The feeling of being "belonged to somewhere" rather than being "just a spare part"

Hi everyone, it's been a minute, so here's a short & brief summary of what I've been up to these past few months.

I'm back to working full-time in education, but this time, it's on a permanent basis! (I'll explain more about that later as per this blog title)

I've also been doing a lot of work with my 2 policing projects. If you follow me on LinkedIn, you'll know what they'll involve.

It's definitely safe to say that I've been rather busy during that time! But since I have a whole day to myself, I thought I'd use the time to make this blog post. Most of what I will be talking about in this post, will be related to my career working as an Agency Teaching Assistant (TA), and finally getting the job as a permanent contracted Teaching Assistant role.

Turning the attention back to the above title, I want to talk about why I feel like going to a job where I actually feel like I belong somewhere, and not just going to a job where I feel like I'm just a spare part.

This was because that when I was an Agency TA for a year & 8 months, all I was doing was covering for contracted TA's in classrooms where the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) couldn't hire any permanent staff at the time. 

I admittedly enjoyed the getting to go to a variety of different schools aspect of the role, as I got to work with different pupils. That said, there was 3 schools that I worked in where they made me feel valued, and treated me like I was a permanent member of staff.

However, these things also didn't mean that I enjoyed the job role altogether...

Again, most of my time as an Agency TA just felt like I was nothing but a "spare part" as there were some schools that I had worked in where their staff didn't appreciate me working there. Even if it was just for one day. 

Without naming some schools I worked at, I would get told by the agencies who put me in those schools that they won't be suitable for me. All because I happen to make a mistake with marking someone's work, or how I interact with the pupils, or even just how I talked with the staff in general. You could say those schools were very nitpicky about which staff they'd like to have.

This went on until the 10th of June, where I had an interview at a SEN & SEMH school in Crawley. I remember going into the interview thinking: "Will this be another interview that I won't be successful in afterwards?" Only because I had SO many TA role interviews with the outcome of being unsuccessful. Although, I actually had slightly more hope in this one due to the SLT who interviewed me seemed very impressed with the amount of schools I had worked in since November 2024. Especially with the amount of experience of SEN & SEMH I have gained during that time.

Anyway, the following morning (the 11th of June), I got the phone call to say that I was successful in the interview, and have been offered my place at the school to start in September! This then gave me a strong feeling of relief, finally feeling like all of my patience, persistence & determination has eventually paid off for something worthwhile!

Once I started at the school on the 1st of September, I began to carry a sense of "belonging" by the fact that the job is mine, and no one can replace me. This also meant that I can carry on working in education for as long as I want to!

That's all for now, but I'll be sure to be back on here once I have more time to do so.

Over & out!🤚🏻

How moral support can feel so positive & rewarding

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I'm thinking about working on my self-care throughout next week

*A bit of inspiration from TheAutismDad blog*

As I've had a great day walking today, it gave me enough positive inspiration to go out walking throughout next week. I thought it would be a productive way of occupying myself, in a bid to keep healthy & active, as I could really do with the fitness kick.

Not only that, but there is psychological reasoning behind my intended self-care. As soon as I go back to college the following week, I have to go in EVERYDAY to do Maths & English exams, (hopefully the last time having to do them) with my usual lessons in-between. It will be a HECTIC week, but I'll sail through it, like a calm breeze.

Just in case if there are any walking fanatics out there reading this, let me give you the lowdown about the mindful benefits of walking in the outdoors. Especially in the sunny weather, I can think of literally nothing better to do than spend my day going on long walks. This is a psychological effect on the brain's hormone called "Serotonin" which helps your brain to boost its mood, therefore, has a domino effect on your mood. 

Here's the source link if you're curious to find out more: https://www.healthline.com/health/depression/benefits-sunlight#_noHeaderPrefixedContent 

Does living in your thoughts help you escape reality?

A fairly quick, but interesting post tonight.

As the Rhetorical Questionized title says, I've pretty much more or less spent today 'Living in my thoughts'.

Only because today was a purposely nothing day, so I thought thinking would help me to keep my sanity.

Don't take the above sentence the wrong way, as just casually thinking can very easily turn into overthinking. If you can relate to the stresses of overthinking, then you can understand my point of view.

