Living life with a chronic illness is definitely not easy. But I do my best to push through all the barriers this illness puts in front of me! In my heart and mind, I believe maintaining a positive outlook on all situations in life will carry us through to much better times! I hope you find the information that I provide both helpful and inspirational!
The good news is, we made it through Monday! How was your Monday? I will always be open and honest with y’all, so with that said yesterday was not one of those days I want to live through again. It started off waking up about 10 minutes before my alarm was going to go off, but not wanting to get up yet I was able to fall back to sleep, only to be awoken by the annoying and shrilling sound of the alarm. I would almost say it would have been better if I just stayed awake when I woke up before the alarm. I cannot stand the sound of an alarm clock and the sound of a microwave fills me with the same level of aggravation.
After the alarm annoyance, my workday did not get much better. It was busy and I do like it best like that, but the work was as aggravating as the first part of my morning. I continued running into issues with my work and was not able to get the clarification I needed. Normally, when I have an issue with one part of work I move on to something different, but the trend of negative continued. I guess the old saying when it rains it pours is not just a silly cliché, but incredibly true!
Now that we did make it through Monday, Tuesday is a new day and hopefully, it will be better! During the past eighteen months, it has been challenging to find real tranquility, but we need to continue trying. The quote I am sharing today might provide some clarity on ways to find calm and peace! Sometimes when we face continuous challenges, it might be a good time to try seeing what the common denominator is and eliminate that aspect. It is crucial to try living the best life we can and we need to do what is best for our mental wellbeing. I would love to know what your take from this quote was and promise to respond to all comments as soon as I can.
Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope you have a great and safe day! We all can agree that life can be challenging, but we are able to make some decisions to help make things better. Whatever mistakes we have made, we grow from and whatever choices we make in life, it is okay to change your mind! Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!
I can finally say, happy Friday y’all! How was your week? I hope you had a great week and you are looking forward to the weekend ahead of us. I do not think I could ever explain how glad I am this week is over. It has been a crazy and busy week, both at work and at home. Our poor cat was sick last weekend but was able to see his doctor on Monday. I knew he had another infection and thankfully the antibiotic he received has helped him to recover. He has been on medication for his asthma for years, but we are going to reduce the steroid because that could be the reason he continues getting sick. I think y’all know that I prefer my workdays to be busy, but with everything else going on in life, I really need a break!
Friday is always the end of the week and it is the perfect day to try letting go of the negative feelings the week has caused, so we can enjoy the short weekend. Truthfully, there are too many things to let go of, but also too much to dwell on. I used to be the kind of person that would hold onto my negative feelings and let them build up way too much, but as I have grown I know when something is worth it and when it is not worth the additional stress. I hope the quote I am sharing will help you deal with the challenges you faced this past week. With the many frustrating times I dealt with, this quote helped to lighten my mind.
Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope you enjoyed what I shared and look forward to reading your comments, which I will respond to as quickly as I can. I hope you have a great day and your weekend is filled with everything that brings you the most joy. I know I am not the only one that is beyond sick of COVID and ready for this to be over, but I know that is not going to happen until everyone is vaccinated to end the chance of more variants showing up. Okay, enough with the negative, I guess anything is possible. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes.
Forgiveness is not always the easiest thing to accomplish. You might feel as though you will never get over the pain someone else has caused with their wrongdoings. Even once the initial and immediate anger lessens, you may dwell on the betrayal you felt, instead of allowing it to fade away and become a distant bad memory.
The challenges that accompany forgiveness are in part because it is not well understood. Many think to forgive someone means you forget what took place or say the pain inflicted was not too bad and not a big deal or you can resume the relationship you once had immediately. None of this is completely true about forgiveness. It is more about letting go of your anger, hurt, and the need to seek revenge.
It is important to understand when we forgive another person for their hurtful, disappointments, deceitfulness, or any other negative act, we are not forgiving them for their benefit, but instead for ourselves. There may be a lengthy process when we decide to forgive, and this process cannot be rushed, or we will never be successful in forgiving anyone.
The first step is to uncover your anger. Unfortunately, in our society and cultures, anger is often hidden until and unless it explodes into full-blown rage. Everyone experiences anger, especially when we deal with betrayal, but many bottles those feeling up and hide them from others, and even from ourselves because we do not want to face things.
It can be scary and take a great deal of courage to be open and honest when it comes to anger. Honestly, I am the type that bottles up my anger until I explode, kind of like if you shake up a coke bottle and then open it. This is never a good situation. Although, as I have gotten older and more mature, I can decide to pick my battles and understand when things are not that important and can be let go of.
To uncover and acknowledge anger from the past and present, it may be helpful to allow your mind to remember what you have tried to forget. Think about and even journal about anger felt during childhood, school life, work, family, friends, and romantic relationships. I know the list might get long and overwhelming, but this can help your mental well-being for your future. Exposing feelings that are deep down will bring emotions to the surface and allow you to work through them.
