10 mood boosters to bring you out of your funk

10 mood boosters to bring you out of your funk10 mood boosters to bring you out of your funkWoke up on the wrong side of the bed? Is your day not going as well as youve planned? Sometimes its hard to release pent-up anger, especially if there are more reasons that keep building up your bad mood. In some cases, all you need to do is wait a few minutes and your bad mood will just dissipate. However, if things start looking dark, there are a few different ways you can try to distract yourself and lift your mood.1. Wired? Try a brain boosterTry a supplement to help improve your brain function. Supplements that contain L-theanine, a mix of vitamin Bs, brahmi and a stimulant such as guarana or coffee help your brain in several ways. You can improve your memory, cognitive function, stabilize your moods, and feel relaxed. The amino acid L-theanine is also found in green tea, and it has natural calming effects on the brain while boosting your serotonin. A heightened amount of serotonin in you r brain helps you feel happy. Expect effects to come into effect within 15-20 minutes after taking the supplement. If you need help finding the best supplement with the best ingredients, you can look at Authority Health to read reviews of different brands.2. Take a napIf youre in a sour mood, there is not much other people can do for you to help you feel better. Instead, rely on yourself and go to sleep for a quick 20-30 minute nap. Sleep deprivation can lead to irritability, so if you find yourself becoming irrationally angry, it may be due to your lack of sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, a quick nap no longer than half an hour improves your mood and helps you feel more awake afterwards. If you nap for longer, you may drift into REM sleep, which may affect your sleep/wake cycle and be detrimental to your nighttime sleep. So, set your alarm, and youll be able to wake up feeling rejuvenated.3. Eat chocolateJumping on the pro-chocolate bandwagon, we want to point out that chocolate has shown to improve your mood and push away anxiety and depression. Eating something sweet boosts serotonin in your brain, helping you feel content. Dark chocolate especially showed the highest effects in different studies, along with the benefit of high antioxidant content, which supports healthy cells. Some studies have shown that the flavanols in chocolate are the reason for improving a persons mood. Flavanols are more commonly found in fresh fruit and vegetables, and are used in your body to improve your overall health.4. Take a walk in natureIn general, exercise releases endorphins in your brain, helping you feel energized while lifting your mood. Going for a run, swimming, biking anything that will get you moving will help you feel much better. Light walking also counts as exercise, since you are moving your body and using your muscles. In addition, a study found that people who walk in nature feel more calm than those walking in urban areas. If you feel your mind racing and are unable to defeat the mounting stress, you can immediately relax and feel joy from your peaceful green surroundings.5. Pet a puppyIf youre under a lot of pressure, you are more in tune to movement and your sense of touch. Petting a dog lowers your blood pressure alfruchtwein immediately, dissipating any of your worries. Even people with high blood pressure who adopted dogs showed a healthy decline in their blood pressure after five months. You can learn a lot from your pet playing with an animal raises your serotonin levels as well as dopamine, the perfect combination of happiness and relaxation. If youre feeling alone in the world, having a pet nearby can erase any of those feelings by offering their companionship. The carefree, live-in-the-moment lives they lead are an inspiration to how you should be living yours.6. Turn on the radioListening to music and feeling the beat can lift any bad mood. Creating or listening to music by playing an instrument or singing can release a creative flgel you may have had. Music helps you feel lighter and turns your mind from dark, heavy thoughts to a lighthearted focus.7. Hug a loved oneAlong the same lines of petting an animal, getting a nice embrace from a friend can greatly change your mood. You feel supported and loved hugs can release any tension you may be carrying with you. There was even a study that showed that men who were more affectionate and who hugged other people more often were much happier than men who had less personal contact with others. Also, being around people who you love releases the hormone oxytocin, which also helps improve your mood.8. Go for a runExercise, as we mentioned before, is a great stress reliever and basically makes everything better. You can push negative and destructive thoughts out of your mind and leave them in the dust as you pump your muscles. Any kind of exercise, as long as you elevate your heart rate, can improve your mood. Exercise can also boost your sel f-esteem and assist in weight loss, which is great for your overall health. Feeling good about your body can make you feel great think about how miserable you were the last time you had a bad hair day Just make sure not to go too hard and tire yourself out, because that could drop you back down into a bad mood.9. Plant flowers or create flower arrangementsGetting fresh air isnt just a made-up thing that your mom said to get you out of the house. Being outside around growing things definitely help your mood. Plants purify our air, provide great decorations with their bright colours, and also boost your mood. While looking at flowers may do all this, planting flowers can stimulate your creative vibes. Working with your hands and fulfilling a task can help you feel fulfilled when creating flower arrangements too.10. Break the rulesFinally, the most surprising suggestion we have to help you feel better is to break the rules. A quick way to feel exhilarated is to do something against th e rules, but obviously make sure whatever youre doing isnt life threatening to you or others. Using the same logic as exercise, you can get your heart racing out of anticipation when youre doing something you know you shouldnt. So, explore your limits and then give them a push. Take a break from work. Go skydiving. Do silly pranks on your friends. Dont let fear hold you back, as hesitation and inaction just exacerbate anxiety. A great way to release pent-up feelings is to be a little naughty from time to time too.This article was originally published onYourCoffeeBreak.co.

