Why a Road Trip Can Make a Great Date

If you’ve been with your significant other for a while, then it’s time to kick things up a notch. You’ve probably done the movies, bowling, shopping, dinner, dancing, and all the other cool date ideas, but have you ever considered trying something like taking a road trip? There’s simply something about being out on the open road with the one you love that can bring your relationship to the next level (if, of course, you don’t kill each other along the way…LOL).

Not convinced this would make a great date night? Let me explain my logic.

Gets You Off the Couch
If you’ve already moved in together, then you know how mundane life can get after some time. Wake up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, go to sleep and do it all over again; if you have kids this, list is even longer but still repetitive. This is one of the fastest ways to watch the flame go out of your relationship. Therefore, getting out on a road trip allows you guys to break the routine and try something new. Road trips bring about excitement, adventure and spontaneity of sorts.

Alone Time to Get to Know Each Other
With all the distractions of life, sometimes it can be challenging to stay connected. You guys are constantly changing and therefore, there are always new things to learn about the person you’re with. A road trip gives you that time to talk with one another and learn new things. Whether you talk about your childhood, past experiences in your relationship or challenges you’ve been experiencing, it allows you to unplug from the world around you and just give each other your full, undivided attention.

Harmonizing Together
Whether you can carry a tune or not, there’s something about music that can really unite people together. With the ultimate playlist on deck, the two of you can spend hours together singing your favorite songs. Music can also help to jog the memory, which can make for great conversations on things that happened to you in the past. Ultimately, you guys get to “let your hair down” and just have fun being you.

Working Together as a Team
As a couple, you guys must work together at everything in order for the relationship to flourish. A road trip can essentially help improve your abilities to work together as a team. Keeping up with directions, watching for pit stops to take a rest and even planning the road trip requires teamwork.

Discover New Things
As I’ve said before, life can get pretty basic, boring and routine. It can quickly cause the flame to dissolve from your relationship, which is why taking a road trip is a great idea. While on the open road, you can discover a lot of things. Whether it’s finding a neat little rest stop or a picturesque overpass during your travels, there’s something about discovering new things that can put the magic back in your relationship. It also allows you to create new memories which make for great stories and reflections later on.

Planning is Key
Now if taking a road trip with the love of your life sounds fun and exciting, I should warn you that planning is imperative. Planning a road trip can make the difference between having a great time and killing each other along the way. Some things you’ll want to plan out and ensure of before hitting the road include:

***Know Where You’re Going: Getting lost or off track is known to cause arguments so to avoid this, it’s probably best that you have some idea of where you’re going and which route you’re going to take to get there.

***Secure Your Documentation: Unless you want to end up being ticketed in another state, I suggest you make sure that all of your legal documentation is in order. This includes having your licenses, ensuring that your car is registered and also has up-to-date car insurance – and if either of you have been labeled a “high risk driver” required to carry an SR22 policy you’ll want to make sure you have that handy as well.

***Get the Car Checked Out (or Rent in Advance): What’s a road trip without having a reliable vehicle. Unless you want to end up on the side of the highway waving the white flag, you’d better make sure you have your car checked out before you leave. If you’re going to rent a vehicle, make sure that you rent in advance to ensure that you get the car you want.

So the next time you’re looking for a date idea that will liven up your marriage or relationship, consider taking a road trip with the one you love. Whether you travel within your state or decide to go cross-country, you’ll find the experience to be captivating. You’ll get to laugh, talk, work together, create memories and spend much-needed alone time together — that is, of course, if you remember to plan ahead of time. When you return home, you’ll find that you’re more in love with your partner than you’ve ever been before.

–Sara Stringer is a freelance writer who most enjoys blogging about lifestyle, relationships and life as a woman. In her spare time, she enjoys soaking up the sunshine with her husband and two kids. Consideration was received for the editing and publishing of this article.


