Being An Apprentice.

Happy Saturday lovelies! How’s your week been? Mine has been pretty busy but great, because I finally received my certificates for my apprenticeship! Which led to the post I’ve decided to write today!

Here’s a little about me that you might not know; I’m 23, and I’ve been working as an apprentice for the last year and a half. And this week I got my certificate for finishing another qualification level in social media and marketing and I’ve just enrolled to do the next level up for the next 2 years!

Here I am with my college assessor getting my certificates!

Part of why I decided to write this post is because I was reminded this past week that we rarely celebrate our achievements and successes, and it’s important that we do, because even the smallest successes are just that, successes.

Celebrating the little things are important because it increases your self-confidence, self-esteem, it creates a positive mood and you can learn what helped you and why you succeeded so you can do it again!

So, why did I become an apprentice?

I decided to become an apprentice after being unhappy working in a supermarket for a little over a year doing shift work with little sleep. I am however, still grateful for that experience as it helped me develop my people skills!

I never really knew what I wanted to do as a career, other than that I wanted to do something creative. And when I decided I wanted to change jobs, I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, and it was then that I started thinking about uni and why I didn’t go to university.

There’s several reasons why uni just wasn’t/isn’t for me right now. One being that I couldn’t pick what I wanted to study, there’s too many options and I’m very indecisive. And secondly, because of that, I don’t want to start a degree and then realise it isn’t for me and have student debt at the back of my mind.

So, it was then that I figured an apprenticeship or traineeship was the right thing for me to do. And here’s why: I get to earn money whilst I learn and gain a new qualification and skill, I don’t have to pay for my training, I get experience in a field I’m interested in, get trained in something completely new and I get to join a team of great people.

So where do I work?

For the past year and a half I have been working for a great non-profit organisation called The SUN Network as a social media and marketing manager apprentice. The SUN Network is a small organisation and we gather feedback from people who have accessed/tried to access/are accessing mental health or drug and alcohol services within Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, as we believe the people who have accessed the services are the best to influence and shape how those services work in the future.

At The SUN Network we amplify people’s voices and help create opportunities for them to be involved by attending workshops, meetings and by anonymously and confidentially sharing their experiences with services. Working at The SUN Network is great because there’s only 5 of us in the entire team, and we all have lived experiences with mental health and/or drug and alcohol challenges, so we are all very passionate about being able to help other people.

Being 23 and an apprentice does feel a little weird sometimes, partly because apprenticeships are usually associated with people just coming out of school who haven’t worked before. But, I then just remind myself that everyone does things at their own pace, and I love my apprenticeship, job and team. And I love that I am learning new skills whilst getting paid!

If you’re wondering whether or not you want to go to uni or an apprenticeship, I suggest having a look around the different universities and looking online for apprenticeship opportunities, and then you can decide what is best for you. Moral of the story is that you’re never too late to try something new, who knows, you might find your calling!

And that’s it from me for today, it’s a short and sweet post this week because I’ve been super busy! But I always love making some time to write/chat with you. Maybe in a few weeks I’ll let you know what a day in my life and job is like. Have a great week everyone!!

Love,

What Is Classed As Selfcare?

It’s #SelfcareWeek ! And it’s got me thinking, what do we actually think classes as selfcare? For me, I typically start thinking about face masks and bubble baths. And well yes that can be classed as selfcare; but as amazing as those things are, there are hundreds of other things you can do. And over the last few days, I’ve been partaking in a few of these myself.

The thought for this post came to me whilst I was walking home from the gym; it occurred to me that even though I think of lots of luxurious things as self-care, there are lots of small things I do for myself that make me feel good, and these count too.

Here’s a few things I’ve been doing for myself that aren’t always considered self-care:

• Going to the gym, and doing what I want there, if I don’t feel like doing the stair climber today, I just don’t do it and I refuse to feel guilty about it!)
• Buying myself a hot chocolate when walking home after going to the gym.
• Putting on my moisturizer.
• Listening to the Peptalk app (I highly recommend this one for when you’re commuting and walking anywhere, it’s a great motivational tool!)
• Watching videos by Glamour, Ladylike, As/Is and the Try Guys.
• Self Affirmations.
• Watching Nikkietutorials (believe it or not I watch Nikkie’s videos when I’m at the gym and they make me so happy!)
• Cleaning my room.
• Playing with makeup.
• Putting on makeup when I’m not going anywhere!
• Lighting scented candles.
• Having a bubble bath.
• Unfollowing any social media profiles that make me feel bad about myself.
• Watching my favourite films.
• Cooking my favourite food.
• Singing in the shower.
• Talking to friends.
• Finishing work ON TIME.
• Related to the above – not looking at work emails when I’m off work.
• Making myself a great breakfast.
• Blogging.
• Painting, drawing and being creative.
• Getting 7/8 hours sleep.
• Wearing thermal socks.
• Using a 99p face mask.
• Chatting to my sister.
• Seeing my Niece and Nephew on FaceTime reeking havoc in my sisters house.
• Driving round to look at Christmas Lights when they go up.
• Making myself a cup of tea.
• Meeting up with friends for a chat/food/movies (basically spending time with the important people in your life)
• Wearing my favourite clothes.

