Not Just Coping But Living With a Chronic Illness

One of the things that I hear from others who are living with chronic illnesses like ankylosing spondylitis is that they are just trying to cope with daily life with all that comes with that chronic illness like pain, fatigue, mental health, etc.

I have been living with a chronic illness for many years now and I was born visually impaired and lost all of my vision about 11 years ago now. The one thing that losing all of my vision taught me is that coping is not living.

The real version of living life

Finding a way to live your life rather than coping with your chronic illness can be hard. I believe the reason so many of us struggle with this is because we see life as what is thrown at us every day from all over, and it looks like being busy, hitting the gym, cooking meals from scratch, working endless hours, spending time with family, going on vacation, and doing all this and more while looking fabulous!

Well I hate to break it to you, but that is not reality. Once you are able to look at what you want your life to realistically look like and give up that social media version you will be able to begin living.

Finding what works for you

It takes trial and error to be able to find the ways that you are able to live your life in a way that you are not just coping. That can look very different for each and every one of us. It does not need to mean that you are going out and working 100 hours a week, going to the gym, and putting on a dinner party every weekend.

But, it can look like being a part of a great group of friends who get together via Zoom, or in person, when you can. It can mean that you write a blog and write it for you, not for the views. You take the time to get ready each and every day just to make you feel better even if you are only going to the couch. Taking 5-10 minutes a day to sit enjoy a cup of coffee in your favorite chair or meditate. Maybe you set a goal to read 10, 20, 50 books this year and you meet that goal and enjoy all the things you are reading and taking in.

You can live your life from the comfort of your home if that is where you are at in your journey. You can volunteer from home, work from home, relax and rejuvenate from home. Sometimes it is how we frame it and look at it. Attitude and outlook can make a very big difference in how we feel. There is no right or wrong way to do life just make sure that you are doing what feels right for you.

There is nothing that will take away the pain and the need to cope with life with a chronic illness, but we can take back our lives in other ways so that we enjoy them and have something to look forward to each day and distract us from all that comes with a chronic illness.