It's October! The nights are drawing in, it's getting cooler and darker on a morning, and pumpkin spice-flavoured items are literally everywhere. Love it or hate it, you might need a little extra help to manage your mental health in autumn - here's a blog post to make sure you get it.

It's *mumble* years since I started university, but I still remember how stressful and exciting it was. But how are you supposed to cope with it all if you're struggling with your mental health? I've got some tips.

Whilst extravagant things are interesting, we seem to have lost some of our ability to enjoy smaller, more simple things - and our happiness has suffered in the process. Read on for my defence of the simple things in life.

This week on the blog I'm talking investing - specifically, I'm talking about how to invest in yourself and see that investment pay dividends in the future. Sounds a bit wishy-washy? Well, stick with me and see what you think!

We all experience stress from time to time, as I've already discussed on this blog.  But sometimes, that stress can turn into something more. Today, I'm going to look at burnout - what is it, what are the signs of it, and what can you do about it.

As with last week's post, everything is going to be behind the cut because I'm aware it could be very upsetting for some people. If you do read this post, and it's salient for you, make sure you have a way of talking care of yourself. With that said, building on the theme of last week's post, this post is going to be about how to leave an abusive relationship.

In my "day job," I work for the NHS in a hospital. I've worked in a variety of different hospitals over the past decade, with inpatients and outpatients, on wards and in clinics. They've all been unique - but also, depressingly similar in some very specific ways. This week, I wanted to write about some of those similarities, and the gift I've decided to give myself in 2019.

I spent New Year's Eve with some of my friends - we do roughly the same thing every year, which provides a bit of comfort and ritual to end the year on. Whichever city we're in (everyone lives somewhere different) it always involves a nice bar, some good food, then a long walk back to someone's home for dessert and singing along badly to Auld Lang Syne at midnight! It's calming and I love it.
There was a lot of conversation about resolutions and what people wanted to do differently this year, and much of it seemed to centre on spending their time in a different way. The conversation inspired me to think more deeply about how I spend my time - in this post, I'll give you some tips on how I'm (hopefully) going to procrastinate less and be more intentional in 2019!

It's the most wonderful time of the year - apparently. But that doesn't seem to fit with the conversations I keep having in therapy. People keep asking me if it's normal to feel overwhelmed by the holiday season, to feel done with it already, to feel wearied by the constant treadmill of give and take. They ask me why, if it's supposed to be so wonderful, do they feel so anxious about it, so broken down by it. Why, when everyone is telling them to be happy, they feel the opposite.