Societies standards with chronic illness

Hey everybody!

The last week or so has been rough on me and in retrospect going out to two events in one day was a mistake! I am in a lot of pain and so tired even now but I wanted to talk about societies pressures and why they make it hard to keep up when you have chronic illness.

Though my pain and fatigue is bad yesterday I rolled out my yoga mat and put on a 31day yoga challenge by Yoga With Adriene I started on January 1st with them. Now the series is finished and I am still on day 16! Society often feels like it is ahead and I am just trying to call out for it to slow down and give me a chance to catch up! This often happens if I try to do things in a group and it makes me feel like I am not good enough and I know that is not the intention it is just that my body always keeps me behind and I wish I could keep up.

Another part of this that goes along with it is weight loss, I do want a toned, strong body I always dreamed of lifting weights and being a badass! However in reality it is very difficult to be able to do the things needed to have the perfect body for the average woman, add on to that pain and fatigue and I feel like I will never look good naked!

This year’s superbowl had a performance by a woman with the same illness as me and that was Lady Gaga! She looked amazing and the vocal performance with dancing and everything she did was incredible! However it soon became apparent that a lot of people were shaming her for having a cute little tummy that was more about the harness and tight costume than her actual body. If a woman with the money for all the latest treatments, trainers and everything that goes with fame cannot keep up…well I guess I looked at myself in the mirror and felt HUGE!!!!

People speak without thinking, models and celebrities are held to standards we cannot attain, and there is always those voices in the back of everyone’s head telling us we are not good enough or doing enough. All this comes from society, adverts, TV shows, Instagram and toxic gossip sites and nobody can keep up with them!

Here are some things I do so that my life is easier and hopefully I can feel a little bit more like I am keeping up:

1. Plan your week: This may seem simple but whether you write it down or simply keep a mental guide try to plan out times to rest, times to exercise or clean and then around that the times you need to go out. This will mean you do not spend all day cleaning and use up your spoons so that you have no energy or too much pain to go out Tuesday like you arranged.
2. Meal planning: Every week me and my husband sit down and plan what meals we will have each day, I then order everything I need and if I can I prep what needs to be done to save my time and energy levels later on in the week. This has cut down on our spending too much money on food because we have less waste and we have less instances of ordering in junk food because we cannot decide what to make.
3. Ignore those voices: I often need to rest, afternoons is my time to watch TV and doze with the dog! I am usually tired out and in pain and I often feel guilty for it. The amount of times my husband comes home from work to find me asleep and makes me a cup of tea is far more than I wish, but he never makes me feel guilty and when I apologise he tells me off. I am lucky but I know I need to ignore that guilt because I do my best and that is what people who matter see.
4. Exercise when you can: I do yoga every other day, whether at my class or in my living room, but I do other things too. Like while waiting for the kettle to boil I will do some squats, when I need the toilet if I am well enough I go upstairs instead of the one downstairs…small things like this add up and they do help. Also small things like getting up and walking around every hour or so will stop you getting too sedentary and putting on weight which with medications and chronic illness can be harder to lose!

What things do you do to help you keep up with those around you I am always up for some life hacks! However at the end of the day most people do not have illnesses that keep them back, so long as we are kind to ourselves and remember who we are and what we deal with we will do just fine.

Namaste xxx

Share this post: