‘Women, Work, and the Art of Savoir Faire’ by Mireille Guiliano: A Book for Empowered Women

    Apart from your family and friends, do you have someone you can consider as your life coach who gives you sound advice and constant support? While not all women share this, having a strong mentor will certainly help us take our goals to the next level. This is especially true for women still forging their path in relishing the best part of their work and personal lives. If these statements echo as truth to your ears, then you might consider adding 'Women, Work, and the Art of Savoir Faire' by Mireille Guiliano to your to-read list.

    Published in 2009, French author Mireille Guiliano's subversive brilliance and practicality shine in this self-help book. Divided into twelve concise chapters, the book discusses sweeping issues involving women in a distinctively light and entertaining tone. Although the book mainly revolves around concrete topics regarding work and business, it also gets to grips with advice on communication, and fashion. Plus, it includes delightful recipes for home entertainment, giving the book the proper equilibrium between what's valuable and eccentric.

    As a reader, self-help books are not my cup of tea. I haven't read one until I picked Mireille Guillano's 'Women, Work, and the Art of Savoire Faire' while idling away time in a local bookstore. Having scanned its first few contents, I decided to purchase the book.

     Defined as the knowledge of the right course of action: knowing what to do and say and when and how to do so, the Savoire Faire is emphasized mainly by the New York Times bestselling author. As stated in the book's overture, Guillano seeks to help women widen their knowledge for empowerment and balance in today's face-paced world. The author employs a fun, friendly, and non-assertive tone to convey her ideas in the book.

    In the book's first few chapters, the author highlights the importance of being aware of our fears and pursuing our passions in bringing our dreams into actuality. Guillano masterfully illustrates this notion by presenting real-life examples. The author uses her experiences as a young woman in her early 20s to prove her points. She also used anecdotes from various female characters, including one who successfully managed to turn her mundane work scenario into something rewarding.

    Guillano persuades her readers to put their hearts into whatever they do. This is one of the best advice I have taken from the book. For what's the point of finding success without happiness? Too often, we let go of our passions because we were afraid to take a risk at a moment of opportunity. Another essential lesson touched by the book is the importance of cultivating one's image. This includes finding a chance to develop your communication skills and character, which will be part of your defining characteristics even as you navigate life outside your business or career.

    Other helpful tips presented by the author include coping with difficult situations and getting an A on your job interviews, or business presentations. The most important piece of advice that I have gathered from the book is trying to live a balanced life. I have learned that our personal lives can significantly affect our job performances, so we have to take care of our health first, before making our wallets fat. Our work is just one part of our life. While it is an essential aspect of living, is not our life.

    Guillano's book taught me much about acing life through its practical, fun, and helpful counsel. What I like most about the book is the use of exciting and insightful stories from different lenses. As a female, the book makes me feel empowered and more knowledgeable. However, there are a few points that I would like to critically pick from the book. For the most part, the author emphasizes machismo by mentioning self-help books written by male writers of her caliber. While I could see her point for doing such, I find it a bit unnecessary when empowering young women. A tiny part of her book also highlighted the need for women to be 'sexy'. While her tone does not mean or sound condescending, movers of body positivity might not take this well. Therefore, such statements are better off omitted from the book.

     The book is an excellent read for women of all ages. From reading this book, men can also learn a lot to look at women's perspectives in a new light. If I were to rate the book from 1 to 10, I would give the book a solid 8. The book is light and easy to read giving its readers a worthwhile reading experience. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to empower themselves. As the book brings something unique, Michelle Obama's 'Becoming' is also a great option to magnify the table.

Life Lately

    Hello friends! I know, it's been a while since I've scribbled something closer to my heart, and please pardon me if I bombarded you with too many "sponsored posts". Anyway, I'm still around though I know I haven't been in this space for quite some time, especially during the height of the pandemic when everything just seems uncertain. If you're reading this post, I hope you are feeling well, healthy, and mostly, happy. 

     A lot happened when I sort of stopped sharing something personal in this blog. Mostly work, but mostly life. Life happened and it's still an ongoing show. Nothing grand happened though, I'm not getting married or expecting a baby, but I thought it would be proper for me to run you through what's been going on in my life if I were to sort of 'come back into my usual blogging caliber. Not that I ever stopped, which you'd find out later. 

