₦airaland Forum

Popular Fashionista and enterpreneur, Toke Makinwa graces the cover of Essays of Africa Magazine for the month of December. This cover marks the start of Toke Makinwa’s 6-month promotional book tour for her soon-to-be-released memoir, ‘On Becoming’. Toke’s book tour will roll out with a Book Launch in Lagos, Nigeria on the 27th of November and quickly after South Africa, Kenya, United Kingdom and United States.

‘On Becoming’ goes on release on the 28th of November 2016 and will be available in bookstores across Africa as well as on online platforms as Kindle, Amazon, OkadaBooks and others.

Essays of Africa magazine is a South African women’s lifestyle magazine that prides itself on giving African women across the continent a voice.

http://sobolation.com/toke-makinwa-dazzles-as-she-covers-for-south-africas-essays-of-africa-magazine/

http://sobolation.com/video-yemi-alade-trey-songz-emtee-others-follow-me/

lalasticlala

Yemi Alade teams up with Trey Songz alongside Emtee, Rema and Serge Benaryud for a massive collaboration produced by DJ Maphorisa.

The track which is titled “Follow Me”, was performed for Coke Studio South Africa.

Watch the steamy debut performance of the track.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bdasoZHqZo

Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick are back again for the umpteenth time! They have been on and off over the course of their relationship and people and gossip mongers no longer take them serious as a couple. The 37-year-old and 33-year-old reality stars are living together once again, according to People Magazine.

An inside source revealed that the exes are reportedly getting along well and Kourtney Kardashian ‘seems very happy”. The insider also revealed that she wants to have another baby and “definitely wants four kids.”

Kourtney and Scott last separated in July 2015 and they both have three children: Mason, 6, Penelope, 4, and Reign, almost 2.

http://sobolation.com/kourtney-kardashian-and-scott-disick-are-back-together-after-being-separated-since-2015/

Well, hell finally froze over. Although unofficial, Donald Trump has just been elected as the 45th President of the United States and has pulled off probably the biggest political upset in United States history. The pollsters were wrong, the media was wrong, social media was SO wrong; Hilary Clinton did not become the historic first female president of the United States. We basically have another Brexit on our hands.

How did we get here, you ask. How could someone who has been described as a xenophobe, misogynist, racist, sexist brash, rude person become the leader of the greatest democracy in the world? He was even accused of sexual harassment and rape. Quite simple! He portrays what quite a lot of White American voters feel but are too ashamed to voice out publicly. These same feelings that made them lie to pollsters about their political leanings and give a false sense of security to the Clinton camp.

In a previous article I cautioned American voters about the error of voting for a candidate based on the idea of being a lesser evil and not based on who would be a great leader. Apparently the issue of the email scandal ( one that has been overblown in my opinion) make Hillary too untrustworthy to put into the highest political office, so voters settled for someone with NO political experience over someone with over 3 decades worth.

Well, the die has been cast and the people have voted; they have a new POTUS. Sad as I am for Hillary for the unhappy culmination of hard work and preparations, I can only hope that Donald Trump can indeed give the people what they long for. With the Republican party now in control of the Senate, House of Representatives, Majority of Governors, Supreme Court Pick AND the Presidency, Trump certainly has his work cut out for him, seeing as he won’t have so much opposition to his policies as opposed to if Democrats were in control.

One thing this election has taught us however, is that nothing can be predicted now with a high level of certainty. It is quite possible that the office of President can mature Donald Trump and make him a calmer, more diplomatic person than the personality we have been forced to witness over the past 18 month. He might even surprise those terrified of deportation and stricter immigration policies and either leave them as they are or make them less stringent.

Americans and the rest of the world can only wait with bated breath for the coming months when Trump assumes office to see what tricks he has up his sleeves to ‘Make America Great Again’.

http://sobolation.com/can-u-s-president-elect-donald-trump-really-make-america-great-again/

lalasticlala

Regardless of what you are going through, remember that you have only one life to live. There’s something special that you alone are capable of bringing to life.
Don’t give up on yourself, even if you feel that things aren’t going your way. Even if others don’t acknowledge you, always endeavour to make a difference wherever you find yourself.

