Practicing Self-Care with Chronic Illness


"I’ve always been really bad at taking care of myself. My body might have had opinions about limits, but I was firmly of the belief that transcending them was just a matter of applying some elbow grease and willpower.

 Perhaps not surprisingly, my body regularly took revenge. I lost track of how many times it forced me to stay very still for a week or more, while it healed the damage caused by my stubbornness. But still I persisted…until a big flare of my rheumatoid arthritis. This flare made me so weak that I couldn’t do much more than just get through the day. Only after looking into the abyss did I begin to think about changing my approach.

These days, I see my body as my best friend, rather than an obstacle. After all, my body gets me through each day, helping me to live my life to the best of my ability. And like any friend, it deserves care."

Read the rest of the self-care post on the Mango Health blog.
 
  

Comments

Rick Phillips said…
Lene:

I have spent so much time shooting myself over how I feel I ran out of bullets. At first, I was puzzled about these new feelings when I stopped. Then, I started to like it. hey who knew?

9:21 PM
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