The Subtle Shift You Do Not Notice

Filters do more than smooth skin. They change jawlines, slim noses, enlarge eyes, and inflate lips. The scary part is that these changes are so slight that people stop realizing they are altered.

Over time, the brain accepts the edited version as reality.

When you look back at your unfiltered face, it feels off. Not because it is flawed, but because your sense of normal has been warped. That is where insecurity begins.

 The Comparison Trap

Beauty filters messing with confidence gets worse when combined with endless social media feeds. You are not just comparing yourself to celebrities anymore.

You are comparing yourself to filtered classmates, coworkers, and strangers who look like they live inside a beauty app.

Research shows this hits teenage girls the hardest. Instagram’s own internal studies admitted that nearly one third of teen girls felt worse about their bodies because of what they saw on the platform. That number is not small.

The Mental Health Fallout

Psychologists now talk about “filter dysmorphia.” Teens and young women go to dermatologists and plastic surgeons asking to look like their filtered selfies. The edits have become the ideal.

Governments are taking notice. Reports in both the US and abroad have flagged filters as a factor in rising anxiety, eating disorders, and self esteem crashes. There have been calls for restrictions, especially for minors.

And yet, social media companies keep pushing filters. Sometimes they even apply them automatically without telling you. They call it enhancement. In reality, it is manipulation.

What Can Be Done

• Know when you are being edited. Turn off auto beautification in your camera settings. Many phones now add it by default.

• Follow more real faces. Unfiltered creators exist, and seeing them resets your idea of what normal looks like.

• Take breaks from image heavy apps. Even short breaks reduce the spiral of comparison.

• Talk openly about it. Especially with younger girls who might not realize how fake most images are.

Beauty filters messing with confidence is not harmless fun. It is a quiet reshaping of how people view themselves, especially women in their teens and twenties.

The combination of subtle edits, endless comparison, and corporate indifference creates a perfect storm for insecurity.

Your real face does not need fixing. It needs protection from the algorithms that profit when you feel less than enough.

Read more – Bad Habits That Affect Beauty and Health: What You Need to Quit Today

The post How Beauty Filters Are Messing With Confidence appeared first on Got Glam?.

Having a morning routine is a must when you want to improve your performance or efficiency. It is believed that having a morning routine helps in reducing anxiety and stress while at the same time improving your life satisfaction. Morning routines also give you the energy to go throughout the day. For moms, it’s very important to have a routine so your children know what to expect. 

Video Overview

Wake up before your children should be every mom’s routine. Your morning can be chaotic when you oversleep.  Suddenly those small issues like your kids forgetting where they left their shoes while you do not have time for breakfast can become stressful. These incidences can make your morning hectic.

Below is how you can establish a good morning routine.

1. Prepare the previous night.

Preparing a night before will make your mornings run much smoother even though you may want to relax after a long day. If you spare a few minutes to prepare for tomorrow, you’ll find your mornings manageable. It also makes you mentally prepared and makes appropriate plans that you’ll need to be productive.

2. Wake up before everyone.

Even if you aren’t a morning person, try to wake up before your children. This you enable you to get some uninterrupted time to manage yourself and prepare for the day.

3. Stretch

Stretching can be useful to centre and prepare yourself both mentally and physically before the daily duties. It helps the parasympathetic nervous system and recovery. Instead of suddenly opening your eyes then jumping from your bed, take a few minutes to stretch.

4. Give the kids some space of their own

Give your kids some basic instructions then let them do their thing. This will help bring sanity to your day since you’ll have some time to relax or focus on other areas. This will also make the kids learn on doing things on their own.

5. Make it simple

The most critical factor in most successful morning schedules is the simplicity and ease to follow. Try to make your routines less intense and very simple as possible. It will make your mornings less tiresome and Bring sanity to your day. 

See more tips for kids here. 

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Kids easily get attracted and easily attached to video games, computers, TV, and tablets during the summer as technology is what mostly surrounds them when bored. Going screen free is hard for most kids as their creativity seems to diminish during the summer months.  Getting glued to a screen can also be encouraged by a lot of parents as they employ technology as a form of child care. Parents provide technology to their kids to keep them occupied without being around to watch them.

Despite the popularity of technology with kids, it is still possible for kids to have a screen-free summer. Kids can get out and engage in outdoor activities that are beneficial in different ways like boosting creativity, arousing interests, and keeping them physically and mentally fit.  Read on for some ways that kids can have a screen-free summer.

Video Overview

Outdoor Fun

During the school year, most kids spend lots of time indoors. So summertime provides them with an opportunity to interact with the environment and have fun. Parents should understand that it is recommended by experts that children should spend at least three hours daily outside.

