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.

Why looking after your mental health is important during the autumn season

Well, October has come around again as quickly as that. Which also means that autumn has officially begun, and those longer nights will be slowly drawing as we head towards winter.

As the title says, I came across this post on the Samaritans Facebook page, and thought that I would share what I have seen on here, so you all can get a glimpse of it as well. Although Samaritans had actually shared the post from another blogging website, called: MentalHealthUK.

Rather than break this bit down into rhetorical question paragraphs, I'll just insert my personal insight, which will explain what I like to do during the autumn period.

First off, I try & make an effort to go out exercising as much as possible during my spare time. This is mainly because I want to keep myself in good shape when the temperature turns colder. But also, I like to do this to keep my mental health in sanity mode.

Whilst on the subject of mental health, I like to keep myself occupied with different things as well. All of which can vary from writing, blogging, drumming, cleaning or even trying out a new hobby. 

It is important to be mindful of your mental health during autumn, as it's easy to just sit back by hardly wanting to do anything at all. To extend this point, this could be down to you suffering from seasonal affective disorder as a result of feeling uninterested in life due to the colder months & those longer nights. This is why keeping yourself busy as possible will help destract you from feeling unactive.

I think that's everything covered for this post now. I hope you've all found this piece of advice beneficial to you, as well as to myself, and I shall hope to publish again sometime next week!

Why facing your fears makes your mind feel more powerful

Hello everyone! This was something that I did with my work colleagues at Challengers this past Saturday. (9/9/23) If you want to find out more, click on this link to view: Basingstoke Team Abseil Spinnaker Tower for Disability Challengers

And because there is psychology involved with facing your fears, I thought about mixing in my facing my fears experience along with talking about the benefits & outcomes in the same post.

*An action shot of me abseiling down Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth, UK*

My personal experience with facing my fears:

Let me tell you, it's not very often that I get to abseil from something that is stood tall at 100m! 

Prior to my abseiling experience with my work colleagues, I have always been jittery about dangling over a height. Hence, I rarely got to do any abseiling at all. What I mean when I say being jittery about heights, is me being up a height where I can look down it. 

However, as soon as I saw the opportunity to sign up to the Spinnaker Tower abseil, in aid of raising money for work, I immediately jumped at the chance. This was mainly because I wanted to challenge myself by abseiling from a height of 100m. Besides, if I didn't do this, I knew I was only going to regret it.

Fast forward to when I was abseiling down the tower, the waiting by the abseiling platform (where I waited to be clipped up to my abseiling rope) was a bit nerve-racking, as I had to wait for 2 of my colleagues to go down first. Once I got the rope clip on process out of the way, I proceeded to position myself onto the tower wall. (Where I was abseiling down) I thought to myself: "The quicker I get going with my abseil, the less time I will have feeling nervous." Although, as a matter of fact, I was actually feeling excited/nervous combined.

The second I hit the floor, I felt so accomplished & mentally powerful that I feel like I can do anything involving heights!

Benefits & outcomes:

As well as debriefing about my personal experience with facing my fears, I will say hands down that being able to face your own fears (whatever they may be) head on, will make you feel more powerful in physical appearance & in mind. With that said, being scared is good for the mindset, as the feeling helps it to grow stronger.

I suppose the overall benefit of facing your fears, would be to do them more often, as if they suddenly became second nature to you. An example of this would be climbing up a 40ft height everyday.

If you've reached this far in reading this lengthy post, all I can say is well done, as well as thank you. And I hope this post has taught you all something new by feeling inspired to go out & face your fears.

Today's quote of the day (Explained)

Well, looks like summer is starting to come to an end... I know that it was a random thing to say, but I felt like saying it anyway!

Moving on, I hope everyone is good & has been keeping productive, whatever that may well be. In my case, I've just been knee deep in work at Challengers Play scheme, as well providing myself with more better work opportunities for myself in the near future. (Something I might mention on here IF I get the job) 

As the above title states, this QOTD shall be dedicated to my current busy lifestyle.

Why does this chosen QOTD speak out to me? Well, this is due to the fact that my mental health always seems to be at its best when I am out & about doing stuff. This would also include my busy life, as I'm pretty much outdoors almost everyday doing something. Most of which are for essential reasons, such as work.

That being said, this would define my high level of physical health, because I like to get out everyday & do stuff. By doing so, helps me to distract myself from boredom. Or to be more specific on that, prevent myself from unnecessary worrying about things that don't need worrying about.

