Finding Motivation

Hello, I'm back!

So my last post was a little different, I hope some of you tried out the recipe and enjoyed it!

This post is on something that I've tackled within the past few months and I thought I'd share it. Finding motivation can be really difficult sometimes, whether you're in a work place or college or just doing day-to-day tasks. Being a sufferer of depression/bipolar disorder, I've found it really difficult to find motivation the past couple of years and I've really kicked myself for it, yet in the recent months, things have changed.

From a young age, my dad had my sister and I out working, encouraging us to earn our keep with a paper round. Though it was only something small (I believe it was £8 a round), it was still enough to provide me with what I needed from the ages of 12-15. I got my work ethic from my parents and I've always believed that if you want something, earn it, because it's a lot more satisfying than just taking it.

At the age of 16, I got my first job in retail in Norwich. I really enjoyed it because it gave me responsibilities and made me feel a lot more mature. It also helped develop me as a person. I'd always been quite a shy and quiet person, but I really came out of my shell from working in customer service and interacting with customers on a day-to-day basis, which explains why a lot of my jobs have been in retail.

Although I've been motivated with work and I know what drives me, the past few years/months have been quite difficult for me in terms of studies and finding a job in which I felt that I could thrive in. A thing that a few people don't understand, is when you're suffering with depression, it's very hard to get yourself out of bed in the morning, let alone think about what's going to happen in your day. It's quite easy to say "cheer up, things will pick up" or "get out of bed and get dressed, you'll feel much better", when in fact, those things are even more de-motivating. I've always worked through these feelings however, knowing that when I have a commitment, I honour it. My jobs were never affected by it but my studies unfortunately were. I've always been pretty good in an academic environment and I hated leaving school with GCSEs that I knew I could've got a better result in and leaving college with just one A-Level. However, I don't believe you should dwell on the past; you should just keep looking forward.

So here is how I found my motivation.

• Break things down into small, manageable chunks. If things seem difficult right now, or tasks seem unachievable, then break them down and do a bit at a time. By doing this, the task in hand doesn't seem quite so overwhelming.
• Find a sense of achievement. Set yourself goals throughout the day and when you achieve them, reward yourself. Acknowledge that you've done something well and be proud of it!
• Do things for yourself. Try your best and don't worry about what other people are doing. Go at your own pace or with the way you know how to do things and keep focused on yourself and the task in hand.
• Have a checklist. Tick off each task that you complete. It keeps you more organised and motivated to complete more tasks.
• Develop a positive "can do" attitude. There is no such word as "can't" and all anyone can ask of you is to try.
• Believe in yourself. There is no room for self doubt when you're trying to find motivation. Be confident in yourself and your abilities and prove to yourself that you are capable of achieving what you've set out to do.
• It's all about self-motivation. Don't rely on anybody else to take responsibility for you. Your success depends on you and you alone.

Though these sound very straight forward, they've really helped me the past 7 or so months and have allowed me to apply for jobs and apprenticeships and actually change my outlook on life. It's even motivating just talking about it! 

I hope some of these tips have helped. 

I'd love to hear how you motivate yourself!

Over and out, Rachel x.

Sweet Chilli 'Chicken' Stirfry

Hey guys!

I'm back with a new post :-) I hope you've all had a good week. As one of my new year's resolutions, I promised myself that I'd make an attempt to be more healthy and that involved cutting out meat from my diet and becoming a vegetarian. I've done veganism briefly and would love to get back to that, but I thought I'd cut out the meat from my diet (I don't really consume dairy as it is) and then transition when I'm ready. 

I've made some really tasty dishes and I thought I'd share one with you, which has all good ingredients and is super healthy! I made it with Quorn but if you're not vegetarian, you can replace it with any meat you'd like. If you are vegetarian/vegan and don't like Quorn or can't have it, you can also replace it with tofu.

For the dish, you will need:

- Quorn chicken pieces/chicken fillet

- Kale/Spinach

- Red and yellow bell peppers

- Courgettes (or any other vegetable you want to add)

- Wholegrain or white rice

For the sauce, you will need:

- 4 - 5 bell peppers

- 4 - 5 chilli peppers

- 1 tomato, seeds removed and chopped into small chunks

- 6 garlic cloves

- 350ml white wine vinegar

- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

- 450g sugar 

- Small knob of fresh root ginger (though I used ground and it

worked out exactly the same)

