A small update

Hello my audience, I know it's been a long while since my last activity on here.

I know you may well be thinking: "Why hasn't Lauren been active lately? I presume she's busy with coursework and could be thinking of new topics to talk about for this blog."

However, I can assure you, that's not the case at all.

The reality has been the fact that I've been dealing with some personal problems during the past month, which meant I haven't had the energy to think about what my next post('s) should be.

Hence, I've been away on holiday this week to help me refresh my mind, as well as just to simply enjoy myself.

Anyway, as of today, I now feel much more motivated about what to do with myself within the foreseeable weeks ahead.

I don't want to keep droning on about it all, so I'll wrap things up for now.🙂

By the way, Happy Day of The Dead!

Just a little something for #WorldMentalHealthDay

Hello peeps, hope you've all been healthy and well recently, especially on a day like today. Why? Because today (10/10) is World Mental Health Day.

Why the occasion? As mental heath can impact one on a day-to-day basis, without even acknowledging that it's even playing inside your mind at all. With that said, you could say it's like living with a demon inside your mind, which somehow got trapped in there and can't get out - Making people feel down.

This is why I feel like talking about the reality of how Mental Health works and why, so I can ensure people that they are not alone in relations to this.

Now, in case if you're new and not aware, I have always had an interest with how different minds work and why they work the way they do, hence I became hooked onto psychology. However, when I was much younger, (probably up until 15) I didn't even know the term was called psychology. I actually got hooked onto it when I was 17.

 

DEAR SELF... 

You are absolutely bloody amazing of who you are and what you've become. Your Mental Health is just there to sometimes tell you that you're not good enough, therefore, making you feel anxious and miserable all the time. Never let it define you as a person.

However, the reality is you are smart enough to know that these thoughts are just lies to make you feel guilty.

You have many people that care about you, to ensure you are doing alright. Always check on them back to repay the same human kindness.

You know you're exceeding in life, as you have a planned future ahead of you. Just keep yourself focused by constantly finding that self-motivation you've never had before.

Knowledge the fact some people like to put you down, as they have no understanding of the impact of Mental Health. In this case, YOU are your only limit to success.

Cherish every loving moment with friends/family or even if it's on your own, as it can may well have a good reflect on your life, as well as Mental Health.

Never, ever, EVER feel like you can't interact with anyone, just because your demon thoughts are taking over your mind. Talking will always be the solid reason why people feel motivated the way they do. You'll never know... it could may even save somebody's life.💜💜💜

Why does eating a variety of different foods give you different thoughts?

Hello one and all! It's good to be back blogging once again.

Only because I've been keeping extra priotized with revision for my course this academic year lately, which can be quite full on at times.

Anyway, hope you're all doing well and enjoying the autumn so far.

This is a topic I've been looking into this week, so I thought about distributing it out to you guys, as you may find it interesting, as well as being able to take away some learned information too.

Now, you're probably thinking to yourself: "Why this picture?! It looks crazy!"😂

But... I can only assure you, this is a pictured definition of what foods THAT person is thinking about, when THEY'RE in a calm mood.

As for myself, I like to think about egg when I'm in a calm mood, as the taste of it makes me feel healthy and nutritious. It's also good for you in general.😊

What thoughts go through your mind when eating different foods?

Let's say, you like to crave on pizza, therefore meaning, eating pizza gives you these good thoughts that you never want to let go, such as: "Ahh, this is the life. I hope it never ends"

The problem is, if that inner message keeps on repeating itself over and over, it will eventually tell your mind, that pizza is the only thing keeping your happiness sane. It then becomes an addiction. You can choose to do this with any type of food.

In contrast, try another piece of food which make you experience a more positive emotion, such as nostalgia. You may like to have something, you haven't had since you were a kid, and it happens to be something you liked to eat a lot back then. I also like to do to this from time to time, and it feels so refreshing to your mind!

