Saturday 20 February 2016

10 Quick Tips on Dealing with Anxiety

Hey everyone!

So, as most of you will know if you've read my previous posts (especially Living with Social Anxiety and Anxiety and Me) you will know that I, clearly, have anxiety. I know that many of you reading this might also have it and I'm hoping that these 10 quick tips will help you to deal with your anxiety.vEven if you don't have it, this post will help you also to understand what it's like having anxiety and how we deal with it.

So, here are my 10 quick tips on dealing with anxiety:

1. Don't fight it
Okay, so let's imagine the situation. You're out in public and something happens that makes you feel uncomfortable which may lead to an anxiety attack. It could be in school or work or anywhere really.  If you try and fight it it can only make matters worse. But at the same time you can't ignore it. My advice would be to take deep breaths until you've calmed down.

2. Excuse yourself
If you feel like your situation is getting worse then excuse yourself from the room. You have the right to leave somewhere if you really need to. Your teachers or your boss can't not let you out of somewhere if you feel really uncomfortable in that situation. Remember, you and your health come first, you can deal with the rest later.

3. Tell someone
You might not want to tell anyone that you have anxiety because you might feel embarrassed or ashamed of yourself. But the amount of people who have some kind of mental health disorder is increasing so chances are the person you tell might also have anxiety or something else. You could tell a friend or co-worker so if you need to leave the room they know why and can go with you. It's also best to tell your boss or teacher(s) so that they can understand your situation better and give you the support you need.

4. Visualise
You're in a scary situation. Instead of staying in that place, try and imagine somewhere that you feel most comfortable. This could be your house, room, beach or you could even try thinking about your favourite memory. This will make you feel much better and happier and will make the situation seem a lot less scary.

5. Forcing yourself
Living with anxiety means that a lot of situations that others won't find scary wil be a lot more scarier for you. It could even be something as simple as getting in a lift or a car. By gradually forcing yourself to be in these situations, such as going up one floor in the lift or travelling a mile in a car, you will eventually be able to travel everywhere in a car or go up several floors in a lift. But don't force yourself into something straight away because this will only make matters worse.

6. Rewarding yourself
After you've forced yourself into the scary situation, going up one floor in a lift, be sure to reward yourself after. You could say to yourself, 'if I go up one floor in this lift I'll treat myself to a new bag' or you could get your partner or a friend to reward you such as if you travel that mile in a car they'll take you to your favourite restaurant. But make the rewards gradual as well so the better in the situation you do means the better the reward.

7. Be comfortable
Even though you may be forcing yourself into these situations, don't force yourself into something that is too scary and you know that you might not be able to deal with it. This could be going out with friends. If you know this is a step too far then don't do it. Remember that you and your mental health come first.

8. Exercise
Exercise is a way to reduce your anxiety levels. Even if you did something as simple as going for a run every day you will notice a gradual decrease in your anxiety levels. But don't push yourself too much. Exercising alone won't get rid of your anxiety completely. 

9. Music
A lot of us will often listen to music to relieve stress or maybe to distance ourselves from others. Some might even use it to help them concentrate. Just by listening to your favourite songs it can make you feel much happier. Or you could listen to something calming, such as the sound of waves, and imagine that you're at the beach.

10. Negative into positive
If something has happened to you that had a negative impact then you will probably have anxiety about it happening again. This could be work, school, or another situation. You will over think that situation, even if it hasn't happened yet, a lot. But why look on it negatively if you could turn it into something positive. By turning the negative into positive you will feel so much better about yourself and by having a positive attitude you become a much happier and healthier person.

So,there are my 10 tips on dealing with anxiety. If you have any other tips that you use or you know have helped someone else then please comment them below. And please let me know if these tips have helped you in any way. 

I also recently got Instagram for my blog so please follow that to find out things I've been loving recently https://www.instagram.com/teenagelifebeth_/.

And you can click on this link http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/14580729/?claim=dpbbzvsrqny which will take you to my bloglovin page which will make it much easier for you to follow me on to get regular updates on my blog.

Thank you for reading and I hope that these tips help you and your anxiety

Love Beth xx

Saturday 13 February 2016

Understanding Boy-Kind

Hey everyone!

If many of you are like me, you might often struggle to know if a boy likes you or not. Does he see you as just a friend/school mate? Or does he see you as something more? I know many people who have struggled to tell if a boy likes them or not. So if you think you're alone in this, let me assure you, you're not.

Boys are funny human beings, especially when it comes to love and relationships. If it's just you and him then he may act like he likes you more than a friend. But if he's with his mates he'll try and make it seem like you're just friends. Yes it's annoying, but the majority of boys are like this. I seriously doubt that you'll go through life without meeting at least 10 boys that are like this.

So, here is my list of the top three signs that he likes you:

1. He starts the conversation
I'm not necessarily saying here that any guy who starts conversation with you likes you but if there's one guy who you're particularly close to who you like and he, the majority of the time, starts conversation with you then this could mean he likes you back. This could especially be true if he sees you around school or in town somewhere and he shouts something across to you. This can also mean that he only sees you as a friend because friends also do this. But if there are feelings there as well then this can mean he likes you.

