Wow, it's been ages.

Hey guys, wow it's been ages.

Well, what have I been up to? Mostly A-Levels, the dreaded A-Levels.
I finished my exams in June and you would think I 'd feel free as a bird but no, I'm now stressing about results day in 13 days. Man, I hate my brain.

While I've not been updating this, I've been in a DBT group to help with my mental health. I didn't think it would help at all (tbh I didn't think much would.) But I'm thrilled to say it makes a difference, as long as I put the work in continually. The skills from this group are what I'm trying to use now to get over my nerves and unhealthy obsession with the faithful day in 2 weeks time. I'll go into DBT more in a new post but skills such as radical acceptance, have a non-judgmental and being in 'wise mind' really do help.

So, if you're stressing about something you can't control, these things may help you. I believe the skills taught in the group are not only amazing in my recovery but could help improve a lot of peoples lives, whether they struggles with mental health issues or not. I mean, we all worry and get nervous about things we can't help and I've been taught the skills to try and help deal with that.

Radical Acceptance
The situation is how it is and cannot be changed. You are not expected to change it either, it is just how it is and you have to wholly accept that.

Non-judgmental
Links to radical acceptance. No judgments, positive or negative need be attached to said thing. This includes judgments on yourself or others concerning the thing. Just deal with the facts. For example, if I were to get lower than expected grades in my exams, these are neither bad or good. It is just how it is and by extension it does not mean I am stupid or a bad person.

So, there are a couple of things I've learnt recently that really help me in many aspect of life, especially worrying. Maybe you can find a way to apply them to yourself.

Take care,

Jen 

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Fortune Favours the Brave

This quote has really helped me over the past year or so.

I have spent a lot of my life overwhelmed with anxiety; this include over things like exams,being left on my own, spiders, ghosts and even some people.

Over the past couple of years I have been working hard at improving my mental health and anxiety levels and I think I've improved a lot. Obviously, there have been times of increased stress, as there will be for everyone, but I feel like I've dealt with this well since identifying my anxiety and how I can try to improve situations.

During one of these stressful and anxious periods last summer (dreaded exams) I stumbled across the quote "Fortune favours the brave" and I instantly was able to apply it to myself.
I thought if I was able to keep being brave by studying and sitting the exams I would be in a much better situations than if I let anxiety take over myself. Basically, fortune would favour me for bravery in the form of sitting these exams. And it did. I revised hard and sat my exams no matter how scared I was. I was rewarded by my good results last summer which I am immensely proud of.

I'm glad I found this quote, it gave me that boost of motivation to overcome my fears and go out and get what I wanted. I'm still using it for motivation and reassurance today. I will be applying for uni and facing interviews for mental health nursing so I shall be referring myself back to it a lot! It shouldn't be too hard as it is now stuck on my bedroom wall haha!

I hope this quote will be useful to some of you.

Take care,

Jen

What do you want to be when you grow up?

We've all been asked that question when we were younger.

With all the answers such as popstar, princess and astronaut I remember I really wanted to an estate agent when I was 5... strange I know.

But, when you get older, say into secondary school, it gets harder to identify what you actually want to do. There seems to be this pressure within the education system to know exactly how you want to spend the rest of your life when you're just a teenager. It's stressful, most people just don't know and many people change their minds completely, as they should be allowed to. When you've just turned a teenager you're still developing as an individual and still have experiences ahead of you that may shape what you want to do in the future.

I'm writing this because I want to try and reassure people. The pressures from education about jobs and the future continues as you get older and into higher education and it can be worrying when you are unsure of what you want to be/do. Just remember that you don't have to decide the rest of your future right now. People change careers when they are 50 and upwards, even going to uni multiple times, so you can change your mind too! You may find you are very happy with first job you do, you may find you hate the job you thought you always wanted. Don't worry, you are allowed to alter things in your life, including your job.

Education isn't the be all and end all (even though it can seem like it when you are younger) and neither are exams or uni. We are told that our exams shape the rest of our life forever, but remember you can resit and redo things if you are not happy with your performance. If you are determined to do something, you will get their in the end, even if it takes longer than others.

I just want people to know that education, uni and jobs is not everything, or what defines you as successful which is something I think we are fed too much when we are young. Yes, they can be very important but remember to look after your physical and mental health and develop yourself as a person as well throughout your years. There are always options and you should do what you see fit to pursue happiness.

Thank you for reading this ramble haha!

Take care,

Jen

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Wow, time flies!

So hey guys, it's been a while.

I hope you are all well, I'm afraid I have been stuck in my own little A-level world for the past few weeks, getting back into the swing of things now (hopefully) and I'm working out how to balance my time between, school, family/friends and blogging. If you are interested or just a buddy a-level student that wants to know, I'm studying Psychology, Sociology, Biology and Extended Project at AS level. 

Anyway, I thought I would do a quick post today just to let you all know that it is world mental health day. This means that it's time to raise awareness, in order to provoke conversations and therefore understand about mental health problems. I've been open about my depression and anxiety in an attempt for the stigma towards mental illness to diminish and I simply have nothing to be ashamed of, after all 1 in 4 of us will at some point experience a mental health problem; it's a lot more common than we sometimes think.

Image from to time-to-change.org.uk

If you are suffering or someone you know think you may have a mental health problem, please talk to someone. A family member, friend, doctor, there will always be someone there to help you.

Finally, if you want more information on mental health issues then check out these little links:

http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/

http://www.mind.org.uk/

Thanks for reading guys, see you soon. 

Jen

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College Results

Hi-de-ho guys!

Some of you may have collected your results from exams or will be doing so soon. I've got my AS level results which is the first year of A-Levels.

Now, I only have 1 AS; I started out with 4 last September but hey, crap happens doesn't it? Throughout the year I suffered problems which led to me hardly being able to attend sixth form at all. I kept one subject as away of keeping me in a 'sort of' routine' and I was left with my favourite, good ol' psychology.

This past year has been bloody hard, probably the hardest thing I've ever gone through. But I'm still here, I'm still fighting, and on top of that I managed to get an AS level pass too. I'm pretty pleased.

Here's to next month, when I'll be re-starting my AS levels and working towards my desired career in clinical psychology. It's still going to be tough but I have a future that I can look to now and I wanna frickin' do this! Weyhey, motivation!

Hope you all got/get the results you were hoping for, and remember, don't worry if you didn't. Those letters on a piece of paper don't define you.

See you soon,

Jen 

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