Happy 3rd Birthday to PsychologyIntake!

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

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

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

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

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

What goes through your mind when you've achieved something?

Hello all, I hope you've all had a good weekend and enjoyed watching the last of The Olympics. I'd say 4th place was decent for us to finish in, considering the competitiveness of the top 3 countries above us.

Anyway, this will be yet another related post to The Olympics, only this time, I'll be talking about what feelings, thoughts and emotions go through your mind when you've achieved something, as this is a BIG achievement when you think that it's just ordinary people (meaning you and me) doing extraordinary things!

When you finally achieve your very first gold medal after 8 years of waiting, you will first feel your heart jump out from your body, due to the shock that has just entered your mind which says: "OMG! I can't believe I've finally done it!"

You then become speechless, as your mind is still processing all kinds of happy emotions, which causes it to become increasingly overwhelmed with everything around you.

When it eventually settles enough by taking all of the emotions and the achievement in, your mind will keep saying to you: "I am so happy that I've managed to do that. This is something I will never forget, by always keeping it as a memory." Therefore, you still feel excited after what has just happened to you, so you feel the need to announce it to your friends and family, as your mind is telling you that it could do with more praise from other people, to help keep the proudness flowing inside of you.

Not only does it make you feel like that, the achievement can make your connecting people feel just as proud as you are, as they have your full support in everything. Believe me, it feels just as good to applaud people, when THEY are the ones who have achieved something.

This is what is known as using "Reverse psychology" because you share you intend to share your achievement news to your connecting people, so THEY can feel proud of you, in order to make YOU feel proud about yourself in that way.

With that achievement completed, your mind then says to you: "I'm glad that I've finally done that, but do you know what? I reckon that I can go one step better than last time!" This very mind statement will help engage your confident emotion to chase down and succeed that next step. My advice would be to keep repeating it over and over to ensure your mind to stick to it. (Meaning, keeping focused)

That concludes my post for today. 

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 week! 

My best nostalgic moment of all time

It's been a week since my last appearance, due to me focusing finishing College for the summer and going out to work. But here I am again in my free time, looking for ideas for my upcoming posts, when... ker-ching! I know what to post today!

As the above title states, this is a happend something which relates to ME, so it's not going to be a public educational post.

However, please do feel free to read if you are interested.

On this day in 2018... (29th June)

At 3:15pm, I was walking around my School car park trying to look for my taxi, when I happen to see my first ever taxi escort (when I was in reception class) having a conversation with my current escort; Kay.

Although, I've technically seen her around for 3 months by then, but when I first saw her for the first time in which seemed like a decade ago, I was like: "No way! That can't be her, my first ever escort who I haven't seen for ages!" Her name was Lee by the way.

Whilst Kay and Lee were enjoying their conversation, I walked up behind Lee's back and tapped her on the shoulder, then said: "Is your name Lee?" She replied with: "Yes." Then I asked if she knew who I was and replied with: "Yeah, I think so? You do look familiar"

I began to tell her who I was and how she used to be my first ever taxi escort during my first 2 years of School. Her next reaction made music to my ears, as she said: "Oh yes! You've grown so much since then!"

I sense in my head, this is right when she started getting flashbacks in of all these memories of when she used to be my first ever taxi escort, by playing with my toys before School started and tickling the palms of my hands whenever I slept in the taxi on my way home. I can tell by her reactions that she was just as happily heartwhelmed as I was when we began sharing our nostalgic memories to one another.

After our introduction, I said to Lee: "I saw you come back 3 months ago, and I wanted to go up to say hello to you, but I thought you wouldn't recognize me." She replied back with: "Well so you should, as I would've recognized you!"

I added on that our text driver used to be called Mel and if Lee still remembers her back then, which she does.

Finally, she said: "Aww, bless you. You've really made my weekend now that you've told me all that." As she still couldn't believe how much I've changed during all these years since we last saw each other, but Lee hasn't changed one bit, which made me recognize her in the first place. I was honestly amazed how she still looked the same the whole time.

I remember thinking to myself that this nostalgic moment made my weekend too.😊

That's the end of that.

Thank you for taking your time to read through my happy nostalgic story. Please feel free to let me know about what your thoughts are on it and I shall be back very soon with a normal educational post.

How can listening to music benefit you psychologically?

I'm sure by now, most people can relate to how music can help you gain positive thoughts in your head. Which is why, I feel the need to further detail on this thoughtful experiment, to help people have a more better understanding of how it works.

