Three Vital Tips For Recent College Graduates

Graduating from college can be a daunting task for even the most focused college student, but you know the good part? The good part is that you are not alone, and there are loads of people going through these things. That is why I am here to offer some vital guidance to recent college graduates. So, without further ado, let us jump into three of my favorite tips:

  1. Discover Yourself

Once you’ve graduated from college, it’s the perfect time to immerse yourself in some of the skills you learned during your stay in school. The fact remains that the choice of self-discovery is yours to make, and it’s a great thing to do as a fresh college graduate.

Like Mother Theresa said, “Do not wait for leaders; do it yourself, person to person.” The only person who can discover yourself is you, so try to live a little while remembering some of the vital guidance given by your parents and other trustworthy individuals along the way to help you live the life you want.

  1. Make Connections

Okay, this is a vital piece of guidance that you probably wish you had just before you stepped foot onto a college campus, but it’s never too late to pick up a valuable life lesson. Relationships don’t just happen, and relationships don’t have to be with the most prominent people in your field of study (at least not just yet). Instead, they could be with a few like-minded individuals, and who knows where that will take you?

Thanks to social media, making connections has never been easier, as now all you need is a LinkedIn username and a few minutes to spare. You can directly connect with different people worldwide with a few taps of the keyboard. Remember, the best connections are the ones that you make by yourself, so do not limit yourself! Push forward, think more profound, and immerse yourself in your loftiest ambitions.

  1. Be Patient

Patience is a virtue though this virtue might be hard to exude when you’re fresh out of college and faced with many possibilities (and near impossibilities). However, there’s nothing to worry about, as it’s only a matter of time before you figure it out. Just take the words of Helen Keller to heart, “We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world.”

Even though some of your dreams will not come through instantly, there’s no need to panic. Just keep on striving, networking, getting vital guidance, and ticking the mental boxes. You’ll be fine in no time!

Final Thoughts

Graduating from college is a remarkable landmark in anyone’s life, and it’s something to look forward to and celebrate once you have concluded the work. Once the celebrations are completed, it is time to look for something to do with that college degree. This is where many college graduates develop cold feet, and that’s where the doubt begins to creep in.

There’s no need for this because there’s more than one way to make your dreams come true. Just be patient and continue to make connections as you discover who you are and want to do.

Article by Vital Guidance writer Olaoluwa Ajayi

12 Minutes Of Bike Exercise Proven To Benefit Your Health

We know that exercise is as important to our health as vital nutrients and following the vital guidance that doctors and other health professionals give out. The problem can be, especially for people with ultra-busy lives, that there just isn’t enough time in the day to commit to that cardio workout or gym session for it to feel like it is being productive.

Those folks should be happy to hear that a study of 411 middle-aged adults using data from the Framingham Heart Study has some interesting results. According to Harvard health:

“Researchers measured levels of 588 substances involved in metabolism (metabolites) in the volunteers’ blood before and immediately after 12 minutes of vigorous exercise on an exercise bike. The investigators detected changes in more than 80% of the metabolites, including favorable shifts in those linked to diabetes and heart disease. For example, exercise had beneficial effects on metabolites related to insulin resistance (a condition that is a precursor to diabetes), lipolysis (the breakdown of fats), inflammation, and blood vessel reactivity. These benefits appeared to be blunted among people with obesity.”

The way this study achieved its results is interesting. The “12 minutes of vigorous exercise” on the bike were achieved by ramping up the intensity of the workout in one-minute increments. To this end, the first minute was nothing more than a warm-up pace, but by the final minute the participants worked at max effort to pedal as quickly as possible against the resistance they were being given.

With all that in mind, this doesn’t seem like an immediate cure-all for everyone, especially those looking to get back into exercise for the first time in a while. For those people, this type of workout – one that seems to be proven to help with vital health  – is certainly something that could be aimed for somewhere down the line and built up to without over-stressing the body from its current point.

There is also a certain section of people that could immediately benefit from this type of short-form, short-burst exercise. Those are the people – and we are looking at you young professionals – who are still in good enough shape to blast out 12 minutes on an exercise bike each day, but haven’t been doing so on account of them thinking that less than a quarter of an hour of exercise doesn’t produce the type of health benefits they are looking for.

This isn’t an exercise regimen that will bulk up the body like a regular gym membership and ingesting the correct amounts of vital nutrients. Perhaps that is why this news will go unnoticed in some sectors. Instead, this is exercise news for the long term and it requires people thinking about their health before it starts to decline in order for the biggest and best benefits to be felt. Getting those metabolites working at their peak today – especially if you are still young and not exercising regularly – will do wonders for the health of your heart and your liver as you get older .

