Back

Tips & tricks

Anything from how to be mindful to how to bake a cake. Tips and tricks from us to you.

Tips & tricks

Tom’s Gap Year Experience

Tom writes about his experience taking a gap year and some advice he would give to anyone considering taking one.

The Future Isn’t As Scary As You Think!

Young people in particular are the most scared of the future, since they have their whole life ahead of them. There is uncertainty about their careers, starting their own family, climate change, and so much more. Everything seems to be so much more amplified.

When does loneliness become isolation!

Both isolation and loneliness can affect mental health. Many people believe that they are the same thing. However, they aren’t but sometimes they can cross over. There are multiple reasons as to why someone may be isolated or lonely. Yet, it’s nothing to feel ashamed about.

Top tips for living with chronic pain, fatigue or mental distress!

In this blog, a young person tells us the tops tips for living with chronic pain, fatigue or mental distress!

Dealing with the Summer Holidays!

Summer holidays aren’t for everyone. Some people simply don’t enjoy the summer but for many, the holidays may be a time of stress and anxiety. Even if they do enjoy some of it, the holidays can still come with its difficulties.

How to be an ally to the lgbtq+ community?

An ally is someone who supports a community such as the LGBTQ+ community without having to be a member of the community themselves. However, people within the community can also be allies to other identities and sexualities. For example, a gay person being an ally for a transgender person.

Tips for talking to men about their mental health

Mens mental health is important and in this blog, Alex Holmes talks about the tips around talking to men about their mental health.

Loneliness Awareness Week

Loneliness is a feeling, a feeling that many people can experience, young and old. It is where our needs are not met when it comes to connecting with others. It’s something that has a different meaning to different people.

5 Ways to Improve Self Esteem

Everyone struggles with their self esteem at some point in their lives, especially when you’re young. Living in the age of social media doesn’t help because we are constantly exposed to content that can make us feel bad about ourselves.

How to Keep Yourself Safe Online?

Online safety is where people are keeping themselves and others from being harmed online. This includes making sure that personal information doesn't jeopardise people’s future, lead to unsafe communities or even going as far as protecting your mental health and wellbeing.  

Being an ally for the LGBTQ+ community!

An ally is someone who supports a community such as the LGBTQ+ community without being a part of the community themselves.

How can mental health within universities be improved?

It is another year where many young people have gone back to university. Ever since the pandemic hit, the awareness around mental health and wellbeing have increased. This doesn’t mean that mental health within young people wasn’t there before the pandemic, because it was. It just means that young people don’t want their mental health to be ignored anymore.

Thinking about body image differently!

Body image is how we think and feel about ourselves physically. Our bodies are one of the things that we have that is a constant in our lives. However, for many it’s one of things that we are very critical of. This is due to external factors affecting our thoughts about our bodies. 

How to de-stress?

When people think of di-stressting many people think of meditation. However, there are many other ways that someone can di-stress. Here are some tips and tricks to help you di-stress!

15 Ways to De-Stress

Stress is something that affects all of us, especially if you already struggle with your mental health. So it’s important to find ways to destress. Here are some things you can try!

Tips and Tricks on Pet Bereavement

Here are some tips and tricks for those who have lost their pets or about to lose them.

The Power of Positivity

Positivity is something that is often talked about within schools, at work, in friendship groups etc. It’s an important step towards personal growth and self care. It is something that everyone wants in their lives, in one way or another.

Self Care Tools

Self care is something that many people look towards when they are in times of need as well as just in everyday life. Here are some self care tools that you can use to help you! 

Moving House – How to handle the stress?

Moving house can be stressful so here are some tips and tricks to help you out!

Here are some tips on how can sport benefit your mental health?

How to get support and how it will benefit you at school?

Duke Of Edinburgh Tips and Tricks ⛺️

Planning on joining the Duke of Edinburgh Award programme. Here are some tips and tricks to help you through!

Coping with the End of Summer

Here are some tips on how to cope with the end of summer!

How to deal with some back to school nerves?

A young person has created some tips and tricks on how to deal with back to school nerves!

Having a sleep routine?

Sleep is something that everyone needs and getting into a good sleep routine will allow you to be in a much better mental health and well-being state. As well as being able to complete activities to a much better standard such as school.

Tips On How To Manage Risk Taking Better

Taking risks is something that many people feel uncomfortable with. However, they can help you with life so here are some tips and tricks on how to manage taking risks better!

