Day 19: #HAWMC #WEGOHealth

Everyone has a tough day or days, weeks, months…you get it. I’m feeling it right now. The sleep/pain cycle is brutal and makes everything worse.

1. Be Creative. 

I like creative projects. I paint, make cards, journal. I volunteer my design skills for church, my nieces and nephew’s invitations or school events and always nonprofits…  Being creative in your own way is so important. I even did the “The Artist Way” a couple of years ago. Took what I liked and dumped the rest. I kept “morning pages” and journal with a cup of coffee to start my day. Good, bad, indifferent. It helps for it to be out of your head.

2. Music.

I believe in the power of music you love with the lyrics that fit your mood. I like catchy and upbeat but the words fit my mood or situation. …Something that affirms my life at the moment. They might be harsh words, ugly words or bad situations but it gets the emotion out and I feel better. I know some people like to listen to rah! rah! music but that doesn’t help me. Recently I read an article on exactly why I like my kind… I thought, yeah that’s about right. 

First Aid Kit – My Silver Lining Lyrics

I don’t want to wait anymore I’m tired of looking for answers
Take me some place where there’s music and there’s laughter
I don’t know if I’m scared of dying but I’m scared of living too fast, too slow
Regret, remorse, hold on, oh no I’ve got to go
There’s no starting over, no new beginnings, time races on
And you’ve just gotta keep on keeping on
Gotta keep on going, looking straight out on the road
Can’t worry ’bout what’s behind you or what’s coming for you further up the road
I try not to hold on to what is gone, I try to do right what is wrong
I try to keep on keeping on
Yeah I just keep on keeping on……

Something good comes with the bad
A song’s never just sad
There’s hope, there’s a silver lining

3. Cry.

Don’t forget to cry. It’s good for you, cathartic, get some of that ick-hormone buildup out!

4. Rest. Self-care.

I started by saying that it’s a rough day and it is… I went for Rolfing, got myself home and napped. I have not napped in more than a decade, seriously. I have sleep issues so I shouldn’t and when I try I can’t. But listen to your body and rest. Hope I can sleep tonight!

Also, get out the house… Take a walk, treat yourself to a simple coffee or a gluten-free cupcake. YUM! It’s amazing what it can do for the spirit. A 10-15 minute errand or drive will suffice!

5. Human Interaction.

I’ve had a very isolated life for the past decade and a half. Real friends are hard to come by. Friends in the flesh…even harder. But for almost 2 years I’ve known Joanna. She has her own illness and gets it (we all need someone who truly gets it). Even when I’d rather not go out —I go.  We go have lunch or shop (she also takes me to appointments when she can). Lunch is always a minimum of three hours. We talk, laugh, cry, complain… It is always a better day when I’ve been with her. Human contact (not online, or the phone, or texting) is so very important. Everything is better on a lunch day.

Sidenote: I know sometimes we are housebound. I know I am. And I’m not knocking the phone or internet by any means. Skype works wonders too! My friend, Liza, from my days in Boston, lives in Malaysia. We are on opposite times zones and miss lunches or chatting over tea… Skype…always three hours, we sit with each other and chat —it is always needed and so very much enjoyed. Same thing… talk, complain, tell stories, laugh, cry —everything.

We all need people, yes, humans, other connections …whether we admit it or not.