Keeping those heating costs down by staying warm this winter!

So far this winter it hasn't been particularly cold in the UK, with little or snow in most cities. This is a blessing for the most vulnerable, such as the elderly, but also for students who need every penny we can get our hands on.

Because it hasn't been particularly cold so far, then at some point it will probably turn a lot colder. It's best to be prepared now, to save on those heating bills at the end of winter! Doing whatever you can to stay warm over winter, means you wont be turning on the heating at every opportunity - which costs valuable ££££!

1. Use a blanket or duvet when sitting on the sofa, or out of your bed.
2. If that doesn't work, then put the PJ's on and get in to bed and under your duvet. There is a lot to be said about how warm and snuggly a bed can be.
3. A onesie! There is a huge trend for onesies these days and they can be picked up very cheap. Wearing one in bed keeps you warm on the coldest of nights, and keeps out pesky draughts which normal PJ's or dressing gowns don't. Try and buy one with enclosed feet!
4. The power of a hot water bottle should not to be sniffed at. Be careful not to burn yourself though.
5. Drawing curtains at dusk and keeping doors shut will block out any draughts, making you feel warmer.
6. A hot meal goes a long way! Keep yourself well-fed with hot food to stay warmer.
7. Similarly, drinking hot drinks like tea & coffee will also help you to stay warm
8. Keep active, moving about will keep your body temperature up and you won't need to put the heating on so often.
9. Wearing several light layers will keep you warmer than wearing just one, big chunky piece of knitwear so remember to layer up if you are feeling chilly.

Of course, when it is THAT cold outside you have no choice. But do it as a last resort and not at the slightest drop in temps.

Talking about bills, living in a  house or flat share is a whole different ball game to halls - students are exempt from council tax, but there is still gas, electricity, water, insurance, TV license and rent to be worrying about.

If you live somewhere where bills aren't included, there is an easy solution! Glide is an AMAZING company which makes bills simple - and stress free - for any student household. If everyone in your home signs up, Glide will quote you a one-off, monthly cost (per person) to take care of ALL your bills. Each individual is only responsible for their share of the cost, taking away the need to be anxious about housemates paying up and on time. You have access to an online metre for the energy used, so if you use less energy than you have paid for, you receive a refund for this amount at the end of the year. Bonus! It's not a question of why not use them, it's more why the hell would you not?! 

The importance of being positive!

Be more positive!

A huge part of remaining motivated at university is being positive. Thinking about the world positively will improve not only your academic life, but your personal, professional and social life too!

Modern life is busy, hectic and stressful - so it is easy to lose track of the bigger picture. We become so engrossed in all the work we are doing at uni that we forget about the end-goal, or the (positive) light at the end of the tunnel. A lack of energy doesn't help anyone to stay positive, so we need to make sure we eat and sleep well. As a society, we care too much about what others think and not what we think of ourselves. We should only judge our successes on how we feel inside, and not what others think.

There are some huge advantages to being positive in life, as listed here. This list was taken from: http://www.positivityblog.com.

1. You will create a better world around you as your surroundings will become affected and change due to your positive thoughts and actions.

2. You will make better first impressions. Everyone stereotypes, whether they want or not. A positive first impression can mean a lot in many situations and have a lasting effect throughout your relationship with that person.

3. You will focus on the good things in people. Not their faults. This will make things much better overall and improve all kinds of relationships.

4. It´s easier to become more productive when you stop laying obstacles in the middle of the road in the form of negative thoughts.

5. Work becomes more fun. Everything becomes more fun.

6. You become more attractive. People like positive people. Positive people make other people feel good about themselves and they don´t drag the mood down. Also, a positive attitude is an indicator – and source – of high self-confidence, a quality that just about everyone is attracted to.

7. Being negative has very little concrete advantages and is not a very empowering way to look at life.

8. It opens up your mind to focus on other ways of looking at things. Sometimes wonderful new ways you might not ever have thought about or experienced before.

