Advice To Ensure You Remain Happy & Healthy Year-Round

Mental health advice - Woman holding smiley balloon
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Self-care is so important these days with all the hustle and bustle that comes with life and having a busy schedule. You simply can’t afford to not put yourself first and make taking care of yourself a top priority. Let today be the day you see your value and worth and realize you have control to make impactful changes in your life. If you’re ready to reset and get a boost of energy and motivation then you’re in the right place. The following information contains advice to ensure you remain happy and healthy year-round.

Get Moving & Stay Physically Active

It’s not just about getting daily exercise anymore but it’s also important that you move more throughout the day. It’s especially vital if you have a sedentary job or lifestyle currently. Stay physically active by joining a gym or creating a home gym for yourself. It’s also beneficial to get outside in nature as much as possible and break a sweat by running, walking, or hiking. Working out can be enjoyable if you choose the right activities for yourself and listen to music.

Nurture Your Mental Health

Your mental health is another critical factor as it relates to your overall well-being. Be sure to nurture your mental state regularly and check in with yourself. If you notice you’re feeling down and out of sorts and can’t seem to shake it then you should highly consider seeking out mental health treatment. These professionals know what they’re doing and can help get you to a better place with your thoughts, feelings, and emotions as well as how you view and process life.

Maintain Healthy Relationships

Surround yourself with good people if you want to remain happy and healthy year-round. Who you choose to spend time with regularly matters and has an impact on your mood and life. Once you find the right people then make sure you make time for them and reach out to stay in touch. These can be personal as well as professional relationships that you work hard to maintain.

Eat A Balanced Diet

What you eat throughout the day can also impact your mental health and happiness. It’s not always easy to eat a balanced diet but you can do so if you focus and are more mindful about the foods you choose to eat. Try to grocery shop and cook for yourself if possible, which will allow you to better monitor what you’re eating and portion sizes. While eating out is convenient you may take in extra calories and you’ll notice you spend more money this way.

Get Enough Sleep Nightly

Getting a good night’s sleep is vital when it comes to your mental and physical health. It’s one area of your life you should never skimp on. Remain happy and healthy year-round by getting into a bedtime routine and on a sleep schedule. You’ll wake up feeling much more rested and energized to seize the day when you go to bed at a decent hour. Invest in a comfortable mattress and bedding and make sure your bedroom is dark enough and set to a good temperature so you can fall and stay asleep.

How To Nourish Your Mental Health

Many of us automatically think about our bodies when we discuss health and healthy living. The definition of health also covers mental and social well-being. Taking good care of your mind is as important as looking after your body. In this informative article, we’ll share some top tips to help you nourish your mental health. 

Picture from https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-sitting-on-gray-rock-near-body-of-water-185801/

Spot the signs of mental health disorders

Mental health disorders are often more difficult to detect and diagnose because symptoms are less obvious and clear-cut. If you have a bad back or a broken leg, for example, it’s easy to see and understand what the problem is and identify an effective treatment.

Symptoms like feeling sad and low, or experiencing anxiety and irritability are natural human emotions. It’s crucial to be able to spot the signs of mental health conditions and to distinguish them from natural responses or reactions. It’s understandable to feel bereft if you’ve lost somebody special to you, or to be nervous if you’ve got an interview, for example. It’s not healthy to go through prolonged periods of feeling low or desperate or to feel anxious in scenarios where there are no obvious threats, risks, or triggers. If you don’t feel yourself, or you’ve started to notice changes in your behaviour, seek advice. There is help available. 

Give yourself time to rest and relax

Many of us experience stress because we’re too busy. We have too much on our plates and we feel like we’re always juggling too many balls. If this scenario sounds familiar, try to ensure that you take time out. Give yourself time to rest and relax. Take the leave you’re entitled to from work or speak to your employer if your workload is too heavy. Get away for a weekend or book a holiday. Make sure you get enough sleep. If you have trouble sleeping, try changing your routine and your sleeping environment. Create a serene sanctuary and set a daily bedtime.

You could also explore remedies and therapies like CBD oil, essential oils such as lavender and chamomile, meditation, and yoga. Being active can help to improve sleep quality. Use your evenings to wind down before you go to bed. Listen to music, read a book, watch TV, or run a hot bath. Avoid checking emails and scrolling through social media in bed. 

