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6 Great Careers That Could Make You Happier

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Happiness at Work

We all have periods of being unhappy at work; that’s perfectly normal. Something changes that we don’t like, or we just need a break to recharge and refresh, but sometimes, it’s more than that. The periods of unhappiness are prolonged, there’s no enjoyment and you feel dread at the idea of going in to work. If that’s the case, it may be time for a career change. Many people worry that they are trapped in their current career because they are too old or they don’t have the experience or qualifications to do anything else. However, this doesn’t need to be the case. It is never too late to make a change. Here are six careers to consider, which could make you much happier.

Marketing

Marketing is a great career path. It allows you to work flexibly and do a lot from home. More women are choosing to follow a career in marketing because it’s easy to work round a family, and allows them to use both their logical mind and their creativity. If you are interested in a career in marketing, consider studying an online MBA. Marketing jobs with an MBA are much easier to get into and can pay highly. Studying an MBA for marketing jobs can be your first step towards an exciting new career.

Freelance

There are many ways to earn money as a freelancer. Some of the best include writing, design and photography. Freelancing works well for many people because they are able to take the work they want, set their own hours, and take time off when they need to. However, work isn’t always available, and income might not be steady, so make sure you are prepared for this.

Healthcare

Working in healthcare is a great way to give back and help others, which is something that makes many people happy. There are many other options aside from being a doctor, these include working in administration or research, as well as nursing, or working in specialist fields. The hours can be long and demanding, but the rewards are great.

Teaching

Many people find happiness teaching. Helping to educate, care for, and shape young minds. Teaching any age group, from pre-school to college, can be wonderfully rewarding. Many students never forget their favorite teachers, and the ways they influenced their lives.

Web Developer

Web developer work is great for those with a keen interest in technology and the internet, and fantastic attention to detail. This can be a rewarding job, as you’ll work on a wide range of projects, and see the immediate results of efforts.

Event Planner

Working as an event planner allows you to use your creativity, organization, and communication skills. Helping people plan for and prepare special days, sharing in their happiness, and reducing their stress levels, can be exceptionally fulfilling work.

Happiness from a career will depend on what you are looking for and what you enjoy. Try to find something you love doing, which offers you any flexibility or perks that you need.

Maggie Hammond is a retired nurse and freelance writer, exploring and writing in the U.S. in retirement. An advocate for public health and nursing qualifications, she feels passionate about raising awareness of the current strain on public health organisations.

How Online Education Can Change Your Life in a Positive Way

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Online Education

The most successful people in the world always keep learning and the internet has made this a much easier task. When you invest in your education and keep increasing your knowledge and develop your skills, the world seems like a different place because many more opportunities will come your way. Below are some of the main ways education can change your life in a positive way.

Online Education Improves Your Career Opportunities

A wide range of high quality, accredited courses are now provided from reputable colleges and universities such as Washington State University. Many of these courses entitle you to apply for senior roles once you graduate, which would have been a lot more difficult to do in the past. For example, when you earn your MBA online, an MBA program like this dramatically increases your earning potential.

You Become More Confident

Online education puts you in control of your life. You can literally enroll in any course, anywhere in the world. Once you complete one of these courses, it will give you the confidence required to advance in your career, change your career, work for yourself or become an expert in a certain topic.

You Increase Your Social Circle

When you study online, there’s a good chance you will meet new people and build relationships with individuals, which would be almost impossible to do in the past. Over time, you could build a huge network of online friends and contacts that could be extremely important in the future.

You Get More Opportunities in Life

Every time you complete an online course, it opens up new opportunities for you. More employers and companies than ever all around the world recognize the value of online qualifications. This means you are in a better position to travel and to create a better lifestyle for yourself and your family.

Online Education is Less Disruptive

Traditionally, when a student started a new course they had to make huge changes in their life. However, with an online course the disruption to your normal routine can be kept to a minimum.

You don’t have to relocate to a location close to your college or university, you don’t have to travel to and from lectures, and you can study at times that suit your lifestyle. This is extremely important if you live a hectic life and have other responsibilities such as a family and a day job.

It’s a Less Stressful Way to Learn

Some students prefer to learn at their own pace. However, this is not always possible when you are in a classroom full of students and your lecturer is explaining things too quickly or too slowly for your liking.

