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Sterling Silver Jewelry’s Elegance

Silver jewelries are not only beautiful and stylish, they can be elegant and stunning when worn. They compliment. They give compliment to anything you wear.  They serve as your weapon to outshine among the public in a very less expensive worth compared to other forms of jewelry. 

Jewelry is considered sterling when it contains 92.5% silver in its production. They are mixed with another metal enable to become wearable jewelry because silver is too soft if made alone. They are marked with 925 to be considered sterling silver jewelry. This is the highest quality of silver that you can buy – wholesale or retail. The price depends on the weight of the sterling silver jewelry, but for handmade, they are more expensive compared to the other.

One of the best sterling silver jewelries is sterling silver earring. Sterling Silver Earring has been the best as the admired in silver earrings for best of the women who accept the appearance with silver jewelry. Silver earrings add breeding to your appearance and allure power. Accomplish ambrosial consequence with the archetypal chandelier or the dangling ones and acquaintance a fresh beachcomber of styling. They can be use to compliment with your outfit by proper coordination of colors, but with silver any colors will do. Even with casual outfit, it can make you classy and dressy especially in dark that is why silver is being associated with moon that has a quality that can capture the beauty in the dark. This concept gives fashion designers the idea that earrings made with sterling silver, will definitely look elegant and makes you stand out in a crowd during nighttime in dark colors especially black.

Silver is absolutely beneath admired than the gold, but the silver earrings accept an appropriate allure as the adornment for the earlobe to accomplish aerial affection appearance amid women who adulation the most recent trend in styling. Some of them accept handmade adornment assignment to attending absurd and uncommon.

Aside from giving compliment to an outfit, silver earrings can as well make a perfect gift for any special occasion. Women are truly fond of receiving jewelries especially if it comes from someone they  love. It is because of the fact that jewelries  made from silver look very expensive and elegant that make women feel that they are always given value of importance that comes from the bottom of a man’s heart.

With silver earrings, the real beauty of a person comes out naturally. It emphasizes the beauty in a less expensive way without compromising your look and the quality.

Whether a silver jewelry is sterling or not, most often they cause tarnish if often use. They require regular polish to help keep its shine and elegant. Keeping it cleaned and polished at all times after all is not a burdensome task to do. They are inexpensive, but made with high quality, just make sure to purchase a sterling silver. Make sure your piece is solidly constructed, and the gems used are not simulated gems. It is your concern to choose a good quality product, gemstones add elegance and beauty to your sterling silver.

Design Your Own T Shirt Text Like A Pro

If your funny t shirts are turning out funny-looking, the problem may be your text. No matter how awesome your cool tshirt designs are when you imagine them, if your text is poorly designed, your shirts will always look unprofessional. But don’t fear! With these 5 tricks of professional graphic designers, you can quickly turn those amateur custom tshirts into perfect and polished works of tshirt art.

TShirt Design Secret #1: Choosing the Right Font
When choosing a font for your t shirt sayings, make sure to pick one that supports your message. For example, if you’re designing a funny t shirt, choose a font that has a funny feel to it. If you’re designing a sexy t shirt, choose a font that has a sexy feel to it. And if you’re designing a t shirt for a serious, professional law firm, you probably don’t want to use that font with letters shaped like kittens.

While this may sound like common sense, many new t shirt designers and would-be t shirt entrepreneurs skip this step and just pick any standard font they might have lying around. Unfortunately, it’s obvious in their results; what could have been a fun tshirt design ends up being boring and amateur-looking. If you’re careful to choose a font that represents the content of your words, however, you can avoid this fate and your shirts will always be one step ahead of your competition.

TShirt Design Secret #2: Tracking and Kerning
Most of the time, when font text is typed into a computer program, the spaces between the letters and words are a little uneven, and often a little too wide. This extra and uneven space not only makes your t shirt sayings look a bit awkward and unprofessional, it also makes them slightly more difficult to read because the words don’t visually hold together as units. Even if the viewer doesn’t notice it, the eye and the brain have to work a bit harder and that extra bit of difficulty gives the viewer a subconscious feeling of unease.

