reading Archives - Marnie Johnston

June 9, 2020June 9, 2020

Books I’ve Been Reading: May

Before getting into the books I read last month, I want to jump ahead and share two books that I’ve just added to my iBooks app and am currently reading.

I feel they’re important reading in the current moment (and every moment, really), with the Black Lives Matter and Justice for George Floyd protests happening in the United States and around the world right now.

The two books I’ve chosen to purchase and start reading immediately to help educate myself further on the topic of racism are Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge, and How To Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X Kendi (Neither of these are affiliate links).

May 6, 2020May 6, 2020

Books I’ve Been Reading: April

I’ve always been a massive bookworm.

As a child my parents used to joke about how I always had my nose in the pages of the newest hardback I could get my hands on.

As a teenager learning to drive I found out how much I didn’t even know the streets of my hometown well enough to navigate without help, as I’d usually spent my time as a passenger reading.

As an adult I still spent hours immersing myself in different worlds from fiction novels, or filling my brain with new information from non-fiction books on topics I found interesting.

Since becoming a mother six months ago, however, I found I hadn’t really been taking part in one of my favourite activities, reading, at all.

April 3, 2020April 4, 2020

5 Things To Do During Coronavirus Isolation

Coronavirus Self Isolation, Lockdown, Quarantine – Whatever level of official measures your country is at in regards to the COVID-19 outbreak, the message is fairly clear: Stay at home.

But staying at home can be a problem for many. Not physically, that’s easy – just stay at home! No, it’s the mental side of things that can get a bit hard. We humans are social creatures, and we’re not used to staying cooped up in the one place for too long these days.

Here in the UK, we’re on lockdown, only allowed to leave our house for a short time each day for exercise, and to get groceries approximately once a week. Apart from that (in our household, anyway), we’re at home, as I am on maternity leave currently and my fiancé is working from home.

The urge to stay in pyjamas all day and watch one mindless Netflix show after the next, day in and day out, grows stronger and stronger for us all in isolation. However that can just feed into a negative mental health cycle that’s then hard to break free from. So let’s discuss some of the ways you can try to avoid a complete swan dive into depression during COVID-19 isolation.