Have you ever felt like being an adult is opening your eyes to the negativities of life? Whether it’s in real life or social media, there are just so many atrocities and less compassion going around. The sad part about it is it can easily affect you, your mood, your day, and your outlook in life.
Being an adult comes with responsibilities. Sometimes, it’s challenging to maintain a healthy perspective when these obligations become overwhelming. So, to manage stress, you resort to outlets that you consider as self-care.
There are too many ideas that go around self-care, and some of them are common misconceptions. First on the list is that people tend to think of it as self-indulgence. It’s not about luxurious items like bags, clothes, jewelry, or expensive activities. The value of self-care doesn’t equate to the value of material things you have or acquire.
It’s a backward concept to think that practicing self-care is being selfish. It’s more about self-discipline, practice on understanding what your mind and body genuinely need. There’s no absolute coverage of self-care. As long as it serves its purpose of looking over your well-being to cope with stress and be mentally and physically healthy, then it’s self-care.
Nowadays, anxiety and depression are at an all-time high everywhere. People got lonelier and overwhelmed daily. In this post, I will delve into this vital topic of self-care and why it is crucial.
What is Self Care and Why Is It Important
We all know a thing or two about self-care. Most conversations on social media, podcasts, blogs, and books talk about it. It’s a massive part of today’s culture. But take a closer look at what it truly is. Essentially, self-care is any activity you intend to nourish your mental, emotional, and physical well-being.
World Health Organization (WHO) describes it as “the ability of individuals, families, and communities to promote health, prevent disease, maintain health, and to cope with illness and disability with or without the support of a healthcare provider.” So, it’s a concept recognized on a global scale that mainly aims to promote health.
It affects the entire community, and it starts with how we individually work on it. It’s essential to be mindful and intentional in practicing self-care. Achieve the goal of self-care by being attuned to your own needs and wants, which can be difficult, but it’s doable. So, let’s dive deeper into why self-care is important.
Why Is Self Care Important
It encourages you to have a healthy relationship with yourself
Going back to the definition given by WHO, self-care is mainly about staying healthy physically, which includes nutrition, hygiene, and getting all the medical care needed. In essence, it’s about taking care of your health, which is a solid foundation for having a healthy relationship with yourself. It fosters self-sufficiency and resilience. Maintaining a healthy relationship with yourself allows you to be more present for other people. As they say, you can’t pour from an empty cup.
It helps reduce stress, anxiety, and depression
One of the many benefits of self-care is that it helps reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. When you’re physically and emotionally exhausted, your focus tends to get aggravated. Your to-do list might seem to take much of your time, but it’s important to remember that self-care is part of stress management.
There are many ways to do this, like getting enough sleep, preparing and consuming healthy meals, regular exercise, crafting, taking a stroll, and making time for friends. These are all physical self-care and emotional self-care.
It helps improve concentration
When stress builds up, you feel irritable, restless, sometimes insomniac, and lackluster motivation. All these can significantly affect your focus. The most important part of practicing focus is mindfulness. Choose the kind of self-care that lets you have a better sleep, better memory, and keeps you motivated.
Meditation is an excellent example of attaining physical and emotional concentration. It is spiritual self-care that deepens our connection with who we are inside.
It increases energy levels
Stress consumes energy, so it’s essential to take care of yourself daily. Keep your energy levels up and be on the go. To keep you energized, here are tips to achieve it:
Drink water to keep you alert.
Limit caffeine and go for healthier options.
Get enough sleep to have a refreshed mind.
Do things that bring you joy.
Self Care Practices
There are many forms of self-care, but the most crucial part of it is your eagerness to try what works for you. When you take those necessary steps to eliminate stressors and take better care of yourself, you can maintain strong physical and mental health. Here are some of the best self-care practices:
Simplify your schedule
To live a simpler and stress-free life, simplify your schedule. Always running around, constantly being busy with work, and other activities can take the joy out of your day. So, simplify your schedule by knowing your limits. DOn’t stretch yourself too thin just to accommodate everything and everyone. Prioritize what and who matters most to you.
