How to unwind during the Christmas holidays

Happy Saturday everyone! Now that it's officially the Christmas holidays, it's also that time of year where I try to do my upmost to just chill out, unwind & focus on the being in the present moment. Especially where the Christmas period is all about spending time with the people you love.

As the above title states, I will be sharing some useful tips on how to unwind during the Christmas holidays, as this is an important time of year to take care of your mind & wellbeing, so you will be able to reset for the new year.

These tips are what personally helps me to unwind during the festive period, so my mind & wellbeing feel refreshed for the next year ahead. For anyone reading who find it difficult to unwind during the festive period, do at least a few of these tips to help you, as you too can feel refreshed & ready to tackle the next year ahead!

Go out for a walk once a day: 

I know I have droned on about this in my past blogs a lot of times a few years back, but walking is genially good for your physical & mental health combined. There is proven evidence that states that you must try to go out on a 30min walk everyday where & when possible, as 30mins will be enough time to get your happy endorphins up to a satisfactory level. I personally like to be out walking for a WHOLE DAY, as this gives me enough time to clear my mind of negative thoughts, as well as numb my mind from all of the negativity. Here are some useful resources: https://www.verywellhealth.com/walking-30-minutes-a-day-8748945 https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/exercise/walking-for-health/ 

Make some festive treats:

What better way to contribute to the festive cheer then to make festive treats! I love baking in my down time whenever I get the chance. I especially love baking cakes! It's a good way to occupy your time if you have some free time for a few hours during the daytime. Plus, there's no better rewarding feeling than eating your own treats afterwards!

Have regular communication with friends & family:

Many people will be stuck at home during the festive period, so this would definitely be a good & convenient time to keep in touch regularly with those you care about. Especially if they're working throughout the Christmas break, or if they're finding it hard to cope due to Christmas being their least favourite time of year.

Do something that you enjoy doing:

If you suddenly end up feeling bored, and have no idea what to do with yourself, just do something that that makes you happy. If you happen to have a continuous hobby, go for it for as long as you want to, as utilising your hobbies will help distract your mind from being stuck in the hellish trap, known as "boredom".

Enjoy the present moment:

During this time of year, it is important that you take each day as it comes, and to just simply enjoy the present moment. After all, it is important that you reflect on how you have intended on spending the Christmas break, as it only comes around once a year, and there's personally no better feeling than enjoying every moment on the fantastic things you are doing during the festive period. Especially getting to reflect on how fantastic it went after New Year!

As mentioned before, these are the tips that I personally find helpful on how to cope during the Christmas holidays, and hopefully it'll inspire you to do the same too.

I know that Christmas may not be everyone's favourite time of year, but how YOU choose to spend it by doing the things that YOU love doing, will make all the difference.

With that said, I'd like to take this moment to wish everyone reading this a Happy Christmas, and a Happy New Year, as I won't be back blogging on here until early next year.

If I had to sum up 2025 in just 1 word, it'll definitely be - Monumental.

I say this, as I've done SO many things all within a short space of 12 months. It feels more monumental even just thinking that I've done & achieved so many things within a short space of 12 months too. 

Whilst there may have been some downers in between (Especially over the past 3 months), it still doesn't undermine the fact that 2025 was a year full of successes!

Now, if y'all excuse me, I'm off to enjoy the remainder of this "monumental" year by doing what I enjoy doing, and allowing my mind to reset for the next year ahead. 

Over & out!🤚🏻

*I began this post on the 20/12, but didn't finish it until the 21/12*

5 whole years of Psychology Intake!

Hello everyone! Hope you've all been well, and making the most out of the last 16 days of 2025. I know I am.

As the above title states, my blog is officially 5 years old! (Well, as of the 12th of December). I was supposed to do this blog on the Friday just gone, but I had something on that day, which prevented me from being active on here. Anyway, I got time today, so 3 days late isn't too bad!

In this special blog, I just want to take a moment to reflect on why I wanted to start a blogging site, as well as what my intentions are with being a blogger & the content I create with all things psychology.

What was my reason for creating this blog? 

Back in 2019, I started growing a passionate interest for psychology. As of such, I began reading psychology articles to feed my brain with psychology facts. Fast forward onto 2020, where I had spent a large chunk of my time being at home, I wanted to gain a more deeper knowledge of psychology by doing a few courses on The Open University. 

And my learning thirst didn't stop there... My mind was craving after more psychology articles. By the 12th of December of that year, I plucked up the courage to create my own blogging site based on my growing passion for psychology. So here we are!

Did I want to use psychology towards anything?

Yes, I did. I want to be able to use psychology to work with people & their mental health. Although I wanted to go through a psychology degree at a university. Back then, I had to go through 3 courses at college to get towards studying a psychology degree at university. In other words, I was 3 years away from getting to that stage. During these 3 years, I have learned about the importance of exercising to uplift mental health & wellbeing, conformity, conditioning & Maslow's Needs.

However, 3 months prior to leaving college, all of that changed... I ended up not going the university route to undertake a psychology, as I was told by one of my college tutors that all it will be, is a subject on a piece of paper in a glass frame when I graduate. Instead, I went down a different route...

And that route was getting to work in education, as well as expanding my skills & morals into youth work. All in all, I'd definitely say that me inheriting all of this psychology knowledge & facts was 110% worth it! This is because I get to use it as a superpower to understand young people's behaviour. With that said - Goal achieved!🎉  

The waiting game...