Fortunately for novice t shirt designers, this problem can be addressed by a combination of tracking and kerning, which are simply two methods of adjusting the spacing between letters.

Tracking has to do with adjusting the average spacing of letters across entire words, sentences, or selected ranges of letters. By adjusting the tracking, the t shirt artist can either decrease the average spacing between all the letters in the selected range (making the spacing “tighter”), or else increase the average spacing (”opening up” the text), depending on what’s needed. Since the raw, unadjusted spacing varies from font to font, you’ll have to decide which one is needed for your particular tshirt design. But a good trick used by professional t shirt designers is to start out by tightening the font too much (so the letters are too close together) and then slowly increasing the tracking until the words look right.

Kerning is very similar to tracking, but with one important difference: instead of adjusting the average spacing across an entire range of letters, kerning only adjusts the spacing between two letters at a time. This allows a greater degree of control than tracking, and allows a t shirt artist to fine tune the spacing between single letter pairs that still don’t look quite right, even after the text has been tracked.

In general, the best practice is to use tracking to get the entire range of letters in a t shirt slogan to look pretty good, and then use kerning to fine tune the spacing between letter pairs until your t shirt saying looks perfect.

TShirt Design Secret #3: Word Spacing
Once the letters of a t shirt slogan have been properly tracked and kerned, the next important step is to adjust the spacing between the words. Adjusting word spacing is very similar to tracking and kerning — in fact, it’s done exactly the same way as kerning and is really just kerning the spaces between words rather than letters — but the rule of thumb for proper spacing between words is a little different, and so word spacing is a whole step unto itself.

In general, the best practice when adjusting spacing between words is to visualize the width of a lowercase “L” in the font that’s being used, and then make the space between each word that wide. This means that the width of the spaces between words will be different from font to font (because the size of the lowercase “L” is different from font to font), but it also means that the spacing will be custom designed for the font in question. Creating the proper amount of space between words will support the effects of your tracking and kerning, thus helping your words to hold together better as separate visual units and improving readability.

TShirt Design Secret #4: Leading, aka “Line Spacing”
Another place that new t shirt designers often go wrong is in the leading, or “spacing between lines of text.” Leading — which is pronounced like the metal “lead” rather than like a “leader” taking people somewhere — goes back to the days of the printing press, when a person would actually use small, thin pieces of lead to create vertical space between the lines of type. These days, of course, computers handle the leading for us. Unfortunately, when it comes to t shirt text, they often handle it poorly.

When a t shirt slogan is typed into a computer program, it often starts out with a little too much space between the lines. This helps make the text look very “fonty” rather than natural, as well as making the tshirt design (and the designer) seem very amateur. With just a small change to the leading, however, that same t shirt saying can be made to look very tight and professional.

With leading, the goal is to create enough space between the lines of text so they fit nicely together and don’t interfere with one another, without creating so much space that they look artificial or become difficult to read. The eye should be able to easily jump visually from one line to the next without losing its place, and without any effort at all. While there is no real rule of thumb for the proper amount of space between lines, t shirt designers who begin adjusting the leading will quickly learn to “feel” when it’s right. In general, the best way to start is to decrease the amount of leading — tightening the space between the lines — and then keep tweaking it up or down until it feels visually balanced. When it looks natural and reads smoothly, your t shirt slogan is one step closer to the big time.

TShirt Design Secret #5: Phrasing, aka “Line Breaking”
Phrasing has to do with where t shirt designers choose to break the lines of text, and is yet another aspect of good tshirt design that’s often overlooked. Many new designers will just type in their text at the size they want, and pay no attention to which words the lines end on, and how those line breaks affect the t shirt’s readability. More often than not, this results in a t shirt that reads terribly and feels amateurish.

