Sweeney's Blogs

Stuttering in Mainstream Media – Blog 7: Stuttering as a Lifeguard and Swimming Teacher

August 19, 2019August 9, 2020James Sweeney

Growing up people always said to me that I could never be a teacher because of my stutter. I never understood this and I always questioned them saying why would my stutter hold me back? They never had a valid point to make in their answers and it led me to challenge their assumptions. Roll on to now and I have been a Lifeguard and Swimming Teacher for nearly 3 years.

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Today’s blog is going to be the eighth blog in the Stuttering in Mainstream Media and is going to focus on how my stutter has affected me in my jobs as a Lifeguard and a Swimming Teacher. I am the type of person who likes to surpass people expectations. As mentioned above when I was younger people always told me that I couldn’t be a teacher due to my stutter when in reality the only thing holding me back from teaching was myself. Of course, my stutter can make the job harder in some cases but that doesn’t affect my ability as a teacher. That is one of the main points of this blog, don’t let a stutter hold you back in life. A stutter doesn’t stop you from doing things, however, it does alter your journey.

I completed my first lifeguarding course back in June 2016 and got a job as a Lifeguard in my local Swimming Pool around three months after. My position in work is exactly the same as any of the other lifeguards there, my stutter doesn’t change my job, however, it does change the way that I go about some things. In a job such as lifeguarding, there are obviously going to be some minor changes in how each lifeguard does things.

photo of red and white Vodafone inflatable floater

It can be quite hard to explain how stuttering has changed my job as most of the changes that I have discovered are all usually quite small. The major changes that I find are when it comes to talking to members of the public or other members of staff. I’ve been in my job for around three years now and I love learning new roles like how to work reception and how to teach in different ways. I started to notice the first major changes in my job when I was covering behind reception for a few minutes when I was still new at the pool.

Most of the customers in the pool recognised that I had a stutter if I started stuttering when serving them and they were really patient and polite about it, however, there were some customers who didn’t have the same attitude towards my stutter. It was very rare that a customer was ever rude to me behind the desk however like you have in any job there were one or two. There was one person who came to the desk and because I got stuck stuttering on a few words she started saying phrases like “spit it out” or “hurry up and get on with it”. After they said those phrases I didn’t really know how to react. As I was in work I had to stay professional but I just couldn’t comprehend why this customer was being so rude. Like I said previously nearly all of the customers coming to the pool were great but one or two of them really make you think.

The second major change is when it comes to communicating with members of the public on poolside. As you would expect in our jobs as lifeguards we do have to enforce the pool rules if members of the public are not abiding by them. In some cases when I would talk to them I would start stuttering. Most of the customers again were more than patient with me but it started to make me feel nervous to speak at times.

To my knowledge see there are few if any policies in workplaces when it comes to stuttering. how I see it is that as there is such a massive focus being aimed at mental health and stress management nowadays that we should try and bring some other subjects like stuttering back into focus as well. Stuttering and stress/ mental health do go hand in hand in some cases. Stuttering can lead to massive self-esteem and self-confidence issues in the world of work. The question that I like to ask is why hasn’t anything really been done to help people with a stutter in the world of work?

Being a Swimming teacher can be one of the most rewarding jobs going in my eyes. I love my job as a Swimming Teacher as I get to see swimmers progress from being scared to go into the water to doing 100 meter swims without stopping. Watching people progress through the different levels/stages of swimming is truly a great thing to watch and it is the reason why I used to love teaching so much.

In my experience of teaching, my stutter has never limited my ability to do my job. As you can expect I do sometimes get stuck on the odd word or I may repeat myself a few times but it doesn’t affect my ability as a teacher. When teaching younger children you automatically think that they will notice you stuttering and try and mimic it but out of the few hundred that I taught, I can only remember one or two doing it. Even those one or two kids weren’t even mimicking it maliciously, they just didn’t understand what a stutter was at that point.

One of the only changes that I noticed as a teacher with a stutter was how some of the parents would act to my teaching. There have been a few cases over the past three years where a parent has asked me if I should be allowed to teach as I have a stutter. This is where the main problems with stuttering come into play. Like I mentioned in a previous blog the only thing that stops you when you have a stutter is yourself and to a degree the people surrounding you. There is such an ingrown stigma in modern society about mental health and topics like stuttering that at times it feels like you are fighting a losing battle.

The fact that I stutter does not change my ability to teach. It may alter the way that I do some things but overall the outcome is the same. When I started to plan this blog I was thinking of all the problems that I have faced in my job and the realisation hit me. The problems that I have faced in my job are down to a lack of understanding of what a stutter is from a third party. I could list all of the issues that I have faced teaching and lifeguarding with a stutter but they all come down to this same link.

Most people do not think about the effect a stutter has on people because it is so rarely brought up in the media and in conversations. Stuttering, in my opinion, doesn’t get the credit it deserves as living with a stutter can be really tough. If you spend just 5-10 minutes talking to a person who has a stutter about their stutter it would start to make more sense. The stigma around a stutter can be linked in some way to the stigma in mental health. They both stem from a lack of understanding and just as mental health is changing now the focus has been put on it, stuttering could do with the same focus.

