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Being a female is hard, especially in today's society. Media constantly sets standards that society believes you should strive to reach including looks, body shape, careers, and everything else that you could think of. So many times you see beautiful woman struggling with body image issues, piling on makeup, wearing the least amount of clothes possible, and all over selling themselves short. Being a female is something that we should embrace! We are strong, beautiful, independent, confident, and have come such a far way in such a short amount of time! But, many times priorities become a bit flip flopped in the stress and expectations of daily life. Many times, we wake up earlier to make sure that we have time to do our hair, makeup, and pick out the perfect outfit. Being physically pretty is not the most important thing in life, and that often gets pushed aside and set on the back burner. Being internally beautiful is the real thing that all woman should strive for. External beauty will fade over time, but character will stick with you forever. Ideal traits that should be in forced into young woman are politeness, classiness, forgiving, truthful, confidence, happiness, and many others.
My advice? Wear that outfit that you think you can't pull off, try that new haircut (I promise it will grow out if you hate it), try that blue eye shadow, and when you are doing all of these things, be confident about it! Stop convincing yourself you can't wear certain things because you aren't a size [enter number here].
Go out of your way to smile at somebody, or simply say hello to a stranger walking by. Help that person who dropped their books, or hold a door open for somebody. It really is the simple things in life that make the most difference. Not only will it make them smile, I can guarantee that you will feel better about yourself and it just helps your confidence! People won't always remember what you were wearing or what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel. First impressions last a lifetime, so you may as well make a great one, right?
Have a great week, and remember these tips in your everyday life. You never know when somebody will pay it forward and you may just start a chain reaction.
Love Always,
Abbey Rettinger
writer2.bgdesigns@gmail.com
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Thursday, April 10, 2014
Pretty, witty, and gracious
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
The Busy Life: No Stress Allowed!
So you know as well as I do that being stressed out is absolutely awful. It's a vicious, never ending cycle that makes you miserable. So why deal with it! Whether you're a 9-5 working lady like me, or juggling school and 2 jobs or what have you, dealing with stress is super important for not only your sanity but for getting things done! Here are some of my helpful tips for managing stress in a busy lifestyle!
My entire life I've been in a busy environment. From a young age, I always found myself running from place to place, and not having a ton of "unplanned" down time. My mom was always busy and so was my dad, therefore I was busy too. Then when I got older, I became busy for myself. In my junior year of high school, I was juggling school in general, 2 Pre-AP classes (aka a crap ton of homework), and rehearsing 3 different musicals, all at the same time. Talk about busy. Teachers asked each other if I was having problems at home (Which is completely ridiculous. If you've met my family, you know.) because I was falling asleep in class and crying all the time. Which are huge red flags of exhaustion and stress. From then I went on to be exactly the same in college: taking a full course load and working 2 jobs. After graduation, I had that awkward 6 months or so of trying to find a job and feeling like a complete failure because I really didn't have anything to do. Or at least that's what it felt like for me. Now that I'm working, I'm back in my super busy mode, which I seem to thrive in. So I guess that's enough reference to my ability to talk about managing stress!
First, there are three key words to handling your stress: Prevent, Reduce, and Manage. These words all come into play when it comes to controlling your stress. I'll go through each one and provide you with some helpful tips to keep your head about you during busy season!
Prevent
Preventing stress is the first step, as preventing is in any disease-like issue. (haha). After all, if you are working to prevent it, then the latter steps are deemed obsolete. In order to prevent getting stressed out, keep yourself as organized as possible.
Planning is your friend. Seriously, plan everything. If you are aware that you are going into major stress territory, save yourself the worry and make your life that much easier. It's harder to forget things and be late to important meetings if your daily life is scheduled down to the last detail. I know it sounds a little outrageous, but speaking as someone who suffers from anxiety and stress related anger management issues (I'm basically the hulk) I couldn't be more serious. Sit yourself down, whip out a handy dandy piece of loose leaf, or a notebook if you prefer, and plan it out. Allot yourself certain amounts of time for different activities and what not. Doing this will help you manage your time and keep yourself accountable for your time.
Adding onto the planning bit, allow yourself down time. If you book yourself solid from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed, it will defeat the purpose of planning your time at all. The hope is that by planning out everything you have to do, you will give yourself some guaranteed relaxation time to detox and keep yourself sane. Taking breaks is super important to prevent stress and to reduce it.
Reduce
Sooo you're stressed out anyway. It happens, believe me. Preventing getting stressed is hard and some of our bodies are tuned just perfectly to stress out at a pin drop. But even if you start to get stressed, there are ways to keep it to a minimum so you don't become a complete basket case.