[Photos via We Heart It]

Getting Back on Track After a Bad Break-Up

There is no denying the fact that breaking up with someone you’ve been in a relationship with for a long time can be tough. You have devoted your time, energy, love and support into this one person, and now…you’re back at ground zero. Break-ups are never easy on anyone. Whether you were dumped, you did the dumping or it was an amicable split, there is a part of you that feels a certain “void” that takes time to fill.

There are those that will try to pretend their last relationship had no impact on their lives, but if we’re really honest with ourselves, it did. Take me, for example. I was once with a guy for three years. He was a great guy (or so I thought). We spent time doing everything we could together, and we were well on our way to marriage. That is, until I found out that the entire time we were together, he was not faithful to me. Turns out, he had two children under the age of 2 with two different women! When I found out, I immediately kicked him to the curb. While some would agree that I did myself a favor by not holding onto the relationship and dealing with his infidelities, it still hurt.

I felt ashamed, embarrassed and broken. The guy I had fallen madly in love with was nothing more than a womanizer and a dead-beat dad. And I went into a deep depression of sorts. After a few months of “grieving” my lost relationship, I realized I had to get back to caring about myself. I could not allow my life to fall apart because some guy didn’t understand how to stay committed to a girl like me. The only problem was, after doing things as a couple for three years, I didn’t know how to be single.

Maybe you’ve found yourself in the same boat, or maybe you just want to pick up the pieces of your heart and move on. Whatever the circumstances may be, here are some suggestions on how to get your life back together after a difficult break-up…

1. Allow Yourself Time to Grieve: As I explained above, no matter how the relationship ended or what it ended for, if you were truly committed to it, losing it is going to bring out emotions. Therefore, the best thing you can do for yourself is grieve the loss. I don’t care how you do it. Cry, rip up old pictures, write letters (but don’t mail them), or see a counselor if it is having long-term effects on you emotionally.

2. Evaluate Your Part in Things: With every break-up, there is a lesson to be learned. Find out what your lesson was so that you can grow from it. Whether your issue was that you held on despite the signs of infidelity, or you were the one who cheated, sit back and really think about the part you played in it so you can fix those areas of your life.

3. Lean on Support: Friends and family members can really be that extra boost of support you need when you’re feeling down and out. Reach out to them, tell them how you’re feeling and ask for help. Having an outlet for your emotions is very important to your healing process.

4. Take Up a New Hobby: After a while, sitting around on your own only makes you more depressed. To really move on with your life, you have to get back into doing things that you enjoy. So why not take up a new hobby? For instance, if you’ve always wanted to play the piano, but never had the time because you were so devoted to the relationship, now is the time to take up piano lessons. The Internet makes it fairly easy to find piano teachers in the area so you can get started. With all the time you’ll be spending on your new hobby, you won’t have that idle time to think about your ex.

5. Get Back on the Social Scene: Once you’ve really assessed your emotions and found the emotional support you need to get through your break-up, now is the time to mix and mingle. No, I don’t recommend jumping into another dating situation so soon, but there’s nothing wrong with hitting a local bar and having some drinks with friends.

6. Pace Yourself: Last, but certainly not least, I recommend pacing yourself. Everyone deals with emotions and break-ups differently and therefore everyone will have their own time-frame from which they can truly move on. Do not rush yourself back into dating or into feeling better about the break-up. It will happen in due time.

The more you focus on yourself and take care of your own emotional and physical well being, the less time you’ll have to feel down and out about your break-up. So deal with your emotions, gather reliable support, pick up a new hobby, build your social life, and most importantly take it one day at a time. In no time at all, you’ll be back to your old self ready to find the guy (or girl) of your dreams.

–Sara Stringer is a freelance writer who most enjoys blogging about lifestyle, relationships and life as a woman. In her spare time, she enjoys soaking up the sunshine with her husband and two kids. Consideration was received for the editing and publishing of this article.

[Photo via We Heart It]

Tips For Dealing With Anxiety

Everybody feels anxious from time to time. It’s a natural reaction to fear and stressful situations. A person who feels anxious or stressed out every once in a while, most of the time, does not suffer from anxiety or an anxiety-related disorder. In these cases, the anxiety and stress someone feels is almost always the result of a logical and easily defined trigger. Your boss yells at you, so you feel anxious about going in to work the next day. That’s perfectly normal.