That’s all I want to talk about in today’s blog. I hope you all enjoy the blog and have a great day! Let me know what you think of it in the comments or on our Facebook page!

Thanks 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!

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James

There’s always someone you can talk to!

August 15, 2019August 9, 2020James Sweeney

Loneliness and isolation are two of the most dangerous aspects of Mental Health. When people suffer from Mental Health issues they often feel like they are weak and that no one would understand or even listen to them. However, this is not the case in reality. There are of course a lot of bad people in the world but it is crucial to remember that there is always someone around who you can talk too. That is what we are going to be talking about in today’s blog!

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Today’s blog is going to be about how there is always someone around who you can talk to. As mentioned above loneliness and isolation can be two of the most dangerous sides of Mental Health if not handled properly, which they are often not, and it is something that we need to take a closer look at. We as a community and society, in general, need to come to accept that there is someone who will listen to you out there, sometimes you may just have to wait a little bit to find that person/ those people.

Before I get into who I talk to about my problems it is important to understand the scale of people who can help us. If you want to talk about something you can always go to family and friends but also other role models who you might not usually think of, like teachers in school. The bottom line is that it doesn’t really matter who you actually talk to, it is the talking that is the important part.

It is very common in life that people will change and friends do sometimes part ways. It is just the way things go sometimes but it is important to still talk about your problems with someone. We often tend to focus on the more negative side saying how there are so many negative people in the world these days but there are still good people around, you just need to look for them.

I am going to do a blog in the near future about building a positive network of friends and colleagues but it still very important to this blog. If you surround yourself with people that you don’t trust and people that always bring negativity to your life then how are you going to be able to talk through your problems? The social network that we build is in our hands, surround yourself with good people, not bad people.

Personally, I tell all of my friends that if they ever need to talk to just chuck me a message but that’s down to the sort of person I am. People seem to forget how easy it is to ask someone how they’re doing, it literally takes 2 minutes and can make someone’s day. I’m not saying that you have to have a fully-fledged conversation which each person you pass in the streets but saying hello is really easy.

At the minute for me, there are two people that I talk about my problems with. One of them is my mate Aodan who I have known for around five years and the other is a mate of mine who I met at Reading University this year. An important thing here is that I haven’t known these two mates all of my life but I do still trust them with my problems. Time is not really a problem when it comes down to friends unless you make it one. If you trust someone enough to be friends with them then should you trust them enough to talk things through with? Personally, I say yes but I would like to know what you think!

As mentioned earlier in the blog surrounding yourself with a good group of friends is a great way to help you when it comes to speaking about your problems with mates. An important thing to talk about here is even though I don’t speak to Aodan or my mate from uni every day, I know that they are there if I ever need to talk something through, which is the important part.

Diving in a bit further here, we’ll take a closer look at my mate from university. I met him once in Freshers and barely spoke to him again until the end of the year. But what I know is that if I have a problem then I can message him and vice versa. The amount of times you speak to a person is only really an issue if you make it one. Like I have said a few times in this blog, surround yourself with good people and you are giving yourself the best headstart possible. You should be happy with the friends you have, not embarrassed or ashamed, that is what people need to remember.

That is all I want to talk about in today’s blog! Talking your problems through with people you trust is a valuable asset in life. Be them friends or family talking problems through makes them easier to solve. Having people yuo can trust in life like two of the people I mentioned above, is a massive aid to you. Remeber you cannot expect someone to be there for you if you are not there for them too, it’s a two way street.

One quick thing that I wanted to mention before finishing this blog is how I work when it comes to using names and personal experiences in my blogs. If I ever use a friends name then I will always ask permission first. If they don’t agree to me using their names then their names will not appear in the blog. I always ask first.

What do you all think of today’s blog? Do you think a good friendship group helps you out in life? What else can a good group of friends do for you? LEt me know what you think about these questions or any other questions or thoughts you have about my blogs dwon below or on our Facebook page!

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

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!

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James

Sweeney’s Blogs – An Update

August 11, 2019August 9, 2020James Sweeney

Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!

The page has been growing so fast recently thanks to all of our supporters so I believe it is time to do another update post! As this post is going to be shorter than my usual posts I have also reblogged a blog all about self-esteem today. If you enjoy the post about reshaping how you see self-esteem be sure to check out the blogger’s other work, they have some excellent blogs!

First of all, we’re going to talk about BlogFest. When I first said that I was doing BlogFest I said that it was going to be one blog every other day, however, I have changed that a little bit. For some of the days in BlogFest, I have decided to do a double upload. I didn’t do a post about this because more content can’t be a bad thing! In regards to when the next BlogFest will be, I am not 100% sure at the minute. I need to start getting back into University work soon so the page will be going back to getting 2/3 new blogs a week for a while. The earliest date that I can say the next BlogFest will be at this time is the end of September/start of October. I’ll keep you all updated!

We have also hit some big milestones for the page. As of last week, we reached over 3,000 total views on the page! This is a massive step forward for the page and is a big motivator for me to keep doing blogs. The next milestone that I have for the page is 5,000 total views by the end of the year, which we are on track to beat easily! The page is growing really really fast and I am very grateful for all the help and support I have been getting, let’s keep it going and growing!

