Conversations In The Community Review + Key Takeaways (A MIND accredited online course)

Hello all! As the above title states, I will be distributing what I have learned, as well as include some key takeaways/points from an online course that I have managed to complete recently.

A little backstory for you here, I was working at my MIND store one day back in July, and I happen to glace up at a poster which was advertising an online course associated with MIND. Me, being the curious-minded person I am, only decided to scan the QR code on the poster to see what the said course (in the above title) was all about. Then me, also being the scatter-brained (sometimes) person that I am, only managed to get through 1/5 modules the next day, before ending up not getting around to doing it again until a week ago.  

*This was the only convenient picture I could find on the internet*

What was the online course about? Conversations In The Community is purely about educating people about the best ways of beginning, flowing & ending conversations with other people. And this can be having a conversation with anybody at all, regardless if they are struggling with their mental health or not. Moreover, this course goes into fish tank depth about the pros & cons of forming a conversation with somebody in the community. (I'll bullet point them later in this post)

How did the online course provide me with useful information? The online course provided me with a lot of tips of how to make a good & effective conversation. The information had also stated that it is important to bare in mind no conversation ever HAS to be perfect, as there isn't such thing as a 'perfect conversation'. The useful tips had included respecting the person's or your own boundaries, never ask leading questions, always remind the person that your there for them & try to show interest.

Would I feel more confident about starting my own conversations In the community? In a word, definitely! To further extend my reasoning, I will now remind myself to always begin a conversation to anyone by using open questions, like: "Hiya, how has your day been today?" or "Hey, how has life been for you lately?"

What are the pros & cons of forming conversations?

Pros:

• Finding a suitable environment
• Allowing the person to take their time
• Asking open questions
• Reminding the person you'll be always be there for them
• Respecting your person's privacy 
• Giving yourself an appropriate time

Cons:

• Being insulting
• Comparing your person's struggles to everyone else's
• Asking leading questions that will make your person feel uncomfortable 
• Not showing interest
• Violating your person's privacy
• Not going through the flowing & ending process in the conversation

What have I learned? As I have mentioned earlier, I have learned that any form of conversation doesn't NEED to be perfect, as long as I make the effort to actually make any form of conversation at all. And as long as the person I am having a conversation with is satisfied with everything, then I will be more than happy.

I have also learned that conversations are more effective when you allow your person to have their preferences. This is to provide them with empowerment that will make them feel comfortable & secure prior to a conversation. An example of this could be allowing your person to convey the conversation in a wide open green space, where they feel more comfortable by knowing that nobody else is going to invade the private conversation.

Finally, I have learned that you are entitled to setting your own boundaries when it comes to finding the most convenient time to form a conversation with somebody. This is important because you must consider you self-care before thinking about beginning a conversation with somebody. Especially when you know in advance that you are going to be having an emotionally draining conversation with somebody who is fighting depression.

Conclusion: Even though I was inattentive towards the online course when I have first started it back in July, I have found it really interesting & enjoyable throughout when I had eventually got my inattentive self round to getting through the rest of it, and managed to complete it on Wednesday. (The day before my birthday!) After doing the course, I feel more confident about forming conversations with people whenever I go out & about into the community. Although I know in the back of my mind that is easier said than done, as I still consider myself to be a shy person when having a random conversation with anyone out in the community. That being said, I can easily just shrug it off, and just focus on making conversation.

If anybody would like to develop better conversation forming skills when out & about in the community, I definitely recommend doing this course! Direct access link: https://www.conversationsinthecommunity.org.uk/

An introduction to MIND Side By Side

Evening all, and happy Friday! I hope you're all looking forward to celebrating Christmas this year, however you may choose to celebrate it. 

In contrast, it is important to bare in mind that some people out there may not choose to celebrate Christmas due to certain issues they could be dealing with. An example of this could be their mental health. I, for one, can totally relate to this, so I know how it feels to be overwhelmed during the run up to Christmas. Let alone on Christmas Day.

