charity

Stress, success and sleep

Ali writes: Having kids, as you know, messes with your sleep patterns – from newborn and no (night time) sleep, to toddlers trying to get into your bed at three in the morning – through to fretting about teenagers who stay awake longer than you do! Adult Life is a lot more stressy than advertised right??

And even Kipper the new kitten, acquired after research into how de-stressing a pet can be* for teenagers and perimenopausal mamas, drives us mad by jumping on our heads when he thinks it’s time for breakfast at five AM!!

As a freelancer, I find it really hard to ‘switch off’ and de-stress, my mind struggles to relax and unwind – I’m constantly ‘on call’ from clients, and all of the connections and social media app messages that seem to bombard me daily (and nightly!).

And as a family, we’ve been a bit lapse about allowing electronics into the bedroom – we had a rule that no mobile phones could be taken to bed, and had to be left on the sitting room mantelpiece – and that worked so well, what went wrong??!

So we are starting afresh, no more ‘reading a book on my phone’, no more ‘just checking Instagram messages’ – no more ‘oh I need my mobile phone for the alarm in the morning’ – we are making some changes!

So now, come bed time, we leave our phones downstairs, we’ve reinstated the old clock radio alarms in all of the bedrooms, we’ve banished the kitten to his own bed, on the landing in his home-made cat house (more on that here!)

And so to SLEEP…..

Sleep allows your mind to unwind and de-stress. This allows your mental and emotional well-being to be restored. Sleep helps your brain to recover and revive itself, helping it to make sense of the day, storing your memories and creating new ideas. Sleep gives you energy and boosts your immune system, helping your body recover from illnesses. While you sleep your body builds and repairs itself by making new tissue.

So plump up those pillows, grab a book (and your reading glasses – my eyes always need a bit of help at night!) and settle down into a comfy mattress for a good read at bedtime.

Aromatherapy oils can really help too, I recently put a call out on my Instagram stories asking for natural remedy advice for better sleep and was recommended these calming, relaxing aromas of essential oils: Try Lavender, Vanilla, or Jasmine. Essential oils can promote relaxation – perfect to help switch off at the end of a busy day.

As well as the calming scents of essential oils, a relaxing bedtime routine can also help you drift off. A warm shower or bath is a soothing way to unwind and as mentioned, swapping electronic devices for a good book can help your mind to switch off – and take note – try a bit of ‘facial pampering’ – thanks to suggestions from my Instagram followers (I know, it’s become my ‘go-to’ for advice!!) I’ve been using a night oil too – apparently skin repairs faster at night with the increased production of two key hormones: HGH (Human Growth Hormone) and Melatonin.

Massage a night oil into the face before bed to allow the ingredients to penetrate overnight, so that you can wake up with a glowing complexion and a jolly demeanor.

And a warm herbal tea can help too – make it a Fairtrade chamomile tea for ethical bonus points – and try jotting down a “to do” list for the next day which can organise your thoughts and clear your mind of any distractions.

And maybe some gentle relaxation exercises, such as light pilates or yoga stretches, which help to relax the muscles. Don’t exercise vigorously, as it will have the opposite effect!

Mental health awareness week highlights the importance of improving the quality of your sleep for your over all mental well-being during stressful times.

Stress is common and, like mental health, it need to be addressed and understood to ensure well-being isn’t compromised. We cannot eliminate stress completely as it is a natural driver in our body which people thrive on and use to push themselves in life but we can learn to cope with it and make it work for us. So let me know what you do to relax and get to sleep at night…

This post is in conjunction with Tempur but all thoughts are my own.
TEMPUR® are supporting the Mental Health Foundation as their chosen charity for 2018.

The Mental Health Foundation have pioneered new ways of looking at mental health and improving the lives of people experiencing mental illness for more than 60 years.

TEMPUR® will be donating £10 for every mattress sold through the TEMPUR® UK website, or through a TEMPUR owned store (brand or outlet) throughout May 2018.

Tempur have worked alongside the Mental Health Foundation to produce a sleep guide, giving tips on sleep and how to get a good night’s sleep. These will be available in Tempur stores and on the Tempur website.
Tempur have a range of additional marketing activity to support this initiative which include: New TV asset, branding within the stores and fundraising for MHF by having their ribbons in Tempur stores – customers will be able to purchase a ribbon for a £2 donation

Read more top tips on sleep on the NHS website

Read more about MIND and Mental Health Awareness Week

*Read more about how pets have been found to lower the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in our bodies, leading to a calmer approach to life and thus positively impacting our blood pressure. Simply stroking a pet can have health benefits.

charity, cooking with kids, kids

Kids Company Plate Pledge

Camila Batmanghelidjh and Kids Company Plate Pledge

You may have previously read my Kids Company article for Britmums – and I have been lucky enough to meet Camila Batmanghelidjh on a couple of occasions – She is an amazing and awe-inspiring person.

