Category: Mindset

Ideas for Lockdown – Blog 1: Series Introduction

Ideas for Lockdown – Blog 1: Series Introduction

James Sweeney

Are you looking for something to do whilst in lockdown? Is the boredom of having nothing to do starting to get to you? Do you wish you had something new to do but you’re not sure where to start? Then our new Ideas for Lockdown series is the one for you!

Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!

Today’s blog is going to be the 1st blog in the new “Ideas for Lockdown” series and is going to act as an introduction to the series outlining what I hope to cover in the series, the content schedule for the series and much much more! This series is originally created to provide ideas of things to do whilst on lockdown from the Corona Virus but can be adapted into things to do for any occasion!

The Corona Virus has hit everybody hard. People have lost their jobs, livelihoods and in some cases, their lives. The virus has caused everyone bar essential workers to either work from home or simply not work until the virus has been contained and managed and the risk of it spreading, reduced. This change has left many being stuck at home with little to nothing to do.

The lockdown and boredom that can stem from it can leave many people feeling rather demotivated in their day to day life. Routines start to go out of the window as people have less and less to do and start to feel like they do not want to do anything bar stay in bed all day. Personally I have felt very demotivated since coming home from University and have really struggled when it comes to thinking about doing University work.

The thing that we need to remember is is that everybody is in the same book, it is an unfortunate book to be a part of, but we are a part of it, nonetheless. The task that we all need to try and do is to stay positive and to stay motivated and busy. How do we do it? For this I strongly believe that by using the time to do something then we can re-motivate ourselves and get through this rough, unfortunate time.

This series is going to take a look at different ideas I have for things that we can do during the lockdown. These ideas can range from reading books, to learning a new language, to catching up with old friends and family and so much more. Ideas are only as limited as the people thinking of them!

As the old saying goes “failing to prepare is preparing to fail”. If we do not make the most of this lockdown and actively try and do something the we are going to get ourselves in a routine of boredom and demotivate which ultimately is going to be little to no help to anyone in the future.

In regards to the content schedule for this series, I am currently aiming to do 2 new blogs a week for it. I was originally going to do 3 but plan to stick to 2 however, if I have enough ideas to merit 3 blogs a week for it then I will change it in the future. These blogs are going to be released on Wednesday and Saturday each week. This means now that on Mondays we are going to have our What do we mean by Success series and the every Wednesday and Saturday is going to be our Ideas for Lockdown series!

I am doing my best to keep doing a blog a day on the page for as long as I can so that everybody has something to read if they need it. I will keep on going for as long as I can, as long as the ideas I have for blogs are good ideas and cover relevant topics. I am hoping to branch out into a lot more topic areas in the next few weeks as I think it will make the blogs a little bit more interesting to read, and of course, to write.

That is all I want to talk about in today’s blog! What do you all think? Are you excited for this new series? Do you have any ideas for things to do that you want to see in this series? Are there any other series that you want to see on the page? Is there anything that you do not want to see me cover on the page? Let me know what you think of these questions either in the comments below, through our contact page or via our Facebook page.

Thank you all for reading and I hope you have a great day!

Sweeney’s Blogs

Any money donated here is greatly appreciated and will be directly reinvested into the page!

£5.00

James Sweeney

What do we mean by Success? – Blog 3: Your Qualifications?

What do we mean by Success? – Blog 3: Your Qualifications?

James Sweeney

Education and indeed the qualifications that you have are too many the foundation of their definition of success. People see education as an all or nothing when it comes to being successful or not when sometimes it just simply is not. The question that we are going to be looking at today is: does education factor in whether you are successful or not?

Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!

This is the third blog in the “What do we mean by Success?” series! Today’s blog is all about if education and qualifications are a factor of whether we are successful or not in life. As with many of the other blogs in this series, there are a lot of different opinions on this topic, I will give my opinion but I am in no way saying that it is right or wrong , it is simply my view on the subject. If you have a different viewpoint or question let me know in the comments or on our Facebook page and we will discuss it further.

The education that we have had the qualifications that we have achieved will most likely differ with each person you meet. Different people prefer different subjects, some people may find Maths and English as the easiest subject in the world, whereas others may see them as the hardest. The qualifications and education we have does play a part in where we end up in life but should we define our success simply by what we may have acheived 10-20 years ago?