Whilst still on this subject, I have just recently signed myself up to the MIND Side By Side community scheme. Although I have only discovered this community scheme within a short amount of time, I can already provide a useful introduction about it to anyone who is also considering to join up as well.

What is Side By Side? Side By Side is an online community group, where people all over the world can connect with one another. Going into more depth, Side By Side creates a sole purpose of supporting people who are battling mental health. (Myself included)

How does using Side By Side make me feel? Overall, I would say that using Side By Side helps me to feel relieved, by being allowed to express myself freely with other people without any judgement. That being said, I feel like I can relate to other people on the community site by developing an understanding of what they may be going through in terms of their own mental health. Every story is different & interesting to say the least. Whenever I use Side By Side, my mind breathes with relief, as it casually puts itself in timeout by knowing that it is going to get a well deserved break from reality. Making an effort to connect with other users helps my mind to unload all of the piling stress that cannot seem to disappear. This is purely because talking about how you feel to someone helps my mind to get rid of its load of excessive & repetitive thoughts. And in most cases, prevents them from reoccurring.

*I began this post on the 22/12/23, but didn't finish it until the 23/12/23*

How making my own plans can make me feel so productive

Evening everyone! Hope you're having a good week so far.

Just to prewarn you all that this is going to be one of these posts where I just type as I go along. Meaning, it's not scripted beforehand.

The main reason behind this post, (as the above title states) is because I've personally been feeling pleased with myself in terms of my productiveness lately. As a matter of fact, I felt like 2023 has been a brilliant year for me, (and its not often I'd say that about how each year has been for me either) as I've been productive with so many things this year. Let alone get myself involved with new work opportunities, which help towards my future career in the police force.

I know I STILL do have the capacity to lack at plan making due to me sometimes lacking motivation & productiveness. My mind simply likes to zone out wherever possible. Especially on a day where I know full well I'm not going to be doing anything. Hence my "Ugh days". But the 1 thing I've learned about trying to keep myself & my mind as productive as possible by coming up with a continuous flow of plans, (regardless of what they may be) is to look for things to keep myself occupied with.

Again, I feel so thankful to now be in a position where I can do a lot of things to keep myself occupied. Whereas it could be going out to work at my 2 current jobs, going out to do things related to my future job, going out for exercise, travelling, blogging or even just working on a research project on here prior to posting. Looking back at last year, I remember I had experienced so many of my iqouted "ugh days" that I felt like they were taking over my motivation & productivity to do anything. Although I will hold my hands up by brutally admitting that I let it happen. Purely because I was so adamant on not doing anything else besides my L3 BTEC course in Public Services, as I had fears about become distracted of I did.

Happy 3rd Birthday to PsychologyIntake!

Yes, as the title states, I will be taking a brief moment to celebrate 3rs of my blogging site!🎉 I know 3yrs may seem like a short amount of time as the days & months go by, but to me, it feels like it has been an eternity! (Even though it hasn't😂)

Throughout my time as a blogger, (so far) I have:

• Talked about the psychology behind certain things, such as social media influencing
• Talked about how sport & psychology go well together
• Showed pictures of things to talk about my personal perspective behind them
• Spoken up about mental health & its effects 
• Shared my research on neurological disorders, such as ASD
• Liaised my work with LinkedIn 
• Shared my research from other sites, such as Psychology Today 
• Talked about why exercising is good for your mental health (Hence the 310,000 steps challenge in aid of Samaritans)
• Spoken up about the benefits of volunteering (Hence my part-time voluntary vacancies with MIND & Samaritans)
• Shared some personal insight about what I do in my part-time paid vacancy with Disability Challengers (As there is a lot of psychology involved in the job)
• Explored the meanings of quotes to understand the psychology behind them
• Done several research projects

Just to bare in mind, that I listed what I've done so far in no particular order. Mainly because I haven't look back on most of my past blog posts since publishing them, and have therefore had to rely on my muscle memory alone.

