1. Chicken:

Chicken is the white meat of preference for summer get-togethers: It has less fat, fewer calories, and a healthier impact than beef, steak, hamburger mixes, and other types of red meats.

So break out the chicken sandwiches instead of the hamburgers, and start experimenting with unique grill options like chicken kebab (also great with mushrooms, peppers, and other health options). Chicken meals also work well with popular fresh summer ingredients like basil, beans, and peppers.

2. Seafood:

If chicken dishes are not your style or you want to branch out, seafood is another great summer option. If you live close to a shore, look into local shellfish options like crab and lobster, which can provide a great (if messy) party meal and comes with low calorie costs compared to red meat.

For best results, avoid layering on the butter and stick with steamed or boiled options with light cocktail sauce. Grilled fish are also a great way to experiment with summer herbs and fresh farmer’s market corn dishes, and shrimp are always a fun, easy option.

3. Blueberries:

Summer dishes play host to a number of fresh fruits, but few are as healthy or diet-friendly as blueberries. They are freely available, relatively inexpensive, and low-calorie even for a fruit. They are also filled with antioxidants.

Blueberries are versatile as an ingredient, but tend to work best as a slimming party snack or an inventive alternative to desserts with the additional of cream or yogurt. You can also experiment with blueberries in salads.

4. Pan-Friendly Vegetables:

Summer is one of the best seasons for stir-fry, so stir it up by using plenty of vegetables in your frying pan and wok experiments (vegetables on the grill work well, too). Summer sweet peas in the shell are a classic option, while fresh beans and leeks are more inventive options.

Bok choy, scallions, celery, and bell peppers are also possibilities. Steam or boil carrots for a side dish. Not only will light olive or vegetable oils keep these stirfry options healthy, but the heat will help unlock make the more nutritious elements of the vegetables, like carotenoids, easier for the body to break down.

5. Pestos:

While pestos are not a single ingredient, the widespread availability of their contents in summertime and their low-calorie qualities compared to other dips makes them a very attractive option for summer snacks and foods.

Basil pesto is a traditional favorite, but experiments with sun-dried tomatoes, parsley, leeks, and local summer favorites can also make excellent home-prep options. Go easy on the cheese and rich on thyme, garlic, and olive oil to make the healthiest pestos, then enjoy with chips or flatbreads.

6. Romaine Hearts:

Romaine hearts are a perfect summer ingredient for both easy snacks and sit-down summer meals. Think of Roman hearts as a source for lettuce-based wraps or little pocket salads, and fill them with ingredients like rice, chicken, those stir-fried veggies, or other tasty ingredients.

Make them easy to dip in a pesto or ranch sauce for more taste. Try to avoid calorie-heavy cream cheese, however – stick with a simple sliver of cheddar or dusting of parmesan in your filling.

Regina Donelson is a professional blogger that enjoys providing readers with advice on cooking, recipes and dishes. She writes for Just a Pinch, the best place to find French onion soup recipes,  glazed ham recipes and everything in between.

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Meeting Sonika Kaliraman Malik can be itself an experience. At least for me it was.

It was an experience not only because women wrestlers are still a rarity in India, not only because she towered over me with her tall 6 foot frame and amazingly broad shoulders (here I took solace from the fact that in Zor Ka Jhatka she towered over Shahrukh Khan too), but also perhaps because my preconceived mindset, which still regrettably has some remnants of male chauvinism, couldn’t comprehend that a champion wrestler could also be so ravishingly gorgeous and beautiful.

Yes, I had seen her in television many times in the recent past, in various realty shows like Fear Factor Khatron Ke Khiladi (Season 2), which was hosted by Akshay Kumar, in Zor Ka Jhatka, which was hosted by Shahrukh Khan, and in Big Boss (Season 5), which had Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan as the host.

But the beauty and grace of Sonika in flesh and blood seemed much more enchanting to me, as compared to what was depicted through her televised images. She is one of the greatest wrestlers of post-independence India, but she could also easily seem to be a supermodel or a Bollywood diva.

No wonder, Bollywood star Akshay Kumar was also greatly impressed by Sonika. On seeing Sonika on the sets he said, “Wrestler? You look more like a super model.”

