Coping with stress

I have the tendency to get overly stressed about everything, whether it's school or work or my social life, there will always be something thats stressing me out. Now I know that I'm not alone in this and that a lot of you reading will feel the exact same way and so I thought I'd do a post about how do deal with all that stress.
If the thing that's stressing you out is workload, the worst thing to do is to sit there and watch it pile up. I know that I have the tendency to just let it all mount up until there's so much to do that I just give up. The best way to deal with workload is to take it a small bit at a time. Give yourself a time structure such as "I'll finish this piece of work in the next hour and then I'll give myself a break". It doesn't matter if you finish the work in the hour because you'll know that you were working extra hard to get that break. Giving yourself breaks is also extremely important. Even if it's just switching on the TV for half an hour or baking something, any kind of break will be a reward, which will then motivate you to work more.
If the thing stressing you out is your social life, work out why. Is it a person? Is it the activities you do together? Once you've worked out what the problem is, you can start to address it. If it's a person, sit down with them over a nice cup of tea or coffee and a cake and talk about the problems that you have. The bet way to deal with people is to be honest with them. If it's the activities you do together, why not try suggesting activities that you'll like. Try to pick fun, lighthearted things that allow to enjoy yourself and enjoy your friends company.

I've found some useful websites for you to look at if you so wish:
http://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/stress-management.htm
http://www.skillsyouneed.com/ps/stress-tips.html
http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/tips-for-everyday-living/stress-guide/#.VNHdCS7i8tI
http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/Pages/reduce-stress.aspx

There is also a great website called http://www.calm.com/ which allows you to set a certain amount of 'calm time' and there's a selection of calming music.
If you'd like to avoid your computer when de-stressing you can also just light a few candles, pop on some fairy lights, put on some music that makes you calm and just  lie there is some dim lighting concentrating on the music. In short, ALLOW YOURSELF SOME 'ME TIME'. Don't feel like you have to go out and see people, if you are feeling stressed just stay at home and give yourself time to recover.

I hope this post has helped you and if you ever need to talk then my tumblr and email are in the 'About the blog' section.

Have a good day, stay positive and peaceful,
Freya x x x

The most perfect holiday

In the summer of 2014 I got to go on a wonderful trip to Ireland with two of my best friends. It was an incredible experience and was a really happy and peaceful time. My family live in an old railway house and the station has been converted to accommodation so thats where we stayed. Its beautiful and rustic and very picturesque. There are beautiful walks all around us and  the towns are small and very sweet.                                          

We went on many walks during our stay and we came across some beautiful places. There's a wonderful river a 5 minute walk from the house and the water is so clear and lovely and when it's warm enough you can swim in it. Unfortunately it was not warm enough to swim but we did wade and splash about a bit.We went on another walk that was a small drive from the house and on our walk we found this wonderful abandoned rail tunnel. We walked through the whole tunnel and although it was a little spooky, it was a really cool experience. 

We also went to some of the beaches around and we did manage to swim once, which was incredibly cold.

My aunt has friends who live a really cool organic/ natural farm. One of the people who lives on the land owns a pair of horses and as I mentioned in the about me section, horses are a passion of mine. It was really cool to be able to ride these horses as they were being trained to work with disabled children and so were very responsive and lovely to ride.

 We also went to a really lovely cafe called 'Poetry Corner' which is a cafe that also sells books. They have these incredible hot chocolates that involve the people giving you a warm cup of milk and a chocolate stick that you stir into the milk, SO GOOD.They also had amazing cakes, I had the coffee cake which came with a lovely raspberry puree and cream. I also bought a little book of poems ,called 'Rescued Poems' by Michael Roddy, and a crime novel. The poetry book was small and the perfect size to read on the flight and the poems are really lovely. If anyone gets the chance to read the book, my favorite poem was 'Reading the News while flying over New York'.

 I hope you enjoyed this post and that it was interesting to read.
I'll post as regularly as I can but A levels are time consuming.



Have a good day and stay positive and happy,

Freya x x x