As well as our blog page doing well, our Facebook page has also been growing! As of last week, we have now hit over 200 likes on the page, which is amazing! If you haven’t visited the page before feel free to do so, you can access through the Facebook icon on the sidebar pf every blog or by typing Sweeney’s Blogs into the search bar on Facebook. On the page, I give updates to when posts are released and ideas for posts that I am thinking of doing and I share posts that I find that I think everyone would like seeing!

We now have our own Sweeney’s Blogs Spotify playlist! I am hoping to update the playlist weekly and it is going to have songs ranging from 1970- now! Hopefully, there’ll be something there that you’ll enjoy listening too! You can find the playlist by typing Sweeney’s Blogs into Spotify or through the following link:https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0o8E5x2GB0yqct6FlVIhOj?si=fPkmxrcQQR69TD6gFUqgdg. Hope you enjoy the playlist! If you have any songs that you want to see on there let me know and I’ll add them!

Thank you all for reading! I hope you all have a great weekend! If anyone has any ideas for guest blogs or wants to write a few blogs for me to publish please get in touch with me and we can discuss it further!

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

A New Perspective on Self Esteem — Self Development

August 11, 2019August 9, 2020James 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

Summer…A Poem. — Steve`s Country

August 9, 2019August 9, 2020James Sweeney

SUMMER Summer is here with all its green, Making such a relaxing scene. Mixed with the calming sky so blue, Makes a wonderful day ’tis true. Summer is what I really like, Great to walk or taking a hike. All of summer with its beauty, Sights and sounds so very lovely. The sparkling lake and […]

via Summer…A Poem. — Steve`s Country

Joe Rogan and Kevin Hart – Positivity Podcast

August 7, 2019May 16, 2021James Sweeney

Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!

In today’s blog, we are going to talk about The Joe Rogan Experience podcast with Kevin Hart on Youtube. I haven’t reviewed any podcasts on the page before as I have only just started to listen to them but they are something that I want to do more of. The Joe Rogan Experience is a series of podcasts, created by comedian Joe Rogan, that is released on his Youtube channel – PowerfulJRE, https://www.youtube.com/user/PowerfulJRE. Each podcast has its own special guest and these can vary from Russel Brand to Elon Musk. The content in each blog is always different but they involve topics like social media, the future, A.I, positivity and many more.

I got the idea for this blog from two of my good mates, Will Morris and Lewis Burden. I had never considered listening to any podcasts before they told me about them and now I’ve started, I can’t stop!

I loved listening to the podcast and it made me look at Kevin Hart in a completely different way. The ambition that he brings to life and the motivation he has in life is truly inspirational. The positive mindset that Kevin Hart has and how he adapts it to life, in general, is a pleasure to listen too and it made me think what can’t we do if we put our minds to something with a positive mindset?

Before I go into the podcast itself I do have to give a quick disclaimer. There is some Adult language used in the podcast. The swear words and other sometimes frowned upon phrases are not used in a derogatory way, however, if you can see past them and really appreciate the core message that the podcast is saying then it will be a real pleasure to watch.

Now the podcast is a fairly long watch, reaching just over the 2-hour mark. There is a lot of different content discussed in the podcast which could make this blog massive. After planning this through though I don’t want the blog to be too long, as that waters down the actual message that the blog is trying to bring.

The way that I’ve decided to tackle it is that I am going to discuss some of the parts that I think are really important here, then if people want to discuss parts further we can do that in the comments on this blog, on our Facebook page or privately through emails/messages.

The first part of the podcast that I want to focus on is how social media is impacting society. Kevin and Joe talk about social media in the way that we live our lives now directly linked with social media. What they mean by this is that some people do things now simply because it will get more likes/attention online, not because they actually want to do it. The focus that we as people have on social media now is really worrying. People go through lives with their cameras on just in case they miss filming something, instead of actually appreciating it in real life for what it is.

This somewhat infatuation we have with social media has dramatically affected how we communicate with other people too. This change in communication does not only apply to how we communicate with each other, but it affects how we communicate with famous people/celebrities. Take a moment to think about what it would be like meeting a celebrity lets say around 10-15 years ago. You would go up to them ask them for an autograph and then talk to them for a little bit. Nowadays as soon as people see a celebrity they instantly put a camera in their face and demand a selfie.

It almost seems like now we see celebrities more like an online attention generator than actual people. Kevin talks about how personally he would much prefer it if people came up to him and talked to him like he was a genuine person, as that is exactly what he is.

Celebrities are not just reasons for people to press a like button on Facebook or like a picture on Instagram, they are actual people. This is not meant to be shaming anyone who does just go up to celebrities just for a photo, it is meant to make you think. Instead of automatically asking for a photo why not go up to them and have a conversation first then ask for a photo after? I think that they will be much more likely to take a photo with you if you’ve treated them like actual people.

The second major part of the podcast that I want to talk about is when Joe and Kevin talk about positivity. One of the lines that Kevin says in this part is “You’re your biggest enemy”, it is one of the best lines in the whole podcast. People nowadays do unfortunately focus more on the negatives in life rather than the positives.

It is almost like people now link positivity to popularity which is absurd but as Kevin says ” it’s not cool to be positive”.. On this page, I always talk about how being different is a great thing but even with being different, there are a few exceptions.

