đź’ŞI create resources to help people adapt to living with chronic illness so they can thrive.
🫶What to do when self-compassion feels out of reach
|
Hi Reader, If self-compassion has felt distant lately, awkward, or just plain unavailable, this is for you. Not in a “you should be kinder to yourself” way. More in a “there might be a reason this feels hard right now” way. A lot of chronic illness advice treats self-compassion like a skill you can strengthen if you just try harder or practice more consistently. But when you’ve spent years overriding your body, managing symptoms, and staying functional under pressure, kindness doesn’t always feel safe or accessible on demand. Sometimes it feels like one more thing you’re failing at. I wrote this week’s post to slow that narrative down. It looks at why self-compassion with chronic illness often feels out of reach, especially after long stretches of survival mode. Not to fix it. Not to push gentleness. But to help you understand what’s actually been shaping your self-talk and why your resistance makes sense. If you’ve ever thought, “I know I should be nicer to myself, but I just can’t get there,” this post was written with you in mind. You can read it here: Why Self-Compassion Feels Out of Reach With Chronic Illness​ And if language is what’s hardest when kindness feels inaccessible, I also shared the affirmations I use when my own compassion runs thin. They’re practical and designed to reduce pressure, not add to it. Take what’s useful. Leave the rest. With care,
|
April Smith | The Thriving Spoonie
đź’ŞI create resources to help people adapt to living with chronic illness so they can thrive.
Hi Reader, For a long time, I thought pacing meant cutting back. Doing less. Cancelling more. Shrinking my life until it fit inside my energy. And honestly? That framing made me resist it. What I eventually realized is that pacing with chronic illness isn’t about restriction. It’s about structure. It’s about protecting your baseline so you’re not constantly recovering from energy crashes. That shift changed everything for me. Because once pacing became foundational instead of reactive, my...
Hi Reader, When I was first diagnosed, I thought the hardest part would be the symptoms. I was wrong. The symptoms were real, yes. Disorienting. Limiting. Sometimes scary. But what caught me off guard was everything around them. The silence. The well-meaning comments. The identity shift. The subtle pressure to “handle it well.” I originally wrote a version of this post in 2024. I recently went back and fully updated it to reflect what I understand now — with more clarity, more depth, and more...
Hi Reader, There’s a belief I hear over and over again in the chronic illness community. “I’m just bad at boundaries.” It sounds self-aware. Responsible. Honest. But it’s usually carrying something heavier underneath. When you’re living with chronic illness, unpredictable energy, and fluctuating symptoms, boundaries that protect energy aren’t a personality trait. They aren’t about being confident enough or assertive enough. They’re about adapting to reality. In this week’s post, I’m breaking...