To conclude my explanation, my recommendation for anyone struggling to keep physically & mentally motivated would be to get out everyday & do something. Even if it's only for a walk round your local area, it's still better than doing absolutely noth8ng at all! Plus, this was something I've learnt myself when I did the Samaritans 310,000 steps challenge.

How moral support can feel so positive & rewarding

Evening everyone! I thought about doing 1 of these posts that I literally come up with at the top of my head. And this post shall be linked to what I was doing yesterday.

So, 2 weeks prior, I got an email from the Samaritans Events Volunteer team, asking if I would be happy to cheer on cyclists who were undertaking the RideLondon event. Of course I gladly responded with a yes! I then yesterday headed up to Stratford City, East London, to hunt for the Samaritans cheering point.

This was now my 2nd time I got to volunteer at a major event with Samaritans!

As I arrived at my cheering point by the cycling track at the 95th mileage, I was warmly greeted by all of the rest of the Samaritans Events Volunteers, who clearly looked happy to be giving up their free time to come and cheer on the cyclists in aid of a good cause. I proceeded to get stuck in.

Where we were stood at, we could see that some of the cyclists looked done for the day, let alone done with the race. Our job was to ensure those tired cyclists powered on past us by feeding positive & motivational words into their mindset. Doing so served a single accomplishment of keeping those cyclists going through the pain barrier.

Without that hard-core moral support, those cyclists wouldn't be going anywhere, as they won't have any verbal fuel from cheerers to motivate their mindsets to accomplish something big as cycling 100 miles across London. This is why I think it's important that charities come together to bring their support for people doing challenging sporting events, as these people don't do them for nothing.

Now, some of you could be wondering why the hell I was at a major event up in London. It's not like I was up there just for the fun of it. Or just to see the cycling event. This was something that I had chose to be a part of, because I wanted to be involved with a charity I am passionate about. Plus, I genuinely feel positive when it comes to doing things for a community.

*This position wasn't where I was standing with the Samaritans stall*

How does reading make people open their eyes to the world?

Finally got a day to myself today!  I was originally going to publish this on Sunday, but I never got round to doing it in the end.

Anyways, I took a short trip to Farnborough on Saturday, I happen to stumble upon The Works store, so I had a look around and that's when I discovered the book area... I've gotta admit, that book area had some decent books. As of such, I even read through the ones I liked the look of. 

Whilst enjoying my momentarily reading session, it got me thinking long and hard... There is more to life than just playing console games, wearing popular sport clothing and wearing expensive trainers. (As a person who used to vaguely relate to this, I feel like I need to make myself heard for others to listen)

My perspective from reading:

These were my thoughts when I got lost reading a few educational books. (Meaning, I was really enjoying them)

"Wow! Inhaling this knowledge can make a really big impact on my future". 

"I suspect these authors must be passionate about how reading can strongly educate people". 

"When I think about how many people choose not to read, they seriously don't know what they are missing".

With all that in the open, reading those books has given me a lot of inner inspiration, in terms of how I can learn about how reading can have a massively positive change to the world. This statement also links to how I can actually do something about it, in order to make those changes happen.

I mean, there is no such thing as learning too much already!

How can reading inspire other people?

Think about a subject which you like, and ask yourself these questions: Does that subject interest you? What do you like learning about that subject? How can that subject help you in the future?

If all of those above questions tick all your boxes, then you will be well on your way to read your way to success! In other words, read more about your enjoyable subject.

Alternatively, think of all that knowledge you'll be able use, so you can become more intelligent about how you vision the world, in terms of how your interest can help with that. The most beneficial thing about that, is how you can educate other people to do the same!

If I was to link the term 'conformity' into this, I would say that you do NOT NEED to blend in with other people, so you can justify yourself to be having fun. 

To back up my reason of what I just said, I came across a quote from a psychological quote company, which I follow on Instagram, saying that fun doesn't have to just justify as going out partying, drinking or going on holiday. Fun can be defined as to how you make it. Potentially speaking, doing something that makes you happy.

My question to everyone is... 

Do you enjoy reading? If so, then what do you like reading about?😉

The psychology behind social media

Hello all, Happy Sunday! I hope it's been a good one for you, especially with the hot weather today.😎

Since my last post, I've been keeping myself occupied, by staying off the internet and going out walking, which is what will be bringing up today's topic of social media.

What is social media?

Social media is a multi-communication app, which allows us to connect with friends and family, by making your own posts, pictures and stories to share online with them.

