My Experience with Sleep Paralysis

I’d never thought I would write about this , yet here I am. The first time it happened was like the freakiest and most scariest thing I’ve ever gone through. Sleep paralysis is a situation when the body is literally ‘paralysed’ although you’re awake. It happens when one is falling asleep or awakening. It might not sound that serious, yet it is.

My Experience: It was like every regular day, and I was off to bed. I hadn’t been sleeping well because I had to study for some time because I had been really busy. Then, I was slowly falling asleep, when I felt this huge wind blowing across my face. I felt like there was pressure on my chest, like someone was literally sitting on me. I could see my surroundings and my sister was right next to me on the bed. I tried to talk or even make a sound, I tried to move my body, my hands and my feet but all to no avail. I thought it was some kind of spiritual attack. I was so scared. I was saying a prayer in my head like “God please protect me, I don’t want to die”. Just like it came, it suddenly stopped. I could move again. I didn’t know what the heck happened. I couldn’t tell my parents or siblings or anyone about it, because I thought something was really wrong with me. And then, it happened a couple of other times. I was terrified. I was really afraid of going to bed, because I thought one day I might die in my sleep and no one would notice. I always held my bible close to me when I slept.What really pushed me to make research about it was when my sister told me something like that had happened to her a few months later. It was some kind of relief. I decided to search about that feeling on the internet and bam, I found sleep paralysis. I was so relieved to know I was normal and It could be solved.

My Research: I found out it happens to people at least once in their lifetime. It is caused by lack of sleep , irregular sleep patterns and weirdly, sleeping on your back. In some cases , people might see weird figures or things that aren’t even there. An episode last for about 20-30 seconds but it feels like minutes to those experiencing it. The solution was simple, sleep more and at a particular time and don’t sleep on your back, instead on your sides. Since then, I always make sure I sleep well, if I feel sleepy I don’t force my self to work more and to sleep for at least 7hrs a day from 10:00pm – 6:00am in the morning. Now, I rarely have occurences of sleep paralysis and I feel better knowing it’s okay and it’s never killed anyone before. I am indeed grateful to God and the internet for that information. I’ll try to sleep more and take care of my self better now.

If you’ve ever experienced sleep paralysis, please let me know, I’d be really comforting to know I’m alone. The point is , Don’t ever neglect sleep. I had to learn that the hard way. Thanks for reading.

How to Establish Boundaries With People: Drawing Lines

Oops, my title almosts sounds like a geometry class but it’s not. It’s about creating boundaries and limits. Like me, I assume that you’ve probably come across people who don’t know where to stop. Boundaries are like speed limits, they tell you how far you could go and when too stop. It defines you and your level of tolerance of certain things. Only you can define your boundaries according to your preferences. I’ll try to keep this post short and simple. Even I don’t like to read much 😂😅. Here are a few steps I feel is important to establishing boundaries. Hope you find them useful.

👉Create your boundaries to your choices. You need to know what is and isn’t okay with you. It’s important to set boundaries to avoid disrespect and build better understanding and in turn carves a niche for your kind of person. Also, you need to love yourself and appreciate yourself because it takes quite a high self esteem to create boundaries to protect you.

👉 Enforce your boundaries. What point is it to create limits and not enforce them. It’s like making a law and not enforcing it . Not only is the law pointless but useless. There should be reactions or repercussions when people overstep their limits. For example, you could caution them, keep them at arm’s length or simply talk about it. Whatever the choice, your boundaries must be enforced .

👉Set boundaries at early stages. It’s important so your feelings won’t be hurt later. It’s like training a child, the earlier, the better. Don’t trust so easily to lay your limits down. It’s annoying and heart- breaking when people you trust misuse it.

The quote for this post is from the Bible, but permit me to paraphrase. It says ” Treat others the way you’d like to be treated”. If you respect the boundaries of others , the chances are , they would also respect yours.

If you enjoyed this post, please like, follow and I’d love to hear your comments on limits and boundaries. Thanks🥰

Money Management : Gaining Financial Stability

Financial Stability 😎, who wouldn’t want that, especially in these hard times. I’m the kind of person tagged a ‘spendthrift’ because of the way I manage my money . Before going on with this post, I want to say I’m sorry for taking too long to publish another post. Anyways, this post is to educate us on how to spend our money wisely and attain some sort of financial independence. Here are three ways to help you manage money better.