For people suffering from anxiety disorders, the anxiety and stress they feel might not be related to any specific actions or situations. A lot of the time, it is just there, often for no real or logical reason at all. And it is when this omnipresent anxiety a person feels starts to take over his or her life, when it gets in the way of one’s ability to make sound decisions, when it becomes difficult to cope with or work through — that is when it’s time to start worrying about an anxiety disorder.

Different Types of Anxiety Disorders
According to TherapyTribe.com, a service that helps match up therapists and patients, there are six major types of anxiety disorders:

*General Anxiety Disorder
*Panic Disorder
*Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
*Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
*Social Anxiety Disorder
*Phobias

The site does a good job of breaking down what these different types of disorders are on this page.

Treating Anxiety Disorders
There are several different methods of treating an anxiety disorder. The type of therapy someone with anxiety undertakes is going to depend upon the specific type of anxiety disorder from which he or she suffers. For many people who suffer from anxiety disorders, though, it is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, in conjunction with medication, that has the most success.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, to put it simply, is therapy that helps someone with anxiety, depression or a variety of other mental health issues, learn to identify negative or inaccurate ways of thinking and feeling and how to challenge those thoughts to help identify which anxieties have merit and which, well, don’t.

This can be difficult. The things about which we feel anxious, and the reasons our brain has invented to feel that anxiety, can be very deeply ingrained. Challenging those thoughts will feel wrong and can be stressful itself! It’s natural for your brain to fight back against these challenges. With time and effort, though, you will learn how to do this and how to shut down panic attacks and triggers before they can “win.”

Most of the time, says the Mayo Clinic, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has a relatively short duration. Most of the time, cognitive behavioral therapy is “done” within twenty sessions. Obviously the number varies for everyone. Unlike other types of therapy, though, CBT is a very focused and goal-oriented type of therapy. It focuses on the singular instead of trying to pull from all areas of your life in a general way, the way general behavioral therapy does.

Other Treatments
It is important, even if you and your therapist decide that CBT is the best course of action for your anxiety disorder, to set up some general therapy after you finish your CBT sessions. This way, you’ll still have therapeutic support. After all, while CBT has provided great results for people who suffer from anxiety disorders, continued support is still important. It is especially important if you have opted to treat your disorder with medication as well as therapy. A therapist can help monitor your medication dosage and the types of medication you take.

How Do You Know?
All that science-y talk aside, how do you know if the anxiety you feel is just situational and normal anxiety or if it has started to take over and reach “disorder” levels?

One of the best things you can do — with anxiety and other mental health issues — is monitor your moods and feelings. When you keep track of your moods, you might be able to identify triggers that you hadn’t noticed before. It will also help you see whether your feelings are triggered at all. It can help you identify, for example, if you feel low at certain times of day, after eating certain foods, etc.

What matters is that you find the help you need. This might take some time and some trial and error. You might have to meet with several therapists or, if you are treating your disorder with meds, try several types of medications before you find a combination that works. What matters is that you keep at it. You do not have to let your anxiety run your whole life.

–Sara Stringer is a freelance writer who most enjoys blogging about lifestyle, relationships and life as a woman. In her spare time, she enjoys soaking up the sunshine with her husband and two kids. Consideration was received for the editing and publishing of this article.


[Photos via We Heart It]

Sponsor Spotlight: Not PERFECT LINEN

You all know that I’m a pretty simple gal. I’ve never been one for all those unnecessary frills, and it doesn’t take much to make me happy. Maybe that’s why I love the philosophy behind Not PERFECT LINEN, the Lithuanian-based Etsy shop that bills itself as “linen in simple way.” For owner Simona, creating homemade goods creates a sense of community, and the shop features everything from napkins to tablecloths to aprons to towels to curtains. Read on for a peek into Simona’s inspirations and her tips for shopping online! xoxo

Keep in touch…
Official Web site: Not PERFECT LINEN
Become a fan on Facebook

Tell me about your shop. What’s the inspiration behind its launch?
We have always been against mass-produced goods and always looking for eco-friendly solutions in our everyday life. That inspired us to start working with linen that is healthy and a non-waste product of nature. Our family has been working with textiles for over 20 years, and we just decided that it was time for the whole world to see our work. So we have been in the international market for only more than a year, and we are successful by being passionate about our goods, which involve years of learned skills, passion, commitment and sincerity.