Even though, it may be fun and enjoyable to use for posting about your happy moments for everyone to see, such as going out travelling, clubbing or just hanging out with your friends and family etc. It can otherwise be very well known for "Controlling your happiness" (This is a quote, which has been taken from a friend of mine's documentary that'll be displayed at the end of the discussion)

Going back to my last point, social media sometimes has the capacity to control your happiness, especially when you're feeling depressed and bored, by saying to yourself: "Do you know what, I feel like just scrolling through my social media feeds, to see what everybody else has been doing, so that it makes me feel happy" 

Doing this, only shows that you have no interest on focusing on yourself, by looking into other people's lives on social media, which will then lead your mindset to start "Comparing yourself with other people" (Another quote taken from the upcoming documentary) As you judge yourself where you stand in your life progression, against other people in theirs. This is when your mind starts saying: "I feel like I'm doing A LOT better in life then these people, as I've got many pictures, as well as posts on there, which always gets likes and comments. Whereas, this person is boring, as they can never be bothered to post anything"

Don't get me wrong, whenever people like and comment on your posts, it does feel "Rewarding" (Another quote) to you, as those people do genuinely appreciate what you are doing in the making of that post, as well as yourself for that matter, as it makes YOU appreciate what you actually physically do in life, in order for you to receive that amount of praise. I always feel the same way too when this happens on my social media.

Finally and foremost, it is NEVER a good idea to spend lots of long hours on social media everyday, as it drains all of your productive time, which you could be physically doing something towards your goal or hobby, as these are the things you're interested in to make you become into a successful person one day in your life. Plus, it drains your mental health, by constantly looking into your eye-damaging phone screen, so that it brainwashes your mind, by making it think there's nothing fun to do in the outside world anymore, and you'd rather be indoors constantly surfing the internet 24/7, as this becomes your new favourite form of entertainment.

I think I've pretty much concluded everything in that topic now.

Thank you very much for taking your time to read through this long and extensive post today, and as promised, here is my friend's awesome documentary about his outtake on social media.

The topmost reason I wanted to share it with you all in this post, is that he words every single thing about my OWN use of social media, meaning, I couldn't word it any better, as he explains everything. I'll leave you to enjoy.

Documentary: Detached

If you want to see of more of what my friend does, then click on: Nicholas Stone

The benefits of "Putting Yourself in Timeout"

How has this week gone by quick?! All I've done is mostly chill out, as I had a busy holiday last week.

Which is why I want to discuss all of the beneficial methods of "Putting Yourself in Timeout" with you, as you may find these tips helpful for yourselves.

What does this expression mean?

It means, that you decide to be somewhere else, doing something else, when your mind gets overwhelmed by everything around you. This is where it screams: "STOOOOP!"

(The above picture shows MY definition of Putting myself in timeout. Everyone has their own way)

My top 5 bulleted points:

• Go for a long walk - This will help you to clear all the current worries in your mind, by replacing them with your distance goals.

• Listen to music - You could use this method to help keep your mind calm when working on something or to help keep your mind calm when you need alone time.

• Drawing - This is something which I find therapeutic, as your mind just focuses on your imagination sketched out on paper,  as well as being a silent activity.

• Relaxing - This not only helps your body to recharge itself, it also sends messages to the mind by saying: "Just relax, you're in no rush to do anything."

• Watching TV - Use this method to help escape your own stressful mindset, by going into the world of comedy, celebrity gameshow's or sport.

These are all my choice of activities to do when my mind gets overwhelmed by everything and needs to go into timeout. 

It does deserve a well-earned break when you think about how many things it thinks about day-in, day-out. Just so you can keep it happy and healthy for when you need it for important stuff. I.e. Researching.

That's concludes today's discussion.

Thank you for reading through. Please do feel free to let me know what your thoughts are in the comments or in person and enjoy the rest of your afternoon!😊

How does watching sport inspire us?

Happy Friyay people! We have now finished day 7 of The 2020 Olympics. I have to say, the UK are doing well, but at the same time, we could still be better, as we're only at the halfway mark during the duration of the games taking place.

Yes, my above title will be related to The Olympics, as I really find it fascinating how it can inspire us all around. Plus, I thought about selecting the most appropriate picture too!

My objective for this post, will be to further inspire the minds of other people, when I explain all of the how's and why's in my thoughts explanation.

  Why are The Olympics so popular to the public?

The Olympic Games have been an ongoing 4 year tradition, ever since its first games hosted in Athens - Greece in 1896. The games had a vary of events, such as: running, long jump, boxing and javelin.

Even though, technology was non-existent back then, so everyone had to use their own imagination to think of the many ways they can recreate THEIR own Olympic Games, by using sticks, walls and heavy rocks for the lifting.