Don’t miss out on your own life. Do something that reminds you of being alive; Create impact.
Live a life that has meaning and value to you. Learn to live above the opinions of others. Live full, die empty.

You have greatness within you.

Cheers!

http://sobolation.com/monday-motivation-you-have-greatness-within-you/

lalasticlala

1. Consider the other person’s needs and interests.

Myrna Marofsky was right when she said “people have a remote control in their heads today, if you don’t catch their interest, they just click you off”. Ask any successful business owner, they’ll tell you that the only two things people ever buy is solutions to problems and good feelings. If your products, ideas or proposals are not in line with their needs or interests of the people you are trying to persuade, you are bound to fail.

2. Win yourself over

In How to win customers and keep them for life, Michael Leboeuf says ‘the most persuasive person in the world is the one who has a fanatical belief in something, i.e you’re obsessed with a belief, idea, concept, product, service or whatever you want to sell. I mean when you’re in love with and belief passionately in it, then conveying your idea with conviction will come very easy. The greatest person you’ll ever persuade is you.

3. Focus on the benefit

What does the other person have to gain? How will what you’re trying to persuade them to do affect their situation or help them get better? What benefits would they derive? What good feelings and positive outcome will result from taking the action. Find out what these are and load them with the benefits. No one cares about your opinions and offers. When people take actions, they do so for their reasons, not yours or mine.

4. Appeal to the person’s emotions

We are emotional being which means we rely more on emotions than logic in making decisions. Most people do things because of how they feel or how they are likely to feel. If what you’re trying to pit across invokes emotional responses from the person, then you have won.

5. Do some showbiz

Who has benefited from your ideas before? What are the testimonials you have? Share with the person you’re trying to persuade. Of your idea hasn’t benefited anyone in the past, you can easily persuade someone else to try it out.

http://sobolation.com/how-to-persuade-anyone-to-do-anything-anytime/

Before the great civil rights movement of the 1960’s, America suffered immensely from racial discrimination. Black Americans lived with gross inequalities in housing, education, medical services and employment. Segregation was their way of life.

It was in the midst of such a racial disparity that Martin Luther King Jr rose up as a powerful leader of the Civil Rights movement and on the 28th of August, 1963, he made his historic “March on Washington” speech; “I have a dream”. The speech was so compelling, it was credited with a teeming population of desegregation supporters and prompted the 1964 civil rights that outlawed discrimination based on race, religion, color, sex or national origin. He convinced America to take the best decision for her. The power of persuasion!

Maybe you’re not trying to start a civil rights movement, you’re only trying to woo a lady, convince a customer to patronize you, persuade your daughter to take a beneficiary course or spur people to action with your engaging newsletter; the principles of persuasion are the same.

If you do these five things, you’ll sell Ice to an Eskimo.

lalasticlala

As you read this post, you’re probably engaged in a few other things; maybe catching up on your favorite TV show, babysitting your neighbours daughter and sipping a glass of cola. The problem is people often misconceive multitasking as a great way to make the most of their time but research has proven that the opposite is true.

Multitasking requires that you shift your focus back and forth. It slows down productivity, dampens creativity, increases errors, stresses you out, affects your memory, hurts your relationships, hampers your health and you miss on the tiny moments that make life beautiful.

According to a 2016 University of California, Irvine study, as much as people would like to believe otherwise, humans have finite neutral resources that are depleted every time we switch between tasks, which especially for those who work online happen up to 400 times a day. That’s why you feel tired at the end of the day; you’ve used them up!

Multitasking as Joanne Tombrakos defined is great in the kitchen when you’re trying to time the chicken to be ready at the same time as the potatoes but do not assume it is a great way to organize a work day.
To maximize your time to accomplish more, do the following:

Plan

Living your life without a plan is plan is like watching TV with someone else holding the remote control. To get the most of your time, draw a plan, why to do,when and stick to it. If you don’t have time to plan, do you have time to waste?

