Fitness and training

Fitness and training 

In this blog, I will be talking about how you should train at the gym and the rules of getting fitter and stronger by training the correct way. I hope this post helps those who are struggling with exercising at the gym and how to do train correctly throughout the week.

Training and the rules of training

At the beginning of every training session, you must always perform a warm up. This prevents the likeliness of injuries from occurring during exercise as it warms the muscles up which makes them pliable (stretchy). The warm up could consist of static and dynamic stretches. Static stretches are stretches that you do when standing on the spot whereas dynamic stretches are stretches you do when moving.
 

Most people think training the same way every day is going to help them to become fitter and stronger, that isn't true. Doing the same exercises every time that you go to the gym will make you bored but also it will only work on the same areas of your body. You should set different days to work on one part of the body. For example; Mondays could be leg day and Tuesdays could be your pectorals and Thursdsy can be your arms and Saturday can be your back day. By setting yourself days to work on different parts of the body will allow you to work on that specific body part and therefore you will not do the same activities everytime you go to the gym to train. If you play a sport, you can train in the gym and different aspects/skills and techniques in that sport. This will allow you to become better at the sport that you do. Also by setting days that you train and days of rest, it will allow you to rest to allow adaptations to occur to your body so you become bigger and stronger. 

When you train at the gym and your sessions become easier for you, you should steadily increase the amount that amount you are doing. This is called progressive overload. By steadily increasing the amount you are doing in your training sessions, this will allow you to become fitter and stronger and this ensures that you are working at your full potential in these sessions. Never give up!

At the end of every training session, you must perform a cool down. This is because when you are exercising waste products such as Lactic Acid is produced. If this isn't released from your body at the end of training, it will cause you to ache the following morning. Cooling down at the end of each session will allow you to get rid of waste products from your muscles which prevents you from being achy in the morning.

What to consume after training?

The best thing to consume in your diet after each training session is protein. This is because it repairs the muscle tears that occurred during exercise and it allows adaptations to occur making you become bigger and stronger.

Also, you must consume water which replenishes the water that you lost from your body by sweating during exercise. This keeps you hydrated but it also replaces the water that you lost from your body during exercise.

I hope that these rules helps some of you to become fitter and stronger. Please comment down below letting me know what you think about this post but also comment on what you would like to see in the next post of this series.

Natasha 

Being healthy (Energy balance)

Energy balance

Energy balance is when a person balance’s energy intake with the amount of energy they release during exercise. A person is in energy balance when the amount of energy they take in as food and drink (energy input) equals the amount of energy you expend (energy output). They will neither be losing or gaining weight.

If someone eats a lot of food but does no exercise, they will gain weight. This is called positive energy balance. If someone does a lot of exercise and doesn’t eat a lot, they will lose weight. This is called negative energy balance. They will need to intake the correct amount of calories and exercise for a certain amount of time to keep the energy intake and output balanced. They will also have a balanced diet and they will get healthy. This is called neutral energy balance. This means that they are getting enough exercise for the amount of food they intake.
Positive energy balance is when the energy intake exceeds expenditure; this is when weight is gained.
Negative energy balance is less than the requirements, the additional energy required will be drawn from the body’s fat reserves therefore weight will be lost.

Positive energy balance

This is positive energy balance. This is because they are eating a lot of calorific foods but not doing any exercise. This means that they will gain weight.

Negative energy balance

This is negative energy balance. This is because he is eating a lot of healthy foods which don’t contain of many calories and he is exercising a lot. This can cause the body to lose weight.

Neutral energy balance

 



This is neutral energy balance. This is because she is eating an equal amount of nutrients in her diet and exercising enough which releases the energy that she has put into her body so that she doesn't lose or gain weight.  

 

I hope that you have enjoyed reading this post, please stay tuned for the next episode of being healthy. Feel free to leave comments down below telling me how useful these episodes have been to you.

 

Natasha

Being healthy

How to be healthy!

Many people around the world want to be healthy but one mistake is that they either eat too healthy and don't consider about working out or it maybe the total opposite. You have to balance your calorie input with your calorie output. By this I mean that you should balance what you intake in your diet with the amount of exercise that you do. This will prevent you from loosing too much weight or putting too much weight on.

What nutrients should you intake?

There are 7 nutrients that you should consume to have a healthy lifestyle.

As you can see from the diagram above, these are 7 food groups. The 7 nutrients are:

• Carbohydrates
• Proteins
• Fats
• Fibre
• Water
• Minerals
• Vitamins

These nutrients come into 2 categories, these categories are macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients are nutrients that we have to intake a large amount whereas micronutrient we must intake but we should consume a less amount of these.

Macronutrients

As I have stated earlier on in this post, macronutrients are the nutrients that we need to consume more of in your diet. By consuming these in your diet, this will allow you to have a balanced and healthy diet. The macronutrients are: carbohydrates, proteins and fats. The image below shows how much you of each macronutrient you should consume in your diet a day to have a balanced and healthy diet.

Referring to the pie chart above, you can see that carbohydrates is the largest percentage (55-65%) consumed in your diet daily. This is because carbohydrates is the first source of energy when you exercise. It is released before proteins and fats when you start exercising. Carbohydrates like pasta are filling therefore you don't need to have a large proportion on your plate unless you train in your sport (such as swimming) most for so many hours with breaks in between each training session that day. Many people like to carbo load. Carbo loading is when they consume carbohydrates in their diet like a week or 2 days before a big sporting event. This gives them energy every day to train preparing them for the upcoming event. By carbo loading 2 days before the event, it will allow them to store the energy in their body for the big day. You should at consume carbohydrates in your diet at least 24 hours before exercising for a long period of time.

 

You should also consume 25-30% of fats in your diet. This is because it is the second source of energy that is released during exercise and it keeps you going during the middle of your sport because it is like a fuel (providing you with energy until the middle of exercise). There are 2 types of fats which are saturated fats and unsaturated fats. Unsaturated fats are the good fats whereas saturated fats are the bad fats which increase your cholesterol levels in your blood. This can then lead to your veins and arteries. You should consume some fats in your diet to make it a balanced diet but you shouldn't consume too much saturated fats compared to unsaturated fats.

