According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), sustainable tourism is defined as:“Tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities.”The term sustainable travel refers to the adoption of sustainable practices with the aim of minimizing the negative impacts and maximizing the positive effects of tourism.

What is sustainable travel?

Staying in eco-friendly accommodations reduces the impact of tourism on the environment. From renewable energy production to bio-architecture, eco-friendly lodgings focus on preserving the environment and have positive environmental effects. However, this is not all. Staying in eco-friendly tourism accommodations also supports the local economy. In fact, most environmentally friendly lodgings offer zero-kilometer, organic food.

Staying in eco-friendly accommodations

Making optimal use of environmental resources preserves natural heritage and biodiversity. The main problem is that the consumption of environmental resources exceeds their ability to regenerate, causing climate change and loss of biodiversity.In this regard, the ecological footprint is an indicator capable of measuring the environmental impact created by the excessive use of natural resources.

Making optimal use of environmental resources

Taking public transportation reduces air pollution and improves road congestion. By using public transport, the number of cars on the roads decreases and less carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. Likewise, fewer vehicles reduce traffic jams on the roads.

Taking public transportation

Respecting the culture of local communities conserves cultural and artistic heritage. The interaction with locals is one of the most rewarding things of sustainable travel and preserves traditions passed down from generation to generation. It is essential to respect traditions as they form the identity of the local community and create a sense of unity among people.

Respecting the culture of local communities

Buying from and supporting local businesses empowers the local economy. But this is not all. Local products do not involve transportation, require less packaging, and create more jobs.

Buying from and supporting local businesses

Traveling slow minimizes the impact on the environment and saves money. For instance, choosing the train over other means of transportation both reduces the ecological impact and is a cheaper option. But this is not all. Traveling slow also allows you to enjoy the scenery along the way.

Traveling slow

Saying NO to single-use plastic reduces pollution. The production of plastic uses fossil fuels and therefore releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. In addition, 8 million tons of plastic end up in oceans every year, putting marine life at risk.

Saying NO to single-use plastic

Eating local food ensures freshness and benefits local businesses. In fact, locally produced food does not require transportation, so it is fresh and nutritious. Furthermore, eating local products supports the local economy and contributes to increasing employment and income within a community (tourism multiplier effect).

Eating local food

What it means to live a sustainable lifestyle

fashion

Fashion & Beauty

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

travel

Travel

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

How to Live Sustainably

What is sustainable travel? Being aware of the environmental impact of tourism and adopting good practices in order to minimize it. Let's find out more!

What is Sustainable Travel: 8 Best Practices

<ul><li>Music therapy is increasingly used to help patients cope with stress and promote healing.</li><li>Andrew Rossetti, a licensed music therapist in New York, uses guitar music and visualization exercises to help calm patients undergoing medical treatments.</li><li>The healing power of music - lauded by philosophers from Aristotle and Pythagoras to Pete Seeger - is now being validated by medical research.</li></ul>

Music Heals

<ul><li>Dr. Rossetti has seen increases in acute anxiety since the onset of the pandemic, making musical interventions even more impactful</li><li>Mount Sinai has expanded its music therapy program to include work with the medical staff, many of whom are suffering from post-traumatic stress from months of dealing with Covid.</li></ul>

Music Therapy

<ul><li>A growing body of research suggests that music played in a therapeutic setting has measurable medical benefits. </li><li>It can also help people deal with longstanding phobias</li><li>Music has also been used successfully to support recovery after surgery.</li><li>Some hospitals have introduced pre-recorded programs that patients can listen to with headphones.</li></ul>

Music To Quell Fear And Pain

Psychedelic Drugs: As studies explore the therapeutic value of substances like MDMA, veterans are becoming unlikely advocates for their decriminalizationVirtual Reality: A treatment using new technology to immerse patients in a simulation of a memory could help them overcome trauma.