Hello you lovely lot! Hope you're all enjoying you week so far, as we've only got 3 more weeks left of 2025...

As of such, I'm trying my absolute hardest to relax & take it easy for the remainder of this month. This is due to no LSA work coming in now until after New Year. I like to say that it's been easy for some part, but other times, it's been emotionally exhausting & frustrating.

As a consequence, my mind always feels the need to keep busy to prevent me from being bored. This is just another thing I find incredibly frustrating about being an Agency LSA, in case if I've not mentioned that already.

For example: I can get a phone call from an agency on one day about me being available to be needed to work in a school for the next day or so. However, come the next day at precisely 7:30am the next morning, I get no phone calls whatsoever?! At around this time, I'll be calling the agency up to ask them if I'm still needed to work in the school today. But then they don't answer their phone, or I just get told that I'm no longer needed to work at the school anymore. Even though I've made every ounce of effort to be on "standby" just in case.

In my case, this is EXACTLY what has been going on for the past 2 months now, and frustrated would be an understatement to describe how I had felt throughout all of this malarkey. Hence, this blog's title - "The waiting game". And my intention for this post is to share this experience of constantly being put on hold by recruiters from several agencies, when they keep telling you that they will put you in a LSA job the following day('s), but they keep on leaving you out to dry but not contacting you in any way at all.

I get that there is hardly work now in the 3 weeks running up to Christmas, but to not be contacted by any agency to keep me updated on what sort of jobs I can start in the New Year is really grinding my patience down.

Any Agency LSA's reading this, or anyone working in a similar industry, I'd be very interested to hear if you've been through what I've been going through as well over the past 2 months.

Over & out.

A year into working in education...

It's somehow the 1st of December already?! Which can only mean a few things... Christmas is on its way! As is my birthday (the big 25 coming up in 28 days😬), New Year & more importantly, the 5th anniversary of this blog being created! (I'll be sure to do a post on that😉)

Anyway, hope this final month of 2025 has gotten off to a good start for you all, whatever you're doing. I fortunately had the day to myself today, so that means I'll be able to make a post on here.

This was another post I was meant to do a couple of weeks ago, as it marks 1 whole year of me working in education, (8th of November 2024 to be more priciest).

As of such, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on my journey. This also will include what I've learned, what I've enjoyed & the downsides of being an agency LSA, if I've not mentioned them already.

Since I began college, I've always wanted a career where I can work with young people to understand their mindsets. It was there & then that I've wanted to go down a psychology degree route. Although at that stage, I was a few years away from considering about going to university to undertake a psychology degree. 

Fast forward onto March 2023, when I was 3 months away from finishing college, and where I got the job as a Saturday Youth Worker at Challengers, I got talked out of going to university by one of my college tutors. Half of the reason was because he went to university himself, and told me face-to-face that the university experience is really not as people make it out to be. He also added that obtaining a psychology degree would not mean anything by the time I've finished uni. 

Fast forward again onto November 2024, where I've gained over a year's experience of being a Youth Worker to vulnerable young people, I decided to apply to lots of LSA jobs through CV Library. I'll tell you what, I was very impressed with the fact that one agency was very quick at getting back to me within just 24 hours! 

Here I am a year on, and I'm sat here with all of this more in-dept knowledge of some SEN needs that I've never heard of before or not have much experience of working with SEN needs that I do know of. For example, SEMH is definitely one of them. I'm sat here typing this, where I feel like I'm an expert with understanding SEMH, as I've gained so much experience & knowledge of how SEMH impacts a young person. As most of you know by now, I am best known for working at a SEMH school for 6 months, where I've found a fond passion of working with vulnerable young people who have experienced trauma in their early stages of life.

I have also worked in other education settings as well, where I got to put my expertise knowledge of SEMH, ASD & ADHD into good use. However, these have only been a couple of days here & a couple of days there kind of jobs, but it was still an enjoyable experience to get to work with different pupils with a variety of different SEN, as well as learn about how all of those SEN impacts these pupils nonetheless!

For those of you who are interested, here is a FULL list of all of the education settings that I have worked in over the past year:

• Bramley Oak Academy (for 1 day)
• Grafham Grange (now Bramley Grange Academy for 6 months)
• Gosden House (for 1 day)
• Merrist Wood College SEN department (1 week)
• Leith Hill School (3 days)
• Carwarden House (3 days)
• Pond Meadow (1 day)
• Brooklands School (1 day)
• Hollywater School (1 day)
• St Joseph's Trust (2 days)

I will be upfront & honest here by saying that I do find it frustrating that a few agencies I am now registered with, do not give me enough support when it comes to being placed into a school, where I intend to get more permanent work in. Especially if I really get on with the school & its pupils with needs that I have expertise in working with. Another thing I dislike, is where I will be specific to an agency that I do not want to be placed anywhere that I have little experience in. Biggest example would be in a school with non-verbal pupils. But they'll still do it anyway, all because they care about filling in staff gaps just so they can make their money for the day.

On a more positive note, I definitely like to think that I've been really successful in this industry so far! Especially how I've chosen not to go down the university route just for the purpose of getting a paper psychology degree at the end of it that doesn't mean much now in the career route I'm currently going down.