Nowadays, technology is the most popular form of entertainment, so we were now able to use special gym equipment to help work us out and then make endless videos for other people's amusement, as well as inspiration. Plus, we have now got many newly invented events, such as: swimming, skateboarding, fencing and cycling.

Overall, the more games there are and the more people there are, the better the attraction. 

How can they inspire us and why?

By watching different athletes doing different sports, they perform them in such a professional way, that it makes your mind say "WOW! I love watching the athletes run like that. I reckon I could do that myself!" This is where your mind starts filling up with initiative ideas with training yourself up to become a just as good enough athlete as THAT person you watched. Your mind will keep on telling you to watch them, to help you become better an better, until you get to that stage where you're ready to progress onto Olympic level training. The same goes for any other sport.

Not only can you get inspiration from Olympic athletes, you can also get it from internet videos (YouTube) or on social media of other people doing these Olympic style training by using THEIR own initiative ideas which helps THEM train, until they get to the Olympic level. You never know, they could be your friends or family!

I think I've explained everything for today's post. Thank you for taking your time to read through. Please do feel free to let me know what your thoughts are in the comments or in person and have a great weekend!😊    

A bit of Monday Motivation

Happy Monday peeps! I hope you're all having a good one. I was intending to post over the weekend, but I was having trouble with cooking up ideas for my next post, hence why I thought about something today instead.

I feel like giving my audience a bit of Monday Motivation to help boost their mood for the week. More to it, I suppose this would be appropriate to use the phrase "The milk of human kindness" If you know what that means?

 "Whatever happened yesterday, don't worry about it, as it's all in the past."

"Today is a new day for you to go out and achieve something closer to your goal."

"If you don't succeed on that day, there's always the next day, next week, next month or next year to try and achieve your goal."

"There is no race to achieving your goal, as the world will always keep on spinning." 

"If you think you can do it? GO FOR IT AND SMASH IT!"

That's all for today, thank you for reading through. Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments or in person and have a great week!

Why do people tend to rage over video games?

Personally to me, this is something which I've ALWAYS found funny about, so with that said, I intend on sharing my thoughts, as well as probably giving out some facts and advice to help you readers or other people you might know that can't help raging over video games.

Fun fact for you guys:

I used to rage over video games when I was a lot younger! Before I even knew it, I eventually grew out of this habit! More to the point, I no longer have an interest in video games.

How do video games cause rages?

They usually occur when one tries so desperately to complete some kind of mission without messing up or trying to win something, so it makes them feel accomplished at the end by acknowledging they have something to brag about to others to make them feel jealous. 

But, in order to do so, they have to insert full-on-concentration mode, as this method helps them to just focus on winning the game. This method is known to cause 'square eyes.' 

If one does lose at a game, in which they've been constantly focusing on for a long period of time, they will typically end up raging so heavily about it, as they've tried ever so hard to maintain their focus at winning the game, just for the sake of feeling proud and accomplished at the same time. It is especially worst when they play against one another in a battle game, as that other person might have the intention of winding that person up to be able to claim bragging rights over them.

What goes through a person's mind when they rage?

Here comes the interesting part... When one starts heavily raging at a loss of a video game, they get these thoughts of anger, frustration and upset, as they then feel that this is the absolute WORST moment of their life, so they start saying things like: "That is it! My life is over!" "I'm gonna kill you!" "Shut up and die!" "You know what... F*** this stupid game!" 

*I sincerely apologize if I sounded too over the top there. This was to thoroughly explain my point*

After their raging moment, they experience this feeling of wanting to get 'revenge' on the game by keep trying ever so hard to beat it, so therefore, they try hard even harder! However, this will only make them angrier.

 

How can you help yourself or others to keep calm?

One of the best ways of telling yourself or others when getting angry at video games, is by just simply saying: "It is just a game" With that said, there is seriously no real life accomplishment at winning video games, as it is all a creation made from a group of people. Plus, it is all based INSIDE of a computer/TV screen, meaning, nowhere to be found on planet Earth.

It is nowhere near the same accomplishment as winning a 400m race in the Olympics or winning an art competition, as these are all real life events. Does anyone see the difference?

Perhaps you can inform your rage gamer about all of the real life accomplishments you've managed to achieve, as this could inspire them to be just like you or achieve something of their own in the real world. These options will be better for their eyes as well! And... Feeling proper proud about achieving something too!

Thank you so much for reading through. Please feel free to tell me about a similar experience you might have had with this topic or other kind of advice to help out one another. That's all for now guys. I shall see you soon!