Her super-powered physique, her spellbinding features and her wonderfully built biceps put me in total awe of her. When she shook hands with me, I instantly realised that she could break my weak male hand within seconds, if she choose to.

However, thankfully and mercifully, she chose to put me at ease with her cascade-like laughter, as our conversation progressed…

Initiation to Grappling

As we talked, I learned about the rigorous struggle and grit behind the Sonika’s astounding success story, as the first woman Bharat Kesari and 10 times winner of medals in the National Wrestling Championship, and the winner of several other prestigious national level awards in the arena of wrestling.

All in all, she won a jaw-dropping 16 titles at the national level during 1998-2009. But Sonika’s journey towards fame and success was nothing short of an uphill backbreaking endeavour against several odds.

It can’t be denied that the knack for wrestling and the talent of emerging as a champion in this sport involving great brawn and skills was perhaps ingrained in her genes.

Sonika is the daughter of the late and great wrestler Chandgi Ram (popularly known as Master Chandgi Ram), who won a Gold Medal at the 1970 Asian Games in Bangkok and was the recipient of the Arjuna Award and Padma Shri.

He represented India at the Munich Olympic Games, in 1972. Across his illustrious career, he was crowned with prestigious titles like Hind Kesari, Bharat Kesari, Bharat Bhim, Rustom-e-Hind, and Maha Bharat Kesari.

Many outside the wrestling fraternity know that Chandgi Ram was a great wrestler turned great coach of wrestling, but not many of them know that he was a great champion towards the cause of women’s wrestling too.

To him goes the credit of setting up an akhara (a sort of wrestling arena and wrestling training centre combined) to train women wrestlers for local, national and eventually, international events. His Herculean efforts had contributed to the increasing acceptance and also to the rising popularity of women’s wrestling among the by and large conservative Indian mindsets.

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You may have heard the quote “Life’s all about the journey, and not the destination”, and several variants of it quite often.

In today’s world where “stress”, “career”, “financial investments”, and “traffic jams” have become an integral part of our vocabulary, one tends to forget to slow down and unwind, just a little bit.

Travelling can be a great stress-buster, and with a nice vacation, you can come back refreshed and rejuvenated.

Planning itself is one of the fun factors of the trip. Throwing a dart at the map and choosing to go where it lands may not be an option for everyone. If it is, then great! If it’s not, don’t fret.

The point of travelling is to reduce all that stress, and if you drive yourself nuts about where to go, you’re kind of defeating the whole purpose. There are several low-cost options available today, with the travel and hospitality industry wooing the Indian traveller like never before.

What would you like your trip to be like?

Travel should remove you not just physically, but mentally as well from your every day routine. If your work involves staring at a laptop all day long, then carrying one on your vacation is a big no-no. At least, not your official laptop.

For some of us, adventure sports offer the thrill and adrenaline rush that just doesn’t come from the everyday routine. For others it can be just sipping a glass of wine by the pool with a paperback in hand.

Remember that there are no rules set in stone when it comes to travel. The whole idea is to do something that will refresh you.

So don’t book a ski holiday just because everyone’s doing it, if what you really want to do is to watch the sun set into the horizon as the waves ebb and flow. Have breakfast at noon, and lunch in the evening if you feel like it.

It’s not meant to be a grocery list

Very often a trip becomes a list of things to do, ticked off at break-neck speed. You can technically say you’ve visited ten cities, but doing it over twelve days with barely any time to experience a place may not really be rejuvenating.

You may have to wake up for a 5 am flight, which you would’ve avoided if it were a business trip on, and you regret having packed so much into this trip when all you wanted to do was be somewhere new.

On the contrary, you may just feel exhausted with the travel, and even more stressed out than you were before you set out.

Excite your senses

When you travel, all your senses experience something new. When you step off the train, or a plane you immediately “feel” a place. The smells are different, whether it is the freshly baked baguettes along the roadside cafes, or fish at the Sunday market.

The sights are different; it could be a new cultural panorama, or a whole new landscape. The taste of food may be very different. The culinary experience is a very important part of travel and if you haven’t had a taste of the local cuisine, you’ve really missed something.

Another great way to experience a place is to walk. Walking allows you to do things the way you want to, and there’s no denying that it’s great exercise too!