Quite a few people these days are almost trying to be different to others simply to be negative or to argue with them. Those people it seems to think that being negative about something makes them “cool” and just as they say in the podcast as one person starts talking negatively about something then others will start to jump on the “negative train”.

It is much easier for people to just argue or disagree with someone rather than actually taking the time to understand what they are saying. Trying to understand a persons point of view may take a little bit longer but the knowledge you gain at the end is much better than if you simply argued with them just for the sake of it.

The last part of the podcast that I want to talk about is a link between individuality and positivity. My favourite part of the podcast is when Kevin compares life to a book. I can’t remember the line exactly but it’s something like this “Everybody is writing their own book, how good is yours going to be?”. That line there is a line you can use for just about anything. It is something that I want to dedicate a whole blog to in the future but I will discuss it a little bit here.

person holding open book viewing mountain view

The basic premise behind the line is everyone writes their own story. Do you want your story to be the same as everyone else? Do you just want a plain, normal book? Or do you want to try something new? Make your book something you would be proud of.

Approach life in open arms with a positive mindset and who knows where your book will end up. It is very rare that anyone likes a book that has no plot, it’s about the story, the adventure, the risks and the outcomes. Go about life learning, you can never stop learning. The world is constantly evolving, use that to your advantage, try something new, surprise yourself!

That is all I want to talk about in today’s blog! Like I said at the start of the blog I didn’t want the blog to be too long as that waters down the message/ messages that the blog aims to give. What do you all think of today’s blog? Are you going to watch the podcast? If you have watched it what do you think? Are there any parts that I missed that you think I should have included? Let me know what you think in the comments!

A big thank you to my mates Will and Lewis for recommending this podcast, it was an amazing watch/listen! I am hoping to do a few more blogs with Will and Lewis in the future so keep an eye out! If anyone does have any ideas for future blogs then please get in touch! I’m always happy to listen to new ideas!

Thank you all for reading and I hope you have a great day! See you all in the next blog!

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 Sweeney

Stuttering in Mainstream Media – Blog 6: James Earl Jones

August 5, 2019August 9, 2020James Sweeney

Did you know that Darth Vader’s actor had a stutter? The man behind one of Hollywoods most recognisable voices was mute for nearly eight years! These two facts alone help paint a brief insight into the pain that a stutter can cause a person. A stutter affects more than just your ability to speak, it affects you as a person.

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Today’s blog is going to be the sixth blog in the Stuttering in Mainstream Media series! In today’s blog, we are going to be taking a look at how James Earl Jones, one of Hollywoods greats, story. We are going to take a look into how his stutter has affected him growing up and how he manages his stutter when filming for films and when he is on Broadway. The man is a stutterspiration in all essence of the word, what he has done whilst having a stutter is truly amazing!

Most people often forget that James Earl Jones, the man behind the voices of Darth Vader and Mufasa, had a terrible stutter in his childhood. An article that I found in the Health section of The Daily Mail, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1255955/James-Earl-Jones-My-stutter-bad-I-barely-spoke-years.html, takes a closer look into his story. As we look into James’s story it is crucial to remember that despite having a stutter, he is still very successful in life.

The article and indeed the video above show us that growing up James felt that it was easier to remain quiet and some could say hidden to avoid being judged due to his stutter. The article points out a very interesting point. James Earl Jones, a man with one of the most recognisable voices in Hollywood was “almost mute as a child for eight years” due to his stutter. That just goes to show the inherent fear that a stutter can cause on an individual.

When talking about growing up with a stutter James talks about how he used to feel like he was “cursed”. The fear of not being able to talk tat a stutter creates truly is phenomenal. It is something that you cannot fully understand unless you actually go through it but it is something that you can begin to appreciate. Having the courage to push forward even when you cannot get the word out at times is shows a real mark of character. It is often the confidence we have in ourselves that dictates the effect that a stutter will have on our lives.

Further on in the article James talks about how “stuttering is painful”. He recalls when he had to read in Sunday school as a child and how the other children were ” falling on the floor with laughter” simply because he struggled to get the words out. This hits home quite hard for me as I was often in the same position growing up with a stutter, I remember going through Secondary school Engish classes, every time the teacher would pick someone to read I would pray to be invisible. The fear that a stutter can muster in a child is truly worrying. However, if we focus on the negatives then no change will be made. We need to look at the positives in life and in this case James’s story to see how we can help manage a stutter and live a “normal life” (whatever that means!).

Now as James mentioned above he got over a stutter using Poetry. Now poetry and other creative writing processes are very good techniques to use to help manage a stutter. I often use poetry when I am stuttering a lot as a way for me to centre myself. It gives me time to relax, think about what I want to say and then the time to actually say it.

Dictating your own work can be very very useful. If you haven’t tried the technique before I highly recommend it. If you don’t have anything to read then starting off is simple. Simply write 5-10 lines about yourself and then practise saying them out loud. Start off saying them by yourself and then as you practise more and more get other people in to listen to you. Eventually, you will be able to speak the lines without reading the paper. From this point, you start to practise reading the lines whilst also looking at people. It is a gradual process but patience is key for the endgame.

