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Welcome to the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge brought together by WEGO Health – a social network for all health activists.  Again, I am participating in the annual Writer’s Month Challenge in which I will be writing about my health activism and health condition based upon given prompts.

Thursday April 2nd: Key to Happiness 

What do you think is the key to happiness?  Is it being able to overcome a hard time?  Laughter?  Maintaining a positive attitude?  Tell us what you think and why.

Happiness is simply defined as ‘the state of being happy’.

The definition itself may be universal but the meaning behind the word is different for every individual.  Just like we all have different likes and interests, what makes us happy is different for all of us.

However, modern life has taught us that happiness is contingent upon our accomplishments, and not having any troubles to speak of.  On this basis, therefore, a person such as me living with a chronic illness which causes a lot of troubles in my day-to-day life, should not be happy. This is cannot be further from the truth as many of the happiest people whom I have known over the years as had to endure some sort of hardship of some kind.

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“Happiness is a journey not a destination” is a fantastic example of the depiction of happiness in our modern lives; we are so focused on the end result which we think will bring us happiness, we forget however to appreciate the simple day-to-day pleasures.  We are too busy rushing around to see the beauty of the world around us.

One of life's simple pleasures
One of life’s simple pleasures

Living with a chronic illness, at times can be exceptionally difficult due to wavering severity of symptoms and the rollercoaster of emotions it evokes.  However, I  also believe that living with a chronic illness can also allows us to stop within our daily lives and appreciate the simplest of pleasures such as the relief of a warm bubblebath or our favourite song playing on the radio.  Chronic illness can cause us to enjoy and appreciate the journey rather than focusing on the destination as many do due to the demands of modern living.

Finding simple pleasures to enjoy and allowing them to bring happiness is just important key to happiness, but as often the door to happiness is often locked to us when we are struggling and experiencing difficult times, there is always more than one key to unlock the door and find happiness on the other side.

Choose Hope and Happiness
Choose Hope and Happiness

One other important key is remaining positive and embracing hope.  Surrounding myself with positivity and the favourite inspirational quotes that adorn my bedroom helps to keep the light on during my darkest days and gives me hope for a brighter tomorrow.  They are not a miracle cure for the down days that I often experience as a result of living with a neurological condition but they are a reminder that these feelings and the severity of the symptoms at that particular moment, are just that a fleeting moment in a much longer series of moments.

But more importantly, happiness cannot be bought or be given by materialistic objects but by those people we are surrounded by, who give us comfort and support when we are in need of it most and also by the little moments of pleasure that makes life worth living (despite living with a chronic illness).

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Welcome to the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge brought together by WEGO Health – a social network for all health activists.  Again, I am participating in the annual Writer’s Month Challenge in which I will be writing about my health activism and health condition based upon prompts given.

Today’s prompt is as follows:

Wordless Wednesday…We all know a picture paints a 1,000 words.  Post/share a picture that relays a message or story to the viewer.

 

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Image found on Pinterest

Well the 2nd of April is here, and so is the second post in the WEGO’s Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge.  Today’s prompt is as follows:

Find a quote that inspires you (either positively or negatively) and free write about it for 15 minutes

So, thought this will be an easy challenge for me, as part of my daily journal that I keep I regularly write different quotes that I have found, positive ones that inspire me or lifts my mood, or perhaps something that ties in with a particular event that has happened that day.

However, it has been tough selecting just the one quote to use, but have decided on the following that I found recently on Pinterest that really inspired me, and it says the following:

This really spoke to me on a personal level as all my life, some people have made me ashamed of who I was  – at school I wasn’t like everybody else – I was very quiet, reserved,  and certainly was not part of the ‘popular’ gang.  I was more of a loner, a ghost, somebody  no one really noticed…

And there was my ‘issues’ with the dizziness – due to the condition, I had a problem with buildings which are open and have high ceilings, consequently, I used to panic quite a lot as I didn’t understand what was going on, and was unable to take part in sports as the hall in which our P.E. Lessons took place was very high.

This led to a lot of name calling, and left me ostracised from my peers, during a school trip to London where I became very unwell with the dizziness and led to a panic attacks, my ‘so called’ friends deserted me to go shopping, leaving me with a teacher whom I barely knew to look after me.  As in the quote, people throughout my life and have left me feeling ‘weird’.

However, years have passed and I can now understand that who I am is not my fault – I have a legitimate medical condition which explains partly the type of person I am.  And no-one has a right to make anyone feel ashamed of who they are – so what, if someone is a shy or quiet person, who would prefer to sit down with a book rather than going partying and getting drunk…

We are all different and unique – if everyone in this world was exactly the same, with the same interests and personality, then the world would be pretty boring, wouldn’t it?  Nobody should have to hide the person that they are, and we should all free proud of who we are and celebrate our differences and what makes us unique – after all they are the reason that they people in our lives love us…because we are us.

And as the quote says, if we hide our true selves, we never know the people who will love us for who exactly we are.

I do believe this, although there have been times in my life, even recently when it is hard to accept or belive what the quote is trying to say, maybe I will write the quote and put it up somewhere I can read it every day…

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