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*

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?😉

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 difference between seeing Christmas Day as a child and an adult

Hey everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. (Eventhough it was celebrated differently this year... Thanks COVID-19😒) With that said, I want to give you an interesting lecture on how kids and adults tend to see Christmas Day from a different perspective.

Say if you were about 7 years old, you typically write up to at least 20 things on your Christmas list, as you would have been into playing with toys back then. Therefore, you instead see Christmas Day as "getting more toys day" rather than wanting to knowledge the actual meaning of celebrating Christmas.

However, in respect of this point of view - when you're that age, you only get the opportunity to get new toys a few times (maybe 3) within a WHOLE year. So I understand why kids feel the need to have as many toys as possible, so that it allows them to experience using their imagination, as well as playing and expanding it. Believe me, I used to be the EXACT same person when I was that age - it was really good fun while it lasted!

But eventually, when you become 13, you start to realize that Christmas Day is about spending it with friends & family whilst enjoying a special meal together - instead of worrying about how many presents you receive that year. More to the point, you also start to slowly come out of the habit of playing with toys, as you feel like you need to take up more grown up hobbies. Examples given: Skateboarding, drumming or drawing. I think I started to get out of the habit of playing with toys when I was around that age too?

Thanks for taking your time to read this and I'll be interested to know how you used to see Christmas Day when you was a child. Merry Christmas!        

Nostalgia: The best feeling in the world?

Today, I feel like lecturing you all about this feeling called "Nostalgia." It creates a mixed bag of feelings when talking about a certain topic. Let me go through them all...

MUSIC: Say you chose to listen to a song you fully remember from a certain year, (for instance: Bruno Mars ft Mark Ronson - Uptown funk, 2015) you will then instantly get this message into your mind saying: "Ohhh, I remember this song when it first came out! It was such a big hit back then! I remember listening to this song loads of times when I was at a School Disco with my friends!"  Instantly followed by a series of flashbacks taking yourself & your mind back to that very moment where you remembered exactly where you was when you heard that song. More to the point, it allows you think about your childhood memories back when the song first originated.

FOOD & DRINK: *Same scenario as the previous topic* Another instance would be, you drink a can of coke, instantly followed by a series of flashbacks going back to your favourite moments as to where and when you drank coke the most. To be more realistic here, there is 'literally' no better feeling than to have a drink of coke on a hot sunny day by the seafront. And yes, I've encountered this feeling loads of times, so I know how to explain it thoroughly. With all that said, this is a feeling which mostly takes you back to summertime.

In terms of food, you eat something which you've ate during most of your childhood - E.g. Pizza. Immediately after consuming it, you get the same series of flashbacks taking you back to all of your favourite times where and when you ate it. It could be at a friends house, party or even somewhere abroad.

PLACES: If you had a favourite place of all time, which you also happen to have spent most of your time growing up in, you go back there, and suddenly... all of your previous memories (including childhood) come flooding back to your mind. You begin to process all the parks, convenience stores, supermarkets, retail shops and even houses/flats around you, to help bring back all the fun times you had whilst living in the area back then.

PHOTOS: When looking back at either a family picture, picture with friends or a picture of yourself at a location, your exact in that moment memory will instantly come back to mind whilst saying to yourself: "Ah, I remember that exact time I was there! I also remember really enjoying myself too!" This type of happy memory gives out a positive outlook for your adulthood life, as well as looking back on it to reflect on how far you've progressed from that winey child turning into a mature adult.

EXPERIMENT: If you combine all of these topics together... you'll create the PERFECT nostalgic memory!!!

Thanks for taking your time to read this blog. Please do feel free to let me know what one of your favourite nostalgic memories was and I'll be back very soon with another blog. Bye for now!

*DISCLAIMER* All of the chosen topics for this conversation were all based from MY childhood memories.  

My psychology on The Backyardigans

A week ago, I thought about feeding my nostalgia by watching a kids TV show I used to adore - The Backyardigans.

After watching it, I realized that it was purposely created to encourage children and their friends to develop and use their imagination, as well as to go out and 'play with your imagination.' As a former fan of this programme, I can 100% empathise with the logic used in the making of this programme and can totally relate to my said statement above - "Play with your imagination" Let me go into more detail about that quote...

When I was a child, I really thrived on using my imagination and I've always spent a large portion of each day trying to find more ways to expand it. (I can think of loads of other cartoons to use as an example related to this, but I'll save that for another post)  *This is where this programme comes into play* The characters in this programme first showcase their adventures by playing in their backyard in their neighbourhood; For example - Going on a mission to Mars. They then imagine themselves going to that very place with about 1 or 2 other characters to begin with. During the adventure, the other characters will pop up as either the bad guy(s), a land owner or even an animal - To be against or help out with the main characters involved.

But the one aspect which really stood out in this programme, is that they performed their own musicals in every episode, which seems to inform the watchers what is happening in the moment, as well as what are they going to do next. Of course, it can't be a musical without a bit of comedy involved! This helps to liven up the storyline in relations with how the aimed characters are going to react... It could either turn out good, bad or ugly - Get it?!

Obviously, there HAS to be a happy ending at the end of every episode of a kids TV programme, so the characters cheer, (whilst reflecting on their adventure) then one of the characters' stomach rumbles, one of the characters asks: "Is that your stomach rumbling? Are you hungry?" The hungry character reply's with: "Yeah, lets go back to my house for some cheese toasties!" I like how the creators use this realistic ending, as going on a long haul adventure makes you hungry, right? Therefore, this could influence children to do the EXACT same thing after they come back from their own little adventure with their friends to make the day more fun. I know I used to do this with my friends after we've played our little adventure as well. Anyway, the characters end the episode by performing another musical by reflecting on their whole adventure, with the song also telling them to stay tuned for the next episode.

So, that brings an end to my thoughts on one of my childhood shows, hope you enjoyed reading and feel free to let me know what you think!