Exercise

Exercise is often associated with heart health and strong muscles and bones, but it also offers amazing benefits for the mind. Working out, playing sports, and being active in nature can help to reduce stress and anxiety, lower the risk of depression and help you to manage and express your emotions. Exercise can be a welcome distraction and it helps you to clear your mind and refocus.

Try to exercise daily. Go for a walk during your lunch break, visit the gym, work out at home, or join exercise classes or local clubs and teams. Make exercise fun. Get friends and family members involved, vary activities, and get out and about. If you love the great outdoors, for example, why not take a hike, go climbing or mountain biking, or try kayaking or open-water swimming?

Image source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/couple-sitting-on-rock-beside-lake-238622/

Mental well-being is an integral part of healthy living. Most of us take steps to protect and nourish our bodies, but we often neglect our minds. Learn to spot the signs of mental health disorders, give yourself time to rest and relax and exercise regularly to boost your mental and physical health.

My Name Is Ten By Colleen Macmahon

I received My Name is Ten By Colleen Macmahon to read and review thanks to Random Things Blog Tours. My Name is Ten is a dystopian thriller set in 2092 following a young girls time at The Kennels where she may be executed.

My Name Is Ten

She has six weeks. Six weeeks to be chosen or to die…

2092 and the world has been left scorched by the catastrophic solar eruptions of 2025 and turned larely into desert. The competition for resources is firce and often brutal. The young, healthy and fertile are commodities prized for their resilience and reproductive potential; they are bed, bought and traded by the wealthy elite and discarded when no longer of use.

When 17 year old Akara – once a pampered and highly valued Protégé – loses both her physical perfection and her documents, she is incarcerated in The Kennels. If she is not adopted she faces extermination.

Or possibly worse.

Colleen Macmahon

Colleen MacMahon is an English actress, artist and award winning author of short stories. She has narrated audiobooks, designed book covers, written plays for theatre groups and taught and mentored children, young adults and so-called grown ups. She lives in the beautiful Devon countryside with three dogs, a lot of wildlife, and a (mostly) patient partner who spends an unreasonable amount of time sorting out her technical messes. 

My Name Is Ten is her debut novel and she is currently working on its sequel.

My Thoughts

I spotted the invite for this tour and was intrigued by the name and felt a dystopian thriller would change up my reading a little bit. I am so glad I did as I really enjoyed I am Ten. The story begins with Akara in The Kennels, awaiting her judgment, reflecting on her life. Colleen Macmahon writes in such detail you almost feel as though you are right there. With such a unique storyline I hope Colleen Macmahon writes more books like this. I think either as a series or standalone stories they would make a great collection!

Best Served Cold By Gabriel Galletti

I received Best Served Cold by Gabriel Galletti, a crime thriller, to review thanks to Random Things Blog Tours.

Best served cold by Gabrielle Galletti

Best Served Cold

Revenge is a dish best served cold.”

Grudges harboured and hatreds hidden but not forgotten.

Then a catalyst ignites the flame…
Someone in Leeds is settling old scores.

The Police ask Chad Hilton, an ex-pro footballer turned criminal profiler, for help. But his wife’s infidelity and his addiction to painkillers are pushing him close to the edge.

As the body count rises, can Chad uncover the murderer before his demons destroy him?

Gabriel Galleti

It’s said that everyone has a book in them…But do they?

After a forty year career in business spanning four continents, Gabriel Galletti
sat at the keyboard and began to write. Could he do it? Indeed should he do it?

One Pandemic and three lockdowns later, and with huge assistance from Cornerstones Literary Agency and fantastic thriller writers Mark Leggatt and Neil Broadfoot, all Gabriel’s passions – Yorkshire, Crime Thrillers and
Leeds United have come together to produce his debut novel Best Served Cold.


Best Served Cold is the first in a series set in Leeds and
introducing Chad Hilton as the flawed ex-footballer turned profiler.

My Thoughts

From the get go it felt a little like I was reading a different version of House! Another pain riddled, painkiller addicted answer seeker, and I was not disappointed.