 

Lastly, you should intake 10-15% of proteins in your diet. The best time to eat proteins is after exercising and training. This is because they repair the muscle tears that are caused during exercise but also it allows the adaptations to occur. By this, I mean that it make your muscles become bigger and stronger during your rest period. You will see adaptations occurring after your rest days where you don't do any training. However, as proteins are the third source of energy, you should consume proteins before exercising for a long period of time. This is because they allow you keep going as it provides you with energy until the end of an event.

 

Fibre and water are also macronutrients but you don't need to intake as much of them as we do of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Fibre prevents you from becoming constipated as it clears your bowel system. Water is needed in your diet to keep you hydrated and it replenishes the water that is lost through exercising by sweating. Your body consists of 70-75% of water.

 

 

Water also carries essential vitamins and minerals around the body. It also helps to reduce the amount of waste products such as lactic acid that is being produced during exercise.

 

Micronutrients

Micronutrients are the nutrients that we need consume less of in your diet. It isn't essential to consume loads of these in your diet every day.

The micronutrients are: vitamins and minerals.

 

 

You need to consume vitamins in your diet to have a healthy diet. You need to intake vitamins in your diet because it helps organisms to do their job properly. There are 4 vitamins that are vital to have in your diet. These vitamins are: A, B, C and D. You need vitamin A for good vision because it makes our eyes healthy so that we have good eye sight so that you are able to see in light and dark. We need vitamin B for the production of energy and it also helps to reduce your stress levels. This allows you to produce energy easily so that you don't get tired out quickly during exercise. It will also help to reduce your stress levels so that your stress levels are average so they aren't too high or too low causing different symptoms from occurring to your body. You also need vitamin C in your diet because it helps you to have healthy skin. This helps with different problems such as spots and having dry and unmoisturised skin. The last vitamin you need in your diet is vitamin D. This is because it helps to keep your teeth and bones strong and healthy. Vitamin D reduces the risk of getting osteoporosis in the future because it absorbs calcium in your bones.

It is vital that you consume minerals in your diet because it helps with the delivery of oxygen to different parts of the body. This is because it helps with the formation of red blood cells so that they can take the oxygen around the body from your bloodstream. It is important that you consume some minerals in your diet so that you have a balanced and healthy diet. Iron and calcium are examples of minerals that are needed in your diet. Iron is responsible for haemoglobin as it helps to deliver oxygen from your lungs to other parts of the body. If you have too little haemoglobin in your body, it causes anaemia. This is because your body lacks in the amount of iron. Calcium is an essential mineral needed in your body. This is because it helps keeping teeth and bones strong and healthy. This also prevents you from getting osteoporosis in the future. You need to intake minerals to stop you from becoming fatigue during exercise and sport. By consuming calcium in your diet, it helps you to continue with exercise for a long period of time as the red blood cells are delivering the blood around the body to the different muscles. Minerals also help to keep the bones healthy during training and competition.

Vitamins are minerals are micronutrients because we need to have this nutrient in our diet but we don't need as much of them as we need of the macronutrients. 

I hope that you enjoyed reading this post, I will be making a series of posts on how to stay healthy. Stay tune for the next episode of being healthy. Please feel free to give me feedback on this post.

Natasha 



 

Dealing with negative thoughts

Dealing with negative thoughts

As you have read my previous blogs about my experience with anxiety and my experience with talking therapies, you may know that I learnt about negative thoughts. I guess one thing that inspired me to write a post about this particular aspect of anxiety and depression is due to the fact that I've been having neagtive thoughts lately so I thought it would be a good idea to blog about this. Also I would like to help some of you who have been having negative thoughts and how to deal with those thoughts. In this post today, I'm going to talk about the different thought errors and how to write these thoughts down and challenge them. I hope that this helps people who have been or are suffering with anxiety and depression.

Some people tend to start thinking negative about their life, themselves and even the world. From my experience by having these thoughts, I know that it can be difficult to stop these thoughts once you have started thinking that way. However there are different ways of dealing with those thoughts.

Thought errors

There are many categorised thoughts errors that people with depression and anxiety tend to have. These include:

• Negative filter: Picking out a negative feature and focusing on that without letting anything positive have an effect on it. This is basically looking at yourself, your life and the world in a negative point of view.
• Catastrophising: Believing that a disaster is always around the corner and predicting that the worst will happen.
• Magnification and minimisation: Exaggerating the importance of negative events and underestimating the importance of positive events.
• Emotional reasoning: Thinking that what you're feeling must be true about yourself.
• Mind-reading or jumping to conclusions: Assuming that others are thinking the worst of you and reacting to what you believe they are thinking. Ignoring the facts that might indicate otherwise.
• Labelling: Calling yourself unhelpful names such as 'stupid' and 'useless' and thinking that this amounts to who you are.
• Black and white thinking: Seeing things as completely one way or the other, ignoring the grey area and other possibilities in-between.
• Unrealistic expectations: Thinking about how you 'should' and 'ought' to be and placing unrealistic expectations on yourself.
• Self-blame: Thinking that everything is your fault and ignoring any other contributing factors.

By recognising the negative thoughts that you seem to have, you can then challenge yourself making them into a more balanced thought. I know that it can be difficult to challenge these thoughts once you start thinking like that but it can be done by practising.

Ways of challenging negative thoughts

There are different ways of challenging your thoughts. These include:

• Using a thought diary: You can do this by thinking of a situation then start thinking about the first thought that would pop into your head if this situation occurred. You can rate your emotions and moods as a percentage then find evidence that supports the thought and evidence that does not support that thought. You will then have to think of a alternative/balanced thought and then rate your emotions and moods after that thought. This is the best way to challenge the negative thoughts because it gives you a balanced thought by using evidence supporting the thought and evidence that does not support that thought. You are most likely to feel happier after thinking of an alternative thought.

Referring to the image above, this is an example of a thought diary and it gives you how to use it.

