This may seem a strange idea; chronic illness sufferers don’t very regularly have cause for excitement. But on the other hand, as exciting events can be rare, they can be even more exciting when they do happen! I’m going on holiday next week, back to the idyllic Spanish village that I lived in for 8 … Read more
Recently I’ve realised I’ve got out of the habit of being happy. It’s been a combination of things, one piling on top of another. I’ve been feeling ‘below baseline’ for a couple of months now. I’ve made very slow progress from a viral crash, (or maybe I’ve been dealing with several infections in sequence?) I’ve … Read more
In an earlier post I explored the role of loving-kindness in the pursuit of happiness, not in terms of receiving but in terms of giving. We can’t necessarily control how much love and affection we receive from others but we are in control of how much we can give out. Giving love is a wonderfully … Read more
Today I woke up feeling fed-up and disheartened. This is a very common problem when you suffer from a chronic illness, even when you have come to terms with the fact that you will have to live your life in a very different way to how you imagined it. It’s natural to hope to see … Read more
Finding a baseline of sustainable activity is an important strategy for learning how to live within your ‘energy envelope’. Making sure that we only use the energy that is easily available to us is the most reliable way of stabilising our condition. Saving some of that energy for the body to work on healing can … Read more
Here’s the final installment of the self-help survey results. This part focuses mainly on sources of help. (You can see all the other parts of the survey on this page – scroll down for earlier parts) Once again, a huge thanks to those who took the time to share so much information. I’ve found … Read more
Here’s part 4 of the survey results, looking at relaxation and dealing with the emotional impact of the illness. Have you tried relaxation techniques/ meditation/ yoga/ tai chi? How useful were they? How often do you practice? How understanding of your condition is your teacher? Back when I was ill I started painting and … Read more
Here’s part 3 of the self-help survey results. This part explores exercise and diet. You can all the parts published so far on this page, scroll down for older posts. One of the respondents’ complete answers can be found on her own blog page Sky Blue River. Do you think exercise is helpful for this … Read more
Here’s the second instalment of the self-help survey results (part one can be found here). In this part I was looking at the sorts of things that we can do to stop the illness getting worse. What sort of things makes your illness worse? What sort of things do you find you have to avoid? Any form … Read more
It’s taken me a while to publish the results of my survey, partly because I’ve been waiting for more responses. Although the survey generated more interest than any of the other blog posts, I’m afraid I only had 3 responses. I have added my answers to this survey so that it now represents 4 people. … Read more
