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REGISTER TO VOTE BY 26 NOVEMBER GET THE TORIES OUT K BYE 👋💕 . [ID: Abi smiles with her eyes closed and her hand to her face as if to say "don't mind me". She wears a fluffy olive green jumper and glasses] . #ukpolitics #ukelection #vote #registertovote #brexit #britain #britishgirl #britishproblems

Swipe for a sneaky preview!🤫👉I wrote this short story in response to this prompt:✨Draft a story in which a single impossible event happens in the everyday world✨ . I love magical realism - stories where fantasy and real life collide. Harry Potter is a great example: it's set in a magical world that co-exists with the real, contemporary world 🧙‍♂️🌍 The interplay between the fantastic and the everyday is what inspires me as a writer 🤓 . What kinds of stories do you like to read and write? ❤️ . [ID: The words "When the Snow Falls - A short story" are written over the top of a snowy city scene. There are leafless trees in the foreground, and the camera looks out over the snowy rooftops of Prague.] . #shortstory #writersofinstagram #writersofwordpress #writing #story #magic #fantasy #magicalrealism #writingprompt #creativewriting #reads

Let's talk about ✨sensitivity✨ I saw a post by @themindgeek (who is awesome and you should follow her work) about "highly sensitive people" recently and it resonated with me SO much 😦 . I was the kid who cried at birthday parties. I was the teen who hid in music practice rooms at lunch. I am the young adult who has panic attacks at conferences and concerts, who reads the news and feels the weight of the world so keenly I have to stop reading. I'm like a sponge: I absorb and absorb until I am full of every emotion in the room 😳 . I've always thought of being sensitive as a bad thing. Growing up, friends and bullies alike would hurl the word at me like an insult: "god, you're so SENSITIVE, it's just a joke" 🙇‍♀️ I always thought I had to STOP being sensitive, toughen up, become thick-skinned. That's where the eating disorder came in. Anorexia allowed me to become numb, so numb I stopped feeling, stopped caring. It was, in a twisted way, like protective armour 🤕 . What @themindgeek post made me realise was that being sensitive is NOT a bad thing - people who are highly sensitive just need to take self-care seriously, and we'll be absolutely fine 😌 And then we can enjoy all the benefits of being sensitive: the ability to empathise, to daydream, to appreciate art and music and natural beauty ✨🤩 . To my fellow sponges, I get you 🤗 This world is intense and it can feel overwhelming. You're not wrong for feeling that, you're just perceptive 🧐 And that is SO valuable! . What helps you when you feel overwhelmed? 💗 . [ID: Abi walks down a narrow street in Bologna, Italy. The sun is setting and the houses and cobblestones are tinted orange. Abi wears a long emerald coat and blue boots. She smiles over her shoulder at the camera.] . #edrecovery #mentalhealth #selfconfidence #anorexia #eatingdisorder #iamnot1in5 #sensitive #highlysensitiveperson #hsp #anorexiarecovery #wellbeing

Spent a lot of time lately feeling adrift from my own life 🤔 Does that even make sense? I'm not sure. It's how the words came out when I tried to describe what's going on in my head 😅 . Being a teenager was hard. I'm going to go out on a limb and say your 20s might be harder, in some ways. There's more pressure, more of a sense of time running out ⌛ It's a time when things that used to define you fade away: school, friendships, hobbies. Sometimes I don't even recognise myself 😕 . Nothing deep or "inspirational" today, just me honestly asking the internet: does anyone else feel this way? What helps you cope? ❤️ . [ID: Abi smiles at the camera. She wears a black tank top and stands against a white wall. Her hair is curled and she wears full make up, having just come home from a fashion show] . #mentalhealth #selfconfidence #transition #20something #millenialproblems #identity

Moments before this pic was taken, I had a total meltdown. About bugs. 🙈 Even to me, now, that seems totally absurd. I was in Vietnam, on the trip of a lifetime - an enormous privilege. But I couldn't enjoy it because my brain was saying, "YOU'RE GOING TO GET BITTEN AND THEN YOU'LL GET SICK AND DIE" 👀 . Anxiety is one sneaky motherfucker 🧐 It creeps up on you in the weirdest ways, from self-diagnosing a deadly disease to second-guessing whether your friends actually like you 😣 It can be SO hard to explain to someone else (or even yourself) why the strange and totally irrational thoughts you're having are so powerful and overwhelming, why you can't just tell yourself "of course that's not true" and get on with it 😑 . But I get it. I really, truly do. Here's a reminder for all my anxious queens that you're NOT silly or foolish for having these thoughts 👏 You're NOT broken or maladapted or insufficiently resilient 👏 And you're definitely NOT unlovable or a failure or anything else your anxiety tells you that you are 👏 . Your brain is just trying to keep you safe, and sometimes in doing that it goes a bit too far and misinterprets something normal or even mildly scary as a HUGE THREAT 😅 It's only electrical signals taking a wrong turn down your neural pathways and ending up triggering your fight/flight/freeze response 🤷‍♀️ And that feels really fucking terrifying in the moment. But it's not your fault, and you WILL be OK ❤️ . CBT can really help manage these scary thoughtstorms, as I like to call them 🌩🧠🌩️ If you're affected by anxiety and you're in any doubt about seeking help: DO IT 🙏 Do it for yourself, so you can do wild things like go boating in rural Vietnam and not be terrified of bugs 😆 It's totally possible and you deserve that freedom 🤗 . [ID: Abi sits at the bow of a wooden raft on a calm, reflective lake. The lake is full of green reeds and huge, mossy cliffs rise behind her. Her eyes look tired but she grins at the camera as though she can't believe she's here] . #edrecovery #mentalhealth #iamnot1in5 #anxiety #anxietyqueen #anorexia #recoverywin #recoveryispossible #panicattack #cbt #reminder #travel