Create a gratitude list
There are many benefits to making a gratitude list. It can create a significant impact on your mental health and happiness. Inner strength and self-compassion give you a better perspective of understanding yourself and other people. What you can try to do is keep track of every good thing that happens to you. Journal regularly so that on days when you need happy thoughts more, you’ll have a pocketful of affirmations that better days are real and down days pass.
Unplug for a day
According to a study from Stanford in 2014, productivity decreases when your work more than 50 hours per week. Unplugging for a day helps you to focus. Switch off your phone or log out of any social media platforms. Take that day to give your mind and body a rest.
Do something new
By doing things you haven’t done before, sometimes helps in making you feel bored and frustrated. Reinvigorate your sense of adventure. Write ideas that you consider outrageous and take action.
Meet with a counselor
You don’t have to do it alone. Seek help if needed. Find a counselor whom you’re comfortable speaking with and make it a commitment to yourself. Reach out to trusted counselors, therapists, and other behavioral health providers to help you equip tools against trauma, situations, and other mental health challenges
Ultimately, self-care is a choice you have to make to want to have better well-being proactively. It is always worth your time and money, especially in this time when stress and anxiety are at an all-time high. It’s not self-indulgent nor selfish. It’s about making sure that you are healthy and living your best life, not just for yourself but for others as well.
It’s a true thing; Pinterest can actually explode your traffic and bring so many more subscribers to your mailing list. By now, you should have already realized the power of Pinterest marketing; however, what many bloggers fail to understand is how to boost engagement on Pinterest through SEO.
Pinterest is more of a visual search engine than a social media platform. Just as Google works on its SEO, Pinterest has the same scheme though they totally differ from each other.
Pinterest brings up the pin which is well keyworded on the top of the searches. So, if you’re following some simple tips and tricks of implementing SEO in your Pinterest profile, your pins will definitely show up for the relevant searches.
Easy SEO tips to implement to rock your Pinterest marketing
1. Claim your blog
Once you create your business account on Pinterest, it’s time to claim your blog. By doing this, you can also set up the rich pins.
Now the best thing about rich pins is that they will be reaching your audience and will show your name + profile image below your pin which shows as a branded pin.
Rich pins also make your account searchable and hence improve the ranking on Pinterest.
2. Optimize your profile
I know, this may seem really very common but having an optimized profile can totally boost your Pinterest traffic.
Here’s what you need for optimizing your profile:
• Choose a profile picture that displays your face. You really don’t want to hide behind the screen and people don’t feel inclined to the accounts that don’t have a profile face on them.
• Display name – Include your brand name + add some keywords to it.
• About your profile – This is the best space to place your keywords. So, find the best keywords and write in short your mission statement. People usually get the idea about what you do reading this description.
3. Optimize your boards
Use your boards to depict your brand. They should be super relevant to your niche.
Name them as per the sections or the categories you have on your blog. Also, make sure that you’re adding relevant board names + board descriptions.
Many a time, most bloggers create different boards for different niches and they fail to attract their target audience. Your Pinterest board is just like your store, you cannot have every single thing in your store (unless it’s a supermarket lol).
Use keywords in your board name and description. Besides this, pin your image to the relevant board only so for example, if you have a fitness pin, try to upload it to the boards that are centered on fitness.
I will say, when I figured this out, my reach went way up from when I wasn’t doing this. Don’t overlook this one! It’s important and makes a big difference!
4. Use the right keywords
Pinterest SEO is all about keywords so make sure you’re using the best keywords and embedding them to your profile.
Here’re some places to add keywords to boost your Pinterest traffic:
• Add keywords to your board title
• Board description
• Pin title
• Pin image
• Pin description
5. Create stunning pins
Go through your Pinterest home feed and check out the pins that catch your attention. It can be because of the brightcolors or the compelling title or both. Now apply the same while creating pins for your blog post.
Use emotion words in the title and the most relevant images to make it clickable. It should make your reader want to read the post seeing those stunning pins.
I usually create all my pins in Canva and it’s super easy to design. If you don’t have a dreamy home or kitchen or clothing, head to unsplash.com and use the royalty free high definition photos there. Search for anything you can think of to start and then add the text you want for your pin in Canva. Including a photo of mountains like this!
