Lifestyle

Thom Cuffin-Munday *Disclaimer: the following article is meant to entertain and provide information on different beliefs and approaches rather than provide medical advice* In Western culture, the use of scientific methods has arguably been the primary approach to the treatment of mental health, with medication and psychoanalytic therapy being some of the most popular options suggested by GPs in the UK. However, across the East/West binary, the Eastern approach to mental health and wellbeing focuses less on finding the root cause of the issue and more on proactive, self-care methods to retrain yourself and shape your own psychology. This is known as holistic therapy, and is an approach that attempts to heal the whole person rather than their symptoms, aiming to change mindsets and ou...

Some content in this article may be uncomfortable and/or triggering  My experience of sex education at school was bizarre and that seems to be a common theme. Everything was taught through a song, a strange cartoon, or a game, and the limitations of the content are frankly scary. Excluding putting condoms on phallic objects, and scaremongering about pregnancy and STIs, what did we learn? The answer is practically nothing of value. Providing a useful and inclusive sex education curriculum would be absolutely invaluable to young people in navigating themselves as well as society in general. Here are a few of my suggestions. Focusing on women’s health Surely at the very least the aim of sex education should be to inform teenagers about their bodies, and make them feel comfor...

I think we’ve all been there, while glaring at the smooth, perfectly toned model in barely-there underwear we feel a blanket of self-loathing surrounds us. For me, the questioning always begins with, ‘How on earth am I meant to get my boobs in there without them dangling down by my knees?’ I find myself in a difficult battle with saucy underwear. Sometimes it feels so badass to be wearing something that makes me feel sexy. But then I question myself.  Who am I wearing it for? and Why does shopping for it make me feel so sh*t? Ever since we were little we’ve been told to strive to look like the ideal woman: tanned…but not too dark, skinny…but not too skinny, big boobs…but perky, curvy…but only in the right places, hairless…but without any signs of removal. All in all we must be eff...

Francesca Benvenutto As the UK’s Covid-19 situation arguably starts to worsen once again, many of us will involuntarily begin to cast our minds back to the joys of lockdown. When we were approaching the end of March, our Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter feeds had all become rife with people baking, sharing their home workouts, or starting a new sport. I remember often coming across blog posts discussing ways to improve productivity and help remain active despite the pandemic. This is a time of immense uncertainty for so many of us, with minimal guidance provided by the government, workplaces, schools and universities. With that in mind, it can be difficult for some of us to feel productive and put ourselves out there in this way. We are often being bombarded with a plethora of articles...

Over the last 6 months, TikTok (formerly known as Music.ly) has pushed itself to the forefront of pop culture, music and meme pages everywhere. A video-sharing social networking service aimed primarily at Gen Z (although millennials, Gen X and even families now regularly use the app) which allows you to share videos with millions of other users worldwide, within the app and beyond. Unsurprisingly, this platform rapidly gained popularity during the lockdown period thanks to its straightforward interface and fast adjusting algorithm. TikTok has made creating videos easy, whilst also offering an array of filters, effects, stickers and the ability to collaborate with other user’s content, all within a 60 second window. Unlike other apps such as Instagram where you are limited by the content y...

Moving away from home for the first time will be daunting, but doing so during a pandemic may be escalating your nerves to new heights. Even though the whole “student experience” will look a lot different this academic year with clubs and party venues still being closed, making new friends and having fun will still be possible. Here are some tips to help you out: Get to know your flatmates/housemates/roommates As your flatmates are some of the first people you’ll ever meet at university, establishing a good relationship with them will make your first year even more enjoyable. A great way that broke the ice for me when living with my first-year flatmates was having an Uno tournament, but you could substitute this for any card game! Have a group dinner where you each cook something to...

With this summer’s release of Stephenie Meyer’s Midnight Sun came a glorious Twilight Renaissance. Those who first discovered the magic of Twilight in their early teens have re-fallen in love with the saga. From Instagram to TikTok our feeds have been blessed with Twilight memes. And I am HERE for it; however, it made me realise that those juicy, dark and quite blatantly toxic love triangles have had a massive impact on my love life. After discovering Twilight at the merry young age of 12 I was enthralled in finding this love that never ends. Real passionate love was to be filled with pain, discomfort and a whole heap of emotional manipulation, right? WRONG.  The desire for never-ending love gifted me with an inability to leave emotionally abusive and toxic relationships. Even whe...

Crafts are back and in full force. Not only are we seeing crochet featured in Vogue and on catwalks, but business savvy creatives have set up flourishing Instagrams of them doing hobbies normally reserved for our nanas. From gay pride embroidery to boob pots celebrating body positivity, you can find it all on Instagram and expect to be welcomed with open arms. Crochet and embroidery came into my life during a pretty turbulent year. I was ungraciously dumped for another women (AT CHRISTMAS), then I got an orange to the face for which I needed three stitches (I looked like Harry Potter for a while, but it’s okay now), and to top it all off I was attacked and mugged whilst entering my home (genuinely horrific but being driven around the city in a police car was pretty groovy). After all o...

When you are residing on a small centralised campus like Royal Holloway, running into an ex is more probable than not. Fear not! You can still have a wonderful campus life. These tips may not work for everyone, but here are a few things that helped me. Tip 1: Get some good friends Every breakup is different. You may have had an entirely separate social circle outside of your ex-partner, or you could have met them through an integrated group of friends or societies. Perhaps you live together in halls or a flat, or you study the same course together. My advice is to make friends that are yours alone, who will unequivocally take your side in those initial weeks of healing. You do not have to give up your mutual friends, but it makes sense to expand your social circle and open yourself ...

Back in March when the coronavirus outbreak grew into a global pandemic, the world was put on pause. Adjusting to this “new normal” has taught me a lot of things about myself and the world around me, but here are the five key lessons I have taken from it:  1. Things can change drastically, and there’s nothing I can do about it. It’s crazy to think that back in late-February, I was standing in a sold-out arena and dining in a restaurant with masses of people around me, and less than a month later the whole country was shut down. It was uncomfortably numbing when I came to the realisation that the summer I had been looking forward to was basically cancelled, and I spent days on end thinking about what could’ve been. However, I soon realised that no amount of my sorrow could rever...