The experience of chronic exhaustion is so often one of numbness: dislocation from our emotions, our needs and our bodies. We can lose the music in our souls that makes us want to dance and sing. Deliberately reconnecting with the music we love can be a powerful healing tool.
If brain fog and sensitivity make reading from a screen difficult, click here to listen to me read this blog.
What would it take for you to decide that you will do whatever it takes to recover? This is my story of a very personal pilgrimage.
At the age of eighteen, I chose nursing as a career because I wanted to make a difference in the world, to help people. Simple as that. Or was it? What does lead us to choose nursing, medicine, social work, or any other caring profession? What keeps us there despite the hardships? Why is it important to recognise and be honest about the roots of our motivation?
January doesn't have to load us down with lots of resolutions, expectations and bigger To Do lists. Take a tip from nature and during these dark, cold months, give yourself permission to slow down, reflect, and restore yourself.
If you are exhausted and miserable over Christmas, remember that what you need matters too. Here are my top tips for setting boundaries that respect your right to peace, joy and healing at Christmas.
Have you ever asked why me? I’m a nurse, not a patient, so why am I stuck here in a haze of exhaustion, pain and brain fog? Have you considered that you may be ill because you didn’t care for one key person – you? In this blog I explore how the roots of chronic exhaustive conditions often lie deep in the very childhood experiences that drew us into the caring professions.
Exhausted, incapacitated, desperate for answers and trapped in an internet search loop? You are not alone and there are answers – just not in Google.
How often have you been told that, ‘We know so little about fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, ME, Long Covid’ and that you must learn to adapt, not hope? Recovery begins in the belief that there is hope, that there are answers. It ends with membership of a tribe who wake with a sense of wonder every morning at the great gift of life and movement and joy. I continue to find members of my tribe in the most surprising of places and times.
A successful journey begins with stillness – orientation, planning – not with a headlong rush along the nearest path. Your recovery journey is no different, so you will need to begin your journey by learning to stop.
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