Feeling down sucks!

I know that feeling down sucks. I am an anxious person, prone to depression. I hate feeling down, I tried to keep it low, I tried to ignore it, and yet, it did not go away. Eventually, it was either stop myself from living, or stop my darkness before it takes over my life. You can guess what I chose. I know many suffer like me, many suffer much worse than me. I am not a psychiatrist nor a medical expert, I am merely an emotionally recovering person. So I wrote about what I am doing to get better, I hope it helps you.

The first step is not blaming yourself for it. You shouldn’t force yourself to “feel better” just because people around you do not feel comfortable seeing you like that. You are allowed to feel sad, down, tired, and fed up. You are allowed to be angry, if you don’t feel anger and sadness, you are not being honest to yourself.

Keeping your feelings down, bubbling them up, it will lead to an explosion and a larger damage. But don’t ruminate your dark thought, you are hurting yourself, and hurting those who love you truly. Returning to the same old dark idea is similar to you running with a bungee rope: no matter how far you get, it will pull you back to zero. Cut this cord and keep it as lesson, not as If you can’t do it alone, don’t feel ashamed, seek the help of trusted people or of professionals. You are not a desperate case, you are not crazy, you are not weak, you just need an external party to see things clearer than you.

Allow yourself to give every event its worth, be sad until you feel better. But always give yourself a healing time. If you lost a loved one, grief them, but don’t grief them until you stop living, grief them and understand that it’s ok to move on. You are not cheating on them, you are not being unfaithful because they died and you are still alive. You feel anger? Use the rule of 5: will it matter in 5 minutes? 5 hours? 5 days? 5 months? 5 years? For each yes you give, allow yourself a 30 seconds of anger. If it does not matter even for the next 5 minutes, I will not say don’t be angry, but let it go after 20 seconds. Allow yourself to empty your feelings, but don’t abuse it.

If someone or something keeps upsetting you, fix it or throw it away. You are not someone to push around and abuse, and a job or item should not make you feel bad. Is social media making you feel bad about yourself? Disconnect yourself. Is your friend always negative and making you feel awful? Talk it out. If they won’t stop it, then they don’t care about you, they just want to throw their emotional baggage on you to feel better, and you’re better off without them. Is your phone always breaking and stressing you out? You either repair it or stop using it, but don’t let a pack of inert material make your life miserable.

Get rid of your negative feelings by expressing them and dealing with the source of these feelings, not by repressing them. You may take a hobby, you may curse, you may cry, you may scream, you may shop, you may break a plate. It’s OK, do it. But keep 3 rules: do not hurt others, do not hurt yourself, and put a limit on the time and the resources you consecrate.

Easter eggs decoration with natural ingredients

I hate complicated methods to color eggs, I always used the coloring kits available in stores. But I realized that I may be harming myself by choosing the easy packed way, especially that in Lebanon, I did not find a natural ingredients dye kit yet. This is why I decided to find the best natural methods to color them.

Although it takes more time than just popping a colors pill or using food coloring, the results are great, the ingredients are majorly cheap, and you have room to get creative and experiment

The coloring ingredients

There are hundreds of ideas out there, my favorite are onions and beetroots for the amazing colors they give. Both ingredients are also very widely used in Lebanon, and were used by families for decades. I retrieved a list of many easy to find color ingredients via Practicallyfunctional.com, shown below. They also included their recommended quantities, but you can add more or less depending on the color intensity you desire. Don’t forget that the original color of your eggs will affect the final result.

You can use many more ingredients, like:
– well brewed camomille tea for light yellow
– strongly brewed hibiscus tea for dark green
– blueberries for a marbled blue
– Hibiscus flowers for reddish blue to lavender
– sunflower petals for pale yellow
– curry powder for pale orange
– paprika for darker orange
– chili powder for red to brown
– cranberry juice for pink to red
– undiluted pomegranate juice for pink
– frozen cherries or raspberries for pink
– simmered orange peels for light yellow
– chopped carrots for red-orange
– Frozen blueberries for grey-blue
– Spinach or parsley for green

You can also mix between different colors and experiment to have more shades and colors.