Preparing for an Interview Use the Job Description

Preparing for an Interview Use the Job Description Preparing for an Interview Use the Job Description The most underutilized tool in preparing for job bewerbungsgesprchs is the jobdescription. As a job seeker, you rely heavily upon the job description in the early stages of the hunt- after all, its the only piece of information you have to help you land an interview. But, once youve landed that interview, the job description gets tossed aside because its no longer relevant.Job descriptions actually contain a secret wealth of knowledge that can aid you in preparing for an interview. Instead of balling up that piece up paper (or closing that browser tab), use these tips to prepare for a smoother, successful interview.1. Talking pointsWhen preparing for an interview, most people will focus on what questions they think the employer is going to ask. While this is a valid approach, it can also be a complete guessing game. Instead of focusing on what the employer might ask, focus on creatin g answers you can use for any number of different questions based on the things included in the job description.A good job description will lay out all the essential skills the employer is seeking. The employer wants to understand how you developed those skills and what youve accomplished using them.Prepare for your interview byBrainstorming a talking point for each technical or hard skill or listed in the job description. Focus on highlighting your accomplishments, milestones, and the goals youve achieved using that specific skill.If they are seeking someone with 2+ years of experience leading a team, make elendes on the key successes that a team has accomplished under your direction in the last few years.The hiring manager who wrote the job description is likely to also be the interviewer, unless its a technical position where they are screening for technical abilities. Demonstrating that you understand the job and its requirements from the job description well enough to structure your answers around their desired qualifications is a good way to build rapport.While not every bullet from the job description will be brought up in the job interview, if youre prepared to explain not only that you possess each skill, but also how you excelled at it, youll have talking points for any skill-related question they throw your way.Identifying stories from your past that will demonstrate you possess the characteristics and soft skills the employer is seeking.Assessing soft skills in an interview is difficult because the employer usually spends less than an hour with you. While theyll be able to get a snapshot of your general personality and interpersonal skills during the interview, you need to paint a complete picture of what youre like in a professional umgebung day-in and day-out.Create a list of stories from your previous jobs, school, and volunteer work that correspond to soft skills in the job description. If they want someone highly communicative and client-centr ic be armed with a story of a specific time you went above and beyond your normal job duties to satisfy a client or kept them abreast of developments in a highly important campaign you headed up.If youre prepared with talking points about both your hard and soft skills, including specific stories and examples to back up your claims, you dont need to stress over what the questions will be- youve already got your answers2.Identify weaknessesDont feel disheartened if you dont meet all of the criteria for a position. In a job description, the employer essentially lays out their unicorn employee. In reality, most candidates will have mastered some skills, but lack others.In preparing for the interview, your weaknesses should become apparent. As you developed your talking points in step one, you probably struggled to come up with stories for some of the desired qualifications. Those are your weak spots, and you need to be prepared to talk about them.To combat your weaknesses before the in terviewBe honest with yourself about your skill levels. If you exaggerate your skills during the interview, and cant perform them upon landing the job, it will reflect poorly upon you- and could even get you fired.Be armed with specific plans about how and where you can learn the skills where you are weak or lack experience. Also share any related skills you already possess that will speed up the learning curve.Start learning as much as you can about the areas in which you are weakest. Even if you only spend a couple hours reading up on the subject, you will at least have enoughknowledge of the topic to understand what the employer is seeking. Plus, theres always the chance you know mora about the subject than you realizedHonesty about what you can and cant do is important during the interview. The employer will appreciate your honesty, especially if its coupled with a sincere desire to learn the skills necessary to perform the job. And by acknowledging your weaknesses ahead of time , you can avoid being stumped by relatedinterview questions.3.Create questionsWhile a job description can give you a ton of useful information on how to prepare for your interview, it does not present a complete picture. Company websites and resources such as Glassdoor can be useful tools to gather furtherinformation, but interviews provide the best access to information- directly from the source.After youve read the job description, you should have a broad sense of what the position entails, what the company values, and how you stack up. Ask yourself what the job description doesnt tell you. Those are the questions you want to ask during the interview.Consider the followingWhat does the job description tell you about company culture?Do you get a clear sense of what the companys ideal candidate would look like?Do you understand how this role fits into their team? Their organization? The company?Use the questions above to guide you and think about what missing information you want to gather in the interview. Most interviewers expect you to have questions prepared, because it demonstrates that youve been researching the company and are serious about the job.The other bonus to crafting questions based on the job description is that you can verify how accurately it portrays the job and the company. If the job description says the company values a good work/life balance, and thats a big selling point for you, dont be afraid to ask, The job description mentioned this company prioritizes work/life balance. Can you tell me about the policies you have in place to promote this?Remember, you are interviewing the company just as much as they are interviewing you. A good employer will be impressed, not put off, by your attention to the details in their job description and your interest in their priorities.The job description is only a starting point, but it can help you assess what you dont know, as well as what you do know about the job. Its up to you to collect the rest. When you land an interview, keep in mind that one of the hardest parts is already over.Your resume beat their applicant track systemand now you have the opportunity to meet with someoneface to face. The company has already shown an interest in you, so showing up to the interview prepared and relaxed will just affirm their decision to select you.More Interview TipsCommunications Coach 3 Things to Do Before an InterviewHow to Answer What Are Your Salary Expectations?How to Look and Sound Professional in a Phone or Video Interview

