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I am having a GOOD day. After days of pains and low energy, I woke up today feeling clear minded and in a relatively good mood. If you are living with chronic illness, you know just how precious these days are, and there’s so much we can do in this short time frame before the next discomfort hits!
In my last “good days”, I overcame my fear of WordPress.org and created this site. I filmed TikTok videos, got excited about new business ideas, or simply cooked up a storm!
Here are some of my productivity tips for when you are having a good day while living with a chronic illness, because we all know how precious these days are!
1. Focus on feeling good, and embrace that you have bad days
Surprise, surprise! Even on the good days, the feelings from the bad days can still spillover. I still have to live with thoughts like why do I have endometriosis, worries that I can no longer be good at my work, or just general anxieties for the everyday.
Just to be clear, I think it is important to acknowledge and embrace all the negative feelings. Those thoughts, no matter how discouraging they are, are part of you. Only by acknowledging them are you able to work through them. The last thing we want is to have all the negative feelings spill out from the closet and suffocating us.
But when we have a good day, it’s time to just set the negative feelings aside. We want to focus on how best we can make use of the day. For me, it can be as simple as setting aside more time to play with my cats, eating well (we know how difficult eating can be when you barely want to move). I also like to take the time to do some brain work, planning for the tasks ahead or the goals that I want to work towards. This makes it easy on “bad days” because I do not have to think! All I have to do is to follow the instructions “good days” Peng has laid out for me, and execute them. This is how I ensure that I am still delivering my best even when I am feeling poor.
2. Tackling the difficult tasks head on
When I am having a good day, I’m energetic. The past few days I needed a 3-hour nap right in the middle of today but today, I’m surging through the day. This gives me more time to tackle the things that I can’t bring myself to work on during a “bad day”. The laundry is going to get folded today, I might just take down the curtains for a wash, I’m most definitely going to head over to the gym. I am going to remind myself of the things that make me happy, and let myself feel the happiness of it all.
3. Feeling my cup
I’m not sure about you, but my experience living with chronic illness comes with a deep sense of isolation. Living with endometriosis feels rather lonely, and there’s a lot of anxiety with the constant guessing of my symptoms, and the symptoms present themselves differently month to month. I am grateful for the friends who check-in on me, to make sure I am okay from my flare-ups, and when I’m having a good day, I try to initiate a check-in or do something nice for them.
These connections are important. They get us through the deep troughs. They are the light for when there is only darkness. It is easy to shut everyone out but trust me on this, the journey is made easier when you let others in.
What tips do you have for seizing the good days? Share them in the comments below!