     I would like to say that one of the biggest reasons why I haven't blogged here as much as I did is the drastic shift in going digital with every aspect of our lives. For sure, most of us worked in front of our computers more than we used to prior to the pandemic. This is especially true for me ever since I worked full-time as a content writer last year, and briefly as a curriculum developer. This means that I spend more or less ten hours working on my computer, and I would really love to lessen it to protect my eye health. 

     Going back, what's new? There might be a lot of new things or ventures happening in my life now. Most of which aren't even part of my "goals", but I'm grateful for the good ones. Like every other person's life, I also had some bumpy parts. Some of which I'm still coping with as they are emotionally traumatic, and it's not something everyone can understand so I just tend to be quiet about it. 

What's Up?

Yeah, so what's up? Here are some major updates in my life. Feel free to read or not. lol  :)

I've started making fashion earrings.

      A part of me always wanted to create something with my hands, and I find it so liberating to come up with something that I initially just had in mind. If you know me or if we personally often meet, you'll know how much I love wearing earrings. I remember collecting fashion accessories before particularly rings which I have actually blogged countless summers ago. haha Now, I'm conceptualizing and making earrings. This is more of a side hustle or a hobby for now though, but I am happy how this makes me and other ladies happy. I'm not producing or selling my creations in massive quantities as I do this by myself with whichever materials I have. This is also not something I would consider a full-blown business since I have to have a full-time job that would allow me to pay the bills aka Netflix monthly subscriptions. lmao 

      Nevertheless, this makes me so happy and free, and even though I'm aware that this isn't something that would make me rich AF, I'm grateful for the smiles this has given me. Also, this has given me the chance to reconnect with some of my college and high school friends whenever they want to buy a pair from me. This is because I'm only posting my creations using my Facebook account, which is fine with me as I get to know and see that people I personally connected with are wearing my creations. 

I've made a lifestyle blog exclusively made for my city - Cebu City

     One of the things that I love about blogging is that it allows me to share what's good in my beloved city of Cebu while also practicing my creativity by taking photos and scribbling words. This is something that I deeply love and as cliché, as it sounds, it helps relieve my stress. It is also through my humble virtual space that I can express my support to the businesses in the city especially startups/ MSMEs.

     Blogging is not my bread and butter, but it doesn’t matter to me. It is and has always been a means of catharsis for me. I've had so many struggles during the pandemic, especially during its height. I know I'm not alone with it, and despite trying my best to be strong, I couldn't help but worry for my health and for my family. I know that many businesses in my city were also struggling at that time, and I did the best I could to support them by buying local products. This just got more relevant when mobility was limited. Hence, I decided to create a blog that focuses on the good things in my city be it products, people, or events. I find that with the stress that we've experienced, knowing that there are positive things happening around you would definitely help keep hope alive. 

    The best part about running my localized blog is the opportunity to get to know inspiring people within my community and be able to share them. Not to mention, I was able to work with different PR agencies within our city and get to promote homegrown products. Plus, I got invitations to write as a freelancer. Although the gigs I had are not enough to be viable sources of income. I'm grateful for the sense of happiness that it gave me. Please follow Bloom Cebu on Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube.

    Yep, I've tried vlogging but I'm too shy to even share my videos and my editing still sucks so you may not subscribe to my channel! haha!

just a couple of photos I took for local brands in Cebu :)

Looking Ahead

        Looking ahead, one of the goals I have in mind right now is to be able to publish a poetry book. Most of you who have read my blog pre-pandemic when I was active AF here, you may have read some of the poems I have published in this space. As the name of this site suggests, I initially intended to house my poems in this blog. However, as I met new friends and got interested in other areas such as fashion, I've published blogs other than poetry. The book is far from finished and I've selected some poems which I have shared here to be part of the collection. I'm not sure when I can finish it either, but let's hope I will despite having a gazillion of other things in mind. haha

         For this blog though, I plan to add two more categories that I'll be focusing on apart from product reviews. I'll be sharing blogs about health and book reviews. I actually worked as a content writer last year where I write about health and wellness. I cannot of course just share what I have written in this space, but I have learned so much from what I wrote. Since I find health as one of the top priorities in life, given that we are still going through the COVID-19 pandemic, it got me thinking that I should also write and share about wellness here. Of course, it's a delicate topic that requires research so I might not be able to blog about it as often. Same with book reviews, my work gets so much of my time. Adding the crazy traffic in the Philippines where I need to allot 2 to 4 hours to commute, I'm left with little to no time to read in a day as much as I want to. Still, I'm positive about this and would like to share with you my reviews on my favorite books as I slowly add more to my reading list. 