• Thought stopping - When you notice that you are having negative thoughts or you feel overwhelmed with negative thinking, shout 'STOP' out loud or say it in your head. You can also use a elastic band to flick yourself with. This provides you with the means of instantly stopping those thoughts and it gives you a break in your thought process to start to question yourself. This also prevents these thoughts from becoming out of control.
 

 
 
• Cost-benefit analysis - We can asses how useful our negative thoughts are by using a cost-benefit analysis. You do this by noting down the benfits of the thought you are having but you also state down the costs (negatives) of that thought and you rate the benefit out of a percentage as well as the costs so that they add up to 100%. You are weighing up the positives but also the negatives of that thought.
 

 
• How responsible am I? - Sometimes our negative thoughts are focused on events that took place in the past or situations that we remember in a bad light. Think of all the different factors that contribute to this thought and other explanations that may be involved. Then allocate an amount of pie chart to each factor involved, and whatever segment is left is your amount of responsibility.
 
 

The image above shows a pie chart and how you could split it up into sections. It may look similar to this one depending on the factors that effect your thought.
 
• Continuum - This can be useful for looking at grey areas in black and white thinking. If a thought occurred, such as "I am bad" draw a continuum with 0% at one end and 100% at the other, think about who is the most 'bad' person and think about who is the least bad person, put names at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% (roughly) then put yourself in where you would fit.

 

 

I hope that this post helps some of your who have been having negative thoughts. Feel free to leave a comment below or email me if you need any advice on what you have been going through.

 

Natasha



The best friend tag W/Shaima

The best friend tag 

Hello guys, I'm here today collaborating with my best friend Shaima. I'm going to be answering questions about her and our friendship. Please go over to check out Shaimas' blog on letsstartanewlifestyle.blogspot.com to check out her posts and the best friend tag on her blog. I hope that you enjoy.

 

Questions

1.) How and when did we meet? 

A: We met on a social networking site called Facebook on the 4th of May 2013. Shaima was the one who added me and we decided to say hello and talk about a topic that was very close to our hearts and instantly became best friends. 

2.) What's your favourite memory together?
A: Every moment that we spend together is another good memory to add to the list of great memories. If I have to choose my favourite memory together; it would have to be the day that we met and our long heart to heart chats.

3.) Describe her in one word.
A: PERFECT!

4.) What is one thing that you hate about the other person?
A: Nothing, everything about her is beautiful.

5.) If you could go anywhere together, where would it be and why?
A: Turkey as Shaima would love to travel there and I want to travel there with her.

6.) Who takes the longest to get ready in the morning?
A: To be honest with you, I take so long getting ready in the morning and I don't even put on make up. I believe that Shaima doesn't take that long getting ready in the morning because she is like a pro at doing her make up.

7.) What is both of your favourite foods?
A: Well I love Indian and Chinese food and Shaima loves her Indian food too!

8.) What is your best friend's biggest fear?
A: Loosing the ones that she adores.

9.) What is one thing that your best friend does not know about you?
A: Nothing as I tell her everything as I trust her with anything and everything.

10.) If you were out together, What would your best friend eat?
A: We have never been out together personally because we are thousands of miles a part from each other but I believe that Shaima would most probably have something like pasta because it is filling along with some fruit and vegtables on the side.

11.) What do you most admire about your best friend?
A: She is so caring, loving and kind hearted. She thrives to help and support people with any situation by listening to them and tries her best to make them happy even if they don't feel like being happy and smiling.

12.) What is the last book that your best friend read?
A: I know that Shaima loves to read, but I'm not sure what she read last.

13.) What is your best friend really bad at?
A: She isn't bad at anything.

14.) Is your best friend afraid of the dark?
A: Yes due to bad experiences that she went through before when she was younger. I'm sure that she has become less afraid now.

15.) Has your best friend ever been outside the country?
A: Yes, she has been to Turkey when she was younger.

16.) Is your best friend a spendthrift, or do they like to save their money?
A: She likes to save her money and spend it on her friends and for important occasions.

17.) Is your best friend allergic to anything?
A: No, not from what I know of.

18.) What's the other person's eye colour?
A: Brown but she has contact lenses that makes her eyes look blue/grey. She doesn't wear her contact lenses much though.  

19.) Is she a heels or a flats person?
A: Definitely more of a heels person than a flats person. She has a great sense of fashion and style!

20.) From 1-10, how much do you love your best friend?
A: 100,000

Please leave comments below if you would like me to do more posts like this. I hope that you enjoy reading this and I hope that you have learnt many things about my long distance best friend Shaima! There will probably be more collabs in the future if you my fellow blog readers love different posts to what I normally write and talk about.

Natasha

 

Tips on surviving long distance

Tips of how to deal with long distance

As you can see from the title of this blog, I'm going to write some tips on how to survive a long distance friendship and/or relationship. I will be happy if this can help at least one of you!

Surviving a long distance friendship and relationship can be difficult especially if the time differences are huge! Here's a few tips on how to survive the long distance: 

- Communicate: This is the most important in long distance because if you don't communicate with each other, this shows that you don't care! First, you have to talk to each other and set a time where you will talk to each other each day! They time must be the same time every day but sometimes you may talk with each other more than other days. 

- Write letters and send gifts to each other: This is a good way of expressing your feelings and showing them that you care and love them no matter how far away they may be from you. It's good to express your feelings and show them how much they really mean to you! This will let the other person know how you feel about them. 

- Have heart to heart chats: By having these kind of chats, this would also make the other person extremely happy to know how you feel about them and how you feel about the distance. Either way, the distance shouldn't affect the friendship/relationship if you truely care! 

- Skype calling: Even though they aren't with you in person, they can still see you and make sure that you can talk about anything for hours on end. By Skype calling them, you can see them almost every day without the distance affecting the friendship or relationship. 

Those are just a few key tips on how to survive the long distance in a friendship or relationship! I hope that you enjoy reading this blog and I hope it is helpful to some of you! I'm really sorry that this blog isn't a very long post. 

Natasha 

Dealing with the long distance

Long distance Friendships

The topic that I would love to talk to you about today is long distance friendships, the story of my long distance friendship and how I cope with the distance between me and my best friend.

