How working at Disability Challengers feels so rewarding

Hello everyone! I cannot believe it's now the 1st of March already?! I swear NYD still felt like it happened yesterday?!

Anyway, enough hyperbole. I know it's been a month since I was last active on here, as my work-life is heavily getting in the way of that. Especially with my new job. However, I have an unexpected day off work today, so I thought I'd make an appearance back on here again.

As the above title states, I feel like I should talk about how rewarding my job at Disability Challengers is, as well as how does it personally make me feel rewarded.

For those of you who have never heard of Disability Challengers, it is a charity-based job where it primarily consists of interacting with children with disabilities, as well as providing them with fun activities.

And as the company name states, every child comes with a unique set of behaviours. Hence I also manage those children's behaviours whilst having fun interacting with them on scheme.

Working at Disability Challengers feels so rewarding for me, as I am (let's not leave out my colleagues/friends here as well!) providing a safe, playful & overall fun environment for our service users. The backstory of this reason is due to the fact that they may have nowhere else to go & have fun, as other people view their disability as a burden.

I personally like to vision myself as a superhero at the end of every shift. This is because helping people helps me to become a better person in life, and I tend to thrive on the very thought of me visioning myself as a "superhero".

In fact, the last 10 months I have been working at Disability Challengers has made me develop into a more better person. Both physically & mentally. This is because I had the pleasure of working alongside some amazing & all round lovely people, (particularly on the schemes I work at) who accept me for who I am as a person, which help me to gain more confidence when working as a team.

*I began this post on the 1/3/24, but didn't finish it until the 2/3/24*

A little something for #WorldMentalHealthDay

Evening all, I hope you've been well doing whatever you've been doing today. This is especially because it is an important day. (In my opinion anyway)

As the title states, I want to share my say on World Mental Health Day with you all on here. This is because of 2 valid reasons. Firstly, I personally deal with anxiety from time-to-time, which can sometimes interfere with my daily life. Secondly, it is important for me to show my respect for this important world day, as I currently have 2 voluntary jobs with MIND & Samaritans.

As of today, as well as everyday, there are people all over the world who battle with their mental health. (Myself included)

They may act as though they are fine on the outside, but in reality, they could be feeling insecure in the inside. It can be very deceiving.

Also as of today, too many people are choosing to end their lives due to feeling alone with their mental health, or due to being let down repeatedly by the mental health system. I cannot even say the accurate amount of times I have seen this across social media & on the news... It's so depressing.

Now more than ever, please provide a open heart & mind to anyone everywhere. By doing so, you could may well save someone from choosing to end their own life.💚

To raise awareness for #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek

Hello all, I hope every single one of you has had a good week, whatever you've all been up to.😉 As for me, I've been keeping myself busy as usual, in terms of doing coursework, as I've now got more work pilling up which does require my full focus within the upcoming weeks. Most of which has had its ups & downs mood for me in the duration thus this week gone.

While I'm on the very subject of 'work' and yes, I do just mean that subject alone, and it can mean many different things to people when they hear that one word.

In a bid to get involved with raising awareness for MentalHealthAwarenessWeek, I personally want to highlight what goes on in my head whenever I try to work as hard as I can to try and get things done. Especially if it has to be done within a time frame.

As I get given a task to do (more specifically coursework) I like to think to myself: "Okay, this looks easy enough to do". However, I tend to scan the task instructions over and over, (probably about 5+ times) so I can figure out the best way to tackle that given task in my head.

However, a majority of the time, this tactic can heavily backfire on me. My mind will then experience a period of blankness, like it has been totally cleared out with nothing left in it at all. This will lead to me putting my task off for a while, due to the emptiness of my mind not having any room for thoughts to come in and therefore, not do any work.

A while later, I would've summoned some thoughts to be able to help me get a kick-start on my task. To me, everything I do would be a walk in the park at this stage, as I would currently have enough urge to keep working on my task. That is, until I decide that I've done well enough during that time, so I decide to reward myself by stop working on my task for the moment.

But, before I know it, there comes a day where my task will be due in within a short amount of time. 

I get this sudden urge in my mind saying: "Come on, you need to be doing better, otherwise you are not going to succeed". Moreover on that, it's like there is a drill alike coach who is trapped inside my head that will continuously tell me to keep pushing myself, regardless of my mood and motivation.

Also at that time, my mind would've now inhaled all off that inner drill voice, that it leaves me, as a human being, feeling frustrated for not handling my task the way I had intended to handle it. Sometimes, my lack of urge to try and get any task done, would cruise past the 'due in' time. Yes, I know I will always get frustrated with myself for having to do keep on doing this, but in reality, this is just who I am when it comes to prioritizing work.