The coloring methods

You also have either the cold dye method, which is suitable for the lighter colors and to have eggs that last longer, and you can use the hot dye method for richer deeper colors, but with over boiled eggs that last only until Easter is over.

Hot dye method:

Add water, your dye ingredient and white vinegar to a pot and let them boil. The quantity of vinegar recommended is 2 tbsp of vinegar per liter (or quarter in US) of water. In addition add some salt to the mixture to help retain the color. You can also have different color shades if you use baking soda in small quantities, as it affects the acidity of certain ingredients, like cabbage, which affects the resulting color.

Then add eggs, allow them to boil for a few minutes, then reduce the heat to allow the pot’s content to simmer for around 15 minutes. Avoid overcooking the eggs, don’t keep them on heat for more than 30 minutes as they will be overcooked, making them edible for a shorter period.
Remove the pot away from the stove, cover it and and let it rest for an additional 15 minutes or more, depending on the depth of the color you desire.
Remove the eggs, rinse them carefully in lukewarm water, and let them air dry.

Cold dye method:

Add water, your dye ingredient and white vinegar to a pot and let them boil. The quantity of vinegar recommended is 2 tbsp of vinegar per liter (or quarter in US) of water. In addition add some salt to the mixture to help retain the color. You can also have different color shades if you use baking soda in small quantities, as it affects the acidity of certain ingredients, like cabbage, which affects the resulting color.
Simmer the mixture, covered, until the water is well colored. It takes anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours.

Strain the colored water from the remains of your ingredient, let it cool.
Add you hard-boiled eggs to the colored mixture, and let it soak for as long as you see it necessary to reach your desired color. You can even keep them in the fridge overnight.

Decoration ideas

An Easter egg needs some decoration, and by using natural coloring, it is a little tricky. But if you decorate BEFORE coloring, you can end up with really cool eggs.

For patterns, use stickers all over the egg to create patterns, let the egg color, then peel off the stickers, You can also use ropes and tape.

For natural decoration, ciaoflorentina.com recommends that you add a plant on the egg by using some water.

Then firmly enclose the egg in stockings and proceed with the coloring method of your choice.

  
Once you are done, you will have beautifully decorated eggs.

These are few ideas, there are so many more. If you have tried other methods and they worked, please share them with me as well. I hope you have a great Easter and you enjoy decorating your eggs without worrying about toxic components.

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#fruit #dye #idea #tip #linventif #lebanon #green #notoxins #clean #red #colour #colours #yellow #blue #brown #pink #orange

How learning changes your brain

The white matter in your brain is called so due to its higher concentration in myelin, which helps improve performance on a number of tasks. The more people practice a new skill they are learning, the more dense the myelin in their brains becomes, which helps them learn even better. Because the denser the myelin, the faster the information travels!

Myelin does not conduct itself electrical signals. In fact, the signals sent from the brain to the organs travel by “jumping” on the small part of the axon (aka nerve fiber, a long slender projection of a nerve cell or neuron that conducts electrical impulses away from the neuron’s cell body or soma, towards the targeted end) that is not covered with myelin. Denser myelin = the signal can travel more distance in a shorter time = the signal becomes faster.

The myelin has to be well organised and cover correctly the neurone to allow the signal to travel correctly. Many neurological diseases are caused by myelin covering in an ill manner the neurone, causing disruption in the signal transfer. An example is the Multiple Sclerosis. In MS, the myelin cover disappears in many places, which leaves a scar, called sclerosis. Therefore, plaques or lesions appear, they are areas with a lack or no myelin. Lesions getting worse = broken or damaged nerve fibers, and the electrical impulses from the brain no longer flow correctly to the target nerve, to deliver the message to the targeted organ.

Therefore, to help develop and keep your brain healthy, learning a new skill can help you a lot. Consider investing in an activity that you feel interested in for a healthier life.

Don’t forget to follow my own early stage startup news on Facebook, Instagram and the Website. Kindly consider helping me grow by liking my Facebook page, so I can reach more people!