Overcoming Trauma

Music therapy is increasingly used to help patients cope with stress and promote healing.

health

Health

mentalhealth

Mental Health

music

Music

The Healing Power of Music

<ul><li>Roll your clothes: Tightly roll softer, wrinkle-resistant garments, like T-shirts and cotton pants, and place them along the base of the bag. Jeans should be rolled, too.</li><li>Drape longer pieces like pants and skirts over the rolled clothes, alternating waists with hems at the ends.</li><li>Add smaller items like bras and socks, line the bag with belts, and cover the whole pile with a dry-cleaning bag.</li></ul>

Pack Your Suitcase Quickly And Effectively

<ul>
<li>Line suitcase with belts: Snake belts around the perimeter of the bag. Then cover the whole pile with a dry-cleaning bag.</li>
<li>Choose shoes wisely: Pick three pairs of shoes, like a casual sandal or loafer, sneakers, and an evening shoe –go for styles that can be dressed up or down depending on the occasion. </li>
<li>Pack your jewelry: Stow inexpensive jewelry in a seven-day plastic pillbox or a 35-millimeter film canister. Wear any fine jewelry en route to ensure it won’t get lost or stolen.</li>
</ul>

Tips For Better Packing

What's the best way to pack a suitcase so you maximize the space without wrinkling everything? It's easy with the smart tips in this video guide to packing. Watch how to pack a suitcase.

How to Pack a Suitcase Video and Steps

Finding your niche audience can help your social media presence gain traction. It builds a community of people that have the same thing in common that will share your posts, communicate with one another, and provide prospective clients. Find your niche by doing research:<ul><li>Put together a word cloud of what your freelance business is trying to achieve and words that appeal to your targeted demographic.</li><li>Once you have a list of about 10 words or phrases, build a 'hashtag ladder'.</li></ul>

Find your niche

<ul><li>You can find your hashtags from your word cloud. Start by breaking the phrases into single words to find the tags, then add emojis or a second word to see what's trending.</li><li>Include your city initials in the tags or other relevant holidays celebrated that day.</li><li>Use Instagram or Twitter to find popular hashtags. Type one hashtag at a time to see how relevant it is. If the most recent is from a few years ago, change the phrasing or add an emoji.</li></ul>

Find your tags

A hashtag ladder strategy is having a set of 30 hashtags ranging from easy to difficult to rank for. Start with popular results for the easy ones, get some engagement, rank for the more difficult ones, get more engagement, and move up the ladder. <ul><li>Start with two hashtags that have been used 1M times, three that are in the 50,000 - 100,000 range, the next three in the 10,000 range, and two will be your business' unique and personal hashtags.</li><li>Look at your competitors and see how you could make yours unique.</li><li>Keep a hashtag bank of 30-40 hashtags so you can switch out underperforming tags.</li></ul>

Build a hashtag ladder

Once you are confident in your ladder strategy, the next step is to find the language and tone of your channel - similar to social brand guidelines for yourself. To find your brands voice:<ul><li>Explain your brand/objective in three to five words.</li><li>What three words do you not want your channel to say?</li><li>What do your offer that is unique?</li></ul> Tailor your voice to match your audience. Do you want your channel to be playful, charming, confident, edgy?

Find the language and tone of your channel

career

Career

marketingandsales

Marketing & Sales

Developing a social media strategy for your freelance business

The future of freelance work shows a huge shift into various industries. Therefore, it necessitates you to be proactive in setting yourself apart from your freelance competition if you want to succeed. Paying particular attention to your resume can give you an edge. If you don't have a good amount of professional experience as a freelancer, highlight your hard, soft, and transferable skills that demonstrate how you can help a potential client.

Standing out

A cover letter is an opportunity to impress potential clients with your qualifications and state why you're a good fit. Many freelancers use a generic cover letter if they even use one. However, to help you stand out, take the cover letter seriously. You may use a template to ensure it's structured, but the information should be personalised to each position and client.

Use a unique cover letter

Freelancers who prioritise building their skillset stand out - whether it's keeping up with current events, learning a second language, or advancing tech or social media-related skills. Your increasing skillset will prompt a growing career that produces quality work samples, testimonials, and an expanding knowledge base.