Chad Hilton is an ex footballer helping police as a criminal profiler on a murder case, things very quickly pick up speed with a missing persons case possibly linked, but how!? Not to mention the stress and strains from his personal life that also take a dark turn!

As Chad battles his own demons he works tirelessly to solve the case he is working on, but can he figure it all out in time, kick his addiction and save his relationship?

I really enjoyed Best Served Cold and knowing it is the first in the series I will definitely be on the lookout for the rest of the series as they are released!

Happier Dayz as the !!!!!Live And Let Die Trader

I’ve been so quiet here lately and for once it’s not because I’m hiding in a bout of depression! We’ve been watching The Running Manz on YouTube for a few years now, he plays a game called Dayz, a zombie survival game. I’m not really a gamer but Paul is so funny and there is just so much to the game it got me and the Mr interested!

The girls got an Xbox for Christmas but barely used it so I figured I’d try out Dayz, I sucked and kept getting killed by zombie but I was hooked and loved hunting for what I needed around the map. When you die you respawn with a glow stick, bandage and piece of fruit and you have to find everything from food, clothes, weapons, building materials etc.

I bought it for the Mr on pc too hoping to play together but then we realised it isn’t cross platform so we both just kept trying out official servers and whilst we had fun we didn’t really get too far with any of our characters, lasting maybe a day or so at a time.

During school runs the Mr mentioned to Eva’s friends parents we had been trying out Dayz and they played too on Xbox so I joined them and they discovered an awesome server called Racoon City UK which recently change to Live And Let Die as it seems the name is used by a few servers and some were upset with us having the same name, we decided it was much simpler to change the name than end up in a silly war.

We instantly got down to business building a base, raided someone else’s who then raided us and over time I found myself spending most of my days killing zombies, looting and setting myself challenges like gathering logs and planks to build bigger bases, eventually we had to start trading to empty out a bit! Naturally I spent a lot of time winding up my friend too when he was annoying, like the time I moved the crates and dropped them everywhere knowing he likes them neat and tidy haha!

Community Trader

With the latest update to Dayz the server needed to wipe clean, all bases gone, everyone starts fresh at the coast so our awesome admin decided to create a safe zone so people could get themselves settled in, especially if new to the game, he even added houses for people to have some storage that can’t be raided. He created a friendly little community, outside of the safe zone is kill on sight anywhere though so you don’t lose that pvp feel and having to watch your back. It’s a fun server with very few rules, just don’t be a dick!

In the safe zone I now have a warehouse for my trading with items that spawn in which we sell for nails, people can easily find in the trucks loaded with building items all around the map, giving people a good start without making things so easy they get bored. It’s such a great little server all round to be honest and always something random happening!

The full Xbox community server name is below if you would like to join me. Feel free to come say hi, I’m always wearing a purple bandana and now a green arm band and occasionally a pumpkin head whilst dancing around stupidly! 😁

!!!!!LIVE AND LET DIE/CUSTOM MAP/SZ/Trader discord.gg/sW7WXFFqZ5

Happier Dayz

It’s crazy how much I have gotten into this game, it just had so much going for it and it’s actually helped me so much with my health and mental health too. I’m no longer spending my days stressed, worrying and over thinking because I’m busy helping people or hunting or building or even planting pumpkins and doing a rain dance. I’m not pushing myself physically, I can stay sat in one place longer now and I hurt less for it, I’m sleeping a little better because of it all too.

This week I’d usually be a pacing stressed mess, Eva’s presents haven’t all arrived in time, people are unsure if they can visit on the day or come for the meal we have planned but I realise I can’t solve it all and just taking it as it comes, I’ve apologised and explained everything to Eva and she seems to be taking it well, she does at least have some new art supplies and a tonne of vbucks for fortnite which should last her at least 10 seconds haha! My anxiety seems to have calmed a little, definitely not completely but enough to no longer feel I need to chase help. I’m accepting my limits and enjoying Dayz when I reach them and realising that having something for me is a good thing, plus I get to wear purple! 😁💜

Do you have a game that you really enjoy and makes you feel happier? Have you ever played Dayz before?

The Way Of The Worm By Ramsey Campbell

I received The Way Of The Worm by Ramsey Campbell to read and review thanks to random things blog tours. This is book 3 in the Three Births of Daoloth Trilogy, a fantastic modern horror that really sucks you in.

