How I deal with my anxiety

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog if you are new then please come on in get cosy. My name is Charlotte I run a YouTube channel called"The Honest Mum" please check it out and subscribe, I also run this blog. 

Today I am going to be talking about something that affects so many people daily and that is anxiety. I suffer from anxiety and have done for a few years now and never really talked about it with anyone. I kept it in the dark and thought that people would judge me and think I was weird for being scared to go out. This made things a lot worse and its only recently where I have been reading about other peoples battles with anxiety that I do not feel alone and that lots of other people also suffer from it.

I don't take medication for my anxiety as I feel it wouldn't help and also my anxiety isn't bad everyday that I feel I need to be taking daily medication. Some days are better than others as you will know if you have anxiety. So because I don't take medication for it I decided that I would share with you all my no medicated ways of helping me deal with my anxiety so here goes: 

1. Downloading the app Head space- I downloaded an app called "Head space" I was skeptical at first to wether it would work or not but so far so good. I can go on the app every day and it will give me a 2-3 minute breathing exercise to do to try and control my anxiety. I really enjoy this app it is simple to use and only takes 5 minutes of your day and really relaxes you (also its free!) 

2. Anxiety journal- I recently have started writing an anxiety journal to help track my anxiety. I start of by writing how I felt when I woke up, something that has made me anxious today, something that has made me feel better today, rating out of 5 for anxiousness that a day, something I am proud of and lastly how I feel when I go to bed. This works really well as it lets me vent out my feelings and I can look back and see my progress of my anxiety. 

3. Pushing yourself- Another thing I have been doing which has helped is pushing myself. Some days I don't leave the house at all and that makes me feel worse. Recently I have been pushing myself to leave the house more, go to a baby group or to the shops even if I don't want to. It is important to push yourself further because it is no good staying in your comfort zone or you are never going to be rid of your anxiety. 

4. Planning and organising- Lastly I have been planning and organising my life a little better recently. I have a list of jobs for the day that I have to achieve. I make sure I get up and dressed and eat three solid meals a day too. Since having more structure in my life my anxiety hasn't been as bad because I find when I sit in front of the TV all day in pjs I feel 10 times worse.

So there we go my 4 top tips for kicking anxiety's butt. Do any of you have any tips for dealing with anxiety? I would be interested to know so comment down below! Thank you for reading and I will see you next time. 

The Honest Mum 

xoxo

Why I left YouTube

Hello everyone and welcome to a new blog post, if you a new hello and welcome to my blog The Honest Mum its great to have you. I have two things to address with you all today. The first thing is Blogmas, for those of you that are wondering what happened to blogmas this year I ended it. I ended it because Alice got ill and so did me and James, I got really behind and he stress of trying to catch up with it was not worth it. I hope to be able to do it next year but for that reason I have decided to stop this year. Secondly I would like to address why I left YouTube. I have made a full video on this which I will link down below for you so please check that out and subscribe to my channel it would mean a lot.

I have always had a passion to do YouTube and blogging for many years now. I started a YouTube channel when Alice was only 3 months old and I did upload a few videos on there however they were not the best quality or content I could of produced. I then started slacking and I had no enthusiasm or inspiration to film and I had a new born baby which I was focusing all my attention on so I gave up. Fast forward to present time and Alice is almost 1 and I have my mojo back. I feel inspired and ready to go back to YouTube. I have lots of great ideas and I am so excited to get back out there and show everyone my content. It has definitely been a rollercoaster but I am now ready to get on the roller coaster and ride it. Linked below is a link to my latest video if you could please watch it, like it and subscribe I would be very grateful. Thanks for reading this post and I will see you soon!

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXGND0ie2xs

The Honest Mum 

xoxo

Alternative advent calendars for children

The festive season is upon us and I am going to bringing you 25 days of blogmas. Everyday I will be giving you a christmas themed blog post revolving around motherhood and lifestyle. I am really excited to start this as I have so many creative ideas to share you with you all so check back everyday to see more! So without further a do I give you post number one!

When I was a child I remember being so excited for December to start partly because it was nearly christmas and for the simple reason that I got to eat a little piece of chocolate every morning. Now if you are sitting here thinking I am not sure I was my child eating chocolate every morning because they will be bouncing of the walls, or that you want to give them an advent calendar that is different than anyone they have had before then here are some ideas of different ones you could do!

1. 25 books- This year as Alice won't even be 1 we decided that we were going to do a book advent calendar. We got 10 books for £10 from the works so in total spent £25 altogether. This is a great idea as you could get christmas themed books and you and your child could go up to bed every night and unwrap a book and snuggle into bed.

2. Story of Jesus- Another advent you could use is a story of Jesus advent calendar. This advent tells the story of the day Jesus was born in little books that you and your little ones could read every night and they could learn all about the birth of baby Jesus.

3. Pound shop toys- This idea works really well if you have elf on the shelf in your home. You could purchase 24 toys from the pound shop, hide them around the house and leave trails and clues to find them.

4. 24 films- For the older children you could buy 24 christmas themed films for them to watch every nights. This idea is great because its not just for the children its fun for the whole family!


All these ideas are great to mix things up this christmas but I feel that each year the lead up to christmas is getting more expensive. Elf on the shelf leaving special presents, LOL dolls, Play Mobile and advent calendars all cost at least £20. It puts a strain on parents because they feel that because everyone else child will be getting an expensive calendar they feel they cannot deprive their child of one. I personally feel that a normal chocolate advent calendar is fine, when I was younger thats all there was, kids these days are spoilt for choice. However that is just my personal opinion, let me know what you think in the comments, are children's advent calendars too expensive? And what alternative advents are you doing? I would be interested to know! See you tomorrow for another post on 25 days of blogmas!

The Honest Mum 

xoxo