POINT ONE: Keep track of your expenses

Sound easy right, but it isn’t. Keeping track of your expenses includes even the least of money you spend. It helps identify how much you spend, how frequently you spend and where to cut down expenses. If you’re not the book-keeping type, just get a note app on your phone and update your expenses from anywhere.

POINT TWO: Create a budget

A budget is a great tool in managing money. It’s a list of estimated revenue and proposed expenditure for a particular period of time , be it weekly, monthly or yearly. Budgets help to control impulse spending. Create a budget and stick to it and if you can’t create one, I’d show how in my next post hopefully. Using spreadsheet packages such as Microsoft Excel is a great way of maintaining and tracking a simple budget.

POINT THREE: Cultivate a savings culture

Start building your savings. It’s better late than never. Live within your limit. Don’t borrow to live your lifestyle. For some, they can’t save because their trying to live up to others perspective of them. If you have trouble saving money, try getting a little piggy bank. Also, plan for big expenses. After all , little drops of water could form a mighty ocean.

One of my favorite “economic” quotes is “ADDICTION LEADS TO POVERTY”. Getting addicted to anything, especially goods and services e.g. certain foods, gambling,etc could leave you wallowing in endless debts. So, please be WISE.

If you enjoyed this post, please like and share your comments and I’ll see you in my next post 😉. Thanks for reading.

Dealing With Peer Pressure

This is officially my first post. Anyways , I am writing in dealing with peer pressure. Yep, you read right. Coming from a different background with your friend is no new thing. Your friends would either make you or break you. Peer pressure can either be positive or negative. Negative peer pressure as in this case, is a major problem amongst not only students but also colleagues. It has led to countless regret, suicide, bullying, menace, you name it. It’s almost impossible not to come across such in any institution.

Having lots of friends is great and all, but those friends must make an impact. I too was also faced with peer pressure, so I’m sharing a few ways I dealt with this. It can be really tough to do the right thing, but in the end , you’ll realize you’ve done the best thing for yourself and the people who care for you genuinely. Anyways, let’s jump into three important steps in dealing with negative peer pressure.

STEP ONE: Re-evaluate your values:

Dealing with negative peer pressure is no easy task. This is why it is necessary to redefine your values. Yes, values. Ask your self this question, would I really be happy if I did this?,how would it affect others, etc. What are your CORE values and would deviating from them make you a better person? Would you be ashamed of your actions or regret? Para phrasing one of Mahatma Gandhi’s sayings, “you can tell if what a person is doing is right or wrong if they want it to be hidden or out in the open.

STEP TWO: Seek Parental advice or from any responsible adult.

Adults. You know why their called that? It’s because they’re all grown up and have passed through what your passing through now. They understand the importance of shunning peer pressure and the impacts it could make. If you don’t have a good relationship with your parents, feel free to talk with your school counsellor or teacher.

STEP THREE: Know and Love yourself🥰

Learn to love and accept yourself, cuz you’re amazing just the way you are. Negative peer pressure can only affect you if you want it to. People with high self esteem value themselves (no, they aren’t selfish) and are less likely to be pressured into what they’re not and vice versa for people with low self esteem. Here’s a fun fact, did you know that there’s only one version of you? There can only be one you, so be you and not what others push you to be. After all, “Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all”- Whitney Houston

I hope this article was useful. Feel free to share your comments and or repost and like. You could also suggest your way of dealing with peer pressure. Love y’all 😘❤️

BONUS TIP: Find peers that have the same interests with you. They’ll be your comfort and your mini family. Alternatively, try talking to your friends about their actions, and if truly they’re your friends, they’d stop not to hurt you.

University Problems

This post is an avenue to just lay out my mind . Living in Nigeria is quite tough with the problems I have to face. One of them is the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities popularly known as ASUU. It’s a body for all public universities in the country. The body has been on strike since February this year.😣 All public universities have been shut down. It just called off strike in 2020.

I’ve been at home for over a year, waiting to start to school🥺. Sometimes I feel sad when I think about the future. Will I ever go to school or just wait till the government actually cares. The only topic literally on the minds of our leaders are the upcoming presidential elections next year. I understand the frustration of the staff union because of unpaid salaries and the need to the revamp our public tertiary institutions. It seems like our leaders don’t care because their kids don’t school here but school in Europe and other institutions in advanced countries. I’m writing this because I’m sad and hope the strike would be called off soon🥺😣. Till then, I focus on my blogging and learning new skills🙂