It is very true that education can help you get a better job in the future but simply having the qualifications does not guarantee that you will get any or every job that you apply for. They play a good part in it yes, but they are in no way a guarantee. The value that we place on Education is very important growing up and is something that I personally value very highly but the question is: does it determine whether we are successful or not?

If you have 10 GCSE’s with grades ranging from A*- C and your friend has 9, does that make you more successful than them? Does it make you smarter than them? If another one of your friends has 11 GCSE’s ranging from A*-C does that make them smarter or better/ more successful than you? These are the questions that I would like you to think about when reading this blog. How do you see success and does your education act as a factor in that or not?

What I love about writing this series is all the questions that I ask are all down to a matter of opinion. You can talk to 10 different people about these questions and each time you will get a different response. The concept of success is one that we all see differently and it is something that should be embraced, not swept to one side.

Education is constantly evolving to adapt to a forever changing world, therefore the education and ,of course, the qualifications change with them. An easy example to look at here is the change from O Levels to GCSEs. This change was made for people who wanted to leave school at 16 without doing A levels or attempting to go to University. Education always changes eventually so should we deem how successful we are by the things that we are taught?

The way that we see Education also differs depending on who you talk to. The traditional way as it were would be to go through school to get your GCSEs, then go to College to study for your A Levels and then go to University in your chosen filed and eventually get a job. That is just one way that people can do it. There are so many alternate routes that people can take ranging from BTEC qualifications, to vocational qualifications, professional courses and so many more.

Personally I did not take the “textbook way” to get to University. I went through School doing really well and got very good GCSEs, even with a very large operation during my last year in School. When I went to College unfortunately I did not do as well as I hoped and did nowhere near what I was capable of. After College I did the Level 3 AAT, Accounting qualifications as well as a HNC in Computing and Information Systems at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David and went on to Reading University to study my chosen degree path.

Do I see myself as less successful than others as I took a different route to University? Should I? Personally I am glad that I did not take the traditional way. Not doing so well at College taught me a lot of lessons that will be very valuable to me in later life and the extra qualifications that I now have, alongside my AS and A Levels are a great asset when entering the world of work down the line.

There is no right or wrong answer for how you rank education as a factor in whether you are successful or not in life. It is all down to a matter of opinion. I base success off of a large number of variables of which my education is a part of. This blog is not meant to make you feel like you are wrong or right in what you think, it is made to open the door on questions that you may not have thought of.

Personally I love having debates on topics like this, I feel that because everyone sees them differently it can lead to a very interesting and thought provoking debate. All that I ask is that when you think of Education as a factor or not in relation to Success consider all variables. Remember what I said at the start of the blog if you have 10 GCSEs and your friend has 9, does that make you smarter or more successful than them? Success to me is a term of an amalgamation of different things but the way that you see it may be completely different.

That is all I want to talk about in today’s blog! Thank you all for reading! I hope everyone is doing alright in the lock-down that we are facing currently. What do you think of today’s blog? Are you enjoying the What do we mean by Success series? What would you like to see me talk about next? Let me know what you think of these questions and any other comments that you have either in the comments below or on our Facebook page.

Thank you all for reading and I hope you have a great day,

Sweeney’s Blogs

Any money donated here is greatly appreciated and will be directly invested back into the page.

£5.00

James Sweeney

What Colour Do You Feel Today? — Middle-aged, Free and Single

What Colour Do You Feel Today? — Middle-aged, Free and Single

James Sweeney

How do you feel? I mean, how do you really feel? Happy? Or depressed? Or?? It seems to me that we’ve started to think that if we’re not feeling happy then we must be feeling sad. And if we’re feeling sad we must be suffering from depression. And if we’re suffering from depression we need […]

What Colour Do You Feel Today? — Middle-aged, Free and Single
What do we mean by Success? – Blog 2: Your Job?

What do we mean by Success? – Blog 2: Your Job?

James Sweeney

You often hear the word success being mentioned when a lot of people talk about their work life/job. You hear people say that a person was successful in getting a particular position/role or that they were not successful in a job that they went for. The question that I like to ask is what do you mean by success in this instance?

Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!