Or, you might want to feel energized, by eating a banana, cereal or even a protein bar. (Grenade) These foods will tell your mind to find a way to be active for a long period of time, so your mind will therefore tell you to use that fueled energy, by running it all out. I guess you can refer this as to hyperactivity.

Final conclusion: It is always a good thing to experience a variety of thoughts and emotions, when having different foods, as they keep a steady line on your health and wellbeing.

Just in case if you're not familiar of the saying: "Eat well for less" This is the definition displayed on the iconic food plate.

I've pretty much covered everything now.

Thank you so much for taking your time to read through my extensive post. Please do feel free to comment down below or talk to me in person.

Have a great weekend!

My helpful research source: Food and Mood

Why does social media influence people into the way they are?

Hello my fellow readers, hope you're all enjoying your weekends so far. As for me, I've been a tad busy recently, due to me starting back at college again, so I'm currently keeping myself prioritized with upcoming coursework.

However, this week, I've been writing down ideas on what my next post should be about, then I thought about making some kind of follow-up post from my previous one about social media. 

Link here: The psychology behind social media

What I've found on the internet:

Just last night, I've done some research on how can sociology can play a part in social media influencing, (I'll discuss about that in the next subheading) and one of the key factor which plays a huge role is something called: "Gaining empathy from one-another"

This is now very much commonly used by people on their socials, (namely Instagram) to attract likes and comments by their friends, as this is their own way of showing they require attention from their friends or close friends, (if necessary) in the EXACT moment that publish has been created on their social media. Here's the link to my research source: Mirroring

How can sociology be used within social media influences?:

For those of you who are not familiar with the term 'Sociology' it is another one of those scientific human behavioural studies, which mainly focuses on how humans typically behave in social situations around us. A prime example of this would be, how do we typically behave around our families and why do we behave the way we do around them. You could otherwise say, this all comes under the overall psychology umbrella. If you know what I mean.

What I'm seeing a lot on Instagram nowadays, and I'm not just aiming at friends/family either, is people never intending to post anything, yet they still have the intention of posting eventually on there, but this is to just simply gain lots of likes and comments from them, especially their close friends, as they will always be the ones who will support those individuals from day 1 - until the very end.

Let's say, you live in a family of people who have Instagram, but never actually post anything on there, unless it's a special moment in their lifetime, in which, it could be birthdays, in memory of someone or even a major celebration etc.

If your only posts were to be about the above listed things, therefore, you'll be hoping to get as many likes and comments from nearly everyone who follows you on there, meaning, they say lovely things to you, or even just use emojis as a substitute. (Depending on if you're a lover of them or not, as not everyone like the idea of using emojis in their communication)

To flip this point the other way round, if you see a friend/family member do EXACTLY the same thing as what you do on Instagram, you'll be the one who gives out all the likes and comments, in order to help them feel good about themselves in life.

If you were a celebrity, that would be a different scenario all together, as you NEED to post things on your social media, as it's YOUR job to keep the public updated about every single thing you get up to in your famous life, so you'll be able to make a living out of it. This way, other celebrities will give you lots of likes and praise, to help you to keep moving forwards with your career.

If I have to conclude all of this in my own way, it would be, that I see people now enjoy echoing on-another, so they can fit within their own form of society. Bare in mind, I'm not saying this is either a good or bad thing, as you may very well now, that I'm just curious to know how these things work and why.

Lastly and foremost, everyone has an individual right to be themselves on whatever social media. I want to put this message out there.

That's all for this topic.

Thank you very much for reading through. Please do feel free to let me know what your thoughts are in the comments or in person.

Bye for now!😊

The psychology behind social media

Hello all, Happy Sunday! I hope it's been a good one for you, especially with the hot weather today.😎

Since my last post, I've been keeping myself occupied, by staying off the internet and going out walking, which is what will be bringing up today's topic of social media.

What is social media?

Social media is a multi-communication app, which allows us to connect with friends and family, by making your own posts, pictures and stories to share online with them.

