Sharing My Spoons

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I'm a spoonie. Which basically means I live with a chronic illness, or in my case, a few. My illnesses are invisible, which makes it harder to explain to people that I'm not well. That I'm sick, stressed, and in a lot of pain. Parts of my illness I'm still trying to get properly diagnosed. They are incurable - but manageable.

So I'm diving back into my blogging soul, which usually comes out when I need to use my blog for healing purposes. Healing me, healing you, and healing the world from the taboo of these invisible illnesses.

My friend Jamee has started a weekly link up on her blog called "Sharing Our Spoons"

“Sharing Our Spoons” will be a weekly link-up where you are able to find support and encouragement to focus on your entire health. Not just physical but all of you.

The five goals are Physical, Mental/Emotional, Spiritual, Something Fun, and a Bonus goal to encourage you to get out of your comfort zone.

Physical: Take vitamins! I used to be a hard core vitamin taker, but because I don't sleep well I don't often wake up at the same time every day (and when you take vitamins that give you energy, it makes falling asleep at the end of the day that much harder). Also, I have to take vitamins with food, and honestly in the morning when the joints in my feet are killing me, the last thing I want to do is walk to the kitchen and stand there cooking something. I often skip breakfast because of the pain. So I went and bought some granola bars that I'll keep in my bedroom next to my vitamins. So when I wake up, I can eat and take my vitamins, even if I can't get out of bed. 

Mental/Emotional: Journal out the crazy. When my anxiety was at it's worst, I would go to a site called 750Words and I would write everything that was in my head. Every thought that randomly appeared, be it negative, positive, incoherent or completely off the rocks. I unloaded all the thoughts that anxiety and OCD kept running through, most of which included things I worried about and stressed about all day long. Typing them out every day allowed me to release them, which made my anxiety decrease greatly. Because I know that stress is a trigger for my mental and physical pain, I need to get a grip on it. So back to the daily journal I go.

Spiritual: I teach the ten year olds at Church. One of the best parts of my week is Saturday when I spend several hours preparing my lessons. It's my quiet time, so to speak. It's not that I wait until the last minute to prepare either, it just seems to be a decent time. I need to stretch that time out and start preparing earlier in the week. A little bit at a time. Not because it'll make my lessons better, not because I shouldn't procrastinate, but because those lessons make my life better. And I need that every day.

Something Fun: Spend quality time with my husband. We often have a problem with this. Matt will come home from work and we'll watch TV, eat dinner and then attempt to go to bed. Wash, rinse, repeat. However, I have SO much fun playing games with him. We've got loads too. Uno, Taboo, Sorry, Life, etc. And it's those moments I treasure the most. So I think at least once a week we need to play a game together. Because laughter is the best medicine, and the man makes me laugh.

BONUS: I hate going out of my comfort zone. It's uncomfortable. But I must try. So this last week, Matt's aunt was visiting us and one morning she woke up and said, "Hey, do you want to go for a walk with me?" I said sure and we simply walked to the end of our street and back. Nothing strenuous, but it was so nice to feel the sunshine and see spring unfolding, even if that just means cactus flowers blooming here in the desert. So I will try to get outside for at least five minutes every day, even if it's just to walk around the backyard and play with the dogs.