Another interesting aspect of this study requires more research but is worth considering if you don’t think that vigorous exercise is in your wheelhouse just yet. “We don’t know yet if moderate-intensity exercise would have a similar effect on metabolites. But study participants started off with very light exercise, and each minute the intensity increased,” says Dr. Gregory Lewis, the study’s senior author and a cardiologist at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.

If it turns out that metabolites do start working at lower intensity levels then that will open up this type of quick – and effective – exercise to a massive range of people who would certainly benefit in the long run. Adding this burst of exercise on off-days to your current training program feels like something that we should all do if we want to lead longer and healthier lives.

Article By Vital Guidance

Making Sacrifices Or Taking Risks To Build Unity

I read an article about a big box retail store in my hometown of Philadelphia ransacked from rioting. A protest of another recent tragic police shooting spawned the riot. The article went on to describe the chaos that ensued around the city. I then thought to myself, “not again!”

A feeling of deep sorrow came over me. I started asking myself, “How has America come to this?” Why does it feel as if we are so divided as a people? Are we not better than this? Have we not come further than this? We are supposed to be the home of the “free and the brave.” We are one of the most diverse nations in the world. How can this be happening? Where is God in all of this? Is He just looking down at us in disappointment? Some may even ask, is He there at all?

Later that same evening, I was reading the book of Nehemiah in the Bible. Nehemiah was the cupbearer for the king of Persia. The cupbearer would test the wine before the king drank it to ensure it was not poisonous. In those days, this was a prestigious position.

Nehemiah was very close to the king and went with him everywhere. He had to advise the king and converse with him frequently. He was a man of influence and culture. Nehemiah was also a Jewish man and was far from his homeland of Jerusalem.

One day his brother Hanani came to visit from Jerusalem. Nehemiah asked his brother how things were in his homeland. Hanani went on to tell him how the city was in shambles. There was only a remanent of people left, and much of the once-great city was in ruins. These were God’s chosen people living in poverty and destruction from the hand of its enemies.

Extreme sorrow came over Nehemiah from this news. Nehemiah then said, “When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days, I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.” (New International Version, Nehemiah 1:4).

Why did he even care? He was in a prestigious position in a land far away. He had all the comforts of life and protection of the palace of the king. If he did care, why was he not outraged by this? Why did he not blame his people for letting this happen? Why did he not curse Jerusalem’s enemies? Why did he not curse God for letting this happen to his chosen people? Instead, he wept and prayed. What Nehemiah did next was even more surprising.

He started his prayer with praise to God. He said, “Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love… (Nehemiah 1:5).” He then went on to ask God for forgiveness for his people. Much of the destruction that came upon them was because they had rebelled against God and made poor decisions. He asked God to have mercy on them, as he had promised. Finally, Nehemiah asked God for favor with the king so that he could help his nation.

In those days, going to the king for a request such as this would be very risky, especially in his position. He would have to leave his post for an extended period and would require resources from the king for this project. Nehemiah was willing to risk it all to help his people. To his relief, the king responded with support, and Nehemiah was successful in his endeavors to help Jerusalem rebuild.

God came through with his promise to His people through the hands and heart of Nehemiah. What a great lesson for us to learn from Nehemiah. Our nation is not in complete ruins, but it is in turmoil. We could get angry at our politicians, the system, the mistakes we have made in the past or present, a group of people, or even God. We could also follow Nehemiah’s example and weep, pray, and take action to help our brothers and sisters, even when it means making significant sacrifices or taking risks.

We are one people created by God. He made us for love and to do His work. If we all acted like Nehemiah, there could be peace and unity in our nation. With God’s help, this is what is possible for America. Let us unite as “One Nation, under God.”

Rich Foster, Life Management Advisor at Vital Guidance

Tips For Sellers To Make The Most Of Home Video Presentations

Buying or selling a house in this crazy world is a challenge. Many of the things we took for granted as part of the real estate transaction process have changed in one way or another. One of these is the way that prospective buyers view a house.

It used to be that a few pretty pictures online would be enough work to tempt a buyer into making an initial visit to check out your real estate. Even before Covid-19, however, this had changed to some degree, with buyers increasingly moving towards video footage of their prospective new home to show them if a visit was worth their time. The global pandemic only increased the importance of video, with buyers not wanting to spend time – and potentially risk their health – on properties that are shown in the listings by staged photos only.