I've never really spoken about long distance to an audience before but I will try my best to explain long distance and what emotions you may feel when you are in a long distance friendship or relationship.

Firstly, I would like to introduce my best friend Shaima. I met her online on the 4th of May 2013 and we spoke on that same day. The day that I met her was the best day of my life. I honestly couldn't ask for a any better best friend than her. She's so kind hearted, lovely and sweet. She has such a beautiful personality and she has a heart of pure gold. She is always there for me when I need her the most and she has stood right by my side through the tough times in my life. She always helps and supports me through everything and I will always do the same for her.

I'm so thankful to have such an amazing best friend. I'm so lucky to have her in my life as well as having her as my best friend.

What is long distance?

The way that I define long distance as is the distance between two places or two people.

"Distance makes the heart grow fonder."

The story of our long distance

 

Shaima and I met on the 4th of May 2013 on a social networking site. We spoke about topic that was very close to our hearts and we became best friends on that same day. My first impression of Shaima was that she seems so lovely and kind and I wasn't wrong with that impression. She was the sweetest person I spoke to. From that day, we spoke a few days here and there when we weren't busy. When It came to the summer of 2013, we spoke all day everyday. It was one of the best experiences of my life.

 

Talking to Shaima is still the best experience of my life and I couldn't ask for a any better best friend than her. She has been there for me since day 1 and has stood right by my side every step of the way, no matter how far away she is from me. When I'm down, I can talk to her about how I am feeling and she will make me happy and smile. She is the only person in my life that can make me smile when I'm feeling low. She knows exactly how to make me feel better about myself.

 

Sometimes in long distance friendships it can be hard because all you want to do is see each other especially when one is upset. You wish you could see them to hug them and tell them that everything is going to be alright. You also want to make them feel better by going to see them but also comforting them. The last thing you would want to do is tell them that they aren't walking alone as you are with them every step of the way but unfortunately you can't do some of those things especially if you live thousands of miles away from each other. You can tell them that everything is going to be alright and help them through that tough time over social networking sites though.  

 

What emotions do you feel?

When you are in a long distance friendship like mine and Shaima's friendship. You can feel many different emotions. Here are feelings that I experience:

 

•  Fear - I have a fear that my best friend may leave me for a better best friend who is closer to her even though that she has said that she would never leave me for a better best friend that is closer to her.
• Excitement - I get excited easily when I talk to my best friend.
• Happiness - To know that she is happy and smiling makes me happy and smiling.
• Low - When I miss her, I feel low because I want to talk to her and see her.
• Upset - When she is feeling upset, I get upset because her happiness and smile means the world to me.
• Joy and blessing - To have such a amazing best friend like Shaima.

How do I cope with the long distance?



 

I understand that coping with long distance can be hard however there are many different ways that I cope with the distance between me and my best friend.

 

One way that I cope with the distance is communicating with my best friend. The bond between you will not break if you communicate with each other. Communication is a must when you are in a long distance friendship or relationship.

 

Another way that I cope with the distance is by writing letters explaining to my best friend how I feel and saying how much I love and care about her. By writing letters, you can express your feelings and emotions about how you feel about the friendship, how you appreciate them standing by your side even when you are thousands of miles apart from each other.  

 

I always make time to speak to my best friend every day. It doesn't matter what time it is, I will stay up to talk to her unless I fall asleep whilst I am talking to her which most the time I do fall asleep on her when we are talking late at night.

 

Those are just some ways that I cope with the distance between me and my best friend. You can use them ways if you are in a long distance friendship and even a long distance relationship.

 

I hope that you enjoy reading this post and don't forget to comment on it!

 

 



My experience with anxiety after attending Talking Therapies

My experience with anxiety after attending Talking Therapies

As you may know from reading my past posts on this blog, I suffer with anxiety. After being diagnosed with anxiety, I got in touch with Talking Therapies where I had to answer questions to 2 questionnaires (1 for anxiety and another for depression), from these questions, they said that I seemed to be very anxious and depressed and they asked me if I wanted to do 1 to 1 sessions over the phone or attend group sessions where I could learn more about anxiety and depression but also learning how to deal with these problems. I chose to attend group sessions for 6 weeks. You can read about how I felt in each session and what I learnt in each session from my previous post.

In this blog, I'm going to talk about my experience with anxiety after attending sessions with Talking Therapies.

After attending these sessions, I knew why I was having these thoughts, feelings and how it affects people on a day to day basis however I didn't learn practically about what to do during an anxiety attack. This made me feel like those sessions were pointless however they weren't pointless at all. In fact, a few months down the line, I was to be able to control my thoughts and feelings which affected me everyday.

I began to start feeling more positive about myself and I didn't feel so alone anymore. I knew that I could reach out to someone and talk to them when I felt anxious or down. I started to have regular anxiety attacks again but I could tell myself that it wouldn't harm me. It is my body's reaction to worry and therefore I didn't start to panic as I knew what was happening to me. I tried my best to stay calm when having an anxiety attack. I also listened to a relaxation disc when I felt tense. This disc helped me to relax after a hard and long day at sixth form and it also reduced my muscle tension in my body preventing different symptoms of anxiety from occurring when I was worried or nervous. It also helped me to sleep better.

Then, a few month down the line I felt so much happier before becoming seriously ill again. My anxiety levels became too high which caused me to feel ill or become extremely ill that it constantly made me extremely ill. This is when I thought about on concentrating on giving myself a break so that I could recover from that state. I remembered that I shouldn't overwork myself otherwise I was going to drive myself down into that state again. A month later, my anxiety levels were up and down and I was all over the place as I didn't know what to do about it as it was affecting me during my exams and my studying. Once all my exams were over, I was really worried and I still am worried about my exams now but the best thing is not to worry as I can't do anything about them now they are done.

I started to get better and recover but recently over the past week of so I have started to have flashbacks and frequent nightmares. I can't say what I have been having flashbacks and nightmares about because they are personal but I will say when I feel ready to.

I hope that you enjoy reading about my experience with anxiety and remember I am here for you to talk to if you think that you may have anxiety or just need someone to talk to and help you through it. Anxiety is a awful feeling to have and I wouldn't wish it upon anyone.