The second step is the make the decision to forgive. When someone causes us deep emotional pain, it is in our human nature to hold onto that pain and anger as tightly as we can. No matter how much we want to let it go, it might not be the right time because we have not been able to process our emotions completely. Of course, it is not easy to remember that holding onto anger does not harm the other person as much as it does us by causing us more pain and suffering. The hurt and anger we are clenching onto produce many types of stress chemicals that will flood our bodies, causing us to feel physically and emotionally drained, and possibly cause sickness.
The third step is to work on forgiveness. An approach referred to as reframing enables you to look at the original transgression in a new way. There is a chance there were some circumstances you were not able to understand or consider at first. The best course of action is to begin simple and small. In your heart, you may not know how you will forgive the other person. On the logical part of your mind, you can open the door to the possibility that you will be able to forgive in time.
Some acts are unforgivable such as being physically or sexually abused, or if you were the victim of another type of terrible and or heinous act. I am in no way suggesting anything as bad as these acts are forgettable or forgivable or that the other person deserves a pass because that is far from the truth. However, I am saying you are worth more and that other people will face the consequences of their actions in time, even if it is not in the time frame it should be.
The final step of forgiveness is to be released from the emotional prison we have been in for days, months, or even years. You will be able to understand that you are not alone, and many others have suffered similar situations. There are support groups available for every devastating circumstance in life. It may be helpful to know you are never alone and there are others that can understand and offer advice for how to overcome your pain.
During the final step, it may be useful to see from the experiences in your life, how much you have grown and changed. All the pains and struggles in life have created who we are today and that is something we can be proud of. As we learn to forgive others for their wrongdoings, we must also learn self-forgiveness. We are not responsible for the pains inflicted on us from others, but we can choose what we will do with the lessons we have learned.
Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope what I have shared with you today will help you understand more about what forgiveness means and I am sure there are other steps for everyone. What I have shared are just a few steps that I have learned over the years. Please keep in mind, only you know when you are ready to forgive another person, and no one can force you to do so before you are ready. I am looking forward to reading your comments and will respond to your comments as quickly as I possibly can. I hope you never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!
Happy Monday y’all! I hope you had a nice weekend and you are ready to start a new week. It seems like the weekends go by so fast and my weekend was a little stressful. Our poor older cat is sick again and he has many expressions so it is easy to know when he is not feeling well. It was hard for me because I was not able to do anything to help him feel better, but I did what I could offer him is comfort and love. I am confident he has the same type of infection he did a couple of months ago and he needs an antibiotic. I left two voicemails and one email for his doctor’s office, but will be calling them again right when they open. I am not a doctor, but I do think because he has been on a steroid for many years for his asthma, his little immune system is weak and whatever infection the two kittens have that does not bother them at all, causes the poor boy many issues. I plan on addressing this with the doctor because I do not think he needs to be on the steroid any longer and it is only causing issues with his organs and health.
As we begin a new week and leave the weekend behind us, I think we could all use a little motivation to start the week off in the best mindset. It is never easy ending a short weekend and start another long week, but we are all full of determination and tenacity. The weeks might be filled with what seems like endless responsibilities and must-do things, but we all manage these challenges with grace. I hope you find the motivation within the quote I am sharing with y’all today because I think the message it holds is important and we must try to remember this daily. It does not matter what challenges we face or how hard it seems, we will all make it through whatever is put on our shoulders. It is not always easy to see the light at the end of a dark tunnel, but in time we will see the bright light again!
We all know that COVID is still running rampant throughout the world. I think y’all know how much this enrages me because it is putting a stop to the way we want to live our life. It does not need to be this way. The vaccine is free and available to everyone. The vaccine and masks are stopping the spread and hindering the chance for new and more deadly variants to arise. In my opinion, it is the people that are refusing to get vaccinated and or wear masks that are the bigger problem. If everyone would do what is right and follow the advice from the experts, we could be in a better place in life. It is not fair that those of us that have been fully vaccinated still have to live in fear because of underlying health conditions making some more at risk for COVID. This is not political as no politician created the vaccines and this is not risking any person’s freedom, but it is risking the freedom of those that want to live.
Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope you enjoyed what I have shared today and I look forward to reading your comments. I hope you have a great start to this week and it only gets better with each day that passes. Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!
Chronic pain can be challenging to live with, especially when relief from the pain is rare. Pain can make falling asleep and staying asleep feel almost impossible. Unfortunately, the vicious cycle of pain and lack of good quality sleep can cause an individual’s overall health and wellbeing to worsen.
There are numerous causes of chronic pain, but there are also many causes for increased pain at night. Of course, some causes for pain are well known, but not all the causes are as well known. The increased pain at night is like clockwork and gets increasingly worse around the same time every night. For anyone living with pain, you are not alone. It may be helpful to understand some of the reasons for the worsening of pain at night and possible ways to counteract the pain.
1. Body position can play a major factor in increased pain at night. Laying down to sleep causes your body weight to put pressure on your nerves that do not occur when you are upright during the day.