As a seller, this can be used to your advantage. A good video presentation of your home will work wonders, with many buyers being wowed enough by that first video impression to have feelings for a home before even walking in the door. Doing the video right isn’t all that difficult, but here are a few tips to help you make the most of your real estate presentation video.

Don’t Be Tricky

No one wants to go to a property and see something that looks nothing like the video. This means that your video should be unedited if at all possible to give an actual and realistic view of the real estate they will be buying. Nothing will break trust between seller and buyer as quickly as a video that has jumped around to show a different layout or that has deliberately glossed over any problems with the property. Do not waste their time and yours by submitting an edited video that creates expectations for the house that cannot be met.

Prepare For Your Recording

While editing out the bad parts of your home to create a jump cut frenzy is a no-no, there is nothing wrong with making your home look its best for your video tour:  know when the sunlight hits your home to show it in its best light; make sure that the home is clutter free and that drapes/curtains/blinds are clean and in the optimal position to show off what your house looks like at its best; and make sure all the light bulbs are working and they give off great lighting in all areas. Spending a little time – and a little money – in getting the staging right for your home tour will get more people wanting to view your real estate in person and increase the chances of a quick sale at (or above) asking price.

Take Your Time

One of the biggest problems with video tours is that the people filming often rush them. A prospective buyer wants to be able to see the real estate in detail without having to slow the frame rate or be constantly pausing the video because the tour is happening too fast. A steady pace is the best bet – one that allows you to control the camera without bouncing and jerking it around (we don’t want to make the buyer sea sick) – being sure to keep equal focus on the things you do and do not like about the home. Nothing is more suspicious than a tour done at the correct pace suddenly speeding up to cover a problem area of the home. Think about what you would like to see – and the speed that you would like to see it at – and use that as a rule of thumb.

Happy house hunting!

 

Article By Vital Guidance

Help Pets Prepare For Another New Normal Before You Return To Work

The vital relationship nurtured between you and your pet during the COVID-19 crisis is likely one that neither of you ever expected to happen. With the number of people working from home, or suddenly not working at all, there has been so much more time than ever before for an owner and a pet to form a bond of reliance. This is just natural and is something that should have been pursued, especially if you were in any state of serious lockdown.

As more businesses are starting to reopen, and as more employees are finding their way back to work, a change will soon be occurring in your life and daily routine. Lockdown was hard. Staying home was difficult and you had to completely change your mind set in order to make the most out of a tough situation. While things aren’t going to be normal any time soon, the return to work and to aspects of a normal life will also require an adjustment, both for you and for the pet that has come to rely on your company for the last two months.

Separation anxiety is a problem for both humans and pets. If what was there for more 60 days in some cases suddenly goes away five days a week, then your pet is going to be sad, bored, and lonely. This is obviously not a good situation, and it’s vital to start putting in some time to get your pet’s expectations in the right place for when this happens.

Allow Kim Steffes, owner of a dog training center in Indianapolis to explain:

“Just before school starts, parents start a couple weeks beforehand, putting the kids to bed a little bit earlier. They kind of get back into that routine, so it’s not a shock when school actually starts and they have to get up early and go to bed early; That’s what people should be doing for their dogs,” Steffes explains.

Dr. Roger Mugford , a well-respected animal psychologist who has been used by the British royal family to work with the corgis of Queen Elizabeth II, agrees with this statement. “With such an overload of quality time with their families, dogs are building up a huge reservoir of over-dependency which could see them suffer when moms and dads suddenly return to work and the children go back to school,” he says.

He further adds that “When left alone, dogs can chew the house, annoy the neighbors by constantly barking, urinate and defecate inside, and sometimes even self-harm. Put a webcam on your dog and you’ll see howling and pacing and other distress signs.”

This is obviously a nightmare scenario for any dog lover to think about. Just the concept that it has been possible to love your dog too much during quarantine that it would then affect the dog’s state of wellbeing over the next few months is something that is difficult to wrap your head around, and painful to think about. Adequately preparing for this moment is vital to make any pain be minimal.

Preparation could include something as simple as crating your dog for a few hours each day while you are home working to get your pet used to the routine. It could mean taking your dog for walks only at times when you would usually be home to do so. Doing this now and stretching it out over a period of a couple of weeks, will help avoid the cold-turkey affect and maintain that vital relationship that you have forged during the crisis.

 

Article by Vital Guidance

 

Spring Is A Time To Be Ready For Real Estate Options

Real estate buying and selling options were way down in March 2020 as a direct result of the Coronavirus outbreak. As potential buyers and sellers watched the economy fall apart across the country, real estate suffered as people who may have been in the market to buy or sell a newly built or existing home, decided to shelter in place versus splashing out their money on a mortgage.