When you soak in all this, your body and mind feel recharged and relaxed at the same time.

Travel can keep the doctor away

The health benefits from travel are definitely noticeable. Lots of sunshine, and fresh air can do you a world of good. Your lungs will be thanking you by the time you get home.

Physical activity, whether it is a long stroll while exploring the city, swimming , or some heavy-duty adventure sport will definitely help you stay fit.

A new outlook

Have you noticed how your outlook towards something you took for granted changes when you travel? A simple thing such as electricity, that you don’t have to worry about, may be scarce in a remote village in Rajasthan.

Travel makes you adapt. That’s one of the best things about it. Meeting new people from different walks of life allows you to see things for what they are.

There are different reasons why people travel. But the purpose of travel is that the excitement of something new, mingled a quiet harmony, will really make you feel at peace.

That’s when you know you’ve really experienced your trip. So pack your bags, forget your Blackberry, and hit the road.

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If you are undecided as a woman if you want an international role, what can help in reality is to have a guide so it can help you and push you to making the right decision, as you’ll need more than ambition, curiosity and a pair of sprinting trainers to secure and keep a job abroad.

Working overseas has a lot of benefits, but there are pitfalls as well. Here’s what you need to know before you decide if an international job is for you:

Females, Why Work Overseas?

As a woman why would you want to take your career international? There are plenty of good reasons to consider and here is why:

• Independence

The saying is “Girl Power” which actually means independence. If you want to be independent, going abroad will mean you will have to leave behind the traditional ties of home.

You will have to say goodbye to your family and your close friends but internationally your network will eventually grow through work. While communications technology makes it easier than ever to keep in touch with home ties, you’ll still be on your own pretty much of the time but you can branch out to new life experiences.

• Experience

Getting far out of your comfort zones means you’ll have new and unique experiences that more traditional career routes may not offer. Not only will this be an enriching experience personally, it will also help you stand out from the crowd when it comes to resumes and interviews.

Many men dominate those high job titles like ”Global Head” of, but watch out men because once a woman gains international experience she will be known as the next Senior Vice President Shona Brown of Google or Chief Financial Executive Officer that is Safra Catz of Oracle Corp.

• Education

Often women feel as though they are in a classroom, and they can actually be more intelligent than men as they want to learn more in their job rather than jump the sales ladder in one step.

Women are more likely to take the international experience to a much better level, acquainting themselves with an entirely different set of cultural nuances, languages, traditions, and living habits that will teach things you’ll never get from a course or a book — things you may not be able to leverage into career advantages later in life.

As women take this smarter step, they open up more opportunities and more acceptable to change.

Types of Jobs Overseas

So, what kind of jobs can you people get overseas? The most common by far is teaching English in other countries, either formally or informally.

There is a wide variety of consulting and contracting work available, depending on one’s skills and range of experience. Most young women however are likely to pursue some of the more entry-level jobs to start off with, working in tourism or entertainment.

Hotels, resorts, theme parks, and touring companies frequently employ the young foreign workers as they work well in this environment. The more leadership type woman can look to work in sales and business roles abroad.

A Vital To-Do-List

For anyone considering working abroad, before you decide to pack up your possessions and go international make sure you’re ready:

• Figure out your destination. In which country would you like to work? What city? Do you know the language? Will you run into any other cultural barriers? Do your research first, not only into the broad cultural strokes, but things like transportation, medical facilities, and banking arrangements.

• Sort out your passport, travel visa and citizenship for both your home and your destination. Find out if there are any special requirements you will need to meet to stay in the country, and how your taxes will be handled. If you have any property or a rental at home, make sure it’s looked after while you’re gone.

• Make sure your financial situation is well in hand. Make sure you have enough money not only to meet living expenses, but to meet any emergencies, including your job or living situation falling apart. The last thing you want is to be stranded in a foreign country without the means to get back. And watch that exchange rate!

• Consult a handy checklist like this one and make sure you have everything in order before you depart on your adventure.

Author Bio:

Jenny Ann Beswick and the International Telegraph Jobs team produced this article. They hope this guide helps every woman out there on their international route forward.