Do you ever mourn your old body? 🤔 I do. Against reason, in fact, because I know what I had to put myself through in order to maintain a lower body weight and a thigh gap 🙇‍♀️ . It's body nostalgia: a rose-tinted perspective on what life in your thinner/more toned/more muscular body was like 🧐 You imagine that you were happier, freer, more perfect. The likelihood is that you probably weren't 🤷‍♀️ You were probably just as hung up about your perceived imperfections, even if they were different imperfections than you see in yourself now 👀 . I'm self-conscious about my stomach now in a way I never used to be. I look at old pictures and I think "wow my stomach was so flat, I miss looking like that" 😩 BUT then I check myself and I remember that BACK THEN, I was cripplingly self-conscious about my thighs. I hated the way they looked. I went out of my way to avoid showing them, avoiding swimming pools and wearing jeans in the heat of summer🔥😅 . Don't give in to body nostalgia. Don't let your brain trick you into believing everything about your life would be fixed if you could "just get back into those jeans", or "just have more muscle again" 🙅‍♀️ With that mentality, there will always be SOMETHING you want to change, and it's a dangerous, time-consuming, expensive, depressing spiral 😳 . Better to say "fuck off, cognitive trickery" and work on accepting yourself, whatever you may look like 😌 Life IS change your body WILL change too. Save your energy for your hopes and dreams, for laughter and love and friendship, for new experiences and cherished pastimes 🥰 You deserve better than a life chasing a perfect body that doesn't and NEVER existed ❤️ . [ID: Abi stands in front of a red-roof pier and skyscrapers on a cloudy day in Singapore. Her hair is red and she wears a pink patterned jumpsuit. She looks at peace] . #edrecovery #mentalhealth #selfconfidence #selflove #selfacceptance #recoveryispossible #anorexia #anorexiarecovery #eatingdisorder #bodyconfidence #change #cognitive #bias #nostalgia #past #tbt #travel

It's world mental health day 🥳 As a reminder that whatever turmoil you're going through it WILL get better, here's me meditating on the wonders of pita chips 🧘🏼‍♀️😋 . Anorexia once totally destroyed my ability to enjoy food like this. Just 5 years ago I was terrified of my own body, determined to shrink it, tone it, perfect it 😔 But no matter what I did to myself, it was never enough. Anorexia left me feeling permanently inadequate. It got so bad that I couldn't even sit still - if I wasn't burning calories, I was useless 🙇‍♀️ . Mental illness is debilitating and life-destroying 🤦‍♀️ But there is HOPE 🕯️People with mental health problems CAN and WILL recover 👏 Look at me, enjoying pita chips! That was absolutely UNTHINKABLE 5 years ago! . Proper professional support is absolutely vital and you can never ask for it "too soon" ❤️ I am VERY lucky that when I asked for help I actually received it - without my amazing family and the NHS eating disorders services I was able to access, I can say I would NOT be here today. . Unfortunately we have a long way to go as a society before we really can say we support everyone's mental health 🙈Waiting lists for services are punishingly long. Brexit is causing shortages in life-saving medications. And stigma is still alive and kicking, in films and TV, workplaces, policy-making, and even within mental health services 🥺 . World mental health day is a chance to say: 🙋‍♀️ I need support for myself 👫 We need to support each other 👩‍⚖️ Mindfulness is not enough - we must change the system to deliver better support and prevent mental health problems developing and worsening . [ID: Abi sits cross-legged as though in meditation, but really she's enjoying eating pita chips. She wears a red skirt and a black crop top. She's outside in the park on a sunny day] . #worldsmentalhealthday #mentalhealth #anxiety #anorexia #anorexiarecovery #wellbeing #recovery #mentalillness #awareness #mentalhealthblogger #wellness #fuckdietculture

My grandma has vascular dementia 👵 Basically this means her heart is failing, very slowly, and that affects her brain ❤️ She no longer remembers who I am, but I will always remember her as the kind, jolly and slightly neurotic lady who baked amazing cherry bakewells and was forever going around with the biscuit tin 😌 . This cushion is made from pieces of her old clothes 👗👚 It's a symbolic way of keeping her with us, close to us and our hearts 🤗 I'm a big believer in the value of symbols in helping us cherish, remember and even grieve our loved ones. In our lifetimes we experience all kinds of grief, big and small, and we often have a tendency to bury those difficult feelings rather than sit with them 🙇‍♀️ It's hard to sit with them 😣 Yet it's necessary, for in those difficult moments there is great meaning. We learn about ourselves and what is valuable to us. And when we're ready, we move on, carrying that wisdom with us 😇 . This cushion is a symbol of the person my grandma was: caring, quick to laugh, generous with her time, her food, even her money, full of stories about life growing up in the war, forever giving away her clothes and shoes and jewellery, partial to a sweet cup of tea and a biscuit ☕ I hope it will help me remember how much I admire and love her 😌 . Dementia is a sad illness and so many families are affected by it. @dementia_uk and @mindcharity among others offer services for people living with dementia as well as their families and carers. I really recommend checking them out if this illness affects your family 🤗 . [Image description: Abi sits on her bed holding a patchwork cushion. The design is made of multiple fabrics with different patterns sewn into concentric squares. She wears a green top and a long black dress] . #dementia #illness #family #wellness #mentalhealth #craft #wellbeing #grief #mind #health

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