Chronic Wellness

Chronic Wellness

By Annette LeonardHealth & Fitness
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Chronic Wellness episodes

  • Episode 225: New Life
    What is waiting to be born in you?
    Where is that edge between fear and excitement?
    You have superpowers inside of you. There is no one who has walked the planet before with your exact combination of skills and gifts.
    If you are not sharing them, you are robbing us of those. There is no time like right now than to be sharing them. Let that light shine.
    You are one illness, pandemic, or uncertainty, from having that light snuffed out.
    Death is a guarantee, a full and satisfying life is optional.
    If you haven't been living up to your capacity everyday -- which with chronic illness, is a REAL challenge, it's time to start.
    Send me the links to your creative ventures.
    5 min
  • Episode 224: Bend But Not Break
    How can the process of jewelry making be a a metaphor for surviving hardship?
    What about resilience is like hammering wire?
    What can we do to keep from becoming brittle?
    Hardship can pull us into a stronger, improved place. And there is a point at which hardship can break or buckle us.
    Because we cannot control the pounding, what within ourselves can we control?
    How do we remain supple?
    Part of it is in off loading what no longer serves us. What habits, people, possessions, and systems no longer serve us?
    5 min
  • Episode 223: Cycles Of Life
    How does disaster or chaos allow us to be born anew?
    Chronic illness has given me that gift.
    What precedes rebirth?
    Death. What am I ready to let go of?
    Is it time to stop saying "yes," and then resenting it? Do I mean for others in my household to help more with chores or meals? Am I ready to listen deeply to my needs?
    What has to die for my new self to be born?
    It's time to make a list.
    4 min
  • Episode 222: Rebirth
    How do our lives mirror the cycles of nature?
    We've just had a new moon, Easter, and spring is underway. I'm thinking about renewal.
    While most all of us were not on the planet for the last Pandemic, many things on the planet were not the same in the world for the last round.
    In the natural world, new life is preceded by death. For new fig leaves on the tree, first the old ones had to die and fall off the tree.
    Right now, life is requiring for us to be reborn. Into what? As what? We don't yet know.
    We'll have to live into that question. For any of us to know the answer, we have to be quiet enough to listen. Do you feel that call?
    What is waiting to be born in you?
    6 min
  • Episode 221: When The Story Get's Hard
    When the story gets hard, that's when the story gets good.
    Who wants to hear that when things are hard?!
    Can you be in this time of difficulty and see the future possibilities?
    The phoenix only rises from ashes.
    We must keep pushing because as Twain says, "the only way out is through."
    Vaclav Havel the leader of the Velvet Revolution in the Czech Republic had the notion of the "parallel polis." The idea that a new government would be built along side the crumbling facade of the old, outdated, regime. Perhaps that's what's happening now -- literally or figuratively. Let's stay tuned and see.
    5 min
  • Episode 220: Shelter In Place - Love Light
    I am feeling fear, sadness, and anger -- and those are just my emotions.
    Bodily I am in a bad state. I am in a flare, if not a relapse.
    However, what I want to talk about is joy.
    It is said that "perfect love casts out all fear." What the hell does that even mean?!
    What I do know is that love is our origin, and that the more we can embody love, the more we push away and repel fear.
    It's like a match being lit in a dark cave, the light it casts dispels the darkness. So too with love and joy, they dispel the fear, if even for those few moments.
    At this time while we're feeling these fears, uncertainties, and insecurities, we must punctuate this experience with joy.
    Fear steals from us twice. Find moments of joy.
    6 min
  • Episode 219: Shelter In Place - FOMO
    FOMO - what is it really?
    Does it matter?
    How is it relevant now, during shelter in place?
    Remember the studies of the chimps who languished without even a sock-puppet mother to love?
    As Brene Brown says, "we are hard wired for connection."
    So, our fear of missing out, of connecting is REAL.
    Here is an opportunity to examine and prioritize what really matters and what we don't want to miss out on.
    Given that my time and energy is my most precious resource, how can I be intentional about where I spend it?
    Let's not miss this opportunity.
    7 min
  • Episode 218: Shelter In Place - Food Prep Tips
    Figuring out how to feed ourselves as people with chronic illness can be one of the most difficult parts of self care.
    With my wife out of work, she has more availability. While I used to be the primary cook in our household, I even with my low capacity, I can direct her and together we can lay in some food right now. Here are some helpful tips:
    When you make a casserole, lasagna, soup, chili, stew, etc. make more than you will eat and freeze the extra.
    If you're a small household, don't prepare food in large dishes, prepare them in bread pans, save in small quantities, so you aren't committed to getting through a whole LARGE dish when it is defrosted to be eaten.
    Prep anything you can in advance. When you are cutting veggies, cut extra and freeze them. When you are browning meat, brown extra.
    Think of strategic ways to have your work go further and have meals do double duty -- feed you now and later.
    6 min
  • 217 Shelter In Place - Units Of Time
    How do we do a better job with shelter in place?
    How do we handle the passage of time without the typical markers?
    What do we do when the days are yawning out in front of us?
    We learned from the movie "About a Boy" that the day can be broken in to units.
    For me, I use 90 minutes as the base of my unit.
    It's easy to imagine that a shower, putting on lotion and getting back into bed will take a unit.
    Writing a few thank you cards will take half a unit.
    When I start to track my day this way, it is far less daunting.
    5 min
  • Episode 216: Shelter In Place - To Dos
    In this episode I'm thinking long-term.
    Make or find your to do list and go hard on the obscure or differed to dos.
    Clean out the hall cupboard (including old prescriptions!).
    Re-calk the sink.
    What are the things that you haven't made the time to get around to?
    Maybe a room needs its paint touched up.
    A few minutes a day can really add up!
    4 min

About Chronic Wellness

From the publisher's feed

Are you one of the millions living with a chronic illness or pain? Our diseases may be very different, but we have many of the same experiences, obstacles and frustrations. We are all working for a better quality of life knowing that pain and limitations will be our traveling companions. My name is Annette and I'm the host of Chronic Wellness, a brief, weekly, podcast where we talk about it all: sex, self-care, mental heath, loss of identity, anger, how to navigate health care and have less days that suck so hard.