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Flexibility is Key—Creating with Chronic Illness
Happy New Year friends! I’ve been thinking about the importance of flexibility with chronic illness, especially when it comes to taking care of my health and making time for my creative pursuits.
January seems like the perfect month to share some updates, as well as what I’ve found helpful on my health journey recently. I hope these reflections are helpful for you too!
I’m thrilled to be participating in A Chronic Voice’s link up again this month. This link up is a way for chronically ill bloggers to connect by writing posts based on the same prompts. I love the creative challenge offered by the prompts and seeing what others write!
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Blogging Without A Picture Perfect Life
There’s so much pressure online to have a picture perfect life and to have every moment Instagramable, that it can be very daunting to think of starting or maintaining a blog. Do you need to have everything put together and looking immaculate in order to share your story online? I’m here to remind myself and others that the answer is “no.” Here are my tips for blogging without a picture perfect life, and how I’m letting go of perfectionism as a chronic illness writer.
I am a perfectionist, or at least someone who’s trying to be less of a perfectionist. My preference would be to wait to share my writing or photography or crafting until I’ve gotten it polished and as close to perfect as possible. But I live with multiple chronic illnesses that greatly limit my energy and ability to accomplish even routine tasks, so even publishing one post on my blog is a challenge. -
December Wrap Up: Preparing For the New Year
Happy New Year! I’m sharing a wrap up post with highlights from my December, including what I made, what I found challenging, and festive photos. Looking back can help us move forward. So I’m reviewing the last month of 2020 before next year’s fresh start.
This post is inspired by A Chronic Voice’s linkup party, which is a way for bloggers to connect and write about similar themes. I’ve decided to write on three of the linkup themes: Beginning, Enduring, and Revealing. I’ve also decided to add two themes of my own: Creating and Celebrating.
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Getting Rid of Digital Clutter on my Ereader to Feel More Organized
I love finding ways to organize that are manageable with chronic illness.
I’ve been on a slow but steady mini-cleaning spree, and am pretty proud of myself that I’ve checked some items off my to-do list. While I love organizing, my dysautononia, fibromyalgia, and other health conditions make it super exhausting. I wish I could do more, but I’m getting better at pacing myself.
As I wrote about in an earlier post, I’ve found ways to declutter/organize despite limited energy, and it helps me to de-stress. Also, when so many things in my life are out of my control due to my chronic conditions, it helps to be able to have control over my space. When my environment is visually calm and organized, I feel more calm and organized too.
I’ve finished organizing my medicine cabinet and file folder (don’t worry I won’t subject you to a blog post about that!) and when I saw a recent blog post about digital decluttering your e-reader, I was inspired to go through my ebooks as well. This blogger’s goal was to read what she already had. That isn’t my goal (because…libraries!), but her goal did make me want to go through my ebooks, plus it remind me of something I want to try in the future. I’d love to clear out one of my shelves on a bookcase so that it become a designated space just for my unread books. This would make them easier to find—sometimes I forget where I have books squirreled away! A project for when I have a little more energy, and space!
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Review: I tried a movie theater with recliners because of my chronic health conditions
I FINALLY got to see Avengers: Endgame a few weeks ago!
(Don’t worry, this post is spoiler-free!)
I’ll share what I thought of trying a movie theater with recliners for the first time, as well as some tips for going to the movies with dysautonomia, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and other chronic illnesses.
I had been wanting to see Endgame for weeks, having waited a whole year after that cliff hanger. I was carefully avoiding spoilers in conversations and online. (I had to quit Pinterest after seeing two spoiler-y things. And I’m glad I didn’t look up the meaning of two things I saw on Facebook—I figured they were Marvel-related, and after seeing the movie, I’m so glad I didn’t, because they were indeed spoilers!)
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How to Benefit from Organizing When You Have No Energy
Sometimes I just want to go on an organizing or cleaning spree. I’m one of those people who gets an inordinate amount of satisfaction from tidying things up and putting things in order. I love the feeling of looking around and seeing everything tucked away where it belongs—it’s like a puzzle piece clicking into place. An organized space helps me to feel accomplished, refreshed, and peaceful. When I need to de-stress, organizing is actually very relaxing.
I would very much love to benefit from organizing, but my energy level simply says “no.” My chronic health conditions mean I burn out super easily—something as mundane as taking a shower or sitting at my computer for 20 minutes can make me feel as if I ran a marathon.
I was super bummed to think I’ve lost a major way to de-stress that I depended on. Now more than ever, I could use some tried and true ways to decompress!
So instead of throwing out organizing, I’m rethinking it. How can I still benefit from tidying even though my energy is nonexistent? I’ve thought of some ideas to share with you.
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May 2019 Musings – Regrouping, Investigating, Boosting, Setting & Reviving
I’m excited to participate in A Chronic Voice’s link up for the first time! Link up parties are a fun way for bloggers to connect and write about similar themes, and this one is geared towards those of us in the chronic illness community. I’ve never had a chance to participate in one before, so I’ve been eager to give it a try. Let me know what you think of this style of post in the comments.
The themes for this month are Regrouping, Investigating, Boosting, Setting and Reviving.
It was a nice change to have guidelines “assigned” for writing a blog post. (I think Andy Warhol was onto something about having a “boss on retainer.” Having the framework for a post given to me felt a little more structured—like having a boss vs. winging it on my own.)
So, using A Chronic Voice’s five writing prompts for this month as a jumping off point, here’s what has been going on with me lately.
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Why I’m Making Christmas Cards in January
Since Christmas, I’ve still been in a Christmasy mood. Which has been nice because it has made the season feel like it’s lasted a little longer. I was very unwell Christmas day, so this has helped. I still felt like making Christmas things, and I’ve actually had a little bit of energy this month to do so.
It has also helped that my parents got us a Sizzix embossing/die cutting machine for Christmas, which has been so fun to play with. Plus, it’s made card making very easy. (And watching tutorials on YouTube for using fun card cutouts while I’m crashed in a recliner has been inspiring. It’s nice to feel like I’m learning something and getting creatively inspired, vs. just being stuck recuperating.)