This is not a problem when you enroll in an online course. Instead, you can study in a way that you find comfortable. If you like to study and learn at a slow pace that’s fine, or if you want to graduate quickly, many courses allow you to finish a lot quicker.

The internet gives you a unique opportunity to learn new skills and increase your knowledge. You can benefit in many different ways, including the ways mentioned above.

If your only hurdle for pursuing an online education is a financial hurdle, there are even sources to help you pay for school!

Keys to a Career in Psychology

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Online Education

If you are looking at psychology jobs you might feel that your goal, whether that’s to be a specialist in a busy, exciting hospital, or have your own bustling private practice is an almost unimaginably long way away.

Fortunately, though it will need a lot of hard work, getting a job as a qualified psychologist requires only a few foundation stones, that we’ll look at today.

Degree Courses

The most direct route to a career in psychology is to follow your A Level studies with a degree course in the subject. It’s important to research different universities before you make your choice: different institutions have varying reputations, not just overall between different subjects. You can find university rankings online, and also research into the student experience and find out if the university is close to a town that provides the nightlife you are interested in, has a sports team you want to join, or a good reputation for extracurricular theatre you want to get involved in.

It’s never too early to start thinking about this: Psychology is a BSc course that will require careful choice in you’re A Levels to make sure you have the qualifications the university wants in its students. Though these vary from institution to institution, there will be some common subjects that will give the best chance at getting onto the best course for you.

Bursaries and scholarships may also be available to help fund your education, so do your research and write to local institutions and councils as well just looking at the university website.

Conversion Course

If you’re approaching the study of psychology later in life, and don’t wish to commit another 3-4 year course of full time study, conversion courses are available at some institutions that can intensively teach the knowledge and skills you’ll need if you’re already qualified to degree level.

Work Experience

Whether you are looking at a degree course or your first jobs in psychology being able to demonstrate work experience is invaluable. It’s not easy to find work experience placements or internships directly in a psychologist’s office or clinic as there few of these positions and they are extremely sought after.

Thinking creatively can be useful here: volunteering with charities like Mind, which focus directly on mental health or with homeless charities like Shelter can get you valuable experience and also demonstrate your interest and commitment to the field.

5 Inspirational Careers You Must Consider

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When it comes to choosing your life’s work, perhaps you want to do something that can make a difference in the lives of others. Some of us aren’t equipped to be rocket scientists who dream of colonizing life on other planets, but we do have a dream of making life better for the people we come in contact with on a day to day basis. We want to do something that will inspire others to make something of their own lives or perhaps even inspire them to do great things that will make a difference for the world going forward. Here are five inspirational careers you must consider.

1. Teaching in Any Subject

It takes a special person to be a teacher, in any subject and at any grade level. A teacher should always be an inspiration to his or her class and even more than that, a teacher should be the one who finds that rare student who needs encouragement to ‘go somewhere’ or ‘do something.’ Many are lost in the system, but an inspirational teacher will pull out the best in their students, winning more battles than those they lose.

This guide on how to become a teacher will get you on your way to making a difference in student’s lives.

2. Midwifery

One of the very best things about being a midwife is in the way in which they are there to deliver babies into this oftentimes cold and cruel world. A midwife is there for the entire birth process with mom and baby. There are a number of alternative birthing methods that are said to be less stressful on all involved and this, in itself, is an inspiration to the entire family – but mostly mom and baby.

3. Diagnostic Medical Sonography

So many times a patient goes in for ultrasound, fearing the worst. A doctor has ordered a series of tests, sometimes fearing cancer and other times seeking to find exactly why symptoms are present when there is no rational reason so far to be found. A bachelor of medical sonography degree puts you with that patient in those fearful moments and even though you can’t tell them what you are seeing on that diagnostic sonogram, you can ‘be there’ for them in their moments of panic. What an inspiration that is!

4. Social Work

Many times people with problems fall through the cracks of society. Sometimes it is due to extreme poverty and other times they are (or were) the victims of abuse. If you are looking to be an inspiration in the lives of others, working as a social worker can put you in a place at a time of their greatest need to help them continue on when all hope has failed them.

5. Musician

How many people over the course of history said they were led to excel or do great things because a musician acted as their muse? Few people aren’t inspired by music and if you really want to promote health and healing in a natural way, you can use music therapy to do just that.

