My Advice: Try Walking In My Shoes

Image by paral_lax via Flickr

Recently someone said to me, "I'm sorry to hear of your affliction."

I believe that they were referring to my fibromyalgia and other chronic illnesses, but honestly I was too taken aback to ask. This person is a stranger, not someone with whom I would share my personal situation. But I do choose to put some of my personal issues out here on my blog and, lo and behold, they read my blog and decided to comment on it.

Affliction is such a weird word.

I guess if I had been born 100 years ago, affliction might have been used by my family and friends to describe my current health problems. Although I imagine that 100 years ago, I would not have lived past my leukemia diagnosis to go on and develop chronic illness.

Honestly, the word affliction makes me think of the word sanatorium. You know, the medical spas popular in the first half of the 20th century for people with tuberculosis. Apparently the ones in Arizona also attracted people with rheumatism, asthma and other disorders. While there, patients received a healthy diet, plenty of rest and fresh air.

Which sounds quite appealing, especially on my more challenging days...

Then I thought to myself, 'What the #$@%! This is 2011 and I do not live with an affliction.'

That got me in touch with the fact that having someone call my chronic illness an "affliction" made me feel demeaned and degraded. It took a while, but I finally got beyond my discouragement about a lack of disabled-friendly language to a place where I wondered what would happen if anyone in this person's family even became ill or disabled.

My opinion: I can't imagine this person being a fountain of support or understanding.

Which leads me to think that what this person needs is to spend some time in my shoes.

So I turned all my mixed emotions into a video for the song Walking in My Shoes which I will debut tomorrow as a Wordless Wednesday post.

Question of the Week: What Are Your Goals for 2011?

Image via Wikipedia

I know that New Year's resolution have a bad rap, and yet I still eagerly participate in this yearly ritual.

Perhaps it is because I want to have a fresh start each year. However, in breaking with tradition, I have come to see this less as stating resolutions and more as an exercise in yearly goal setting.

I often get started by writing down a list of my intentions for the next year.

I find having goals and intentions in mind helps me then create a list of action steps or targets that I can work on throughout the year. Now that I am living with chronic illness, I find that narrowing my focus to one of two goals per year, rather than an endless list of all the things I'd like to change in my life, makes this process simpler and ultimately more doable.

Of course much of my focus continues to be on my quest to create my best life despite chronic illness.

I realized I as was recording a recent video blog post that I already have a new goal in mind. I want to find the "sweet spot," a location inside my energy envelope where I have some energy left after each day. I want to find out if living in the "sweet spot" allows me to bank energy that my body can use towards healing. You can learn more about this concept by watching my Energy Envelope Tutorial.

Today I want to hear from you. Do you set New Year's resolutions for yourself? Do you take the time to do some goal setting or write down your intentions at the beginning of the year? Or was your resolution to give up making resolutions?

Kindly leave your response to the weekly question either here using the comment button or by going to the Oh My Aches and Pains! Facebook page.

I also want to take this opportunity to wish all my readers a happy and prosperous New Year, filled with love, hope and blessings.

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