Once I discovered this hack, I never worried anymore about creating content or pins.
That’s all from my side. I hope these tips help you get more views and clicks on Pinterest. Do you have some other tips that you want to share? Feel free to drop your ideas and views in the comments below. I’d love to read and discuss them.
Being a blogger, it’s crucial to increase the traffic and bring in more people to view your posts. Whether it’s for monetizing or building brand authority or gaining in more subscribers; it’s much needed to market your blog well and the best place to do so is Pinterest. You may have a love and hate relationship with Pinterest due to recent algorithm changes but it’s still the number one resource to generate free traffic for your blog.
If you’re new to Pinterest and find all the technical terms related to SEO overwhelming, do not worry. We are going to understand the updated Pinterest SEO step-by-step to make things super simple and easy to digest.
Here’s what Pinterest SEO means:
Pinterest SEO is just like all other search engine optimization where it makes sure that your blog posts get matched with what people on Pinterest are actually looking for.
The main goal of SEO is to help you make your content found by people and this then leads to an increase in traffic, subscriptions, sales, and whatnot.
However, it’s not always easy to crack the code for Pinterest SEO. With all the recent updates and algorithm changes; things have got a little messy but hey; it’s not something that couldn’t be figured out.
The most important thing here to understand is that Pinterest is not a social media platform; it’s more of a search engine just like Google. In order to get your blog post out there in front of your audience, you will need to work on its updated SEO.
Here’s everything you need to know about updated Pinterest SEO:
Everything You Need to Know About Pinterest SEO
In 2022, there are three essential ways to be found on Pinterest:
1. Smart feed
This is something you see as soon as you open your Pinterest account.
Pinterest displays the most engaging posts based on your recent search and your interests. It doesn’t display the post in chronological order like Instagram or Facebook, rather it uses a smart feed to curate your own personal home page based on your previous search results.
This makes the users stay on the platform for much longer because Pinterest makes you think of itself as some mind-reader.
Similarly, when you post your pin on Pinterest, it gets scored and Pinterest starts displaying it to relevant users.
Your home feed is curated by:
Your personal interest
Recent searches
Saved pins
2. Following tab
Earlier, people found it very difficult to find the posts from someone they followed because they used to get lost in the home feed. However, using the following tab; you can easily see the pins of people you follow hence it’s helpful to gain more followers on Pinterest.
When you have a huge following, your pins will be displayed in their following tab which will enable them to reach your blog quicker.
3. Search tab
Do you wonder how Pinterest brings up the best articles as soon as you type your keyword in the search bar?
This is all based on the algorithm. Pinterest pulls out the best pins with the most optimized keywords that are pinned to relevant boards. Here, even the pin design matters.
If your pin has a proper keyword and a stunning pin design, Pinterest will pull your pins ahead in front of the right people.
For a better SEO you need to have:
Relevant keyword
Long-tail form of keywords
Optimized boards and board description
Clickable Pin-title
Stunning Pin graphic
SEO optimized bio
Keywords in the pin description
On-page SEO for blog
Keyword on Pin image
As Pinterest is a visual search engine, it can read the Pin image accurately. Hence, make sure that you’re using all the keywords everywhere and pinning at the best times.
With all the new features like Video and story pins, it can be overwhelming. However, pick one thing at a time and focus on the same. I can totally understand how important it is to gain more traffic for bloggers thus, spend some time playing Pinterest SEO and you will be able to crush it.
I hope that this piece was helpful and full of actionable tips. Do let me know what you think in the comments below.
If you’re a blogger, you should know by now the power of Pinterest in helping your blog grow. It’s so crucial to put some effort into Pinterest marketing if you really want to get more eyes on your blog.
With Pinterest being weird nowadays, I can totally understand the frustration around it but still, this is the top-most platform for any blogger to grow their business and boost the page-views. Not only for blogging is Pinterest important, it’s really a landing spot for all businesses who want to grow their business and sales.
Besides Pinterest, there are so many other tasks that come in handy while you blog. It’s super difficult to handle everything from content research to social media to designing different templates. It’s kind of frustrating and so very annoying. We all only have so many hours in the day.
