We all know self care is important but how many of us actually make time to take care of ourselves?  We can get so caught up in our mental health malarkey that we often forget self care is a thing, self care can look different for everyone but making just 10 minutes out of your day dedicated to caring for yourself can actually make you feel a little better.  cut your nails/paint em, get a shave if that makes you feel a bit more put together, pamper yourself (try out a new product), colour in a colouring book, listen to music that gets you gassed rather than sad soppy shit you can relate to  - of course it doesn't solve your worries and woes but it distracts you for a little while meaning you're less depressed/stressed.    Self-care can be difficult at first but the more you make time to at least try take care of yourself the easier it becomes, infact you actually start to look forward to the prospect of time well spent, it makes you feel more accomplished and reinforcing you

New experiences will do your mental health a world of good eventually, it may feel uncomfortable at first but the more you expose yourself to the unknown or the uncomfortable, the easier it all becomes and you never know you may have the best experience of your entire life, it's not always the activity but the people you meet along the way.  Try new things even if you think you'll be no good at it, the only way to know is if you try, remember practice is key to most things but if you're not enjoying it then at least you've tried it to say it's not for you.  Last year I did stone carving an ancient art form yano like The Flintstones style (rock money carved out) or tombstone writing, in modern day people make sculptures but that's incredibly advanced skill level. Anyways I really liked the idea of stone carving but the execution on my behalf it wasn't for me, glad I tried it though. I did volunteering for an up-cycling group too (revamping furniture) a blesse

A recent question I had in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy was how do we become more self compassionate when the inner critic shows up . And the answer isn't as complex as you would think.  Firstly I've decided to name the inner critic as this separates it from yourself, remember we all have negative thoughts about ourselves from time to time but when these thoughts become a problem it can affect your daily life by means of your confidence will plummet and you can even start to believe the inner critics opinions which is dangerous for your mental health.  In order to be more compassionate towards yourself when the inner critic shows up you have to simply witness the thought don't become at one with the thought; challenge the thoughts by thinking of a rational/more positive counteract argument to what the inner critic is saying, yes but i'm doing okay not marvellous but okay kind of statements help to train you into the habit until it becomes a natural response to challeng

I had this dream once that said speak to the higher power aka the universe -  it was a mad dream but anyways you don't have to be religious to pray, I learned a long time ago the best thing you can do is vent to the universe about things. Daily chats with the universe help massively; you're never alone as you think you are...even if doesn't seem like that. You can show your gratitude in prayer, your thoughts and feelings even build a friendship between you and the universe (higher power).   Prayer is the most powerful way to care about a soul, from a far or near you always have the option to pray for someone and this act of kindness actually helps your own mental health as you're doing something that isn't self centred; So the next time you have a spare 5 minutes pray to the universe for someone that's struggling. The universe or higher power responds to kindness it's a secret weapon in my eyes that you need to utilise.   So how do you pray to the higher pow

2022 was about finishing that insane amount of stuff I started in 2021, a 6 month long mammoth task of using up pre-made bits and creating a new style of art; still without the stars or cosmic theme for a lot of the year, I've stuck backgrounds and painted and done very little drawing compared to other years. I focused on creating abstract art, looking at different textures like swirls and grass and used celebratory card cutouts and other recycled materials in A4 and A6 books. I also did some pieces with the pre-made cardboard collage bits, some of them pre-painted some of them not, they're A4 and A5 size pieces themed around creatures but there's once again no stars. I've since added stars to pieces now i'm cosmiccreativebits again but for 6 months i'd stopped doing that.  For around 4 months I did an abstract fairy series comprising of 133 pieces using cardboard packaging, painting the space around black and obviously having fairy themed pieces using acrylic/p

Learning to relax should be easy right but it's actually not, when you're used to always being productive it can feel foreign to spend time doing 'nothing' but it's an important skill to learn because burnout is a thing and it's not helpful constantly being in a cycle of doing too much and then burnout hits forcing you to stop when you really didn't have time for that. I've spoken in depth on how to avoid the burnout cycle which you can read here but this post isn't about that it's more about learning how to relax before the cycle starts.  A method I've recently been trying is reading, but for most of my life I've only read non fiction because I feel like it's a waste of my time to read fiction, so my little goal this month was to read a fiction book which I am but it really does feel odd compared to what i'd usually be doing. Reading is an important thing it helps give you the words that might not be there so often and keeps you

Happy 2023 ma dude!!! I hope this year has been kind to you so far :)  Had the best Christmas and new year ever had and reflecting on 2022 my only goal was to make it through the year which I not only did but fucking smashed it, I've come SO far with my mental health it's ridiculous i'm really proud of the person that i'm becoming I didn't expect to make it this far; some personal highlights of 2022 was donating 100 fairy pieces to a local charity and being verified on Pinterest.  Sorry for the lack of content on the blog I've been a really busy bee, still been posting on Pinterest everyday however and have lots of new content on here coming soon!  SO what does 2023 hold in store well, i'm about to be volunteering for charity and teaching how to make the fairy pieces at their arts and crafts club which i'm super excited about, among some other things on the horizon but basically we're doing bits out here n 2023 is looking and feeling fucking goooood.