SickTip #4

Source: Tumblr.com

 

With an illness like CFS it is important we listen to our bodies. They tell us what we can and what we can't do. Which is, to be honest, the most annoying thing to be told. So people tend to ignore it. Because we do not only have a body, we have a heart, a soul, a desire to fulfill our dreams and that's our health. It's the most important thing in our lives and we should keep it that way. Even though our bodies might tell us differently, we must fight to fulfill our dreams, because life will mean nothing if we don't try.
No matter how great any of this sounds, it's not easy. However, this doesn't mean it's impossible. When you're ill, mind and body are at war. They won't cooperate and want to take each other down. You alone can call for a cease fire and make the two work together. This takes time and a lot of practice, but you'll get there.
Being ill is difficult, the dreams you once had feel further away than they have ever felt. This might be true. Being sick and exhausted makes it more difficult, I'm not going to lie nor sugar coat it, but it will be hard, tough and you'll need help reaching your goals. You might not even reach them at all, but if we don't try, we'll never know. In the end, the journey makes us stonger, forms us into the person we were supposed to become, teaches us lessons essential in life. We, as people who are sick, need this, maybe even more than anyone else.
We should indeed listen to our bodies, rest when we need to, so we have a change to recover. But when our bodies allow us to travel one step closer to our dreams, we should take that step, even if there are thousands of steps more needed to reach our destination. So make it count. Good luck.

~Xx

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SickTip #3

Source: Wattpad.com

 

It's been to long since I did one of these, but like I said in my previous post, I wan't to change my uploading schedule drastically. Which means that from now on, every Saturday you'll find a new SickTip on my blog, calling this day SickTip Saturday.

 

Today I'll be talking about telling people how you feel. I know this has been a problem I struggled with a lot when I was ill. I always thought no one would understand how I felt, but how could I ever expect them to, if I din't even try to explain?

 

For a long time I walked around with feeling cropped up in my body. Making it feel like I had a massive weight on my shoulders. Every day the weight on my shoulders felt heavier and heavier, which made having CFS a lot harder. After probably a year I finally sat down and talked with my parents about every single thing, the big things but also the little things. I got to know how they felt and thought about everything and so did they about me. We probably talked for hours, but every minute the weight on my shoulders decreased. It felt so good to let those tears I've been holding back roll over my cheeks. That was also the moment I came to notice it was not only a hard time for me, but also for my parents. Never before I thought about how painful it must have been for them to see me so ill. It opened up my eyes.

 

What I want to tell with this story is: tell someone how you feel. Don't crop up your feelings like I did, and if you did, tell someone. Please do, because it's so important. Tell someone who's close to you, like your parents, brother or sister, good friend or boyfriend/girlfriend. It feels so good, trust me.

Even if you think they won't understand, the least thing you can do is try. Pleaso do, because it's so important.

 

Also, know you're not the only one. There are so many people on this earth feeling the same way you do. Wouldn't it be great if in some way, we could speak with each other. For now we can do this in the comment section, or feel free to email me if you want to have somebody to talk to.

I wish you all the strength you need.

 

~Xx

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Sick Tip #2

Source: healthycarrot.com

I thought It would be time for another SickTip. This one is a follow up of the previous one, which was about motivation to get out of bed.
This tip is about motivation to fight for your health.
Having the right motivation is really important if you want to keep on fighting for your health.
You need to fight for a reason, not for the fight.

Finding this motivation is a journey on itself. Not everyone will find their motivation straight away, this usually takes some time.
The right motivation is different for everyone. I can't tell you what the right motivation is for you, only you can do that.

To explain this all a bit better, I'm going to tell about how I found my own motivation to keep on fighting.

Before I got CFS I didn't really have a goal set in my mind. Something I wanted to achieve in life. I just lived my live as a happy teenage girl, to whom friends and homework were the important things in life.

When I got CFS both of those things got taken away from me. I didn't have the energy to go to school or see my friends and we fell out of touch.
This made me really sad and I felt really lonely.

Because I was so unhappy I stopped trying to fight. I had given up and my CFS only got worse.
It got to the point where I would lie in bed all day for 10 days in a row, not being able to do anything. It was terrible and a really dark period of which I don't remember much.
I didn't know what to do anymore, I didn't know what my life meant anymore. I felt extremely useless and wished I could just disappear.