Prioritize

Managing your time without setting priorities is like shooting randomly and calling whatever you hit the target says Peter Turla. Itemize all your ‘ to-dos’ and accomplish important tasks first, then work your way down to accomplish less important tasks.

Complete tasks one after the other

It looks like a longer process but you never know how effective that until you try doing it. Minimize multitasking.

Avoid Distractions

Distractions can come in form of unplanned events, urgent calls and crash programs. Do all you can to stick to your plan. Menhor Con Braun observed that crash programs fail because they are based on the theory that with nine pregnant women, you can have a baby in a month.

Take a break

Our bodies have natural “work and rest cycles” built into them. When your body gives you warning signs to take a break, don’t ignore and try to complete tasks. Taking a break from time to time allows your body to recuperate and make itself stronger. Listen to music, see a movie, play games, dance, take a walk, talk to a friend, do anything that relaxes.

Master yourself

This requires knowing your most productive hours and work situations. The secret to time maximization is to focus on getting more important tasks done in your most productive hours.

The dos and don’ts include

- Quit smoking: this increases the risk of oral cancer and stains the teeth.

- Avoid alcohol: alcohol weakens the enamel and also increases the risk of oral cancer

- Avoid sugary and stick foods: these are great breeding grounds for the bacteria which eat into the enamel. They should be greatly reduced.

- Eat crunchy foods like apples and carrots. These aid in cleaning up the teeth of sticky foods.

- Eat a balanced diet: A balanced meal contains many of the bacteria fighting nutrients needed by the body.

- Eating right helps in living right.

- Replace your toothbrush every three months

A smile speaks volume, and a beautiful smile is incomplete without a clean dentition. Protecting your smile increases and maintains its beauty. Protecting your smile and protect your life.

1. Brushing Twice Daily

Brushing at morning and night avoids the layers of bacteria and other microorganisms which eat into the enamel, causing cavities. The enamel is a covering which protects each tooth, and once eaten into, leaves the tooth defenseless. Brush twice daily, and spend about two minutes at every session, not rushing through it. Brush every surface, and your tongue too.

2. Having A Flouride Toothpaste And Mouthwash

Flouride protects the enamel, and thereby helps to further protect your teeth. Your toothpaste should contain about 1,350-1,500ppm of flouride. A make-do mouthwash can be done at home, consisting of salt and warm water. It should be gargled with after every brushing and flossing.

3. Flossing

Flossing gets rid of the food particles your toothbrush may not get to because they are lodged between the teeth. Get a packet of tooth floss and floss daily, preferably after the night brushing and before the night gargle with a mouthwash. Floss between every teeth as convenient as is possible.

4. Visiting Your Dentist

If you notice the slightest trouble or pain with your teeth, visit your dentist and don’t wait till it gets worse. Also, with or without a problem, visit your dentist every six months.

Your dentist’s routine may involve:

Inspecting your teeth
Cleaning the surface of each tooth
Scraping any hard, built-up plaques

http://sobolation.com/protect-your-smile-routines-for-healthy-teeth/

A smile sends across a message, and a beautiful smile tells much more. A beautiful smile is more than a perfect dentition. One’s dentition is dependent on different factors including genes, but a great dentition with poor hygiene gives an ugly smile which can be unsightly.

A healthy mouth avoids embarrassing situations like mouth odours and promotes confidence, not to mention avoiding the pain associated with tooth cavities, tooth decay, gum diseases or oral cancer.

In protecting our smile, we protect our lives too. To protect your smile, you need to have a routine, give the dentist time for his own routine, know the dos and don’ts, and eat right.

Your routine involves:

lalasticlala

Statistics have it that shyness is more prevalent among ladies than the men; yet to some guys, shyness is a major stumbling block they can’t seem to move past.

I know of one very cowardly guy, who several years back, lived in my neighbourhood. David was an eccentric guy that was always by himself; he had no girlfriend and scarcely hung out with other guys.

