Supporting Aware and #BeatTheBlues Campaign

Hey Everyone!

So this blog post is a little different to the rest. Today I want to write about Aware and the brilliant services they provide to people in Ireland and how they are ''Your supporting light through depression.''

In Ireland and all over the world, mental health illnesses are common yet many people hid their illness in shame and embarrassment. It's perceived to a 'weakness of character' and a 'fatal flaw' of a person. It doesn't have to be this way, and Aware have been and still are working hard to break down this stigma that has dominated Ireland for too long.

From their website it's easy to access information about mental illness such as depression, with startling statistics that ''depression affects 450,000 in Ireland at any one time'' That is A LOT of people, it's not just a number, their real people with lives, families and friends. The website is clear and makes finding information on depression easy and has lots of useful links.

Aware also have a #BeatTheBlues campaign which is a free programme for secondary schools in Ireland. #BeatTheBlues is a positive mental health campaign for senior-cycle students in secondary school. Just last Monday I attended the programme as every Sixth Year student in my school had been attending at different times throughout the week.

I can honestly say it was two class periods well spent. We received a booklet and discussed 'The Coping Triangle'  and how to form a coping sentence from using your concerns. I found the coping sentence so effective as I'm in Sixth Year, I'm really worried about getting good test results and achieving all my goals in the Leaving Cert next June. I found that writing down my thoughts, feelings and actions so helpful to articulate my worries about school and my future.

I felt that the programme was brilliant to attend, especially early into Sixth Year, it has since alleviated my stress with studying and the breathing technique we learnt has been quite useful too. We also got to keep the booklet which I've been reading in my spare time and made me realise that I don't have to study 24/7, it's better to study effectively for a short time, rather than study badly and not absorb information for 6 hours straight. It's better to take a break and do something you want to do, like write a blog post!

Aware also have a campaign video here which features graffiti artist Hyerografx and accurately portrays how mental health is so important to us all.

In the midst of studying for exams, it's important to take time to relax and rest :) 

I hope you all enjoyed reading this blog post, if you want to find out any more information about depression or Aware, here is their website. There's lots of easily accessed information and remember, it's okay not to feel okay. 

Stay Strong, Happy & Fearless!

Aveen xx

A Letter To My Ten Year Old Self..

Hey Everyone!

As you can tell by the title of this blog post, this is a letter to my ten year old self, basically if I could meet my ten year old self, I would offer myself this advice. So here goes!

Dear Aveen, (Aoibhainne, long story okay)

Well, this is weird. You thought of this idea in work and thought it would be a cool thought. At this moment, it’s nearing the end of summer 2014. Which in all honesty was a pretty good summer for you. The Gaeltacht, a summer job, blogging and just, living. Living and breathing happily with no anxiety or worry building in your stomach is quite a good thing. I think going back to your time it’s a completely different scenario filled with the things I hate now.

Age ten, being told you have your whole life ahead of you (which is true) but feeling stuck in a never ending spiral of hate, tears and questions. The year you got your first mobile phone, the purple one with the pretty design. You were also in Fourth Class, the year you started writing in your diary about what everyone in school was doing to you. I still have that diary in my room despite not writing in it for nearly seven years. It’s painful to read whenever I muster up the courage to, but you’re stronger now for going through it all.

At the moment life is really good. I’m nervous for starting Sixth Year, a time you never thought would ever come. It always felt like you would never escape that gravelly yard with the ‘gold stones’ which you all collected in the pencil sharpener.  Even then you were so determined to do well in the Entrance Exam for secondary school. To get away from all those awful girls was one of your main plans for years. Good news is that you do get away from the majority of them which makes you content for a while. A word of advice, those who you trust most mightn’t share the same trust and respect for you. The people you thought you could trust most, will try drag you down past their low level but all you can do is keep your head held high and ignore all their online taunts and be a bigger better person with the moral high ground.

Please don’t be ashamed of my actions. When the flashbacks start when you’re older, don’t ignore them. Please. Do something about it and go see someone earlier than I should have. When the darkness starts following you in the inescapable maze, fight it and fight it hard. There’s so many more happy times to follow, not just for you age ten but for me, a month off eighteen. Remember that ‘’Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, but only if one can remember to turn on the light’’ You read it in The Goblet Of Fire aged seven remember?

You’ll get glasses in another year. It seems so horrible at first, these grotesque awkward things on your face but when you have good vision wearing them you won’t complain for long. Your chubby cheeks will disappear in a few years. They might start calling you ‘’Four eyes’’ and countless other insults but trust me, you’ve something they don’t, imagination, motivation and a hell of a lot of determination. I can say this enough, It Gets Better, I promise. Just hold tight, something that seems impossible when you’re desperately hiding your tear stained cheeks and red eyes from the teachers and those awful girls every day in that horrible playground.

