Don’t Just Count Spoons (Count Cost!)
Or, use your energy wisely.
Let’s face it. There’s only so much energy stored up in the body of someone living with chronic illness or chronic pain. Use it incorrectly, and you’ve impacted not only your day but your week or month ahead.
With holidays and other times of celebration approaching, chronic illness fighters all know that it’s too easy to deplete our energy reserves leading to a flare or a crash. But you’re not helpless. There is something you can do so start planning ahead.
Be deliberate.
In actions. In activities. In decisions.
We have to prioritize the big things so that we have the energy to enjoy them. Quality of life is something that we struggle with, but we aren’t victims.
We’re fighters.
We have the ability to make an active choice — in some things — during holidays and celebrations. Make sure you are advocating for tour health in this way or others won’t.
Put away that guilt. Right now. I saw you pull it out. We have no place for that today.
No, it’s not easy.
I understand that. I live that. It’s hard to say no. I’m still struggling with that every day. But we have to start somewhere. We have to start by using our energy in the best way possible.
Remember playing Monopoly as a kid? The bank seemed to have an unlimited amount of money to use on the game board. In the case of chronic illness, we have a set amount of dollars in that bank most days.
Use that as a visual.
Pretend you’ve got 18 one-dollar bills from that monopoly box, and that’s all you get this holiday season. That cookie decorating party? How much energy is it worth? Maybe $3.
What about that special dinner with your friends? $2.
The holiday lights tour at the zoo? That’s a biggie. It’s outside in the cold paired with walking after a long day of experiencing life. Make it $8.
You’re already at $13, and you’ve only got $5 left. How can you spend it the wisest?
We do have control.
We spend our really bad days feeling like we’re held hostage by pain that we can’t escape. This is a way to take a little bit of that control back. You have a choice. Use it deliberately.
Now go plan for those special times with family and friends. And enjoy it!
Stephanie Pitcher Fishman is a writer, blogger, and mom living with chronic illness, a mid-life baby, and a coffee addiction. She writes about fake people (fiction), dead people (family history and genealogy), and sick people (herself included.) Read more at writerbloggermom.com and say hi on Twitter.