Try some relaxing activities during downtime. These can be pretty much anything that calms you down. Singing in the shower, meditating, knitting, or even taking a cat nap. Whatever tickles your fancy. I do all of those things. I also find coloring and reading to be helpful as well. I usually keep around a stack of mandalas or you know a Hello Kitty coloring book and some crayons handy for those super stressful days when I just need to stop thinking and focus on something brainless. The key to these is to still keep within your allotted downtime. If you start reading a book, only read for 20 minutes, or a certain amount of chapters so you have a designated stop time. I know if I just start reading without timing myself, hours would pass and I'd have no idea. That is a definite DON'T in stressful times. Exceeding the amount of time you have to do something means that you now have that much less time to complete the other tasks. Now you are rushing and start freaking out and then your blood pressure is sky rocketing and that's no bueno. Since stress isn't just bad for you mentally, but also physically.
That's why another way to reduce your stress is to eat healthy! I really do understand how tempting it is to lean toward super sugary energy drinks and potato chips because that's all you have time for. But it's really bad for you and should only be your very last resort. Make sure you eat your three meals a day, plus healthy snacks and lots of water. I promise, this will help, since eating the right foods and eating enough food gives you extra energy! You won't even need those energy drinks! Well, maybe just one...
Manage
Managing your stress is basically Preventing and Reducing combined. After all, one without the other doesn't really work. Also, managing can refer to doing everything you can to prevent and reduce, even when you're at your wits end. So if you need that energy drink to pull that all nighter that you really tried to prevent, that's ok. Things happen. Life gets in the way of plans sometimes. Ok a lot of the time. But if and when this does happen, just do as much as you can to keep that stress under your control so you don't go completely off the rails. I've been at the rock bottom of stress and let me tell you, it's not fun. Think like, uncontrollable sobbing, a feeling of complete failure, and being ready to just completely give up. You don't want to get there. But if you do, just remember that you are capable of getting through even the worst stress of your life. Just pick yourself up, take a few deep breaths and start at the beginning. Prevent yourself from hitting that bottom again, and reduce what you've already retained. Managing is all about understanding your body and what it's needs are. If you only need that hour of downtime before going to sleep, great! If you need a couple breaks throughout the day, great! Everyone is different, so managing is relative to what works for you!
To summarize, manage your stress level by taking preventative measures. Plan your time according to your needs, and follow it as well as you can. Take part in activities to keep you relaxed and level headed, and if all else fails, a chip on your shoulder will make you better prepared for next time! (Because there will be a next time. Don't kid yourself.) Lastly, remember, everyone is different and everyone manages their stress differently! Don't be discouraged by friends who seem to keep their cool much easier or who give of the "I don't care" vibe. Everyone stresses sometimes, so ask them for their anti-stress tips, and go from there!
So good luck to everyone managing a stressful time, whether it's exams or just the woes of daily life! What are your anti-stress tactics? What have you done to keep yourself sane in times of extreme stress? We want to know! Comment below and start the conversation!
XO, Briana
My entire life I've been in a busy environment. From a young age, I always found myself running from place to place, and not having a ton of "unplanned" down time. My mom was always busy and so was my dad, therefore I was busy too. Then when I got older, I became busy for myself. In my junior year of high school, I was juggling school in general, 2 Pre-AP classes (aka a crap ton of homework), and rehearsing 3 different musicals, all at the same time. Talk about busy. Teachers asked each other if I was having problems at home (Which is completely ridiculous. If you've met my family, you know.) because I was falling asleep in class and crying all the time. Which are huge red flags of exhaustion and stress. From then I went on to be exactly the same in college: taking a full course load and working 2 jobs. After graduation, I had that awkward 6 months or so of trying to find a job and feeling like a complete failure because I really didn't have anything to do. Or at least that's what it felt like for me. Now that I'm working, I'm back in my super busy mode, which I seem to thrive in. So I guess that's enough reference to my ability to talk about managing stress!
First, there are three key words to handling your stress: Prevent, Reduce, and Manage. These words all come into play when it comes to controlling your stress. I'll go through each one and provide you with some helpful tips to keep your head about you during busy season!
Prevent
Preventing stress is the first step, as preventing is in any disease-like issue. (haha). After all, if you are working to prevent it, then the latter steps are deemed obsolete. In order to prevent getting stressed out, keep yourself as organized as possible.
Planning is your friend. Seriously, plan everything. If you are aware that you are going into major stress territory, save yourself the worry and make your life that much easier. It's harder to forget things and be late to important meetings if your daily life is scheduled down to the last detail. I know it sounds a little outrageous, but speaking as someone who suffers from anxiety and stress related anger management issues (I'm basically the hulk) I couldn't be more serious. Sit yourself down, whip out a handy dandy piece of loose leaf, or a notebook if you prefer, and plan it out. Allot yourself certain amounts of time for different activities and what not. Doing this will help you manage your time and keep yourself accountable for your time.