But then a thought occurred to me: "If I were to vanish of this earth I would leave a lot of people I love behind, they would get hurt" I didn't want to hurt them, but I was already hurting them. All this time I only thought about me and how I felt, but I never thought about my family and my friends and how it must feel for them. As a parent it is extremely painful to see your child being so ill, not able to enjoy life. So I decided to fight again. Not for me this time, because I wanted to get better, but for my loved ones, who would be happy if they saw me get better. I would fight for my parents, for my friends, but also for the people I will meet in the future. I would fight for the family I will have later, I will fight for the children I'll teach later (I want to become a teacher), I will fight for other people struggling with their disease, trying to help them with my stories. For all of them, I'll fight. And I fought.
They were my motivation, my goal, and they still are.

Because I fought again, with only that goal in my mind I gave up on anything else which was useless, but kept wasting my energy on, like school. I knew I had to do that year again, because I missed too many lessons, so why bother with homework? I went to school for 4 hours a day, the hours during which I had lessons with my friends.

Because I put all my energy into getting better and seeing my friends more often, my health improved bit by bit.
After just a few months I felt great, my health was still poor, but I was happy again. I regained contact with my friends. Talked loads with my parents and made ideas for the future, including this blog.

The next school year I went to a different school, one closer to where I live. I went to follow every lesson and not just a couple, and even though I missed about 1 day a week, I was proud of myself. I gained enough energy and health to follow 4 days a week instead of 4 hours.

Even on this day I still fight with my goals in my mind. Without these goals, without these people, without my motivation I wouldn't have been where I'm now.
But I'm also fighting for myself again. For me, for my health and for my happiness.

What I want to tell you with my story is that finding the right motivation can be a difficult and long journey, but when having found the right one... You know it has all been worth it.
I think I've become a better person by making this journey and I can honestly say that I don't feel sorry for myself for having CFS, because it has brought me to where I'm now, to the people I know now, and I think it will take me even further.

This is just an example of my motivation, but yours can be very different. A talent you possess and want to show, a hobby you want to do again, a job you've always wanted to have. The list is endless.
So find your motivation to fight for your health, because simply: "To get better" isn't enough for most of us. Start with a good motivation, a goal, and the rest will follow.

I'm not saying that the right motivation is the cure for CFS and other diseases, because it definitely isn't. If only it was that easy.
A chronic illness can't be cured (easily) and has many consequences on the patient's life.
These consequences are usually what makes the illness so bad, at least that's what I think.
With a lack of energy and health I can live, but I can't live with not being able to go to school, see my friends and live a normal live, or at least as normal as possible.
I think it is important to improve those things first and just feeling happier again. If that's all good, you can start trying to improve other things. Just take one step at the time: Improve happiness, improve health, improve happiness, improve health. By improving your happiness, fighting for your health is easier. When gained more health and energy, you can put more energy in the things that matter to you, and so on.
But that's probably different for everyone.

I hope you've found this useful, if you did please let me know.
Also if you've got any questions or tips yourself you can either comment below or send me a mail.

~Xx

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Sick Tip #1

So I decided to call my tips "Sick Tips" and this one is the first of many.

In my Sick Tips I will write tips that have helped me to improve my health.
In the hope these tips will help others, I will be sharing them on my blog.
In case you came here to read beauty & fashion related posts, don't worry, they will come very soon. I promise.

Now that is all done, let's get going.

Whilst being on one of my many tumblr expeditions, I came across this text:

Source: tumblr.com

This text stood out to me, because it is something I try to do every day.

For most people waking up early in the morning is very hard and I'm one of them.
Especially during the winter, because it is way too cold outside and staying in bed is just a lot warmer and much more snugly.
However, school will begin in a few hours and I need to get ready.
Now the thought of going to school or work might not be the best motivation to get out of your bed.

As a CFS patient sleep is very important to me. If I don't get enough sleep I do not only feel extremely tired, but also very weak, nauseous, dizzy and suffer from bad back and neck aches and muscle pains. Staying in my cosy warm bed and catch some more z's to feel better in a few hours is an easy choice, but most of the times not the best one.
Missing school, work or something else of such importance isn't very convenient. I usually regret my choice of staying in bed for my health at the end of the day.

