Chronic Fatigue

Hello, you might remember that I recently shared another free resource, our Feelings Wheel. Following the positive response to this, I asked the chronic illness community if there was another free resource that they'd find helpful.

The overwhelming response to this question was for a Fatigue Management or Spoon Tracker worksheet.

As someone who lives with chronic illnesses, I'm a big fan of Spoon theory for explaining some of my experiences. However because I don't live with ME/CFS or long-covid, spoon theory has never worked very well in practice. That is, I seem to have more than 12 spoons per day but I don't know how many.

There are a ton of studies that show that people with any chronic illness are more susceptible to fatigue but this fatigue is likely more or less severe for different people.

To help with this, I've taken some of the excellent advice from resources like ME-Pedia (MEAction.net) and elsewhere online and have created a free Google Sheet that aims to answer the question: How many spoons do I have?

This is just a first draft and I'm keen to test it out in the wild on more people than just myself and so please share your feedback with me so that I can keep improving this resource for you.

How does it work? Simply, you enter how fatigued you are after each one of your daily activities and you do this for 14 days. Then, at the end of this two week period, you'll be shown:

The average number of activities you can complete before reaching a specific level of fatigue (5 or 8 on the Bell CFIDS Scale). The average fatigue you experience per activity (and the total average across all activities. The average number of activities you undertake vs. your target number of activities before fatigue becomes moderate or severe. I'm hoping that with this information, anyone with a chronic illness can get a clearer perspective on:

Activities that cause the most and least fatigue How many activities to plan for each day How they should pace activities throughout the day and week i.e. after how many activities to take a break I'm really interested to see how useful the community finds this free worksheet especially as there doesn't appear to be anything else quite like it in existence yet (which really surprised me).

To make a copy of the worksheet for yourself, you can access it from the Bearable website here:

Fatigue Tracker Worksheet - How many spoons do you have?

Thanks in advance for any feedback you share and let me know if there are any other free resources you'd like me to create next.

J

#ChronicIllness #ChronicFatigue #MentalHealth #ADHD

Since this is a Practice, and in a practice, we must build upon our knowledge—here, I am going to expand upon my 1st post about the Beginner’s Mind, the first post of this new group - click to join and not miss the interconnected 9 attitudes of the wellbeing mindset of Mindfulness.

There is an emphasis on the importance of cultivating this mindset in all aspects of life.

Has anyone practiced this Beginner’s Mind or think that you will give it a try?
Any thoughts about this particular part of the whole?

Let’s break it down again:

Holding onto a particular belief limits the mind.
We accumulate a lot of conditioning along the way.
We tend to create a world where our opinions and beliefs are fixed.
As soon as we are attached to that one side, we shut off the other side-we don’t see it or hear it.

Only when we are willing to show up in each moment with a fresh, curious mind, willing to listen, knowing that possibly everything we believed and thought -that perhaps that’s not true. And, if we can maintain that freshness of mind, called a beginner’s mind—

then we can create a space where the mind can absorb, can respect the way other people think— take in new perspectives, and all of a sudden, we start to see not only a transformation in our mind, but a greater sense of calm, of clarity, and also a positive change in our relationships.

By letting go of preconceived ideas, expectations, and attachments, we can fully engage with each moment, experiencing life as it truly is, rather than through the filter of our thoughts and beliefs.

Key concepts:

Openness to possibilities:
The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities.

No attachment to outcomes:
By approaching situations with a beginner's mind, one is less likely to be fixated on achieving a specific result, allowing for greater flexibility and adaptability.

And, the extremely critical skill of learning How to focus on the present moment:
This mindset encourages a deep awareness of the current experience, without getting caught up in past regrets or future anxieties; which we all know the negative consequences this has on our mental health.

We have to help ourselves to not be stuck dwelling on either the "what could have been" or the "what might happen", so that we can instead stay living in and fully enjoying the actual present moment. This is all a part of our role in managing our depression and anxiety and not letting these win and take from us and our potential and our lives that we can have.