9. It puts the Law of Attraction to better use. The Law of Attraction basically says: whatever you think about you attract into your life. As you replace the negative thoughts with positive thoughts you will start to attract more positive opportunities and people into your life.

10. You´ll waste less time. Negativity can be like a self-feeding loop. First you think one negative thought. It leads you to three more. And then you start examining your life in deeper detail through a depressing lens. When you get into a vicious cycles like this it can eat up hours, weeks and years of your life. It can drain a lot of your energy whilst trapping you in paralysis by analysis. And you probably won´t become that much wiser in the process. 

Every single one of the reasons above will lead you to having a more positive, productive and successful journey through university. So I challenge you, to take up the Positivity Challenge!

The Positivity Challenge! (taken from: http://www.positivityblog.com/index.php/2007/02/09/take-the-positivity-challenge/)

For 7 days you will try to only think positive thoughts. Whatever happens to you will see the good side of it and what positive things you can learn and take away from it. By the end of the week you will have started to discover the very real benefits of a positive thinking, how much negative thoughts there are both in you and the world (you might be surprised) and begun establishing a new habit to replace your old, less constructive one. And then you can continue from there.

What I suggesting here is not a mindless kind of positive thinking where you pretend everything is ok whilst the house and your bed is actually on fire. Instead it’s you noticing a situation or stimuli and then choosing a positive and useful response to it instead of reacting in a knee-jerk way. It´s you focusing on what could be a more positive and useful solution for you. 

Cut the negative threads quickly. Only allow yourself to go on a negative thread of thought for a set time-period, perhaps 30 seconds or a minute. Then just cut it off, drop it and think about what positive things you can get out of this situation. Don't feed the negative thoughts with more energy or you might trap your mind in a downward spiral for quite a while. If you start going down a negative thread of thought it is important to cut it fast.

Realize that it is possible to choose what you think about and how you react. You don't have live your life in reaction. Being reactive to everything is not very empowering. You have a choice. But it might take some time to make this click in your mind. Even though I understood this intellectually pretty fast it took a longer time to understand and accept it emotionally and on a deeper level.

Focus on the gap between stimuli and reaction. The more you think about this and try to use it by consciously choosing, over time (for me it was months but it can surely be achieved quicker) the gap will appear larger and larger and that will make the process easier.

Accept your feelings, don't deny or refuse them – Although it's often possible to just quickly cut off negative thoughts sometimes it might not be enough. Negative emotions can build up within you over time or you might feel be overwhelmed by a certain situation. Then you can try the counter-intuitive way and not keep the feeling out by fighting it.

Instead, accept the feeling. Say yes to it. Surrender and let it in.

Observe the feeling in your mind and body without judging it. If you just let it in and observe it for maybe a minute or two something wonderful happens. The feeling just vanishes. It sounds weird but give it a try.

Get the physical fundamentals down. If you don't have time to sleep a healthy amount of hours, eat properly and get exercise then you need to re-prioritize. If you don't do this it will be harder to become and stay positive. If you do re-prioritize, your general sense of well-being will increase, you will feel stronger and have more energy. 

Act as if. Smile to feel happier. Move slower to relax. Use positive language. Act as if you are a positive person and you will start to feel and become more positive. It might feel weird at first, but it really works.

Start your day in a better way!

Limit your time with really negative people – Some people feed on negative energy and whatever you try it never pleases them or changes their sour minds and moods. If nothing you do works then finally you might have to cut them out of your life or at least limit your time with them.

Model positive people. Find positive people in your surroundings or anywhere in time and space (through documentaries, biographies etc.) and learn from them. Find out how they handle everyday life, problems, setbacks and compare it to your own thoughts and how you would handle similar situations.

Focus on the now and future, not the past. A lot of people spend a lot of time thinking about on the mistakes they made in past. A better way is to think about the mistake you made and what you can learn from it. Then stop wasting your time and shift your focus to the present and the future where you can actually make a change.