All of this even includes me trying to get my blogposts done as quick as I try to get them done. (Including this very post as I speak)

My one outcome is that I hope everyone who just read my long personal insight, will vision this as a beneficial talking point, so it helps them to feel unashamed of admitting of what psychological effects go through their mind when trying to work.

Thank you to everyone who has taken their time to read through this important post, and as always, please feel welcome to let me know your feedback.

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 is it important to make yourself into an example?

I said I'll hopefully be back in 2 days time from my previous post... and I was right! Anyways, I hope everyone is enjoying their week right now, as I currently am. Hence I feel like creating an exciting post today.

In this post, I shall be highlighting the several ways of "Making yourself into an example" as well as talking about why is it important.

*After reading this post, I guarantee that you'll be feeling inspired to give my advice a try!* 

  

How can you make yourself into an example?

• Be positive - This will reflect good on other people including yourself.

• Highlight your interests - This will encourage your audience to the same.

• Motivate your mood to the audience - This will help THEM to feel motivated with whatever they wish to achieve. 

• Give out a backstory - This will help people to understand you better, as well as praise you for your journey and inspire THEM to tell you theirs in order for THEM to be praised.

• Be knowledgeable - This will help your audience to remember and keep any useful advice for becoming THEIR own example figure.

Why is it important to make yourself into an example?

It is important, because you need to learn how to cope with your journey in order for you to become a successful person in life. This means that you MUST overcome the obstacles in your journey to help your mind become stronger and show no fear to anything.

Furthermore, by self tackling these obstacles throughout your success journey, you will be able to have the built-up confidence to express those feelings of courage, motivation and determination to anybody your audience.

As of such, you may wish to become an entrepreneur. (I suggest looking on Instagram would be a good place to start)

Thank you for reading through. Please feel free to let me know what your thoughts are in the comments or in person. Even if you wish to share your own example ideas with me.

I hope to post again sometime this week. Have a gooden!😉  

"Show up!" Motivational Quotes

Hey everyone, I hope you're all having a good week thus far. Especially now the Euro 2020 has now begun recently, and I'm happy that England have won their first game. Hopefully, we'll be able to make it past the group stages!

I feel like I need to address my readers with more verbal motivational content, well... look no further!

What does the expression "Show up" mean?

It means you MUST make an effort to attend every single thing, regardless of how you are feeling. For example: Running classes

• When you are feeling too tired to go to class - SHOW UP!
• 
  
• When you lack confidence about performing on stage - SHOW UP!

• When you feel nervous about walking into a huge room with 50 people - SHOW UP! 
• When you don't feel like exercising when you have to - SHOW UP!
• 
  
• When you have to face your fears - SHOW UP!
• 
  
• When you attempt at trying something new and don't succeed - SHOW UP!
• 
  
• When you get humiliated by failing at something and wish to quit - SHOW UP!

My advice to you all: Whenever you have a bad day and you feel like you can't do anything, READ THESE QUOTES OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Make sure you have a long hard think whilst you read them, as they will help to get your mind motivated with whatever it is you will eventually be facing.

That's all for now. Thank you for reading through and please feel free to let me know about what you guys think.

Remember to keep following this blog and I'll be back soon!

How does your mind play tricks on you and how can you deal with it?

Ello all, I hope you're all enjoying your week so far... For me, I had a great day at College yesterday, and I did some Maths revision this morning. (Just in case I need to retake my final exam the following month)

In this post, I will be highlighting all of the ways that your mind plays tricks on you... as well as the best ways of how to overcome them.

Remember: 

YOU are capable of being your own worst enemy, so always be careful with what you think about.

Keep repeating those words.

Example 1:

You are at home currently doing some English revision, when all of a sudden... you begin to struggle with how to answer one particular question and your thoughts have gone all "blank" as you cannot think about anything at all.

At this stage, your mind starts playing tricks on you by muttering these kind of words: "You'll never do it, so just give up now" "I'm such a disappointment" "I will always be stupid, because my friends can do these easily but I can't"

One way of managing these mind tricks, is by memorizing all of your previous achievements when doing revision tasks, as they will help encourage you find the success in completing them, Another good way is just to simply take a break, so your brain will be able to recharge its batteries in order to help you think better.

(These are all of the things I do, when I experience these problems whilst doing revision - They really help!)

