Finding balance

As this week is Mental Health Awareness week I feel it’s important that we raise as much awareness as possible on this subject. 

As someone that suffers with anxiety like many others, it is a topic I feel passionate about and although I believe the stigma surrounding mental health is reducing its something that still needs a lot of work. 

One in three people will suffer from a mental health condition at some point in their lives. Young people increasingly face added pressures due to things such as zero hours contracts and universal credit. It shouldn’t be like this. 

Despite the additional awareness a lot of people feel that they cannot speak out about how they feel at the risk of being judged. It’s so important for me to find balance in my life. Whilst I work hard at work, I have learnt ways to manage stress and understand the importance of having hobbies outside of work. 

I’m very fortunate that I have a good friendship group that I know I can talk to. My main advice this mental health week and a small way you can make a difference is simply by asking someone how they are, taking an interest in their day and making them feel valued. It can mean so much to someone that is suffering. With the ease of communication today, nobody needs to feel as though they have no one. 

Should you travel when you’re young?

Hey Guys!

This is a question that I’ve always battled with myself. When I talk about wanting to travel everyone will always say “do it while you’re young”. They mean this, I presume in the sense that I will have my health and little responsibilities when I am young but I wonder if that’s strictly true. 

Yes my health is stable at the moment but it has its problems which I don’t need to go into. I have a well paid job which not many people get to do and yes I am terrified about finding a job when I return from travelling. I know it’s unlikely to find something like where I am now so I wonder if it’s worth it. 

The thing is, now isn’t the right time but it never will be. I don’t believe that there ever is a ‘right time’ to travel but in fact you have to make your own right time. There will always be risks, setbacks and things holding you back, not everyone is going to support you. 

This is your life and time goes so fast. Some places in the world are disappearing and could be non-existent in a few years. There will always be pros and cons but only you can decide when you’re ready. 

J x

If travel is the answer, what is the question?

For so long I have had a passion for travel, a passion that comes in waves. I have always known that one day I wanted to travel the world but when I am going through difficult times this passion becomes so strong that I begin to feel that it is not so much a passion anymore but a need to get away.

What I need to get away from I am not really sure. I have always felt so free when I have been travelling before, like the world is just such a big place with the opportunity to explore anywhere the heart wants to take you. I think it is just the stresses of life that makes me keep persisting with wanting a life of travel, always feeling held back by something and becoming so stressed and caught up within the life I am currently leading that I feel I will never be able to jet off somewhere for a break, thus making me more stressed.

I have never been lucky enough to find someone that would be willing to travel the world with me, someone that shares the same passion for travel that I do which is sad but at the same time provides a lot of new opportunities if I can be brave enough to take them.

The question is, can the girl that could barely put her hand up in class, now have the confidence to travel the world solo? There's so much that I want to see and I feel like if I just keep waiting my life will fade away before me, that's probably my worst fear actually, the fear of not living.
I've thought about couchsurfing and staying in hostels as a way of meeting new people along the way and sharing experiences with them, I hope that soon I will be brave enough to take the plunge and just go for it.

Life is too short for settling.
J x

Time.

I believe people fear living. I think it's something that people put to the side while they're busy simply existing. I do not want to exist, I want to live. We become so stuck in a routine of go to school, graduate university, get a job, get married, have kids, grow old and then that's it, time up, that's your life. I think people only really start to live once they begin to contemplate death because that way there are no consequences, there is very little to loose.

People believe that they will only begin to die when they are old because that's the norm, that's the way it's supposed to be but the sad truth is that time could stop for any one of us at any given second and the question I like to ask myself is If I didn't wake up tomorrow, would I be happy with the life I have lived? If the answer is no, change it. You want to travel the world? Go do it.

 

 

 

 

 

The only thing that will ever hold you back is yourself.

 

Don't settle for a job that you hate, working unconventional hours with a boss that you can't stand. That's not living. You have one life and I don't believe in wasting it being unhappy. Happiness can be found in every corner of the universe, in every passing smile, in every passing moment it will be there waiting for you, if only you have the courage to find it.

 

 

J x