Chronic Wellness

How must we become specialists in ourselves? Why is expertise necessary for advocacy? No one will speak up on my behalf, the way I'll speak up on my behalf. Learning about my illnesses, medications, my body are crucial. Have you stopped talking a med because of it's side effects? Whether it's about the science or my own experience, we must be the expert.

Remember the game telephone? My ability to self-advocate is only ever as good as my ability to communicate. How can I translate my self-awareness? What are the descriptors of my experience? How can I ensure that the message was received? While I don't want to have to facilitate communication, I always lose if I don't. It takes more energy and effort, but outcomes improve when I do that work. What...

What's the next part of self-advocacy? How do you build self knowledge? How do you keep track of what you know about yourself? No one but you is having this experience. People can't read your mind or know what it's like in your body.

What is your orientation towards self-advocacy? What are the necessary skills for self-advocacy? What is it about being "other" that requires being an educator? If you don't believe you're worth it, you won't speak up on your own behalf. Knowing that I am enough is a foundation for self-advocacy. Be it affirmations, gratitude, a contemplative practice, or doing it to model it for your kids, whatev...

Did your illness come on during a time of greater stress? Stress always exacerbates chronic illness. People of color are 1.5-2 times more likely to suffer a chronic illness than those of us who are white. Why is that true? How can we change and transform that? One of the manifestations of racism is disease. What can we do as white allies?

Here's the story of how I sprained my ankle. Extreme thank you note writing - it's not a thing. How could this have been prevented? How could being more in touch with my own experience have led to a different outcome? My new year's intentions are a direct result of wanting to do this one differently.

How does my being worse off make things harder on the person caring for me? As an empath, I was more focused on how much more this would mean for my wife. When independence is curtailed it always means more work for someone else. What about the guilt that arises? Once again working to accept what is and see this as another opportunity to cede control practice increasing the space between what happ...

What do you do when you injure yourself on top of being ill? I've torn tendons and ligaments in my ankle. When mobility is already restricted, any further restrictions cause a lot of additional burden. The implications are broad-reaching things are made exponentially more difficult. These are some of the things I'm exploring in today's episode.

My final intention is for my spirit and is to make time for creative pursuits. Brene Brown says that "creativity is the opposite of depression." Creative outlets can be almost anything. Currently, I tend to do small projects like embroidery, painting, collage, calligraphy, knitting, etc. Being generative helps me tap into parts of myself that feel eternal and are beyond and deeper than these illne...

How can I seek joy like a heat-seeking missile? In the midst of carrying heavy burdens, I need support. Some of that support comes in the form of daily infusions of joy. Am I clear about what brings me joy? If not, I need to make these lists so that I have a place to turn when I am feeling most disheartened. Joy lightens my spirit in the midst of struggle. How can I make it easy to say "yes!" to j...

How can I feed my curiosity? How can I stoke the question of why? It is easy to feel isolated and like my brain is shriveling. How can my interests lead me on a journey and help me feel like more than these illnesses? These are some of the questions I"m discussing today.

How can I stay present moment focused? How can I spend more time here and now -- not looking back or forward? How is my pain worse when I'm not focused on now? One of the things that supports this is contemplative practice. For me guided meditation is what works. I also find value in doing a mental scans throughout the day. These are the thoughts I'm examining on today's episode.

How can I treat my body with care and kindness? Why is it so easy to focus on what's wrong with my body? What's going right with my body? It's easy to see the thing that don't function properly but there are a lot of things that do. When I'm not feeling my best, how can I take better care of myself through diet, stretching, or rest? Part of the reason I feel so lousy is that my body is fighting so...

What be my priorities for the new year? How can I find pleasure in my body this year? Chronic illness often brings so much pain, fatigue, and frustration. Our bodies can feel like prisons. However, our bodies are pleasure centers. How can I remember and reconnect to that fact? These are some of the questions I'm contemplating on today's episode.

Nope, you didn't read that wrong, Episode 141. In an effort to get my Podcast synced up with my YouTube broadcasts, I'm skipping episodes 102-140. You can watch them on my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwrjgn46frZM56hXmCgJIiQ Perhaps I'll load them here eventually as bonus episodes. Why do I make intentions instead of resolutions? When making decisions how do these intentions he...

What are the impacts of having sex, and of not having it? Social, emotional, psychological, and physical, there are impacts and consequences to our choices around sex. What are the impacts on me, the person with the chronic illnesses and on my partner? These are some of the topics I address in today's conversation about Chronic Wellness.

As the person with the chronic illness, is it more often up to us to initiate sex on the days we feel potentially "up for it?" What about the fact that my lowest pain often happens in the early parts of the day when it is inconvenient and unsexy? With all of the medical considerations necessary to make sex possible -- how do we build and stay in the mood? Even with the best communication and on th...

In the lineup of things we give up or that are greatly diminished by chronic illness -- sex is definitely in my top ten. Having been sick for the better part of a decade now, how have my goals changed? How can I redefine what the desired goal or outcome might now? Are these new definitions born only of necessity or any bit out of joyful desire? What does it mean to grieve losses around my sex life...

Where can we talk about the intersection sex and chronic illness? What are the things that are our accelerators? What are the things that are the brakes? In addition to trying to figure out how to enhance the accelerators, focusing on how to reduce items on the brakes can enhance the days we feel well enough for sex. These are a few of the things I'm talking about on today's episode.

How does desire factor in to the questions of sex with chronic illness? Is my desire impacted truly less or has my psyche protected me by just cutting me off from my desire? How can I reconnect to my desire as a person with chronic illness? These are a few of the questions I'm examining as I look at the question of managing a sex life with chronic illness.

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Stuck in the reality of chronic illness and blessed to be in a healthy and loving long-term relationship. What do we do when the circumstances of our lives mean that we want out? Have you wished for death or pursued suicide because of your chronic conditions? Do you wonder if your spouse would be better off without you? These and other questions, along with the burdens of grief and sorrow are some...

Those of us who are lucky enough to be blessed with supportive partners, how can we find new and creative ways to show our appreciation in our relationships. With chronic illness and chronic pain wearing us down how can we find new ways show up for our partners? What are the ways we can turn this into a game? In this episode I talk about two ways that my wife and I support one another and find way...

What does it take to continue to shed layers of heartache and grief about the limitations of our illness and the implications those have on our relationships? What grief and loss do our partners carry? Here we are having these experiences of illness, and our partners are living it alongside us, but they are not having this experience. It impacts their experience, but it is not theirs. How do we sh...