Helpful Hints
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It's Not All or Nothing
Too often, I get stuck in the mindset of all or nothing. I’m going to do a hard workout or no workout at all. I’m going to get everything on my checklist done or procrastinate everything. The reality is, life doesn’t work like that. As much as my brain tells me it does, life is not all or nothing. This is a stumbling block for me. I associate productivity and happiness with accomplishing all of my goals. I may not be able to do that on a daily basis and that creates anger. Once again, I’m back to acceptance. We must accept what we cannot change and focus on what…
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You Are Not Your Illness
When being chronically ill, it’s easy to merge your identity with your illness. I’m here to tell you that you are not your illness. The way I see it, illness is something that happens to us. It changes our life and perspective. It may influence our choices and outlook but we are not our illness. Finding yourself after or during chronic illness can be a struggle. I’ve identified ways to discover who you are in the midst of being sick and I thought I’d share them here with you. Find Your Purpose We are all here for a reason. Depending on your ideology, you may look at this differently but…
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Self Care: 101
I have been doing a little extra self care lately. This looks different depending on your lifestyle. These are some of my self care tips and I hope they help you find a self care routine. We could all use a little extra love in this time of quarantine. It might as well come from the person who should love you the most, yourself! Take a Bath I hadn’t taken a bath in years. I used to take at least one a day. The other week my muscles were sore, my hip was hurting and the chiropractor wasn’t an option. I decided it was time to revisit the idea of…
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Compression Gear That Will Save Summer!
I am ecstatic that summer is almost here. Covid may change the activities we all partake in, being outside in the warm sun will never fail to make me smile. Last year, the biggest struggle I had was finding compression wear. It has to be comfortable and stop blood pooling. I couldn’t wear shorts. I was pretty much stuck with pants all the time and it was exhausting. Not only are pants too hot during the summer, wearing compression stockings under them is such a pain. I found some solutions and I thought I would share them here with you! I found a company called Shapermint. They have a huge…
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How to Keep Your Service Dog Occupied in Quarantine
If your service dog is anything like Crush, they have a lot of energy. I’m lucky to be in close contact with the organization that gave me Crush. They have been proactive about coming up with helpful solutions to doggy boredom. They’re not all perfect but I’ll take what I can get. So here are some ways to keep your dog occupied and trained during quarantine. Keep Training Crush knows a lot but there’s always more to be learned. I want him to be able to know objects by name. When I say get “XYZ” he’ll know what I’m talking about instead of having to point and direct him to…
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Learning to be Mindful
Mindfulness is a term that has become well known. It’s good for everything. Mental, physical and emotional health can all be improved by being mindful. What is mindfulness? Living in the moment is a great theory but in practice it can be quite difficult. I’ve talked before about radical acceptance and how it can improve your life. Mindfulness can come with radical acceptance. It often comes hand and hand with many different mental health strategies. In pain prevention or response, mindfulness can be utilized to endure. It’s possibilities are endless, so where do we start? Right here…. Take a deep breath When anxious or in pain, we often start to…
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Ways You Can Grow
We all have different ways we want to grow. It may be academic, physically, mentally, or emotionally. I can’t think of one person that couldn’t benefit from growing a bit. Too often, we look at others and make judgements about their shortcomings. Instead, I say we all take a bit of time to reflect and grow a bit ourselves. Where do we start? Right here! Reflect This is simple. Yet, we overlook it because to do the actual work is difficult. Reflecting at the end of the day is a great place to start. Ask yourself, what did you do well? It’s like a compliment sandwich. You want to acknowledge…
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How to Spread Positivity
I think in these last few weeks, we could all use a bit more positivity. For most of us, we’ve been stuck indoors for weeks and it’s scheduled to last about a month longer. So how do we spread positivity? Back in times before quarantine, I would have brought a friend or family member a small gift. I might have even dropped by just to say hello. Now, things are different but there’s still positivity and love all around us. Here are five ways to spread positivity that don’t involve going anywhere. Send a Message Too often we think of someone, ask ourselves what they’re up to and miss the…
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My Top Ten Motivational Songs (that aren’t in the top 100 charts)
Finding motivational songs is important, especially in a tough time like a pandemic. Over the years, I’ve compiled songs that have gotten me through difficult moments. These songs have the ability to completely change my mood. I wanted to share them here with you. When I search for motivational songs, they’re often off of the top one hundred charts. I’m not a fan of overplayed music. It’s difficult to give a song power when you hear it on the radio five times in fifteen minutes. These are on my “You Got This” playlist. I use it after surgery, when I’m having a tough workout, or when I need a boost.…
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Exercises for After a Hip Arthroscopy
Finding exercises that don’t include your hip feels impossible. At least in my experience. All abdominal exercises and even some arm exercises include the hip. Now I’m not a personal trainer or a physical therapist. I have absolutely no qualifications to tell you how you should or shouldn’t exercise. I’m simply putting this out there because it took around ten hours of google and youtube searching to find exercises. I wanted to recondition my body without involving my hip. Crunches Crunches are a great exercise when you want to work on your abs. It’s the only exercise that I’ve found to be applicable to my situation. I tried a sit…
