Not-So-Secret Diary

SHES BACK!

Hey everyone, its been a while.. an extremely long while to be precise.

Writing and blogging is a passion of mine that I love dearly and strongly enjoy doing which might make you ask ‘Leigh, if you love it so much.. why haven’t you posted in months?’. Good question, let me try and explain. I put far too much pressure on myself to be ‘perfect’.. I over worry that everything I type, makes no sense.. I stress that my spelling and grammar is terrible. In all honesty, I know these things sound so silly and everyone gets anxious but lately, I have been letting the anxiety overrule me and it has stopped me from doing many things that I love to do, one of them being this. The past few weeks I have taken time to reflect and decided to write down a few blog ideas on which I could do to start back up and I am so excited to announce that I am baaaaackk!!

Over the next few days, I’ll be finalising the posts and getting them published – there is a mixture of life updates, story times and DIY posts. Please let me know if you have any ideas, especially on the run up to Christmas as it is my favourite time of the year. I can’t explain enough just how excited I am to start my blog up again and get the ball rolling as I really enjoy engaging with everyone, I have missed sharing stories with everyone and making new friends.

Anyway, I won’t ramble on anymore as this was just a post to let you all know that the wheels are in motion and there will be lots of content coming over the next few weeks, and like I said – please let me know if you would like to see anything in particular as I am open to all new, crazy ideas!

Thanks for supporting and sticking by me and let me know how you all are and what you’ve been up to. Here’s to a hectic few weeks!

L x

Newcastle Upon Tyne

Hi everyone, been a while.

So I turned 21 and spent my birthday in the sunny Newcastle as it is a city I longed to visit and explore. We went from Edinburgh to Newcastle via train, me, my boyfriend and my best friend.. we had the best little holiday getting lots of ‘perfect pics’ and drunk of course.

It was funny actually, the one thing I used to love on TV was Geordie Shore and every time you mention it to a Geordie Uber driver they would go nuts telling us that’s not the only thing that they have going for them! Everyone was super friendly though and we only really needed a taxi to visit the Angel of the North as our hotel was right on the Diamond Strip.

When we first arrived, we headed to our hotel to get unpacked and changed, we then headed out to The Gate for some food in Nando’s and then some drinks in Wetherspoons, can never go wrong there! And our first night we visited The Alchemist as previously we had went to one in Liverpool and loved it and my friend hadn’t been before so we had to enlighten her to the fun, smokey cocktails.

The next day was my birthday, so we got up and had breakfast then went back to bed for a bit of a lie in, not going to lie I kinda needed it after the cocktails the night before.. oops! We then headed out to see all the touristy bits like the Tyne Bridge, the Angel of the North, Newcastle football stadium.. insert photo spam now, haha..

The night of my birthday, we went out on the Diamond strip, it was really busy as well considering my birthday was a Thursday! We went to Floritas, House of Smith, Bijoux and Flares, my favourite pub was definitely between Florita’s and Flares as they both had good energy and cocktails of course, duh!

Overall, we had such a good trip and I really enjoyed the couple of nights away for my birthday, I would recommend visiting Newcastle to anyone that hasn’t as everyone is so friendly and welcoming, it felt like we hadn’t left Scotland in a sense.

What’s your favourite city? Where do you think I should visit next? City break or beach holiday?

Lots of Love,

L x

Tips for Anxiety/Feeling Stressed

Hi everyone, how are you all doing today?

As you may have seen, I had taken a couple of weeks off of blogging altogether but I am back now and feeling more motivated than ever.

Lately, my mental health hasn’t been it’s strongest and I have been feeling more anxious and stressed, hence why I made the decision on cutting out social media for a bit. Not that blogging adds to the stress but I find that I put so much pressure on myself to add a post every single Sunday at 9am, now I have decided to change this and upload on whichever date of the week I decide and hopefully that will stop me getting myself in a rut as much. I hope this is okay for anyone that follows my blog as I have had a few messages asking if I was okay which I appreciate my lovelies, you can let me know in the comments.

For today’s post, I decided to give some advice on what I do for myself when I begin to feel stressed or anxious, including what I have been doing the past couple of weeks. Hope you enjoy, let’s get started.

1. Deep Breath

It sounds super simple but very effective. Take 10 minutes to yourself and just breathe, it’s handy to google up some breathing exercises and practice them and use them when you’re feeling on edge.

2. Bath and Cuppa

This doesn’t work for everyone but I love running myself a warm bubble bath and using some Lush products, watching them swirl and work away. I also enjoy boiling the kettle and sitting with a cup of tea (normally adding an extra sugar, if feeling low).

3. Talking

If you find yourself taking a dip, the best thing you can do is talk to someone, whether that be to a friend, family member or a doctor. The worst thing you can do is pretend your okay and march on, believe me on this one – I’m living proof.

4. Do Things That Make You Feel Good

Think of all the things you enjoy in life and do it! Play your favourite music, read your favourite book, go out and have dinner with friends. This will remind your sub-conscious of all the amazing things you can do that will take your mind off feeling stressed. One thing I would say is avoid alcohol as this can make it worse, and I don’t just mean when you wake up in a random house with beer fear!

5. Exercise, Exercise, Exercise!

Last but not least, in fact probably the most important – exercise! I have been doing this the past couple of weeks and it has helped me lots. Now, exercise doesn’t mean sign up to your nearest Gym and go everyday for 5 hours. It can be a short walk every day, go out cycling if you have a bike or even doing some light exercises whilst watching TV. My favourite is to walk my dog as where I live is surrounded by greenery and I have never been a nature person but oh my goodness, the pictures I can take whilst out with Rosie is so surreal. I will attach some clips now but I absolutely love this area for walking.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and hopefully it gave some advice to someone feeling a little down or stressed/anxious. Just please remember to not sit in silence. Your not alone.

Leigh Xx