There is no doubt it was the right thing to do at the time. Research on Zillow shows that signed contracts on houses are about one-third lower right now than they were at this time last year with people protecting their cash and other investments. There is – though – a glimmer of hope.

Spring always feels like the perfect time to explore your real estate buying and selling options as the weather gets warmer. This year the threat of Corona is still real, but there is an added feeling of hope that comes with spring.  Retail sales for housing picked up as we moved through April.  This may be a sign the worst part of the crisis – at least from the perspective of the housing market – could be over.

Web traffic – another great indicator of housing interest – also picked up during the last two weeks of April, though the numbers are still lower than average in major metros like New York City and Boston where the virus is a bigger problem. How much of this is people being bored sitting at home versus people actually looking to buy a house is up for debate, but on the back end of this it’s entirely possible that people who were happy with their living condition pre-Corona will be looking for something a little different – a move to space in the suburbs perhaps – that they wouldn’t have considered before.

The whole real estate market has turned virtual in the last month and this is important to consider if you are looking to buy or sell. Housing values have remained steady – impressive given some of our economic markets have gone into free fall.  So if you are someone considering your real estate buying and selling options you should be using this time to get your house prepared and learning about the new methods to be on top of the situation when you decide to make the move.

Article by Vital Guidance

Quarantine Life Allows Parent To Teach Life Lessons

With more and more school districts closing in America by the day a parents role as a vital mentor in the life of their kids has changed. We talked earlier this month about ways to create fun activities for your kids during their extended summer break, but there is more you can do during this time of uncertainty to embrace that leadership role.

You have likely not had one-on-one access like this with your child in years. This is true no matter the age of your children as the combination of working from home and no school means that you are interacting all day long with each other. As a result, it may be the perfect time to impart some life lessons on your child that they may not otherwise have learned and picked up on until far later in life.

During this outbreak, have fun but also spend time wisely with family to help set your kids on the right path whenever we return to some semblance of normalcy.  Here are a few life lessons that you can show by being the best version of yourself in front of your children during what is a trying time for us all:

Staying Safe Online

Being inside as much as will be required over the next few months is going to see children spending even more time than normal online. This will come both in terms of their education – with schools using online teaching techniques and tools – and their free time. This is the ideal time to talk with your kids about online safety, being careful about who they talk to and how they act, and being sure to give a positive message about the online space if it is used correctly.

Self-sufficiency

The hope is that nothing like this will ever happen again and, that when it has blown over, the world will get back to how it was to some degree. The truth is though, that this has shaken the fabric of society around the world and as a result shops are lower on food than normal and household budgets have shrunk. This is an excellent time to teach the kids how to react in unusual situations. Teach them how to cook with limited ingredients and how to budget out a set amount of food for groceries when some of the obvious options are not available. Get creative in your vital role as a parent and show them how to be self-sufficient in a crisis.

Positivity

It’s hard to be positive in crisis situations, but as a leader of your family you need to be positive both for yourself and for your children. This is a lesson that you can teach and show your children right now, and this guidance will help them understand that being positive in the face of a crisis – be it personal or on a global scale – is vitally important in moving forward and making the most of life.  Controlling you level of kindness, your attitude, and remaining positive in the face of what seems like overwhelming negativity around us is going to have a profound impact on the growth of your child.

Article by Vital Guidance

Vitamins help prepare for the unknown affects of viruses

One of the biggest hurdles that we will all struggle with at one time or another in the face of the COVID-19 situation is the unknown. The truth is that no one – scientists, government officials, the neighbor with the cat that knows everything (nothing) really has no idea about the scope of this worldwide virus. That is why what we need to do is focus on the things we do know and the things that we can do something about.

Eating healthy won’t keep the Coronavirus at bay.  What it will do, however, is have your immune system as ready and healthy as possible to fight off the invasive threat.  This is a story as old as time itself and it is a well-known way to stay healthy through troubling times.  Here are a few nutrients to focus on in the weeks ahead:

Vitamin D
Sun exposure is important as there are immune cells that use vitamin D to destroy viral pathogens that cause infections.  Getting just a few minutes outdoors will help with this sun retention – though more is obviously better as it will also help your mental health to get out and relax.   Also, a number of food brands can be found with added vitamin D to help with this vital nutrient.

