Today's post is going to be a more personal one and has been inspired by the way I've been feeling lately. It's normal to feel a little anxious when it comes to our blogs, because of all the time and effort that goes into planning the posts, writing them, taking all the photographs and editing them, all the promoting we do and hours that go into the design and overall appearance of our blogs. We all love blogging and are proud of our hard work, and due to this, it's a given that many of us will get nervous about certain aspects of blogging. Lately, I've been struggling with my mental health which means that my anxiety is at an all-time high and this affects the way I feel when blogging. Blogging when dealing with anxiety already has it's challenges, especially if I'm feeling particular panicky that day. All the little insecurities and worries that usually come along with blogging seem to be on overdrive. In this post, I wanted to share with you all some of the things that I get anxious about and hopefully, if you are also feel the same, you'll know you're not alone and that almost everyone will worry about these things from time to time.
(1) Worrying about the way the blog post reads.
I worry about how the blog post sounds, and whether my spelling and grammar is all correct. I proofread my posts so many times, and even repeatedly read it aloud to myself. I'm worry that it doesn't flow well, and whether my writing style is one which makes my posts enjoyable to read and makes you all want to read on. It's not a massive problem if I have a few mispellings or a missing comma here or there, but at the time it feels so important.
(2) Worrying about whether my posts are interesting.
I worry about the content of my posts, because I want so much for them to be interesting and fun to read. I love that there are people that appreciate all of the little things in my life that make me happy and who have similar hobbies to my own but I still worry sometimes because it can be hard not to compare your blog to other blogs and worry that your life is not as interesting as other peoples.
(3) Worrying when I write posts about my experiences with mental health.
One of the reasons I wanted to start blogging was so that I could be open about my mental health and share my story with others, and also meet lots of supportive people to help me along on my journey to recovery. Although the blogging community has been amazing in making me feel like I can open up about my struggles and has helped me a lot, especially through reading posts from others who struggle with MH, I still get worried when I blog about anxiety and depression. It's hard to shake the nerves I have about being open about MH after years of bottling up how I felt. Growing up, I was always the sort of person to put my friends before myself, to make sure they were all okay and be the strong one of the group. Even though I've been experiencing depression since I was 14 years old, it was something I didn't talk about with anyone until around a year ago. All the stigma surrounding MH in society really influenced my decision to keep quiet about my struggles and not seek help sooner, and so even now there is always that voice in my head that makes me worry about what people think about me.
(4) Worrying about what others will think of me
This is something that a lot of people struggle with; it's normal to worry about how others perceive us especially when we are sharing personal things about our lives for so many people to see. It's difficult to not compare ourselves to others, even more so if we struggle with our self-esteem. For a long time, I struggled a lot with my self-esteem, I was bullied at school for being plus size and this really affected the way I thought about myself. I'm a lot better now than I was as a teenager but I still have those days when I feel down about myself. Another thing that my anxiety affects is my ability to talk to people; some days I struggle to chat to people and I worry that they will think I don't want to talk to them. I'm actually a really talkative person once I get to know someone and I'm trying really hard to get over this hurdle. I've been getting more involved with twitter chats and I'm quite proud of myself :)
(My best friend suggested that I should draw a cute little nervous cartoon, so here's what I did. I'm not the best at drawing, but I really enjoy it and I got a C in GCSE Art so I can't be too bad hahaha).
Thankyou for reading! I hope you all enjoyed today's post.
♥
What are some of the worries you have when blogging?