For example, a poorly line-broken t shirt slogan might look something like this:

I’m not a
doctor but I play
one in real
life

As you can see, it’s a little difficult to read this slogan because the semi-random breaking of logical phrases and groups of ideas causes both the eye and the brain to work harder to make sense of it all, and the result is the t shirt slogan ends up feeling choppy. With a little more thought and effort put into breaking the lines at natural points in the text, however, we end up with this:

I’m not a doctor
but I play one
in real life

Suddenly, the t shirt slogan flows naturally and is much easier to read. By keeping the logical phrases visually together, you can create a much more natural visual rhythm to your t shirt saying, and the reader is easily able to process the t shirt’s message without having to fight against poor phrasing to understand it.

TShirt Design Secret #6: A Bonus Tip (Because I Like You)
Once you’ve applied these 5 secrets of the tshirt design professionals, you’ll find that your t shirt text already looks much better and more professional than it did when you started. Unfortunately, you’ll probably also find that you’ve been staring at your text for so long, it’s become difficult to really properly judge its improvement. Such is the life of a t shirt artist!  But don’t panic!  The professional graphic designers have a couple more tricks up their sleeves that’ll help you overcome this professional hazard.

To check the spacing of your t shirt text and make sure that it’s truly perfect, you can:

-  Look at your design upside down. If you see any spaces that look uneven or inconsistent, fix them.
-  Look at your design reflected in a mirror. If you see any spaces that look uneven or inconsistent, fix them.
-  Print out your design on a piece of paper, hold it up to a light source, and look at your text from the back of the page. If you see any spaces that look uneven or inconsistent — you guessed it — fix them.

By doing any or all of these three strange things, you force your eyes and your brain to pay attention to the empty spaces between the letters rather than trying to read the words themselves. The words become abstract shapes to your brain, and you, the t shirt artist, are free to properly judge the empty spaces between the words.

So, Now What? 
As you can see, professional t shirt text design is really just a matter of creating text that not only supports your message, but also presents it in a way that is visually balanced and nicely spaced. By properly applying these tshirt design tips, your t shirt sayings will be much nicer to look at, easier to read, and miles ahead of all those amateur tshirt designs hitting the market. And, most importantly, your funny t shirt designs will finally be funny in a good way.

Now, if you’re ready to start taking your tshirt design skills to the next level — or you just need a more visual illustration of the stuff we’ve been talking about — you can find a free, simple, easy-to-follow video tutorial on tracking and kerning at Channel Shirt’s tshirt design blog.  Did I mention it’s free? Check it out!

About the Author: Much to his parents’ continuing surprise, “Hollywood” John Harris has been a professional artist, designer, and freelance writer for 20 years. He is also co-founder of Channel Shirt, where he not only freely gives away all the secrets of tshirt design that “they” don’t want you to know, he shows those secrets in action on tons of his own funny t shirts, as well as on all the best shirts from around the web.

All You Need To Know About The Maneki Neko Sculptures

Nowadays Japanese is very hot and so are the little cats called maneki neko that you can see in every souvenir shop. They look very funny and are available in all forms and variations. They are also often used as a piggy bank where people save their money.

The maneki cat sculpture shows a cat with an upright claw and is used at the entrance of stores and restaurants. There is the believe that these sculptures made out of ceramic bring luck to its owner so more and more people jump in the trend all around the world.

The beckoning cat can also be found as air fresheners or keychains and even more creative variations are made every day. If you don’t have one of them you should have a look around at your local area or you could find some cheap ones right on the internet without a doubt.

Introduction To The Fun World Of Color Mixing

Although oil painting is a “fine art”, there are many people who find it intimidating and this is understandable since there are lots of things which you have to know, such as color mixing. You can learn how to paint with oils if you have the knowledge regarding the few basics and this will make it easier for you to overcome your doubts of painting with oils.  

