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silver linings

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Regular readers of my blog, and especially those who follow me on social media will know that life recently has been very tough due to the symptoms that are caused by the neurological condition that I am now forced to live with.  The symptoms associated with my neurological condition such as dizziness, fatigue, pain as well as the severe weakness and trembling in the legs have all deteriorated.  And as a  result of this deterioration, it has resulted in the loss in the ability to do a lot of the things that once came so easily, or those activities that I enjoy participating in.  One example, is the great difficulties that I have experienced in visiting our local high street.  Before this sudden deterioration, I found it so easy to be able to park in the town’s car park and walk the moderate distance towards the top end of the town to visit the shops that I like to browse and buy everything that I need.  However, recently due to the deterioration in the symptoms in my legs (the pain, trembling and weakness) even the short walk from the car park to the shops have felt more like the prospect of walking Mount Everest.

Dealing with symptoms can often feel like an uphill battle...
Dealing with symptoms can often feel like an uphill battle…

As a result, my carer has instead had to use the disabled parking bays in the town centre itself, so that I am able to use the amenities that I need to use, and still be able to go to the shops that I like to visit.  This arrangement has been far easier as they are extremely close to all the shops that I regularly shop at, but in all honesty, some days it is still a struggle to go shopping because of the severe weakness and trembling in the legs.  The dizziness, has also caused a very big obstacle in going out because it has become so intense, and has resulted in me having to wear a hat when visiting places (wearing a hat helps to limit the exposure to triggers that can cause vertigo, double vision or make the dizziness worse).

Last week was a particularly bad week, and a trip to town was cancelled after my legs almost gave way in the middle of town.  Instead, because the pain and weakness was so bad, my carer and I returned to the house and watched a film.  It is bad mornings with chronic illness like these which can be difficult for our morale and self-confidence; and very often it can feel that our day is already over thanks to chronic illness, unable to accomplish anything because of debilitating symptoms and so instead we find ourselves spending the rest of a ‘bad day’ spent in bed or lying on the sofa watching a marathon of our favourite TV series (my guilty pleasure of the moment is One Tree Hill).

However, I recently learnt that it does not have to be this way.  I found a blog post that read:

Today is not over yet.

And it is true.  At the time, I wrote off the day that my legs decided not to work properly and had to spend the morning watching a DVD instead of the shopping trip I had planned.  But that was not the end of the day.  After the film, and after I regained enough strength in my legs, my carer and I took a short drive to a nearby coffee shop and had lunch.  It actually turned out to be a lovely trip out and exactly what I needed to take care of myself and my body against the effects that my condition has had on my life.  And perhaps ‘Today is not over yet’ is a mantra that we spoonies need to remember.  Just because a day has started off bad because of the effects of chronic illness does not mean the day will be bad.  It does not even mean that the day is over.

Finding joy can often be like seeing a rainbow appearing behind clouds...
Finding joy can often be like seeing a rainbow appearing behind clouds…

We can find joy in the little things on the bad days – a letter or card from a dear friend landing on the doorstep, a cuddle from a furry friend, a favourite song on the radio, someone making our favourite meal. Our silver linings can come from the smallest of things.

So, our chronic illness may have meant that we have frittered away our time doing as little as possible, however as the quote suggests it does not mean that our day is over.  We are still here and we are still very much alive and as long as we are it is not to late to do something, to do anything.  It can provide the perfect opportunity to pursue some self-care practices in order to take care of not just our physical health but also our psychological health.  A few self-care activities may include:

  • having a soothing bath
  • meditating
  • reading
  • pampering yourself, e.g. getting hair done or even a manicure
  • crafting
  • can even be as simple as setting limits for yourself

Even if you do end up doing something, it may be something that we hadn’t planned on doing or even wanted to do.  However, it might just end up being something we needed or better than originally planned.  Just like my impromptu visit to a local coffee shop.

So next time, you have had a bad start (or at any point of the day, really) to the day and your thought is navigating towards writing the entire day off as a bad one, just remember:

Today is not over yet.

I was inspired to write this new blog post after reading a particular article from ‘The Huffington Post

The article was regarding recent research by the biscuit brand go ahead! to find out what really makes people in Britain happy.

Surprisingly, what topped the list was not extravagant things  The list was compiled however by simple pleasures walking in the sunshine which topped the list as well as other feel-good pleasures such as getting into fresh bed sheets, having a cuddle from someone and listening to your favourite song as examples.