Please don't understand me wrong here. Most of the times, when you don't feel well, staying in bed is the better option. However for me, and maybe some other people, it is often better to get out of bed and go to school. It is hard to explain, but it is really something only you can decide. Only you know exactly how you feel and therefore what you should do.

I think we all have those days when we rather stay in bed than get up. I just have them very frequently. The key is to motivate yourself enough to want to get out of bed more than to stay in.
That is why I try not to think about the long school day I have ahead of me, with the boring lessons and the huge amount of homework, but about the people I will see and the fun chats during between lessons. When I think about those things I feel more motivated to get up. It is easier to decide to get out of bed, even if this means feeling poorly all day, when you have a fun day ahead.

If you are not motivated enough, try something else, for example, reward yourself when you get home with a nice treat e.g. chocolate, cake or ice cream and lay down on the couch watching TV or a movie, or plan something fun on that day to keep you going. This doesn't have to be something big. Choose something of which you know you will have enough energy for. This can be a movie night or a nice dinner with friends, but you can also invite someone over and just have a nice evening chatting away. Whatever you feel like. If this is too much, a nice warm bath is also a really nice and great for those sore muscles. Or you could just crawl back into your bed, knowing that you deserved it.

Trying is very important, if you have tried, you can never fail. Even if you decide halfway through the day that you feel too poorly to go to the rest of your classes, or work those last hours, you have done a great job anyway and you can definitely be proud of yourself. I am too.

I am not saying that staying in bed all day is wrong and you should feel bad about yourself because that is surely not the case. If you have a bad day you may of course lie in bed and rest until you feel better. The point is that you need to feel proud of your achievement and you shouldn´t forget to reward yourself, like the treats, a warm bath or allow yourself to buy that lipstick you have been wanting to buy for a long time. Whatever you want.

Rewarding yourself is very important. It is another motivation to get up next time. (Just a tip, don't reward yourself with gifts all the time, your bank balance might not like it and to give yourself the evening off is a really nice treat as well.)

Another important thing is that you know your boundaries, when can I go and when can't I go. This is usually something you learn along the way by making mistakes. I definitely made some mistakes, for example forcing myself to go to prom, because I didn't want to miss it, but I ended up fainting and the guard made me go home. Even though I was very stubborn and did not want to go. "I feel fine, really".

But also the other way around, staying home whilst I could have gone to school. Those days I thought I was really stupid and weak and I would never get well that way. However, most of the times I did need the day off. Yes, I am quite stubborn and usually ask too much of myself. Not good, don't do this.

What I do now every time I am in doubt if I should go or not is to get downstairs and eat my breakfast. After that I can decide if I should stay home or am able to go to school. By getting out of bed you've already made the first step and it's easier to continue. Sometimes I feel better after eating my breakfast and I know that I can go to school, other times I feel worse and know that I definitely shouldn't go if I don't want to faint again and crawl back into my bed.

I always try again after a couple of hours, because in some cases I feel a lot better after a few more hours of sleep and can go to school the rest of the day, only having missed the first lessons. I would suggest this, but you are the one who can judge best if it will work for you or not. Not everyone is on the same "level" and some feel worse than others. This even changes every day, one day you may feel better after a few hours of sleep and the other day you may not. Other people can't even go to school or work because of their disease and for those I am really sorry. I almost had to be home schooled because of my CFS which was something I really did not want because I would miss my friends a lot.

What I want to say with this is that you should decide for yourself if this is something that could help you. Never follow my advice blindly and before following my advice read my disclaimer.

So to look back at the text, the wonderful thing that happens every day I go to school is seeing my friends and my sweet boyfriend, the fun conversations we have and maybe, a tiny little bit, the things I learn that day. Yes, I am a little bit of a nerd. And when I'm home after a long, hard day of school feeling like I could hibernate, I lie down on the couch and watch my favourite TV series, films and YouTube video's, with a hot chocolate with a lot of whipped cream.

If you think about it, a lot of wonderful things can happen on a day. The important thing is to keep an eye out for the tiny little but oh so wonderful things.

What are the wonderful things happening on your day?

~Xx

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