Grow your skillset

If you don't grow your presence in the digital world, potential clients will have a difficult time finding you. <ul><li>Start establishing yourself as a top freelancer in your industry with a professional website that includes your portfolio of work on it, shares who you are as a person and as a freelancer, and details your services.</li><li>Add a blog to advance your reputation as an expert in your industry.</li><li>Network with other freelancers in your industry on social media.</li><li>Explore how to grow your freelancer brand in the physical world.</li></ul>

Build your brand

If your ideal clients prefer in-person interaction, consider relocating to where they are. Before relocating, consider:<ul><li>How much it will cost</li><li>How you will notify clients</li><li>What you'll need to do to prepare yourself for the move</li><li>A moving budget</li><li>How you will keep your freelance business materials safe.</li></ul>

Consider relocating 

How to stand out in a sea of freelancers

We tend to lose almost 40% of new information within one day of reading or hearing it, even if we write it down. However, when we take notes effectively, we can retain and retrieve almost 100% of the knowledge we obtained.

How to remember information

The goal of effective note-taking is to remember what you learned.<ul><li>It involves active learning, meaning the student is responsible for doing things with the material, such as reading, writing, discussing, and solving problems.</li><li>Students should also think about how they are learning it. What is difficult? How can you improve learning about this topic? How did your views change about this topic?</li><li>Students will forget less if they engage with their notes within 24 hours, then read their notes the next day, and again within a week.</li></ul>

Learning the right way

This system was developed in the 1950s as part of a university preparatory course. There are four stages to taking notes: <ol><li>Note taking</li><li>Note making</li><li>Note interacting</li><li>Note reflecting</li></ol>

The Cornell Note-Taking System

Always draw up the page for notes the same way. <ul><li>At the top, write the topic/key learning objective.</li><li>Divide the page into two columns. The first column should be one-third of the page. It is used for questions and notes. The second column is for notes from the lecture, textbook, video, etc.</li><li>Take notes in your own words.</li><li>Leave spaces and lines between main ideas to add information.</li><li>Develop your own abbreviations and symbols to save time.</li><li>Write in phrases, not full sentences.</li><li>Use bullet points.</li><li>Highlight and colour key ideas.</li></ul>

The Note Taking Stage

<ul><li>Review and revise the note contents.</li><li>Write questions in the left-hand column opposite the answer on the right-hand side.</li><li>Connect key ideas using colour or symbols</li><li>Exchange ideas with other students to see if you understand the material thoroughly.</li></ul>

The Note Making Stage

<ul><li>Write a summary at the bottom of the page that addresses the key idea and answer the questions from the left margin.</li><li>Build into your study timetable regular times to revise your notes for each subject.</li><li>Before a test, use the questions as prompts and answer without looking at the information on the right-hand side.</li></ul>

The Note Interacting Stage

<ul><li>Get a peer, tutor or teacher to give you written feedback on your initial learning phase.</li><li>Address one area of the feedback at a time.</li><li>Before exams and tests, reflect over the entire unit.</li></ul>

The Note Reflecting Stage

We tend to lose almost 40% of new information within the first 24 hours of first reading or hearing it. However if we take notes effectively, we can retain and retrieve almost 100% of the information we receive.

writing

Reading & Writing

education

Learning & Education

problemsolving

Problem Solving

What's the best, most effective way to take notes?

The UEFA Champions League is one of the most prestigious soccer tournaments in all sport. It consists of 32 teams that compete in five rounds for the title of the best club in European soccer. The first UEFA Champions League tournament was held during the 1955/56 season. Since then, it has been played annually.

UEFA Champions League

<ul><li>Until 1992, the tournament was known as the European Cup and had just 16 teams competing in four knockout rounds.</li><li>In 1960, the tournament expanded to 32 teams.</li><li>The 32 teams are split into eight groups of four. Each team plays the other three teams in their respective group in a double round-robin format.</li><li>The winner and runner-up of each group progress to the round of 16, where teams will continue the normal knockout stage process.</li></ul>

How the tournament changed since 1955

The number of teams each association enters into the UEFA Champions League is based on UEFA coefficients of the member associations. <ul><li>The scores are made up from the results of clubs representing each association during the previous five EUFA Champions League and EUFA Europa League seasons.</li><li>The higher the association's coefficient, the more teams can represent the association.</li><li>Two qualification streams exist for teams that don't receive direct entry to the tournament: through a domestic league champion, and those who qualified by being 2nd through 4th in their domestic league.</li></ul>

How teams are selected

... the teams are split into four different "pots" based on the following principles. <ul><li>Pot 1 contains the Champions League titleholders, the champions of the top six associations based on their EUFA coefficients.</li><li>Plot 2, 3 and 4 contain the rest of the teams, seeded based on their previous year's EUFA club coefficients.</li><li>Then a team is drawn from each pot until there are eight groups of four.</li></ul>

