I'm Choosing To Smile

It's not always easy to radiate positivity, especially when your mental health is defying the often overbearing, enthusiastic life quotes on the internet. There's factors in the world that make it almost impossible to smile; you can wake up and feel that impending doom of the day ahead, something or someone can upset you or offend you and a downhearted mood can creep upon you. You can have the worst luck in the world, experience problems with a task you were determined to complete, be rejected, fight with a loved one, or switch on the news.  You can feel as though there's no hope nor reason to think optimistically but then an occasion or a person may prove you wrong. You can participate in your favourite pastime and feel the happiness building or bubbling. Or simply, like me, despite every concept being considered, you absolutely do not smile even when you're on a high, because the reflection staring back at you as you smile with your teeth makes you scowl with disgust. 

Tips For Taking Small Steps Back Into Fitness

It's a bit hypocritical of me to sit here and talk about nutrition, health, and fitness when I've been the biggest slacker over the past couple of months. I don't have the leverage to start talking greens and shakes and HIIT training when a) I'm nowhere near a stable expert and b) I've been feasting like there's no tomorrow (truthfully it's just a serious case of holiday blues and no more bikini outings) but I suppose that's the whole point of this post - for my desire to get back on track and feel as invigorated and wholesome as I did when I managed to keep my head in the game - and of course, for anyone else who's having a similar problem. 

Dangers of the Contraceptive Pill

I've been umming and ahhing about writing a post like this for such a long time now but I've held back in fear of sounding contriving and patronising and like I'm forcing points upon you. That's not what I want to do. What I want to do is aim to bring this subject to light, to really get to the core of my viewpoint and to generally make young (and older) women cautious and clued up when it comes to making the suitable decision for their own health. Funnily enough, it wasn't the many birth control fatality stories in the media, or the fact a year ago today I told my unrevealed tale of being a teen stroke survivor which contracted from that mini pill, but it was in fact Grace's tweet back in March where she used her platform to inform of the exact same case only devastatingly with her own relative. It often takes an influencer to influence you (which makes obvious sense, of course) and that it did. I thought, as the months went by, that it's time for me to raise awareness and encourage reflection from my own perspective. The perspective that knows just damn well how dangerous it can be.

Mental Health Awareness Week: My Experiences With Depersonalization & Derealization

I am an advocate for mental health. I avidly talk about it in real life and am becoming hell of a lot more open about it online. There's nothing more important than talking. Talking about your thoughts, your feelings, your troubles, your worries, your hopes, and even your recovery. There's no shame in me admitting I have had years of emotional distress that will always be a part of my growth but there's also nobody more proud of the battle with my mind and the demons I've faced head on, than myself. I've spoken about my struggles in previous posts and that's always usually from the encouragement of targeted weeks dedicated to increasing awareness, erasing the stigma and giving people the chance to share their experiences. This is why I believe it's so important to spread the word, to show mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, to assert it does not make you abnormal, to get it off your chest, to talk.

The Seven Common Myths and Misconceptions of Chronic Illness

I vowed to myself before the clock struck midnight on the 31st December 2016 to indicate a new year and a fresh approach, that I'd be more open about my crusade with chronic illness and incurable pain over on my blog. Not just because it's therapeutic for me mentally to let those burdens go but because for years I've felt alone with the stigma and misconceptions that tend to surround long term health conditions and I want to offer that supportive hand and reminder to the fellow spoonies who are at the forefront of these false statements that you're not on your own - because, ultimately, a perfectly well human being with no experience of often unintentional but still deliberate discrimination against the sick and disabled do not have the right to paint you in a bleak light, to tell you how you should be feeling and to make negative assumptions on how you live your life alongside your illness.

My Top Tips For Keeping Healthy This Christmas

It's no secret the way to sail through the Christmas period is to indulge until your body mass is heavier than the bag of gifts you bring. Tis' the season for eating is notorious knowledge - whether that's the piled up turkey dinner, the party nibbles, the unstoppable Celebrations snacking or the inability to resist temptation as the boxes of shortbread and variety biscuits keep being persuasively passed to you without notice; being a glutton is unavoidable and at every corner you turn. 

What Does Chronic Pain Really Feel Like?

Five Ways To Pick Yourself Up When You're Run Down

I like to call this time of year the lurgy year. There's the coughing and the spluttering as you walk the streets, the domino pattern as the common cold is passed down the family tree, the strenuous mission to get a doctor's appointment and of course the dramatic feeling sorry for ourselves. We're completely entitled to that, though. If it's not the perfect time to appreciate all the times we didn't have a blocked up, stuffy nose and a clear airway, it's time to perk yourself up with a well deserved reflective rest because we all occasionally need it and we're all worthy of a fresh, revitalised positivity boost. Whether you're suffering a bout of the annual winter bug or are feeling generally run down and exhausted about life, here's my top pick me ups to help you fall right back on track.

Five A Day Advice and Recipes

Happy bank holiday Monday, guys! It's seems like forever ago since we had a 3 day weekend so to relish in a day of freedom - whether you're lazing around doing nothing or spending it being counter productive - is something to engulf. The August bank holiday, for me, pretty much marks the end of summer. September swarms in and soon enough we're swapping sunglasses and flowers for scarves and crispy, golden leaves and as much as I love the warmer weather, I can't help but pine for my favourite time of the year! Saying this, there was no better time to publish a guest post very kindly written by Alyson Yazi to feature on my blog - because if there's any opportunity to get back into a healthy routine and shed off that ice cream enforced timber, it's a change of season. Enjoy!

The Life Of A Stroke Survivor: The Life Of Me

I never thought I'd get to to this point, to the stage where I'm comfortable enough to share my deepest, darkest secret with the whole world when the fear of judgement I feel on a daily basis already dominates my entire existence but here we are, three years of blogging down the line and no longer do I feel as though I should hide away the part of me that defines the difference between my online persona and the verity of my realistic battles. Am I scared? Hell yes. Am I fighting the emotion right now? Even more hell yes. Am I hoping to change attitudes, raise awareness and aspire to continue holding out hope by telling my story? Triple that hell yes. So, let me reintroduce myself...

Oil Pulling - My Minty Coco Experience

*14 Day Course - C/O Minty Coco

I'll be brutally honest here, I hate my teeth. I don't want to sound like a repetitive self-loather but it's the truth and I've always been conscious of them throughout my youth. You'll rarely see me with a goofy smile, instead it will be replaced with a stern pout and my signature resting bitch face (whoops). It's not just the fact they aren't the straightest of sets; it's the way my mouth awkwardly curves up in an odd shape, my chubby chipmunk cheeks come out to say hello and of course, the colouring doesn't exactly match up to those you see on the likes of TOWIE.