To justify my unexplained reason in the 3rd paragraph, I felt like thinking about my good times in the past. This helps me to take a momentarily break from my present reality, as I think about my successful moments that were worth applauding for. I like to use moments like these as self motivation fuel.

Furthermore, I utilise that break from reality, in order to stop any negative thoughts come into my head, and potentially, waste my day feeling worried about silly scenarios which will never happen.

*A pictured definition of what my mind was like today*

One thing you all need to bare in mind is, your mind is like a magnet, in which, it has the capacity to play tricks on you. 

Best feed it with success and positively, regardless of how you want to take a mental break from reality.👍🏻👍🏻

A message from yours truly on NYE

Well, 2021 has slowly come and almost gone...

Personally, I think 2021 has been a decent year for me. In contrast however, I also encountered many personal struggles along the way too. (Reasons that I would rather not specify)

With all that said, I'll prioritize the T-minus 1hr year, 2022 (time as of writing this) to reflect and learn from my growth, struggles and journey, in order to slowly better making myself a step more successful in life. Oh yeah, let's not forget about my blogging business!😂

Anyways, I hope you're all having a good evening on the final night of 2021. Be sure you celebrate something that's at least worth celebrating if you intend to watch the live fireworks tonight!

Without further ado... Here's my inspirational message for you all:

 

"Now that yet another year is coming to a close end, take a bit of time to reflect on the good's and bad's. Regardless if you're satisfied or not, don't worry about dwelling on it, as you carry over into the 24th hour, meaning, NYD.

Once that first day of the new year has entered, you can begin to enjoy yourself, by making self plans for you to simply go out and chase down. Remember, every single day is ALWAYS a day closer to achieving something. Even if that something takes for as long as 3 years to achieve! I've been through similar, so I can totally relate to that.

Always use the past as a learning opportunity for your planned future, as the only legit way to succeed in life, is to make mistakes, so you'll be able to learn from them, as well as to become proficient at performing them correctly with practice. Explanation of a typical human function.

In conclusion and potentially, you only get to live once, so make as many plans as possible for you to go out and achieve! Life is how you create it!"

  

My definition of "Everybody is running their own race within their own time"

Hello, I'm back once again from my break, reflecting on how I can improve on myself with this blog and what my upcoming posts will be...

Anyway, I hope you're all keeping healthy and well lately, as I now feel completely refreshed in terms of getting my new ideas going for blogging again.😁 

I know this is something which I keep saying a lot, but the truth about running a blogging business is, sometimes when I typically write too much within a short space of 2 weeks, my mind and thoughts will go "blank" as my brain will momentarily struggle with processing too much ideas, by holding all of my thoughts in just one place at the same time when I think about them. So this is why it is always a good thing, to just step away from my work, in order to allow my mind to calm down, by slowly clearing out my thoughts and to reflect on myself, to see where I could improve and why.

All of these mentioned statements are totally relevant for my post today, which is why I want to highlight the meaning, the reason and the benefits.

What does this quote mean and why?

The quote, "Running their own race within their own time" means that your are in the process of working towards achieving your goal, but you are doing so within your own time. This intention is also showing that you have the capacity of having the patience to wait a very long time, in order to make it all work out for you in the end.

Not only does it mean achieving your own goals within your own time, but it also means that you're able to ignore peer pressure from those around you, meaning, those who boast about being able to achieve their own goals within THEIR own time, because they have a strategy which works out for them. They're the kind of people who will say to themselves and possibly out load: "Oh, look how far ahead I am compared to everyone else. I must be the best person ever!" These are known, as narcissist people, who like to compare and degrade others, to make them feel good about themselves.

*Note to self: Always be careful with what you think about.*

This is where your mind will respond by saying: "Do you know what, I'm not interested in focusing on anyone else but myself, as I know I will become a successful person" Statements like these, will be beneficial to keep yourself focused on slowly chasing your success, as it helps your mind to continually talk to you, as you do it.

Most importantly, always be proud of how you choose to run your race within your own time, as it may very well be the best successful strategy you've found to help you become the person you will eventually turn out to be. Make sure you find a gap in between to be able to take a short moment to reflect on how far you've come, so you'll be able to thank yourself every time for when you've overcome a mental obstacle during your race. If necessary, use them as fuel to help you learn from those mistakes, to become better and better as you progress onwards towards to goal.