Today’s blog is the second blog in the “What do we mean by Success?” series and is going to discuss if our job is what makes us successful, if it is only a small part of what we define as success or if it doesn’t matter at all when thinking of successful. Success is a term that has many different contributing factors in for many and these factors are valued differently from one person to the next. Whether or not our job role plays a part in whether we can say we are successful or not is the main objective of this blog.

Jobs come in many different shapes and sizes, ranging from being CEO of a multi-billion pound empire to working in a local corner shop. Of course these jobs all have differing salaries, workloads, responsibilities and entry qualifications. The question that I like to think of when thinking of this is, can you say that the CEO of this multi-billion pound company is more successful than lets say someone who is working in their local village shop?

The answer to the question will be very different based off of who you ask the question too. Some people, who value jobs as the breaking point in determining success or not, would say of course the CEO is more successful than the person working in the shop, whereas other people may see the question differently. The reason that I ask this question is because I personally love to see the range of answers that I get from it.

It is one of the questions that I like to use to see how a person thinks and how they interpret questions that are asked to them. For the question there is no right or wrong answer, it is down to how you see the question and, of course, what you see as successful or not.

In my opinion, our job roles are a part of what success means to me, but so are a lot of other things. There are tonnes of different factors which we can look at which define success for many such as, our home life, the goals we set, the good we do in the world and so many more. I personally always strive to do the best I can in life which in turn should hopefully result in me getting a good job down the line. While I will think that a good job is a good factor to have when determining success, it is worth saying that there are other factors that I value more and there are factors that I value less.

Again, similar to the CEO and shop worker question, this scenario/mindset has no right or wrong answer, it is down to your own interpretation. This blog is just meant to open your eyes to these questions and then leave you to think of how you would go about answering them. The same goes with the majority of posts on my page, I do not like to force a message to people, more suggest a new/alternative meaning to a statement and see what they think of it.

If you feel like you have a different view on this issue or would like to have a debate or something similar, get in touch and I will more than happily have one. As I say all of these views are simply my views, you may see something completely different to me and I always love broadening my horizons and learning new things.

Of course, setting a goal or an aim to get a job is something that I highly encourage in life. I will be covering goal setting in a future blog in this series but thought it would be nice to touch on it now. If we set reasonable goals that we can hit then it can be a great motivator for us in life and hitting it is something we can add to what we may see as success!

That is all I would like to talk about in today’s blog! What do you all think? Do you like this new series? What do you define as success? Does your job role play a part in your version of success? What other factor would you like to see covered in this series? Is there a particularly successful person that you want to see me talk about? Let me know your thoughts on these questions, either in the comments on this post or on our Facebook page and I will see what I can do!

Thank you all for reading, I hope everybody is doing alright in the crisis we are going through at the minute and I hope you have a great day!

Sweeney’s Blogs

Any money donated here will be greatly appreciated and will be put back into the business.

£5.00

James

Time to Talk – Blog 2: The Reality of Grief – Kyra Fehrman

Time to Talk – Blog 2: The Reality of Grief – Kyra Fehrman

James Sweeney

Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!

Today’s blog is the secong blog in our Time to Talk series and is all about The Reality of Grief. The idea for the blog and the blog itself came from a new guest writer on the page Kyra Fehrman. It is Kyra’s first blog on the page so let us know what you think and if you want to see more from Kyra! Hope you all enjoy the blog and learn something new about grief!

January only has 31 days, however, for me, it felt more like 100. January was a long and arduous time, certainly one you wouldn’t qualify as the best start to 2020. We all have days where everything seems to go wrong, where the world seems to be fighting against you, creating misery and chaos wherever you go and in whatever you do. For me the battle seemed to last the whole month with my grandmother going into hospital on the 1st and then finally succumbing to pneumonia and end stage COPD on the 9th January and her funeral was the 28th January.

Grief is not fun I am sure no one needs to tell you that but what they don’t tell you is that the five stages of grief isn’t as easy as going from one to two to three etc. It is a stressful process, one minute you’re in shock, numb to the core unable to process the reality of your situation, next you jump to anger and you end up not knowing what is going on and what to do with yourself. You play the blame game take it out on those around you maybe after that you cry, sob your heart out over the loss.