Even though, it may be fun and enjoyable to use for posting about your happy moments for everyone to see, such as going out travelling, clubbing or just hanging out with your friends and family etc. It can otherwise be very well known for "Controlling your happiness" (This is a quote, which has been taken from a friend of mine's documentary that'll be displayed at the end of the discussion)

Going back to my last point, social media sometimes has the capacity to control your happiness, especially when you're feeling depressed and bored, by saying to yourself: "Do you know what, I feel like just scrolling through my social media feeds, to see what everybody else has been doing, so that it makes me feel happy" 

Doing this, only shows that you have no interest on focusing on yourself, by looking into other people's lives on social media, which will then lead your mindset to start "Comparing yourself with other people" (Another quote taken from the upcoming documentary) As you judge yourself where you stand in your life progression, against other people in theirs. This is when your mind starts saying: "I feel like I'm doing A LOT better in life then these people, as I've got many pictures, as well as posts on there, which always gets likes and comments. Whereas, this person is boring, as they can never be bothered to post anything"

Don't get me wrong, whenever people like and comment on your posts, it does feel "Rewarding" (Another quote) to you, as those people do genuinely appreciate what you are doing in the making of that post, as well as yourself for that matter, as it makes YOU appreciate what you actually physically do in life, in order for you to receive that amount of praise. I always feel the same way too when this happens on my social media.

Finally and foremost, it is NEVER a good idea to spend lots of long hours on social media everyday, as it drains all of your productive time, which you could be physically doing something towards your goal or hobby, as these are the things you're interested in to make you become into a successful person one day in your life. Plus, it drains your mental health, by constantly looking into your eye-damaging phone screen, so that it brainwashes your mind, by making it think there's nothing fun to do in the outside world anymore, and you'd rather be indoors constantly surfing the internet 24/7, as this becomes your new favourite form of entertainment.

I think I've pretty much concluded everything in that topic now.

Thank you very much for taking your time to read through this long and extensive post today, and as promised, here is my friend's awesome documentary about his outtake on social media.

The topmost reason I wanted to share it with you all in this post, is that he words every single thing about my OWN use of social media, meaning, I couldn't word it any better, as he explains everything. I'll leave you to enjoy.

Documentary: Detached

If you want to see of more of what my friend does, then click on: Nicholas Stone

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!😉

     

The benefits of "Putting Yourself in Timeout"

How has this week gone by quick?! All I've done is mostly chill out, as I had a busy holiday last week.

Which is why I want to discuss all of the beneficial methods of "Putting Yourself in Timeout" with you, as you may find these tips helpful for yourselves.

What does this expression mean?

It means, that you decide to be somewhere else, doing something else, when your mind gets overwhelmed by everything around you. This is where it screams: "STOOOOP!"

(The above picture shows MY definition of Putting myself in timeout. Everyone has their own way)

My top 5 bulleted points:

• Go for a long walk - This will help you to clear all the current worries in your mind, by replacing them with your distance goals.

• Listen to music - You could use this method to help keep your mind calm when working on something or to help keep your mind calm when you need alone time.

• Drawing - This is something which I find therapeutic, as your mind just focuses on your imagination sketched out on paper,  as well as being a silent activity.

• Relaxing - This not only helps your body to recharge itself, it also sends messages to the mind by saying: "Just relax, you're in no rush to do anything."

• Watching TV - Use this method to help escape your own stressful mindset, by going into the world of comedy, celebrity gameshow's or sport.

These are all my choice of activities to do when my mind gets overwhelmed by everything and needs to go into timeout. 

It does deserve a well-earned break when you think about how many things it thinks about day-in, day-out. Just so you can keep it happy and healthy for when you need it for important stuff. I.e. Researching.

That's concludes today's discussion.

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 afternoon!😊

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! 

How does watching sport inspire us?

Happy Friyay people! We have now finished day 7 of The 2020 Olympics. I have to say, the UK are doing well, but at the same time, we could still be better, as we're only at the halfway mark during the duration of the games taking place.