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One way that women can take back control of their personal safety is by installing a personal safety alarm on their smartphone. There are a number of applications in the market that offer various features that provide various degrees of protection to users.

Here are 5 free personal safety alarm mobile applications that women can download and use right now.

• 1. Guardian Angel One (GA1)

Guardian Angel One is your personal rapid alert button on your mobile that is 900% faster than text or phone calls.

When there are just moments to spare, as in medical emergencies or robberies for example, a push of a button on a mobile sends out SMS’s to 5 pre-designated, trusted friends (or, Guardians) as well as location from GPS.

In the first 3 seconds, Guardian Angel One alerts 5 trusted contacts at the press of a button. A user’s trusted friends are alerted even if the user is unable to make a call or write a message.

Guardian Angel One is a full featured mobile app perfect for Indian conditions and alerts trusted friends when a mobile phone user is in a threatening situation. It works like a companion who can bring in help when users need it.

It comes with an exclusive arming facility that allows you to arm your Guardian Angel by setting the time of arrival at a destination. If you do not disarm your Guardian Angel, it will send out alerts to your list of trusted friends.

There is a disarm button to disconnect an accidental alarm. GA1 is a fantastic application for a woman who is travelling alone.

To download it, go to: http://guardianangelone.com

• 2. Hollaback

Hollaback gives users the power to stop street harassment. Users can take a photo of their perpetrator and upload it to the website. Furthermore, users can record and map their story on ihollaback.org.

The perpetrator will know that their image will be shared on a street harassment website. With Hollaback the user is part of a worldwide community of individuals who are brave enough to speak out.

To download it, go to: http://www.ihollaback.org

• 3. Stay Safe

Stay Safe is free, offers protection whilst people are at late night parties, solo bike rides, taxi journeys, walking home and any place where a person feels unsafe and alone. Stay Safe offers a personal safety tracker that tells emergency contacts if the cellphone user has not checked in after work safely. It provides the exact GPS location so if help is required, it can get there quickly.

When setting up Stay Safe it is important to set up your secure PIN. Choose emergency contacts from the cell phone address book. These emergency contacts will receive a message if you do not check in by email or text message. The appointment must be entered into the app.

When the time is allocated, the user must check in as having left safely by entering the secure PIN. The panic button can be used straight away and discretely triggered as an alert. If the attacker forces the user to cancel the alert, entering the duress PIN makes the app look like it’s been cancelled, but it triggers an emergency message to contacts.

In case, the user didn’t check in, the app is triggered and emergency contacts receive an alert that includes the previous known GPS location. Alerts are sent even if the phone is turned off or damaged.

To download it, go to: http://www.staysafeapp.com

• 4. Life360 Security Center

The Life360 Security Center is recognized by Google as one of the best Android apps in the world. It allows users to track their family members on a map. Sex offenders can be seen in the neighborhood and details accessed such as; their name, crime, picture and address.

This app allows users to contact their family after a major emergency even if the majority of infrastructure fails. It has an emergency ID for kids, athletes and adults.

To download it, go to: https://www.life360.com/free/

• 5. Safety Net

Safety Net makes calling for emergency help easy. All a user needs to do is shake their phone even if the app is not working properly. Everyone who is in the safety network will be alerted. Your current location and request for help can be sent to everyone in the safety zone.

To download it, go to: http://protelecsafetynet.com/features

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Madhuri Banerjee is a comprehensive media professional, having worked in all forms of the visual medium – as a Senior Producer with Zoom TV, advertisements with White Light Motion Pictures, Director in her own production house Gray Matter Solution, documentaries as a freelancer with PSBT and commercial Bollywood films as an Assistant Director.

She has worked with stalwarts like Subhash Ghai, Kaizad Gustad and Rohan Sippy, and music director Anu Malik. Madhuri graduated from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi with a Bachelor’s degree in English Honours.

She continued her education acquiring a Master’s in Mass Communication and Films from Jamia Millia Islamia. Her thesis film, “Between Dualities” won her the National Award for best documentary on women’s issues.

She is an avid reader, world traveler, and film watcher. She gives relationship advice in a column called Love Guru in the Asian Age/Deccan Chronicle every alternate Monday.

