Today’s Tuesday Top Tips are tying in with last weeks
Monday Make – which is our
spoonie bracelets. When you’re chronically ill, one of the
most important things in life is looking after yourself. It’s often easy to
remember all our commitments and promises to other people, and to forget about
our commitments to ourselves – like keeping enough spoons in our back pocket.
So here are a few tips I use to get through even the worst days.
1.
Stay Hydrated. I’m not even joking, being
hydrated can make the world of difference to how you feel. If you’re anything
like me, and hate water… plan ahead. On a good day, I slice up a load of fresh
lemons and put the slices in the freezer (one day separated on baking paper,
and then you can just pop them in a freezer bag) – that way you can just grab a
slice from the freezer and have cool lemon water whenever you need it… the same
goes for cucumber too if that’s your flavour. Alternatively if you’ve got an
infuser bottle, you can use frozen berries in the fruit compartment instead of
fresh.
2.
Treat yourself like your own best friend. It
sounds weird, but bear with me for a moment. If you went round to your best
friends house, and they were sat on the sofa, still in their PJs, no make-up,
not brushed their hair and they said ‘excuse the mess, I’m having a really bad
day’…. Would you berate them for not tidying up on a bad day like you berate
yourself? No, you’d tell them to sit back and relax while you popped the kettle
on – so be your own best friend, cut yourself some slack on the bad days, it’s
not every day, and it does make a difference.
3.
Know what cheers you up – is it watching a few episodes
of your favourite TV show, is it reading a book, or maybe crochet? Give
yourself a break, don’t feel bad if you need to soak in a bath – I’m pretty
infamous in my house for having 2 hour long baths…. I could soak for a lifetime.
Give yourself a few hours to truly just be, doing the things that really relax
you – no pressures, no stresses.
4.
Find something low energy, that is also a little
bit productive. No, I’m not talking about re-organising your kitchen cupboards.
I like to sit and write some blog posts in advance on a difficult day. Maybe
you could write a shopping list, or a list of the things you’d like to do when
you’re feeling better – perhaps you can add a couple of rows to your knitting
project, or make that phonecall to your grandma that you’ve been putting off.
Accomplishing something, no matter how small, can really make a difference with
how you feel.
5. Treat yourself. If you can afford it, buy
something that makes you happy. If you can’t – allow yourself a sweet treat
from the cupboard, maybe a hot chocolate, or perhaps there’s an ice-cream in
the freezer with your name on it. It says in many religions ‘treat others as
you yourself would wish to be treated’ but I think my overarching message today
is to treat yourself as you treat other people too.
6. Last but not least… accept help. I’m lucky, I’ve family and friends that love me, and that understand my illness – sometimes it’s hard to remember to share when I’m feeling bad, but once they know, they’re so understanding. Even littlest princess likes to help by giving mama some kisses to make me feel better. Know that it’s not every day, and on the better days you can give back, so allow yourself to be helped – again, going back to point 2, you’d want to help your best friend on a day like this right? So let your best friends help you.