At the moment in 2014 you have a much better life. You feel happy, you remember what a smile is and you know how to produce one on your own face with one dimple on your right cheek. You still have glasses but they’re actually kind of cool. You have a blog that’s been nominated for awards and people actually email you for advice on blogging and all sorts. Slightly weird thing to balance with studying Leaving Cert subjects at Honours level. Yes, even maths! The reason you were so awful at maths in 4^th class is because you couldn’t actually SEE the board, despite your arguments that you could. You actually love school now, you always loved learning but even more so now with teachers that have faith in you and know you are so determined to do well and become a primary school teacher. Yes, STILL you want to be a primary school teacher even though your experience of the place was so horrific.

However, maybe that’s why. To stop any other innocent child from having to cope with so many horrible bullies, self-doubt, self-loathing and general atrocities that you did. I’m not saying the next few years will be easy, they won’t be I can promise that. But, they will help you develop into a more confident girl, still striving for perfection in your school work and with that same hard work ethic and determination that the ten year old girl with tear stained cheeks attempted to strive for.

Keep Strong.

Aveen. (It’s only Aoibhainne in school now, yay!) 

My 2013, a review of The Life Of Me.

Hey Everyone!

So it's the end of 2013, another time span of 365 days has passed. This year has been a really intriguing year for me, but as Augustus Water said ''I'm on a roller coaster that only goes up my friend'' and I feel that this year was similar for me, things only went up, even when others were trying to bring it down. I feel I really matured this year and learnt a lot of life lessons. I even started properly blogging on this blog in 2013 which is a huge thing for me, blogging is just one of my favourite hobbies now!

I started this year in a bad place, let's be honest! I have discussed this in a blog post here about my mental health and how negative my thoughts were(how wonderfully optimistic).But this not dominating this blog post. I started this year in denial, unsure about what my future held in store for me, I had dreams yes, but I had no idea how to achieve them or if I ever would. I eventually figured out that I had a future, I'd been scared I would never ''achieve my potential'' A bright future had been promised for me for years by teachers and so many more people. I was terrified I would amount to very little in life. I eventually saw the light in late May (ironically the end of the school year I was in, I'm saying nothing) I contribute this milestone to obviously my family and friends, but also to writing on this blog helped so much, so I'd like to say a huge thank you to everyone who reads my blog and supports me through everything. (Don't worry this entire blog post isn't a sob story)

I know my peers slag off my blog at every possible opportunity (please stop lying to my face thanks) but another life lesson I learnt is to not care about what everyone else thinks of you. What's more important is how you view yourself, if you view yourself negatively, then everyone else will too, that's not right. View yourself as a good, positive person. You can only be yourself and you might as well accept who you are instead of constantly changing to please everyone around you. Over this year my self image has improved tremendously, I feel much more comfortable in myself and I'm so glad about that. I used to be so self conscious (I still am at times, nobody is perfect but it's nowhere near as bad as I was) and I used to worry about what everyone in school would say about me and think about me. I thought how other people viewed me was more important than how I viewed myself, which is wrong. Now, it doesn't bother me, if you hate me, it's your problem. (Wow Aveen, such a nice thing to say in your 2013 review)

Of course, this year hasn't only been about peasant fighting and inner turmoil, I feel that I have achieved a lot this year. I went all over Ireland and even to London! I began properly blogging in March 2013 and it's something I truly love. I've always wanted to write, but I felt I was too young to write a book/novel (I've several idea's written down in notebooks and whatnot) so blogging is a way for me to constantly write and even receive feedback and get to know other bloggers all over Ireland, the UK and even further away. It also helped me see what I was doing with my life during a time when I had no idea what the future held for me. I now know exactly what I want in life and I'm edging closer and closer everyday to achieving the dreams I've dreamt for as long as I can remember.

It's been an interesting year, but I wouldn't take back anything for the world. Every experience, both positive and negative, builds our character and our coping mechanisms for the future, I feel fearless in ways,I even jumped on a zip wire when I'm afraid of heights! I also learnt that people have ulterior motives and I have to stop taking people at face value. I read about these kind of people in books, but I never experienced anyone like that until this year, but it's a good life lesson to know people like that, so it won't happen again in the future. I've learnt that everybody isn't your friend, but you shouldn't jump to conclusions about people, and I shouldn't judge everyone by their cover as I hate when people judge me by mine.

I also joined the school public speaking team which was a huge leap for me. I've always loved public speaking for some reason, the thrill of the audience has always enthralled me. It was my first speech in years, we had to have a ''speak off '' for the four places on the team and the topic was mental health. It was a huge feeling for me to be discussing mental health, I couldn't believe it when I made the team. At our first competition the topic was mental health. I was our first speaker which was a huge thing for me, you have no idea! As a girl who isolated herself from everyone for months, pretending to be fine and became socially awkward, speaking in front of an audience was an adrenaline rush of excitement and fear, and one I relive and feel happy about.