She has currently finished working on a commercial film script. Her debut book, Losing My Virginity And Other Dumb Ideas, sold over 40,000 copies in the first year of its release and was on the best seller list for over 10 weeks. She also authored a sequel to it called Mistakes Like Love And Sex.

Her website is www.madhuribanerjee.com. She is active on Twitter @Madhuribanerjee, has a Facebook page for Losing My Virginity and Other Dumb Ideas, writes for the CNN-IBN blog called Chastity Belt, and publishes a blog at www.madhuribanerjee.blogspot.com

1. We all love Kaveri, the protagonist of your two novels. Is “Kaveri” inspired by someone real?

Kaveri’s dilemma of being a 30 year old virgin was inspired by a friend of mine. But her experiences and adventures are pure imagination.

2. The two books take Kaveri through a series of failed relationships – Arjun, Aaron, Ray, and Siddharth, before she finally meets the guy she loves. Do you think today’s 35 year old woman finds it easier to stay single while she waits for that guy, or is it still about settling down when you reach the “right age” regardless of who with?

I would not consider any of the men as “failed relationships.” With every man, Kaveri gave a part of herself and believed it made her happy. That’s what relationships are about. Someone who can make you feel ecstatic. And sometimes it is not about a lifetime. It’s about moments.

Age is just a factor in people’s head. And marriage is just society’s way of declaring a relationship a success. Aditi, in Losing My Virginity And Other Dumb Ideas thought that she needed to settle down because she had reached a particular age.

Then in Mistakes Like Love And Sex she realized that was not the reason to get married. Kaveri doesn’t make the same “mistake.” She always believes there is love in every relationship and the one she wants for a lifetime is the one she stays on with at the end of the second book.

3. The friendship between Kaveri and Aditi is special. It’s that girl bond which stays no matter what else goes wrong in life. Do you hang out with your girlfriends regularly? Did one of them (or maybe all) inspire Aditi?

I love my girl friends. They are my family. That’s why I dedicated my debut novel to them. And even in Mistakes Like Love And Sex I’ve mentioned all my girl friends who have been a part of my life. Two of my friends inspired Aditi. However, the decisions that Aditi makes later, is very unlike them. That’s more like some other friends!

4. Films are an important part of these books – with Aditi being an assistant director, and later Kaveri getting involved as a translator. Can you tell us a little bit about your involvement in the industry?

I was an Assistant Director, like Aditi, for three years. I too ran around for hats and other things that the Director demanded for the actors. It was fun but harrowing.

Bela Bandhan in Mistakes Like Love And Sex is very true to real life actresses. I have met a few and understood them well enough to know they’re all hard working like her. Therefore, the story, scenes and dialogues are not just an exaggeration. They’re partly real.

5. What’s next after “Losing my…” and “Mistakes..”? Can we expect more of Kaveri?

The third part of the trilogy is left. So there will definitely be more of Kaveri. There will be more about her business and life with a family, a husband and maybe even trying for children with old loves re-entering! And her friends Shyamolie and Aditi will also have a series of new love problems that they tackle. So more spice and sizzle to follow!

6. Today’s Indian woman juggles a career and family; she’s a mother, wife, in your case a successful author, a businesswoman, and so many other people rolled into one. Can you share some of the challenges you’ve faced while writing?

Disciplining yourself to take time out to write is the biggest challenge I’ve faced. After looking after a child, cooking, cleaning and managing the minutiae of daily domesticity all you want to do is sit back and relax. But writing is not only therapeutic for me, it is also a job. I cannot neglect it.

I’ll share a tip: The key to success is time management. And time management is about prioritizing what’s important. And to know what’s important you need to be clear what you want to achieve. All along, I knew I wanted to publish a book and everything then fell into place with time.

7. Who are your favorite authors? Have you been inspired by any of them in particular?

Elif Shafak, Agatha Christie, Jhumpa Lahiri, Paulo Coelho. Reading inspires in general. I have understood from my favourite authors and others that you definitely need a good plot and strong characters for a good book.

I’ve tried to build that with my writing. I hope that all the characters in my books and especially Kaveri will remain in readers’ minds for a long time.

8. On a lazy Sunday afternoon, what’s the one book that you’d love to curl up with?

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. I could read it repeatedly.