The Way Of The Worm

The present day, or something very like it. Dominic Sheldrake has retired from lecturing and lives on his own. His son Toby is married with a small daughter. The occultist Noble family are more active than ever. Their cult now openly operates as the Church of the Eternal Three,and has spread worldwide. The local branch occupies the top floors of Starview Tower, a Liverpool waterfront skyscraper.

To Dominic’s dismay, Toby and his wife Claudine are deeply involved in it, and he suspects they are involving their small daughter Macy too.
Dominic lets his son persuade him to attend a meeting of the church, where he encounters all three generations of the Nobles. Although Christian Noble is almost a century old, he’s more vigorous than ever– inhumanly so. The
family takes turns to preach an apocalyptic sermon that hints at dark secrets masked by the Bible and at the future that lies in wait.

In a bid to investigate further Dominic undergoes the rite the church offers its members, which confers the ability to travel psychically through time. Before he’s able to flee
back to the present he has a vision of the monstrous fate that’s in store for the world.
Dominic discovers a secret he’s sure the Nobles won’t want to be made public. Although he has retired from the police, Jim helps him establish the truth, and Roberta publishes it on her online blog. It’s the subject of a court
case, the results of which seem to defeat the Nobles, only for them to return in a dreadfully transformed shape.

Now Dominic and his friends are at their mercy,and is there anywhere in the world to hide? Even if they manage somehow to deal with the Nobles, there may be no escaping or preventing the alien apocalypse that all the events of the trilogy have been bringing ever closer…

Ramsey Campbell

Ramsey Campbell was born in Liverpool in 1946 and
now lives in Wallasey. He has received the Grand Master
Award of the World Horror Convention, the Lifetime
Achievement Award of the Horror Writers Association,
the Living Legend Award of the International Horror
Guild and the World FantasyLifetime Achievement
Award. In 2015 he was made an Honorary Fellow of Liverpool John Moores University for outstanding services to literature.


His first book was published by the legendary Arkham House when he was eighteen years old. His later work draws on the British and American traditions of horror fiction. It ranges from the psychological to the ghostly,
the subtly uncanny to the cosmic, the quietly disquieting to the terrifying, the poignant to the darkly comic.

His Flame Tree books include Thirteen Days by
Sunset Beach, in which afamily on holiday encounters an ancient horror on a Greek island,and Think Yourself Lucky, where the internet lets loose the monsters lurking within people just like us. In Somebody’s Voice a writer
finds his memoryand personality threatened by trying to write the memoir of a victim of abuse. The Three Births of Daoloth trilogy– The Searching Dead, Born to the Dark and The Way of the Worm – pits three childhood friends
against a terror as vast as time and space.
Three of Campbell’s novels have been filmed – The Influence (available from FLAME TREE PRESS), Pact of the Fathers and The Nameless (in development as a Netflix series). He reviewed films for the local BBC for nearly forty years, and is presently working on an appreciation of the Three Stooges, Six Stooges and Counting. A new supernatural novel, Fellstones, is in progress too.

My Thoughts

Ramsey Campbell really draws you into his world of horror, I couldn’t put The Way of The Worm down! A storyline unlike any other I’ve read, Dominic and his friends just can’t let Toby, Claudine and Macy get wrapped up in a religious cult they suspect is run by the same monster they came up against years ago. My heart was racing hoping Dominic and his friends could somehow persuade Toby to see who or what their religious leader really was before something could happen to his granddaughter.

Shadow Flicker

I received Shadow Flicker by Gregory Bastianelli to review thanks to Random Things Blog Tours.

Shadow Flicker

Investigator Oscar Basaran travels to Kidney Island off the coast of Maine to document the negative effects of shadow flicker from wind turbines on residents living near the windmills, but is unprepared for what he encounters from the islanders. Oscar’s research shows that sleep deprivation, light deficiency and ringing headaches brought on by the noise and constant strobe-like effect of the sun filtered through the spinning blades of the turbines brings on hallucinatory episodes for the closest neighbors to the machines.