We had a party in our area one time that made me realize how bizarre he was. He sat at a distance, far away from everyone, with large earphones that suggest that he didn’t want anybody around. My sanguine curiosity moved me to strike a conversation with him and I ended up wishing I didn’t. His erratic and monotonous replies, then his shifty eyes put me off completely. We later moved to another neighbourhood and I lost contact with him.

Several years after, I bumped into David in a mall and we got talking. He appeared more outgoing and cheerful than what I knew him to be, leading us to connect from there and become intimate. It was then that he disclosed to me that he really liked me back then, but was too chicken-hearted to clue me up. He fitted perfectly into the definition of most of shy guys. These guys feel anxious in social situations and they are particularly anxious around girls, especially the ones they find attractive. Their social life in general and dating life in particular look gloomy.

When I asked him how he got over his timidity, what he shared impressed me and I believe it can guide any shy guy who wants to overcome themselves and socialize

1. He identified his limiting beliefs and thought patterns

For Dave, it was fear of the rejection that kept him to himself but everything changed when he was able to put his finger on that.

2. He challenged and corrected the limiting thought patterns and beliefs.

In Dave’s case he was able to realize that the confidence is not that “they will like me” , but the confidence is “even if they don’t like me, I am fine”.

3. He joined a social organization. That was when his transformation became deep-seated. He spent time with social people performing social activities.

4. He worked on his self-image: He focused on his strengths and passions and that boosted is self-esteem.

5. Then he stopped taking himself too seriously. He learned to laugh at himself and to move on when he made mistakes. He realized that he doesn’t need to be perfect all the time because no one is.

If you are a guy, whose shy and introverted nature is making you miss out on a lot of things, including a relationship with the girl of your dreams, these few tips might help you on your mission for a whole new social YOU!

Try it out and give me some feedback in the comments section!

http://sobolation.com/love-101-from-shy-to-social/

lalasticlala

The global recession has struck a big blow to the Nigerian financial sector and economy and displaced many individuals and businesses. The crash in the value of Naira, chronic inflation of prices of goods and services and total show down of the economy has kept everybody wondering what the way forward is. People are whining and complaining everywhere; public vehicles, market places, malls, on the streets etc. But I’d like to quickly drop something here. The economic recession is a global thing and its a waste of time beating ourselves over what we can do little or nothing about.

To survive this economic meltdown, we should do the following:

1.Be positive

Positive things happen to positive people. We can’t afford to slouch our shoulders and give up. We got to keep hoping and keep believing and like Americans, keep saying “God bless Nigeria”

2. SPEND YOUR MONEY HERE.

That’s one thing you can do to favour the economy. One lesson to learn from the Jews considering the prosperity of their lands is that all the money made by Jews stay within their nation. Let’s keep and spend our money here.

3. CUT YOUR EXCESSES

This is not the time to impress people with excessive spending or keep up with the Jones’. Buy only necessary things till this phase fades away.

4. MAYBE IT’S TIME TO STOP SAVING
The Naira has diminished in value, it is foolish to save in this financial mess. Invest money instead where you can get returns.

5. DON’T STOP HOPING AND DON’T STOP BELIEVING.

http://sobolation.com/5-ways-to-survive-the-recession/

lalasticlala

EAT

Turkey

You can’t eat chicken but you can eat turkey— that’s funny, because they are like siblings! Turkey will actually help you to fall asleep faster because it contains tryptophan, an amino acid that gives you better sleep because it regulates body rhythm and helps your mood. Isn’t turkey lovely!

Banana

This awesome fruit helps your body in a lot of ways. As evening food, it regenerates your muscles due to the magnesium and calcium it contains. When your muscles are revitalized and relaxed, that’s how to have a good night without being told.

Milk

Children love milk and that’s one of the reasons they sleep well. The same amino acid in turkey, tryptophan, is found in milk. It relaxes your body and gives you that everything-is-cool feeling. Drink milk, sleep better.

