BLOGMAS 2022 | DAY TWENTY: A CHAT ABOUT LOSING TIME | YORK CHRISTMAS MARKET | IN COLLABORATION WITH VISIT YORK

Welcome to Day Twenty of Blogmas 2022!

Today, I’ve teamed up with Visit York (all of their links are at the end of the post) to bring you some photos from their Christmas Market which I attended at the beginning of the month, as well as some links for the items I bought at it. The actual content of this post about acknowledging when you’ve lost time and making up for it; was inspired by the fact that I went to the Market with my Mum, and after my experiences with my mental illness, we’ve both voiced the need to ‘make up for lost time’ by wanting to be together more often...

ALL THINGS TRAVEL & MENTAL HEALTH | IN COLLABORATION WITH LONDON NORTH EASTERN RAILWAY | AD

The Post Inspiration:
A little while ago, I was travelling to London when a cabinet above the sink in the train bathroom swung open and hit me on the head. As an apology, London North Eastern Railway (LNER) issued me with complimentary first-class tickets to any destination on their route! When I got talking to the Communications department though, and they heard about I’m NOT Disordered, we agreed to turn it into a collaboration, so the bestie and I decided to go to York for the day!

It was actually when we were waiting to come home though that we had the conversation which – along with the actual trip - has inspired this blog post. There were no tables outside the pub in York train station so we ended up sitting on a table with a man (Tony) and lady (Nikki). It turned out that Tony worked for Network Rail, so we got talking about my LNER collaboration and the benefits travelling has on your mental health…

Benefits of travelling: 

For a lot of people with a mental health illness, I think that there’s a level of expectation in society that if you behave in a particular way then that must mean you have this diagnosis or if you do that then you must have that diagnosis. This can be especially exacerbated when surrounded by people you know; not just friends but professionals too - there can be pressure in appointments when you feel that you need to seem more well than you feel so as to avoid particular responses from professionals. This pressure from all these different places can obviously become overwhelming and can result in a huge amount of stress which could be slightly alleviated by travelling somewhere different to be surrounded by people who don’t know you… or your mental state! When I temporarily moved down South (where I was born) it felt like a fresh start because was there no one feeling that people were thinking ‘it’s her again.’ I could start new relationships and determine just how much of my mental illness they saw.

MY TOP FIVE PLACES TO VISIT ON THE LNER ROUTE | IN COLLABORATION WITH LNER | AD

I’m very proud to be able to say that I’m collaborating with London North Eastern Railway (LNER) on a series of posts in the run-up to a complimentary first-class trip on June 15^th. 

Here’s my five favourite places (in no particular order) from the LNER route!

1.    Edinburgh

Things to see and do:

Edinburgh Castle – learn about its fascinating, vibrant and grisly history, ensuring you visit the Scottish Crown Jewels while you’re there. Opening hours: 9:30am – 6pm, tickets: adults = £19.50, Concession = £11.50, Children (5-15) = £10.50, free for children under 5

National Museum of Scotland – not only can you explore the exhibits and displays but there’s also an incredible panoramic view of the city from the Museum’s rooftop terrace. Opening hours: 10am – 5pm, free admission, donations welcome

Christmas Market – crepes and waffles, glass baubles and decorations; Edinburgh Christmas Market is visited by thousands of shoppers a year

Shopping – Princes Street for all of your high street stores from Superdrug to Apple to Primark, for luxury shopping; Multrees Walk