TTT: Spoonie Tips

Hi All and welcome to another Top Tips. As you all know, I'm a chronic illness sufferer - I suffer with M.E./C.F.S. which is a condition which involves chronic pain and chronic fatigue amongst other things. I'm about 10 years into being ill, and I've pretty much got it managed these days, although it's always a learning curve and can definitely throw me some curve balls. Here are my top tips for dealing with chronic illness.

This is my purple spoonie bracelet 

1. Organisation! It's my top top tip as it were... if you know what you need to do and how much energy each task is going to take it's a lot easier to manage those tasks without overdoing it. If you know you need to do the washing up, sort the laundry and send some emails then you can do the washing up, then send the emails, because that's a sat down activity, and then sort the laundry.

My spoon charms are one of my favourites

2. Pacing! Take breaks when you need them, don't feel bad if you need to take 5, or even 10 in order to get back on your feet. It's not always possible, so when it is, make the most of it!

My spoonie keyring can be personalised with any word or name

3. Communication! Tell people how you feel, let the people closest to you know when you're having a bad day - they can help! For too long I tried to deal with everything on my own, but I've learnt that the people who love me want to help.

My spoon jar is the perfect gift for a spoonie

4. Know your limits! Know when to say no to things. If someone asks me to join them on a half marathon, I'm going to say no, if they ask me to help them move house, I'll tell them I can help with packing tips, but not with physically moving them. I let my wonderful husband take Littlest Princess swimming on his own most of the time, because I know it drains me too much for the rest of the day.

My green spoonie bracelet and earrings

5. Do some things that are just for you, even at the expense of doing things that you feel are things you 'must' do. When you have limited energy it's easy to feel you have to spend all of that energy on doing the chores, but over a long period of time, that will destroy you. If all the energy you have left can be spent on doing the washing up, or on having a sandwich.... have that sandwich!

Zebra stripe spoonie bracelet.