It’s important to remember that all of this is not an achievement to be attained but rather a continuous process of self-discovery and self-transformation.

#MentalHealth #ChronicIllness #Mindfulness #MajorDepressiveDisorder #BipolarDisorder #BipolarDepression #MoodDisorders #Depression #Anxiety #GeneralizedAnxietyDisorder #Cancers #ChronicFatigue #AnorexiaNervosa #Selfcare #Addiction #Fibromyalgia #ChronicPain #Selfharm #Grief #SuicideAttemptSurvivors #SuicidalIdeation #SuicidalThoughts #Suicide #Trauma #Agoraphobia #ADHD #SocialAnxiety #SocialAnxietyDisorder #PTSDSupportAndRecovery #PTSD #ComplexPosttraumaticStressDisorder #Headache #Migraine #ChronicFatigueSyndrome #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #Disability #IfYouFeelHopeless #EatingDisorders #ObsessiveCompulsiveDisorder #MightyTogether #Caregiving #CheckInWithMe #DistractMe

As the year winds down to an end, it's very common for us humans to have a hard time with our emotions- whether it's because of the weather changing, the days getting dark sooner, or the holidays coming.
One of my favorite mental health hacks is to go back to basics whenever you're struggling.

This may seem like a silly reminder, but it's helped me countless times! I hope it helps you. #MentalHealth #BipolarDisorder #Anxiety #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #Addiction #CeliacDisease #ChronicFatigue

Hi🙋 awhile back, I saved this to my photo album; I got it from the web. I just felt like sharing it, as I do notice so many of us suffer with chronic pain, & fibromyalgia.

TRY THIS PEACEFUL TEA MEDITATION TO BRING COMFORT TO YOUR DAY

Let me know in the comments who has tried this or will try it?

Read on to get the full picture-

I just did this and it was so much more than just drinking tea.

I chose to drink a mug of Vanilla Chai tea on this cloudy and rainy day to bring some zen into the ordinary thing of having a cup of tea.

I chose to not do anything else at all while drinking my cup of tea, except to live in the actual moment of this and broaden and build on positive thoughts and positive emotions.

I sat on the stool in my kitchen facing my backyard glass door and I took slow sips savoring the flavor and smell of the tea and I took deep breaths while just watching the raindrops coming down on the concrete of our patio. And seeing the beauty of the golden leaves 🍁 mixed in with the green leaves and some red leaves on one of the trees in my view.

I noticed and smiled a few times seeing one of my two kitties curled up sleeping in her “doughnut” shaped cat bed enjoying my presence next to her.

In the words of Thich Nhat Hanh:

"Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the whole earth revolves...
Live the actual moment."

“Tea is an act complete in its simplicity. When I drink tea, there is only me, and the tea. The rest of the world dissolves. There are no worries about the future. No dwelling on past mistakes. Tea is simple: Loose-leaf tea, hot pure water, a cup. I inhale the scent, tiny delicate pieces of the tea floating above the cup. I drink the tea, the essence of the leaves becoming a part of me. I am informed by the tea, changed. This is the act of life, in one pure moment, and in this act the truth of the world suddenly becomes revealed; all the complexity, pain, drama of life is a pretense, invented in our minds for no good purpose. There is only the tea, and me, converging.”

This is just one of the ways we can consciously choose to help calm and center our mind, and invite a moment of stillness and ease into your day.

You can practice a tea meditation during anytime of the day — perhaps you try it in the morning (or coffee!) to start your day with PRESENCE enjoy it in the middle of the day for increased FOCUS AND CLARITY, or end your day with the PRACTICE for a more PEACEFUL mindset for a better night’s sleep.