The first key point that you have to keep in mind is that the process of painting with oils is completed by layers. The first layer that is painted should be basic and each one should gradually build-up with detail. With that said, there are three areas in general, where you can begin to learn about oil painting. The number one thing that you should concern yourself with is the colors which you will end up using and the second is how to mix the basic shades to create secondary colors. Lastly, you have to be familiar with using linseed oil and turpentine.

What Colors To Buy?

There are eleven colors that you should include when starting out in oil painting. The colors to purchase are cadmium- red, light- yellow, cerulean- blue, cobalt -blue, burnt- umber, alizarin crimson, titanium- white, black, yellow- ochre, burnt- sienna and viridian- green.

The Basic Of Mixing Colors

Before you can begin painting, the basics of color mixing should be familiarized, for you to accurately obtain the colors that you want.

Yellow and Red = Orange
Red and Green = Brown
Red and Blue = Purple
Yellow and Green = Blue
Yellow and Blue = Green

Use Of Linseed And Turpentine

Remember that by squeezing paint out onto the pallet directly, you are taking the risk of mishaps from happening and wasting it. If you do this, pure oil paint may take a long time to dry up and can get very messy. With the addition of linseed oil and turpentine, you are able to thin out the paint being used, thus having control over all the layers, etc. It’s important to remember that the more turpentine you use; the quicker the painting will dry. For this reason, the base layers should be applied with a mixture of three parts turpentine and one part linseed oil.  

For the second layer, go ahead and mix two parts turpentine and two parts linseed oil. Store it in a jar that’s labeled 2, so that you will know what you’re working on from time to time. For the third, you then use a mixture that’s one part turpentine and three parts linseed oil; place it in its own jar as well.

Along with these tips and knowing how to go through paint color mixing, you will know the essential methods of oil painting.

The popularity of sanskrit tattoo designs

For a number of years Sanskrit tattoo designs have been growing in popularity and the designs have displayed many symbols of Hindu belief to represent the spiritual beliefs,mind-set and loves of a large number of people

Those who made themselves guardians of this ancient language initially disagreed with the use of Sanskrit characters for tattoo designs and their use for such purposes where very much taboo, nowadays however everyone can introduce themselves with the beauty and substance to be found in Sanskrit tattoos

Tattoo’s have gone from being something not to be put on show or with the popular misconceptions about people with tattoo’s to an art form which becomes more popular by the day. Nowadays popular stars show off their new tattoo work on television and there is currently a resurgance in body art due to this popularity.

More and more elaborate tattoos are common today, safer and more accurate tattoo equipment has become the norm so even more areas of the body can be tattooed with absolute safety today and patterns can be inked upon the body in a much more precise and well defined way then ever before.

Wrist tattoos have become very popular, having a tattoo at a very visible part of the body makes very effective display of the design and Sanskrit tattoo designs can be an excellent way of publicly displaying a message or intent in a very elegant and beautiful design that can also be easily hidden with sleeves or a watch band.

A Hit Among Celebrities

Popular celebrities have adopted wrist Sanskrit tattoos.  For instance, popular actress Jessica Alba was recently seen with a Sanskrit tattoo in her right inner wrist during the 2006 MTV Movie Awards. The Sanskrit character translates to Padma or “lotus flower.”

The lotus flower signifies spiritual development or the ability of a person to rise above the rest of the crowd. Though its roots are deeply buried in the mud of lakes and ponds, the lotus flower raises above the water level in all it’s splendour. So this metaphor is well deserved.      

X-Files actress Gillian Anderson also has a Sanskrit tatoo of the word “everyday” on her wrist.

Sanskrit tattoo designs are also proving popular amongst footballers and music stars alike, as an alternative to traditional celtic designs that can also display the names of loved ones or the popular celtic cross tattoo many are turning to Sanskrit.

Sanskrit tattoo designs

The best choice for a discreet but beautiful wrist tattoo is Sanskrit script. Normally, quotes or passages of text and converted into Sanskrit and form the basis of the tattoo. Sanskrit is an ancient language with some traditions origionating from 1500BC. Sanskrit is one of the oldest written languages and it is essentially dead making it the perfect choice for tattoo’s as the meaning will never change even after centuries..

