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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. -
Easy Christmas Light Alternatives: Simplify Christmas Decorating
I love decorating for the holidays, but due to chronic illness, I need some easier Christmas light alternatives. I’m sharing some creative and festive ways to simplify Christmas decorating. This way, the outside of your house can shine, but you won’t have to untangle a bunch of light cords in cold weather!
The annual tradition of decorating outdoors is such a beautiful way to brighten up the dark Pacific Northwest winters and herald the coming of Christmas. I want the outside of my house to look festive, but it’s too cold out for me to put up lights (asthma and fibromyalgia are not forgiving of the cold). And the last place I need to be is on top of a ladder with my dizziness and balance issues caused by dysautonomia, an autonomic nervous system disorder.
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Things I’m Doing For My Health Right Now
I’m a huge advocate of being proactive when it comes to your health, so I today I’m sharing some of the ways I’m doing this right now.
Lately, I’ve had the feeling that no matter what I do for my health, it feels kind of futile. That’s one of the sucky things about being chronically ill—you can do all the right things, and still be, well, chronically ill. Plus, I’ve been dealing with the cold weather (one of my triggers), health set backs, and—oh joy—new symptoms. It’s frustrating and ironic when your health is one of the things keeping you from being proactive about your health.
Thus, this blog post. I thought it would be helpful to record the ways I can be proactive about my health, and how these actions do help, even if just in a small way.
Some of the items on my list may look a little random, or not the kind of things you would associate with “health.” Most of these things aren’t specific to helping any one health condition, like my dysautonomia, fibromyalgia, asthma, autoimmune disease, ME/CFS, etc. But I’ve been trying to pay attention to what is zapping my energy or causing me stress. Viewing a problem as an opportunity to improve my health helps in two ways: 1) this helps me clarify a goal (less energy output or stress) and 2) this helps motivate me to make positive changes (by reminding me that this is important to my overall wellbeing). This clarity and motivation is enough to break through my brain fog and exhaustion so that I’m able to work on my health.
My hope is that this post will help you take a look at what you’re doing for your own wellness, or inspire you to think of new ways you can include more self care in your life. And when you make that list, I hope your reaction is similar to mine: I might be limited in what I can do for my health right now, but I’m doing the best I can.
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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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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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Low-Cost Low-Stress Gift Giving When You’re Chronically Ill
As Christmas approaches, I wanted to share some ideas for inexpensive and low-stress gift giving. Being chronically ill often means you’re watching your budget and conserving energy, so spending a lot of time and money hunting for gifts is not a great idea. The point is to let those you love know you are thinking of them and care about them, and a simple, well-chosen gift can do that perfectly! So I’ve rounded up ideas that are low cost, or easily made without using up all your energy.
The best way I’ve found to give meaningful gifts is to make sure I’m gifting something in someone’s love language. If you’ve never read The Five Love Languages, I highly recommend it! (I read the original, but there is a singles edition, and other versions available too.) The book breaks down the way people best receive love into five categories: Words of Affirmation, Acts of Service, Receiving Gifts, Quality Time, and Physical Touch.
My default way to show love is through gift-giving, so in years past I’ve created a lot of stress for myself by thinking I have to find the *perfect* gift.
