Blogging as an aid to recovery – How has it helped you?

Hi everyone

I published this post recently but it would seem that it has posted in the month that I first started to write it in draft form. This may have caused you to miss it in your reader and so here it is again.

( A huge thanks to Ralph, from bluefish way.com who left a comment on the original post. It will be a huge help to my learners.)

It’s official, amongst everything else I do, I am a Tutor for the RLC (Recovery Learning Community).

I will be teaching my first course, “Blogging as an aid to recovery” on the 18th and 25th of November and 2nd of December.

The RLC provides a range of educational, practical and creative courses, for students with mental health difficulties and their family and friends who support them.

I will be teaching students how to start a WordPress.com blog of their own, that they can continue to use after the course has finished.

I will be teaching students how blogging can make them to feel better and improve their quality of life through:

Building online relationships and friendships.
Communicating with like-minded people.
Improving communication skills.
Building confidence and self-esteem.
Giving them something to focus on.
Giving them a sense of purpose and a reason to get up in the morning.

Plus loads more fantastic reasons.

I would love for my students to know how blogging has aided your recovery. Please leave a message in the comments section so that I can share your story with them.

Thanks in advance.

Stay positive.

Sandra Bellamy

Launch of sandrabellamy.co.uk (quirkybooks.wordpress.com)
7 Reasons “Why I Blog”! (and why more educators should:) (edguy199.com)
5 reasons why you should consider blogging (zemanta.com)
Why Blog? Why Now? (championtutoring.wordpress.com)

Blogging as a aid to recovery – How has it helped you?

Hi everyone

It’s official, amongst everything else I do, I am a Tutor for the RLC (Recovery Learning Community).

I will be teaching my first course, “Blogging as an aid to recovery” on the 18th and 25th of November and 2nd of December.

The RLC provides a range of educational, practical and creative courses, for students with mental health difficulties and their family and friends who support them.

I will be teaching students how to start a WordPress.com blog of their own, that they can continue to use after the course has finished.

I will be teaching students how blogging can make them to feel better and improve their quality of life through:

Building online relationships and friendships.
Communicating with like-minded people.
Improving communication skills.
Building confidence and self-esteem.
Giving them something to focus on.
Giving them a sense of purpose and a reason to get up in the morning.

Plus loads more fantastic reasons.

I would love for my students to know how blogging has aided your recovery. Please leave a message in the comments section so that I can share your story with them.

Thanks in advance.

Stay positive.

Sandra Bellamy

What Does Success Mean To You?

Hi Everyone

Every now and again, I like to publish a post on here, that is on my other blog at beatredundancyblues.wordpress.com as I think it may be of interest to you.

So here it is:

What Does Success Mean To You?

Success comes in all forms, shapes and sizes.

In order to be successful, you have to first work out:

What success means to you?
What success will do for you?
What you envisage success to look like?

Only when you are able to answer these 3 questions, will you be able to map out your own path to success.

To you, success could mean:

Owning your own home
Being able to put food on the table
Running your own business
Writing your life story
Having a family of your own
Having a good network of friends for support
Working in your dream job
Fulfilling your ambitions
Getting up in the morning pain-free
Being able to create things

Or it could be a combination of all, or some, of the above.

Whilst you are redundant, it is a great time to discover what success means to you, because if you don’t, you will never feel satisfied but feel like there is something missing from your life or that you are a failure.

Knowing what success means to you, is the first step on your path to achieving it.

Don’t waste any more time feeling like a failure but instead put your time and energy into writing a list of what success means to you and then prioritise them in the order of most importance and set goals to achieve each and every one of them. As you do this, you will be growing into your own success and moving along the path to lead a more fulfilling existence and a happier you.

So what are you waiting for?

Until next time, stay positive.

Sandra Bellamy

How to keep winning – The road to success (beatredundancyblues.wordpress.com)
The Top 10 Must Know Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs (rasmussen.edu)

My Invitation to St James’s Palace

Hi Everyone

I thought you may be interested to read my latest post from my other blog http://www.beatredundancyblues.wordpress.com – here it is below:

As you probably know http://www.beatredundancyblues.com is your one stop resource for redundancy. As well as the practical aspects of redundancy it also covers health and wellbeing including stress, anxiety and depression.

You may like to know that I do voluntary work as a Health Buddy for CSV (Community Service Volunteers) in association with BBC Radio Devon. We promote health messages, learn from health specialists and encourage the 5 ways to wellbeing:

Connect
Be Active
Take Notice
Learn
Give

On Wednesday 10th of March, I went to a CSV Health Buddy celebration of music and activities from local refugees who are being looked after by Devon and Cornwall Refugee Support.

I could not help but take notice of the variety of talent amongst the refugees. There were lots of activities including singing, sports, character making out of carrots and foods from their country. I learnt more about them and the foods they eat. People from different backgrounds connected and it was lovely of them to give up their afternoon to entertain and teach us.

At this event I was pleasantly surprised to be presented with a bouquet of flowers and a Certificate of Achievement for helping a distressed and vulnerable person as part of my role as a CSV (Community Service Volunteer) Health Buddy.

I was even more thrilled to be told that I had been chosen to represent the CSV organisation at their 50th anniversary celebration, to be held at St James’s Palace in London on Monday 15th of July 2013. In the presence of Her Majesty the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity that I feel incredibly honoured to be chosen for.

Redundancy can make you feel deflated and powerless. Take back the control in your life by discovering what you were born to do and make it happen for yourself.

I am living my dreams and I want you to be too.

Stay positive

Sandra Bellamy

Join me on BBC Radio Devon

Hi Everyone

Some very exciting news.

I am going to appear as a guest speaker on BBC Radio Devon on David FitzGerald’s show, this Tuesday the 14th of February at 2.40pm, talking about being a Health Buddy for the CSV ‘Stripping it Bare’ campaign.

The ”Stripping it Bare” campaign is run by CSV and takes on volunteers to speak about taboo health topics within their local communities. Topics covered include Sexual Health, Testicular Cancer, Bowel Cancer and Mental Health.

I have joined Twitter under the username “beatredundancyb”

I will be tweeting regularly about redundancy and you can see my redundancy blog at beatredundancyblues.wordpress.com

Write soon. Sandra

10 Reasons Why Self Belief is Good for You

Hi Everyone.

If you have been reading my Blog and website quirkybooks.net, you may think deciding to self publish my own book by starting up my own publishing company is either brave, stupid or just darn right crazy. Either way, I value your opinion and appreciate your feedback.

The fact is, I will not let anything stop me, not in the long term. Sure there will be problems to overcome, obstacles to step over and lots of skills to learn but I will feel better for having done it and I am committed to believing in my own capabilities.

You see, there is a lot than can be said for believing in yourself. The benefits can be immense and I would like to share some of those with you right now.

1) Your confidence will increase.

2) You will achieve more.

3) You will be more accepting towards constructive critisism.

4) You will become a stronger person.

5) You will be able to disregard people who make malicious comments and put you down.

6) You will have a stronger sense of purpose in your life by knowing who you are.

7) You will be a happier person.

8) You will have more structure to your life by defining your goals.

9) When you believe in yourself, so will others.

10) You will become a more positive person, which is good for both your physical and mental well being.

One final thought…….Believe in yourself, the only person who can make you truly happy, is you, for their is no one else who knows you better.

Good luck and B E L I E V E.