There are numerous websites online that offers translation of liked quotes into Sanskrit. One only has to give the Sanskrit letterings to a tattoo shop after getting the character translation for your chosen name or favourite passage of text.

The second region is on top of the wrist that will be as visible as the armband tattoo. Sanskrit tattoos located on this area usually remain in memory as they are very distinctive. Tattoo designs on the arm can easily be covered with t-shirts or long sleeved shirts.

The third location for the Sanskrit tatoo is the inner wrist area, many sporting Sanskrit tattoo designs on their inner wrist took inspiration from a Red Hot Chilli Peppers album cover and this is a good choice for a recognizable tattoo which is very easily obscured, this area also provides a nice region to place a unique tattoo design incorporating Sanskrit script.

How a DIY Wind Generator Can Help Make Your Life Better

Do you reside in a place where you feel you will be able to put the gustiness of the wind to good use? Then you ought to by all means obtain your own DIY wind generator for your residence. If you are curious on the way it will be able to make your life better, then keep reading to find out more.

You will be stunned to learn that these days, there are a lot of wind generator kits available to the normal customer. What seemed to be merely a simple science project of invention in the past decade, is a viable alternative source of energy that lots of individuals are beginning to warm up to. There is a wide array of diverse types and sizes that you can choose from determined by where you want to to install it on your property. And not to mention numerous offers and special deals that various merchants and manufacturers are giving with each kit. So prior to you get excited and begin buying every single type out there, be sure that you do your research first so that you will be more apt to pick.

The essential parts in a wind generator are the propeller, the rotor, the tower and the generator which is highly responsible in transforming wind energy to electricity that can be used in the house. It is also important to mention that the wind generator needs a powerful battery system that will be capable to correctly store the electric energy which will be produced.

It would be wise to install the DIY wind generator on a high tower in order that it will be subjected to more power that could then be changed to electricity. For the reason that the rate of the wind is of course a lot quicker the higher it is from the earth. Stronger wind means stronger pressure to push the propellers to rotate faster and more electricity will be stored.

The great part of a DIY wind generator system is that you will be able to take control over the various components that you might want to change. As an example, if you want a wider propeller to catch the wind, you are able to easily ask for a larger one from the producer or store you are buying form. You will also be able to be more flexible when it comes to the design and other specs for example blade location and turbine power capacity. You can even choose more battery backups systems so that you are ensured of having stored electricity even during the days when the wind in the area is not strong enough.

A DIY wind generator is important if you would like to be able to help the environment by depending more on renewable sources of energy rather than the electric companies. This then will help you save more money on power costs because you are making use of a free renewable source of energy. As long as you do the maintenance measures which are specifically necessary on your wind generator, you can expect a smooth sailing power source for a very long time.

Infrared Sauna Reviews

Saunas have been perceived to be an item of luxury. And the other reason that they have gained attention is the role that they are capable of playing when it comes to weight loss. Interestingly, the new-age infrared saunas are way better compared to the classic old steam saunas when it comes to any of the above. Multiple infrared sauna reviews make the viewpoint absolutely clear.

Let us review the key aspects you should look into while buying your sauna. Interestingly in each of these cases, an infrared sauna works way better than a conventional steam sauna. The list of aspects follows.

· Detoxification: This is the single-most important aspect of a sauna that you should look into. The better the detoxification capabilities, the better off you would be with your sauna. The detoxification aspect is related to the stress relief aspect described subsequently.

· Weight loss: According to Guyton’s textbook of Medical Physiology, 1 gram of sweat needs 0.568 kilo calories to produce. With a good infrared sauna, an average sauna user can produce 500 grams of sweat. A therapeutic session thus is capable or burning around 350 calories. This is equivalent to running a couple of miles or more. Infrared saunas also help your body to get rid of cellulite. Cellulite is a substance generated by the body fat cells, water and wastes. So sauna weight loss is not “water loss” as perceived by many, it is real weight loss if you use the right kind of infrared saunas.

