SCEPTICAL MAGICK // CRYSTALS

   Crystals are something I've put off talking about for quite some time, mainly because when you engage with the topic of crystals, you tend to be shuffled into one of two camps. Camp one is the lady who accosts you in the New Age shops, draped in shawls and trying to convince you that this lump of orange calcite will somehow cleanse your kidneys. The second camp thinks that crystals are pretty rocks, and that's the end of it, and any claim of crystals having a bearing on your wellbeing is complete crock of shit.

  I sit in a weird little camp in the middle, and very aware that both of these sides can respond strongly to anyone who seems to not align with their particular view of things, but I do also think exploring a middle ground is a useful exercise, and so here we go.

A MASTERS IN LITERATURE | THE VIEW FROM HALF WAY THROUGH

  Since September I've been enrolled in the University of York, undertaking an MA in Romantic Literature (the time period, not the genre) and given that I'm nudging half way through, and almost at the end of the taught portion, I thought I might do a quick overview of how I'm finding it and what it's involved so far, for anyone who might be considering a masters in literature, or just curious about postgraduate education. 

TIPS FOR A HEALTHY BEDTIME ROUTINE

Many people should be getting more sleep, and I am certainly in that camp. I suffer from a condition I'm calling brain-fires-up-the-second-the-lights-go-out-itus. I think a lot of people do. It's almost impossible to stop my mind from wandering when I'm lying down to sleep, and specifically wandering into places that make me anxious or stressed. I get to enjoy my mind scaling such terrain as 'worrying about the academic paper I turned in a week ago and am still waiting for the marks for' and 'what will I do with my life in the interim between my MA and a PhD?' and 'What if my family, boyfriend and all my friends secretly hate me and throw big parties together where they do nothing but talk about how glad they are that I'm not there?'

It's not fun but it's definitely not unusual, I think most of us struggle with it from time to time. I've recently begun to implement a routine in order to help me sleep better, which then means that I wake up rested and happy and enjoy my days more.

2018 GOALS | BOOKS, WELLBEING AND WITCHY THINGS

H A P P Y   N E W   Y E A R ! 

   I think a lot people are feeling a bit mentally burnt out from last year. I know that while I had a great year personally in 2017, there's this constant undercurrent of all of the horrible things that have been happening in the world. The leader of the free world is a raving man-child, my own country is becoming increasingly divided on whether someone's ethnicity is a factor in whether they count as a human being, and the planet is dying just a little bit more. 

  But personally 2017 really turned into my year. I left a job I enjoyed with lovely people, but that wasn't fulfilling me, for a postgraduate degree that has reawakened my ambition and drive. I went from being very single and very disenchanted with relationships to coming up to the one year mark with a wonderful person. I moved out of a horrible little flat in a town I had no real affinity for, and am now in a lovely apartment (with a functioning bathroom hooray!) in the gorgeous city of York.

  I've become more independent, more politically aware and far more the person I wanted to be at the beginning of this year. It's not been without it's challenges, and of course the ever looming shadow of the collapse of moral society isn't fun, but with 2017 out of the way I'm going to indulge in a little optimistic goal setting.