How I Protected My Mental Health During Lockdown

morning everyone so few weeks ago my mental health took a real dive and I had to make the decision for myself to step away offline for as long as I needed firstly I want to thank everyone who sent the most wonderful messages and comments I didn't read them until I actually came back online and so I was really nice to sit down and just go through them at my own time and yeah so thank you if you reached out or send a lovely message a few notes because I'm going to jump on and discuss how I've been looking after my mental health I know so many of us right now are really struggling and I just want to say right off the bat it's okay to not be okay right now it merely is and I don't want

you to judge yourself or be harsh on yourself or be like I should have figured this out I should be better by now I should be used to this I should be okay no it is okay to not be okay so yeah my mental health really took a dive really bad and everything was spiraling I felt not only my anxiety start crippling me but depression starting to creep into my life and settle which was very unnerving and I decided to step away like I said from social media go completely offline to heal myself which was one of the best decisions I could have made and whilst it didn't fix everything indeed give me some breathing space so after I put the announcement up and on my Instagram and Twitter and

stuff saying look I'll see you when I see you I need to look out for my mental health I didn't force myself to get better I didn't push myself to feel better I just let my mind and body hour-by-hour dictates what it needs so whether that is doing absolutely nothing I just want to lie here on the grass in the garden okay that's cool you can do that do for as long as you need I didn't say right now we should be meditating we should be doing yoga we should do breathing exercises we should be reading more I didn't do any of that I was like listening to myself what do I need right now you want to listen to music for five hours four songs on repeat cool let's do that I just did whatever I was pulled

towards never put the pressure on myself to figure it out now all right you got three days off you've done absolutely nothing all right get a pen and paper we need to figure the site now no every day I just took it as it came and let's almost the whole doing nothing and letting my subconscious deal giving my brain and body space and permission to internally deal with everything to breathe to relax to figure it all out on its own me not pushing it me not forcing it just giving it what it craves you want an early night cool you want to go lie down cool you wanna meditate that's three we can do that when you're ready when you feel like that will be beneficial to you I think I was offline

a total of he was like 11 or 12 days and I didn't set a time to go back and start posting on Instagram do you know what I learned as well I did not miss social media the scrolling and knowing what everyone was doing couldn't care less to be honest like did stop missing was the interaction with my folders with all of you and sharing stuff and chatting in DMS and things like that and sharing little bits and bobs throughout my day and just our conversation that I started to miss not the scrolling not knowing exactly what everyone else is doing everywhere in the world much they couldn't care less it didn't make a difference to my life that I didn't know these things I also made sure that every morning of my break

when I was in the shower but smooth radio on my phone and I would sighs gratitude and name three things I was so grateful for and they had to be different every single day and so that was really helpful just to like ground me into the moment know that I am okay I'm here I am okay bad is happening to me right now and I am fine and I am safe and I'm loved so there were just many days where I decided to go and pull weeds out at the back of the garden and then other days where I just lay down and read two books back-to-back and some days where I just did absolutely nothing absolutely and again just letting your mind and body guide you through what it needs I started feeling a bit more like myself

and knowing I don't have to film anything I don't have to take any pictures I don't have to post on Instagram you know do anything just live in your moment let's process and I think it came to like day seven or eight I was like I would like to meditate so I use the headspace app I use they just go it is really good you can just use the trial that's what I used for the longest time and it's free and I think you get seven days free or something but um Google picks or sent every one of their ambassadors part team pixel and three months free Premium Membership not sponsored or anything when I say a massive thank you cuz I'm so grateful for that because he gave me access to

more and classes that I could take and I really appreciated that like it's that little moment when I got that email and it was like hi you know here's some free headspace you want to meant to take I thought I was really sweet Oh Google to do that so I did some meditation in the garden and it was wonderful it was absolutely wonderful again I did it when I thought it was time to do it for me no another thing I did because it's been really sunny in the UK blessed life has some Sun cream and I was rubbing it in my hands and I went to put it on my face and I just smelt it I was the first time I put it on in ages I had just stood there for like a solid minute smelling the Sun cream and oh my god it took me to so many places

