Chronic Wellness

You know what it's like when your arms are completely full? You can't accept anything more, you can't release anything you're holding when someone offers. How is this similar to what we're experiencing right now? For new systems to arise, for creative problem solving, we must make space. What can you release? What can you let go of? What is required of you, of us? How can we each make a difference...

We have a dinner song for our dogs. One of our dogs during the dinner song hops over a foam roller. We decided to improve her trick by getting her to jump through a hoop. What did she do when we first put out the hoop? She wanted nothing to do with the hoop. She wouldn't even go though it, she went around. This seemed like a perfect metaphor for COVID-19. Admittedly, some of this pandemic is new:...

I started this whole broadcast because I live with chronic illnesses and I want to talk about how we keep ourselves well on the inside, how we have spiritual wellness. That seems particularly important right now during the specter of COVID-19. One of the ways to increase your spiritual wellness is to go analog. It is so easy to always be on our devices, phones, laptops, tablets, TVs. While parents...

My friends and the people I coach are experiencing a lot of anxiety, much of it unfounded. I think the news is preying on our worries, and isolation is certainly contributing to this as well. I'm reminded about the parable about the wolves. When the grandson tells his grandfather about the two wolves battling for dominance inside him and asks which one will win. His grandfather responds, "the one...

Anxiety seems to be at a fever pitch. There is not any way in which anxiety serves us or makes this time any richer or fuller. Do you have candles around your house? Have a ritual of lighting a candle and asking for the light to carry the fears and worries on your behalf. When we are flooded or overwhelmed, we can light the candle, or if it is already lit be grateful it is carrying the load for us...

This pandemic is an amplifier, "I'm trapped with the best person!" "I'm trapped with the worst person!" Anxieties are off the charts. I'm thinking about the question, "Who do I want to be in this disaster?" I see the privilege in getting to ask this question. My answer, I want to be peace. I don't want to feed into the spin, the lies, the panic. While this disease would likely kill me. However, no...

How can you best care for yourself as you shelter in place? My next tip: stick to your routines. It is easy to let routines slip in the midst of these unprecedented times. However, keeping regular meal and bedtimes is best in the long run and best for right now.

Those of us who have sheltered in place for years because the world is a dirty place know a thing or two about how to socially isolate and stay sane. Over the coming days, I'll be sharing some of my best tips. The first is to be vigilant about your sources of input. When we are already feeling the collective weight of this strange circumstance, it is all the more important that our sources of inpu...

What does it mean to not be in control? Many of us with chronic illness have explored what it means that we are not in control of very much in life. This virus is giving the rest of us an opportunity to explore what is under our control. What can I control? It is easy to say that my attitude is under my control, but it often doesn't feel that way. One of the ways I benefit from a contemplative pra...

Here we are sheltering in place and socially isolating because of the pandemic. How are you managing the anxiety? Here are a few stories about friends and how the fear around the coronavirus is impacting them. Keep going outside, be in nature, move your body. What I'm realizing is that our collective anxiety is at a fever pitch. What has been your experience? Not wanting to diminish or belittle pe...

So much of what's happening with the spread of this disease is under our control -- yet, with the 24 hour news cycle and as fears creep in, it is easy to forget that. The suggestions put forward in this playlist can remind you what you can do to keep yourself and loved ones safe. Covering your nose and mouth and washing your hands regularly will eliminate much of your risk. Further precautions I'm...

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How do we keep ourselves safe? Given that this virus can live on hard surfaces for a week to 10 days, what are the best ways to protect ourselves? As a person who is immune-compromised, I track when I have to touch surfaces out in public -- sometimes it is unavoidable. Given that COVID-19 can live on soft surfaces, I'm not protected just by covering my hand with my sleeve. 1) Wash and sanitize you...

What's the saying simple but not easy? One way that we can protect ourselves is by cultivating a new habit. We have a sign at the door where people enter that says, "It's cold and flu season, please take off your shoes and wash your hands. Thanks, the management." This is a message we've been delivering verbally to a greater or lesser degree. The sign makes our request overt and for everyone. We c...

We touch handles, doorknobs, elevator buttons, subway turnstiles, ATM machines, restroom stalls and then we touch our phones... Ick! How often do you wash your phone? Regardless of your answer it's likely not often enough. We put these up to our faces! One invention designed to help clean these disgusting devices we ubiquitously carry around with us is called Phone Soap. This one is smallish and w...

Is your awareness heightened because of COVID-19? Many of us have been protecting ourselves from all of you for a long time. One way I protect myself is I NEVER touch anyone else's phone. They are some of the dirtiest objects in our lives. They go pretty much everywhere with people and most folks never think about disinfecting them. While most phones are waterproof, I do not feel comfortable runni...

If you want to screen out the virus, you need beefy protection. However, the majority of the protection we need is just from ourselves, a reminder to not touch our nose and mouth. What are alternatives to wearing a mask that could offer this protection? How can a scarf, bandanna, or turtleneck, serve the same purpose? Eyes are also a key way we get infections and viruses. Eye wear is also great pr...

Coronavirus is now an pandemic. The CDC has said that healthy people do not need to wear masks. A) I don't fall under the category of "healthy people." B) They are trying to conserve supplies for folks who need them most. C) It's true that a standard surgical mask is not a tight enough weave to prevent the virus from penetrating it -- that would require an N95 mask. However, even if the mask doesn...

The CDC's Protocol for Coronavirus somehow don't inspire confidence. Wash your hands thoroughly. If you cough or sneeze, do it in a kleenex and throw it away, then The CDC's Protocol for Coronavirus somehow don't inspire confidence. Wash your hands thoroughly. If you cough or sneeze, do it in a kleenex and throw it away, then wash your hands. Wipe down all hard surfaces that might have come into c...

The Coronavirus: I'm learning about it alongside all of you. As we watch the news stories about cities in China being quarantined, as we've seen the virus travel from country to country, as we wait to see whether this outbreak will reach disastrous proportions and death tolls. Because I'm supposed to travel to Seattle this week and Washington is the epicenter of deaths in this country, this decisi...

I'm heading to Seattle to check on my lungs. These appointments always feel really high stakes. Part of that is because if I'm losing ground, the primary course of treatment would be to go back on the lung transplant list. Knowing what it's like to loose significant lung function, it's tough to not be afraid to that possibility. Like in a car accident, the results are worse when you tense up and b...

The world expert in my lung disease practices (interstitial lung disease caused by Antisynthetase Syndrome) at UW Medical Center. I travel quarterly have testing and attend appointments with him. When I try to downplay the significance of my illnesses, my wife reminds me that few folks are required to see this level of specialist with this degree of frequency. Several years ago, I was told my diag...

Take a deep breath. Continuing to think about how we handle times of extraordinary stress and chronic illness. When the pain feels unrelenting, how can we handle it? When the waves keep coming, when I haven't had a chance to get my footing before the next one crashes down on me -- is there an alternative? Is there a way to surf? Can these waves represent something other than destruction? Can I rid...

How do we manage times of undo stress? We cope much like the rest of population does, but with higher pressure and often higher stakes. Because of pain, and chronic conditions my threshold managing anything outside the norm is eroded by the pain, stress, and health conditions I'm carrying everyday. We are already worn down, depleted, and operating from a place of deficiency. Our body is constantly...

I am struggling under the weight of all the recent stressors. Today's tip: ask for support. There are so many reasons not to. Take your reasons, write them down and destroy them. When someone I care about asks me for help, that matters to me. It is unreasonable to believe that the same isn't true if I'm the one doing the asking. Perhaps we could use help with the kids, the lawn, a meal, an ear to...