Example 2:

You are on your own somewhere, with no one else around in sight, (let's say in your bedroom) then out of the blue... you start to feel angry about something you did in the past or even just recently which you were not proud of.

Again, your mind starts playing tricks on you, however this time, you experience something called: "self confrontation" which means, you say bad things to yourself in order to make you feel bad or imagining yourself saying these bad things to another person and imagining THEIR anger. This is where you unnecessarily compare yourself to somebody else, as your "self confrontational" mind tricks have now built up your intensity level to no longer think straight.

The best and foremost way of handling it, is to break the habit of comparing yourself to other people and not dwelling about your past, so you will be able to ensure yourself to keep on pushing through with your life no matter what. Although, using "self confrontation" may actually be a good thing for you, as it helps to practise test the mental strength of your own mind, so when someone starts having a go at you, you'll be able to soak up their negative words like a sponge by doing all of that practise.

(Believe you me, this is something which I do almost on a daily basis! And it works a treat in reality!)

Thank you ever so much for taking your time to read through this long post. Please do feel free to comment or message me in person about a similar experience you may haver had before.😊

But just before I end this post, I thought about sharing one of my favourite songs with the above title. 

*Warning, this song contains explicit words* 

 

  

 

You are blessed because...

Just a quickie, but the title says it all.

My main objective of this post, is to spread the message, and make people feel better when they're feeling down in the dumps. This is what is known as: "Common decency"

 

To all of my readers out there...

• You are blessed because... You have a loving family.
• You are blessed because... You have a roof under your head.
• You are blessed because... You have friends that look out for you.
• You are blessed because... You have education.
• You are blessed because... You have food and drink.
• You are blessed because... You can achieve anything you want.
• You are blessed because... You have feelings.
• You are blessed because... You are a human being.
• You are blessed because... You have clothes to wear.
• You are blessed because... You have entertainment around you.
• You are blessed because... You have many places to visit.
• You are blessed because... You are able to make decisions in your life.
• You are blessed because... You can NEVER be too old to do something.
• You are blessed because... You realise that happiness is your top priority.
• You are blessed because... You have so much talent.
• You are blessed because... You are kept healthy and well by the NHS worldwide.

I hope this post will bring a ray of sunshine to everyone's day and I shall see you all very soon!💞 

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!

My useful advice for blocking out negativity

Hi all, I hope everyone is well and happy, and I am very pleased to announce that I have now finished all of my Maths exams! Woohoo!🎉 This means, I now have more free time on my hands, meaning, I can start posting more regularly again.

As the above title says, I would like to advise everyone out there in the world, that negativity is just words that come out of people's mouths. Yes, I know it does sound blunt, but this is how I personally choose to see it. In addition, I am secretly hoping that everybody else would agree with me on this opinion.

 

Here are the bulleted points on the various ways of how you can block out the different types of negativity:

• Jealously - When someone happens to say mean things about you for no reason, it means they are annoyed, because they haven't got your kind and caring qualities, in which, they enjoy putting other people down to their poor standards. Give them a sarcastic laugh and say "Hehe, that is SO funny." This shows you don't care about their negativity.

• Criticism - You begin to realize that somebody or more, is constantly targeting you with verbal abuse, as they do it for their own personal entertainment. If it gets too much to handle, talk about it to friends or family who will help you to stand up to them, by saying "What's your problem?" This should make them go silent. 

That's all I have for today. Thank you for reading through and please feel free to tell me your thoughts on this topic, even if you would like to share about a similar experience you may have had.

See you all soon!

 

"You VS You"

Hey all, I was indenting to make a post earlier in the week, however, I've been keeping myself occupied with yet more coursework. In addition, my 1st Maths exam is only around the corner now!

Fortunately, I now have some time for myself at the moment, which means that I can fit in a blog post today.😉 

You're probably thinking to yourself: "What does this expression mean?" it means that you keep on saying or doing negative things to yourself to make you feel bad if you were to make a mistake, when really, YOU try to battle it, by taking your mind off it all and working on making progress to make YOU feel better again. Does that make sense?

Example 1:

You are currently enjoying your session at the gym, when all of a sudden... you make a mistake where you thought you didn't push yourself hard enough to be able to achieve your working out goal. (Whatever that could be)

At around this point, that is when these negative thoughts enter your mind and keep on saying to your inner self: 

"Do you know what, I really don't think I can do this, it is too hard for me" 

"I keep messing up all of the time, because I keep on repeating these silly mistakes" 

"If I cannot achieve this goal, then I don't think I'll be able to succeed in life"

This is where your better YOU enters you mind, by continuously looking for every single way to overcome your thoughts, in order to redeem your working out progression, so that you're able to maintain your focus and keep moving forward.

