Feeling better

Source: Kelly Schott, Flickr.

Since leaving college a few months ago, I've had a lot of free time. I've tried to keep as occupied as I can, but there are days when I either don't feel like doing anything, or there isn't anything to do, and I find myself sitting down and thinking. 

Sometimes I think about all sorts of good things - like how excited I am for autumn, or the fact that The Great British Bake Off is now back on telly. But there are times when my thoughts are plagued with a negativity that I can't seem to get away from, and I'm left feeling down-and-out about life in general.

However, as someone who hates dwelling on bad thoughts, there are a few things I do in an attempt at feeling better. And seeing as though I hate letting a bad situation get the better of me, I decided to turn this into a (hopefully) helpful blog post!

Write:

Whether it's a stream of consciousness, a novel, a list, putting something in your calender or diary, having to concentrate on something aside from the source of negative feelings will allow you the escapism that comes with watching TV/videos of people falling over, but what's different is that at the end you'll have actually accomplished something you can physically see - rather than just vegging out on the sofa, which always leaves me feeling like I've wasted the day. If you're stuck on what to write, these questions are a God-send.

Go for a walk:

Getting out into the fresh air and methodically putting one foot in front of the other helps to clear your head, and often lets me get to the root of the problem inside my own head, which then means I can return home feeling refreshed, proactive and totally ready to do something productive. 

Sing:

If you honestly don't feel like doing anything remotely productive, or energy/time consuming, just put your iPod on and belt it out until your throat feels like it's going to cave in. I find MCR's 'Teenagers' helps to release any feelings of anguish/frustration that I might be having.

Remember the last thing you laughed about:

Really think about it; laugh again.

Remember that you are an integral part of the universe becoming conscious of itself, and that is an amazing thing:

Unless you are subject to existential crises, then maybe think about how we all die eventually, so nothing really matters (see The Outsider by Camus for details).

Think about how someone, somewhere, will either be living with or getting a stupid tattoo:

Possibly one about having 'no regrets' that they will later grow to regret - the sheer irony of it is enough to make anyone feel better.

Make a really good sandwich:

Put everything you love that could possibly go in a sandwich between two slices of bread, cover with a sauce of your choosing and eat, eat, eat. It may be a disaster, but it could also be the best thing you've ever invented, in which case you've got your new go-to snack whenever you've got the munchies. 

OOTD | 26.08.14

Yesterday I went to drop my uniform off at work as I've now quit my job there (Dobby is freeee), and then went over to my friend's house for a bit of catch up. I decided to wear this thin patterned shirt from Primark that I bought around a month ago, with some leggings and a black cami top. 

I teamed it with this tan backpack that I bought from Boohoo, which I am IN LOVE with by the way, and a really cool snake ring that I also bought from Primark a few weeks ago.

I thought this outfit really suited the end of summer now that the weather's getting cooler and I'm needing to cover up a bit more, yet it still made me feel a little bit festival-ish. Although maybe that was a subconscious fashion choice considering how much I wish I'd been at Leeds Fest this weekend...

Wonder | Review

I picked this book up on a complete whim in Tesco's 'best sellers' selection before I went on holiday, read the first page in the shop, and decided straight away that it was going to be, if you excuse the pun, wonderful. 

Written by R.J Palacio, 'Wonder' is a story concerning different children's perspectives on a boy named August, who has a severe facial deformity. Although August himself will not describe in detail what he looks like, the part of the book from his sister's point of view allows the reader to understand that it isn't as simple as having a cleft lip, or an under-developed nose - it's a very unique deformity that causes a lot of double-takes and whispers behind his back.

August is aware of this, yet when his parents suggest it to him, he decides to take the plunge and go to school. The book then follows as as he is subject to awful bullying, stares, whispers and his classmates acting as if he has some kind of infectious disease, as well as Augusts' own paranoia that the only reason a few people speak to him is because they've been asked to by the principal.

What makes this book really special is that the author has chosen children's narrative viewpoints rather than adults; which makes it far more honest, abrupt and painful in its exploration of the way 'differences' are looked upon and treated, as adults would be way too PC about it to be able to talk about this kind of thing openly.

Palacio does amazingly well to key the book's narrative style into the way that children think, speak and act, as well as depicting a totally accurate picture of the way schools work. Because although the book does focus on the specific issue of Augusts' deformity, it's also worked into the universal problem of the social hierarchy that establish themselves within schools. It discusses the way that popularity and cliques work in our lives in a very subtle but also very overt way, which makes it one of the most intuitive things surrounding this kind of topic that I have read in a very long while.

If you're anything like me (i.e. over-emotional), you'll be in floods of happy tears by the end of it. Because, despite its dark subject matter, this book is nothing but a positive reinforcement about the goodness of humankind. 

Recent favourites!

For some reason when it came to my July favourites this year I couldn't think of enough items or products to list to make up a proper 'favourites' blog post, and so I decided to skip it - but through the past week of August, I have noticed that I've recently been wearing the same few things, so I decided to do a blog post containing them all!

Printed skort - £7 from Primark

Denim Levis - £10 from a vintage shop

I purchased both these pairs of shorts (or one pair of shorts and one skort, if you're being pedantic) just before I went on holiday this year, and although I only wore them once on holiday because I had a whole load of outfits planned for them, now that I've got back I'm finding myself reaching for these in my wardrobe again and again.

Set of three rings - £2.50 from Primark

Necklace - £3 from Primark

Hat - £7 from Primark.

A different angle so you can see the hat better -

it looks like a big black blob on the above picture

As you can see I had a bit of an accessories splurge in Primark, but I just couldn't resist picking all these things up. I've wanted one of these bowler-ish hats for ages but could never find one cheap enough, and I could never justify spending more than £10 on a hat! And the necklace and rings just caught my eye as I'm finding my current jewelry a bit boring at the moment, so I picked these up as a way to make my outfits feel more special even when I'm wearing old clothes.

Oxford | Day Trippin'

Whilst on holiday in the south of England this year my family and I decided to take a day trip to Oxford, somewhere I have wanted to go for ages just to have a look round the Bodleian Library (which was AMAZING but I wasn't allowed to take any photos). 

I absolutely fell in love with Oxford, it's so lovely and old fashioned at the same time as having a proper city centre vibe to it. We had a look round Christ Church (one of the colleges that belongs to the university), and it was so traditionally English and picturesque, as well as the Museum of the History of Science, which was really interesting even though I'm awful at scientific subjects - they had the camera that Lewis Carroll used to photograph Alice Liddell who was the inspiration for Alice in Wonderland. 

The weather was lovely too, which made the day even better, despite the bus journey back to our car being one of the most uncomfortably sweaty experiences of my entire life (not that there have been many). Although I did spend most of my day there being a proper tourist by taking lots of photos, I did manage to actually look at Oxford with my eyes rather than through a camera lens whilst I was there and found it to be just as lovely and 'proper' as I expected it to be.

Oxford in the sunshine

I know what you're thinking, why on earth has she taken a random photo of a staircase?BUT this is actually the staircase on which Harry meets Professor McGonagall for the first time in Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone! 

I decided when I was at Christ Church that I was going to attend Oxford rather than Lincoln, I figure it's pretty easy to get into...

One of the many lovely buildings in Christ Church
I can't get over how pretty the whole building is 

I managed to capture a random boy adjusting his bowler hat in the courtyard - it's all so British it makes me want to cry.