*Here are some common quotes, which I hear and see a lot in relations to the benefits of listening to music*

 "Music is my life"      "Music is my escape" "Music makes me feel free" 

All of the stated quotations are correct, in relations to how does it make people feel. But the topic goes far deeper rather than just using basic quotations. On that note, let's dig in!

If you were in a depressed mood, in which, you intend to find a way to lift your mood clouds, but at the same time however, you don't feel motivated enough to be doing something physical.

In this case, listening to music would be the answer to that problem.

All you have to do now, is find one of your favourite songs, grab some headphones or earphones, sit back and............. let the words, rhythm and instruments take control!

This psychological procedure allows the music to overpower your mind of current stress. Meaning, it clears away all of the negativity. (This procedure can also be used to bring back nostalgic memories. See - https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/2374978378533176995/8313501195419048471 )

What part does the words play?

The words create a meaning for every song. With that just said, it can be to do with love, memories, motivation or even life. They help you to think about people or something in particular you did previously, by listening to its meaning. In terms of love, the words of certain songs you listen to, makes you think about people or even just one specific person whom you love the most, by the written lyrics of the song which suite the person's personality. In terms of motivation, some songs tend to use repetition words in their songs, which can help boost your motivation to do something, in the way that they say it.

  

What part does the rhythm play?

The rhythm helps to create an enjoyable and catchy beat for us to play along to. Perhaps dance along to as well? (If that helps you) Playing along to the rhythm of a particular song, can help us to just focus on all the creative ways you can drum or tap along to, to ensure you keep up with the beat to help you get better and better. This way, you won't be able to think about anything else, other than something you're really enjoying in the moment of time. 

What part does the instruments play?

The instruments seem like another way of giving all songs a different meaning to them. By that, they create many different themes for whatever suits your characteristics best. Weather it's rap, soul, jazz, rock, pop, classic, cartoon, house or folk. Everyone has a different personality. Mine, for example, would very much vary from all of them. This is due to me always having a passionate love for music in general.

As always, thank you for taking your time to read through. Please feel free to let me know how music benefits YOU as a person. I shall see you in my next post. Laters!

2020 in review and looking forward to 2021

I'd like to take a moment of my time to wish everyone a very Happy New Year despite the pandemic conditions we're currently facing. With that just said, I want to do a review on how the year 2020 went and what to look forward to in 2021.

Ditto to what everyone has been saying: "2020 was a challenging year for everyone on planet earth." (Well, at least 3 quarters of it has been) 

So instead of criticising why this year was so bad, let's highlight all the positive contributes that we did as a WHOLE country: When we went into full-on lockdown on the 23rd of March, we had to 'STAY AT HOME' Meaning: We cannot meet up with anyone, go to work or a place of education and only go out for essential shopping & exercise once a day. It was a depressing 2 months for everyone I'm sure, but one of the two attributes which really stood out in this dark time, was when staying at home gave us all a chance to spend more time reflecting on ourselves - For example: How can I improve myself in life? Answer: Do something creative. (Like what I'm doing) This helps to take your mind off all the tragic things which COVID-19 is doing right now and makes you focus on moving forward with your creativity.

The other, and most big attribute, is how every single person in this country is capable of forming together as a whole and helping one-another get through this difficult time. One example of this would be texting/calling your friends or family members to check how they're coping with life - One of the many social issues that gets talked about so often, due to the amount of suicide risks increasing since locking the whole country down. In addition to all this, we showed our appreciation for the NHS by clapping for them every Thursday evening until the 28th of May. This helps spreads the word to them that they're doing an absolute boss of a job with trying to keep people alive, as well as making them better again.

During the summer, the outlook was getting better and we were allowed to live an 'almost normal' life again. Meaning: We can see friends, go somewhere to eat & do shopping or even go on a short holiday elsewhere in the country.

However, come October, the infection & death rate rose up again, which led us going into a mini month lockdown in November. So we began using our learned social skills again. Shortly after that, we only came out of the mini lockdown before the infection & death rate REALLY surged up 3 weeks later, which meant, those living in tier 4 restrictions couldn't have a normal Christmas & New Year. (Which is what happened to me...) But in light to all this, it gave us a chance to spend it in our little 'social bubble' with our families whilst saying: "Everything will be ok, we will all get through this together" This will help us to keep positive.

Final paragraph on the subject, let's all go into 2021 with a positive outlook. Don't make any big plans while getting your hopes up about them, because they may not happen for a long while, which can only lead to disappointment, frustration and anger - You don't want this to reflect on your family don't you?

That brings me to an end with this informative and helpful blog. Hope you all enjoyed reading and please feel free to talk to me about how you are feeling in relation to these current circumstances.

Take care, and remember - Everyone is in this together.✊💞     

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!