Once the 32 teams qualify

<ul><li>The 32 teams compete in a double round-robin format or group stage.</li><li>Group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 16, which is the first round of the knockout phase.</li><li>Teams are ordered by points: three points for a win, one point for a tie, and no points for a loss.</li><li>If tied on points, tie-breaking criteria apply.</li></ul>

How the group stage work

DrawA draw takes place for the round of 16. The remaining clubs are split into two pots of eight: One contains the winners of each respective group, the other the runners-up. A club is drawn from each pot to determine what the matchups would be. Knockout-Phase Legs and TiebreakersTwo teams are drawn together for each round. The teams play two matches, each squad playing one match at home. The group winners host the second leg in the round of 16.

How the knockout phase work

The                 UEFA                 Champions League is one of the most prestigious tournaments in all of sports...

sports

Sports

UEFA Champions League Explained: How the Tournament Works

We need to know how to balance the way digital technologies are embedded in every aspect of our life and turn towards digital wellness where we:
<ul>
<li>Connect in meaningful ways with our loved ones and colleagues.</li>
<li>Find flow in our work, living in harmony with our digital and physical environment.</li>
<li>Enjoy great relationships both online and offline.</li>
<li>Use technology intentionally, not being addicted to it.</li>
<li>Learn how to manage your digital privacy.</li>
<li>Savour the pleasant experiences in the real world.</li>
<li>Have a sense of self-efficacy.</li>
</ul>

Digital Wellness: The Ideal State

Many of us feel overwhelmed with technology and the pressures of remote work. This can be distraction, Zoom fatigue, burnout and other forms of digital sickness.
We need to be in the state of digital flourishing, assessing our digital wellness and taking action by using technology in the right doses.
This involves:
<ol>
<li>Reflecting on how we use digital technology.</li>
<li>Being aware of where our attention goes.</li>
<li>Aligning our use of digital technologies with our motivations and values.</li>
</ol>

The State Of Digital Flourishing

<ul>
<li>Digital productivity requires us to find a work-life balance, enhance our focus and minimize any distractions.</li>
<li>Getting distracted from work due to a phone notification keeps us distracted for a few seconds, but eats up an average of 11 minutes to get our full attention back to work.</li>
</ul>
It helps to put phone notifications off, especially the sports updates.

Boosting Your Digital Wellness: Productivity

Our physical environment has to be organized and comfortable, free from chaos. 
A decluttered workspace with clear boundaries between work and family, especially the working hours in which you can be contacted needs to be posted so that you can give your full attention to your personal life and relationships.

Boosting Your Digital Wellness: Environment

Phubbing, or phone-snubbing is increasingly common, where we snub the person talking to us in person in favour of the incoming text message on our phone. 
We should provide our complete attention to the person in front of us, and if someone phubs us, we can let them know right there.

Boosting Your Digital Wellness: Communication

Most of the jealousy, envy and angst one feels is due to comparisons with others, especially if the relationships one experiences are fickle and shallow.
Unfollow unnecessary people and exit from groups that don’t add value or meaning to your life. Do not let digital, pseudo or virtual relationships erode your real, precious relationships.

Boosting Your Digital Wellness: Relationships

Continuous device usage (smartphones and laptops) has given rise to backaches, neck pain and bad posture. 
You should not squint or hunch while using your devices and make sure that the screen is at horizontal eye level.

Boosting Your Digital Wellness: Physical Health

Trackers, wearables and other devices with continuous data recording are getting a lot of attention. 
We can now track our physical health metrics with the help of step counters, blood pressure or heart rate sensors, and harness the power of these health-focused digital devices using quantifiable data about ourselves.

Boosting Your Digital Wellness: Quantified Self

Researchers are exploring what wellness looks like in a digital world.

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

How Technology Can Be Part of a Happy Life

“Keep stress at bay—act in all ways to keep the mind clear and your judgment correct: Going to bed early, eating and drinking lightly, taking exercise, standing upright at the stock ticker, standing while on the telephone, and demanding silence in the office. I spoke to no one on my way to work and kept silent about my stock market actions.”

