When you live with chronic pain and fatigue, there are a lot of things that can make you feel worse. Over-doing it, crappy weather, stress. But, sometimes thoughts and mental actions can make you feel physically worse as well. 6 Mental actions that can leave you feeling worse 1 . Feeling Sorry … [Read more...]
Extra Spoons and Inspiration
These posts contain little tips and inspiration to help you gain an "extra spoon" or two. Many with invisible illness call themselves "spoonies" in reference to The Spoon Theory by Christine Miserandino. The idea is that we equate our energy levels to spoons, when our energy levels are low, we need spoons. These posts are meant to help you increase your energy (whether mental or physical), and therefore your spoons.
How Chronic Illness is Like a Marriage
I've been thinking about how in a lot of ways chronic illness is kind of like a marriage. This post isn't as serious as most of my posts, I wanted to have a bit of fun, and take a light-hearted (tongue-in-cheek) look at how chronic illness is like a marriage. Sometimes we get stuck in … [Read more...]
5 Mistakes those facing Chronic Illness need to stop making
Living with chronic illness often leads us second guessing everything from our diagnosis to every possible symptom, side effect, and treatment. With all that second guessing it's important to know that there are a few things you may be doing that are worth second-guessing. Below are 5 mistakes those … [Read more...]
An Open Letter to Caregivers
Off and on for the last 8 years I've been the one needing care. I've struggled as a patient, but I never knew how much my caregivers struggled as well. I only saw my pain and my struggles. Recently, that has changed. I'm learning what it's like to be on the other side and just how … [Read more...]
Finding the Strength to Get Through Bad Days
It's not always easy to find strength in the bad days. You already feel overwhelmed and are struggling to just get through. This idea of staying strong is a bit over-rated sometimes, and sometimes the best thing we can do is allow ourselves to just rest. Let someone else be strong. The more … [Read more...]
6 Things I Focus on When Dealing with Energy Vampires
Do you have someone in your life you'd call out as an energy vampire? Someone who seems to just suck the life and energy out of you in no time at all?Sadly, too often the worst energy vampire in your life is someone close to you, a family member or a good friend. I've had those people in my life. I … [Read more...]
What To Do When I’m Feeling Overwhelmed and Stuck
I originally wrote this post in the early Summer of 2017. I was dealing with a business that I wasn't happy with, a marriage that I wasn't happy with, a life that I wasn't happy with. I was overwhelmed and I felt stuck. I felt like I was drowning and struggling just to keep up with the basics of … [Read more...]
What does acceptance mean?
What does it mean to accept your pain? That is a question that many of us have asked or been asked. I've been involved in a conversation on twitter with someone who doesn't get why we would choose to focus on coping with our illness. His thought is that we should be focused on curing it. My answer … [Read more...]
5 Tips to Better Living with Chronic Illness
Chronic illness sucks, and more often than not there is little we can do to make our lives better. All we have are the small things, a comfy blanket, warm slippers, Netflix. But, the reality is that there are some big things that we can do (often) to help improve our lives both in the short-term and … [Read more...]
10 Ways to Decrease Stress
Stress increases our pain. How many times have you heard that? How many times have I written that? I have no idea, but I do know that the words are true. Someone sent me a really unkind reply to a request I'd sent them on Facebook that ended with a "maybe I missed your point." They did. My … [Read more...]