To do this, you need to stop right where you went wrong and have some time to think. I know this is not an easy task to do at this exact moment, as you're currently in no mood to think about anything. A top tip would be to think about how you have achieved your previous working out goals, then by using this strategy to do the one you are working on step-by-step. This way, you'll be able to achieve every little step, as it they allow you to repeat them over and over again if you don't succeed first time.

(Doing revision would be the exact same example given related to this one, as I still struggle with doing it now)

Example 2:

You are someone who has done some terrible things in the past, all because you were suffering from mental health difficulties. By now, you are a completely changed person, however, you sometimes experience these breakdowns of constantly feeling guilty, as these past times re-enter your mind to haunt you.

How can you help your better YOU to feel right again? It may sound simple, but again, not easy! Remember, when you suddenly begin to feel at your lowest, you will be in no mood to think about anything good. 

Talk to a friend/family member, counsellor or alternatively an anonymous help hotline number (if that makes you feel more comfortable) about these constant guilt thoughts, as you're helping yourself to battle your bad self, as well as inhaling all of that encouraging and positive advice to allow you look for further opportunities to improve on yourself.

That's all for today. Thank you for reading through and please feel free to comment or let me know about a similar experience you may have had. Bye for now! 

  

  

The psychological benefits of taking a break from the internet

Well, I'm back from what I've just stated in the above title: "Taking a break from the internet" This was because I wanted to be more productive with my spare time, rather than spending long hours surfing the wonderful world of the internet.

More to the point, I feel like advising you guys about how taking a break from the internet can really make you feel more engaged with yourself, otherwise more positive.

*Hence as to why I had a decent day yesterday*😁

My main objective of this topic, is that everyone who reads this post, will feel encouraged to follow my discussed examples when they decide to come off the internet for awhile.

How does spending long hours on the internet make you feel?

For me personally, I always feel completely normal. However, DO NOT be deceived by that statement!

Let's say, after about 3 hours later of casually surfing the internet, you start to experience this feeling of your mind going 'blank' which means, you've wasted all of that time just looking up random stuff (if you like) that has now overpowered your important train of thought. To put it in more basic terms, you can no longer think straight.

This is what most people refer to, as it's their way of feeling 'normal' but the reality is, this will only make you feel depressed, by not wanting to do anything productive in your life.

What productive things can you do to take a break from the internet?

One of the things I've been doing lately, is going out for long walks in my local area. By doing so, will help to take your mind off with whatever is bothering you, as you focus on how many miles you intend to do, as well as getting to your chosen walking destination. Don't forget to focus on how brilliant you feel about doing it too!

Learn how to play a musical instrument. In my case, I've been improvising at my drumming skills. Even though I don't actually own a drum kit, I just use any surrounding hard surface to tap my hands on and create different rhythms.

Improve your reading skills, by reading actual books. (Not a kindle tablet) I have various books in my room, which I use to either use to educate myself or to get myself 'lost' in the author's story. What I mean by that expression, is focusing on what the story is about.

Do home-based workouts to help increase your current level of fitness. (See: The psychological benefits of working out regularly  For further explanation)

This brings an end to this topic. Thank you for reading through, I really hope you've learned a lot by reading these chosen examples and please feel free to talk about any similar experiences you may have.

I shall see you soon.

   

"Putting yourself in other people's shoes"

Once again, I've recently been keeping myself occupied with revision, so I haven't found the time to make a post on here. But here I am now, and I somehow feel like talking about the expression in the above title.

This expression: "Putting yourself in other people's shoes" means that you try to imagine yourself how other people are feeling or how other people see the world.

A good example of doing so, would be to imagine how your friend feels about going on a rollercoaster. You may find going on a rollercoaster a walk in the park, but however, your friend sees this task as the most traumatic experience ever.

This is when you think about all of the emotions that are currently going through their head, anxiety, fear, panic and doubt. Use your vision of how you see the whole 'going on a rollercoaster' scenario, to help your friend to be able to "Put them in YOUR shoes."

With enough explanation, they'll eventually see your vision that going on a rollercoaster isn't so bad after all! 

I think I've covered every detail for this topic now. Thank you for reading, do feel free to comment about a similar experience you had with this expression, and I'll be back soon!

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 favourite life quotes

I thought about doing something relatively different for this kind of post; Since I personally think that everyone needs a fairly decent amount of hope from time to time. Which is why the above title explains my chosen topic.