What no one tells us is that you can be stuck in that vicious circle for a long time, my partner lost his mother almost ten years ago and he is still grieving, stuck in the numb phase unable to speak about it or face the reality of his loss. My point here is that you never stop grieving and it will have a major impact upon your mental health, before January I was a different person with a different mindset.  

Now after losing my grandmother I am seeing the world in a different light, faced with my mortality and the idea of my loved ones dying eventually has forced me to appreciate all the time I have with them. It is hard to talk about these things and a lot of people may say to you to just “move on” that they are in a better place and while the sentiment is nice it invalidates your feelings. You have every right to grieve your loved one and regardless of if they are in a better place or not they are not here with you, they are gone and all those things you would want to tell them, the jokes, the memories you’d want to remind them of you can’t.

Mental Health is a major topic nowadays with a rise in suicides, people taking anti-depressants and antipsychotics, we are in a mental health crisis and this post aims to encourage people to speak up. No matter how silly it may seem there is always someone out there who is willing to listen. If you are grieving a loved one and think life is not worth it anymore just remember this, they loved you with every fibre of their being don’t give up because they don’t want you joining them any time soon.

It is paramount that you look after yourself during these difficult times, hard as that may be, it’s crucial to remember that life will always go on and no matter what you will survive. You are strong enough to endure this pain help and support is out there. A light can be shone in even the darkest of places. Below are numbers and websites for Mental Health organisations.

Mental Health OrganisationsDownload

Thank you all for reading! We hope that you have enjoyed today’s blog and have learned something new about grief! What do you think of today’s blog? Would you like to see more of Kyra’s blogs on the page? Has grief ever impacted on your life? How did you manage it? Let us know what you think in the comments below or on our facebook page.

Sweeney’s Blogs

Any money donated here will be greatly appreciated and will be put back into the page!

£5.00

James

How to Turn Negative Urges into Positive Actions — Dr. Eric Perry, PhD

How to Turn Negative Urges into Positive Actions — Dr. Eric Perry, PhD

James Sweeney

Written by Dr. Eric Perry, PhD Image Credit: Pixabay “Adopting the right attitude can convert a negative stress into a positive one.” ~Hans Selye Sublimation is a subconscious psychological defense mechanism whereby we take a negative impulse and channel it into a positive behavior. This is similar to displacement (click here to refer to my earlier […]

via How to Turn Negative Urges into Positive Actions — Dr. Eric Perry, PhD

Balancing Self Confidence and Self Worth — Self Development dot ga

Balancing Self Confidence and Self Worth — Self Development dot ga

James Sweeney

This is a great post written by a fellow blogger. Be sure to check them out if you enjoy this post!

Self Confidence and Self Worth obviously have a lot to do with how well we do in life. However, what confuses the picture is that the two terms are often used as if they have the same meaning. They are really very different things. Self Confidence is about how we relate to the world. Self…

via Balancing Self Confidence and Self Worth — Self Development dot ga

Goal Planning Tips for 2020 — the striped plaid

Goal Planning Tips for 2020 — the striped plaid

James Sweeney

This is a great post written by a fellow blogger! Check out their other posts if you enjoyed this one!

Hey guys! I wrote a goal planning post last year right after Christmas and it was a big hit! This year I decided to publish a goal planning post a little earlier because I know that I like to get on planning as soon as possible! I’m so excited to share how I’m planning out […]

via Goal Planning Tips for 2020 — the striped plaid

Mummy Madness by Rebecca Sutcliffe-Major

Mummy Madness by Rebecca Sutcliffe-Major

James Sweeney

Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!

Today’s blog is a guest blog written by one of our readers, Rebecca Sutcliffe-Major! The blog is about how being a mother can be a very hard job and to never give up. You may make mistakes from time to time but it is all a learning process. Remember the job you are doing, the value it brings to the world and try not to beat yourself up if things seem to go wrong. Hope you enjoy the blog!

One thing that all mums have in common and most don’t even know it. We all at some point are adamant we are ‘mumming’ wrong. I worked full time in management to help support my family while trying to further my education to better our future. The response I got from others “don’t you miss your kids?”, “shouldn’t you be spending more time with your family?”. Then when I gave up working so I could concentrate on my children and my education I had comments such as “don’t you think you should work to help out your husband?”, “Are you setting the right example for your kids by not working?”. All the while inside my head I’m screaming “ARE YOU SERIOUS!”.

woman biting pencil while sitting on chair in front of computer during daytime

On the outside, I look like I have it all together, on the inside I am full of self-doubt and anxiety. When I worked, I was in smart clothes, makeup done, hair done, nails done but I worried about my kids missing me. Now I’m out of work, I look neglected and I’m worrying that I am not occupying the kids time in the right way like they had a nursery. There is no end!