Anyway, here's to making loads more creative posts!

A little something for #InternationalVolunteerDay

Good evening everyone! I hope you're all enjoying your week so far. I know that I am 2 days late, but I felt like doing a post based on International Volunteer Day. And since I have a voluntary job myself, I want to provide you with some useful & inspirational insight that will, hopefully, reduce the stereotypical stigma of not being a "proper" or "actual" job just because it doesn't pay you money.

Since the 18th of January, I have been working at a local MIND Charity shop as a shop volunteer, and have enjoyed every second of it to this day.

Not only am I enjoying working for a charity that I am hugely passionate about, but every job I do in the shop helps to go to a well worthy cause, as well as support the community.

Now, some of you might be reading this thinking to yourselves: "Why would you want to do a job that is not earning you money?" Here's my personal response: It's not about the money, it's about working with people in the community who truly benefit from a charitable cause, such as MIND.

Moreover from the above paragraph, having a voluntary job is a great way of getting into employment, as it looks good on your CV. Plus, you also get the chance to learn a lot of new skills & qualities to put on your CV as well! No wonder why paid job employers get impressed when they see it on your CV, as volunteering shows you are all about community & people.

To conclude this post with a personal insight, having a voluntary job, or just any type of voluntary works, helps me to feel good & positive about myself. And for what it's worth, volunteering can go a long way.

The psychology behind I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!

Happy Friday all! I cannot believe we're now in December already?! This only means I can begin the official countdown to Christmas, my birthday & 2024. (They all come at once for me within just 7 days😂 )

Putting that obvious, but irrelevant information aside, I want to do a kind of blog post which I haven't done for as long as I could remember the last time I did so. (As the 3 first words in the above title state)

And because it's also that time of year again, where a certain iconic TV programme invades ITVX (as it's now known as these days) for 4 weeks, I felt like discussing the psychology that lies behind it. Just to pre-warn you all, I will be sharing my thoughts in this post as well.

I'm sure most people can say that I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here is one of the most entertaining programmes to come around every year, as 12 celebrities participate in scary & silly challenges. All of which is set in a remote jungle located in Australia. And the 2 hosts are none other than the Geordie duo, Ant & Dec.

But I ask myself this rhetorical question: "What makes this TV programme so entertaining & popular?" Could it depend on what celebrities go into the jungle? Could it depend on which celebrities do what challenge? Could it be that Ant & Dec are the main hosts? Could it even be the the fans' gossip/opinions on social media? The possibilities are endless.

In my own personal opinion, I would say all of the above. Purely because this TV programme has been running the same way since 2002. (Including when the show had to relocate to Wales for 2 years running due to COVID-19 restrictions)

Whenever I watch a celebrity take on a thrilling challenge on public television, it makes my mind think: "Wow! They are so brave at doing that!" And yes, even the celebrities who do these challenges on IACGMOOH like to think they are hard as nails, just for the purpose of the rest of the public to think that way as well. However, the harsh reality is, that it's easy for any celebrity to forget that they are a human being at the end of the day.

To further extend on that point, they get into this habit of people pleasing by thinking they can do anything, as they chose to go on a popular TV programme to undertake a series of crazy challenges. This is also where they develop this mindset of behaving as if they were Superman or Superwoman, (for all you feminists out there) and that giving up is simply not an option. But if any celebrity ended up having to shout: "I'm a celebrity, get me out of here!" When they feel like they cannot cope with a challenge due to feeling too scared, they just end up feeling guilty afterwards. Again, this is their Superman or Superwoman mindset talking to them by telling them that they should've done better.

I can only imagine the celebrities' thoughts if they were to bother reading the fans' comments all over social media about them...

All in all, IACGMOOH is always, and will always set out to people please. Whether it's aimed at the celebrities taking part or just the public watching at home. Especially if the programme itself is still encouraging social stigma across all media.