Adding onto the planning bit, allow yourself down time. If you book yourself solid from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed, it will defeat the purpose of planning your time at all. The hope is that by planning out everything you have to do, you will give yourself some guaranteed relaxation time to detox and keep yourself sane. Taking breaks is super important to prevent stress and to reduce it.
Reduce
Sooo you're stressed out anyway. It happens, believe me. Preventing getting stressed is hard and some of our bodies are tuned just perfectly to stress out at a pin drop. But even if you start to get stressed, there are ways to keep it to a minimum so you don't become a complete basket case.
Try some relaxing activities during downtime. These can be pretty much anything that calms you down. Singing in the shower, meditating, knitting, or even taking a cat nap. Whatever tickles your fancy. I do all of those things. I also find coloring and reading to be helpful as well. I usually keep around a stack of mandalas or you know a Hello Kitty coloring book and some crayons handy for those super stressful days when I just need to stop thinking and focus on something brainless. The key to these is to still keep within your allotted downtime. If you start reading a book, only read for 20 minutes, or a certain amount of chapters so you have a designated stop time. I know if I just start reading without timing myself, hours would pass and I'd have no idea. That is a definite DON'T in stressful times. Exceeding the amount of time you have to do something means that you now have that much less time to complete the other tasks. Now you are rushing and start freaking out and then your blood pressure is sky rocketing and that's no bueno. Since stress isn't just bad for you mentally, but also physically.
That's why another way to reduce your stress is to eat healthy! I really do understand how tempting it is to lean toward super sugary energy drinks and potato chips because that's all you have time for. But it's really bad for you and should only be your very last resort. Make sure you eat your three meals a day, plus healthy snacks and lots of water. I promise, this will help, since eating the right foods and eating enough food gives you extra energy! You won't even need those energy drinks! Well, maybe just one...
Manage
Managing your stress is basically Preventing and Reducing combined. After all, one without the other doesn't really work. Also, managing can refer to doing everything you can to prevent and reduce, even when you're at your wits end. So if you need that energy drink to pull that all nighter that you really tried to prevent, that's ok. Things happen. Life gets in the way of plans sometimes. Ok a lot of the time. But if and when this does happen, just do as much as you can to keep that stress under your control so you don't go completely off the rails. I've been at the rock bottom of stress and let me tell you, it's not fun. Think like, uncontrollable sobbing, a feeling of complete failure, and being ready to just completely give up. You don't want to get there. But if you do, just remember that you are capable of getting through even the worst stress of your life. Just pick yourself up, take a few deep breaths and start at the beginning. Prevent yourself from hitting that bottom again, and reduce what you've already retained. Managing is all about understanding your body and what it's needs are. If you only need that hour of downtime before going to sleep, great! If you need a couple breaks throughout the day, great! Everyone is different, so managing is relative to what works for you!
To summarize, manage your stress level by taking preventative measures. Plan your time according to your needs, and follow it as well as you can. Take part in activities to keep you relaxed and level headed, and if all else fails, a chip on your shoulder will make you better prepared for next time! (Because there will be a next time. Don't kid yourself.) Lastly, remember, everyone is different and everyone manages their stress differently! Don't be discouraged by friends who seem to keep their cool much easier or who give of the "I don't care" vibe. Everyone stresses sometimes, so ask them for their anti-stress tips, and go from there!
So good luck to everyone managing a stressful time, whether it's exams or just the woes of daily life! What are your anti-stress tactics? What have you done to keep yourself sane in times of extreme stress? We want to know! Comment below and start the conversation!
XO, Briana
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Easter Essentials: Tips for a Great Easter Holiday!
Hey Everyone!
As you all know it is already April! Which means Easter is right around the corner! My favorite things about the holiday are all of the pretty dresses, pastel colors, and fun family activities! There are so many great things about Easter! So were ringing in the Spring season by giving you my Easter Essentials list! Everything you should be doing this holiday!
1. The Easter Dress
For as long as I can remember what I wore for Easter was always important. Actually, so was everything else I wore. (My parents dressed me in designer clothes from birth lol) Regardless, I always had a fancy Easter Dress. Today, I still get all dolled up for Easter. So here are my top choices for my Easter Dress this year! Looking fabulous is definitely essential to any great holiday!
2. The Easter Eggs
When I was young, the only options for decorating Easter eggs was those little Pals dye kits or mixing food coloring with vinegar (Yuck!) Now, in the age of Pinterest, there are more than enough different methods and designs to inspire your Easter eggs this year. From glitter, to paint, to Sharpie clad eggs, there is no excuse for plain old eggs anymore! Here are my favorite ideas from Pinterest for this year!
3. The Easter Decor
At this point in life, some of you may be still celebrating the holidays with your parents and family, or you may be throwing your own party! Either way, getting in the spirit through decorating is still means for a good time! Make an Easter pinata, plan a fancy tablescape, or maybe just display your favorite bunny stuffed animals! There are some great ideas out there, and even more from your own little noodle!