I was adamant that once I finished work, I would have an amazing routine and do crafts with them, make home-cooked meals and basically be an amazing mum. Oh boy, was I wrong!!

After the first week at home, I was so very tired. ‘Mumming’ full time is hard work. Running after a 1 year old and school runs really take it out of you. Even the little things were hard.

Something as simple as putting down the baby for a nap, then I can shower or clean or do the washing. NO! Baby decided that napping was beneath her and spend 30 minutes singing and shouting before I gave up and brought her back downstairs. But it’s ok… I spent that 30 minutes cleaning the living room, I was productive!

The baby was then in the living room eating a banana while watching tv, coolies… I’ll clean the kitchen. NO! Baby decided that playing on her own while watching tv was not acceptable. I walked into my living room and it was trashed. The one-year-old hooligan had thrown toys, cushions, banana peel everywhere. Clearly, she’s not to be left alone.

brown leather sofa and two pink sofa chair

Next thought…. Why don’t you help mummy!!! NO! She proceeded to pull things out of the washer before I could fill it and set it going. Then she got distracted …. I managed to put the washer on, turned around…… oh hell, the baby is playing with the cat bowls ….. biscuits and water all over my kitchen.

Bath time …. Ended with both me and my bathroom soaked. We were now late for the school run. I turn up at school soaked and looking like id been dragged through a hedge backwards. Get the kids home my eldest says “mummy why is it so messy?” REALLY KID!!

I managed to get them to play nicely together while I tried to tidy around them, then moved into the kitchen to sort out the washing (which as it turned out I set off gong without putting in any washing powder or fabric softener). Back to the living room……trashed. My husband comes home ….. “what happened here?” I’m stood there, baby in one arm and wet unwashed washing in the other, surrounded by toys. It actually looked like I had done nothing all day.

I felt like such a failure. I can run a business, manage staff, deal with customers, do the rotas, create strategic plans. But I couldn’t keep my cool with the kids, I couldn’t keep my house in check, I couldn’t have tea ready for when my husband got home. I was in jeans and a hoodie all day, no make-up, hair a mess. I looked nothing like I was used to.  All these goals that I was adamant I could do, turns out I couldn’t. I thought when I gave up work I would have less stress which would lower my anxiety and make me a happier person to be around. This went on for weeks. I made myself feel worse with all the bad thoughts. My depression spiralled downwards; I could feel myself loosing. I went back to the doctors thinking I was getting too bad and I cried a lot.

Then it occurred to me, who cares. My children are happy, fed and well looked after. Who cares if my house is a mess, who cares if I am a mess, who cares if my husband has the opinion that I am slowly going insane after watch re-runs of Pepper Pig all day! The only person who actually cared about it was me. My husband and my kids want me healthy and happy, that’s it!

Once I stopped putting all the extra pressure on myself, I got into a rhythm. School run, nap, clean, lunch, play, school run, tea. Don’t get me wrong, it is not easy and most days the cleaning won’t get done until the kids are in bed. My house is nowhere up to the standards that it used to be and I still don’t always have time to sort myself out.

Without putting standards on myself I started to feel better. I was smiling more and laughing more. I’m still struggling with inner demons and I will be for a while. There is no quick fix and some days the only thing that gets me through the day is a cheeky smile from a one-year-old hooligan.

The NHS states that 1 in 10 people have clinical depression[1]. In 2018 Forth conducted a survey which stated that 42% of women admitted that they were ‘too stressed’[2].

The message I want to get out there is ‘mumming’ is hard, you are not overreacting, you are not worthless, and you may have days when you feel like a failure but it’s ok. We are all feeling that way. You are not alone. You may make some mistakes but it is all part of the process. Remember we can only learn from a mistake if we actually make it in the first place.