Another method that James said he uses to help manage his stutter is shouting at the empty seats before a play. Now there are quite a lot of people that use aggression as a form of managing their stutter. Personally, I haven’t used this method much in the past, I have tried it, but not for a long while. I will do a blog on it further down the line as I know Samuel L. Jackson uses it to help manage his stutter.

The last thing that I want to talk about in regards to James’s story is some final words he said at the end of the Daily Mail article. He says “When you are mute, you become a good listener – it’s all one-way.” Now even though I have not been mute I do really empathise with this statement. Now as a stutterer myself I have learned how to be a good listener. I’m not going to go into it in too much detail in this blog as I do want to do a whole blog on it in a few weeks but there is a link between someone who stutters and their listening ability. I find it quite an interesting link to learn about which is why I want to leave it for a future blog.

That’s all I want to talk about in today’s blog! What do you all think? Did you know James Earl Jones had a stutter? What do you think about the poetry method of managing a stutter? Let me know what you think!

One of the most important points that I want to leave this blog on is that a stutter shouldn’t hold you back. James Earl Jones is the prime example of this point. Granted his stutter nearly made him mute for eight years but he got past it. He didn’t let it control his life. He became the voices of Darth Vader and Mufasa with a stutter, so the question stands, what’s stopping you? Remember failure isn’t a bad thing, it’s a learning curve!

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you in the next one!

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

Mental Health Can be Everything and Everywhere!

August 1, 2019August 9, 2020James 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?

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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

48 Things to Remember About Living Your Dream — Self Development

July 31, 2019August 9, 2020James Sweeney

You have one, don’t you? A dream? Of course you do. We all do. Whether your dream is big or small here’s some advice on Living Your Dream. 1. You can be sure it’s a dream and not a fantasy if your dream involves serving others in some way. 2. You’re never too old to […]

via 48 Things to Remember About Living Your Dream — Self Development

Stuttering in Mainstream Media – Blog 5: The Printer Theory

July 29, 2019August 9, 2020James Sweeney

How can you compare Stuttering to a printer? How can people understand a stutter if they haven’t got one themselves? How can learning about a stutter help treat it? I hope to answer these questions in today’s blog all about a Stuttering Theory I created myself.

Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!

Today’s blog is going to be the fifth blog in the Stuttering in Mainstream Media series and is going to be about The Printer Theory, a theory that I myself created to help visualise what living with a stutter is actually like. The theory itself can be interpreted in a number of different ways so if you interpret it a different way to how I am saying it that is more than fine.

I created The Printer Theory when I was asked to describe what living with a stutter is like to a few of my University friends this year. I had rarely been asked what living with a stutter was like before going to university so I didn’t have an answer ready at the time. This is when I decided to improvise and came up with The Printer Theory. Even though the theory doesn’t cover all aspects of life with a stutter I still think that it is a good place to start.

The first part of The Printer Theory is about the type of stutter where you just cannot get the words out, no matter how hard you try. So let’s say you have a document on the computer that you want to print out. You do all the normal things such as going to options, selecting print and then waiting for the printer to print the document out. Your document starts printing and then you get a paper jam in the printer.

If you have a paper jam then sending another twenty documents to the printer will not do anything, it will just put more pressure on the CPU of the computer and will affect the interrupts happening to the computer which will slow it down. Sending more documents to the computer will do nothing to help the actual problem which is the paper jam. This can easily be related to having a conversation with a person who has a stutter. If they are stuck on a particular word then asking them 20 more questions will do nothing to help them, it will just stress them out and might even lead to them stuttering more.

To fix a paper jam in the printer you would slowly find out the problem and then try a few ways to resolve it. Forcing the paper out when you have a paper jam will not help the issue, this is the exact same as dealing with a stutter. If someone who you are having a conversation with gets stuck on a word then you definitely should not try to force them to speak, they are trying they just cannot get the words out. What you need to do is simple.

The first step to helping someone who cannot get the words out is to actually realise that they are stuck on a word. If you recognise that someone is struggling then it makes it easier for you to understand and easier for them to get over it. The next step is to try a few different solutions. The first solution I recommend is maybe rewording the question that you asked them. Usually, if a person is simply stuck on one word then if you reword the question they will not even have to try and say it. There are lots of other techniques you can try if this doesn’t work but the key is to be patient, do not rush someone with a stutter as that will help no one.

One of the next links that a stutter has to a printer is when it comes to the order of entities. When you print something out, it is printed in a set order, this is the exact same as the way we speak. If the pages were printed in a random order then we would have to spend a lot of time simply working out the order of the pages and then what they are actually trying to tell us, this works the same with how we speak. We form sentences in a way that they are easy to understand and our words are in a logical order.

Just because a printer may take a long time to print out a particular page, it doesn’t mean that you write it out to try to beat the printer. If a printer was taking a while to print something out then you would wait patiently until it was finished, this links perfectly with a stutter. If a person is taking a while to say a particular word, sentence it does not give you the right to try and speak for them or just rush them into finishing. Rushing someone to speak when they have a stutter severely lowers their self-confidence and leads them to feel more embarrassed when they do eventually stutter.