· Pain relief: Infrared saunas lead to pain relief. The infrared energy can penetrate up to 1.5 inches inside our muscle tissues. Interestingly, almost 95% of this energy is absorbed through the skin. As a result, the blood circulation dynamics are positively affected, leading to reduction and even elimination of painful conditions such as Fibromyalgia, Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid Arthritis. Evidence has been found through studies that with the right kind of infrared sauna, the injury healing is quickened if the heat is applied 24-48 hours post-injury.

· Stress relief: Some top-quality saunas, especially the one mentioned at the end of this article (explore the resource link given in the last line of the article to find more), are equipped with Carbon 360 far infrared technology or its equivalent. This calls for improved blood circulation and quick stress relief. In other words, you get better refreshed in some saunas compared to others, and the best refreshment comes if your sauna has the Carbon 360 or equivalent technology incorporated.

· Safety: This is important – you would want a sauna which is shock-proof with ample guarantee, no matter what the manufacturer claims. I strongly recommend you never buy a sauna that is not certified by an authority. An ETL-certified sauna, for example, is a perfectly safe one to use and is on the top of my list of recommendations. ETL stands for Electrical Testing Laboratories.

Yes, to make sure that you are getting the best from your sauna, it is exactly the above five aspects that you should concentrate on, though I can think of a lot of other benefits that you get from a sauna.

And I have seen such huge lists of benefits and features on a number of websites, with none really telling you what are the actual aspects you, as a user of sauna, should really care about.

If you are planning to buy a sauna, I recommend that you go for carbon-based infrared saunas. Avoid ceramic saunas and avoid steam saunas – strictly. I know it may mean a couple of hundred extra bucks, but then, if that is difficult for you then I believe not owning a sauna at all is a better option.

Celtic Tattoos – Why Are They So Popular

Celtic tattos are still one of the most popular types of design despite their long history. These designs have existed for thousands of years, yet more than one thousand people search for information about celtic tattoo designs every day. So why are these designs still such a popular choice for tattoos?

The Celtic people have a long and proud history. From ancient times their people have shown an artistic ability to create complex works of art. These elaborate patterns took pride of place on their stonework, metalwork, weapons and jewelry. In fact ancient celtic designs carved in stone can still be found in both Ireland and Scotland.

Celtic tattoo designs usually consist of elaborate patterns of lines, loops and spirals that are linked together in a decorative manner. Occasionally animal designs, often depicting the tiger and the lion are incorporated into the tattoo design. These celtic animal designs (often known as zoomorphic tattoo designs) differ from traditional celtic patterns as the various lines and strands of the design end in animal heads, feet and tails instead of following a never ending path.

The meaning of these patterns is not readily apparant. To find the real meaning of celtic artwork you have to look much deeper. The constant interlacing of lines and spirals symbolizes the connection between the physical and spiritual worlds. And the never ending route of the loops and spirals represents the never ending cycle of life, death and rebirth.

Celtic designs also represent the fight and the heart of the Celtic people who were renowned throughout the world as courageous warriors. And it’s thanks to a combination of these noble values and the timeless symbolism of these patterns that they remain such a popular choice for tattoo designs.

The most popular and well known of all the celtic designs are the celtic knot and the celtic cross.

Celtic Knot: This tattoo consists of decorative loops with no beginning and no end which represents the continuing cycle of life and death.

Celtic Cross: The celtic cross is usually a highly elaborate design containing many interlinking spirals and strands. Once again, the lines used to create the outline of the cross don’t have a beginning or an end, and as such represent the immortality of human life and love. The cross is also significant as the Celtic people believed it would protect them from their enemies.

Celtic tattoo designs are a great way of expressing pride in your ancestry whether you are of Irish, Scottish or Welsh descent. In fact these designs are highly popular among people from North America who have Celtic ancestors.

