family, finances, health, politics, the list is endless.  If you’re suffering from stress recognising the signs is essential.

Our stress response is a natural reaction to various situations.  In evolutionary terms, it has kept up alive by activating our ‘fight or flight’ response, readying our body for action by increasing our heart rate and raising our blood pressure. 

People deal with stress in different ways.  Sometimes we don’t even realise we’re struggling.  Too much stress, for too long, can wreak havoc on our mental and physical health, which is why it’s important to recognize the signs and act early.

You Can’t Get Through The Day Without Something

Some people don’t feel their day has started until they’ve had their hit of coffee, or like to wind down after a week at work with a drink or two. That’s fairly common, but if you’re finding yourself relying on recreational drugs, food or alcohol to get you through each day, then you need to address the situation before it really gets out of hand. 

Help is available if you’re looking to do an alcohol detox or curb your unhealthy eating habits.  Make an appointment with your GP and they will be able to refer you for specialist treatment. 

Suffering From Stress: Mood & Behavioural Changes

One of the first things you’ll likely notice is a change in your emotions.  Sometimes you might brush these off or put them down to having a bad day/week. If you find yourself making excuses for your emotions or moods quite often, then this is a sign of stress. It can manifest in a number of ways: 

  • Feeling overwhelmed all the time
  • Moody, angry and easily agitated
  • Tearfulness
  • Low self-esteem
  • Little interest in your usual hobbies
  • Avoiding contact with others
  • Lack of interest in sex
  • Constantly worrying about things
  • Forgetfulness
  • Being overly pessimistic (unless you’re a natural “glass half empty” person)

Physical Symptoms Of Stress

The mind and body are inextricably linked and because of this, stress can have a huge effect on your overall health.  

  • Insomnia
  • Weight gain 
  • Low energy
  • Frequent colds or bugs
  • Aching muscles
  • Digestive issues – constipation, diarrhoea, indigestion
  • Chest pain
  • Shaking 
  • Headaches
  • Depression
  • High blood pressure (leading to serious heart problems)
  • Obesity 
  • Skin conditions (acne, psoriasis, eczema)

How To Get Help When Suffering From Stress

Depending on why you’re stressed, there are a number of ways to reduce and deal with the amount of stress in your life.  In all circumstances, a good standard of self-care and quality time to yourself and maintaining a balanced diet and exercise plan,  can work wonders, and make you more resilient to everyday stressful events.  

However, if you’re suffering for a number of the symptoms above, feeling helpless and can’t see a way out of the situation, you need to visit your GP in the first instance, they will be able to help refer you to any necessary therapy or help groups while also helping treat any of the physical symptoms you are experiencing. 

You can also visit the NHS website for information on dealing with stress.

In Business & Blogging

Identify Your Business Niche

Author Nicki CawoodPosted on
Identify Your Business Niche

More and more of us are deciding to set up our own small businesses. This is a wise move on many of our parts. Think about it. Rather than building someone else’s dreams, you’ll be building your own – progressing down a career path that you’re entirely carving out yourself. You choose your own area of specialism. You choose who you want to deal with and what you want to do.  Going self-employed, however, comes hand in hand with the downside that the marketplace is increasingly saturated. To stand out from the crowd, you may want to cater to a niche market. To achieve this you need to identify your business niche.

Identify Your Business Niche

First, you need to identify your niche. No matter how many businesses there are out there, there’s always going to be a gap in the market for a group that people aren’t paying all too much attention to. You could start a business doing anything. The key to success here is to conduct a whole lot of market research. This will introduce you to groups of people and you’ll be able to hear their desires and what needs of theirs aren’t currently being catered to. Once you’ve identified a group who want a certain product, you can then make steps towards manufacturing it and providing it to them.

Identify Your Business Niche: Make Sure There’s Money to Be Made

Of course, you need to make sure that the niche you’re catering to is willing to pay the price of products they’re asking for. When you cater to a small group, chances are the overall cost of a product is going to be higher, as you can’t really benefit from the cut costs that are paired with mass-producing. For one, there needs to be sufficient demand for your potential product for you to still make a profit. You can’t cater to a niche of five people who will buy a product once. You also need to make sure that you invest in a product that’s adhering to guidelines, such as CBD Oil regulations to avoid fines. Finally, you need to ensure there’s ongoing demand. You also need to make sure you’re making a profit that’s worth your time. Figure out production costs and add a sufficient amount onto the price to make it all worth your time. 

Identify Your Business Niche and Monitor Your Sales

You need to monitor your sales at all times. When catering to a niche, you need to ensure that their interest is still high following your launch. Sure, you might take off well. But if novelty dissipates you will find yourself making losses if you keep pushing a product that isn’t going anywhere.

Catering to a niche can be an extremely profitable business venture. But you do need to be careful and conduct a whole lot of research to make sure you get things spot on the first time around. Hopefully, the above information will help to guide you in the right direction!

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