Natasha

My experience with anxiety (Part 2)

My Talking Therapies experience (Part 2)

As you know from my last post, I attended group sessions with Talking Therapies for my anxiety. This post is going to be a continuation of my Talking Therapies experience. I hope that reading to my experience helps those who suffer with anxiety. I just want to say that you aren't alone. I am here to listen to you just like your families and friends and I can suggest the best possible thing to do. If you think that you may have anxiety, please talk to someone like your parents, friends and your GP. For those who know someone who suffers with anxiety or depression this may help you to gain an understanding of how they maybe feeling and it could help you to learn and understand about this sensitive topic. You maybe able to help someone with anxiety by reading this and showing them my experience.

I hope that you enjoy reading about my experience.

Session 4 & 5: Noticing and challenging unhelpful thoughts

In these sessions, I was able to learn about noticing and dealing with unhelpful thoughts. I felt less stressed in this session because I felt more confident and comfortable to talk about my thoughts in professional people as well as others who suffer with the same mental health problem as what I do.

In the first session, I learnt about errors that we have with our thoughts. Here is a list of thought errors that people with anxiety and depression have:

• Negative filter - This is when we pick out a negative feature and focus on that without letting anything positive have an effect on it. This is a bit like wearing sunglasses when it is raining - looking at the world from a negative view point.
• Catastrophising - This is when you believe that a disaster is always around the corner and predicting that the worst will happen.
• Magnification and minimisation - This is when you exaggerate the importance of negative events and underestimating the importance of positive events.
• Emotional reasoning - This is when you think that what you are feeling must be true about yourself.
• Mind-reading or jumping to conclusions - This is when you assume that others are thinking the worst of you and reacting to what you believe they are thinking. Ignoring the facts that might indicate otherwise.
• Labelling - This is when you call yourself unhelpful names such as 'stupid' or 'useless' and thinking that this amounts to who you are.
• Black and white thinking - This is when you see things as completely one way or the other, ignoring the grey area and other possibilities in-between.
• Unrealistic expectations - This is when you think about how you 'should' and 'ought' to be and placing unrealistic expectations on yourself.
• Self-blame - This is when you are thinking that everything is your fault and ignoring any other contributing factors.

From recognising my unhelpful thoughts I learned that these are errors of thinking and therefore I challenged my thoughts and tried my best to correct them into a more balanced thought. By learning to correct these errors in my thinking helped me to develop a more balanced view of myself, in my future, others and the world around me. This is because it helped me to acknowledge the practical problems that occur, however it is the way I viewed these problems that impacted on my mood.

Also in the first session, I learned how I could make thing better for myself. These are the steps that I was taught:

Step 1: To identify my unhelpful thoughts - Idenifying my thoughts was extremely difficult at first because they are automatic and sometimes I wasn't aware of having them; especially as I was thinking them for a long time. However, by questionning and considering those thoughts, they were biased and unrealistic of myself. If you have been having negative thoughts of yourself and your life, first you should identify your thoughts before doing the next step.

You can do this by listing these thoughts down in a thought diary.

Step 2: To challenge my unhelpful thoughts - Once I identified my thoughts, I began to look at them in more detail and assess how realistic or helpful they were.

I did this by selecting one of my thoughts. Then I gathered factural evidence that supports my thought and found information that does not support that thought. I found this difficult the first time I did this but thought of it objectively.

Step 3: To recognise my thought - This is when I had to think of a alternative thought to replace my original one. I learned that a good balanced thought combines evidence that supports that thought and doesn't support that thought. If you look at a thought diary, you will have two columns; one is evidence for it and another will be evidence against it.

Once, I had a more balanced thought, I rated how much I believed it and then compared it with my original thought. It resulted in me believing in the balanced thought more than the negative one. Then, I analysed the rates for both thoughts and thoughts about how I was feeling after arriving to my balanced thought. I happened to feel happier than I was before I came to this balanced thought and felt more positive about myself.

I filled in a thought diary of my own before the next session.

In session 5, I learned other techniques that help to challenge unhelpful thinking. This is what we spoke about as a group.

a.) Thought stopping - When you notice you are having unhelpful thoughts or you feel overwhelmed with negative thinking, shout 'STOP' out loud or say it in your head. You can also flick yourself with an elastic band. This is because it provides the means of stopping those thoughts instantly and it gives you a break in that thought process to then question yourself and stop these thoughts from becoming out of control.
b.) Cost-benefit analysis - This is when you question yourself asking how useful are these negative thoughts. We can assess how useful our negative thoughts are by using a cost-benefit analysis. You have to write the benefits and the cost of that thought and then you have weigh up the costs and the benefits as a percentage at the end. Then you have to assess how useful are the thoughts you are having are.
c.) How responsible am I? - Sometimes our negative thoughts are focused on events that took place in the past or situations that we remember in a bad light. Think of all the different factors that contribute to this thought and other explanations that may be involved. Then allocate an amount of pie chart to each factor ivolved, and whatever segment is left is your amount of responsibility.
d.) Continuum - This is useful when looking for grey areas in black and white thinking. If a thought occurred, such as "I am bad" draw a contiuum with 0% at one end and 100% at the other, think about who the most 'bad' person could be, then the least 'bad' and put their names in at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% and put yourself where you would fit in.

Session 6

Unfortunately, I couldn't make it to this session but in this last session, I would have focused on maintaining my wellbeing.

If this helps you or you or someone needs help with anxiety or depression, feel free to email me on natasha-stratton@hotmail.co.uk and I will respond to your messsages as soon as I possibly can. I am here to help those who are feeling low or those who suffer with anxiety or you think you may have anxiety.

Anxiety (Part 2) and My experience with anxiety (part 1)

Anxiety (part 2)

In this blog post today, I am going to talk about my experience with anxiety and how it affected my life when I was first diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.