[1] NHS, Clinical depression <https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/clinical-depression/&gt;

[2] Forth. Great Britain and Stress – How bad is it and why is it happening?<https://www.forthwithlife.co.uk/blog/great-britain-and-stress/&gt;

Thanks for reading! What do you all think? Would you like to see some more blogs by Rebecca? Let me know your answers to the above questions and any other questions or queries you have either in the comments below or via our Facebook page!

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great day!

Sweeney’s Blogs

Any money donated here will be put back into the business. This can be through marketing campaigns, upgrades to plans or for setting up future events!

£5.00

James

We ALL Have Mental Health: Let’s Talk About It — Peace from Panic

We ALL Have Mental Health: Let’s Talk About It — Peace from Panic

James Sweeney

It’s Mental Illness Awareness Week and tomorrow, October 10, is World Mental Health Day. So let’s talk about it! Yesterday I had a wonderful opportunity to speak to a group of elementary, middle school, and high school counselors about mental illness. I’m a presenter for Ending the Silence, a mental health awareness program by the […]

via We ALL Have Mental Health: Let’s Talk About It — Peace from Panic

A New Perspective on Self Esteem — Self Development

James Sweeney

Fortunes have been made by so-called self help gurus on the topic of self esteem. Hundreds of books have been written and countless others touch on the subject in way or another. I have to admit, I haven’t read any of them. Every thing I’ve ever learned about self esteem was through my own process…

via A New Perspective on Self Esteem — Self Development

Mental Health Can be Everything and Everywhere!

Mental Health Can be Everything and Everywhere!

James Sweeney

People and indeed the world itself are forever evolving/changing. As times move on the way that we do things and even the way we think develops and evolves. Everything that we do has an effect on us as people and on our Mental Health as a result. As this effect happens the questions still stands: what actually is Mental Health and what actually affects it?

Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!

Today’s blog is going to be about what Mental Health is and how we as a society need to change our approach to Mental Health. I got the idea for this blog by talking to one of my mates at work. We were catching up about the past year in university and we moved onto the topic of academic difference. Now after we finished talking I asked if I can use this for a blog and he said that he cannot see how simply the word different can make a topic link to Mental Health, this is where the idea for the blog came from. In effect, we can link anything to Mental Health which is what I will talk about in more depth later on in the blog.

Firstly we need to take a look at exactly what is Mental Health. MentalHealth.gov, https://www.mentalhealth.gov/basics/what-is-mental-health, describe Mental Health as “our emotional, psychological and social well-being.” They say that our Mental Health has an effect on ” how we think, feel and act” and it influences how we handle things like stress and how we make decisions. I quite like this definition as I feel like it is very close to my own.

To me, our Mental Health is who we are as people. It is how we think, how we process information, how we communicate and develop, Mental Health is us. It baffles me when people say how so many things are not related to Mental Health when in reality they are. Anything that has an effect on society, us as people and the way that we think and feel all make up what is known as our Mental Health. Nearly everything we do impacts our Mental Health and that is what we need to start thinking about. We need to get out of the loop that is Mental Health is only relevant when people are having problems as Mental Health is a constant. Even if we may not be suffering from a Mental Health condition, your Mental Health is constantly evolving and changing. The only way that change in Mental Health is actually going to happen is if we rethink what Mental health actually is and how we tackle it in day to day life.

An example that I like to refer to when talking about this ideology is the different reactions people have when they are going to work. Going to work is a topic that I don’t bring up much on the page but for this example, I think that it fits in well and is very relatable. The reaction that you give to going to work has an obvious link to whether you like your job or not. The way that you feel about your work acts as a foundation to how it impacts on your mental health, in a positive or negative way, and then it develops when we actually are going to work.

Let’s say for this example that you love the job that you are in. If you love your job then I believe it is safe to say that work makes you happy. This means that the foundation of how work impacts your Mental Health is a positive one. If you love your job then for the majority of the time you will be happy when you are leaving to go to work and you will be happy at work. This good mood that you have can correlate to a more positive Mental Health. A more positive Mental Health can link to a more positive look at work and indeed life in general. I am not saying that work determines your look on life but it does play a part.

Now we are going to look at the flip side of the coin. let’s say you hate the job you are in. Now if you hate your job then I think it is safe to say that going to work makes you unhappy. This means that the foundation of how work impacts your Mental Health is a more negative one, which is a complete opposite to the last scenario. The unhappy mood and mindset that you get going to or even thinking about work can correlate to a more negative look on life. As said above I am not saying that work determines your outlook on life but it definitely does play a part.