#MentalHealth #ChronicIllness #Mindfulness #MajorDepressiveDisorder #BipolarDepression #BipolarDisorder #MoodDisorders #Depression #Anxiety #GeneralizedAnxietyDisorder #Cancer #ChronicFatigue #Selfcare #Fibromyalgia #ChronicPain #Selfharm #Grief #SuicideAttemptSurvivors #SuicidalIdeation #SuicidalThoughts #Suicide #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #ComplexPosttraumaticStressDisorder #PTSD #Trauma #Headache #Migraine #RareDisease #Addiction #Disability #IfYouFeelHopeless #ObsessiveCompulsiveDisorder #ADHD #EatingDisorders #MightyTogether #Caregiving

But, first a quote from Jon Kabat-Zinn who introduced these principles

“It is only when the mind is open and receptive that learning and seeing and change can occur.”
Kabat-Zinn, 2005, p. 31

Beginner’s Mind -The attitude of intentionally seeing things around you as if for the first time, by shedding our expectations and preconceptions and welcoming the possibility of a new moment, one that has never been seen before.

Curiosity, simplicity; Rather than coming to a situation with the weight of past ideas and experiences, the beginner’s mind asks you to arrive knowing that you do not know everything. As no moment is the same as another, every moment allows you a chance to learn. Being open and curious can help save you from being stuck in a rut.

#MentalHealth #MajorDepressiveDisorder #Anxiety #Depression #ChronicIllness #GeneralizedAnxietyDisorder #Mindfulness #BipolarDepression #PTSD #ComplexPosttraumaticStressDisorder #Trauma #ChronicFatigue #ChronicFatigueSyndrome #BipolarDisorder #Selfcare #Selfharm #Grief #SuicidalIdeation #SuicidalThoughts #SuicideAttemptSurvivors #Suicide #CheckInWithMe #DistractMe #BorderlinePersonalityDisorder #Cancers #ADHD #Fibromyalgia #ChronicPain #Caregiving #MoodDisorders #Addiction #PostpartumDisorders #Agoraphobia #SocialAnxiety #Loneliness #Headache #Migraine #AnorexiaNervosa #RareDisease #EatingDisorders #IfYouFeelHopeless

Hey everyone 😊 Just wanted to share a bit of my journey. Earlier this year, things got really rough for me. The main blood vessels in my chest were blocked, which made things a lot more serious. The doctors told me I needed another central line procedure. I went in calm, thinking, "I’ve done this before, no big deal."

But the next day, right in the middle of it… my heart stopped 💔 They had to bring me back and put in an external drain to remove excess blood from around my heart. My world flipped upside down in that moment. Since then, I’ve been dealing with depression, panic attacks, and honestly… I feel like hope just isn’t there anymore. I wonder if I’ll ever get a kidney transplant or feel "normal" again.

What breaks my heart the most is being away from my kids 😔 As a single mom, I just want to be there for them, but my health keeps getting in the way. They’re always in my heart and prayers, and I hold on to the hope that one day, I’ll get to be with them fully 💙

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone reading this, for all the love and prayers. I’m sending so much love back to each and every one of you 💫🙏

#ChronicFatigue #lupusfighter

Hard to believe we're into November already!
How are you?
Post Election and pre- major holiday season.. lots of potential stress.
Please take time to care for YOU!
Hope this helps with some reminders that we ALL forget at times. ❤️🙏
#PTSD
#ChronicFatigue
#ChronicPain
#Anxiety
#Caregiving
#Depression
#Migraine
#Arthritis

🦋💪👆Refuse…

#MajorDepressiveDisorder #ChronicFatigue #ChronicFatigueSyndrome #Depression #Anxiety #GeneralizedAnxietyDisorder #ComplexPosttraumaticStressDisorder #PTSDSupportAndRecovery #PTSD #ChronicIllness #Disability #MentalHealth #MightyTogether #Selfharm #SuicideAttemptSurvivors #SuicidalIdeation #SuicidalThoughts #Suicide #MyalgicEncephalomyelitis #Trauma