Autumn update

Autumn is well and truly here and I’m back, I promise! I’m sorry I haven’t been active for the past month; I started a couple of blogposts, thought I would finish them and told you about them on Instagram but then ended up dissatisfied with what I’d written and unmotivated to finish them, leaving you with nothing but a couple of Instagram stories for a whole month. This forced me to rethink entirely what I wanted to do with my blog. The will to keep one has not disappeared but it’s the lack of excitement and inspiration that led to its abandon since the start of the new school year. But with my half-term starting this evening, I suddenly really wanted to write so I thought I would chat to you about the future of my blog, update you on what I’ve been up to lately and also share with you bits and pieces from unfinished articles that are relevant to my chit chat! I hope you enjoy the mix!

Let’s start by talking school, goals, motivation and how this ‘fresh start’ has been going after the initial buzz of the first back-to-school week. Personally, I have always loved the start of school for this exact reason, the chance it gives you to start afresh and there was even more of an emphasis on that for me this year. I did my GCSEs in the summer and therefore started Year 12 in September, which meant new subjects, new routine, new people at school and more independence, work and questions you suddenly have to ask yourself about what you want to do in life. Overall, it’s a very exciting time but also a bit scary. I started off the year studying English Literature, History and Psychology as A-level subjects but within a week I realised that I did not enjoy English as much as I had hoped despite my love of reading and writing. I loved studying American literature but did not enjoy Chaucer and suddenly started missing the sciences, especially Biology which I’d always found interesting. It was a hard time where I had to make the quite radical decision to switch subjects, not knowing if it would be worth it while also struggling with the idea of dropping English, a subject that I’d always thought I’d do from the moment I’d first had to ask myself about what I wished to study at A-level. In the end, though, and after some small complications, I did end up choosing Biology over English, knowing I would probably regret not doing so if I didn’t and I saw the opportunity, which had been unlikely to present itself from the start, as a sign that it was meant to be. The good news is I have really been enjoying it and have no regrets whatsoever.

With Year 12 have also come a new pace at school and a new workload to organise. I have free periods in which I can do work and for A-levels, I’ve really wanted to get into good habits from the start by doing small things that I never necessarily did before: reading all the notes I’ve made from the day, always doing the reading homework that has been set even though the teacher can’t physically check it’s actually been done, revising properly for progress tests… If you are very hard-working, this might seem very basic to you but in the swing of the year, it’s easy to let some of these things slip through out at a cost. Every night when I go home after school, after having a snack, I don’t dive straight into work but start by updating my bullet journal and making my to-do list for the evening, filling it with the homework and other tasks that I want to complete. By the end of the evening, I haven’t always finished everything that I’d planned, partly due to over-ambition on my part and decreasing focus and motivation making me take more frequent breaks as the evening progresses. However, I don’t put pressure on myself with that; as long as I’m not falling behind with any work, there is no reason to.

While we’re on the subject of focus and motivation, I wanted to share a few tips (which I had started to compile in one of the posts I did not end up finishing) that have been working for me when I felt that I needed a ‘boost’. One that I’ve been putting into practice more than I expected when I’ve found myself sitting at my desk willing to do homework but feeling restless, scattered and a bit stressed, has been to do a 1-minute meditation. You might be thinking that it can’t possibly make a difference, but I assure you its impact is surprising. I tend to use Headspace where there are really short meditations available in the free version of the app but I sometimes feel like I don’t necessarily need guidance so I just close my eyes and focus on my breathing on my own for a short while. I would even advise you to leave your desk for a couple of minutes and maybe go and sit on the edge of your bed just to really take a step back to focus. If you tend to get quite stressed and scattered or feel overwhelmed, I really recommend you try this technique. Doing so when I have felt the need to has definitely helped to put me in a more productive mood or at the very least surprised me by how much more serene it has made me feel afterwards and I’m sure you’ll be as surprised me if you try it.

One of the reasons I don’t always tick off all my to-do list at the end of the evening and try not to work past 8.30 pm is because since the start of the school year, one thing that has become very important to me is having time to read in my bed. I have found that doing this makes me feel much more relaxed at the end of the day and has more widespread effects on my overall focus during the day too. It is often very easy to get hooked by your phone, scrolling through Instagram or chatting to friends but there is so much greater benefit to putting your phone on airplane mode, leaving it away from your bed and grabbing a book that you’ve taken the time to select and just diving in, slowing everything down in the evening. I have most definitely noticed an improvement in the length of time it takes for me to fall asleep after and I’ve been enjoying discovering so many more books from doing this. Some of my favourites these past few weeks have been One Day by David Nicholls, a contemporary novel about the intertwined lives of two people who are destined to be together, and The Chocolate Lovers’ Club by Carole Matthews, a funny, feel-good romantic comedy that I highly recommend. I will be writing a post about my recent reads very soon so you can get more ideas to add to your autumn reading list and you can also follow me on Goodreads where I track all my reads. However, I understand that not everyone likes to read and is able to concentrate on a book for great periods of time, but the main message I want to convey is about the importance of taking time to do something calming, that does not involve social media and the screens that have become so addictive and distracting in our lives. You can replace reading with drawing or aim to go for more regular walks in a park or the countryside, but I’m sure you’ll quickly be seeing the widespread benefits of making small changes like this to your daily routine.

Keeping up with reading has not been a problem but one thing that has completely I’ve completely slipped up on since the start of the school year is yoga, unfortunately. I have been unmotivated to dedicate even ten minutes of my day to do a quick practice despite knowing and loving how good it makes me feel afterwards. I did put on a YouTube video a few times but never got to the end of it—until this morning! I clicked on a short 13-minute practice from a channel called BrettLarkinYoga, not expecting much from it but surprisingly, I found myself really enjoying it! It has motivated me to get back to it, so I’ll keep you updated on how I get on!

As I mentioned, my half-term holiday has just started and I’m very excited because my best friend (from the blog and Instagram account @oceaneyes.blog) is coming over to London next week! It means we’ll be able to shoot loads of content for our blogs and Instagram and I hope it will help me find more inspiration! But from now on, it’s very important to me that I stay true to what I want to write about and what I enjoy on my blog. I think it will make me more motivated to keep up with my blog which I definitely don’t want to give up on! I also thought I’d let you know that the idea of starting my Instagram feed over is trotting around in my head… Stay tuned!

As I finish, I want to thank you all – however few of you there are – for your support and for reading my blog! Please share it with your friends if you enjoy it as more support and appreciation will never fail to motivate me!

See you soon darlings!