Melody Larson’s elderly father nearly chokes to death after stuffing dandelion heads into his mouth. The Granberrys’ pregnant cow repeatedly runs headlong into a fence post. Tatum Gallagher mourns her young son
who vanished more than a year ago, presumed swept out to sea by a wave while fishing on the rocky shore, but several people claim to see him appear only in the glimmer of the shadow flicker.


Aerosource, the energy corporation that owns the turbines, hired Oscar to investigate the neighbors’ claims, but the insurance agent shows no allegiance to the conglomerate, especially after learning a previous
employee sent to the island a year before has disappeared without a trace.
When Oscar meets former island school science teacher Norris Squires, fired for teaching his students about the harmful effects of shadow flicker, he learns a theory regarding Aerosource that sounds too preposterous to
believe.
While it seems the shadow flicker effect has driven some of the island’s animals crazy, is it possible it’s caused an even worse mental breakdown among the human inhabitants? Or is something more nefarious at work on
the island?

As Oscar’s investigation deepens, he discovers the turbines create an unexpected phenomena kept secret by a select group of people on Kidney Island who have made a scientific breakthrough and attempt to harness its
dark power.

My Thoughts

I thoroughly enjoyed Shadow Flicker, I really enjoy a good horror that actually creeps you out a little because it’s almost believable. I love Stephen King and Ramsey Campbell and this is definitely a long those lines and a book I would recommend to fans of these authors too!

Gregory Bastianelli

Gregory Bastianelli is the author of the novels Snowball, Loonies and Jokers Club. Horrornews.net described him as the ‘messiah of macabre.’ His stories have appeared in the magazines Black Ink Horror, Sinister Tales and Beyond Centauri; the anthologies Night Terrors II, Cover of Darkness and Encounters;and the online magazines Absent Willow Review and Down in the Cellar. His novella The Lair of the Mole People appeared in the pulp anthology Men & Women of Mystery Vol. II.

Gregory graduated from the University of New Hampshire where he studied writing. He worked for nearly two decades at a small daily newspaper where
the highlights of his career were interviewing shock rocker Alice Cooper and B-movie icon Bruce Campbell.
He became enchanted with the stories of Ray Bradbury as a young child,band his love of horror grew with the likes of Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, Stephen King and Ramsey Campbell.

He lives in Dover, New Hampshire. He enjoys kayaking, hiking and cycling in the summer and snowshoeing and racquetball in the winter. Along with spending time with family, he enjoys traveling, especially to Italy where he
has visited his ancestral home and relatives residing there and hiked the Path of the Gods on the Amalfi Coast and to the top of Mt. Vesuvius.
He is a member of the Horror Writers Association and the New England Horror Writers. You can find out more about his work at gregorybastianelli.com.

The Better Brother by Simon Gravatt

I received The Better Brother by Simon Gravatt to review thanks to Random Things Blog Tours, a story of two brothers wrapped in dark humour.

The Better Brother

Michael Merriweather despises his brother. He never wants to see Jack again. But then their father dies
and leaves a will that requires the warring siblings to run the family funeral business together as a
condition of them receiving their inheritance. As a result, the brothers face a series of difficult decisions
that will change their lives.


Michael and Jack are at each other from the word go. Their opposing views on how to run the business
descends into a very personal conflict that will have catastrophic consequences. Soon, all that matters to
each of them is a burning desire to come out on top and prove himself to be the better brother.


Layers of festering resentment are gradually unpeeled in this darkly comic tale of sibling rivalry, laced with
the power, passion, reprisals and everyday friction of family business.

My Thoughts

It’s been a while since I read a book quite so amusing considering it begins with the death of the main characters father! Sibling rivalries are always amusing but rarely do you find a book quite like this. I really enjoyed reading about the two different personalities, seeing two totally different people from the same family has always intrigued me and I was curious which brother really would come out on top!

Simon Gravatt

Simon Gravatt is a first-time novelist who lives in South London. He’s drawn from personal experience as a brother and business owner to write his tale of sibling rivalry and the combustibility of small business. Simon is married with two adult children.

The Cactus Surgeon: Using Nature To Fix A Faulty Brain By Hannah Powell

I received The Cactus Surgeon: Using Nature to Fix a Faulty Brain by Hannah Powell to review thanks to Random Things Blog Tours. I was looking forward to reading this as I often feel like being a busy polluted area makes my health worse, I was intrigued to see if moving and spending more time surrounded by nature really did help.