My experience

I didn't realise I had an anxiety disorder until 2 years ago when I started sixth form. I remember the first symptom of anxiety that I had was pain to my chest and stabbing pains to my heart as well as heart palpitations (Irregular/fast heart beat). I didn't know why I was experiencing this symptom because at the time I wasn't diagnosed with anxiety and I didn't know what was happening to me. I thought it could have been a heart attack but it wasn't. I had this constant pain to my chest and heart for a month. After my first anxiety attack, I dreaded of having another one but the next day it happened to me again. They became frequent. Every time after experiencing anxiety attacks, I became really tired and my body ached all over from trying to calm myself down for 10-20 minutes. At the time, I didn't know that I was experiencing anxiety attacks.

A few months down the line, I experienced having insomnia (trouble sleeping and staying asleep at night), I think it was due to the fact of worrying about school and coursework. I just kept on tossing and turning all night long which made it very hard for me to wake up eventually when I fell to sleep in the early hours of the morning. Some nights it was worse than others as it made me feel very nauseous (stomach cramps, vomiting and diarrhoea). I admit that is the worst to have when you have an anxiety disorder as I was in bed for days before attempting to get myself up and over to the doctors. It started to experience this once or twice a week to the extreme. It got to the point where one day I was sleep and all of a sudden I became paralysed. I couldn't move a single limb. My vision went all blurred. This really scared me. Then one day I was sat in bed and I just became paralysed again. At first I thought it was sleep paralysis but it couldn't be because I experienced it when I was wake. It got to the point where I kept it all in that it made me break down at school. I was called into the sixth form mentor to tell her how I felt and she recommended going to Number One Councilling. I called them up but I didn't hear anything from them in a month.

A few weeks later, at school I started to hear voices calling my name but when I turned around and asked someone if they called me, they said no. I was really creeped out and I thought I was going crazy. All of a sudden when I was walking home from school one day, I experienced a really terrifying hallucination that made me think twice. I told my mum about this and at first she thought I had schizophrenia. This is when I realised that I had to go and see a doctor as soon as I can so that I could get myself checked out and see what was wrong with me. The first time that I went to the doctors about it, they said that I was exaggerating which made me feel like I was going crazy.

I started experiencing the majority of the symptoms of anxiety, this was a warning sign that I had to go over the doctors and fully get diagnosed with anxiety. I saw the doctor and told him about my experience and symptoms I have been happening and he turned around and said that it seems to me that you have been experiencing anxiety attacks. You should stay calm when you have an anxiety attack, I know it is hard but you will get used to telling your mind that you aren't going to be harmed from it and to ignore it. I tried my best to tell my mind this every day that I had an anxiety attack. The anxiety attacks became more frequent and it got to the point where I couldn't deal with it anymore. I started to experience more hallucinations so I booked myself another doctors appointment and they told me the same as what they said the last time I went there. They said that they wanted me to book myself in for a blood test for the following week so I did. They didn't find anything in my blood that could have been causing these hallucinations. The doctor gave me some questionnaires to fill in for anxiety and depression and it seemed that my anxiety levels and depression levels were really high as my mood was low and I experienced the symptoms of anxiety. Therefore they referred to Talking Therapies.

My Talking Therapies experience

It took Talking Therapies around a 3 weeks to get back to me and I booked myself in for a 1 to 1 session on the phone. When I had my 1 to 1 session on the phone, they asked me to rate my symptoms and feelings from 1-10 and how often these occurred. They then asked me if I wanted to do 1 to 1 sessions on the phone or attend a group session where I could gain more of an understanding of anxiety and depression and I said a group session so that I could learn more about anxiety and depression, why I was feeling like I was and how to deal  with anxiety and anxiety attacks. They booked me in for a 6 week group appointment on a Wednesday evening.

The first week that I attended this session, I wasn't very keen on being in a group session because I felt like everyone was more confident than what I was but I carried it on so that I could learn ways to deal with anxiety and depression. In the first session, I learned about CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy). This is where I had to think of a trigger/situation and I had to identify my thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and behavior. This was what I called the hot cross bun method. By doing this activity, it gave me more of an understanding of why I was feeling like I was.

In the second session, I still felt uncomfortable but I started to get to know the people in the group who I could relate to by the way we were feeling and thinking. I didn't feel alone anymore as I knew that I wasn't the only one who was suffering from anxiety and depression. In this session, I learned about unhelpful behaviors in low mood (depression). I got to learn about the vicious cycle and what happens when you are in a low mood. This session gave me to gain knowledge about depression and know why I was feeling how I was feeling and things that would make you feel worse. For example: A depressed mood leads to negative thoughts which then leads to reduced activity (social interaction) which then leads to loss of positive rewards and the cycle keeps on going round and round. This cycle makes us feel worse and therefore we may avoid important and necessary activities which can have a large impact on our lifes. We went on to talking about the depressive spiral how feeling depressed will make you engage in fewer interactions with positive outcomes. This will make you feel more depressed which leads to you becoming less socially active and then you will feel more depressed which you will do even less for ourselves or with others. This shows when your mood is low, we find ourselves engaging in unhelpful behaviours. These unhelpful behaviours can lead to new problems or worsening the existing problems which leads to a further reduction in mood.

In session three, I began to feel more comfortable and I came out of my shell. I began to share my thoughts and feelings with the group of people around me and understand more about anxiety and worrying. In this session, I learned about worry. This was good as this was what I needed to work on and find out how to deal with worry. This session gave me more of an understanding of what worrying is and how it can affect people with anxiety disorders. As I suffer with anxiety and worry a lot about everything, this gave me a chance to understand why some people worry more than people. This made me feel like I am normal because worrying too much causes different symptoms. From this session I learned that everyone experiences worry from time to time when we are faced with difficult or uncertain situations. However some people worry a lot to the point that it begins to affect their wellbeing and causes chronic feelings of nervousness, stress and anxiety. I also learned that worry is a type of self talk in which we predict that negative events will happen in the future and we over-estimate the possibility of disaster. Worrying thoughts tend to be characterized by 'what if?' statements. These statements could be: 'What if my plane is delayed?', 'what if I'm caught in traffic and I am late for work?', 'what if something awful happens?', 'what if I get ill?' and 'what if I lose my job?'. These are imagined situations in which we try to plan how we would cope with these events if they were to happen. This involves over-estimating the likelihood or severity of negative events and underestimating our own ability to cope, if the event did occur. Another thing that I learned in this session was about real worry and hypothetical worry. Real worries are worries that are centre on a real life problem or current problem that needs to be resolved. With real worry, we are often trying to solve the problem by worrying about it, running through different scenarios and strategies in our minds in the hope of finding a solution. However, hypothetical worries are worries that may never happen, and which we have no control of influence over. This worry is usually thought of excessively which can be very difficult to stop once it gains momentum. This leaves us feeling anxious, nervous and tense. We then did an activity where we had to list down themes that make us worried and identify whether they are a real or a hypothetical worry. This made me more aware if my worries are ones that exist or worries about things that may not happen. I found out that the majority of my worries are hypothetical from this session.