However, you should be aware that due to the elaborate nature of these patterns, celtic tattoo designs are not easy to create. So before you start, make sure that you find a tattoo artist who has experience in creating celtic tattoo designs. An eye for detail and the ability to place the lines and spirals in exactly the right place is vital. And even once you find a talented artist, it will take a lot of time, patience and dare I say it, tolerance of pain, in order to get your celtic design just right. So make sure that you find the perfect celtic design before you go any further.

Search People By Phone Numbers Easily With Reverse Phone Number Search

Do you know that you can have a person’s background by simply searching his or her cell phone number?  Now that is something new, right?  Yes, you can have the person’s  full name, current address, relatives, neighbors, address history, and an assortment of public records simply by entering their phone number into the reverse phone number search and clicking the search button!

You will have lots of choices.  In the internet, there are even free sites you can actually try.  But the truth is, these sites only provide very limited information, and you may even be frustrated not being provided with the information you need.

Free services provide information from databases that contain public information, like landline numbers.  If you need information on a cell phone number’s owner, the free sites is not the one you need. In these free sites, you will not be able to find information on cell phone and unlisted landline numbers.

Some sites can provide you with the owner of the number’s name and address, nothing more.  But probably, you would need his or her details, as well.  The person’s background and other vital information might be helpful – but these are not provided in those free sites. Finally, most  free search by phone number services don’t update their information regularly.  Which means that the information you might have gotten is already obsolete.  

With only one fee, a quality reverse phone number service can offer you millions of records in your search people by phone numbers.  With this service, you will be provided with the latest and accurate databases.  You will surely find information on almost every number you enter. 

On top of that, you will be able to access more detailed information about the individual if you want.  It includes access to hundreds of millions of public records through its expanded people search and investigation databases.

They provide members with the most recent and up-to-date databases.  Should you be provided with invalid or outdated information, free tools such as free search help and expanded database information are available which will be helpful as  you continue your search. 

5 simple steps to stop stress in its tracks

Stress is A BRAT:  5 simple steps to stop stress in its tracks

Stress can, indeed, be a brat.  Annoying, irritating and disruptive, stress causes many nagging symptoms that negatively impact our emotional and physical well-being.

When you think of stress as A BRAT, you will have at your fingertips a tool to stop stress in its tracks.  The next time you find yourself suffering from stress and anxiety, follow these five steps:

A:  Acknowledge that you are stressed.  Simply stopping for a moment and realizing, “I am just feeling stressed right now takes the edge off the anxiety symptoms.  Also, acknowledge the reason you are feeling stressed.  For example:  “I am stressed because I am running late for my appointment, or “I am anxious about the meeting.

 

B:  Breathe.  Take 3 deep breaths, breathing in through your nose for a count of 4, and out through your mouth for a count of 8.  In order to breathe correctly, try not to take heaving breaths through your chest.  Rather, breathe from your stomach.  Think of your stomach like a balloon:  When you breathe in, your stomach should protrude, like you are filling up a balloon.  When you breathe out, your stomach should “deflate:  Focus on your belly button inching its way back to your spine.

 

R:  Relax.  Make a conscious effort to relax any muscles that are tense.  Focus on your jaw, shoulders, and stomach, as these muscles often tense up during periods of stress.

 

A:  Adjust your thoughts to more positive, soothing ones.  For example, instead of thinking, “I’m running late and they will be upset, change that thought to “It’s not the end of the world that I am running late. Everything and everyone will be okay. 

 

T:  Think about something else.  If you are in the car, turn on the radio and listen to music or a talk radio show.  If you’re at home, do something to take your mind away from the stress-producing event.  Call a friend, do a crossword puzzle, or look through a magazine or catalogue.

Following these five steps will stop stress in its tracks and allow you to move on with your day. Remember that stress can be A BRAT —  and you’ll have all you need to keep that brat at bay!