This links in well to one of the main problems I have when speaking to people when they know that I have a stutter. Most people who do not have a stutter or who haven’t been close to someone who has a stutter think that finishing sentences for people who are struggling helps them out, it actually makes us feel useless. What people don’t actually think about, and this is not a criticism to people, it is just a fact, is that when we are stuttering we are trying really hard to get the words out. If you just jump in and finish the sentence for them, even if you do it with good intentions, then it makes us feel worthless. This paragraph is not meant to be having a go at anyone it is simply explaining something that most people don’t usually think of.

As you can see from the blog above there are lots of different links you can make between a printer and a person who stutters. There are indeed a lot more links that you can find but I have explained the main ones that I wanted to talk about in this blog. If you do find anymore and want to talk them through feel free to send me a message, I’ll more than happily respond!

Thanks for reading today’s blog! What do you all think? Next time you speak to someone with a stutter try and use a few of the points that I made today. Don’t rush them, be patient and please don’t finish sentences for them. I hope you all have a great week and remember to keep Highlighting the I in Difference!

Thanks again for reading and for all of the support,

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

The Future of the Page

July 25, 2019August 9, 2020James Sweeney

We have had a lot of new readers join the page and the community recently and I believe that now is a good time to do an update post for the page in general. I know I did an update post last week but that was for the blog series that I run, today’s is going to be about the page in general.

Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!

First of all, I just wanted to say a big thank you for all the support that the blog has been getting recently. The speed in which the blog is growing still surprise me and it is excellent to see so many new readers each day. If you want to know more about me and why I write the blogs, feel free to check out the About Me page. The About Me page, https://sweeneysblog.com/about-me/, should hopefully cover all the areas on what the blog is and what we hope to achieve.

I do have a lot of ideas for where I see the blog going in the future. One of the next biggest steps that the blog is going to take is upgrading our website plan. Currently, the plan that I am using does not allow me to use plugins on the blog. Plugins are excellent tools that I believe would help take the blog to the next level. The only reason that I haven’t updated the page as of yet is that it is going to cost me around £300 a year. As I am a student living in University and the website itself doesn’t generate much income I simply cannot afford to update it in the future. In the meantime, I will do some research into what plugins would be good for the page when I can eventually afford to use them.

In terms of where the blog series are going on the page, I have started planing some of the series that I talked about in last weeks Future blog Series blog, https://sweeneysblog.com/2019/07/18/future-blog-series/, and I think that a few of them are nearly ready to start writing. I feel like the Stuttering in Mainstream Media series is going to go on for a while longer too. I am really enjoying writing the blogs for the series at the minute and they seem to be going down quite well with readers. I think that the blogs are going to remain as one blog for a series at the start of the week and one singular log at the end of the week but that may change in the future depends on how the blogs are doing. I might start doing a blog in one series at the start of the week and then one for another series at the end of the week. This is not for definite it is just speculation at this point.

For the business as a whole, I have quite a few milestones left to hit for this year. I am extremely happy with how fast the page is growing at the minute and I do hope that we surpass 5,000 total views by the end of the year. The way that I see it is that the more the blog grows, the more chance that someone who needs help from the blogs will get the chance to read them. The blogs are designed to help people so the more people that read them the better. If you know anyone who you think the blogs would help or anyone who is interested in the blog tell them to have a look. It is always nice to have new people join the community.

I am hoping to launch the second half of the business in the near future. The second half of the business is going to be me going into different organisations and business and doing talks and courses on Stuttering, Stress and Mental Health. If any of you know a business that needs courses run on any of these topics let me know. I do not want to charge much for the course just enough to keep the page running and allow me to expand it in the future.

I believe that is everything that I wanted to cover in today’s blog. I wanted to be clean with everything that I have planned for the page so thats where the inspiration for today’s blog came from. If anyone has any questions or comments about any of my blogs then please get in touch with me. You can get in touch through the comments on this post, through the contact page or even through our Facebook group, Sweeney’s Blogs!

Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed! Hope you all have a great week and remember to keep Highlighting the I in Difference!

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 4: Being Picked on by a Teacher

July 22, 2019August 9, 2020James Sweeney

Stuttering affects lots of different people in lots of different ways. One of the main factors to think of when it comes to stuttering is how people react to you. Teachers in school are there to support and mentor you so how do you react when one of them makes fun of your stutter? This is something that I have gone through and I will discuss it further in this blog.

Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!

Today’s blog is going to be the fourth blog in my Stuttering in Mainstream Media series and is going to focus on when I was picked on by a teacher in school for stuttering. I loved school and learning when I was younger and even though I encourage everyone to look at the positives all the time there are times when you need to look at the negatives to learn and develop from them. This blog is going to look at how a teacher picked on my stutter, how I reacted at the time and what we can learn from it.

The incident itself happened when I was in year 8 back in Secondary School. Me and my classmates in 8f were in a History lesson at the time. F was one of the top sets in the year. The class was close to the start of the year and our teacher asked us what we think we should learn about this year. Most of the class asked if we would learn about World War 2 or about Slavery and I would just sit and listen. I used to feel quite scared about speaking up in class due to my stutter but I finally thought I would give speaking a go.

I had been a big fan of reading encyclopaedias and history books at the time and had starting learning a lot about Oliver Cromwell. I had read all the books I had on him and didn’t understand the formal articles that were published online. I was really interested in his story however so decided to try and ask our teacher if we would be learning about him. Before I go further into the story I am not going to be mentioning the teachers name in theis blog as that is not the point of the blog, the point of the blog is to learn from my experience and how it affected me, it is not meant as an attack to the teacher in question.