9. How important is social media in a writer’s life?

Quite important. We’re not famous like Bollywood stars. For people to know our work, and us we need a social media platform. In addition, largely the people who will buy our books and read are the ones on social media as well. It’s important that people know your work or you a bit.

10. There are tons of people out there trying to get published, today. What’s your advice to budding authors? What sets a great pitch apart?

A great story is all you need. Most publishers are looking for powerful characters that remain in a reader’s mind and a great plot that sets you apart. Work on that and it’ll be published!

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Maybe you’re unsure what a recipe calls for. Now you can simply open the app and reference the recipe directly to make sure you get the right ingredients. Here are 5 of the most popular free iPhone recipe apps to consider next time you’re about to cook dinner.

1. BigOven

BigOven is probably one of the most favored iPhone recipe apps because of the incredible features it has to offer. Not only can you find inspiration while in the kitchen you can find inspiration no matter where you are. This app lets you search a database of more than 250,000 recipes by ingredients, course, keyword or you can just browse their collection.

Maybe you have some leftovers that need to get eaten; you can find ideas on BigOven. Only have several items to use for dinner? Enter the ingredients you have and let BigOven give you ideas based on the items you have. You can also share your favorite recipes with your friends.

2. Betty Crocker Mobile Cookbook

Betty Crocker already delivers such great tasting foods but they also offer over 9,000 recipes at your fingertips. Tired of searching through endless recipes that require ingredients you don’t have?

Browse by the ingredients you do have with this app. Save your favorite recipes as you go to easily access them at any time in the future. Worried about the nutritional content of a recipe? Betty Crocker provides that along with ratings so you can see what others thought of the recipe.

3. Real Recipes

Powered by About.com the real recipes app contains over 25,000 recipes and they offer many tools to help you get the most out of your cooking experience. You can keep your favorite recipes in your own ‘box’ and read the ratings and reviews of others who have tried the recipes.

The features of the real recipes app allow you to search by main ingredient, course, or preparation style. Take photos of your finished dishes and upload to share with others or share them via social networks.

4. Key Ingredient’s Recipe Grazer

Powered by Key Ingredient this app is slightly different from the other recipe apps available. Every day other people just like you add recipes so there are more than a million recipes at your fingertips at any given time.

Their features include the ability to search through recipes by name, ingredient or keywords. Save your favorite recipes for easy access later and share them with others via email or social networks.

5. Dinner Spinner by Allrecipes

Powered by Allrecipes the dinner spinners is available in a free version as well as a pro version. The free version gives you access to many features and the pro version includes a few more features but it’s very affordable. That said, you might try the free app and if you enjoy it enough consider the pro version for just $2.99.

With this app you can create a shopping list and access it while you’re at the store so you don’t have to worry about forgetting any important items. You can even scan grocery items to see which recipes are related to that specific item. Or, scan them and add them to your shopping list. This app has many beneficial features for the chef in everyone.

Pauline Greenwood is an avid blogger and contributor to JustaPinch.com. She enjoys sharing about cooking experiences and her favorite meal ideas such as chicken salad recipes.

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For students it’s very difficult to believe that your parents can be pushing you in the right direction. You have big decisions to make regarding your future, your career path is unknown and your higher educational study choice could impact your career options even your salary and your lifestyle.

You look to people to guide you in the right direction because you know they have been there done that and often their advice helps. Witnessing how many successful women there are in the world in high end jobs pushed me to want to succeed in my career choice.

It is amazing to see women with MBA’s thriving in their jobs like the cream on top of a cake or the cherry on top. But, not all inspiring women have MBA’s.

For instance Carol Bratz the CEO of Yahoo did not have an MBA, but she had a business mind and became one of the most valued business women out there, even battling breast cancer and fighting her way to the top. This is business ambition and just as good as having an official MBA qualification.

Once you have achieved your grades comes the big decision of deciding what to study at university, seeing inspirational case studies like the Carol Bratz career development makes it a little bit easier to make the choice. Sometimes you just want to follow in their footsteps and so you do what they did.

Many students however, choose a degree because of their parent’s expectation or just because the course is popular. The influence that surrounds career choice is vast, but it is great that there are so many choices these days.

