Lockdown... A whole year of reflection

Yes, the title illustrates this post as a whole. Also, I promise you, this will be the last time that I talk about COVID-19 and the lockdowns, as I'm sure most people have had enough of hearing those words by now.

However, today of all days, was simply just too important for this topic to go unmentioned, and here's why...

Today, (23/3/21) marks the 1 year anniversary of the EXACT date that the UK got slammed into a full on 'Lockdown' due to COVID-19 killing hundreds of people per day. (23/3/20)

Meaning, we were instructed to "Stay at home" as non-essential, restaurants and education places were forced to close for the foreseeable future. 
    

However, supermarkets and pharmacies had to remain open, as buying groceries and medicine was important for maintaining our well-being and health.

The only time we could leave home, was to go out for daily exercise once a day. (Back then, it was only within walking distance)

                                                                 

How did living in lockdown make us all feel?

I can imagine for most people, it made them feel lonely, bored and frustrated during the 1st month, with not being able to normally socialise with anyone, as well as not being able to go anywhere. To summarise all of the above with one word, we was all experiencing this feeling of "Isolation" as we had to "Stay home".

To share a personal insight with you all, I too, was struggling to cope to terms with being in lockdown for a short while, as I was constantly feeling bored all of the time with being stuck at home. I also didn't like the idea of my freedom being snatched away from me, as I love to go out and explore different places, this includes my education and time with friends face to face being snatched away from me. I eventually got SOOO bored, that I honestly had no idea with what to do with myself during my time in isolation, as I was doing the same routine over and over again. Further explanation in next subheading...

How did I utilise my time in lockdown?

One of the things I did to break my habitual routine, was watching every old episode of Coronation Street from 2008 up towards where I am now. I had to say, I found it very interesting how the cobbles' scenery was so different that long ago!😂 (Still laptop related) I was scrolling up and down the roads of different places on Google Maps to get from A to B. This significantly helped me to get better with my Geography!

Asides from my laptop, I thought I'd improve my cooking, by making a 3-course meal originated from various countries. Also, with cooking puddings too. I actually found cooking very therapeutic afterwards!

During the warm weather, I would sometimes go into my back garden to do a bit of sunbathing, to help me take my mind off the current COVID-19 related news. This also helped me to get my "Relaxation" mood on. Other times, me and my brother would help out in the front garden, by getting rid of all the weed and the bamboo (Don't ask, I had no idea why we had bamboo growing in our front garden?!)🐼😂 Anyway, this was a refurbishment task which we all decided to do, as our front garden was literally looking like a jungle.

Bonus fact: This was the VERY reason why I wanted to create this blog. 1: Because I am very passionate with sharing my psychological knowledge with you all. 2: This is just something which keeps my occupied during my free time.

What have we learned during our time in lockdown?

Ever since day 1 of lockdown, we have learned to help our minds to adapt to this sudden change of how we interact with ourselves, as well as one another from just one household. By doing so, it is very important that we check up on others by texting: "Hey, how have you been doing recently?" This kind of thoughtful message could really make someone's day, by making them think that their friends and family actually still care about them whilst in isolation. This is something which I like to do time and time again, as I am a caring and considerate person.

We have also learned that staying at home, doesn't give us an excuse to sit around and do nothing all day long. In exchange of that, we encourages ourselves to find more ways of unleashing our hidden creativity inside us. You'll never know, this may well could become your new favourite hobby!

Most importantly, we have learned that this ENTIRE nation has the capacity to come together and be willing to help out one another during these dark times. A heart whelming discovery to us all.💗

As of now, a whole year on from our first lockdown, we have been very successful with making the vaccine and giving them out to the public, that I believe half of the UK adults have been vaccinated already!

Thank you ever so much for taking your time to read through. Remember, stay safe and follow the guidelines. Hopefully we'll be out of this tunnel by the 21st of June!🤞 Bye for now.

  

My psychology on Horrible Histories

I somewhat feel like talking about the educational effects about one of my favourite TV shows - Horrible Histories.

Whilst I understand that everyone is not a fan of kids' educational TV shows on CBBC, there is absolutely no need to be criticising other people, (especially grown ups) by telling them that it's "childish". Because, in my opinion, I still find this programme very helpful, as well as very funny in some parts. I'll further explain more into that...

  

Why do I find this programme educational?

In each episode, they talk about a vary of 4 different era's, which all consist from the before 21st century that we live in today.

I like how during these historical topic discussions, they use actors/actresses to do a role play, of what these type of historical people were like back in their century.  Let's talk about the Tudors for example... 

I'm sure most of you may have been taught about them already, so I'll give out a short explanation... They were strict people, who had silly policies. One of them being that you had to poop outside in public. The whole role play idea, makes the show enjoyable in my eyes.

In addition to this question, Horrible Histories have their own sister show, which is called: Horrible Histories Gory Games. It is classed as a kids quiz game show, as the presenter, (Dave Lamb) does 3 quiz rounds with 3 contestants, with added 4 practical games after each round. After, they reveal the earned scores, to see who has the highest. I honestly think, this just proves how successful and educational this programme actually is from what I make of it. I would wholeheartedly recommend it to every kid who want to learn about history, but in a comical way.

How does the presenting make the programme fun to watch?

As I previously mentioned about the acting involved in this programme, they sometimes throw in comedy parts, which encourages the TV audience to see the funny side of the story role play, as they can be silly, as well as interesting to learn more about. Essentially, by making it a family friendly show.  Some of these comedy role play scenes, can be taken from the already popular TV programmes. Such as: Britain's Got Talent, The X Factor, BBC News, The Great British Bake Off and even BBC Sport!