Whether you choose to pursue an online medical sonography degree or work as a musician in a local club, your inspiration can inspire others to move forward in their own lives and that’s ‘paying it forward’ at its very best.

Author:
Maggie Hammond is a retired nurse and freelance writer, exploring and writing in the U.S. in retirement. An advocate for public health and nursing qualifications, she feels passionate about raising awareness of the current strain on public health organisations.

5 Mindfulness Exercises That Can Help Relieve stress

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In this hectic world of ours it’s easy for thoughts and emotions to be scattered, and we often spend too much time thinking negative or random thoughts, which can be draining. It can also make you more likely to experience stress and anxiety.  Practicing mindfulness exercises, on the other hand, can help you direct your attention away from this kind of thinking and engage with the world around you.

What is mindfulness?

The basic idea of mindfulness is that you bring (on purpose) your awareness to the present moment: your thoughts and your body – without interpretation or judgment.  Thinking about the past, blaming and judging yourself or worrying about the future can generate stress.  But by staying calm and focused on the ‘here and now’, you can bring your nervous system back into balance.

Try these mindfulness exercises, provided by Lloyd Wells – a long-time practicer of the methods, and an aspiring psychotherapy commentator for UK-based CBT, Counselling and Life-Coaching specialist Klear Minds – to get you on your way to relieving stress and learning to live in the present.

  1. Breathe

The act of breathing sounds so basic and automatic it hardly sounds like a mindful exercise for stress relief.  But when feeling stressed or anxious, we tend to take lots of shallow chest breaths, which actually signal your mind and body to feel more anxious.  Slow down and take a deep focused breath.  Let it out slowly.  The simple act of taking a conscious deep belly breath and letting it out slowly has a profound effect on mind and body.  It sends a message to the nervous system to calm down.  It is a wonderful mindfulness based stress reduction exercise that can be done anywhere at any time for immediate stress relief.

  1. Meditate

Mindfulness meditation involves increased awareness of the present moment. With practice, it can be utilized anywhere, and can bring lasting stress relief benefits. This simple meditation technique can be learned quickly and easily.  Sit quietly and focus on your natural breathing or on a word or “mantra” that you repeat silently.  Allow thoughts to come and go without judgment and return to your focus on breath or mantra.  By concentrating on a certain word, your mind is able to shut out any overbearing thoughts that cause you to think too much about certain things.  Focus on your breathing throughout, and you will find your mind is able to quiet and enter a more peaceful place.

  1. Mindful Movements

In addition to all the benefits of mindful meditation, mindful movements, like those found in yoga or tai chi, add a physical element that provides a boost of energy and positive chemicals in the brain and can be a helpful way to reduce stress.  Follow along with a guided video or attend a class in your area.  Instead of treating your practice like a session at the gym, treat it like a meditation where you bring your full awareness to both your physical and emotional sensations as you move through the poses.

  1. Body Scan Exercise

Body scan exercise encourages self-awareness of sensations in your body you might otherwise ignore. When you notice excessive tension in your body, you can consciously relax the muscles in that area. You may not even realize how tense you are until you intentionally bring awareness to your whole body.  Here’s how it works: Lie down, or sit comfortably.  Take a few deep breaths, close your eyes, and start to ‘scan’ your body.  Bring your awareness to your toes.  If you notice any tension, let it go.  Then, continue the exercise by bringing your awareness gradually to every part of your body until you reach the very top of your head.  By practicing this exercise every day, you can help to reduce tension and stress in the body.

  1. Mindful Awareness

This exercise is designed to cultivate a heightened awareness and appreciation of simple daily tasks and the results they achieve. Think of something that happens often; something you take for granted, like the moment you open your computer to start work.  Take a moment to appreciate the hands that enable this process and the brain that facilitates your understanding of how to use the computer.  Or, perhaps each time you smell food, you take a moment to stop and appreciate how lucky you are to have good food to eat and share with your family and friends.  Instead of going through your daily motions on autopilot, take occasional moments to stop and cultivate purposeful awareness of what you are doing and the blessings it brings your life.

In Summary

Mindfulness exercises can help you ease daily stress by bringing you back to the present moment.  When you are mindful and present, it is not possible to fret about the past or the future, and you are more able to deal constructively with whatever is troubling you.  The above exercises may seem simple, but do not let that fool you.  Sometimes simple things are the most powerful and beneficial, especially when done with intention and focus.