💪I create resources to help people adapt to living with chronic illness so they can thrive.
🌀 The morning routine that survived a bad flare
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Hi Reader, I want to tell you about a morning recently that didn't go anything like it was supposed to. I'd had a flare bad enough that I ended up calling my husband home from work. Pain and nausea that just wouldn't let up, my body sweating and shivering through it while my nervous system tried to sort itself out. Not fun. And for a few days after, my normal morning routine, the one I actually rely on, meds before food, food before coffee, a slow unhurried shower, just didn't happen. At all. Here's the thing that surprised me, though. Even with almost none of it happening the way it's supposed to, the routine still did its job. Because it turns out the routine was never really about the order things happened in. It was about a small handful of things that mattered no matter what, and once I figured out which ones those actually were, the whole week looked different in hindsight. I wrote up the full story on the blog, including exactly what those non-negotiables turned out to be and how I'm rebuilding my routine around them going forward. You can read it here if you've had a week like that recently too. |
April Smith | The Thriving Spoonie
💪I create resources to help people adapt to living with chronic illness so they can thrive.
Hi Reader, When someone asks how you've been, how much of your answer is edited? I don't mean lying. I mean the quick pass most of us run before we speak: this version for a coworker, that one for the in-laws, the real one for the two or three people who've seen us on a bad day. That editing takes energy, and it's energy we were already short on. I rewrote an older post about chronic illness and identity to get at this. It covers why "don't let your illness define you" can make things...
Hi Reader,A reader reached out and let me know the link to the blog post wasn't working - sorry about that! I've fixed the error and you can access the post now through this link:Letting Go of Expectations With Chronic Illness Without Feeling Like You're Giving Up Thanks for your patience and understanding, April SmithWebsite | Facebook | Bluesky | Pinterest
Hey Reader, I want to talk about a specific kind of guilt this week: the one that shows up right after you decide to stop expecting something of yourself that your body can't deliver anymore. If you've ever lowered a standard for your work, your plans, or your recovery timeline, and immediately felt like you'd given up rather than adjusted, this post is for you. I break down why that reaction happens, what the old expectation was actually protecting underneath the surface, and a few concrete...