In conclusion, everyone has a right to be able to run their own race within their own time, as everyone finds different strategies to help THEM succeed the way that they want to. However, it doesn't give them the right to judge other people. NO ONE HAS THE SAME MINDSET. This is something I'm still working at too, by keeping myself and my mind occupied with blogging. One of the many hences I created this blog, so I can start investing in myself, but in MY own time, at MY own pace.

I think I've just about covered everything.

Thank you so much for reading through. I hope I've inspired you readers to take my useful advice to becoming successful, and please do feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments or in person.

I hope to publish again this week!😉

     

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! 

"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!

"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! 

  

  

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.

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/)

"Feeding your motivation"

In this post, I want to give you all a lectured insight, as to how you can "Feed your motivation". It actually turns out to be really simple! Just simply keep on doing what makes you happy. 

For instance, running makes you happy, and you have a keen interest of becoming a long distance runner.

But... to be able to reach that long-term goal, you need to have the dedication to work hard, as well as push hard to be able to get to where you want to be.

However... you also need to be aware that there are physical and mental obstacles, in which, you HAVE to face, as well as finding a suitable navigation (both physical and mentally) to boost your confidence towards the next level in terms of reaching your goal.

One way of doing so, is looking for inspiration around you. Watch some videos about that certain interest which makes you happy, to see if you can copy their tricks and tactics, in which, helps THEM to succeed in relations to finding their motivation. Or you can ask your friends and family to help give you encouragement, by telling you that they will ALWAYS be proud of you, for who you are, what you are and how far you've come and still progressing to for fill your motivation.

From time to time, you may experience these random depressing feelings, where you suddenly feel like you're not trying hard enough, therefore, you don't feel like you're ever going to reach your goal, let alone chasing it down. This is EXACTLY the type of feeling which can throw your motivation right off guard. To keep refuelling it, you need to convince yourself that these are all lies, in which, this depressed feeling is telling you. The best way to overcome it, is to keep on reminding yourself of all the progress you've made over the years. Alongside that, think of all the encouraging words your friends and family say about you, in purpose to give you that motivation, which will really help you to think more about where you want to be.

To put all of this long advice in basic terms - It's all about the focus! Only think about success!

(The above picture shows me finding my motivation; by working out)

Thanks for taking your time to read. Comment down below if want any advice on motivation and I shall be back soon with another post. Bye for now!   

How #Autism can REALLY help an individual thrive in life

This will be another highlighted post courtesy from a website. (The Sun)

Which will be illustrating how Katie Price's autistic son, Harvey, has recently been offered the amazing role of becoming a 'Train Announcer'.

We'll be looking at how having these autistic traits, can help you succeed, in terms of doing what you really love to do.

First off, let me just say... I'm autistic myself, so I can totally relate to how it works.

If you've been reading the same similar news, it explains how Harvey's form of autism allows him to remember, as well as memorize every single thorough detail in the National Rail train announcements, in which, a certain train route will be announced to help people travel from A - B on their route.

Overall, Harvey seems to have a strong interest about trains, and is also very passionate about how they work. With that said, he has an occupied intention to look up their history, routes and companies etc.

If anyone else who has these autistic traits, will only have room for one thing in their life - Success! In expansion to this, they have an interest, they look up ALL the information, facts and history of their chosen interest and will keep going until their brain has soaked up EVERYTHING they need to know about their chosen interest to be able to get involved in the type of career they've been aiming towards throughout ALL their childhood and young adulthood.

In addition, the article states that Harvey needs care 24/7, meaning, he sounds like he is low functioning on the spectrum. I need to point out this fact, because these autistic traits can be easily confused with having 'Asperger's Syndrome' (I might explain that in another post) Which sits on the highest end of the spectrum and again, allows people to be thoroughly detailed when having a certain interest, as well as chasing it down in order to succeed.

But having all of these complicated needs DOES NOT stop him from achieving his goals - Another type of message which needs to be spread out more.

That concludes everything I want to disclose on this post and please feel free to comment about any type of advice. See you all soon!

👇Here's the article link below:👇

  

 https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/13873712/katie-price-harvey-network-rail-train-announcer/