- A pinch of salt and pepper

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1. You'll start by making the sauce. Start by skinning the bell peppers. This can be done by heating the peppers in either a pan or under the grill. You don't have to skin them, but it does make it easier to blend and allows the sauce to run a little more smoothly. Once you have skinned them, chop them up into small cubes and place them in the blender.
2. De-seed and dice the tomato and put it alongside the peppers and then move on to crush the garlic cloves. Add in the ginger and the salt and pepper and blend it all together until it's smooth in consistency. 
3. Whilst you're doing this, dice up the remaining peppers and the courgettes for the stir fry. Unfortunately, I was out of courgettes so the dish this time was a little lacking but equally as tasty!
4. Add your rice to a saucepan of boiling water and start to cook it through. 
5. Start to heat the blended sauce in a saucepan and add the rest of the ingredients (white wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar and sugar). Bring to a rolling boil and cook until the sauce thickens (around 15-20 minutes).
6. In a frying pan, add olive oil and start to cook the Quorn until they've defrosted and changed to a brown in colour. Add the vegetables you prepared to the pan and allow them to soften.
7. Remove the sauce from the heat and add to your 'chicken' and vegetables. Keep stirring so that the sauce doesn't stick to the pan and covers it evenly.
8. Remove from the heat and serve on a bed of rice and enjoy!

This was a super easy dish to make and is perfect if you're on a health kick or if you fancy something quick. Let me know if you want me to do anymore recipes. I'm really enjoying cooking meals that are filling and healthy at the same time!

What's your favourite dish to make? What are your plans for this weekend?

Over and out, Rachel x

12 Things I Learned In 2014

I've seen quite a few bloggers do these posts as we've now entered a new year and I've got a lot to reflect on, so here are 12 things that I learned over the 12 months of 2014.

1. Live your life for yourself. People will always try to dictate to you how you should and shouldn't be living your life. Don't let people tell you what you should be doing and don't allow people to tell you that you can't do something, that it's not feasible to do something. Do what YOU want to do and when YOU want to do it (of course, as long as it's safe and not putting yourself or others in danger.)
2. Be kind to others. It costs you nothing to be nice to somebody, whether it's just a smile or letting somebody know they mean a lot to you. Kindness goes a long way and even brightens up somebody else's day. Treat others how you wish to be treated.
3. Try not to take everything to heart. I'm quite a sensitive person and through this year, I've had jobs at call centres where people have shouted abuse at me and I took it personally. The same applies for relationships with people. I've learned to shrug things off a bit more easily.
4. Try your best. That's all anyone can ask of you. Even if you fail, you should be proud of yourself that you thought "fuck it, let's give it a go" and gave it your best shot.
5. I am not worthless. I am good enough. I've had a really tough time coming to terms with a lot of things in 2014, especially towards the end of it. I need to realise that I am a unique individual and everybody is different. I shouldn't compare myself to others and feel like I'm always competing. I'm going to battle hard to get the confidence and self love I deserve.
6. Clean body, clean mind. One thing I'm going to try and do in 2015 is keep a solid diet and exercise routine in place. I have bipolar II disorder, so I find it very difficult to stick to one thing. One day I'll be all pro healthy eating and the next I'll flip completely to McDonalds and chocolate bars. I found that when I did keep healthy eating up last year, my mood was a lot more stable as my blood sugar wasn't fluctuating so much so I'm going to try and keep a stable lifestyle.
7. Do no harm, but take no shit. I've learned not to let people walk all over me and to stand my ground. I personally don't think I'm a bad person. I'm not spiteful, I don't say things to upset others (well, not deliberately at least) and I stick by the people closest to me, but just because I do all these things does not mean I have "mug" stamped across my forehead. I've been a lot more vocal the past year with my opinions and views on certain topics and I'm no longer scared to speak up when someone does or says something that I find offensive. 
8. Find something you enjoy and pursue it. I've ummed and ahhed about career choices and what I want to do and I think I've finally found a career path I want to follow. Though 2014 was full of crappy jobs and leaving college with only one A-Level, I want to turn this year around and pursue something I'm passionate about, regardless of money. 
9. Appreciate your loved ones. I so often forget to tell my family and friends that I love them and that they mean a lot to me and this is something that I want to change. My parents have been the backbone of my support system this year; my dad especially. When I've been feeling at my worst, he's sat up with me 'til gone two or three in the morning and I'm not sure he even knows how much those chats have meant to me. It's important to value the people who mean the most to you.
10. Acknowledge both your strengths and your weaknesses. It's important to know what you're good at and what you're not so good at. Continue to work on your strengths so that you're forever growing and learning but take your weaknesses into consideration. If your weakness is in the work place, can you learn from it? Can you teach yourself it? If it's something more personal, can you turn it around and make it a strength? Accept your flaws as ways to better yourself each day.
11. Don't be ashamed of your past. I've had a hard time accepting things that I've done or haven't done in the past, mainly based around my mental illness. For a while, I didn't want anybody to know that I had bipolar, mainly because of the amount of stigma behind mental health issues, but now I talk about it openly and I embrace it as it's given me more of an insight into mental health. I'm not saying that I like living with it because god knows how much upset it's caused me and how many days I spent in bed last year because of it, but you can take it on board and accept that it is part of who you are and you can build upon it. You don't have to let it consume you, you can be proactive and take steps to feel better, which is mainly why I started this blog.
12. Enjoy yourself. Don't be afraid to laugh or smile, as cheesy as it may sound. Smile at strangers. Laugh so hard your tummy hurts afterwards. Surround yourself with people who make you happy. Enjoy life. Take advantage of the opportunities presented to you and don't be afraid to be proud of yourself. 