Reading the article, made me think of life with chronic illness.  Often when living with a chronic illness, such as lupus, multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia for example, we are constantly looking for the next big successful outcome or achievement to make us feel-good or give us a sense of peace.  I know when symptoms are very bad, I know that I feel miserable, and only imagine myself only being happy again if I were to be miraculously cured or the severity of the symptoms subsided.  Day-to-day we are often too focused on our symptoms and the negative effect that they are having on us  not only physically but also psychologically and emotionally.

We therefore forget to focus on the small pleasures that make us happy and take us out of ourselves; the forget the negative situation that we find ourselves in and to find happiness in what is around us.

So, I have decided that I would write my own personal list of my own feel-good pleasures that makes me happy:

  1. Reading my favourite book
  2. Receiving a handwritten letter
  3. Looking at colourful butterflies

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  4. Receiving flowers
  5. Getting into fresh bed sheets
  6. Watching my favourite film
  7. Receiving a lovely comment on a blog post I have written
  8. Finding a lovely present for someone
  9. Receiving a hug from someone
  10. Seeing a rainbow
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  11. Being wrapped in a warm blanket especially on cold dark evenings
  12. Receiving an unexpected phone call from a friend
  13. Being pampered, e.g. a massage or a trip to the hairdresser’s
  14. Applying colourful nail polish on my nails
  15. The smell of popcorn
  16. The taste of chocolate
  17. Being kissed by my dog Honey
  18. Spending Sundays with Mum
  19. The feel of soft and clean towels
  20. Going out and enjoying the sunshine
  21. My gorgeous cushions which brighten my bed and helps keep me comfortable when I rest in bed
  22. Waking up after a restless sleep
  23. Browsing in a book shop
  24. Making decopauge cards
  25. Completing a level of a game that I had been stuck on for ages
  26. Publishing a blog post that I had been working hard on
  27. People smiling and saying hello to me on the street
  28. Enjoying my favourite drink and relaxing in my favourite coffee shop
  29. Laughing
  30. The sound of the rain

Those are some of the things that would be on my persona top favourite feel-good moment list.  What would be on yours?  Comment below and let me know!!

To see the full list of what British people voted as their top favourite feel-good pleasures, visit the Huffington Post article here.

 

 

 

 

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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.

The prompt reads as given:

“Health Tagline”…Give yourself, your blog, or your condition, or some aspect of your health a tagline. Make sure it’s catchy!

Again this is a prompt that has been involved in the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge during a previous year; so again I thought I would do the prompt a little differently than described.

What is in a name?  Not only is it a very famous quote from Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ but it  also has a significant value in everyday life; every person recognises themselves by their name.  A name gives an identity  and meaning whether it be a person, a book, or even a blog.  A names enables us to be able to identify a person or an object, as well as being able to differentiate one thing from another.  A name is powerful tool in language.

So to choose a blog name is important; it not only gives the blog its own identity but also gives the writer a voice.  A name gives the audience an understanding of the subject matter of the blog, even before they start to read. So, what made me choose the name ‘My Brain Lesion and Me’?  For starters, I thought the name was reminiscent of a book; of a story and in my opinion that is exactly what the blog is about – it is a story of my life and experiences with living with a neurological condition.

In a previous year, I had decided to come up with the tagline ‘Once upon a Dizzy Spell…A story of a girl living with a neurological condition’.  What made me choose this particular tagline is because as a young girl I loved fairy tales, especially the classic tales of princesses and princes.  I was an avid viewer of Disney films such as ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘The Little Mermaid’ and loved the romantic stories and the promise of a happily ever after.  Another reason for the chosen tagline is that my life living with a neurological condition all started with that very first dizzy spell all those years ago.  And that dizzy spell was the beginning of the journey to where I am now…

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And what if I were to give myself a tagline, what would I choose to give myself?  I was thinking long and hard and decided in the end for:

Stumbling along the silver lining

I decided upon this particular tagline, as for starters my legs have been particularly bad recently, and often due to the trembling, walking becomes a lot more like stumbling!  Furthermore, I would like to think that I am a positive person despite my neurological condition.  For example, I keep a positivity board and scatter various items adorned with positive quotes as an attempt to look for the silver linings in life, as hard and difficult as living with a chronic illness can be, and so the above tagline for myself was born!,

If you had to create a tagline for yourself, what would yours be?  As ever would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions so please feel free to add your comments below…

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