How I'm Managing My Mental Health in Lockdown

How I'm Managing My Mental Health in Lockdown.

I'm sure the current situation surrounding lockdown over the last month has affected everyone's mental health in differing ways. During this time I have set myself many routines aimed to help and improve my mental health during all of this uncertainty and I thought I would share with you the routine tasks that have been helping me:

1. Exercising Everyday

Before Lockdown I was lucky if I found time to exercise twice a week, during this period with all the additional time I have forced myself to exercise in some way everyday be it going for a walk or following exercise videos on YouTube. I find even if I haven't been feeling the best that doing some form of exercise has always boosted my mood and made me feel better about my self image.

2. Reading 

I finally can read for joy again now my degree is complete, so this spare time and the kindle daily deals have given me chance to get stuck into some fiction. You can see what I have been reading in this post.

3. Baking

I have been practicing and perfecting a lot of baking recipes that I have never tried before such as banana bread (as who isn't baking that currently?) and brownies. The only problem with this one is I then have to eat all that I have baked!

4. Watching Movies/TV Shows

Catching up on the shows and films that I have not seen, either on Netflix, Amazon Prime or Disney+. You can see what I have been watching recently here.

5. Practising Self-care

My self-care before lockdown was awful, I never left time for any extra pampering. So during this time I have made full use of face masks, practising with makeup, having baths to relax and finally sticking to a skincare routine.

These are all the tasks I have been doing to aid my mental wellbeing during this time. What have you all been doing to help your mental health during these strange times?

Thanks for Reading!

Lactose Free Pancakes

A few days belated but I had my first attempt at making pancakes yesterday. I am currently trying to maintain a lactose free diet so these pancakes were made with soya milk.

The ingredients used were:

- 300ml Soya Milk
- 2 Eggs
- 100g Plain Flour
- 10ml Sunflower Oil

This was my first time making pancakes from scratch and the recipe was incredibly simple just mix all of the above ingredients together and cook them for 1 minute on each side.

For a first attempt I feel these were a great success they were incredibly tasty with strawberries and some dairy free yogurt. This is a great example of how with one simple change a tasty recipe can be made dairy-free or in this case lactose free for those with allergies or intolerances.

We don't have to miss out on the tasty foods. I am looking forward to trying out some more from scratch milk free recipes.

Thanks for Reading!

You Are a Butterfly You Just Can't See Your Wings

Does the butterfly know its beauty or is it unable to see its own wings? Forced to wander around looking at the bright and colourful wings of other butterflies feeling insignificant in comparison?

Aren't we all similar in this aspect quick to see the beauty and positives in others but unable to see these qualities in ourselves. Looking at qualities we admire and wishing we had more -more confidence, more beauty, more brains.

We all have low moments, moments of self-doubt, of comparison, of wishing for more and of questioning.

Of late I have had far too many of these thoughts, life has thrown many hurdles my way and I got tired of jumping them. I found myself becoming someone I didn't recognise someone full of doubts, low self confidence and who constantly compares their life to others.