If going to work makes you unhappy or puts you in a bad mood then it is only natural that it is going to impact on other parts of your life. Once you get put in a bad mood it is often hard to not see everything else in that same mindset. So if you hate your job and going to work then if something else happens then you are more likely to approach it with a more negative mindset, hypothetically speaking. This is obviously the other way around if you love your job, I don’t think it is necessary to repeat the paragraph again just to flip everything.

I believe that is all I want to talk about in today’s blog! I hope that I have possibly broadened your horizons into what Mental Health actually is. Mental Health can indeed be everything and everywhere, Mental Health is us as people, it is who we are.

What do you think of today’s blog? Do you think that Mental Health can be everything or everywhere or do you have a different view? What do you define Mental Health as? Let me know what you think of the blog and your answers to the above questions in the comments on this blog or get in touch with me through the Facebook page!

Thank you all for reading!

Sweeney’s Blogs

Any money donated here will be put back into the business. This can be through marketing campaigns, upgrades to plans or for setting up future events!

£5.00

James

Stuttering in Mainstream Media – Blog 3: Stutterspirations

Stuttering in Mainstream Media – Blog 3: Stutterspirations

James Sweeney

What is a stutterspiration? How do they help people who stutter? What does it take to be a stutterspiration?

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Today’s blog is going to be the fourth blog in the Stuttering in Mainstream Media series and is going to be about Stutterspirations. Stutterspiration is a word that I have created to help distinguish a certain type of people. A Stutterspiration is a person with a stutter who inspires other people who have a stutter. The main purpose of this blog is to take a deeper look into what a stutterspiration actually is and how they help influence others.

The interesting thing when it comes to stutterspirations is that they can be found in almost all walks of life. A stutter does not discriminate which means that we can find people with stutters in all aspects of the media. In this blog, we are going to briefly talk about a person who I class as a stutterspiration and how they earned success off their talent alone.

The first person that I ever classed as a Stutterspiration is Harrison Craig. Harrison Craig is an Australian Singer who found his fame by winning the second season of The Voice Australia. Harrisons audition is where we first found out about his stutter. If you have not seen his audition or maybe want to rewatch it then you are more than welcome to click on the video below.

One of the things that I find the most interesting with Harrison’s story is that he does not get through via sympathy, he gets through simply down to pure talent. If anyone is not familiar with how the voice works then the premise is simple. Contestants sing on stage with the four coaches turned away from them, if the coach likes what they hear then they press their button and turn their chair. The contestant then gets to decide which team to go on based off which judge/ judges turn around and then progress through to the next stage of the competition.

Now as I said previously Harrisons got through his audition and then indeed went on to win the competition down to pure talent alone. Even though he has a stutter and struggles to full sentences at times without stuttering, his singing is still faultless. This just goes to show that having a stutter should not hold you back, you can still be successful even if you can’t speak without stopping sometimes.

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Harrison’s story helped me realise quite a few things about how I approached my life when it came to my stutter. The fact that Harrisons pursued his dream and went on live TV with a stutter solidified the idea in my head that my stutter should not hold me back in life. I started to approach life in a more confident way and started doing things that I wanted to do. This confidence boost was one of the reasons I became a Swimming Teacher and has allowed me to teach numerous swimmers over the past 3 years. A small portion of my achievement has to be given to people like Harrison who showed us that it is possible.

I have had a lot of different people in my life tell me that I cannot do certain things due to the fact that I have a stutter. Harrison’s story is a perfect example as to why they are completely wrong. A stutter does not limit you in regard to what you want to do in life. The only thing that does limit you if you have a stutter is yourself. A stutter may make you take longer to say some things but that does not mean that your voice is any less important than someone else’s.

That is all I want to talk about in today’s blog. Thank you all for reading! What do you all think? Did you know Harrison’s story before reading this blog? Do you know of any stutterspirations in your life? What attributes do you think leads to a person being a stutterspiration? Let me know what you think and any other comments you have about my blogs in the comments of this blog or on our Facebook page.

Thank you all for reading and I hope to see you all in the next blog! Have a great week and remember to Highlight the I in difference!

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James