Every week, thousands of children rely on Camila’s charity Kids Company for their main meal of the day. They come to be fed, to learn how to cook, and to find a safe place to be a child. Cooking together and meal-planning, has been a really important time for my children and I, and we often find time to bake the odd cake together even now with all of the homework they seem to have as they get older.
We were reading Jay Raynor’s article in last month’s Observer and the statistics still astound us – that today through Kids Company’s centres in north and south London, Liverpool and Bristol, they now support 36,000 children and provide 3,000 meals a week. Of those children, 85% rely on Kids Company for the main meal of the day. “We find children coming to us with quite severe issues of malnutrition,” says campaigns director Laurence Guinness. “We have toddlers with rickets, 10-year-olds who look like seven-year-olds. When you see adolescents looking skeletal you understand why they join a gang.” “There is no responsible adult caring for these children. There’s a gaping hole in the safety net. There is no allocation of resources to the lone child.”

My 10 year old son has pledged £2 today to the Plate Pledge – he asked me to type:
“This is from my 10year old son – who today cooked a fish supper for our family and baked and iced a cake. He is giving £2 from his piggy bank towards a healthy tasty meal for another child tonight.”

As well as having the privilege of meeting Camila, I have also been lucky enough to work with some amazing beautifully minded brands, and I was very proud to read this little note from Camila and Kids Company last week:

“We are delighted that 1 Two Kids has decided to continue its support of Kids Company through the Sophie La Girafe Baby skincare range in the UK and Republic of Ireland. It is wonderful to have this support for our 36,000 vulnerable children, young people, adults and their families,” says Camila Batmanghelidjh CBE.

Kids Company recently launched a challenge to pledge support for a further 580,00 meals for these children – so far, with donations from as little as £2 each, equivalent to a plate of food to help make a hungry and vulnerable child happy – they have reached an amazing 549, 833 – to reach their TARGET: 580,000 visit kidscoplatepledge.org to learn how you can help too.

Ali also blogs over on aGreenerLifeforus.com and FunCraftsKids.com and is a new lover of Instagram too… pop over and say hello!

charity, life

Team Honk Relay London for Sport Relief

What an amazing thing to be a part of… the #TeamHonkRelay – Team Honk is a collection of bloggers, Tweeters and Facebookers who come together to raise money for Comic Relief and Sport Relief.

Team Honk, set up in 2013 by Tanya Mummy Barrow, Penny from Aresidence and Annie Mammasuarus, have this year designed a blogger team honk relay challenge where a baton is being passed from Lands End to John O Groats. Bloggers up and down the country will be using a range of weird and wonderful modes of transport to pass the baton over.

Yesterday was London’s turn… Our leg of the team honk relay was an ingenious Monopoly theme – #Honkopoly! We covered every colour of the Monopoly board with a couple of extra iconic points of interest along the way. We walked, skipped, ran, skated, and pushed buggies. Armed with the baton and props including Get Out Of Jail , Chance and Pass Go cards as well as amazingly designed leaflets which we gave out to people with details of what we were doing…and tonight we find that we are on the leaderboard of Sport Relief’s ‘freestyle‘ fundraisers!

Bloggers who took part in the London leg included: Vanessa from HPMcQ, Sophie from Franglaise Mummy , Sarah from Grenglish, Swazi from Chocolate is not the only fruit, Alison from Not Another Mummy Blog, Me (KidsChaos) in my Hi-Tec trainers, Jennifer from Jenography, Gillian from A Baby on Board, Rosie from Mummy and Boo, Gretta from Mums Do Travel, Julia from I Carried a Watermelon, Stephanie from Was This In The Plan?, Jacinta from Jacintaz3, Maria aka @maniasmama3, Sachelle from Holiday Tots, Maggy from RedTedArt, Nell from the Pigeon Pair and Me, Kelly from domesticgoddesque, and Uju from babesabouttown.

We had a great day being a part of the team honk relay.

supporting this worthy charity and raising money for a fantastic cause. So, we’d love it if you could sponsor us all here please. Thanks so much!

I think it’s worth it for Maggy, Red Ted Art‘s eyelashes, and our tutu and tights get-up from Delights UK – we certainly got some *HONKS*.

You can keep track of the journey by following the hashtags #TeamHonkRelay – and let us know when you have sponsored us, so that we can tweet about you too!

And if you’re interested in actively getting involved with Sport Relief, the first ever Sainsbury’s Sport Relief Games take place from Friday 21st to Sunday 23rd March 2014. The public can join the fun and games by running, swimming or cycling their way to raising cash at over a thousand venues around the country, including the landmark events at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

As one of the biggest fundraising events, Sport Relief brings the entire nation together to get active raise cash and change lives. The money raised by the public is spent by Comic Relief to help transform the lives of some of the poorest and most disadvantaged people both at home in the UK and across the world.