The way to minimize bad decisions, focus on things that matter, think independently, and have a life of freedom is: Sitting in solitude.
Thinking takes time, space and energy and we don’t do ourselves any favours by being constantly distracted or interrupted by the world. If we give ourselves fifteen or more minutes of uninterrupted time to think, we become better at decision making.

Short-Term Solitude

Social isolation in large doses increases the probability of physical and psychological problems like heart disease or depression.
Short-term aloneness is beneficial and for that, we need to first figure out how our life is going and how can we fit in solitude time in our day.

Aloneness Is Good In Small Doses

We can make use of a morning ritual where we are alone with a good book, a pen, a journal, just letting the thoughts flow. 
We can also try spending a weekend alone, or doing something completely opposite of what we usually do.

Being With Yourself

By listening to our minds, we can come up with innovative, authentic ideas and judgements that combine the outer world with our inner world.
Just two hours alone in a week with our pen and notebook, and our thoughts flowing will have a substantial impact.

Listen To Yourself

By adding more solitude and listening to our own thoughts, we can improve our thinking. And come up with authentic ideas and judgments.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

habits

Habits

Why Short-Term Solitude Makes You a Better Thinker - Darius Foroux

Consistent success cannot be attained by anyone without practising goal-aligned behaviours on a regular basis, and the good news is that consistency can be acquired and controlled.
There can be many factors that make highly successful people different from many of us. Natural ability, luck, access to various resources, genetics and environment, all play a big role in making someone famous and on top of their game.

Successful People And You

The brain loves rewards, which it associates with novelty and happiness. If one focuses on the reward that comes when completing a task, it becomes enticing, and doesn’t take much effort. If one focuses on the challenges or on the effort required to complete the task, it becomes a pain.
Your direction of focus is the reason most new year resolutions fail, and also why you can’t wake up at 5:00 am.

The Brain Loves Novelty And Ease

When we decide to write more often or go to the gym every day we are setting vague, undefined goals, that are bound to be dismissed by the mind. 
Setting up bold, clear and intentional statements makes us want to implement them. Example: I want to spend 30 minutes jogging at 7:00 am with this playlist on.

Stay Away From Vague Goals

Too much friction diminishes the probability of our doing the desired task.
If our new habit requires a lot of effort, mind and energy, we are less likely to do it. If we want to paint, for example, and the colours and canvas are nowhere to be found, kept away in closets or the garage, we are less likely to start painting, due to the added friction.
One solution is to game your environment to facilitate certain good habits, triggering the desired behaviour. It’s also a good idea to automate certain behaviour patterns by using phone notifications or reminders.

Leaving Obstacles On Your Way

If we focus too much on the destination we lose the flavour and the fun of the journey. Our brain gets tired of waiting for the reward and craves something in the present moment. The reward is also not completely certain, making it a zero-sum game.
The solution is to reframe your outcome as a learning goal, focusing on the mastery and fresh new skills you gain along the way. Example: Instead of learning coding languages for a degree that can land you a job, focus on learning the actual languages to improve your skills, enjoying the challenge of learning something new.

Focusing Too Much On The Outcome

We try to use willpower to move past the million distractions that come in the way of us and our goals. It isn’t very effective. There is a shortcut that does not require heroic self-control and willpower all the time.
One can try implementing the Ulysses Pact, or a commitment device, which is a way to hack your behaviour in order to resist temptation. Example: Keeping your phone switched off or locked up until you have completed a certain task.

Willpower Is Overrated

<ul>
<li>Consistency has a side-effect: Feeling bored. As the brain is wired for novelty, it provides us with seemingly unpleasant feelings and emotions, and the problem is that we take those seriously.</li>
<li>Instead of fighting over the frustration, boredom or despair that arises in us, we need to ignore it and spice up our routine with variety.</li>
<li>Changing small details and techniques(like changing your exercise route or routine) helps us infuse some exciting variety into our mundane tasks.</li>
<li>It also helps to stay calm and relaxed.</li>
</ul>

Too Much Value On Emotions

Discover why consistency seems to be the key ingredient in the recipe for all-time success. 

What is Sustainable Travel: 8 Best Practices

The Healing Power of Music

How to Pack a Suitcase Video and Steps

Developing a social media strategy for your freelance business

How to stand out in a sea of freelancers

Cherry Mary