However, the good news is; you don’t have to waste hours behind Pinterest marketing. There’re some wonderful tools that can help you with Pinterest engagement and can totally grow your traffic faster.
5 Pinterest Tools to Grow your Traffic Faster
1. Canva
This is my and probably everybody else’s favorite designing tool. You name the template and Canva has it. From social media promotion to blog banners to attractive pins; there’s everything that you would need for your Pinterest graphics in Canva.
The best part is; even its free version is super effective to use. They do have a premium version for other updated tools but the free one works just fine.
The pin templates for every niche are readily available. All you need to do is, add your title and tweak the template with your brand colors. Ain’t that super time-saving?
2. Tailwind
If you’re looking for automation and would love to save some time, Tailwind is the best option.
With everything to do around, you cannot expect yourself to log into Pinterest every now and then to pin your pins. So, to save so much of your time, you can pin all your Pins on the Tailwind scheduler at a regular interval. I used Tailwind for about 3 years straight and it saved so much time and I didn’t have to think about pins everyday.
3. Pinterest analytics
If you have a business account on Pinterest; you can view your daily, weekly, and monthly analytics. It’s so necessary to study your analytics to know which of your pins and content is performing better.
This information can then help you create more of such content that’s actually driving traffic to your blog.
Focus on collecting the data of clicks and your top-performing boards. The monthly views are vanity numbers so don’t pay much heed to them.
This can save so much of your time by helping you curate the blog posts that your readers love. I look at my analytics daily because my husband has taught me that numbers don’t lie, and Shark Tank reinforces that idea which can tell you if you if what you are doing is worth it or not.
4. Google Analytics
Just as Pinterest analytics; Google analytics is equally important to let you know about your overall engagement.
With Pinterest Analytics, you can’t collect the data of your pin clicks and all the information of your viral pins. However, with Google Analytics you can track how much traffic i.e. clicks your pins are bringing in.
Sometimes, there’s some weird glitch in Pinterest Analytics so having Google analytics handy can save you from further trouble besides giving you an insight into your current pinning strategy.
5. Social warfare
Social warfare is the social sharing button where you can encourage your readers to pin the article for later read.
Isn’t that amazing to simply direct your readers to help you with promoting your blog post?
The plug-in is available for free on WordPress and it’s super helpful in getting some extra social shares. If you haven’t installed it yet, go to your website and do it now. You can also check the social shares and see which blog post is shared/ loved the most.
The bottom line:
Pinterest; undoubtedly is the best resource for building your audience and increasing your blog traffic. However, it might be super time-consuming and at times even frustrating. Not only can it help grow your blog, you can use it to help grow your affiliate income, your other social channels, and even help land some brand partnerships!
I hope these tools help you in creating better content faster and gain more traffic in less time. Do let me know your views in the comments below.
If you’re looking for a great place to eat with your family, look no further than Jacy & Dakota in Downtown Phoenix! This new restaurant offers a wide variety of food options that will please everyone in your group. They also have a great kid’s menu that is sure to keep the little ones happy. Plus, Jacy & Dakota is located in the heart of Downtown Phoenix, so you can enjoy all the sights and sounds this vibrant area has to offer!
Location: The Westin Hotel Downtown Phoenix
333 N Central Ave, Phoenix AZ
Phone: (602) 407-1114
Hours of Operation:
Breakfast
Mon–Fri 6:00 am–10:30 am
Sat, Sun 7:00 am–12:00 pm
Bar
Mon–Thu, Sun 4:00 pm–10:00 pm
Fri, Sat 3:00 pm–11:00 pm
Happy Hour
Daily 4:00 pm–6:00 pm
Dinner
Daily 5:00 pm–10:00 pm
Kid’s Menu? Yes! Kids are welcome at Jacy & Dakota with their parents or guardians. They can order off our menu for $12 per child. There are plenty of great options, including a grass-fed burger, chicken fingers, fries, mac & cheese, and more!