Honestly the list could go on and on. I love selfcare, sometimes I do still feel selfish or guilty for spending time on ourselves, but we really shouldn’t. We’re stuck with ourselves for life so we better take care of that person we see in the mirror.

And at the end of the day, if something makes you happy and feel good, it’s probably your own version of selfcare. We’re all different so it’s impossible to say that one thing will work for everyone; telling someone to go take a bubble bath to relax if they hate having baths is pretty pointless. It’s a personal thing.

Some of the things in my list you might not consider to be selfcare, but for me, they are. Just doing one small thing for yourself a day can make such a difference to your mood and wellbeing. And myself from a year ago would say something along the lines of “I’ll start next week or in the new year”, but that’s not how I think anymore, the time to start is now.

That’s all from me today, I’m off to go get myself a hot chocolate and sit in a blanket with a book. Have a great weekend lovelies! You’re all amazing!

Love,

P.S. The UK Blog Awards are now open for voting! It’d mean the world to me if you could vote for me my lovelies!! 

Why I Started Blogging

 

Hello my lovelies! I can’t believe we’re in November already!

So, I’ve been blogging for a few months now, and something I get asked quite often when people I know find out I have a blog is why did I start blogging? What pushed me into pursuing blogging for myself?

Well, this week I’m going to let you into the reasons what made me want to start theweightofmyworlds and what pushed me to actually going forward and creating/publishing my blog!

Part of the idea to start blogging came after reading many blogs and thinking about how amazing and fun they look to write. When the initial thought popped into my head to begin my own blog I thought maybe I should just treat it like a sort of journal or diary of my life? And then I thought back to doing English at school and never being amazing and doubted my ability to write.. however, even though I wasn’t great at the typical English lessons it did occur to me that I was pretty good at writing as if I were talking to people and doing some creative writing.

As you can imagine, all of these thoughts to start writing popped into my head as I were about to go to sleep (which is when I seem to get the most motivation to do stuff, am I the only one with this??). So, I decided to type the general idea into my phone reminders so it would pop up in the morning and actually remind me of last nights idea to start my blog, which it did.

For a few weeks after this I then put off beginning my blog because I still doubted myself a bit and I just needed that extra push. And that came in the form of my younger sister Phoebe.

Here’s my younger sister Phoebe, without her giving me one of my initial ideas to start blogging, I wouldn’t be where I am today!

Well believe it or not what pushed me into starting my own blog was when I thought of a project I wanted to do to help my sister as she was growing up (she’s growing up way too fast for my liking!). I wanted to create her a sort of ‘guide’ for everything that she’ll go through growing up and going through school. And then it occurred to me that that can become easily outdated and with technology moving forward so quickly that maybe I should just go for it and create my own blog that she can visit for advice and general life stuff.

Whilst all of this was swimming round in my head, a bit of a life re-adjustment (well I guess that’s what I would call it?) happened for me. That was the final push I needed to really kick start what you’re reading this on today!

The life adjustment that pushed me to start my own blog was that I began my own recovery journey from an eating disorder. I know, heavy stuff.. I’ll be brief (there’s previous posts about this you can find on here anyway) and I thought that writing my story and things that I go through would help me in that recovery. And that’s part of why my blog is called ‘The Weight Of My Worlds’.

Since beginning my blog it has allowed me to really own what I want to talk about. I love speaking up about body positivity, de-bunking fads that do no good to our mental health, talking about fashion, food, fun projects from Pinterest that are actually feasible.. telling you all about my weird, wonderful and down right funny life experiences and generally interacting with this amazing community that I have been welcomed into with open arms.

I was actually planning on writing this post for my blog’s one year anniversary, but I decided that what better time to talk about how far The Weight Of My Worlds and I have come than now. Reflecting on your achievements and what/who pushed you towards doing great things not only for yourself but others too is a great thing that we shouldn’t have to make a plan or schedule talking about it. Any time is a great time to celebrate your own victories! Especially the small ones, they all add up to great memories.

Why did you start blogging? What do you love about it? Let me know in the comments!

And with that my lovelies, that’s all from me today! Have a great weekend everyone!

Love,

 

10 Ways To Make Your Mornings More Productive

You ever see those people who look so perfect, polished and wide awake first thing in the morning? Does a little bit of you hate them for it? Yeah, me too. It’s not that they are bad people or are mean, I think it’s just that I wish I were more like them.

So.. This week I decided to try out 10 tips that will hopefully make my mornings even more productive. Especially since at the moment all I manage to get done before I leave for work is just about slump out of bed, have a coffee, eat some breakfast and spend 30 minutes deciding what to wear for the day.

Let’s get started!

