In recent years I’ve moved away from the idea of resolutions and goals and have turned towards intention setting instead. One of the things that really doesn’t help my health is to put pressure on myself and I’ve found that easily done when I have a goal or a resolution. It might just be a … Read more
A big part of mastering life with chronic illness is the ability to reclaim wasted energy so that it can be directed to more effective uses, like healing, contributing or fun. Difficult emotions are a natural and unavoidable part of living with chronic illness, the losses we have to face, the disappointments and frustrations of having … Read more
If there is one thing that I’ve become an expert on, as a result of living with an energy limiting chronic illness for 17 years of my life, it can be summed up as being happy when you can’t do very much. For everyone who is now faced with not being able to do all … Read more
With all that has been going on in the world recently it’s not surprising that you may be invaded by worry. With illnesses like ME/CFS where there is an overactivity of the sympathetic nervous system, once the worry switch has been switched on, it can be very difficult to switch off. Although generally, I have … Read more
Life lessons from travel and chronic illness When I was travelling in Africa in my early twenties on a very tight budget (pre-chronic illness), there was no internet to research what to do where, just a trusty guide book (usually a rough guide or a shoestring lonely planet) and the recommendations of other travellers you’d … Read more
‘Do nothing and nothing shall remain undone’ Lao Tzu This quote epitomises a principle that was responsible for my first recovery of ME/CFS. It can seem like a very confusing quote and there are many different aspects of it. But I’d like to describe what it really means to me and why it made such … Read more
This is a post I wrote especially for ProHealth’s Inspirational Corner and first appeared there about 5 weeks ago: We all want to be as well as we can be, but even when we feel highly motivated to reach as high a level of functioning as possible that doesn’t always translate to great motivation for self-care. We want the results but … Read more
I think one of the most difficult things to do that will bring us happiness and health is to let go of where you want to be. When you’re suffering you want to do what you can to no longer be suffering; you desperately want to be in that place of not suffering. Unfortunately though, … Read more
Yesterday I had a wonderful adventure. I’ve been thinking about doing it for a while with some hesitation. But as I’ve decided I want to say yes to life as often as possible, I decided I had to at least give it a go. Some friends of mine (Lynn and Brian) run a bike shop … Read more
This year I made what could be seen as a very ambitious resolution to make the world a better place. But the reason I made it was that I wanted to show how we don’t have to have lots of energy or even have to try very hard to contribute to making the world a … Read more
