blogs

  • Changing and Loving Yourself… At The Same Time

      Changes often begin with dissatisfaction. You’re tired of struggling. You need to get fit. You want to stop doing that and start doing this. Ideally, this dissatisfaction spurs the positive changes needed to move things to a new, better place. But what happens when you are dissatisfied with your body, your whole body? When you love your body already, but due to chronic or severe illness, your control over actually changing that which is causing you such distress is something that is out of your control? When getting up and working out isn’t actually an option for you, no matter how many Pinterest boards claim “disability is just an…

  • Get Your Scribbles Going: Story Contest!

    Oh, yes! Grab your pens or Dragon Speak headset, it’s time for a story contest! And the entries are bound to be doozies. Will yours be one of them? As a person with a disability, how many times have you heard: “I knew a girl in a wheelchair like you; Her life is over.” “God did this to you.” “Have you tried walking/exercising/drinking more water/prayer/goji berries?” “What’s wrong with you? What’s your prognosis? What do the Doctors say?” “Will you ever walk again?” “Were you born like this?” “Can you have children?” “Will you live?” “My aunt died of that.” “Well you did always used to ——- so I always…

  • From Sick Chick To Trail Blazer: My Story

    When I was 22 the doctor told me that he thought I had sarcoma, bone cancer. I was terrified. Everything spun in double time. I desperately longed to rewind. One of my friends had sarcoma, so I knew about the illness and the grueling rounds of chemo. I’d had friends die from cancer. I’d been living myself with serious illness for many years already. Like many people faced with a new diagnosis, I knew these things happened but I was totally unprepared when my time came. The (many, many) blood tests began. And the waiting. Two long weeks of awful, maddening, waiting. Followed by a merciless, unforgiving fear. It was…

  • I Was, Now I Am: From Fear To Liberation

    I was a sick chick and now I’m a wellness trailblazer. I was defined by my diagnoses. Now I’m redefining what it means to live and work with chronic illness. I was written off as broken, for no one had seen someone so ill survive. I was scared and redundant, complicit in the belief that my physical limitations limited my possibilities as a person. Not anymore. I’m creating a world that works with my strengths. And makes them stronger. I used to use a wheelchair and I still do. This is not a miracle cure story. It is a story of liberation. That liberation is my happy ending…and a magical…

  • Sick, Tired and Bed Bound – What To Do?

    Grace’s Go-To List of Bed Bound Boredom Busters When you’re sick, tired or bed-bound, there’s one more malady that traditional medicine just can’t cure: BOREDOM. Regardless of what circumstances have you laid up, a persistent case of the doldrums can significantly impact your physical recovery as well as your mental health.Breaking the monotony of illness requires a little thought, but pays off in a big way. Try these activities to help bust through your boredom while you work toward wellness: • Practice mindfulness through meditation. • Dance in bed – Gabrielle Roth. • Try a school or method of exercise made to work with your body, like Feldenkrais or yoga. • Decorate yourself! Wear body glitter. •…