The Cactus Surgeon

Living in London, Hannah suffered burnout and was diagnosed with a functional neurological disorder. With no information available to help her, she found her own way to get better.

Growing up in a garden centre, her childhood was full of nature and plants. This was in stark contrast to the concrete of the capital, where she became unwell. In searching for the answers to her illness, she wonders whether being torn from her pot and replanted in a more hostile environment was the reason her body started to malfunction.

After seeking out alternative therapies, and moving to the countryside of North Essex, her ‘green recovery’ continued.

It’s a book of mindful moments, savouring the small wonders of nature

My Thoughts

Hannah Powell starts by explaining where her burnout began, how busy her life was in the lead up to her ill health. It’s a stark contrast to the childhood she then goes on to share with her readers and it’s easy to see why reverting back to a greener way of life both appealed and made sense as a way of therapy/treatment for how ill Hannah had become and how by doing so this improved other areas of her life too. It was lovely reading about her life in North Essex as its not too far from me and reminded me it’s not all grey and horrible here too!

Hannah Powell

Hannah Powell (née Bourne) is Communications and HR Director for the Perrywood Garden Centres she runs with her dad and two brothers. When she was six years old, she wanted to be a cactus surgeon.

Before coming back into the family business, she had a successful career in PR and marketing, running high-profile campaigns for clients, including Barclaycard and Domino’s Pizza. She was part of the team that launched Global Entrepreneurship Week, an annual campaign to encourage young people to set up businesses worldwide.

She now lives in North Essex with her husband, daughter and many plants.

thecactussurgeon.com

Top Tips For Nesting While Waiting For Baby To Arrive

Many couples find themselves nesting like crazy in the weeks and months leading up to the big day with a new baby on the way. Nesting is instinctual for expectant mothers – it’s their way of preparing their home for the arrival of their little one. If you’re finding yourself nesting too, here are some top tips to help you get prepared for your new arrival!

Via Pexels

Clean Your Home From Top To Bottom

This is an excellent opportunity to give your home a good deep clean. Tackle every room in your house, and be sure to clean all of the nooks and crannies that tend to accumulate dust and dirt over time.

If you’re short on time, try using a steam cleaner to clean your floors and surfaces quickly. Steam cleaners are great for getting rid of built-up dirt and grime, and they don’t require any chemicals. You can use them on various surfaces, including carpets, tile floors, hardwood flooring, and countertops. 

Declutter your living spaces

Once your home is clean, take some time to declutter your living spaces. This will make it easier for you to move around once the baby arrives, and it will also give you a little peace of mind knowing that there’s less stuff for you to worry about in the weeks leading up to the big day.

Stock Up On Supplies

Once you’ve decluttered your home, it’s time to stock up on supplies! Make sure you have plenty of diapers, wipes and other essentials on hand, as well as newborn clothes and blankets.

As well as stocking up on baby supplies, be sure to try stocking up on some groceries as well. When you are out shopping, pick up an extra pack of dry goods or frozen meals to put aside for those days when you won’t make it grocery shopping.

Setting Up The Nursery

This is what all parents look forward to the most, but it can also be the most stressful. It is important to remember that your baby will be tiny for a long time, and you will soon outgrow the nursery. Therefore, you do not need to go overboard with the decor, especially if it’s a boy or girl theme, because they won’t look at it anyway.

The essential items are, of course, the nursery furniture. You may want to invest in a few pieces of furniture for the nursery – a crib, changing table, and rocking chair are a few essentials. These may cost a bit more than what you had expected, but they should last years and see through a few children!

Set Aside Some Time For Yourself

Although it’s essential to get your home ready before the big day arrives, you should also set aside some time and space just for yourself! Take advantage of this opportunity to relax, unwind and pamper yourself – after all, and it won’t be long until your little one is here and you’re up all hours of the night with them!

Try reading a book, watching your favourite show, or taking a nap. You can also spend time with family and friends – it will help keep your mind off things like baby showers and other stressful tasks that need to be done before the big day arrives. Plus, having fun is good for your mental health!

Nesting is a great way to prepare for your new arrival, but it’s important to remember to take some time for yourself as well. Relax and enjoy this special time in your life!