Motivating yourself after the Christmas break!

So, we've all enjoyed a long Christmas break full of relaxation, plentiful alcohol and lots of amazing food to gorge on. The idea of getting back into a routine at uni is not just scary, it is down right terrifying. The first alarm of the term is always the hardest and you begin to wonder how you ever functioned before 12 noon. But getting back into the swing of the things is not as hard as you might think!

• Define your goals, and plan how you will achieve them

Nobody said university would be easy. You have a whole lot of of essay-writing, researching, debating, revising and exam-taking ahead of you. Identifying your goals for the term ahead will make them seem more manageable, and therefore more achievable. Write them down and keep them somewhere safe so you can look back on them. But remember that achieving these goals takes planning, so write down your plans too. Again, look back on them when needed to remind yourself exactly what you need to do, to achieve those goals!

• Remind yourself why you're here

This may sound silly, but remind yourself exactly why you are at university in the first place, paying a helluva lot of money to be here too! Write them down and stick them on your noticeboard, or bedroom wall. Write down the successes which led you to choose further education and the reasons you made that choice. Is there a career you are striving for? Is it the extra digits your degree will make to your pay slip? Are there opportunities your degree will give you? Importantly, be completely honest about why you are here and remind yourself why when you don't feel motivated.

• Small steps, one at a time  

Don't be scared of all the work there is yet to do, but get excited about each piece of work. There is no point worrying, as it will get you nowhere. Break every task into small steps, and focus on each step one at a time. 

• Reward yourself 

Just because you chose the university route, doesn't mean you can't give yourself little rewards to spur you along. Allow yourself a bar of chocolate, or a weekend trip, or even a night out only (and I mean only!) when you have completed tasks, or the small steps towards them. If this doesn't motivate you, nothing will. 

• Ask yourself motivating questions at the beginning of each day

After you get over the shock of your alarm going off each morning (even though it is an almost daily ritual of pressing snooze as many times as you possibly can...) then ask yourself what you will be doing today, why you will be doing it and how you will do it. Again, buy some cheap post-it notes or a notepad and jot it down if it helps. Then you can go a bit deeper and ask yourself what you want in life and how you will achieve it. Aim high and reach for the stars - your life will be what you make it.

• Act as if you were motivated, even if you aren't

If you really can't get yourself motivated then just act and do everything like you would if you were. Shower, get dressed, sit at your desk, open your notes, take a sip of coffee and you will be surprised at how quickly you begin to feel actually motivated. Laying in your bed in your PJ's will not motivate you in the slightest to get that work completed.

• Toughest first

This doesn't work for everyone, but it works for me. Get the toughest work out of the way first. Putting something off over and over again because it is the hardest notch on the to-do list is not productive in the slightest. Getting it out of the way will not only allow you to cross the task off your list, but will get you in the right mode to tackle the remaining, less difficult ones.

• Turn off the phone, tablet and TV!

Get rid of all distractions. Listening to your fave tunes on Spotify in the background will not help you work. Be sure to put down the Kindle before that book you are reading entices you back in and away from studying. Turn off your mobile before anyone has the chance to send you a text or Whatsapp you a message. That goes for your Tablet too! You need to concentrate on the task at hand and even the slightest distraction will hamper your motivation. Going back to one of the previous tips above, then  include Spotify/Mobile/TV/Kindle/Tablet time as a reward you can do only when you have completed a task or small step!

• Enjoy yourself

Well at least try (when possible) to enjoy the work. If you are given the choice, study/research/write about a subject which interests, and therefore engages, you. Don't just go for a topic which you think will impress your tutors, pick one you are passionate about. Studying, researching and writing about something you have passion for will be more enjoyable, much more motivating and will enable you to write a better essay. Trust me, your tutors will pick up on this! If you don't have a choice and aren't passionate about the subject, focus on a small chunks at a time, reward yourself more regularly for achieving each step and focus on the satisfaction you will feel once it is complete.