Rice

This is what I have been waiting for too! Rice is a carbohydrate-containing food and it’s everywhere every time. Combine this famous grain with any protein (turkey, egg, etc.) and have a nice meal before bedtime. Rice releases glucose into your blood stream and reduces the amount of sleep you need. Let the rice business continue!

Note: Ensure a 2 to 3-hour interval between eating and sleeping for easy digestion and revitalization.

http://sobolation.com/are-your-meals-affecting-your-sleep/

Having a happy night’s rest is non-negotiable for all of us. Nobody wants to keep rolling from side to side or counting the obvious number of ceiling slabs in their room. Apart from stress and other phenomena, the food we eat before bedtime is absolutely important to having or not having sound sleep.

The food products we consume have components that will determine how much we enjoy our sleep at night (or otherwise). Thus, we’ll look at four food products to avoid before bedtime and four with good records.

AVOID

1. Chicken

So yummy, right? The taste of chicken is one of the best in the world, but you should avoid the temptation at night if you want to sleep well. Chicken contains a large amount of protein that won’t digest for a while. This will keep your body struggling to carry out all the processes of digestion when it should be resting. How dare you sleep when your body is still working!

2. Alcohol

We know alcohol intoxicates and makes people sleep, but it is a diuretic agent that makes you run to and from the toilet. Drinking anything alcoholic increases your chance of getting your bladder filled at every short interval and the only solution apart from getting up is to pee on your bed. You wouldn’t want to do that, right?

3. Hot spices

Your hot spices (pepper especially) can pull a stunt on you while you try to sleep well at night. Hot spices cause heartburn, and that’s not what you want to have on any night. Reduce or avoid hot spices before you sleep so your body can relax and your head can give you good dreams.

4. Chocolate

Chocolate is good for your body, but don’t eat it before you go to bed, especially dark chocolate. Caffeine and theobromine in chocolate will increase your heartbeat, your nervous system will become more active than necessary and sleep will elude you like a leper. Thus, you say bye to sleep and embrace insomnia.

What do you think

Have you experienced one?

Breakups come with the most traumatic feelings that turn the memory of a loving relationship into nightmares that haunt us.

“Isn’t it funny how the memories you cherish the most before a break up can become your worst enemies afterwards? The thoughts you love to think about, the memories you want to hold up to the night and view from every angle. It suddenly seems a lot safe to lock them in a box far from the light of day and throw away the key” – Allie Condie

Here are the eight things that make break-ups so unbearable and hurting:

Realizing that you will never be comforted by the person that caused you pain. Your partner might have been someone you are used to confiding in when you are faced with difficulties and hurdles. Right now, the pains you are experiencing is coming from them and they can no longer comfort you like they used to.

2. Having to go separate ways with someone you’ve shared some of your most special moments with is quite painful. If some of your stuff are with him/her and they have to pack; that really hurts too.

3. The reason for the break up can also be very painful, especially if the circumstances surrounding it are ugly. Whether they moved on with someone else, you had a fight or you simply weren’t compatible, it hurts a lot, even if it came for you.

4. When your ex-partner is dating someone else and they update it on social media. For instance when they change their Facebook status to single or they upload happy pictures with their new partners.

5. When you see other happy couples together it reminds you of the happy times you shared and you can’t believe it’s all over. The hurt of a break-up doesn’t happen once and for all especially if you shared a meaningful relationship with your partner; it revives sometimes like fresh wound.

6. When you stay in touch with your ex-partner but realize you can’t be close to them like you used to.

7. When you have to do the things or go to some places on your own that you do or go with your partner, when you were still together. Each time you have to do those things or visit those places, the realization that you’re no longer with the person stares at you in the face.

8. When you keep in touch with their friends and family and then can no longer relate with them like you used to.
My simple advice is this: Move on and don’t let those memories hold you back. Better things await you in the future.
[b]
“the past is always tense, the future perfect” – Zadie [/b]smith

http://sobolation.com/the-hard-part-of-relationship-break-ups/

lalasticlala, dominique