april showers

I always view April as the transitioning month. My motivation comes seeping back, there’s slightly more sun and it sets much later. Even though in the UK it still chucks it down, the glimmering light at the end of the crisp winter is officially back. For me, April is about having that academic comeback, reconnecting with nature, and detoxing from the world around you whilst also indulging in it so that the summer is everything you romanticised it to be and more! Read more to make the seemingly unachievable, achievable!

key words in this article!

Planning
Self-awareness
Spring cleaning
Nature and nurture
Detox
Tools

planning-

Any good thing starts with a plan, my favourite time to plan is the start of the year and I base my months off of that plan so I feel more put together. In this case, however, this is a plan less of action and achievement and more of motivation and romanticisation… It’s something to look for when stressed about work or exams or even if you are waiting for the school term to be over because you deserve to be excited about something. The other few things I love to plan over these times are a little fitness schedule that’s two months long (that typically ends end of June/start of July that for me will consist of yoga, walking, toning, gym and any fitness classes I have. I work well with classes because it forces me to be productive and the other things I may do are flexible enough to do at home or gym. I use YouTube and try random workouts till I find one I vibe with or a person I may vibe with. Another thing I plan is a revision schedule which is honestly what I’m worst at right now but I try two hours a day and block them in one-hour periods. It’ll depend on how many subjects you have but the idea is that everything important to you or that needs to get done is in a schedule. (I use a folder to organise my thoughts)

When creating these, note that this is an ideal and you will stray off from this from time to time and that’s ok. The point is you have it all there when you get a small spark of motivation again and want to follow up on it It’s normal to have different limits each day but doing one thing is better than nothing.

Self awareness

Take time this month to be self-aware, and congratulate yourself on how far you’ve come from January, your version of far will be different to mine and everyone else’s for that matter. Take the time to consider what’s been weighing you down until now and how it can be helped if it can. There are many ways to help your self-awareness, whether journalling, keeping diaries or writing as a character but talking about things unique to you helps you to get a Birds-Eye view on your own life. My favourite is to lie in bed before I sleep and name three things that I’m grateful for from the day - though I don’t limit it to three - whatever comes out is good enough to create a form of recognition. I see April as a big checkpoint for things like mental health, so this month’s article is slightly deeper than maybe some of the others but that’s what I like so much about it :)

Spring cleaning

ahhh! My absolute favourite thing. I love clearing out and deep cleaning so much. Even from a mental stand point I like feeling that my corner of the world could be a little bit cleaner. I’ve just done a massive organise of my wardrobe and feel so much better. It’s silly how much that can do for you. My favourite way to get into it and to motivate myself is to make Pinterest boards and watch YouTube videos of others getting their lives together so that I actually feel it’s achievable. I will link my board in the tools section below.

nature and nurture

Springtime is my favourite time for nature and is evidently when I feel more connected to the world around me so I like to appreciate the greenness and new life that comes along with the rain. It may seem stupid but my mentality feels much stronger when I contrast my life with nature. It is a form of self-care. Listening to music I just think is a massive boost in any setting. It’s a way of nurturing your mind and soul whether you sing or listen I just feel better personally for it. Spend time with animals whatever animal it may be it’s going to make you feel good. Think of ways you can add more nature to your life, for example, looking out the window more often, walking, listening to nature sounds on YouTube, meditation, yoga, or whatever you can think of that is easy to access. You create your future so do it right.

detox

There are many types of detoxes you can do to benefit your life. The one I’ve been on a journey with though is social media. When you wake up with anxiety, clicking on the chosen social media app with anxiety tugging at you, that is probably one of many signs it’s not benefitting you in any way, shape or form. I started with deleting Instagram as it was honestly pointless. Social media is such an anchor for intrusive thoughts for me as it allows me to come up with all sorts of self-destroying conclusions about why someone is hating me so I like to limit that as much as possible.

How do we do this when social media is tailored to keep you hooked and not help you delete an account or relieve mental woes?

If you've noticed, with both TikTok and Instagram you have to really search to delete accounts and they make it hard to. For example, Instagram and threads being linked so you can’t delete your threads account altogether if you have Instagram so eventually you cave and don’t bother. Let’s put it this way it’s a lot easier to find the for you page than the delete button and that pisses me off knowing how it works to keep you scrolling. News flash guys your life will not stop if you delete your social media apps. I’m not saying delete all but have regular breaks to keep your mentality in check. All sorts of content affects us long term, especially negative content, even if we don’t realise it straight away. Another amazing way of limiting apps like this is an app called Forest, (you have to pay for it), and there’s a free version called Flora- Green Focus I also love that it locks your apps for a while so you don’t feel like you are mindlessly clicking, for someone with little control the apps forest (paid for) and flora-green focus (free) have been beneficial to limiting my time on spider web apps like social media.