The power of picking yourself back up after being knocked down

Hello all, I know I'm not active on here as much as I used to be anymore, but I wanted to come on here and reflect on how I've been feeling all week. 

Let's just say, I've not had the best of weeks. Although it had actually been that way from Tuesday onwards.

My outcome for this post, is that I can talk about what had made me how I have felt from Tuesday - Today, as well as use this feeling as a learning curb. The joined purpose of this post, is to inspire other people who may be reading this post to do the same if they happen to experience a similar week to mine.

It had all started after Monday, where I needed to attend a special training course in order to start my new promotion at work. I felt like at the time: "It's just a course where I just have to sit and pay close attention to everything that has been said." "It'll be as easy as pie." However, it wasn't like that at all...

Especially at the end of it, where there was a sudden assessment to undertake. I just dived into it head first, thinking that I can whizz through it without any problems. I didn't end up finishing it. And as a unfortunate result, I was told by my supervisor not to return to work until I redo & pass the training course.

After receiving that news on Tuesday, I felt a sudden loss with what to do with myself from that point going forwards. I was like my mind had suddenly gotten lost in a maze, and cannot seem to think of a way out of it. That feeling ended up sticking around for the remainder of the week.

Luckily for me, I understood the psychology behind my feeling, so I figured that there was no point of feeling lost all of the time until I can return to work. For 1, life is too short to feel this way all of the time. Secondly, this gives me a chance to do more things that I want to do. With that said, I am planning on doing something which shall keep me occupied throughout the whole of next month. That will be for another post.

What have I learned from this? I have learned that doing things (or will be doing) that I enjoy doing helps to distract me from the reality of my situation.

*I had began this post on the 22/6/24, but didn't finish it until the 24/6/24*

Conversations In The Community Review + Key Takeaways (A MIND accredited online course)

Hello all! As the above title states, I will be distributing what I have learned, as well as include some key takeaways/points from an online course that I have managed to complete recently.

A little backstory for you here, I was working at my MIND store one day back in July, and I happen to glace up at a poster which was advertising an online course associated with MIND. Me, being the curious-minded person I am, only decided to scan the QR code on the poster to see what the said course (in the above title) was all about. Then me, also being the scatter-brained (sometimes) person that I am, only managed to get through 1/5 modules the next day, before ending up not getting around to doing it again until a week ago.  

*This was the only convenient picture I could find on the internet*

What was the online course about? Conversations In The Community is purely about educating people about the best ways of beginning, flowing & ending conversations with other people. And this can be having a conversation with anybody at all, regardless if they are struggling with their mental health or not. Moreover, this course goes into fish tank depth about the pros & cons of forming a conversation with somebody in the community. (I'll bullet point them later in this post)

How did the online course provide me with useful information? The online course provided me with a lot of tips of how to make a good & effective conversation. The information had also stated that it is important to bare in mind no conversation ever HAS to be perfect, as there isn't such thing as a 'perfect conversation'. The useful tips had included respecting the person's or your own boundaries, never ask leading questions, always remind the person that your there for them & try to show interest.

Would I feel more confident about starting my own conversations In the community? In a word, definitely! To further extend my reasoning, I will now remind myself to always begin a conversation to anyone by using open questions, like: "Hiya, how has your day been today?" or "Hey, how has life been for you lately?"

What are the pros & cons of forming conversations?

Pros:

• Finding a suitable environment
• Allowing the person to take their time
• Asking open questions
• Reminding the person you'll be always be there for them
• Respecting your person's privacy 
• Giving yourself an appropriate time

Cons:

• Being insulting
• Comparing your person's struggles to everyone else's
• Asking leading questions that will make your person feel uncomfortable 
• Not showing interest
• Violating your person's privacy
• Not going through the flowing & ending process in the conversation

What have I learned? As I have mentioned earlier, I have learned that any form of conversation doesn't NEED to be perfect, as long as I make the effort to actually make any form of conversation at all. And as long as the person I am having a conversation with is satisfied with everything, then I will be more than happy.

I have also learned that conversations are more effective when you allow your person to have their preferences. This is to provide them with empowerment that will make them feel comfortable & secure prior to a conversation. An example of this could be allowing your person to convey the conversation in a wide open green space, where they feel more comfortable by knowing that nobody else is going to invade the private conversation.

Finally, I have learned that you are entitled to setting your own boundaries when it comes to finding the most convenient time to form a conversation with somebody. This is important because you must consider you self-care before thinking about beginning a conversation with somebody. Especially when you know in advance that you are going to be having an emotionally draining conversation with somebody who is fighting depression.

Conclusion: Even though I was inattentive towards the online course when I have first started it back in July, I have found it really interesting & enjoyable throughout when I had eventually got my inattentive self round to getting through the rest of it, and managed to complete it on Wednesday. (The day before my birthday!) After doing the course, I feel more confident about forming conversations with people whenever I go out & about into the community. Although I know in the back of my mind that is easier said than done, as I still consider myself to be a shy person when having a random conversation with anyone out in the community. That being said, I can easily just shrug it off, and just focus on making conversation.

