5 Lovely Facts About Sunflowers

Sunflowers are beautiful, beaming flowers that just make you smile once seeing them...right?

Here are some lovely things you may like to know, or may know already, about sunflowers

1) Sunflowers are a combination of individual flowers joined together
"Sunflower heads consist of 1,000 to 2,000 individual flowers joined together by a receptacle base. The large petals around the edge of a sunflower head are individual ray flowers which do not develop into seed"*

2) Sunflowers track the sun's movement
"A well-known sunflower characteristic is that the flowering heads track the sun’s movement, a phenomenon known as heliotropism" *

3) Sunflowers attract birds
If you have sunflowers in your garden the birds will be attracted to them as they love sunflower seeds*

4) Sunflowers inspired one of Van Gogh's most famous paintings
Van Gogh made seven different versions of sunflower paintings. He felt yellow was an emblem of happiness and in dutch literature, the sunflower was a symbol of devotion and loyalty.
Read more about this here

5) Sunflowers are a symbol of peace
Sunflowers are used  in a campaign for a world free of nuclear weapons and nuclear power.
When Ukraine became a nuclear-weapon-free nation in 1996, US Defense Secretary William Perry declared that “sunflowers instead of missiles in the soil would ensure peace for future generations” (Source: ICAN)

*Facts found here: amazingandweird.com

Do you know anything about sunflowers?

5 Happy Things!

This week hasn't been the easiest. With more responsibility at work it has unnerved me and made the jittery and anxious me become very scared, low and panicky. So why 5 Happy Things ? Well, simply because that's when we need to pick out the positives and remind ourselves it's not all bad. So here goes...

1. Meeting up with friends
Although, I really didn't feel like going out it was lovely to meet up with friends for some food and a chat. One of my friends and I hadn't seen each other in such a long time that we both had birthday presents to exchange to each other (they should have been given in July). It's nice knowing that someone cares about you and wants to get you something nice to show it. Thank you friends!

2. A little walk looking for the moon
I LOVE the moon! The moon makes me feel calm and it makes me feel that we are all special. We are special because we get to see the moon shining at us and lighting up our dark nights. I have many moon quotes and pictures I could share but I'll save them for another time.

3. Early morning coffee
It's not always nice to wake up early in the morning, especially when you're afraid of what the day has in store for you, but once you're up and you're organised it's nice to sit down, empty your thoughts (or try very hard to) and enjoy some early morning coffee.

4. Trying new things
In this case, it was cheese!! This week, my local town had its annual fair where stalls come from all over the place selling food, clothes, toys, sweets, jewellery and all sorts! One particular stall had some unusual cheeses and the lady invited me over to try them. There was blueberry cheese, madras cheese, caramel cheese, smoked paprika cheese, chive and onion cheese, red port wine cheese and others like red leicester and cheddar. I tried almost all of them and purchased the caramel and smoked paprika ones. Very tasty!

5.Making pizzas
Okay, so I bought the bases ready made but still I didn't buy a pizza. I had fun choosing toppings and sprinkling them on top and the end product was delicious :) I made cheese, tomato and pepperoni pizza and a barbecue, cheese and chicken pizza.

Looking at my 5 happy things it's hard to tell that I had a bad week and most people would consider this a good week but it's my head, my anxiety and my negative thoughts that turn the good into bad. I must try harder to be positive and to change these thoughts for the sake of my mental health!

How has your week been? What are your 5 happy things?

Why sometimes it feels like moaning...

I have had a long summer off and I haven't really been blogging. My intentions for this summer: you can read here.  I feel like I did achieve this. Of course, you cannot just turn off your worries and your anxious and depressive thoughts like a switch (because if you could let's face it we all would) but I feel I was a lot happier than my previous summer, that I worried less about my future and that I really did try to enjoy :) Well done me!

and now it's over. I feel like now everything that I didn't think of in my summer off is flooding back. I feel weaker than before. I feel less capable of being happy and I'm anxious about doing little things. Is this normal? Probably. Does it make it any easier? Only a little. I still feel like I can't imagine a future where I'm happy, where I'm confident, where I'm doing a job I love and where I feel I am good at what I do. I'm still sad. I still feel guilty for being sad and I still compare myself to friends and people my age who I think are doing amazing things with their lives, not just coping but blossoming.

Sometimes, I tell myself this isn't anxiety or depression, this is you moaning! You are ungrateful and lazy and you are not like them because you're not trying. I don't know if this is true but one thing I believe strongly in is you should never make someone feel guilty about being sad. It is not a nice emotion but it is a natural human emotion that we sometimes cannot control. Please don't make people feel guilty for feeling sadness.