Yes, my above title will be related to The Olympics, as I really find it fascinating how it can inspire us all around. Plus, I thought about selecting the most appropriate picture too!

My objective for this post, will be to further inspire the minds of other people, when I explain all of the how's and why's in my thoughts explanation.

  Why are The Olympics so popular to the public?

The Olympic Games have been an ongoing 4 year tradition, ever since its first games hosted in Athens - Greece in 1896. The games had a vary of events, such as: running, long jump, boxing and javelin.

Even though, technology was non-existent back then, so everyone had to use their own imagination to think of the many ways they can recreate THEIR own Olympic Games, by using sticks, walls and heavy rocks for the lifting.

Nowadays, technology is the most popular form of entertainment, so we were now able to use special gym equipment to help work us out and then make endless videos for other people's amusement, as well as inspiration. Plus, we have now got many newly invented events, such as: swimming, skateboarding, fencing and cycling.

Overall, the more games there are and the more people there are, the better the attraction. 

How can they inspire us and why?

By watching different athletes doing different sports, they perform them in such a professional way, that it makes your mind say "WOW! I love watching the athletes run like that. I reckon I could do that myself!" This is where your mind starts filling up with initiative ideas with training yourself up to become a just as good enough athlete as THAT person you watched. Your mind will keep on telling you to watch them, to help you become better an better, until you get to that stage where you're ready to progress onto Olympic level training. The same goes for any other sport.

Not only can you get inspiration from Olympic athletes, you can also get it from internet videos (YouTube) or on social media of other people doing these Olympic style training by using THEIR own initiative ideas which helps THEM train, until they get to the Olympic level. You never know, they could be your friends or family!

I think I've explained everything for today's post. Thank you for taking your time to read through. Please do feel free to let me know what your thoughts are in the comments or in person and have a great weekend!😊    

What is beneficial about "Looking forwards in life"?

I'm back!😁 

Yes, I purposely took a long and fore filling break, because A: I've been on holiday recently. B: I've been having trouble with what to talk about. This is why taking this lengthily break helped me to cook up new ideas for some upcoming posts...

In this case, this one is related to our defeat against the Italians 2 Sundays ago. I will admit, when we lost, I felt the tears running around in my head and they were screaming to be let out by me, as I was so whelmed up by everything that's happened during the whole game. In the end, I realized that it was only best to reflect on the team's journey during this tournament and looking forward in life. (Explanation coming up)

 

Fun fact: This is a popular quote which can be explained in many different ways!

What does this quote mean?

It means, that you acknowledge something great is eventually going to happen to you in life, but in order to achieve that greatness, you HAVE to keep looking forwards at your future and not think too much about what happened in your past, as you cannot change it.

What is beneficial about this quote and why?

If you keep reading this quote over and over again, your mind will eventually become so hyper focused on working on your plans and goals for your future.

Don't get me wrong, it is always a good thing to reflect on your life journey, as well as your past achievements, (if necessary) to help give your mindset some ideas on how to succeed for next time and do better than ever.

Furthermore, never forget about all of the obstacles you had to face and what you had to do to progress through them, as they will always be a useful reminder of your mindset tactics in favour of your success. 

What are the best examples to use and why?

One of them being what I was talking about previously. The England V Italy game. I can sense the players' heartbreak and frustration on how they succeeded in every game right up until the final, when the players got tired and were struggling to keep up. 

During their loss at the end of the game, they had the whole night to pause and reflect on their journey and how they can improve for next time. As this reflecting moment was showing on live TV, I can imagine the teary reaction of everyone else watching, as they can feel the players' emotions when THEY show them after their team lost. It was so powerful.

This is where they start talking on their social media platforms, that they were extremely proud of their tournament journey, their teammates and their support. In which, will help encourage them to look forwards to their next journey in life.

That's all for this post.

Thank you for taking your time to read through. Please feel free to let me know what your thoughts are in the comments or in person. Have a good evening!

   

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!