Woman has huge smile on her face as she immerses herself in cold water. You can see her shoulders and swimming costume straps. She has her hair tied up and wears a blue, patterned head band. Behind her is green folliage and part of a waterfall, cascading over rocks

Finding joy in movement

TW: brief bit about eating disorders. At School I hated exercise. It was always competitive. Any team related sports made me want to hide in the toilets. Luckily, teachers randomly sorted us into teams, otherwise I would have probably been one of the people who was last to be picked. Even my love for swimming was dampened because of the focus to speed up.

black and white photo filled with a crowd of people mainly turned away from the camera. There is one man at the bottom, front of the photo who is looking in a different direction and you can see half his face

Easing into the ‘new normal’

In England, as lockdown starts to ease, the pressure to go back to pre-pandemic life can cause heightened anxieties. We are now so used to a slower pace of life, social distancing and wearing face masks has become our ‘new normal’. With little still known about what will happen once restrictions have been lifted, it’s understandable that so many of us are starting to experience ‘return anxiety’.

For the love of collage

The pandemic has forced us to spend most of our time staring at screens – with meetings and social interactions mostly being done via zoom – leaving us mentally drained and exhausted.

clouds form at the bottom of the image with an orange glow above indicating it's sunset. the clouds clear, and above the orange glow is clear, blue sky which gets darker blue at the top of the image. in the middle are silhouettes of a flock of birds flying away, towards the horizon. There are nine birds in total at different distances to each other.

Time to put the phone away

I recently wrote about how always being connected to my phone is affecting my mental health. How always being switched on to current affairs is putting me at an all time low. As this is an issue that keeps on reoccurring, rather than just write about it, I decided it was time to do something about it.

Compilation of vintage polaroids, the ones on the top row, bottom row and sides are cut off to give the illusion of endless polaroids. Most are white framed but there are a few with bright red, a couple of blue, purple, orange and yellow. Some have scribbles on them, depicting a certain memory. The images are a mixture of nature, views, cities, homes, groups of people.

Reminiscing on 00s teenage angst

Don’t know about anyone else, but the last year has been bringing out the angsty teenager in me. On the phone to a friend the other night, we discussed how the pandemic has left us in a constant state of feeling overwhelmed by our emotions – much like when we were teenagers.

On a brick wall with wooden shelves on either side is a lighted neon sign that says "you are (music note then new line) What you listen to". There are only a few books on the shelves, some with the covers facing, others on their sides stacked on top of each other.

Relating to lyrics: Florence + The Machine

Music has the power to influence and evoke emotions. There are artists who seem to manage to delve into your darkest inner thoughts. In 2009 Florence & The Machine, later changing to Florence + The Machine broke onto the airwaves. Here was an artist who felt as intensely as I do.

Person is holding their phone upside down. The photo has been flipped round to show the phone the right way up. The person wears black trousers and a black t-shirt. You don't see the whole of their body but just part of their arm and hand holding the phone. The background is blurred our but it looks like they are on a beach with people in the background. We see the phone from the back with the camera showing. It is a sliver phone with a clear protective case. on the case there are words with a black border and white background which say: "Social Media seriously harms your mental health".

Thoughts: When is it OK to switch off?

We are overwhelmed with bad news every second of every day; making it hard to know what to focus on.

neon sign against a brick wall which says EAT. Neon sign has a red background and text is in yellow

Lockdown, me & food

TW: disorderly eating and bulimia.
I, like so many of us put on weight this year. It felt like one day I woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed what looked to me like huge, red, blotchy stretch marks, surrounding my hips and thighs.

Lighted box wrapped in a large red and gold bow on a brown surface, with twinkly lights from Christmas tree in the background

All I want for Christmas is sleep

Lack of sleep is my number one enemy. I also have a habit of getting hangry but this is easily solved. I am not however, someone who miraculously manages to function on a few hours shut eye; sleep brings out the best in me.

Lockdown Diaries Continued

November saw England go into lockdown 2.0 and I decided to document this bizarre time in most of our lives with a very public diary! You can read part 1 here.