Vitamin C/E
These vitamins protect your cells from oxidative stress as they shore up your structures and reduce possible inflammations. Vitamin C is especially important as it will help the body get back to normal more quickly by reacting and causing an immune response that will clean up any junk in the system as quickly as possible. Citrus fruits are the go-to options here.

Vitamin A
Another structure vitamin, Vitamin A forms a barrier in the respiratory tract and gut as your initial line of defense against a virus. This vitamin is also important for making the antibodies that will fight the virus and it can be found in oily fish, cheese, and egg yolks.

B vitamins
All useful, but B6, B9, and B12 are the best of the bunch. They attack a pathogen by causing infected cells to implode and stop their spread around the body. Cereals and leafy greens are good sources of B vitamins, with B12 being found in eggs, meat, and dairy products.

Getting as much healthy food into the system – with vitamins and minerals in the right doses – will give your body a greater chance of fighting off not only COVID-19, but also the seasonal flu and other viral infections. This will put you in the best position to make it through any outbreak on the mild end of the scale.  Stay safe.

Article by Vital Guidance

Gateway Drugs Lead To More Dangerous Opioid Abuse

Gateway drugs come in all shapes, sizes and names. They are hard to combat because the drugs most commonly used as a gateway to addiction change with availability and trends in culture. One of the most popular – and therefore most dangerous – gateway drugs in our current world is the opioid Codeine.

Codeine is a mild opioid that is used to treat mild to moderately severe pain. While it is used for mild pain in its original form, this is a drug that has been seen to be easy to become addicted to and that is a drug that leads to abusing other – more dangerous – opiates.

Codeine comes in tablet form, but the most common gateway use of the drug is via prescription grade cough syrup and cough suppressants. It works as a gateway drug because people see Codeine as less dangerous than something like morphine because how dangerous can cough syrup really be? The answer is very dangerous.  Large doses of Codeine has the same effect on the body as low doses of morphine in the system. This is typical gateway drug patterning.

Problems develop because Codeine tolerance is fast in its development. This means that users quickly need more of the drug – or a different drug of a higher strength – to get their fix. This is true both of abusers who use the drug recreationally, and for those who are using Codeine in a legitimate way to treat their pain, be that pain occasional, chronic, or emotional.

While people think of Codeine as a mild drug compared to scary names like heroin and Oxy, high enough doses of Codeine can lead to a coma and death. This is especially true when Codeine is taken recreationally on the street as it is often mixed with other drugs to create an artificially high.

Codeine is a dangerous drug. Users will eventually not get their high from Codeine and move on to other opiates. You may also see users mixing Codeine abuse with alcohol abuse to get the fix that they need before moving on to yet more dangerous substances. If you have a friend or family member who you are worried is developing a Codeine addiction then know you need to act and help them before that addiction transitions from Codeine down a path that is even more difficult to recover from.

Article by Vital Guidance

Ways To Know When Your Friend Is Addicted To Opiates

If you are going to help a friend with an addiction, it’s vital you’re aware of what’s going on around you. Opiate addiction is a growing problem worldwide, especially here in the United States, and it’s not always easy to spot.

People become addicted to opiates for various reasons.  They are used to treat pain and sometimes give people a feeling that the pain isn’t there, and their life is in a good place.  Hydrocodone is a drug often used recreationally, while drugs such as codeine and morphine have been problematic for authorities and healthcare professionals for years because of their ease of acquisition and their addictive nature.

The most obvious sign of an opiate addiction is a sudden change in behavior.  You know how your friend generally acts, so if suddenly something changes without an obvious outside stressor then you should be on alert.  It’s expected that a change in behavior could occur after a death, but extreme alterations in mood are a sure sign of an opiate addiction, especially when combined with other signs such as frequent bouts of anger and hostility.

Another big – and related sign – is that the person with an opiate addiction will start isolating themselves from family and friends. Social engagements will be skipped and your friend will either fall into a loner status or start hanging out with a new crowd of people. Also look for a dramatic dip in performance in school, work, or sporting achievements as an opiate user will care nothing about things that used to matter in order to work on getting their fix.

Signs related to this also include a sudden neglecting of personal hygiene and clothing. Maybe the person you are worried about used to be in fashion and now wears the same clothes for days. This is a sign of addiction. They may also suddenly have a habit of zoning out or completely falling asleep in inappropriate situations because they no longer have full control over their sleep/wake cycle.

Hopefully, your relationship allows you to read these signs and help your friend seek treatment. If the addiction is caught early then the odds are much better that it can be treated and that your friend can return to a normal and drug free-life.

Article by Vital Guidance