Still in relations to comedy though, there is a puppet rat involved named: Rattus Rattus. He would pop up every now and again during the show role plays, to inform the TV audience about if a told fact really is true? Or if something totally bizarre really did happen back in then?

There are some parts of the show, where he would be on his own in the sewer, explaining to the TV audience about the furthermore interesting facts and trivia on each era. He would then say: "The rat knows all..." This figure of speech, creates a sense of humour towards the kids, to make them think, that animals actually do know everything. This also encourages them to be smarter with their historical knowledge.

  

I mean, who doesn't love a puppeted animal on a kids' TV show?!😂
 

  

   

Well, I think I've summed up all of my points now. Thank you for taking your time to read through. Please feel free to ask me any further questions about this topic or if you have an interest too. I'll be back soon.

How does each colour give you a variety of different emotions?

Hi all, I thought about sharing this psychological fact with you, since I'm currently in the process of building up my thoughts for an upcoming bigger post.

Which consists of how thinking about a certain colour can make you feel like. This is something that I experience a little bit with already. I'll share my examples...

BLUE - chilled, cool, energetic, calm, cold, wet.

RED - evil, scared, love, hot, angry, fierce, blushed.

GREEN - healthy, fresh, wild, environmental, scientific.

YELLOW - happy, cheerful, bright, dangerous, summery.

PURPLE - beautiful, creative, musical, hyper.

PINK - love, girly, (not stereotyped) kind, crazy, sweet. 

ORANGE - Tangy, (food & drink related word)  

GREY - old, misty, depressed, historical, dull. 

WHITE - wintery, clean, plain, confident. 

BLACK - intelligent, sporty, shy, dark. 

BROWN - chocolate, dirty, natured. 

I'll say no more, here's the pictured example for you to glance at. This time, with added branded logos to help expand your imagination and feelings.

That's all for now. Please feel free to let me know if you experience this type of similar thing and I'll be back soon.😊

The psychological benefits of working out regularly

First thing's first, it's been a long while... due to me keeping up to date with my coursework. But with that just said, I thought I'll share a personal insight with you with what I've been keeping myself occupied with these past 6 weeks. Which is planning and physically doing a fitness circuit. 

Why should I talk about my fitness circuit experience?

1. There is psychology involved.
2. You might seem curious about my progress.
3. It may inspire some of you to do the same.

How long have I been doing my circuit for?

I have started from the 18/1/21 and finished on the 5/3/21. Which lasted for 6 weeks. (As this was a 6 week training programme)

What did I have to do?

I had to plan out my own range of exercises from arm, leg, core and cardio on my exel diary. (Also including warm up and cool down) There was additional notes which had to be made to my diary, consisting of sets, reps, recovery and how did I do with the exercises?

In relations to physically doing the circuit, I had to film myself doing these exercises, by using a flat surface to set my phone up on, put a '10 second timer' on my camera so that I get a head-start when doing the workouts. (Yes, I had to take pictures for evidence)

Finally, I had to stopwatch myself doing the WHOLE circuit, which provided time evidence.

What were the psychological factors I encountered throughout my programme?

Even though it seemed like a walk in the park during my first session, I started to feel 'exhaustion' around half way through. This was because I haven't done a 9-exercise circuit in a long while, which explains why my body wasn't adjusting to this 'intensity' feeling just yet... I still had a long way to go... (I had to do 3 sessions a week)

During the 2nd & 3rd sessions, I realized that I had to mentally prepare my mind and body for the upcoming struggles of my 6 weeks worth of fitness, as this whole programme lasts for a long time.

Throughout the 2nd week, I just took every planned exercise in stride, as I knew I was still 'starting small'  to working my way higher and higher. Which all seemed fine. However, come the 3rd week, I was experiencing some 'mental doubts' which kept convincing me that I was never going to fully complete my current exercise, let alone the entire session. This is when my positivness kicked in and said: "You have to keep pushing yourself, just keep focused and work through the difficult process" This is the kind of inner message which really helps me to focus on achieving something.

By the 4th week, I was still learning to adapt to the going getting tough, as the process began to get harder. Plus, now that I was easily managing to do a certain number of reps - without breaking sweat, I wanted to increase them up by 5 more reps, to set a higher challenge for my current physical and mental strength.

The 5th & 6th week, was progressed with ensuring my mind to keep focused on the tougher workouts ahead, now that my newly improved muscular endurance had finally accomplished with the small steps. I kept on saying to myself: "Just keep going, pain is all part of the working out process" Fun fact for you guys: The more pain you feel when working yourself out, the stronger you will become. This is both physically and mentally.

At the end of every session, I always get this relived feeling that I've managed to complete the whole thing, as well as every single exercise. All thanks to my inner mentality for helping me to thrive in these workouts, by telling me to keep focused and the beneficial hard working abs I shall be eventually rewarded with, whilst working hard!

Were there any changes to my body throughout?

Not much, but I was apparently told by my mum that I lost weight. (I don't know exactly how much

though)                                                     

*These pictures were taken on my first day - 18/1/21 to my last day - 5/1/21. This is to show evidence of the difference 6 weeks has. Like I said, not much other than the slight weight loss, but I noticed my thighs got narrower*

 

Small conclusion: Working out is good for you, as it helps you to feel more powerful.

Thank you very much for taking your time to read through. It seems like my long disappearance wasn't a waste of time after all!😂 

Please do feel free to let me know about a similar working out process which you've experienced.

I'll try to post sooner, if I can.