I'm not the biggest fan of Autumn, although over the last few years I've tried to embrace it more and to find things I do like about it.

I struggle with it is the shorter days and generally where I live, dull and wet days as I live in one of the wettest places in the UK.

It's been a while again since I posted on my blog. If you've read any of my recent posts or follow me over on Instagram here you will be aware that I've been struggling with my mental health again for the last year and that I'm also currently undergoing CBT sessions with a therapist.

We all know what virus I mean ... I was trying to not write about it as it's all we see on the news, whatever social media we use and via countless texts and emails from whatever businesses have our details. The week before the UK lockdown (from Monday, March 23rd) I was off taking some holiday days so by the time of this being posted I would have been off work for about two and a half weeks.

I wasn't sure if I would have a blog post for this weekend as I was struggling to decide what to write about. There are a couple of ideas that have been floating around my head this week, but they've not formed into a full blog post ideas as of yet. Here in the UK this weekend, our Prime Minister, Boris Johnson is possibly going to announce the start of lifting some of the lockdown restrictions from Monday.

I've mentioned in a few of my last posts about some of the things that I've done and am doing to help me while the UK is in lockdown. I don't think I've mentioned them all in one place however so I'm doing that now in case some of them may help you or give you some ideas of things to help yourself until we are able to start to emerge back out into the world again, however that world may look.

It’s been a crazy last few months and I’ve really been struggling. I suffer from seasonal depression and because my moods were already low from my depression, anxiety and PTSD flashbacks, I’ve been finding it a real battle to be motivated to do anything the past few months.

I've really been struggling the past few weeks, I don’t know what mood I’m going to be in when I wake up and two Saturdays ago I woke to feel very anxious. I had my breakfast and did my meditation but then half an hour later while journaling I burst into tears. Even now I couldn’t tell you why. I had serious doubts as to if I should go into work as it happened about twenty minutes before I was due to leave the house. But I find that keeping the structure in my day and seeing and speaking to people often helps lift my mood.

By the time this blog goes up, it's going to be three weeks since I last posted.  It wasn't meant to be such a long break, but as some of you may know I've been having a few bad days here and there, which turned into a few bad weeks and a couple of bad months.  I'm going to start uploading here every two weeks and see how I go for a bit so I've got a bit longer to plan, write and edit blog posts than a week while things are a bit more of a challenge for me.  If you keep reading things will be explained to you.

My sleep routine is ever-evolving as my needs change and I try different things to help to sleep better but this is my current sleep routine that I promised you a few blogs ago. It's what I've been doing for about the last three months.