How to Recover After A Tornado

Did you know that tornadoes can cost over $1billion of damage to properties every year? These don't mean total damage - not in every case - but even those minor repairs add up. Most buildings in th eU.S are not built to survive the fierceness of a tornado, so if one hits your area, you need to be ready for it. Not so much in the sense that you can stop it, but so that you can recover quickly after it passes through. 

You cannot eliminate the damage that a tornado will cost your building, but there is so much that you can do to mitigate those risks that come with living in a part of the country prone to tornadoes. For example, having the right insurance and knowing a Public Adjuster who can help you with the claim on your home afterwards is going to be invaluable to you. You need to be ready for a tornado, sure, with weather alerts and boards ready to go over the windows. But what about afterwards? What do you do to recover without too much loss of cash? Let’s look:

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The first thing to do when a tornado has passed is to check everyone in your home is safe. You need to make sure that the kids aren't too upset and you need to keep an ear on the weather. Sometimes, tornados touchdown in clusters and you need to know if there is more to come. You should stay with your family and wait in the safest possible place for the emergency services to arrive and assess you. Stay away from any heavy damage and watch out for power lines that have come down. You don't want the kids to step on broken glass and other sharp objects, either.

Next, you must contact your insurance company. When things are clear, you need the damage to your home and car assessed. Home and contents insurance are a must and these will have the right clauses for weather disasters. Review your policy and make sure that you have a list of all the damage that your property has taken from the tornado. It’s not just the exterior of the building, either. You need to know what the damage is to the grounds and any outdoor equipment, too.

Be aware of the fact that there are those who will try to convince you into bogus plans for insurance after a disaster. It’s a vulture's world out there and there are people who will try to take advantage of you when you are at the most vulnerable time of your life. When you can start to rebuild, choose only local companies that you know. You can help those who have also been affected by giving them work. They will be as empathetic to the damage you’ve suffered as they will have, too. Your children may need to spend time with relatives who are out of state while building recommences if you have nowhere to go.

Find the Right Professional for Any Job By Following These Simple Steps

Emergencies of all types can disrupt life at any point. By their very nature, there is no way to specifically prepare for them. Individuals can, however, educate themselves regarding the best first steps to take when something major has gone wrong. The guidelines below are general in nature but can be applied to any emergency situation. Big or small, that issue will be resolved most effectively by following these steps.

Learn As Much As You Can

Aside from an occasional plumber with a clogged toilet, there are few people qualified to respond to a crisis with the poise and confidence needed. Whether it is a medical challenge, a crime in progress, or a lost dog, every situation calls for different reactions. To the greatest extent possible, though, it pays to educate oneself about the ins and outs of a particular emergency throughout the process. Someone looking for a Denver airport locksmith, for example, might want to be aware of the options available and which is the best choice in that scenario.

Trust a Professional With the Rest

Assuming the problem is beyond the scope of those simply in its vicinity, the next step likely involves contacting an expert in the field. It can be relatively simple to narrow down the field by starting the search online. Pay attention to those businesses with excellent reviews and high rates of recommendation. Getting in touch with trusted friends and family members can also provide additional perspective and advice.

Take Safeguards for the Future

Following any emergency is an opportunity to reflect. During this period, there could be some lessons to learn or precautionary measures to take in an effort to prevent the likelihood of a repeat in the future. Of course, some incidents are unavoidable and simply the result of unforeseen circumstances. Nevertheless, paying attention to the way a situation plays out can be a source of information that could be helpful to you or someone else down the road.

The internet makes it easier to find and reserve the services of a handyman or an expert in almost any field. Of course, it also increases the number of choices exponentially. Cut through the clutter and find just the right individual or team for any job by simply completing a little legwork along the way. The tips outlined above will provide a good base of knowledge on which anyone can conduct a fruitful search.

Surprising Things That Can Make You Depressed

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Feeling depressed but not sure why? A number of surprising things can affect our mood and could be contributing factors as to why you feel so down. Here are just some of the surprising things that can bring on depression

Poor sleep quality

A good amount of sleep is essential for our mental health. It’s during sleep that we store memories and replenish brain cells – if you don’t complete a full 7-hour sleep cycle each night, you’re likely to feel irritable and unfocused and your brain won’t be able to cope with stress as easily. This can sink many people into depression.

Poor gut health

Our gut is responsible for producing 95% of our serotonin – the hormone that makes us feel happy. If you’ve got gut problems, it could affect your ability to produce this happy hormone leading to a greater risk of depression. There are lots of types of digestive diseases, many of which can be treated. If you’re experiencing gut problems, don’t ignore these problems – both for the sake of your body and your mind.

Thyroid disease

Our thyroid is a gland in our neck. One of its purposes is to regulate serotonin levels – if the thyroid is damaged, you could find yourself unable to get that serotonin kick. The symptoms of thyroid disease include tiredness, sensitivity to cold, weight gain and constipation. It can often be treated.

A cluttered bedroom

Clutter can make us feel anxious and overwhelmed. Our brains like a sense of order, and clutter can tell our brains that we’ve still got lots to do. The worst place for clutter to accumulate is the bedroom, as this can also prevent us from getting to sleep as easily. There have been studies between a cluttered home and depression. By taking the time to declutter, you could improve your mood.