Then, in the same session we went on to talking about the role of uncertainty. We had to think about things that we worry about and think if we would be worried if these worries are completely certain. I learned that worrying tends to be about future events which certainty is impossible. I also learned that worrying is a reaction to uncertainty and people who worry a lot tend to have a low tolerance of uncertainty. Even a small amount of uncertainty can cause worry. I learned that intolerance of uncertainty leads fuels to worry which then generates worry further. Another thing learned about is what keeps worrying going? And the reason behind it is that worrying is maintained by unhelpful ways of thinking and behaving. We then looked at identifying potentially unhelpful behaviours and then looked at how to get more control of our thinking. I learned that in worrying, our behaviours are altered. This is because we could be trying to achieve certainty by finding out more information, or putting off making decisions until we can be absolutely certain that we will make the right decision.

Here is a list of unhelpful strategies that I learned about in this session:
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- Looking for lots of information:

• Looking for lots of information to help us come to a decision only increases the uncertainty and triggers more worry.
• The additional information does not necessarily make things clearer but just gives us more information to consider and worry about.
• Also, with more information, there is increased risk of finding contradictory facts, which again leads to more uncertainty and worry.

- Scanning for uncertainty:

• Worriers are on the look out for uncertainty nearly all of the time.
• Scanning does not mean that uncertainty is reduced, in fact the opposite happens - it increases.

- Avoiding committing yourself to people/social situations:

• Rather than choosing to commit or not to commit, worriers avoid doing either, which leaves them hanging in uncertainty.
• Worriers often avoid commitments because they can't be sure how it will turn out.

- Procrastination:

• This is where worriers find every excuse to avoid dealing with an uncertain problem or issue. For example; putting off a conversation with a friend because they can't be sure how it will turn out.

- Looking for reassurance:

• It is helpful in the short term because we usually feel much better once someone has told us that everything will be ok, but it is generally short lived.
• Worriers can seek reassurance repetitively but this triggers more uncertainty and worry.

- Overprotecting others - avoiding giving others responsibility:

• Worriers tend to look out for others and at the same time worry about them.
• This is just "just in case" strategy.

- Checking and re-checking - avoiding making mistakes:

• Worriers often feel uncertain about decisions or choices they have made and consequently revisit decisions or choices to see if they have done the right thing.
• The 'what if' question shows a seed of doubt so we check the answer to reduce worry, however this only creates more.

- Post-mortem worry:

• Once worriers have made up their mind about a decision, they then doubt whether they have made the right decision.
• They will ask "what if I have made the wrong decision?"
• Their questioning stimulates uncertainty.

- Thought suppression:

• One unhelpful way to deal with worries is to try and push upsetting thought out of your mind, or trying not to think about something that is worrying you. This is similar to the pink elephant experiment.

The pink elephant experiment:

Step 1: Close your eyes and try very hard not to think about a pink elephant for the next 60 seconds.

What happened? Chances are all you could think about what a pink elephant!

Often people find that by trying to push thoughts or images out of their mind they come back stronger.

Step 2: Close your eyes and try very hard to keep thinking about a pink elephant for the next 60 seconds. Try and hold that image of a pink elephant in your mind.

Were you able to do it or did your mind wander?

Suppressing thoughts is not a helpful or effective way of dealing with your worries. Trying to push worries out of your mind and stop thinking about them will probably make them worse.

Also in the third session, I learned about helpful behaviours to deal with worrying. I was taught how the worry tree work and how to do the worry tree for my worries. This is what the worry tree is like:



You must start at the top and work your way down.

As you can see, the worry tree is a good way of deciding what type of worry you are dealing with and what strategies would be most helpful.

Other strategies for hypothetical worry is:

- Worry time: This is where you postpone worry. You must give yourself a set time of the day when you have permission to worry. For example: 6pm each evening. You must then allow yourself to have 15-20 minutes to worry. In this time you can write down your worries and then forget about them.

- Mindfulness: Mindfulness has its roots in Buddhism and is taking a non-judgemental approach to your thoughts and worries. The idea of mindfulness is to let go of your worries without making any attempts to push them away or get involved with them. Try to become a casual observer of your worries - notice that they are there, observe them and then watch them drift away in their own time, just like you would passing clouds in the sky.

We also taught how to be mindful. This is how to be mindful:

- Be aware of your worries: Notice and acknowledge what you are worrying about.
- Observe and listen: Try to not react to the worry. Instead, observe the worry and listen with interest to what it is about.
- Let go: Visualise the worry as a transitional thought, much like a passing cloud or wave on a beach, which comes and goes.
- Focus on the here and now: Focus on your breathing, any physical sensations you are currently feeling (e.g. your feet on the floor) and your surroundings.
- Practice makes perfect: This can be difficult at first but keep practicing and it should get easier.

The last thing I learned in session three was about relaxation. Relaxation is a great way to reduce stress, anxiety and worry. Try to make relaxation a part of your daily routine. A good time to do relaxation exercises is before bed, as this will help you with sleep. There are many different relaxation exercises to do. Purchasing a relaxation disc with progressive muscle relaxation on it. It will help to relieve the muscle tension in your body from head to toe.

I know that relaxation can be difficult at first and therefore it may not work straight away. There are some relaxation exercises that focus on your breathing, some on the body and some on visualization.