2. Texts you all the time
If you don't have each other's number then this doesn't mean that he doesn't like you, it's just because you don't have each other's number so it's kind of impossible to text. However, if you do have each other's number and you text each other everyday (or most days) then this is another sign that he likes you. If he's in your top three of people who you last texted, or even if he's texting you now as you read this, then it's one of many signs that he likes you. If you don't have his number but do have him on some kind of social media but he doesn't message you on that, it doesn't mean he doesn't like you. He might no longer use it. But if you want to start messaging him or want to ask for his number then go for it. There's nothing stopping you.

3. Talks to his mates about you/tells them he likes you
The last part of this is pretty obvious that he likes you if he's told his mates he likes you. You might not know that he's told them this but 98% of the time if he's told his mates that he likes you then they will start making comments about it whenever you walk past them. And if he's with them he'll more than likely look a little embarrassed or try to hide it by shouting at them to shut up. If he does look embarrassed then it's nothing to do with the fact that he likes you because otherwise he wouldn't have told his mates. It's just that he's embarrassed because they're essentially teasing him about it because boys will see it as him being all loved up. And even if he hasn't told his mates that he likes you but talks a lot about you to them then you can be 99.999% sure that he likes you.

I'm no relationship expert and these three things are only top because they've happened to me, especially the first and last ones. But just because they're the top signs to me that a boy likes me, and have often come out as true, doesn't mean that they'll be the top things for you. Boys often have different approaches when it comes to girls so the guy you like might have other things he does that are signs that he likes you.

Also if you do like a boy and you have suspicions that he likes you then there's absolutely no reason why you can't ask him if he wants to hang out some time after school or at the weekend (basically just anytime). The worst he can say is no. I've learnt the hard way that if you don't speak up about things then they're never going to happen.

If you have any other advice you could give to someone then please leave it in the comments below and if you want to talk to me about anything then please feel free to email me or dm me on Twitter (all of my details are in the contacts tab above).

Thank you for reading and I hope that this post has given you a small insight into knowing whether a boy likes you or not.

Love Beth xx

Saturday 6 February 2016

Pacifica

Hey everyone!

As most of you may know from some of my previous posts, I suffer from anxiety. I have often found that because of my anxiety, I often have trouble being me and being able to do things outside of my comfort zone without having to worry about having anxiety attacks. And sometimes if I've had a bad day at school or somewhere else, I will come home in a bad mood and will be in a bad mood and will probably start having anxiety attacks that night on what's going to happen at school the next day; especially if I know I've got a test or something like that.

As you know, I have been quite open about my anxiety in some of my posts and on Twitter. However, this isn't a diary and I can't give you daily updates on what my day was like and how my anxiety was because that would be quite boring. So even though I am able to tell you about a time where my anxiety was particularly bad, I can't give you little updates on how it affected me that day. I was struggling to find a way to give those smaller details of my anxiety or in general, what happened that day.

I was on the App Store one day and saw an app called Pacifica which was under Health and Fitness. For some reason I was instantly interested in it and after reading the description I was sold. It helps relieve any stress or anxiety you may have and also helps deal with depression. It lets you pick out what you need help with the most and then you have to set a long term goal for yourself. Mine is to feel less stress or anxiety in social situations. You can also pick out a daily goal for yourself to do such as saying hi to someone at school or inviting a friend over.

As well as these, you can write your mood about your day. You can choose between feelings such as good, okay and not good (as well as a few others) and based on how you're feeling (such as good) you can choose out of emotions such as happy, grateful and loved or you can create your own. You can then write something down about why you feel this way.

You can also write down any thoughts you might have about your day. If it's a negative thought, it lets you highlight a negative phrase you might have used and turn it into a positive. For example, my negative phrase was I know I'm going to end up alone but I turned it into a positive by saying I just need to include myself and start joining in with conversations. By turning a negative thought into a positive one, it can make you feel a lot more better about yourself. It may not seem like that at first but it really does help.

Another feature of Pacifica is health. This lets you put down things you've done that day such as if you've had a shower/bath, how much quality time you've spent with your family/friends and how much exercise you've done. This is a part of monitoring your progress, along with your mood, that you can look at to see how much progress you've made since you first started using the app.


I would really recommend this app because it has helped quite a bit with my anxiety and how I control it. You can also talk to other users who are going through something similar to you and you can offer them advice on something you've dealt with that they're going through right now,

My anxiety has been very difficult to deal with these past few months, as the majority of the time I had it under control, but with this blog and Pacifica its helped keep my emotions and anxiety under control. And being able to monitor the progress I make is even better because I can see how far I've come since day 1. And you can to by downloading the app.

If you have any questions about the app and how to use it, please don't be afraid to contact me. All of my contact information is in the contact tab at the top of the page.

Love Beth xx