If anybody would like to develop better conversation forming skills when out & about in the community, I definitely recommend doing this course! Direct access link: https://www.conversationsinthecommunity.org.uk/

Growth Mindset VS Fixed Mindset

Happy Sunday all! I hope you've all had a great week, wherever you are in the world. I've mainly been busy prioritizing my self-care throughout this week by not spending too much time on the internet, as spending too much time on the internet does genuinely kill my productiveness.

Anyway, as the title states, I shall be explaining what is a growth & a fixed mindset, as well as explaining the differences between them both. This was another one of those psychology studies which I have learned about back in my 1st year of my Public Services course at college, but had never gotten round to sharing it onto here. The fascinating aspect about this study, is that it can be used to analyse other people's minds. This can mostly be effective for when you are watching studying answer some questions in a classroom. The same method can also apply for when your mind is being studied by somebody else.

What is a growth mindset?

A growth mindset is where you are always looking for ways to learn & grow. This is very commonly used when it comes to making a mistake. For example, when you see somebody being asked to work out a question on chemistry, and they get it wrong, they would want to know where they went wrong in order learn from that mistake.

What is a fixed mindset?

A fixed mindset is where you like to think you are perfect all of time by not making any mistakes. In fact, you try to avoid making mistakes all together for the sake of looking like a genius all of the time. For example, when you see somebody in a classroom copying somebody else's answers in chemistry, because they are too headstrong about making mistakes if they were to provide their own answers. The trouble is that person won't be able to learn how they got their answer in chemistry, as there are no mistakes to help them learn.

Here is the attached picture that shows the characteristics of the 2 contrasting mindsets. Although I may do a separate post on here fir another time, which involves discussing each of them in more detail.

*I began this post on the 29/10/23, but didn't finish it until the 31/10/23*

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!

It's all about the focus

Before you all ask yourself by looking at the title, this is NOT a chosen quote I have picked from the internet for a QOTD, this is just a post that I have decided to do (with the chosen post title) as I made some choices that I wasn't proud of at the beginning of this week, as well as what I nearly ended up doing because of how I was feeling. This was what had inspired me to make this post.

My outcome for this post, is to make everyone reading not feel alone if they are going through something similar, or need some encouragement to keep focusing on achieving what they want to do in life regardless of how long & time consuming it is taking them. What I am about to tell you is not exception.

For the past 4 years, I have been dreaming of a career in the policing. Around the same time, I began developing my passion for psychology, and wish to do something in that industry as well. And because they both combine well together, I chose to do Public Services at college due to there being a ton of psychology involved in that industry. 

That journey to get to where I currently am now had started at doing a L1 Sport & Public Services course, where I got to learn more about what policing is actually like, rather than the stereotypical catching criminals, as well as learn about the basic fitness elements. During the COVID-19 lockdown, all I was doing until I had finished for that summer break was creating online posters on Word promoting sport activities. I thought I wouldn't be able to get through it during that lockdown, but I just got on with it like my future ambition depended on it. I even signed up to the OpenUniversity to get a few psychology related qualifications under my belt as well, just to get me prepared for my future. (Which was going to uni back then)

I then made an easy progression onto the L2 course doing the same thing, but it was more to do with sport & fitness. By that time, I felt confident enough to create my own blogging website to share my then & now knowledge of psychology to an audience. Especially during the 3rd COVID-19 lockdown, where I couldn't do anything else besides coursework for 3 months. I was mainly doing a lot of coursework & practical sport & fitness that relate to mental health, which I really enjoyed learning about, as well as doing. Let me tell you, doing what I did during that 3rd lockdown felt like the hardest thing I had to go through, let alone embrace, but I knew it was important that I get through it, because of I didn't, I wouldn't be able to progress onto doing L3 Public Services.

When I did get onto my 1st year of L3 Public Services, I felt like I've already accomplished a major achievement, just by simply being on the course itself. However, I never expected the FULL-ON assignment workload which layed ahead of me during my excitementfor the first 2 months. I remember feeling the struggle of the workload around halfway through the academic year due to falling behind with my assignments. Luckily, I managed to knuckle down in my free time, so it prevented me from making that mistake again. Before long, summer had hit, and I was able to relax with a sense of relief,  knowing that I have already done well enough to progress onto the 2nd year. In that time, I suddenly wanted a career in the Royal Navy. (After finishing uni)

Because I did the 1st year, I was able to do the 2nd year of my L3 Public Services course. Again, this felt like I've already accomplished a major achievement for just progressing onto the 2nd year. I made sure to get onto doing course right away, so it gave me plenty of time work through them calmly without feeling any pressure to rush them. However, that all changed at the beginning of January, where I had new assignments come out every 2 weeks. From then up until May, I was literally neck deep in coursework that I had no choice but to take a hiatus for 3 months. I also made the decision to not go to uni in that time frame too. Although I still thought it was worth going to 2 open events back in December just to see what uni life would be like.

Overall, I would say that I have experienced some high stress levels throughout my whole L3 course in Public Services. This was because I felt like my whole future depended on getting a decent grade at the end of it, or else I would be screwed.