So that's my list of things from 2014. I hope I grow more as a person this year and I become strong enough to kick my illness in the butt and start a new chapter for myself.

I pinched the photo from my good friend Courtney O'Flaherty as I'm still trying to work out what sort of images I want on my blog, so check out her pictures here.

Over and out, Rachel x

People = Positivity

Hello again!

I thought that I would try out another blog post. It's 31st December which means tomorrow will be 2015; another year. This past year has gone so quickly, it seems like yesterday we were welcoming in 2014 and we too were thinking how quickly 2013 had gone. It's funny how time seems to fly the older you get. When I was younger, time used to drag on and I used to wish that I'd reach my next birthday quicker and that Christmas would come faster, but now I'm taking advantage of any time that does go slowly, to soak up every moment and remember it.

Something I've learned this year is who my real friends are. I'm not talking about when you become friends with somebody and you have a lot in common and you constantly talk and then suddenly you lose contact because you both have things going on that restricts your ability to communicate. I know it's possible to grow out of friends and that's happened to me a lot this past year. People that I've been friends with for years or maybe just months have stopped bothering or cut me off and there's a point where you've got to stop asking them where you stand with them and decide for yourself where YOU stand. Decide for yourself. You don't have to be rude about it but simply let the person know "you know what, if you want to be friends, that's great. If you don't, that's also fine, but this is where I'm stood at the moment." I feel like you set yourself up for a lot more upset than it's worth by constantly trying with people who don't seem bothered by your friendship, so it's much better to decide for yourself what's happening. If said friend misses you or wants the friendship, then let them know that you're there if you need them. Personally, I find a lot of my friendships are one sided and it gets exhausting and upsets me more than it should.

I'm saying this, because in 2015, I want to surround myself with more positive people. People who will make an effort with me, people who will encourage me, people who will support me and want to see me progress and do well, whether through a friendship or a relationship. I want to set myself goals that I will be able to reach and turn 2015 around after a pretty shitty 2014 and I want people beside me who will provide me with endless positivity. I've had some mental health issues this past year also, so keeping my mood up rather than letting it sink down is an important thing to me and I feel that this will be determined by the company that I keep. I think that you can have friends who will support you when you are successful and making money and happy, but it's quite difficult to find friends who will guide you when you're facing a hurdle and everybody needs someone by their side when they're tackling life's speed bumps - and that's all they are in life, speed bumps. As the quote goes, "you are who you surround yourself with", and that's going to play a very prominent role in my life next year.

What are your thoughts on people reflecting on your mood? Are you making any big changes this coming year?

Your minds matter

Over and out, Rachel x

Introductions.

So, this is my second attempt at a blog, hello!

First things first, let's get introductions out of the way.

I'm Rachel, an 18-year-old girl from Norwich who's currently living in Brighton. I'm an avid Netflix user and tend to spend most of my time engaged in the world of film. That is the career path I will (hopefully) eventually follow. I find that I have a lot of big plans and I want to document the journey of trying to fulfil these plans, hence I've started this blog.

It's coming up to New Year's Eve and I want to set myself some resolutions and actually stick to them this year. So here's what I've got planned for myself:

1. Clean body, clean mind: Eat healthily, cut back on eating the crap and get exercising. Stick to the yoga and put my energy into something more productive.
2. Stick to this blog. I've started a few and often got distracted and forgotten about them,
3. Laugh more. Discard of the people who provide me with negativity and embrace the positive people in my life.
4. Take more risks. Say "yes" more.
5. Don't be afraid of failure. Embrace it and use it as a learning curve. The only way you can really fail is if you don't try.

After a whirlwind of a year, it would be brilliant to make 2015 a better one, a more exciting one. I will elaborate on topics on other blog posts but for now, I'm happy with how I've started this.

What are your plans for New Year's Eve? Have any of you got any resolutions?

Your minds matter.

Over and out, Rachel. x