New and improved you

Firstly a quick apology for being away for a while, I've just started back at sixth form & it's been quite full on. That & other things in my life have just taken priority as of late but have no fear, I'm not planning on going anywhere in the long term, posts may just be a little less freque

nt than they were over the summer.

I've been doing a lot of thinking over the past few weeks about my life and I've realised that I'm not overly happy with the way that it has been. I've been stressed, paranoid, upset and just not my usual, happy self. Obviously I don't want to be feeling this way so I've come up with some 'rules' for myself to try and get back on track. I thought I'd share them with you as I know that a lot of people my age (and others, but exams & hormones etc can really take their toll) feel similarly at some point or another.

1) Have some 'me time'. Every day I aim to spend some time for just me. No homework, no chores, no anything. Simply sit for a while and do something that I enjoy, be it reading a magazine article, listening to some music, painting my nails, anything will do, just so long as it gives me a little time out from life.

2) Find a way to vent my feelings. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to do this but normally if something is bothering me I'll just cry but that's not how I want to deal with things any more. Perhaps write it down either in a notebook or in an unpublished blog post, I don't know. If you have any ideas let me know in the comments.

3) Deal with issues head on. If someone is annoying or upsetting me I am going to try confront them about it. This is a big step for me as I tend to keep all of my emotions bottled up but I've realised that is contributing to my stress so it needs to stop.

4) Talk to those close to me. I'm not overly close with my family but I'd like to think that I can go to them with things. Even if I just talk to them about how our days were, that's a start right?

5) Be more social. Honestly, I'm not that much of a social person, I'm quite boring really. All I really do is school through the week, go to work some evenings and on Saturdays and stay at my boyfriend's at the weekend. I've found myself saying 'no' to many things lately for absolutely no reason but I'm going to try to make the effort to see friends much more.

Hopefully these few things will help me to become happier and just enjoy life a bit more. If anyone decides to do these things (or a variation of) I'd love to hear about how you get on. If you'd like me to give you an update in a few weeks on whether I think it's working let me know.

How do you keep yourself happy and get rid of stress?

Take the time to just smile

The past few weeks I've been on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. I won't go into the reasons for this as there's quite a few and that's not really the point of this post. You know when you're just having a really down day and feel as though things just won't right themselves again? Well I've had quite a lot of those as of late and it gets to the point when you just are miserable so much and it has an effect on other aspects of your life.

I've been trying to find ways of keeping myself happy, or if I'm already feeling down then ways to cheer myself up, and have found a few ways, some may seem super obvious and silly but I thought that I'd share them with you anyway in hope of possibly making your days a little brighter!

1) Watch your favourite movie - everyone has that one film that they love and can watch a million times and still enjoy it don't they? I challenge you to find one person who doesn't! There's nothing better than popping said film into the dvd (or vhs if you're super retro) player and sitting back, relaxing and just feeling yourself getting transported into that world. It may be a recent film or one from your childhood, whatever it is will surely put a smile on your face.

2) Pamper yourself - no, I don't mean go all out spend £££ on a spa day at some luxury resort (although I'm sure that would do wonders to cheer you up!), just do something that will make you feel good about yourself. There are so many things that you could do, dye your hair, shave your legs, groom your eyebrows, take a bubble bath, anything so long as it leaves you feeling a little more fresh and confident in yourself!

3) Relive old memories - was there something you loved doing as a child? Why not do it again? Yesterday I found my book full of messages from my friends when we left school last May, reading through them cheered me up so much as it reminded me of so many things we've shared together that I'd completely forgotten, some of which were such happy days in my life. Even just look through photos from that night you and your girls went out or anything.

4) Talk to a loved one - be it a parent, sibling, partner, friend, talking to a person whom you trust is a great way to let off steam and sort out your emotions. Bottling it up often seems like the best thing to do as you don't want to burden others with your troubles, but if they truly love you then they'll want to know what's up. I've learnt this recently and even if the person is the problem, still tell them, they may never know that they've been upsetting you if you don't tell them!

5) Do your favourite hobby - for me this is easy, reading a new book. You may love cooking, painting, sewing, dancing - the options are endless - whatever it is take some time out to do it, you will feel much happier and if it's something you haven't done in a while you may rediscover your love for it. This definitely works, I read a whole book in 24 hours yesterday and after I'd finished I felt a real sense of accomplishment.

What do you do when you're having a down day to put that smile back on your face?

Isn't this just the cutest video ever?!

Time to enjoy summer!

As you may or may not know I'm currently in Sixth Form studying my A levels. Being in year 12 I've been doing the summer exams for my AS subjects at the moment and had my last one today! I'm studying History, English Language and Psychology, so they're a pretty tricky bunch, lots and lots of writing!! But yeah I had the last exam today which was Psychology. It's definitely fair to say that I should have done much more revision for all of my exams, but they are in the past now, there's nothing I can do to change it. If I've done badly, I've done badly, and if need be I shall re-sit in January.

But as they are over, I now have another two and a half weeks off on study leave - we don't go back until the 18th June I think - so I have that lovely time to just chill and earn some money, lovely combination if you ask me! I've booked in some overtime at work and am working both bank holidays - kinda wish I wasn't as I love all the Britishness of things such as the jubilee, I'm missing our street party :( but I really need the money and it's pay and a half on bank holidays, yay! - to save up for driving lessons and (hopefully) a car! As for the chilling, tomorrow I've got a day with the girls at my friend's house with a bbq and going in her pool which I'm so excited for, will really start the summer off well and will hopefully be able to get a tan!

What are your plans for the summer? Are you going abroad anywhere nice? Has anybody else had exams? If so how did they go?