Vibe: Feels like you escaped the desert to Tulum
The atmosphere at Jacy & Dakota is laid-back and beachy, with white walls, wood accents, and string lights. It’s the perfect place to relax after a long day of sightseeing or shopping in Downtown Phoenix. You don’t realize you are blocks away from the sporting venues, across the street from the Tram, or even right next to the city bus stop. It’s incredible once you step inside the walls of
Braised Pork Shank — the presentation is amazing!
Jacy & Dakota!
Price Range: $11-30
Jacy & Dakota offers something for everyone when it comes to a price point. You can find a great meal for under $30, or splurge on something special. No matter what you choose, you won’t be disappointed!
Dress Code: Casual Chic and Family Friendly
Menu: Made Sharable and Bite-Sized to be enjoyed by many or by yourself
Beef Tip Tostadas with vegetarian and dairy free options
The menu at Jacy & Dakota is designed to be sharable. You can order a bunch of small plates and share them with your friends, or order a couple of larger plates and have your own feast! The menu is also bite-sized, so you can try lots of different items without getting full too fast. The menu is also designed to be gluten-free and vegetarian friendly, so there’s something everyone can enjoy! If you have an allergy, make sure to tell your server and the kitchen will accommodate the best possible or the service staff can make recommendations based on your dietary needs.
Don’t forget, you can host your parties with Jacy & Dakota, they can create a special menu for you, or you can pick and choose off of their menu. A few times a year, the menu is switched up to accommodate the local fresh fruits and vegetable offerings as well as the seasons.
On our visit, we enjoyed the Beef Tip Tostadas (Which Chef Brady made vegetarian and dairy-
Roasted Bone Marrow and Fried Green Tomatoes and Burrata
free for me), Roasted Bone Marrow and Oxtail (Steve LOVED this one!), Fried Green Tomatoes and Burrata, Braised Pork Shank (the girls enjoyed the presentation of this one as well as Leila couldn’t get enough of it!), Three Sister’s Bowl off of the Eat Well Menu (Chef Brady created this recipe at Jacy & Dakota and now it’s served on all Westin menus nationwide!), and Apple Pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
If you would like to take a peek at their full menu options, they serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, which you can see here.
Blankets: Available for cooler winter nights and for cuddling by fire pits
Jacy & Dakota offers cozy blankets for guests to use on cooler winter nights. You can also enjoy a fire pit while you eat! What better way to keep warm than with delicious food and drinks? Such a fun, unique experience!
If you choose to not sit outside, indoor seating is also available. We chose to sit outside and the
Three Sisters Bowl
girls thoroughly enjoyed being able to sit on a long couch and cuddle with a blanket. Not to worry — if you wondered if the blankets were cleaned, I also had the same concern and Chef Brady assured me they bring out clean, sanitized blankets to each guest and don’t put them back in rotation until they have been cleaned and sanitized again!
Desserts: Made in House by a Pastry Chef
The desserts at Jacy & Dakota are also made in-house by a pastry chef, and they are delicious! We enjoyed the house-made apple pie with a scoop of local Vanilla Ice Cream. The pie was just like my grandma used to make growing up, complete with the lattice crust!
Jacy & Dakota offers a wide variety of sharable, gluten-free, and vegetarian-friendly dishes as
Housemade Apple Pie and local AZ ice cream
well as delicious desserts. You can enjoy your meal outside at one of the fire pits or inside in the restaurant. No matter what you choose, Jacy & Dakota is an excellent choice for family dining downtown! Would you consider going to Jacy & Dakota when you visit Downtown Phoenix with or without your family?
understanding what your mind and body genuinely need. There’s no absolute coverage of self-care. As long as it serves its purpose of looking over your well-being to cope with stress and be mentally and physically healthy, then it’s self-care. 
hygiene, and getting all the medical care needed. In essence, it’s about taking care of your health, which is a solid foundation for having a healthy relationship with yourself. It fosters self-sufficiency and resilience. Maintaining a healthy relationship with yourself allows you to be more present for other people. As they say, you can’t pour from an empty cup. 
affect your focus. The most important part of practicing focus is mindfulness. Choose the kind of self-care that lets you have a better sleep, better memory, and keeps you motivated. 
the rich pins.
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