Tuesday 15 March 2016

How To Deal With Pressure | #SpeakUp

How To Deal With Pressure  #SpeakUp help advice UK Lifestyle blogger


" under pressure. Pushing down on me. Pushing down on you...."

This week's #SpeakUp post is going to be about another topic close to my heart! Pressure! I feel this is a topic that can apply to everyone but particularly young people. It's definitely a topic that is not talked about enough so today I thought I would address that issue and hopefully provide some comforting words for those who are feeling a bit under pressure right now! 

No matter what stage of your life you are in it is very likely that you are going to experience pressure! Unless you like are a member of the royal family or a princess whereby you never have to work a day in your life and everything is handed to do on a plate! If this was the case I have no idea why you would be reading my blog....

Anyway.....


Pressure comes in lots of different forms and it stems right from our earliest days! After the initial " aww look how cute my newborn baby is" it soon wears off and becomes a competition to make sure your walking, speaking, reading or bloody knitting before any other kid! Pressure on parents! Pressure on you! 

As you get older, you need to keep up with your peers academically! Your STATS, which let's face it aren't that important at all can be pretty gruelling upon some young children with parents putting more pressure on you! Then comes secondary school, where the real pressure kicks in! Mocks, end of key stage 3 exams, GCSES, A levels, degrees, what uni you went to... The list of things young people are put under pressure for is unreal! 

And this is just the academic stuff!

What about peer pressure? The need to have the latest toys, the latest clothes, to fit in with the cool kids, to have the most expensive brands, the school you go to, the house you live in and the area you are brought up in are just a few things of a considerably longer list than can put pressure on young people!?

And what about the media? Telling children and young people about the size they should be, the clothing size that is required to be accepted by societies standards, the latest hair colour to make sure you are in fashion or the way your eyebrows should look!?

Like seriously?! 

No matter what way you look at it, there are hundreds upon hundreds of things that can put young people under pressure! I feel like this topic is quite close to my heart! Something which I have experienced a lot in my life, especially within the last couple of years!

I was never particularly academic or a higher achiever, the so-called phrase used by schools nowadays however in year 10 that changed! I became almost obsessed with revision and working hard for my GCSEs which carried on into year 11! I don't think a day went past when I didn't do any work or revision for something! This landed me with a fabulous set of GCSE results and a future wide open to me! However, something not as obvious as a result of my hard work was the amount of pressure! 

Sometimes pressure can be caused by others! Your friends, family, school etc. however in my case, it was more internal! I had high expectations of myself and put myself under a lot of pressure! 

If you continuously got A*'s in all your mocks this sets the foundations for pressure to build! Although no one will openly say that to you if you suddenly rocked up with an A in a mock exam it would be flooded with disappointment and questions! Questions from within and for some kids, questions from the people around them! 

I still feel like this now at college! I am segregated to being the high achiever of the class and, therefore, all my lecturers know to expect high quality, very long and highly analytic work! Which leaves me feeling really guilty when I don't write an essay that is a certain number of pages long! Or when I submit an essay online! I know that I am doing my best. I answered the question, I put references in but why do I still doubt myself?

I hate this kind of pressure! Because even though you know it's unlikely that anyone would openly get annoyed with you, you know all the lecturers would all trot off to their staff room and discuss my results around a mildly Interesting selection of probably stale biscuits! Like great thanks...

The main aim of this #SpeakUp post was to say if you feel under any kind of pressure at the moment than it is okay! You don't have to meet societies Petty expectations or your families unrealistic dreams and goals! At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is your health! 

If you feel like you are under any kind of pressure and you feel like it is causing you mental or physical exhaustion then it is important that you talk to someone about it! It can be tough I know! Trust me I am the most socially anxious person ever, I get it! But in the end ' a problem shared is a problem halved' get talking and seek help! Someone will listen to you! 

Pressure can be a good thing! It can make you work harder towards your goals! However only if there is a healthy balance! Trust me you aren't going to fail in your exam if you don't revise for one night, just because you don't do your eyebrows it does not mean that you are ugly and never going to find love! 

DON'T LET SOCIETIES STANDARDS BRING YOU DOWN! YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!

I hope you enjoyed this #SpeakUp post! Sorry, it's another one by Moi! If you do want to write a #SpeakUp post you must get it to me before the weekend prior to the week your post will go up so I can put it together, otherwise, you miss your go! I have uploaded every other day so far this year and I don't want to stop! 

If you would like to contribute to the #SpeakUp series by writing your own guest post on a topic you think affects young people's health and wellbeing, that you have been through. You can find out more details HERE or drop me an email at thriftyvintagefashionbusiness@mail.com and I will get back to you as soon as possible! 

I really hope that lots of you will be able to join in with the Twitter chat between 8-9pm using #SpeakUp where we will be discussing pressure and what you can do to beat it! 

Thank you for reading, as always x 
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