I raised my hand and the teacher said my name. I started off asking the question, “Miss, do we get the chance to learn” when I just couldn’t get anymore words out. When I finally got the confidence to carry on every word I said was full of stutters, “abbbooout Oliver Cccrrrom Cromwell this year?” The question itself was easy to understand even though I stuttered a number of times. Instead of answering the question though the teacher decided to stop, make everyone quiet and then turned to speak to me.

She looked at me and said ” Jjjjames ssspeak prop-er-ly.” I just sat there staring at her in pure shock. I didn’t know how to react or what to do at the time. School was a place where I felt safe growing up and it is somewhere that I really enjoyed to be in. I couldn’t understand why someone in her position would make fun of me in front of the whole class. The rest of the class went completely silent too, no one knowing what to say or how to react.

This lesson was the very first lesson of the day. I didn’t speak again until lunchtime that day, around 4 hours after the lesson happened. No one really noticed that I wasn’t speaking until we all went out to get lunch. I was with my mates on the yard when a boy from my class comes over and starts telling everyone about what happened in History. I didn’t say a word when he was telling the story, I just listened and stared in the distance. When he finished the story everyone just turned and looked at me.

I did not know what to do when the boy was telling the story. I did not know how I should have felt, what I should have done, who I should have spoken to, etc. it is why I just stared into the distance, I was lost. After the boy finished telling the story all of my friends looked the same. Some spoke to me like they felt sorry for me, one or two seemed like they had genuine empathy for me and then the rest just didn’t react, they just stood there thinking.

It was when two of my good friends, Zac and Dylan, found out that action was taken. Zac and Dylan had been my friends all the way through Primary and Secondary school. They understood the affect that my stutter had on me and that making fun of it or joking about it was not okay. As soon as they found out what happened they came over to see if I was alright and if there was anything they could do.

Aftr speaking to me they went to see our Head of Year to make a complaint against the teacher, something I didn’t know they were going to do at the time. If Zac and Dylan take action there and then then I do not think that anything would have been done about it and I feel like I wouldn’t have gotten over this incident. In their own rights they can be classed as stutterspirations as they took action to help me, a person with a stutter out, when no one asked them too, they simply did it off their own backs. Even though they may not know it but they did a great thing that went a long way to helping me control my stutter.

As lunchtime break ended on that day everyone went back inside ready for afternoon registration. As I was walking back towards my class my Head of Year called me into her office. She informed me that Zac and Dylan came to her with a complaint against my history teacher and they told her what happened. She sat me down and asked me to go through my side of the story.

I took a set in her office and slowly explained everything that happened from the start of the day up to now and how it made me feel. She sat there listening making notes on a notepad. I stopped a few times when telling the story due to stuttering or when I would get a bit emotional going through it. It was at this point that the reality of what actually happened dawned on me.

After we finished discussing what happened she asked if I wanted to go home or if I wanted to stay in school. I said that I want to stay in school as there is only one lesson left in the day and do not want to fall behind on work. She then asked me if I want to make a complaint against the teacher or if I want to swap classes to be taught by a different history. I thanked her for both offers but refused them both. I would stay in the class, to prove to myself that I was strong enough and that I couldn’t be broken by one person.

It took me a while to get back to normal after that day. It took me around two to three days to start answering questions in class again and then around a week or so to start asking questions again. I was lucky that I was a fast learner at the time and that I understood the topics we were studying as I am the type of person that usually has a lot of questions about the work we are doing.

I decided against telling my parents what happened at first. I cannot remember exactly why i decided not to tell them but I think that I thought that if no one spoke about it then it would be forgotten about and then I could move on in some way. They eventually found out through a friend of mines mum at a football game on the following Saturday and then I filled them in on everything that had happened.

My mother decided to write a letter to the school voicing her concerns over the matter and then went in to have a meeting with the headmaster. During the following tutorial session on Monday morning I was called out of my class to go to the headmasters office. When I got there he asked me to sit down and tell him what happened from start to finish so I did. As I was talking through what happened he was just sitting there listening, nodding, trying to understand what happened and how to handle it.

After I had told him everything he got a fellow student to go and get the teacher from her class. When she came into his office, I started shaking, dreading what was going to happen next. He then asked me to repeat everything that I had just told him in front of the teacher. I started telling the story again, looking at her reaction every so often to she how she would react. As soon as I finished the story I closed my eyes for a few seconds to stop myself from breaking down and then turned to see what was going to happen.

Our headteacher made the teacher apologise to me and then he asked her to go back to her class. After she left the room he asked me if I was alright and if I wanted to go home. i said that I would stay in school thank you but I just need a few minutes to pick myself back up and then I would be find to go back to lessons. He nodded and agreed and told me that if I felt like I needed to leave any class for a few minutes then it would be more than fine and he would inform my other teachers on what had happened.

That is the story of how a teacher picked on me in front of the whole class back in Secondary school. I have never told the story to anyone since leaving school so it was quite nice to finally air it out and explain what actually happened. We can learn quite a lot from the story, even though it seems very negative and bleak there are a few interesting lessons we can take from it.