It might take time but trying to find another body position at night that does not increase pain is important. This is going to be different for each person depending on the cause of their pain. If the pain is knee pain, it could help to try a pillow between your knees at night to reduce the pressure on your knees. The type of mattress you have might be too soft or too hard and a different mattress may help.
2. Many people sleep better in cooler temperatures and struggle when it is too warm. Depending on the root cause of the pain, cooler temperatures can worsen pain no matter what time of day it is.
Experiment with different temperatures until you find the temperature that works the best for you. Finding the perfect temperature for your sleep may be difficult, but keeping a journal of your quality of sleep, your pain levels, and the temperature in the room is a good way to start.
3. At night we are more aware of the pain and less distracted by our daily responsibilities, such as work or school. This does not mean the pain is not real because the pain is very real, but during the night there is not anything to occupy our mind which allows us to focus more and notice the pain.
4. Hormone levels in our body contribute to how well we sleep. When we prepare ourselves for sleep, hormone levels, metabolism, and other biochemical process adjust. Hormone changes can increase pain creating a battle for sleep. Cortisol is a type of hormone that has anti-inflammatory effects. Cortisol levels decrease halfway through the sleep cycle that allows us to rest, but this can also heighten some forms of pain.
5. The timing and dosage of medication that helps control pain during the day start to wear off too soon. For some their biochemistry and symptoms may require a different dosage and or medication at night. Talking to your pain management doctor to determine the best course of action can help with the ability to sleep better.
It is crucial to establish and maintain a sleep routine that helps prepare your body for rest. During the day we are all over-stimulated and reducing this issue can help tremendously. Turning off any stimuli, such as the TV and other screens 1-2 hours before bed may help your mind and body relax. Practicing other things that may help you relax such as reading a book or taking a warm bath. Other things that may help your mind relax are meditation or deep breathing exercises as these can lower your stress and help reduce pain.
Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope you will find the information I have shared helpful. Even though I understand how challenging sleep is with chronic pain, there are ways to work around this and get a better night sleep. I am looking forward to reading your comments, which I will respond to as quickly as I can. I hope you are having a relaxing and safe weekend! Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, and MANY positive vibes!
Happy weekend y’all! I hope you had a great week, and your weekend is going fantastic. I was a little absent from blogging last week because I was trying to get the essay that I entered into a contest perfected and submitted. Thankfully, with the help of my “editor” help, that being my husband, mother, mother-in-law, and my mother’s boyfriend, I was able to get the essay entered on my birthday. I can admit that I was being overly critical of my writing abilities and almost changed my mind several times. However, I know if I had changed my mind, I would have regretted it because I would always wonder what would have happened and that would have tormented my mind. We should always try new things because we do not know what exciting new opportunities might avail. I have always thought the only way we can truly fail in life is if we give up or just do not try.
The contest I entered was a personal essay, which I wrote about when I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Of course, it was a challenging time in my life, but I do think all that transpired during that time has made me a stronger person. There is a part of me that wishes I did not have to endure this diagnosis, but at the same time, it could have been far worse. Thankfully, the form of MS I have is not the worst case, but it does entail hard times that I continue to fight through. Unfortunately, I have to wait until late December to know the results and if my essay was a winner or not!
Life is not easy, and we are all faced with different challenges, but it is how we adapt and handle these challenges that let us know our true strengths. Life takes a strong will to survive and overcome the challenges in our path. I will always keep the promise I made to myself and my late grandfather close to my heart and that was that I would NEVER surrender to the MS and would continue the fight until I will the war going on in my body. Of course, there are times when it gets almost unbearable because the pain is out of control, but if I stopped fighting what kind of person would I be?
Throughout my forty years on this planet, (I just turned 40 on September 30th) I have dealt with various situations that could have broken me. I decided as a little girl to not allow the evil in my path to destroy my happiness. So many times, during my life, people have done their best to tear me down and make me feel like I was not worth anything, but those were the evil people that do not deserve the satisfaction of defeating me.
I am sharing all this with y’all, so you know that no matter what you go through in life you are not alone. It is crucial to NEVER allow anyone to make you feel you are worthless because that is so far from the truth. I think most people that prey on those they think are weak have demons within them that they have not faced or overcome, which I think is sad. Seriously, what kind of monster would prey on a child or a woman? I think the answer is a weak and pathetic individual that needs to seek help so they can face their demons and be better people. It is not only men that can behave this way because there are women that have the same kind of demon within them. The agonizing truth is mental health is a tragic situation and it is not being handled in the best way. It is possible if mental health was being treated properly, maybe the world would be better than it is now.
Thank you for visiting my site today. I hope you have enjoyed what I have shared, and it resonates with you. Everyone around the world needs to learn to accept others for who they are and help when it is feasible. I look forward to reading your comments, which I will respond to as quickly as I can. I hope the rest of your week is spent relaxing and safe! Please never forget that I am always sending y’all LOTS of love, comfort, support, and MANY positive vibes!