#tip #information #benefit #health #handyskills #handywork #handiwork#hobby
#hobbies #learning #brain #iq #smart #intelligence #fast #linventif#lebanon 

Do you need a sign? This is it

If you are waiting for a sign to take a step towards a different direction, this is it! We have one life, do not waste it by following goals others set for you. No matter how minuscule your dreams may sound compared to other people’s, they should be enough for you. Each step forward, even if very small, is valuable.

You are a courageous creative independent soul, you were not made to be enslaved by another being. Do not let anyone convince you that you cannot be the change or the inspiration, not even yourself. You have beauty within you, treasures waiting to be discovered, and the first adventurer should be you.

No matter in what part of life you are, don’t give up. You know what is great about hitting rock bottom? The only way to go is up. But YOU decide if you wish to remain on the bottom or you want to climb up. No one can make the decision for you, even the people who love you the most cannot do it for you, but they can support you and guide you. Do not fear asking for help, it is not a sign of weakness, it is strength to know that you don’t own all the knowledge of the world.

You can be an inventor, innovation has no gender, race or age, you can be an explorer, a pioneer, an artist. You can be all of them, if you just let them show.

You can start creating your path any day. Choose today.

 

#Saturday #inspiration #idea #thought #encouragement #sign #build #courage #amazing #you #hope #faith #today

A super yummy bakery in Lebanon

Want an #authentic #mankoushe experience in Lebanon?

You can always rely on ma’alin Ghassan to offer you one of the best manakish you can taste! His bakery, Furn Ghassan, is in the heart of Bourj Hammoud, Arax street. During lent, you would find his pastries to be perfect for the restricted diets.

Not only he offers very delicious manakish, he also has a range of dried pastries, such as kaak asrouniye, and brioches with various fillings. You can get them all fresh and made with love. A few years ago, No Garlic No Onion featured a post on his very delicious tahina kaake, a must-try for anyone looking for a new sweet tooth challenge. This is how he got his NGNO recommended sticker.

When you enter the bakery, it is your same old type of Lebanese bakeries, with the amazing aromas of baked goods tickling your nose and making your mouth water. Nothing fancy, nothing extravagant, prices affordable for the poorest of people. The family-owned bakery has a little history that ma’alim Ghassan would be delighted to tell you about. His wife and himself open the bakery every morning, they work together, no extra staff, and he makes sure everything is clean and tasty. You can strike a conversation with this baker, he will tell you all about Arax and Bourj Hammoud, how today is compared to the past, and about how his family was brought up in this crowded city.

When you leave, you will feel like you had, even for a few minutes, relived the good old days of Beirut, in a humble little bakery that represents the soul of our beloved city.

His bakery is available on Zomato: https://www.zomato.com/beirut/furn-ghassan-bourj-hammoud-metn

More pics are available on my personal Instagram account:  @clumsypops91

#foodpics #instayummy#foodlife #lebanesefood #lebanesecuisine #lebanon #lebanese_food
#lebaneserestaurant#lebanesedesserts #manakish #manakeesh #pastry #foodie #foodporn
#foodgasm #nom#nomnom #nomnomnom #lent #baking #bakery #eatingfortheinsta #eat
#eating #march#bourjhammoud #instagram 

Check out how this artistic company can make events colorful and unforgettable!

You have an event and you want to make it unforgettable? Think of including handmade origami to decorate instead of the same old flower arrangements or overused printed frames.

Passigami offers you beautiful creations from paper, colorful, happy, customized, and the best part is that you can keep that bridal bouquet over the years, and it will remain in mint condition! And it doesn’t just stop at flowers, they can make butterflies and many other shapes to suit any type of happy celebration.

Initially launched in Lebanon, the success of Passigami led it to open in Dubai as well.

Encourage fellow Lebanese creators, make your events extra special and keep a token from your special days with Passigami.

You can check their amazing creations on their page on facebook Passigami – Paper Art and you can call them on +961 76 355 801 if you reside in Lebanon or on +971 521463440 if you reside in Dubai. From the numerous positive reviews of their customers, satisfaction is guaranteed!

Don’t forget to follow my own early stage startup news on Facebook, Instagram and the Website

#passigami #paper #art #lebanon #dubai #origami #event #decoration #wedding
#baptism #birth #birthday #engagement #artistic #linventif #lebanese #artist

(The photos are credited to Passigami solely)