Helping Birds Thrive in your Garden.

{Collaborative content} What makes a winning garden for you? Is it beauty? Function? Vibrancy and health? For a lot of people, green spaces can be deeply therapeutic, and what can be more life-enhancing than the sound of birdsong? Of course, if you want to attract birds to your garden, then you need to make sure that it’s welcoming to them. Here, we’re going to look at a few tips you can take to make your garden more bird-friendly.

Image - CC0 License

Give them habitats

A place to shelter, to rest, and even to nest can help ensure that you’re going to have some feathered friends in your garden. Birds’ natural habitats have been shrinking due to human encroachment, so it’s only right that we each think about what we can do to produce an alternative in our own gardens. Building or buying and installing a birdhouse can work perfectly, but if you prefer a more natural approach, then you can also plant habitats for them, using hedgerows or even trees to make sure that birds will soon have a natural habitat that they can make a home out of.

Make sure they have good feed

Aside from a place to shelter, the next most basic need that you can help contribute to is providing some good food for those birds. There are all kinds of birdseed hangers that you can buy and hook up so that, so long as they have a perch, they have a place to nourish themselves. You can even invest in some higher nutrition options like cannabis seeds, which have more protein. This can be especially valuable in the winter when foraging for insects and bugs becomes tougher.

Make sure that they have fresh water

Water fixtures are rarely cheap, but if you’re serious about making a natural environment in your garden, it might be worth the investment. It can also be pretty good for the value of the home. A birdbath might be easier to clean and take care of, allowing them to drink and groom themselves. However, if you want to make your garden much more open to wildlife in general, then having a pond installed can attract mammals, as well as amphibians and water insects, which can serve as another food source for the birds.

Watch out for cats

You want to keep an eye out for your local predators. Bigger birds are a threat, but it’s the common household cat that can provide the most trouble. You can’t be there to scare them from your garden all the time. However, there are electronic deterrents you can use that produce a sound that will keep the cats away from your garden. Many people attest to the effectiveness of the sonic repellants when it comes to shooing cats away from your avian companions.

If you want a garden where birds thrive, then you should follow the tips above to make it happen. The value of seeing and hearing wildlife nourished by your own efforts can be incredibly rewarding.

Lifestyle Factors Affecting your Mental Health

{Collaborative Content} At some point in life, you may be feeling worried, stressed, or down because of the things happening in your life. Different life factors may impact your mental health, and the factors may pose some risks to your mental health or protect your well-being. Since everyone is different, you may be living in some varying circumstances. The protective factors and risks can also be different for every person as they change as someone grows.

Abuse

When your child gets abused or someone's child, a great mental health risk gets experienced. An abused child has a likelihood of experiencing a different mental disorder or illness from childhood to adulthood. Abuse, in this case, can be psychological or verbal, and it can be hard recognizing it. It doesn't matter the form it may take because abuse should not get tolerated for any reason.

Children should get protected from abuse, and in case they have already gone through it, it's crucial to look for ways of helping in overcoming the negative effects. Adult abuse can also lead to esteem issues, depression, lack of confidence, and even anger. All these feelings can improve one's chance of having a happy life.

If you or your child have been abused, then you can consider trusting in others and the feelings of being taken care of as this can help in recovery. Few instances show how some children may not recover independently, and support is vital, not forgetting professional counseling. If the abuse gets discovered early, there are chances one can return to a healthy state and avoid some serious mental disorders.

Spending Too Much Time Online

The internet can be a wonderful resource, and it's okay to use it regularly. But you may be in a situation where you spend almost all your free time online looking at the Instagram models or having a comparison between you and your Facebook friends. In this case, your self-esteem may take a hit. Through that, you may end up feeling low. So, you can opt to turn your phone off often, have a break from social media, for instance, deactivate Instagram, or avoid following accounts that give your life pressure and choose the ones that make you feel good about yourself.

Smoking

Most people that have mental illness problems tend to smoke. Avoiding smoking can be a big challenge as it can start yielding a temporary downturn in your mental health. However, it can yield some benefits in a few weeks when you quit smoking. It would help if you avoided smoking because you may be taking different toxins when you smoke, and many of the toxins taken can contribute to mood problems. 

Also, some of the physical health problems resulting from smoking can lead to coughing, heart diseases, difficulty when exercising, and frequent colds. All this can lead to having mental health challenges and mood problems. Therefore, quitting smoking can be among the best things you can do for your mental health.

Adult Trauma

As an adult, you may experience significant trauma, for instance, military combat getting involved in a serious incident that you feared for your life or cases where you're a victim of a violent crime. These incidents can harm your mental health.

Poor Physical Health

Unfortunately, you may be suffering from poor physical health, and in that case, there is a likelihood you may start struggling with your mental health as well. However, it can be understood because chronic pain can get difficult, especially when you want to manage them, as it can also be hard to deal with. Also, having infections can cause some stress and different mental symptoms.

That's why you should not neglect your physical health, and the moment you start noticing some issues with your health, you can visit the doctor or get an appropriate healthcare professional. Also, ensure you do all things possible to manage or treat the issue as soon as possible so that you can start feeling better.

Domestic Violence

Family and domestic violence happen when you start feeling unsafe, afraid, or powerless because of the actions of the person around you or close to you. Some of the domestic behaviors you can face include:

·         Physical harm where you get physically or self-harm threats like hurting the pets or smashing things

·         Stalking where you experience harassing behavior like someone following you

·         Socials where one starts controlling the places you go and the people you see

·         Psychological and emotional harm where someone starts humiliating you and blaming you

·         Financial where you loved one has unfair control of money or is struct on money usage

Poverty

Poverty can affect your mental health from different angles. It can start by restricting access to different nutrition diets that benefit your mental health. Also, it can make it harder for you to get decent jobs and other opportunities, which can make you feel frustrated, stressed, and lack self-worth.