I hope that you enjoy reading my experience with anxiety and I hope that what I have learnt and told you helps you with anxiety and/or depression. Thank you for staying and reading to the end of this blog. Part 2 of my experience with Talking Therapies will be uploaded tomorrow. Enjoy yourself and remember to relax.

Natasha

Anxiety

This post is going to be very personal to me as you may or may not know that I suffer really badly with anxiety. I hope that I can help people gain an understanding of what anxiety is and what the symptoms in general for anxiety disorders. 

What is anxiety? 

Anxiety is a feeling of worry, nervousness or unease about something with an uncertain outcome. For example; you could be worried about your exam result before you collect them because you don't know the outcome and if you do bad then you may not know what to do if you didn't get into university. The suspense of waiting to know your results may make you feel uncomfortable.

Everyone has a level of anxiety and will be anxious at some point in life but some people worry too much about a certain situation or everything which makes them feel unstable. The worrying will stay with people who have anxiety disorders which causes them to experience different symptoms.

Did you know 1 in 20 in the UK suffer with a anxiety disorder?

Types of anxiety disorders

Anxiety comes in different forms, these include:

- GAD (Generalised Anxiety Disorder)
- Social Anxiety Disorder
- Panic Disorder
- OCD (Obessive Compulsive Disorder)
- PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)
- Specific Phobias

Symptoms

The symptoms to look out for if you think you may have a anxiety disorder are:

- Feelings of panic, fear or uneasiness.
- Uncontrollable thoughts or Obessive thoughts.
- Repeated thoughts or flashbacks of traumatic experiences.
- Frequent nightmares.
- Ritualistic behaviours like washing your hands repeatively (OCD).
- Insomnia (Trouble getting to sleep or staying to sleep and/or sleeping too much).
- Cold or Clammy hands.
- Shaking/Trembling.
- Shortness of breath.
- Heart palpitations.
- Fidgity (the inability to stay still)
- Dry mouth.
- Numbness/tingling in hands or feet.
- Muscle tension.
- Dizziness.
- Nausea (Vomitting and/or diarrhoea).

Dealing with bullying (part 2) 

From my last post, I wrote about my experience with bullying and how at times it can be worse than other times in life. You can get bullying anywhere from a school to in a workplace. I'm continuing my last post with this post. Lets get on with it! 

How to deal with bullying?

It is hard to speak up and tell someone that you are being bullied. I found it extremely hard to talk to someone about getting bullied and how it made me feel. Talking to someone like a friend, your parents or a tutor, mentor or teacher. They will listen to you and help you through it. Try will try their best to give you the best advice on what you should do when you are being bullied especially if you are talking to a friend or a parent. However, if you are telling a teacher, tutor or mentor, you will find it different. This is because they will be able to talk to that student or those particular students about the situation. They will talk to them asking them why they are doing it and they will try their best to resolve it as soon as they can. This could be talking to them asking them how they will feel if they got bullied like they bully people. In a workplace, I would talk to the manager about the situation so that they can talk to the employee and give them a warning. If they do it again, they will get fired. 

I hope this post helps some people if they are getting bullied. Enjoy your evening! 

Natasha 

Dealing with bullying

Bullying can be in 3 forms, these include; Cyber bullying (on social media sites), physical bullying (being physically hurt such as being beaten up for no apparent reason) and verbal bullying (being called horrible names making you feel low).

From my past experience with being bullied, I believe that I should post about my experience with bullying and how I dealt with the situation. Also I will say what I learnt from being bullied from such a young age which still goes on until this day. I am more than happy to share my experience with you guys and give you some advice on how to deal with this situation if this is happening to you. So lets begin!

My experience 

As I have stated in the introduction, I have been bullied from such as young age. The majority of my primary and secondary school life I was verbally bullied but I was very rarely cyber bullied and physically bullied! I wasn't a liked person in primary school as no one wanted to make friends with me! I felt alone. They thought I was some little kid who didn't have any feelings but as you know everyone has feelings. They called me names such as stupid, weirdo, thick, small and worthless. Being called such names made me feel so low about myself. I didn't talk to anyone about it because I didn't have any friends to turn to but also my parents thought I was ok and therefore they didn't make time for me to talk to them as they had to focus on my older brother who has needed help throughout his life. I felt like I couldn't talk to the teachers because I thought that the bullies will physically bully me and make the bullying worse. I thought no one would stand up for me and stop the bullying from happening but I realised that wouldn't happen unless I tell someone so that they will talk to the bullies and sort the situation out for me. It was years until I told someone about the bullying for it to stop. The bullying stopped for a little while and it began again. This time I was judged for the way I looked, dressed and acted. I started believing them. Being judged for who i am really hurt me on the inside. I cried myself to sleep every single night and I dreaded having to go to school. Some students in my year saw that I was constantly getting bullied and spoke to me. They instantly became my friends as they got to know me and know how I felt. They were so lovely. Since that day when I made some friends in primary school, I started to enjoy school more and they made the end of my primary school experience better for me. However, one of my bullies made friends with my friends and I was back to square one as she took my friends away from me. A new student came to our school and he was so kind. As he didn't know anyone in our year and I didn't have any friends, we became friends. We weren't alike in a sense of personality wise and the things we liked, we just became friends and then we started to enjoy school together. The times when one of the bullies weren't at school, my old friends came up to me and wanted to spend their time with me and the new student. At the of primary school, we all knew that we weren't going to see much of each other anymore as we were going to go up into secondary school which I dreaded because it was bigger than primary school and I knew that I had to make new friends because none of my friends from primary school were in my side of the year and in the same lessons as me.

In secondary school, I was bullied throughout secondary school as the people in my lessons didn't like me very much and this is when the name calling and judging got worse. It really got to me! I used to come home from school and went straight to my room and shutt myself in and cried until My eyes were sore and fell asleep. Recently I started getting called names and physically bullied when walking home from school. This time I spoke to my best friend about it. This made me feel better. 

Welcome to my blog, in this blog I can give you advice and information of how to deal with a variety of situations, problems and emotions. Feel free to share this blog with your friends and family members who have different situations to deal with and I hope this blog page will help your loved ones with situations and emotions. 

Natasha 😊