As you will see below, I had a tin in the shape of a London bus with random pieces of paper. From January 1st to late March approx, every time I had a happy memory, anything that made me happy during that time, I wrote it down on a scrap of paper and put it into the tin. I eventually stopped as I felt I didn't need to cling as much to these pieces of paper. Yesterday, for the first time since March, I opened the tin and I read every single piece of paper. It was quite interesting and it showed to me how far I've come this year and I felt slightly proud of that. It really hit me when I saw one dated as ''January 1st 2013'' and two words ''Be Strong'' it was quite a shock for me, this year I feel I became strong, happy and fearless.

 Through blogging, I've met so many new people who I would have never met unless I started blogging, huge shout out to all my blogging friends and to the blogs I read, you all know who you are and I'd be afraid I would forget someone if I tried listing everyone! The Life Of Me has opened a huge new corner of the Internet to me, a community filled with lovely genuine people who I've never met in real life and share similar interests and hobbies, but make me feel as though I do know really well outside the computer screen. *Coughs, you all know who you are, even if we've only tweeted once or twice, I still consider you a bloggy friend!*

With Grace of Dainty Sprinkles! 

All the scraps of 'happy memories' from January to March, I stopped after the London trip.

The very first.

In January, I attended the NUI Maynooth Essay Law Competition, I came fourth (I think) in the category of cyber-bullying, they even quoted me ! 

It snowed for like two hours that one day.

Accurate (Source Tumblr ~ KickThePJ)

The first photo of myself I posted on my blog! Oh the memories! 

The Lovely Dan Howell (Danisnotonfire) whose videos made me laugh so much my stomach hurt, thank you.

The mental health group Project Smilier (we were to help increase positive mental health in the community, my life is one ironic moment I swear)

This year I became obsessed with Tumblr and these two! Phil Lester and Dan Howell, if you know me IRL or stalk my Tumblr, you'll understand the depth of my love for these two YouTubers

Siobhan and I on the London Eye, March 2013. 

Tower bridge (this was my laptop screen saver for months)

Big Ben and Houses of Parliament, I went to London on a school trip and I'd love to go back there again, I simply adored London!

The photo of me that seems to be everywhere..

A group of people who also went on the group, this was on our last night after we saw Stomp in the West End.

Posing outside a phone box with my cousin Olivia 

With Emer in London

I have to admit, this wasn't taken in Downing Street, it's from the Churchill Museum ssh!

I won a certificate from the Seanad (Senate in Ireland) for my speech about ''The Challenges That Face Ireland And Does My Future Lie Here?'' 

                  

A photo of Project Smilier on the set of Fair City with Jim Breen of Cycle Against Suicide, we even made the newspaper! 

On the same day with Colm Hayes (of 2FM), Jim Breen and the other student leaders of CAS. 

At the Leaders On Our Level conference in Croke Park with Colm ''The Gooch'' Cooper! He's a Gaelic footballer and a pure legend. At the conference I also met people like Enda McNulty (who now follows me on Twitter, holla) and lots more interesting people.

Two of my friends Maeve & Caítlín with the model Roz Purcell (she's so lovely in real life)

Always very mature.. 

Caítlín & Maeve on the last day of TY in May

My current profile picture on nearly every single social networking site I'm on!

With my crazy cousins Owen and Oisin! 

The John Green book shrine! 

With Grace from Dainty Sprinkles!! 

My name (in Irish) during the Coca Cola epidemic of names on bottles.. 

RAWR! 

On my 17th with Tara :) 

With Mary, Grace, myself, Tara and Viv for my 17th in September! 

With Aoileann in Tayto Park with the Irish club :)

Grace and I recording one of our YouTube videos

A meme made by the lovely Grace ! (Several others were not suitable for public viewing) haha

Beside the Catching Fire poster! 

Halloween! In a cow onesie.. oh dear. 

Another meme! 

Testing out my tripod (FredOrGeorge)

With my friend Emily at the Spleodar (Irish club) Christmas dinner

With Shannon at the Spleodar Christmas dinner (In Irish of course)

With my friend Maeve of Maeve's Fashion ! 

With Grace filming another YouTube video! 

We're normal people I swear. 

Christmas Eve!

Selfies beside the silage pit

One of the MANY quotes that I live by.

(Source Google Images)

With Harry Styles (ahem he's real I swear)

Christmas Day with my cousin Owen :) 

So I guess that's it for now! Let 2014 begin! 

If you're wondering why this blog post is before New Year's Day, it's due to Sherlock season 3 starting on New Year's Day and I doubt I would be in a calm state to blog on the day. #SherlockLives if you're a Sherlockian check out my Tumblr and we can squeal over Benedict Cumberbatch together! 

A huge thank you to everyone who reads my blog, it's a huge support. I wish every single one of you a brilliant 2014 and the wealth of health and happiness.

Stay Strong, Happy and Fearless! 

Aveen xx