How to communicate when something goes wrong at work

How to communicate when something goes wrong at work How to communicate when something goes wrong at work Whether you’re a manager telling employees the bad news, or an employee who has to tell your boss what they don’t want to hear - but need to know - there are ways to take the edge off. Here are three ways to do so.Maintain a serious toneThis should be a no-brainer, but a refresher never hurts.Rhett Power, an author and co-founder of Wild Creations, writes on CNBC.com that managers shouldn’t “joke around” at this time.“When delivering bad news, cracking jokes is disrespectful and comes off as rude. It may be difficult for some people to avoid because it’s natural to want to lighten the mood in uncomfortable situations with humor, but you must avoid doing this at all costs to avoid coming off as insensitive,” he writes.Talk to them face-to-faceThis is always a good idea.Jeff Haden, an author, ghostwriter, speaker and contributing editor to Inc., writes about this on the site.“Maybe, ultimately, it was not your decision to cut jobs. Maybe you had no input but are sti ll the person required to enforce a major shift in policy. When you are in charge, you deliver all bad news,” he writes. “And do so in person. If you have bad news to deliver to a group of employees, get the group together. Or if there are individual repercussions resulting from that bad news, talk to each person separately. If you can’t do it in person, do it by video or phone. Never choose a method that makes the communication one way.”Just be honest with your managerDawn Rosenberg McKay, an author and certified Career Development Facilitator, writes in The Balance that you should “present your boss with a plan to correct the error.”“You will need to come up with a plan to rectify your mistake and present it to your boss. Hopefully, you will be able to put something together before you first approach her, but don’t waste time if you can’t. Reassure her that you are working on a solution,” she continues. “Then, once you know what you need to do, present it. Be very clear about what you think you should do and what you expect the results to be.“Tell your boss how long it will take to implement and about any associated costs. Make sure to have a ‘Plan B’ ready, in case your boss shoots down ‘Plan A.’ While making a mistake is never a good thing, don’t miss the opportunity to demonstrate your problem-solving skills.”