Solman right the memories that the smell of Sun cream brings back it's phenomenal so if you add some Sun cream in your house try this just try it fit some in your hands a good amount and just put it up here close your eyes and just breathe it in because I know Sun cream triggers so many good memories for so many people cuz up see you think of you know hot weather holidays traveling the beach things like that hiking and so many maybe we should split it back and there's a really nice sensory moment for me to have and enjoy and I still do every time for suncream on now I just take like he was 10 seconds just done there and just smell it and I don't know it's just a very calming scent but me and I've been getting super crafty that's right I have been trying to

perfect my skills in like upcycling I started with wine bottles because what do I have the most on lying around libels and old olive jars and things like that so I'll take you downstairs now actually and I'll show you some of the crafty things I've been doing if you follow me on Instagram you know like I'm just going mad with PVA glue and spray paint right now yeah let's go and have a little look okay so these are some of the ones I've done this was yeah image didn't go that well but we tried we had fun it was kind of therapeutic until I did this rope thing with just don't even attempt it's horrible this one oh my god it's stuck ohh oh my god what was the paint not dry yeah it's right I

just picked up a 1 pound 50 vows from Asda and taped it up Oh hold it up I've got it done with two coats but we're just playing and yeah just did some copper spray and I think that looks nifty as of ours cheap 1.50 bars could have done two coats but spray paint is expensive and I'm just experimenting and also this is my first one I didn't add the sticker straightaway and I did a copper base painted the rest matte black and then I got these little decal stickers they are gold so they don't really match bars just playing you know and thought they'd make cute little vadas or candlestick holders or something this one is my favorite I didn't use tape on this because I didn't

have any and I kind of rushed it I don't know if you can tell I smudged the black paint look at her look at that angle that I just did to a paper just held paper against it so I got some tape see yeah that's my favorite whoo fighting sorry about the lawnmower in the background and so you know all those goo ramekins we keep I've been doing something a little special look at that I'm gonna spray the outside black but look how cute that is so I've just been using really it's my craft box napkins picked some up at a store like a pound a pack you get like when you open them up your loads designs got this bunny and I just took the layer off use PVA glue and put it upside down and sew the bottom of all these jars now are really pretty and I'm gonna try later to spray paint

in the outside black so you just see this on the inside see I've been having fun with that this is my latest project see all just the crap everywhere mosaicing with this cool tropical print I'm just getting a technique down it's just very therapeutic using PVA glue and stuff so yeah oh this was an old olive jar completely messed it up there if we look at it this way learning a lot take the masking tape off almost immediately that is your one tip here I took it off straight away and here I left it on for hours and but just playing with designs and you know if I did it properly and could be a cool little pen pot you notice things like that yeah much fun yeah that's the stuff I've been getting crafty with and I just

wait to jump on and say you know you're far from alone I know a lot of people are saying that but you are so far from being alone right now is terrifying times it's very confusing and everyone's mental health is just taking a beating but don't force yourself that was the one mistake I was making not as forcing myself into figuring things out because everyone's having like an existential crisis you know I the people have all lost their jobs or all their income has come down to pretty much nothing or things like that and it can be rescaling where you're like oh my god what am I going to do is this think I should be doing it should I change my career like should are we doing saying cows like

what do I do now everything's changed when will we ever get out of this all these raising panicking thoughts stop breathe and just let your mind and body guide you to what it needs if you need to take some time off for a lot of people who aren't out on the front line being key workers you got some time you know you got some time after those who are out there every day still fighting the good fight and working we applaud you every Thursday and we're so grateful and I know you barely will probably find time and I can't imagine what your mental health is like your seats just keep on going and that is incredibly inspiring so whether you're at home staying safe or you're out fighting for all of us and putting

yourselves out there then you know we are all in this together now Charlie from pocket Trailblazer put a clip of a doctor in one of her videos the other day which was amazing and he was like doctors and everyone are on the last line you're on the frontline the general public is on the frontline you have up to your lives change them you are sacrificing everything you are staying at home ripping up your life you know it's affecting your mental health your income everything because without the general public then we wouldnt be able to fight this virus you staying home is fighting the virus on the frontline and he was like were the last line of defense you don't want to get to where we are in

hospital and it's just the way he was describing it to give you a bit of a morale boost like what you are doing is so important and so crucial for any of this to be working and I thought that was wonderful I think yeah we are all of us are on the frontline playing a bit and so yeah just wait to check in see how you are see how you're doing please let me know in the comments and what you've been up to we're all here for each other on this channel it is a safe place I will be monitoring comments so feel free to chat talk to each other you know build each other up and just give yourself permission to be a little kinder in this time to other people to yourself and then just listen to your body and your

mind it's sure going to tell you if you give it space and permission it will tell you what it means so and yeah I'll love you and leave you going forward still taking every day every hour as my own cents take every hour as it comes and I'm really just listening to myself okay I'm not racing to figure this all out figure out how to make everything better because that's a ridiculous aim but each day you know just see what I need see what I want and you go from there and that is all we can do right now and that is okay that is amazing okay all right so much love to all of you and I will see you in the next video right nothing leaving shutting up subscribe all the fun stuff and I'll see you in the next one bye