Change Your Words, Improve Your World

Change Your Words, Improve Your World blog is about how to use language in more of a positive way to benefit our mental health and well-being.

Simple Candle Meditation Technique

This is a simple meditation technique that you can do anywhere at any time if you need a break or just some time to relax.
Thanks Marc Ignacio for the image from Unsplash :)

Finding that time is going too fast – What can I do about that?

Do you think about time? Time is something that I've find a weird concept.

Building a Better Relationship with Yourself

Building a better relationship with yourself may not be on top of the property list. It can sometimes be hard to think about yourself when you care about so many other things. It’s something that we work on throughout our lives as we grow as a person. 

Mindfulness Activities

Here are some mindfulness activities that can help you if you're stressed or worried.

Writing A Story

Here are some advice for those who are interested in writing stories and script writing.

Ways to stay active

The Jack Petchey Foundation have got some great ways to stay active, whether that's physically, or with hobbies and creative stuff. It's been put together to use during the coronavirus lockdown, but the ideas here are useful the rest of the time too.

(Photo: Henry Xu on Unsplash)

How to stay well during a winter lockdown?

If you're finding getting through lockdown in Winter hard, here are somethings that can help you through it!

Grounding Exercises to help with Anxiety

If your feeling anxious, here are some tips and tricks to help you!

Tips and Tricks on ‘The Social Dilemma’

Want to find out how you can reduce your time on social media and get less fake news stories? Here are some tipis and tricks to help you!

Feeling Nervous about Uni? Here are some tips and tricks to help!

University is a big step up and it can feel a bit overwhelming, especially for those you went to Uni whilst in the pandemic. So here are some tips and tricks to help you with Uni.

How to Reduce Stress So You Can Live Your Best Life

Here is an article written by one of our new young writers about a number of resources for minimising stress and maximising success!

12 different art therapy activities to help reconnect with one’s self.

Art encourages the freedom of self-expression and helps one reconnect with themselves and the world around them. Art helps to heal one’s mental well-being by exploring different emotions and helping to tackle stress and anxiety. These activities will help you to realise that!

Why write a Diary?

Lucy writes about why you and everyone you know should have a diary [Thanks for the pic Gabrielle Henderson from unsplash]

Positive Pebbles

This is a great mindfulness activity as well as a way to add colour and positivity to your community in these crazy times! All you need is a rock, paint and your imagination. [Thanks for the pic Dan Gold from Unsplash!]

At Uni? Here’s some tips on coping with the lockdown

If you're a student, and you've got worries about how your study, rent, rights and more are affected, here's a student writing for The Mix to help straighten things out.

(Photo: Victoria Priessnitz on Unsplash)

Mindful Baking: Victoria Sponge Cake

Laura shows us how to make her tasty victoria sponge cake and talks about how great baking is for your mental health and wellbeing. Want to try her recipe? (I know I do!) Share your final result with us on Instagram @Platfform4yp. Happy baking!

Thinking about your future?

If you're thinking about the future, Barclays Life Skills is a free set of tools, films and activities to help you figure out what's next, work on employability skills, and learn some new stuff.

(Photo: Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash)

Bored? Ten fun things you can do right now

Learn a language! Build a fort! Bake something! Here's The Mix with their top ten things to do. It was written during the coronavirus lockdown - but they're all fun whatever's going on.

(Photo: Filip Mishevski on Unsplash)

Looking after your mental health in a difficult living space

If you're struggling with your relationships with the people you live with, this article has some really helpful advice.

(Photo: Isi Parente on Unsplash)

Keeping connected

If you're not going to school or Uni at the moment, it's easy to feel pretty cut off from everyone. Here's some tips on what you can do about it.

(Photo: Luke Porter on Unsplash)

Mindfulness: getting started, and useful info

If you're looking to learn more about mindfulness, there's a list of useful methods and info on Platfform's site, and there's also a link below to a big list with places you can find out even more. There's also some great video guides on Platfform's Vimeo for young people.

(Photo: Kyle Mills on Unsplash)

Lockdown self-care and wellbeing tips, from young people

Need some advice and ways of coping with self-isolation and the current lockdown? Here's a great article from YoungMinds, and advice from the Jake Petchey Foundation.

(Photo: NESA by Makers on Unsplash)