1. Wake up as soon as your alarm goes off and don’t hit snooze. Or if you struggle to get out of bed even after hitting snooze, put your alarm clock on the other side of the room, this way you’ll have to get up to shut it up!!
2. Pick out your outfit for the day the previous evening.
3. Create a morning ritual to keep your morning organised, for me this is getting dressed, having a wash, doing my hair, making a daily to do list, having a coffee and then eating breakfast whilst watching Gilmore Girls. If you have a morning ritual then you’re less likely to forget stuff this way too!
4. Drink some water. I’m rubbish at doing this but this week I tried to drink at least 1 pint of water first thing.
5. Do the task you’re dreading doing the most, first. Maybe it’s having to iron a shirt or make a not or appointment before you head out. Get it out of the way and you’ll feel loads better.
6. Don’t spend all your time on your phone. This one’s a given since it’s pretty much said to help everything nowadays.
7. Take some time to make yourself breakfast. They always say it’s the most important meal of the day!! (I don’t exactly know who ‘they’ are.. but hey, it’s a good thing to start doing!)
8. Wake up to the sun. This is something I started doing a long time ago, partly because my room has slanted ceilings and is generally dark and partly because I’m too lazy to put my blinds up and down every day.. But anyway, I found waking up to natural sunlight very helpful in starting my day.
9. Have goals set for the day.
10. Fit in some ‘me time’ before you head off to work, or start work if you work at home. What I mean by ‘me time’ is spending time for yourself. This can be anything from sitting down and meditating for a few minutes, playing with a pet to painting your nails; all that matters is that you do something for you.

With any tips and tricks to try out, some will work for you, and others won’t. That’s just life so I completely understand that. With that being said, what worked more me was definitely fitting in a bit of ‘me time’ – which for me was simply writing down one great thing about myself to boost my confidence and picking my outfit for the following day the night before. This saved me at least 30 minutes of time that I can use to either sleep some more or make myself a really good lunch, setting myself up for the day.

What do you do first thing in the morning? I found these tips helpful in fitting more stuff into my mornings and helping me to wake up and get going! What’s your favourite thing to make for breakfast? Let me know and I’ll do a post trying them all out!! Have a great weekend!!

Love,

What I Learnt From Doing Shift Work.

Shift work can be amazing for some people, whereas for some people, like me.. Its not. So, a bit of background on me. Once I’d finished school, sixth form and college, I went on to a steady 10-5pm Monday-Saturday retail job and then to a supermarket for shift work, and finally where I am now; an Apprentice in a 9-5pm job and I’ve never been happier to go to work in my life.

For me, working at a supermarket doing shift work was good for the first few months, I was on good money and didn’t mind the bizarre hours. After a little while however, I was switched to doing 10 hour night and some day shifts 5 days a week without being able to have my weekends just didn’t work for me; I work better with a steady routine and I just need my sleep. Although my time wasn’t great when I worked shifts, there were still a few things I liked about working shifts.

Some people unlike me, prefer shift work, and I admire these people because its just not for me. Lots of people need to do shift work as it works around their childcare, other jobs and is just how they like to work.

So what did I learn from doing shift work? Well let me tell you..

1. Keep a record of your rotas.

This is something I learnt very early on. Take photos or notes of what your hours are for the month as soon as your new shift rota is out so you can still plan your life around your shifts.

2. Track your hours.

If you’re like me, money has never been something I’ve been good at monitoring. How much money I was owed was never something I kept track of or checked (it’s bad I know). When I started my shift work I downloaded a clocking in and out app which I could input my hourly rate, and this worked wonders for me.

3. Book your holiday at work in advance.

The amount of times I was denied time off was crazy. And that was partly because it was too short notice or there were already loads of people booked off for the time I wanted. Get your holiday booked in early and you wont have the disappointment of being told no, give it in at least 5 weeks in advance.

4. Prioritise your downtime.

You’ll feel like you’ve got more time off if you prioritise what you want and need to do when you’re not at work. I found to-do lists extremely helpful and making sure I’d planned meeting up with friends and family in advance, which certainly helped my wellbeing because I was still able to have somewhat of a social life and chill out time.

5. Enjoy going out during the 9-5 hours!!

Something I loved about working shifts was the fact that I could go out shopping and to do stuff during hours that the majority of people worked. Shops and car parks were always empty which meant no queues!!!

6. Remember to take some time for yourself.

This was something that I would do in my time when I woke up before work if I was doing the afternoon shift. I would literally stay in my bed until about 11am and then sit around just relaxing. It made going to work and doing 10 hour shifts a bit more bearable!

7. Plan your meals ahead.

One day a week I would batch cook and plan my dinners for the week. When you work weird hours, this can be a real life saver! Just knowing that you’ve got something yummy to eat during or after a long day is a lovely feeling!!

8. Finally, make those weird working hours work for you.

If you end up working 3pm-10.30pm some days and 6pm-4am others, make those hours work for you! Get yourself into a pre and post work routine that sets you up for the day ahead so you don’t feel completely scattered.

So those are a few things that I learnt whilst doing shift work.. Whether you’ve done shift work before, are still doing it or are planning to do it, I hope you are able to find these tips helpful!! The funny thing is, I didn’t actually realise I’d learnt and likes doing these things until I’d stopped doing shifts!

If you have done shift work before or are still doing it let me know what worked for you!! Have a lovely week everyone!!

Love,