Some of the activities a child can perform outdoors include:

• Fishing

• Camping

• Playing an outdoor sporting activity

• Swimming

• Biking

• Visiting a park

• Garden cultivation

Art and Craft Activities

To boost creativity and be more inventive, the activities a kid can partake in include:

• Using beads to fashion earrings and necklaces

• Photography

• Making something out of recycled materials

• Drawing what they can see outside like trees

• Painting

• Learning how to sew

Imaginative Kids Play

Using their imagination delivers a raft of benefits to kids including improving skills for problem-solving and enhancing communication and social interaction. For a screen-free summer, see below for some imaginative activities kids may find helpful.

• Relying on blocks/Legos to come up with creations

• Create a fairy house

• Set a play

Outdoor Academic Activities

Though summertime is a period for relaxing, a little learning here and there will be more beneficial to a child in the long run for their academic journey.  Some of these include:

• Tour historical sites

• Learn how to cook

• Improve literacy skills by playing board games

• Visit museums for art and science

• Visit nearby libraries

In conclusion, to make sure your child does not suffer from boredom or gets glued to the screen, these different ways provided here can be really helpful. The activities require no or minimal supervision to be performed by a child.

For more articles on family life, click here. 

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After a long week, month, or year, you finally decide to have a trip that is meant to relax both your physical and mental health with your girls. Get your crew together and brainstorm a place that you all want to go, maybe just 2 hours from where you live and commit. Having these trips has many advantages that prove to be essential for both you and your entire girls’ crew. This article will discuss the importance of these girls’ trips.

Gain some Appreciation

Escaping from reality is essential to these girls’ trips simply because it is during these trips that girls gain a greater appreciation of each other and of their lives at home. This is mainly achieved because they have an exceptional group of girls who cheer you on and encourage you to live outside your box, something that you might not get at home. What is also fun is all of the compliments on new outfits or bathing suits that you would not get at home.   

A Girls Trip Helps in Releasing Happy Hormones

Some research has proved that when girls hang out with their like-minded friends, their bodies release serotonin. This is a transmitter that is scientifically known as the happy hormone. Moreover, more of this hormone is released when girls hang out with their friends. This results in making these girls feel loved, trusted, and happy, all in all, relaxed.

Girls Trips Can Help You Live Longer

Studies have also shown that when being around like-minded friends who appreciate you can be an essential ingredient to your health. Other studies have proven that when you have good friends around, you will increase your lifespan.  The ins and outs of life can be draining and get very repetitive.  The laundry, dishes, diapers, lunches to be made, dinners, etc will all still be there. Take some time to immerse yourself into some deep conversations, belly laughs in the middle of the night, and really get to know your friends.  If you have been putting off a girls’ trip because you feel like it is too selfish or irresponsible, I hope you will reconsider.  A girl’s trip is sometimes all you need to feel refreshed and give your family the best version of you. 

For some more articles on family life, click here. 

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Although avocados are available at grocery stores pretty much year round now, their true season is from April to September with a very large amount of the country’s source being San Diego, in fact over 85% of the entire country’s avocados are hand grown in California! So as a true Californian, one should have a large repertoire of recipes at their disposal, especially for hosting your summer parties!

This particular avocado recipe is great as an appetizer to a vegan meal, in my opinion because avocados are so filling and vegan meals aren’t always so satisfying for some, so this creates a nice balance. But this alluring fruit is so aesthetically fabulous that it will be the center of attention at any gathering.

Video Overview

I love cooking with avocados because of their versatile taste making eating healthy so enjoyable. Topped with juicy veggies like cherry tomatoes and cucumbers mixed with the tanginess tart of lemons create a mix of sensations for the senses.

Organic Ingredients for the Grilled Avocado Appetizer Recipe:

DIRECTIONS:

Turn on your grill and preheat on medium.

In medium saucepan boil water. Add quinoa and cook for ten minutes or until tender. Drain and rinse with cold water in a fine colander. Let it sit and dry.

In a small glass bowl, mix lemon juice, vinegar, smashed garlic and salt together and let it sit for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the garlic and add in olive oil and whisk to make oil.

Brush oil onto avocados and put avocados on the preheated grill, open side down cook until charred and take off grill.

Combine everything (except the avocado) in a medium bowl and toss to make avocado filling. Add salt and pepper to preference. Place avocado filling in halved avocado and arrange nicely and serve!

Enjoy!

Makes 6 servings.

Takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes to prepare/cook.

The post Glam Grilled Avocado Appetizer Recipe- Gluten Free & Vegan appeared first on Got Glam?.