Our small, family–owned business creates simple linen (flax) pieces for home. For us, creating homemade goods brings a sense of community, and it is like a quiet protest against mass-produced goods. We do not make things just to make money; we want to spread happiness! Our items are made of washed linen fabric, specially woven for us by our local linen manufacturers. The procedure of making these items takes time and effort, because the items are double washed once they are made. Only after such a process do we reach extra softness and natural wrinkles.

Your shop features so many inspiring finds. What inspires you the most?
Beauty of imperfection. More than simple forms found around us, simple colors of nature, simple ideas, natural linen fabric and healthy thinking, our honest and simple creations are for those who appreciate natural things and adore simple forms and the homemade look. No smell of the factory, no factory seams, no perfect ironing — only a homemade idea. So being not perfect is a praise to us. We think that the beauty of linen is that it is not perfect. If you keep trying to iron it, you will miss the beauty of it.

What are your top 3 tips for shopping online and finding great deals?
I do not like big markets at all and finding small boutiques from all around the whole world in one place is some kind of miracle. You do not have to reach Paris, London or NY. Everything is just right there for you!

What are some of your favorite home decor/decorating tips? How can people improve their decor on a budget?
Just look for ideas — there are so many of them all around us. Just think a little!!

What is your favorite piece in your shop and why?
Our pinafore is the best seller all around the world. When you create an item after lots of planning, sewing hours, listening to all of reviews of the customers and adjusting it once again and again, you definitely reach the best of it. So I can really say that our pinafore now is perfect and when we receive a review of the customer that this linen item “is the one to die for” I can not imagine myself happier.

Sponsor Spotlight: Blue-Eyed Night Owl

Remember when I posted this year’s Reader Feedback Survey and offered one reader a free month of advertising? Well, Laura of Blue-Eyed Night Owl is our lucky winner! The Netherlands-based artist is quite the crafting genius! She designs the cutest bookmarks and prettiest brooches I’ve seen in a long time! I love how all her pieces are bright and colorful, don’t you? I got to chat with her about all things crafty and her favorite items in her shop! xoxo


Keep in touch…
Official Web site: Blue-Eyed Night Owl
Read the official blog
Become a fan on Facebook
Follow on Twitter
Get inspired on Pinterest

Tell me about your shop. What’s the inspiration behind its launch?
Ever since I was little, I’ve been busy crafting. Though I tried (and still do) a lot of different things, felt is one of the things I kept getting back to. It is so versatile and fun. I also love to read, so one day I had this idea for a new kind of bookmark — one that always holds his place (which is super handy when you always have a book on the go!) and also shows its cuteness, instead of letting the design hide within the pages. So I made one with an owl (which is still my most popular design) and loved it so much that I immediately started making some to sell on Etsy. I’ve added some other products since, but the bookmarks are still the focus of my shop.

Your shop features so many inspiring finds. What inspires you the most?
For my Etsy designs, I’m mostly inspired by nature. I love making animals, flowers, leaves. And sometimes, a color combination might spark a new idea as well.

What do you like most about running your own Etsy shop?
I love it that my items make people happy! A lot of customers come back for more, which is the best feeling. Sometimes I get really sweet emails or reviews and they just make me aware that there are people from all over the world using and enjoying the things I made. What could be better?!

What is your favorite piece in your shop and why?
It’s so tough picking favorites! I’ll always love the owls, but I love the hedgehog and “cat lover” designs as well. And…I have a new collection planned in my head, so I might just have a new favorite soon…