Too much social media

Too much social media can also make many of us depressed. While it can be a way to connect with friends and loved ones, it often only shows us the fun things happening in other people’s lives, which can create a sense of inadequacy and feelings of FOMO (fear of missing out). By limiting social media use, you could reduce the risk of becoming depressed.

Reaching the end of a series

When a series that we love comes to an end, it can often leave a sense of emptiness that for some people can be equal to losing a friend or loved one. Studies have shown that we invest so much time in the characters and the world of these series that they become a part of our reality. If you’re nearing the finale of a TV or movie series, make sure you have things to look forward to after.

Birth control pills

An unfortunate side effect to birth control pills for many women can be an altered mood, which can lead to depression. In fact, some women can sink into such a low that they end up having to stop taking contraceptive pills altogether. It’s important to note that this is not a symptom that everyone experiences. With so many different pills out there, it’s also worth trying different options if one type of pill does make you feel depressed.

4 Misconceptions About Relationships You Must Avoid

Are you experiencing issues in your relationship? It’s important that you don’t fall back on some of the common misconceptions. This can lead you down the wrong path when trying to fix some of the problems that you might be facing. Let’s take a look at some of the most confusing elements here. 

Arguments Are Odd

This simply isn’t the case at all and it’s probably the fault of the rom-com that most people feel this way. Arguments are a perfectly normal part of a relationship and they can even be healthy. You shouldn’t be arguing all the time or trying to tear each other limb from limb. But arguments can be a healthy way to tackle issues in the relationship head-on and ensure that they don’t grow into something that can be more unmanageable. It’s far worse if the trouble remains underneath the surface undetected. The trick is to always resolve an argument and never go to bed angry. 

You Need To Do Everything Together

Some people are worried when their partner wants to do some things separately such as going out with their friends or perhaps exercising. However, it’s important to realise that a relationship doesn’t mean that you are joined at the hip. Again, this can lead to issues because everyone needs room to breathe on occasion. You should overcrowd someone. Of course, some people love doing things together all the time but it’s not going to be the right fit for everyone. You can still love someone and not want to spend every waking hour right next to them. 

Counseling Is Rare

On the contrary, these days counseling is quite common and it’s often seen as one of the best ways to work out issues in a relationship. As humans, we are flawed and it’s not always possible to work through these flaws without support and assistance. That’s where Commonwealth Counseling Associates Telehealth services and similar solutions can be beneficial. You can get the support you need and ensure that you work through the issues. If more people were willing to attend counseling with their partner, it’s possible that the divorce rate wouldn’t be so high. In fact, it’s common for most lawyers to recommend counseling or couple’s therapy first. 

Trust Should Always Be Given 

You might have heard that if the trust is gone in a relationship then that relationship is more or less over. While this might be true, it’s important to be aware that trust shouldn’t be a given, it should be earned. You should give your partner reason to believe that they can trust you. This means that you should think about whether they have provided you with a reason to believe that you never need to see what’s on their phone. It’s possible that they are hiding something from you. While you don’t need to know everything about their life in a relationship there also shouldn’t be any secrets or anything that needs to be hidden. 

We hope this helps you understand some of the biggest misconceptions that people often do hold about relationships. 

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Reconnecting As A Couple When You Both Start To Feel Distant

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Many couples go through phases of feeling distant. Any conversations you have may feel like small talk and there may be little to no physical intimacy. You might see each other every day and still share the same bed, but the spark may be missing.

If you’re currently going through this phase, don’t be alarmed – your relationship isn’t over. By both realizing the problem, you can take measures to stop the two of you from drifting apart. Here are just several ways to find closeness again.

Share old memories

By reconnecting with the past, you may remind yourself of things that the two of you once admired about one another. Find time to share old stories and go back through old photos. You may even be able to revisit places that you went on your first dates.

Try new experiences together

If reliving the past doesn’t work for you, you could try making new memories by trying new things together. Variety is the spice of life – by breaking out your routine and trying new things, you may discover new things about one another. New experiences could include travelling to a new place together, trying new foods together or trying a new activity together such as ice-skating or wine tasting or kayaking. You can research into new date ideas online. 

Create joint goals

If you haven’t got any joint goals to work towards, you could consider creating a goal to help bring you together. Often when couples get married, they feel they have no more joint goals to achieve, but there are so many other goals you can think up such as making travel plans, saving up to move or even planning an epic anniversary party (you could even renew your vows – although if you’re feeling distant, this may not feel right).

Consider the option of counseling

If you need help opening up to each other, you could consider looking into counseling. You don’t have to be on the brink of divorce to consider counseling - some couples find it to be a useful process when dealing with small problems. There are many different counseling options out there including online marriage counseling. There are also counsellors that can come to your home.

Take a break to reconnect

Sometimes you need to get away from each other to realize the things you appreciate about each other (as the phrase goes: ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’). This could be particularly the case if you spend most of your time together. You don’t have to ‘break up’ to test this out. Instead, you could both plan separate trips away with friends. Or if you have kids, one of you could take a break away with the kids while the other stays at home.