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24 Ways to Enjoy the Festive Season if You are Sick or Struggling
Well, the weather outside is frightful…so let’s make our own fun; accessible, gentle and compassionate. What are you hoping to give yourself this winter? 1. Make your own advent calendar; get little envelopes, print these ideas or write them out, stick one in each envelope and stick them to your wall with washi tape. Each day, enjoy a small winter warming enjoyment. 2. Make it easy for yourself and send your cards online via paperlesspost.com 3. Use your holiday wish list to ask for things you need for healing. Check out the medical gift registery for inspiration. 4. Do virtual volunteering. Can you send letters to children in hospice so…
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What I Wish I Could Tell My Younger Self …About Getting Sick & Surviving
“If I could give my younger self some nurturing advice, I would tell her (or him [or them])…” – Kris Carr Thinking back to my younger self, when she first got sick. If I could speak to her now and offer some nurturing advice, I would tell her… You Are Enough You are loved. You are amazing. You are going through something extraordinary and it’s impacting you, that’s tough but it doesn’t mean you are doing anything wrong. Listen to your body as much as you can, she has wisdom to share with you. Get a journal, keep writing. Write through the story. Move your body in all the ways…
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Dear Grace Q & A: How do I succeed in school while sick?
Thank you for such a great question, I have been at school for several years now (advance training in psychotherapeutic counselling) while living with illness, so I hope I can answer you with some insight and experience. Here are 3 ideas for how to succeed in school when sick: 1: Make your needs known, ask for help Many institutions can – and have to – offer reasonable adjustments or accommodations for disabled students. Try contacting your school’s disability office to see what’s available. There may be a disability rep in your student union, or a disabled student’s group you can get in touch with. If in doubt, asking one of…
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Self-Care Sunday: Small Tools & Self-Compassion
[Self-Care Sunday Series: wellness experts worldwide are sharing their self-care expertise, practices, routines and personal stories.Today’s post is by founder, Grace Quantock] When I was in high school, I loved the film ‘Clueless‘ – of course, I did. (I also love the book ‘Emma’ that it’s based on. The lesson about not interfereing for perfection…that took me a little longer to absorb. I am still working on it). Why did I love Clueless so much? Beyond the obvious – ease, style, knee socks and kilt skirts, dreamy girlfriends and a computer that picked your outfits N.B: The computer that picks your outfits actually exists now! It’s an app called StyleBook…
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Turning Your Journal Into an Altar: a How-To Guide
In difficult days, self-care can feel like a luxury that we cannot afford, delicious journals or artful altars can feel ever-so-far away. But it doesn’t have to be this way. And painful times are when we most need compassion. I believe self-care is a way of including ourselves in our compassion (credit: Karuna training) My favourite self-care activities are non-aspirational, they are in the moment, accessible for those of us on the front lines, those fighting to help or suffering at the sharp points of this world. A challenge for many of us is making self-care accessible. I don’t know about you, but I have spent far, far too long scrolling…
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What To Do When You Are Sick At Home
Wondering what to do when you are sick at home? I hear you! Illness can be devastating, scary and painful. But it can also be depressing, boring and serious. When you are very ill it’s easy to get into the habit of thinking medically and forgetting about the fun, human things that make life bright. – Can you ask a visitor bring some nail varnish into the hospital, and give you a pretty pedicure? – How about getting a new, exciting book and reading it aloud, or listening to the audio version? – Maybe watching your favourite childhood films again would be a fun distraction? – Or ordering a guide on coping…
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Be Flare Prepared: How to Make a Flare Kit for ‘Bad’ Days
That moment when you wake up and the pain hits you over the head with a hammer? Flare day. The time when you can’t sleep at.all because of pain/fever/anxiety/all of the above? Flare day. When the difficulties you deal with day to day just mushroom into impossibility? Flare day. When living with chronic illness, disability, mental or physical, visible or invisible, we have days that are worse than others. The ‘bad’ days, the days when symptoms are stronger and strength is sapped. We all experience them, but how do we handle them? What’s a Flare Kit? We want so much to be well that we often don’t prep, so a…
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Self-Care Sunday: Equanimity in the Face of Uncertainty
[Self-Care Sunday Series: wellness experts worldwide are sharing their self-care expertise, practices, routines and personal stories.Today’s guest post is by self-care revolutionary Christy Tennery-Spalding] This is part four in a five part series on meditation and how it can help us to cultivate greater feelings of love for ourselves, each other, and the planet. In this series, I’m examining the Brahma Viharas (or the Four Divine Abodes), a Buddhist concept that refers to the sublime states we cultivate through meditation: compassion (karuna), lovingkindness (metta), sympathetic joy (mudita), and equanimity (>upekkha). Today, we’ll examine upekkha, equanimity, and how we can wield it as a tool for resilience in times of uncertainty. It…
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New Year’s Resolution Struggles? Solution: New Year, Your Way
As we enter 2017 and I see the beginnings of peoples’ new year’s resolutions, I considered what I’d really like to say and, in truth, I keep coming back to something I said this time last year. So rather than try and reinvent the wheel, simply because a calendar has changed, I’d like to bring up last year’s [edited and updated] post as a reminder to anyone who’s struggling making new year’s resolutions, or feeling pressured to change when they’re really not ready to do so. It’s a new year and everyone is making huge plans. There’s a new start, clean slate and another chance to get it right. What pressure! Social…
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Self-Care Sunday: Sympathetic Joy in a Time of Comparison Traps
[Self-Care Sunday Series: wellness experts worldwide are sharing their self-care expertise, practices, routines and personal stories.Today’s guest post is by self-care revolutionary Christy Tennery-Spalding] This piece is a continuation of a series on the Brahma Viharas, the 4 Heavenly Abodes, and how they can support us in finding greater joy and freedom during and through our meditation practice. Meditation is not something we only do on our cushion — nor is it a stodgy or stoic practice. When we breathe life into it, our meditation practice can permeate our everyday lives, offering us blessings and lessons around every corner. My best practice doesn’t happen on my cushion. It happens in my…
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