I’ll admit it: I’m terrible at self-care. I like to keep busy, but my form of “busy” can rapidly spiral out of my control, leaving me with too long of a to-do list for the amount of time I have free. When I spend time alone in my room decompressing, I feel guilty: I’m wasting time that I could spend writing, working on homework, or sending one of 9,000 emails I’m behind on sending.
What makes it worse is that I should be spending more time on self-care than the average person. I have a chronic pain condition—myofascial pain syndrome, to be exact—and when I fail to take care of myself my pain flares up, leaving my shoulders on fire and my mind distracted from any productive task. My pain also requires a different type of self-care than able-centric articles advocate: when your neck feels like Pain incarnate the physical exertion necessary to vacuum your entire floor won’t make you feel better.
Recently I’ve been trying to focus more on dedicating time to self-care that will actually help me, and I’ve compiled a list of tips that ideally will help anyone experiencing chronic pain or similar illness:
1. Develop a Pain Playlist
Certain songs that I normally enjoy sound like scratching on a chalkboard when I’m in bed during a flare-up. I made a special playlist for these moments, focusing on songs that have their own complete atmospheres to take me out of mine. For me, more instrumental and ethereal music helps most: Oh Wonder, The Japanese House, Eden, Vallis Alps. Having that playlist there, easily accessible with the click of a button, when I need distraction certainly never hurts.
2. Don’t Make Your Dinner Be Oreos From The Market
I’m guilty, too. It can be difficult during bad moments to force yourself to walk down to Peirce just for a lukewarm panini-pressed grilled cheese. But eating non-junk food on a regular schedule and healthy snacks as needed (with a few Oreos every now and then) helps keep symptoms at their minimal level. The best defense to a flare-up is a good offense, taking care of yourself before needing to backpedal and manage symptoms.
3. Learn to Quit
If an activity or task is bringing on a flare-up, put it aside. Take a break. Don’t keep powering through obstinately; it will make it worse. People at Kenyon are understanding, and if you need an extension on a project or if you skip a reading here and there, no one will vilify you.
4. Make Sleep Your Best Friend
No matter how busy you are, set aside time to sleep at least 7-8 hours a night except in truly unusual circumstances. Not getting enough sleep can cause or seriously worsen symptom flare-up. If you’re regularly sidelining sleep to get work done, it might be a sign that you need to do less. Prioritize health.
5. Keep a Pain Cheat-Sheet
When you have bad symptom flare-ups, make a note of when they occurred, how long they lasted, and what (if anything) helped alleviate them. I keep a Pages document on my laptop full of small tips and tricks. In bad moments when I truly can’t think of any helpful methods of self-care, I open the document and find an option worth trying.
Overall, self-care is hard and having a chronic illness only makes it harder. There’s never any way to totally control or manage an illness, no matter how much effort you put into self-care. But taking time for yourself when symptoms flare and understanding how to minimize pain as much as possible can help.
Image Credits: Feature, 1, 2, 3