4. The Easter Candy
What's Easter without candy! Jellybeans, Peeps, and Reese's Eggs, are some of the wonderful things of the season! Make sure you get your fix now, your next excuse for candy a candy binge isn't until October! Go the traditional route, or spruce them up! Either way, share some sweet treats with your family and friends!
5. The Easter Love
Last but not least, as any other holiday, remember the reason for the season and what it means to you! Whether Easter is a very religious event for you, or just a time to spend with your family and friends, make it count! Share the love and the candy and make this Easter your most enjoyable yet!
Happy Holidays!
XO, Briana
As you all know it is already April! Which means Easter is right around the corner! My favorite things about the holiday are all of the pretty dresses, pastel colors, and fun family activities! There are so many great things about Easter! So were ringing in the Spring season by giving you my Easter Essentials list! Everything you should be doing this holiday!
1. The Easter Dress
For as long as I can remember what I wore for Easter was always important. Actually, so was everything else I wore. (My parents dressed me in designer clothes from birth lol) Regardless, I always had a fancy Easter Dress. Today, I still get all dolled up for Easter. So here are my top choices for my Easter Dress this year! Looking fabulous is definitely essential to any great holiday!
2. The Easter Eggs
3. The Easter Decor
At this point in life, some of you may be still celebrating the holidays with your parents and family, or you may be throwing your own party! Either way, getting in the spirit through decorating is still means for a good time! Make an Easter pinata, plan a fancy tablescape, or maybe just display your favorite bunny stuffed animals! There are some great ideas out there, and even more from your own little noodle!
4. The Easter Candy
What's Easter without candy! Jellybeans, Peeps, and Reese's Eggs, are some of the wonderful things of the season! Make sure you get your fix now, your next excuse for candy a candy binge isn't until October! Go the traditional route, or spruce them up! Either way, share some sweet treats with your family and friends!
5. The Easter Love
Last but not least, as any other holiday, remember the reason for the season and what it means to you! Whether Easter is a very religious event for you, or just a time to spend with your family and friends, make it count! Share the love and the candy and make this Easter your most enjoyable yet!
Happy Holidays!
XO, Briana
For more Easter ideas, check out my Spring Holidays Pinterest Board!! :)
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
April Showers bring May Flowers
April is here, which means for those of you in school, you are in the last stretch before summer break!! Summer break is really exciting and a fantastic thing to look forward too, but you can't loose focus yet. School is very important and it's vital that you keep your head in the game for that last little bit of time. I know that isn't always easy with projects, classes, finals, and everything else going on in everybody's lives.
I know that final tests are always a stressful time and can be scary. With them being the last real obstacle before your summer break, here are some tips to help you not stress out so much about your finals and do some great studying that will have you acing all of them!
Study Tips
1. Study for small periods of time with breaks. Study for 10 min, then take a 3 minute break to grab a snack or something, then study for another 10 minutes. You won't get warn out this way and retain more information.
2. Study the vital points. Don't sit and stare at your textbook and try to memorize it. You can't memorize everything and I can guarantee all of it isn't important. Key words and ideas are a great place to start.
3. Flash cards! They are a great way to study and because they are small they are easy to throw in a purse or backpack and take with you. You never know when you are going to get a break and have some time to study.
4. Don't cram! Start studying a week or so before the test and study the material slowly, over the course of the time. Sitting for hours at once studying the information isn't going to do you any good.
5. SLEEP!! Don't stay up all night before the test studying. Your body needs sleep to retain the information. So put the books and notes down. Get a good nights sleep. It does wonders.
Love Always,
Abbey Rettinger
writer2.bgdesigns@gmail.com
I know that final tests are always a stressful time and can be scary. With them being the last real obstacle before your summer break, here are some tips to help you not stress out so much about your finals and do some great studying that will have you acing all of them!
Study Tips
1. Study for small periods of time with breaks. Study for 10 min, then take a 3 minute break to grab a snack or something, then study for another 10 minutes. You won't get warn out this way and retain more information.
2. Study the vital points. Don't sit and stare at your textbook and try to memorize it. You can't memorize everything and I can guarantee all of it isn't important. Key words and ideas are a great place to start.
3. Flash cards! They are a great way to study and because they are small they are easy to throw in a purse or backpack and take with you. You never know when you are going to get a break and have some time to study.
4. Don't cram! Start studying a week or so before the test and study the material slowly, over the course of the time. Sitting for hours at once studying the information isn't going to do you any good.
5. SLEEP!! Don't stay up all night before the test studying. Your body needs sleep to retain the information. So put the books and notes down. Get a good nights sleep. It does wonders.
Love Always,
Abbey Rettinger
writer2.bgdesigns@gmail.com
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