Apart from these things, I don't think much of me has changed. I'm still the same Tine who adores visiting museums, coffee, and flowers. Although, personally, I'm much quiet than I used to be. I get a part of me got used to the part of me who lives in stillness. Not everyone can understand that part of me so let's just say, talking in person is not my hobby at this moment! :) Oh, and I'm slowly trying to get more active in Instagram @scaryredroses so, say hi is you're hanging out in IG! 

Managing Chronic Pain

    When we think of health and wellness, what our minds immediately conjure is our physical health. However, health is multifaceted. This means that for us to be truly healthy, we need to consider the different aspects of wellness including emotional and mental health which are closely linked with each other. As such, long-term conditions such as chronic pain can directly impact the way we achieve holistic wellness. 

     We feel pain when something hurts us that causes discomfort. Often, pain could be a symptom of an underlying disease. While some pain could be easily remediated, there are some that last longer than six months. This is chronic pain that continues even after one has healed from an injury or illness. Basically, it is a type of pain that continues when it should not. 

     There are other people who have suffered from chronic pain without experiencing physical injuries in the past. This is why chronic pain is associated with certain health concerns such as arthritis. Due to its long-term characteristic, chronic pain causes emotional and mental stress including anxiety and trauma of re-injury that could hinder someone from doing an activity they once loved. 

    If you are experiencing chronic pain, know that you are not alone. Globally, chronic pain is the leading cause of years lived with disability. In the United States alone, one in three adults suffers from chronic pain. 

    As chronic pain can bring major stress to your body’s hormones, it can also affect the neurochemicals in your general nervous system including how your brain works. Thus, the intense pain that you feel can affect your daily mood, behavior, and overall outlook on life. This is the reason why many of those who suffer from chronic pain experience depression. In fact, a study published in 2006 stated that more than 70 percent of those who suffer from chronic pain testified to having depression. In a similar study, more than 80 percent reported that they have sleeping issues. 

     Social isolation from feeling depressed and anxious also causes behavioral changes in chronic pain patients. These changes can cause tension in the patients’ personal and professional relationships. All of these can result in the deterioration of social networks that could provide emotional and mental support. 

     The challenges in finding treatments for chronic pain management and mental health issues also contribute to a higher risk of substance abuse and suicide for its sufferers. Certain pain killers such as opioids can obstruct normal cognitive function and regular pain impulse communication. When not taken properly as prescribed by a physician, these drugs can heighten mental health issues. 

    Controlling chronic pain and treating mental health issues can result in pain relief. In addition, these will also improve the patients’ living conditions. It is essential for those in the medical field to understand chronic pain deeply and look for more ways in helping those who suffer from it. 

      Struggling with chronic pain and mental health issues? Doing these might help provide relief to your condition along with prescribed medicines. First, seek help from mental health professionals. Psychotherapy and cognitive training can limit the severity of stress that can make your pain worse. Second, exercise. Physical exercises are not only proven to release “happy” hormones that enhance one’s mood but also act as natural pain relievers. Doing so will both improve your physical and mental health. Lastly, modify your lifestyle. This includes practicing mindfulness and eliminating harmful toxins from your body. This includes choosing healthier food options and maintaining control over your mind and body. 

     Suffering from chronic pain? Whenever possible, take yourself out and enjoy life outside. Do your best not to isolate yourself and surround yourself with people who genuinely support you with your struggles. It is totally normal to feel tired, so do not feel guilty if you need to recharge and rest. Helping those who are going through the same concerns as you do will also widen your perspective in understanding your pain deeply.