This post is a secondary resource for the video below:
CHALLENGE: Figure out one way that you can better recognize and celebrate the tiny steps of progress that you do every day. Once you’ve figured out your one way, actively try it at least once a day for 7 days
- Living with chronic illness is a constant journey of being frustrated with yourself, and it can get you trapped very easily in a dangerous spiral of comparison
- With chronic illness, you don’t just need to make sure not to compare yourself with others, but you also need to make sure not to compare your present self with your past self
- Developing a chronic illness means that your current abilities look different from your past abilities. This means that you need to compare yourself only to your current self and your current capabilities
- Don’t let yourself focus on the could-have-beens!
- Instead, focus on the small steps you can take today to improve in any way
- Take pride in your progress, not in what you accomplished that day
- You need to let yourself grieve your past self, your past life, your past capabilities, and the could-have-beens
- Developing your chronic illness(es) is a major loss that will impact you forever
- Let yourself grieve this loss, and realize that sometimes circumstances will change later on down the road, and you will need to grieve once again
- Hopefully as you grieve, you will be able to come to an acceptance that your life has changed and may never be the same. But even with this acceptance, know that you can learn to coexist and thrive with your chronic illness(es)!
- The capabilities you are at right now always have the chance of improving with consistent effort
- Accept that the road to improvement is long, but that if you continue down the road with stubborn determination, you will improve and come to learn how to enjoy and be happy with your life and capabilities
- Don’t let yourself give up! And know that you are not alone in this journey!
- Progress isn’t linear, especially when it comes to chronic illnesses
- It’s so important to recognize that progress with chronic illness is an overall trend
- We need to count the progress we are making with the energy that we have that day
- Your progress will look different compared to anyone else’s progress, and it will even look different compared to what progress looked like for your past self
- Don’t let a step back discourage you! Know that your previous progress has not been completely erased, and that you are more prepared to reevaluate and once again take small steps of progress from your new starting point
- The chronic illness journey is long and hard, but you’re not alone in it! Give yourself grace and continue pressing on!
- Are the expectations I am setting for myself today too high for my energy levels? How can I change my expectations to make them more appropriate for today?
- What is actually true about my capabilities today?
- What is one small step that I can take today to progress in my goals or what I need to get done?
- What are things my past self could do that my present self cannot? What are things my present self can do that my past self couldn’t do?
- How can I let myself grieve my chronic illness(es) and the hardships that come from it?
- How can I better recognize and celebrate the overall trend of my progress rather than get discouraged by the non-linear progress that I am making?
- What parts of my identity feel lost? Why?
- What parts of my identity are still here? Why?
- What new parts of my identity are still emerging? Why?
- What do I want to carry forward into this new version of me? Why?
- How can I help develop my new identity into something I am proud of, even with my new level of capabilities?
- What setback happened? Why do I think it happened?
- Why or why not should the setback be considered my fault? Did I have any control over it?
- What skills or knowledge do I still have from what I learned and developed before the setback?
- What is my new starting point for where I am now?
- What is one next step that I can take today to move forward from this setback? Why?
- What will this small step look like, and what specific actions would I be taking to accomplish it?
- Compared to how I handled this most recent setback, how can I better prepare myself to handle future setbacks?