*This is something which I very much struggle with already, and talking about it really does help*

 

*I also strongly advise everyone else to do the same, as one of my goals for this blog, is to encourage people to discuss their inner feelings more openly to a wider audience, so that they don't feel 'alone' by thinking they're the only ones who suffer from their demon thoughts*

 

(Courtesy of: https://www.facebook.com/officialknowledgeispower/)

10 steps to a positive body image

This is an interesting topic of conversation, in which, I came across recently. (Courtesy of my College)

I personally feel like we need to be spreading these messages out more to the world, as there still could be THOUSANDS of people putting themselves down due to their dissatisfaction of their body image. It is deeply important to justify that we are human and we can only function with positive energy. 

Take a look for yourself and have a good long reflect.

  

Just remember - You are ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT regardless of who you are, what you do and whatever you're background is.✊

I rest my case.

"Old habits die hard"

The phrase "Old habits die hard" means you're trying so hard to quit doing something that you keep doing, but at the same time however, you can't stop doing it... This can be seen as a good or a bad thing.

Let's talk about the psychological effects of how a habit can be triggered and how it can keep occurring. In addition, how we can overcome it! 

 
*Note to self* 

Everyone has to experience this at least once in their lifetime, as it is all part of how you function as a human being; by knowing that you've made a mistake, as well as being able to learn from it to help remind you.

I've been round that block time and time again.

Example 1

You always seem to like the idea of having maple syrup with every meal you have, but everyone says you can't keep having it all the time, as it's unhealthy for you and can increase your risk of getting diabetes.

Baring in mind, YOU also know this fact and desperately want to end this habit, but you can't, as you now have this feeling that no meal would ever taste the same, let alone great without maple syrup added to it... *The same feeling as learning how to cope with loss - Grief*

One way of overcoming it, is you could perhaps try using different sauces with every other meal you have. I.e. Ketchup, BBQ, Mint sauce or Mustard. These options can be considered as much healthier compared to a sugary filled sauce which could turn you into an unhealthy person. 

Contrastingly, you maybe consider that you want to eat healthier altogether, therefore meaning you want to eat less fats and more carbs, fruit/veg and protein. (Think about the 6-pack and ripped body you'll end up getting!)

Example 2

You are an alcoholic, you like the taste of alcohol, you crave on alcohol and you rely on alcohol ALONE to help make you feel better about yourself. 

Some might say this type of behaviour is called: "Drinking yourself away" because you feel so worthless by everything that has gone wrong in your life, therefore, you felt like ending it there and then, but it's actually known as "Self pity" as you are currently experiencing the moment of failure, as well as comfort in a not so nice way. There is a difference between the two feelings.

A very good and highlighting example of this would be to use your friends/family to help you feel better by talking to them via text or phone call. If you were to inform them about your recent depressed feeling, they will then take immediate action by giving you comfort, as well as reminding you of all of your past accomplishments to help bring your confidence back.

Again by thinking contrastingly, you could research about all the devastating consequences of how consuming too much alcohol can seriously damage your physical and mental health. This is just one of the many things that absolutely NO-ONE wishes to try and attempt doing with themselves.

Example 3

(An OCD related example)

You slowly start to begin to have this feeling of getting germs on you, therefore you feel like having to constantly wash your hands every 10 minutes would be the solution. However, doing so could cause damage to your hands by making them red sore and flaky. This will even have an impact on your mental health, as with thinking too much about catching germs can lead to showing signs of anxiety, as well as slowly developing a new fear of touching any surface. Thinking about germs and illnesses is a prone factor for the constant hand washing.

Find an activity or hobby to occupy yourself with to help distract these thoughts about catching germs or when to next wash your hands. More to the point, it helps to clear the anxiety and make you into a happier person again, which I'm sure your friends/family will be relieved to witness!

But when you come to the conclusion of this habit getting out of hand to cope with, talk to a friend, family member, teacher or counsellor about how this habit has gotten out of control and how you can overcome it. This way, they'll provide you comfort and support to encourage you to move forwards, but at the same time, to be your backbone when you feel like you're going in the opposite direction again.

That brings me to an end with this topic. Please do feel free to talk to me ANYTIME you wish to have a catch up or need cheering up. See ya soon!

Example 1 inspiration credit: An episode from a documentary called: Freaky eaters

Example 2 inspiration credit: Peter Barlow from Coronation Street       

Example 3 inspiration credit: Something similar which a friend of mine dealt with in the past