Back in March, I was reccomended by my tutor that I take the SC route into policing, instead of doing the uni route, so I didn't have to stress over UCAS points, which worked out for me. Also around that time, I was employed by Disability Challengers as a part-time play/youth worker. (A job I'm very proud to have for reasons that shall be explained in another post) Back then was because I was still in the mind of going to uni, and thought this job would pay off my student loan.

Fast forward onto this month, I am not working in the Police Force just yet. This is because I feel like I should just settle down after everything that has happened from January - June. Especially with my job at Disability Challengers, as I want to put my focus on that more during the time being as well. 

*This was where my poor choice occurred*

I was reccomended to do extra credit at college by doing a L2 Health & Social Care course. Because I have done a L3 course, I feel like it's pointless doing a L2 course afterwards, so I wanted to drop out of education by looking for full-time work that would work round my Disability Challengers job. This led me to bunking off college in order to attend job interviews. Even then, I thought I was getting somewhere, but after lengthy conversations with a few people, I realised my choice was getting me nowhere, but trouble.

This was also where common sense hit me by saying that the more time I spend in education, the more qualifications I will have. Plus, the more qualifications, the more likely I will get into my dream career. I then vowed to myself that from next week onwards, will be clean slate. To make this happen, I must embrace my situation by just keeping my head down, and getting on with everything without backtracking my focus.

That pretty much concludes my long arse journey progression talk. I hope this has given you all courage to be more open about your journey progression as well.

Remember, IT'S ALL ABOUT THE FOCUS!

Onwards & upwards.✊🏻

The psychology behind sign communication

Evening everyone! I hope you're all enjoying your week so far, whatever you're getting up to. As for me, I have the fun demand of attending 4 training courses this week. I have attended 2/4 so far, which were fire marshal training & introduction to sign language. The remaining 2 I have to attend are moving people training & crisis drills training.

The purpose behind these training sessions is to make me feel more responsible while working at my job. To be more precise here, I actually have 3 jobs at the moment, and 1 of them consists of being a play worker at a disability play scheme. (Hence these said training courses) 

But looking at the introduction to sign language training course in particular, I have learned today (when I had attended the training course) that there is a ton of psychology involved with understanding sign communication. When I was reflecting on my training later I had finished, I thought I could disclose what I had learned in my introduction to singing training course onto here, so you guys (who are interested) could learn a few things about signing for yourself!

Why people communicate with their hands:

At around some point in life, you are guaranteed to come across somebody who is non-verbal, and therefore, can only communicate using their hands. Word of advice here for everyone: "Just because they cannot verbally talk, doesn't mean they cannot understand our verbal communication." If nobody was to ever understand hand communication in this world, then try putting yourselves into the non-verbal hand communicator's shoes and see how frustrating the outcome will be for them, as they will end up feeling isolated & alone due to them not feeling a part of anything. This is where the importance of needing to understand hand communication comes into play. By doing so to another non-verbal hand communicator, you'll be making them feel more welcome by taking away their burden of not feeling like they can confidently communicate.

Why people communicate with picture symbols:

Now lets discuss picture symbols. Again, these are commonly used by non-verbal communicators, because they provide visual context of what that person wants/needs. For example, if they are using picture symbols to ask someone what toy they would like to play with. Another way of a non-verbal communicator using picture symbols, is to visually grasp what is happening throughout each day. Or a day schedule, if you like. Where I work at a disability play scheme on a Saturday, I have seen a few people who use picture symbols to communicate with people. (Myself included) In my view, I think that picture symbols are a useful form of communication, as not everyone can understand verbal communication all of the time, right? And pictured symbols helps you to, well, put pictures inside your head. For example, a picture of somebody eating. This helps us to understand that the non-verbal communicator wants something to eat.  

I think I've covered everything for this post, so I'll conclude it here.

I hope all of you have found this post beneficial to you to use in the future when it comes to communicating with non-verbal people. In my case, I am still in the learning process of signing, as there is literally a LOT to cover. This was especially during my introduction to signing training.

*I began this post on Tuesday, (25/7/23) but I finished it on the 28/7/23*

Turns out that learning about psychology is just a hobby...

Good TGIF everyone! I know it's been 3 weeks since I had last made a post on here, let alone being active on here at all. To put simply, my worklife basically took over me. This meant I barely had enough time to be blogging on my site. Plus, I was away for 10 days just to kick back & relax from my busy life, which was indeed much needed! That aside, I've been feeling pretty good about myself lately.

As of now, I currently have enough down time to be active on here, as well as being able to make a post. And this post (as the above title states) shall be dedicated to something that I have learned recently in terms of the very topic of psychology. 

As it turns out, learning psychology is just a hobby...

What makes learning about psychology a hobby? 

Overall, I would say that learning in general can be classified as a hobby. This is because you can learn about something by reading, researching or just doing something practical to learn about something you want to do.

Going back on topic here, in terms of psychology being a hobby, there is a huge amount of creativity that plays a part in psychology. Being creative in something can also be classified as a hobby, as it shows you enjoy creating with things.  

*This post actually began on the 21/7/23, but got published on the following day (22/7/23)*