The Female Figure in Careers

Mums are female figures we look up to, the inspirational woman who can put you on the right career path. We’ve all heard the stories where children from lower income groups achieve high aggregates throughout their school life.

This is down to two things – their understanding of how important education is, and the support they receive from their parents and sometimes a firm female leader.

Women who thrive in their careers tend to be motivated, self-driven and confident. Some of the best jobs that suit them are related to the business and finance world, but there are some jobs such as Lawyers which are popular and social media jobs have kicked women up the ladder in more ways than one.

Have you heard of Sheryl Sandberg? This woman made it big for her role as the Facebook COO (chief operating officer), one of the richest women in the US, because she invested well outside of her career, netting around $1.25 billion from Facebook stocks.

Do you really need an MBA now or should you just buy wisely?

How Can an MBA Course Help Your Future?

At the end of the day, it always good to have a degree behind you and an MBA is the most sought after degrees in the world. Anyone with an MBA degree has more career choices, they have better success when applying for various jobs and they can expect a higher salary than those with a school qualification.

There are a variety of options when obtaining an MBA degree; basically they cover all business and management principles from executive and senior management to accounting and business management to finance and marketing.

Anyone who holds one of these degrees can enjoy a choice of career opportunities from a CEO of a company to a financial analyst to a PR specialist to a product manager or human resources manager.

Very often you find that companies will state that applicants must hold an MBA degree as they are in-demand degrees that give you insight into the running of a business, and to employers this is a step in the right direction.

But just remember, if you do not have this it is not the end of the world, there are many similar university degree courses that will help support your application to a future job.

Author bio:

Writer Jenny Beswick always listened to her mum’s advice! With the advice her mum gave her she found a good Telegraph MBA Course online. Since educating herself and working internationally in business she is now a writer. Let us know if a female leader helped you?

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At least once a week or whenever things got stressful, my parents would pull all five of their children — ranging in age from ten to one — into our library for a family meditation. As much as I complained, a part of me yearned for this spiritual practice.

Spiritual renewal is essential to our emotional well-being. It helps us nurture our essence, feel centered, build inner strength, live in integrity, and trust life. It allows us to experience a connection to a higher power, feel a sense of purpose, and experience meaning in our lives.

There are many different ways we explore and nurture our spiritual lives. For some this includes spending time in nature, yoga, prayer and meditation, or musical or artistic expression. Some of the daily practices that provide me spiritual nourishment include:

Creating Ritual

We all crave sacredness and ritual in our everyday lives — not just around birthdays and weddings. Rituals can be both carefully planned events and casual but regular remembrances such as voicing gratitude before a meal or creating dedicated space in your day for contemplation.

When we mark important transitions or milestones in our lives — whether it’s your daughter’s first period or your son starting kindergarten — we connect to the sacredness of everyday life. We remember that life is mysterious and we’re more than our to-do lists!

Cultivating Stillness

Stillness, whether experienced through prayer, meditation, or reflection, is our time to be alone and connect to our inner wisdom or our higher power — what I call our internal GPS system. It’s essential for all of us to carve out time for quiet reflection each and every day.

One of the biggest gifts I’ve received from a daily meditation practice is the ability to live more comfortably with what is–whether that’s my husband’s recent layoff or a car accident. Life is like the weather in Texas — constantly changing. Meditation has helped anchor me, so that despite this impermanence and turmoil, I’ve learned how to be still and find my center in the face of it all.

Practicing Service to Others

Mother Teresa says, “The fruit of love is service.”

We are all interconnected. The more we reach out and are present to one another’s pain and suffering, the stronger we become and the easier it is to embrace the esoteric idea that we’re all one.

I believe huge shifts in consciousness can occur when we reach out and help one another navigate this sometimes scary, often isolating and perplexing, but beautiful world. Sometime that might look like serving soup at your local homeless shelter and other times, it’s helping out your neighbor who just lost her husband.

Living in the Present

Many great spiritual teachers believe the answer to everything is to just “be here now,” and that our suffering and emotional distress would end if we simply stopped resisting the present moment.