Firstly speaking out is very important. I was too scared to speak out about what happned at first but was very lucky that my good friends Zac and Dylan were there to do it for me. Speaking out takes a lot of courage but it is the only way that change will ever happen. We can’t just sit around and wait for change to happen, if we think something is wrong we have t speak up and try and make a change for the better. Speaking out seems like a very basic and easy thing but it can be one of the hardest things you can do. People usually don’t understand things unless you explain it to them.

Taking action is very important. Always try and take action yourself and if you see someone in trouble then try to help them out. Be the person that Zac and Dylan were for me. They saw that I was struggling and they stepped in. Always try your best to help people out, you never know they might return the favour in the future.

Secondly you can always pick yourself back up. After the teacher made fun of me I thought that I would never be able to speak in front of people again. It shook me to my core that someone in a position such as a teacher would pick on me in front of my whole class. It took me a while to understand that if I didn’t speak in class again then the only person it would impact on would be myself and I couldn’t let myself down because of someone else’s mistake.

That is all I want to talk about in today’s blog! I know today’s blog was a bit longer than what I usually do but I think it is important to go through the story and talk about how it affected me and how you can pick yourself back up again after someone knocks you down. What do you all think? Did you enjoy reading today’s blog? Have you got any stuttering stories you want to share? What do you think of what the teacher did? How would you react if it happened to you? Let me know your answers to the questions and any other thoughts you had on the blog in the comments or get in touch with me through the Sweeney’s Blogs Facebook page.

Thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoyed! Remember keep Highlighting the I in Difference!

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

Future Blog Series

July 18, 2019August 9, 2020James Sweeney

Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!

Today’s blog is going to act as an update blog focused around the future of different series on this page. I think that it is good to present a few of the ideas I have now and see if anyone wants them to become a series in the future or not. The ideas listed in this blog are not all of my ideas merely some of them but if you have an idea yourself for a series then please get in touch and we’ll discuss it further!

I have had one or two questions lately regarding the Looking Into Male Mental Health series. I do have every intention to bring the series back, I just need a bit of time to plan where the series was going. the last thing that I want to do is rush the blogs as that takes the care and sentiment away from them. As to when the series will come back, I am not 100% sure yet. I might bring the series back after the Stuttering in Mainstream Media series or maybe at a later date. When the series comes back is down to a few factors. If people really want to see the series return then it will come back sooner, if the Stuttering in Mainstream Media series does not go down very well then it’ll come back sooner and if I get a lot of messages regarding the series then I will bring it back sooner!

One series that I’ve wanted to do for a while is Into the Mind of a Bully. I feel like it would be quite a good series to run as it will encompass both personal experiences alongside factual evidence. The series will start off by talking about the most common reasons for bullying then will take a deeper look into it. I have had a lot of experience in regards to being bullied in my life so I think that I can portray a very real story.

Another potential series that I can run is one based off of Respect. Respect is a topic that is often refrained from talking about by most people but I think it could make quite a good series. We can take a look at the modern world and see what respect is nowadays and if there is still a divide between different social groups. I feel like this series can have a lot of different contrasting views and will make for some good discussions in the comments.

A sadder more emotional series that I could run would be called Watching them Fade Away. This series will look at the progression of Alzheimer’s and Dementia and how you are watching a loved one slowly fade away from in front of your very eyes. As mentioned previously it would be a sadder series but I feel like it would be a very informative one and will help deliver a strong message.

I am also thinking about possibly running a few series based off of University Students. There are quite a few series I could run off this topic such as student burnout and what university is actually like for a student. I believe these series will be good to take a look into student life and to show people that it is not always as easy as some people assume. This series will be quite fun to write as it will allow me to perform self-evaluation whilst writing it.

group of fresh graduates students throwing their academic hat in the air

The last series that I want to talk about in today’s blog is all about the Self Hate Cycle. I have talked about the Self Hate Cycle in a previous blog in my Looking into Male Mental Health series but feel like it would be an excellent topic to write a series on. As discussed in the blog, https://sweeneysblog.com/2019/06/11/looking-into-male-mental-health-blog-9-personal-experience-2/, the self-hate cycle is quite dark and bleak however there are ways to break out of it. I believe that if I were to run a series on it then I could balance out some of the negatives with the positives and show that if you are in this cycle there is always a way out, no matter how hard and long it may seem.

Thank you for reading today’s blog! What series would you like to see in the future? Are there any series that you want to see return? Are there any series that you are not a fan of and don’t want me to write? Do you have any ideas that you think would make a good series or even an individual blog? Let me know what you think of the blog and your answer to the questions in the comments below!

Thank you all for reading and I hope you have a great weekend! Remeber keep Highlighting the I in Difference!

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

July 15, 2019August 9, 2020James Sweeney

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

Hello and Welcome to Sweeney’s Blogs!

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.

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!

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

A positive Outlook for a Positive Life — mobevision.wordpress.com

July 11, 2019August 9, 2020James Sweeney

Our outlook and attitude on life, in general, plays a huge part in how happy we are in life and how successful we become. Someone who thinks positively about everything will be more relaxed, calm and smile more than someone who is always looking at the bad side, who lets stress get to them and […]

via A positive Outlook for a Positive Life — mobevision.wordpress.com