Beauty: A state of mind

After having a really bad day a few days ago I felt it the right time to write about this. All of my life I've struggled with the way I look. There are times when I'm walking by a mirror whether its through a shopping centre, my house or sometimes any kind of reflective surface and I have to look away. On those days I become incredibly withdrawn, I cry over everything and I feel like a burden. The thoughts that go through my head are that I'm ugly, disgusting, stupid... and all those kind of awful negative words.

What helped me was talking. Crazy and simple as it sounds, talking to a partner, best friend or family member can do you the world of good. Why? Because they see you for how you really are, not how you think they see you. They see your inner beauty as well as your outer beauty. By inner beauty I mean your strength, kindness and love.

I honestly believe beauty is a state of mind, because on those bad days, I feel drained. But after I let out all the feelings, and took in (and accepted) how others see me. I felt so much better, it wasn't like it was a magic switch and I suddenly felt beautiful. But I felt like I could look in the mirror and not hate it. I felt like I was loved for who I was, which showed that I can't be as bad as I think if people love and care for me.

But you shouldn't judge yourself based on how others look, because more than likely they are looking at you and thinking exactly the same. What needs to change is how the media portray both women and men. Truth is the people in those magazines don't look like the people in the magazines. It's all been airbrushed, photo shopped and filtered to hide the spots, lumps and bumps that everyone has. Another thing that needs to change is educating children to seeing that we should not only accept our differences but embrace them. Also that beauty isn't just how we look on the outside, but our inner selves too. And hopefully bullying will decrease, which may be a wild dream, but you never know.

xx

Anxiety: Talking about things

I contacted Mind recently as I have been struggling a lot with anxiety recently. They suggested looking through their leaflets, going to the doctors and signing up to their chat-room called 'Elefriends'. This is basically a place where people with issues from anxiety to Bipolar disorder can talk, share experiences and have a general shared understanding which they would usually lack elsewhere. You can say as much or as little as you feel you can, use your own picture as a profile pic or any random thing like a pet or a quote.

I was initially apprehensive, I could be talking to anyone and could get mocked for the negative thoughts I wanted to share. However I was so wrong, this group are so helpful and even when you share something and get a hug, like or a comment it makes you feel so much better than sharing on Facebook where you may not get any support. I would recommend this to anyone suffering anxiety or any issue!!

xx