One weekend as I sat on the couch with a full-body cold: a splitting headache, body chills and a nonstop runny nose, I thought about this principle. And, as I watched the things I was missing fly out the window — my friend’s birthday party, my son’s piano recital — I connected to my breath and felt myself arrive in the present moment.

I sensed my resistance begin to dissipate and a feeling of peace slowly settled over me. I temporarily suspended my desire for things to be different and I embraced that on the couch, with a cold, was exactly where I was supposed to be.

Choosing Happiness

Three of my immediate family members died unexpectedly between my twenty-sixth and thirty-fourth birthdays. For years I let those losses dictate how much and how often, I could experience joy. Anytime I started to feel light, free, or happy, the old feeling of “waiting for the other shoe to drop” would creep in.

Can you only be happy if things are going your way and all the stars are aligned in your favor?

I believe we’re born with the innate capacity to experience emotional well-being and joy; it’s our birthright to feel good. Happiness comes from within; we’re wired for it. We just have to remember to choose this moment to moment.

It’s easy to forget who we really are. To lose sight of what really matters. To fall asleep and not remember how interconnected we all are and that we’re fully human and, at the same time, divine.

A regular spiritual practice — whether that’s daily prayer or meditation, being in a spiritual community, or singing— serves to anchor us. It grounds us and helps us navigate the challenges we face from just being human. It helps us stay awake.

So ultimately, we can begin to let go, trust the rhythm and flow of life and relax into the beauty of our true nature.

Based on the new book Nurturing the Soul of Your Family ©2013 Renée Peterson Trudeau. Published with permission of New World Library http://www.newworldlibrary.com

Author Bio:

Life balance coach/speaker, Renée Peterson Trudeau is the author of the new book Nurturing the Soul of Your Family. She is an internationally recognized life balance coach, speaker, and president of award-winning Career Strategists whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Good Housekeeping and numerous media outlets. On the faculty of Kripalu Center for Yoga & Wellness, she leads life balance workshops and retreats for Fortune 500 companies such as 3M and IBM, conferences, and organizations worldwide. Thousands of women in ten countries are participating in Personal Renewal Groups based on her first book, The Mother’s Guide to Self-Renewal. Renee lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and son. www.ReneeTrudeau.com

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Seeking love

Primarily a man is seeking a love-interest and although men don’t always like to admit it, they do often like to love and be loved in return.

Men are particularly attracted to a loving woman and putting aside any short term sexual attraction, if they make a connection with the person who they think is the right one for them, then that man will fight hard to hold on to what he has got.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Not all men are as shallow as to simply only chase after a woman who looks like they have just stepped off the catwalk and whilst looks are part of the initial attraction process, men are seeking a woman who is attractive to them in lots of different ways.

Take pride in your appearance and do your best to look good and you will almost always be attractive in their eyes.

Be a woman

Men like a woman to be feminine, gentle and kind and that is because it satisfies a subliminal message in their brain that you would make a great mother for their children, even though they may not say it!

They are not looking for someone to mother them, as that is an entirely different thing altogether, but if they see a woman who is likely to be a willing sharer in home life, then that is certainly going to make you more attractive to your man if you come across as the perfect woman in his eyes.

Supportive

Despite the modern dynamics of a relationship in the new millennium there is still an element of the hunter gatherer mentality built into the DNA of a lot of men and they are looking for a woman who will be supportive of their goals and efforts to provide.

They don’t really want a woman who is quick to criticize their behaviour or interfere with their career path by trying to mould them to their way of thinking.

The best modern relationships are when support works both ways and yes men can still be manipulated, but support them and do it in more subtle ways if you are trying to change them in some way.

Sex

Most men talk a good game but they are actually often a lot more reserved about sex than we are, and if they find something that they like then they tend to stick to it.

The adventurous sexual appetite that most men are convinced that they possess is not actually there as much as they think it is. Men are really quite conservative in general about sex so expect to take the lead in this department and he will probably thank you for it.

Woman play an increasingly strong role in modern society and it is the men who perhaps have not changed as much as think they have. Sticking to the basics of what has worked in the past to make a successful relationship will probably still work now and in the future.

Krista Joseph is a sex therapy expert of many years. She loves to share her expertise with couples by blogging on the web. To find out how to spark romance in your relationship, visit Simply Pleasure.

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