Chronic Wellness

Chronic Wellness

By Annette LeonardHealth & Fitness
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Chronic Wellness episodes

  • Episode 056: How Do You Deal With The Isolation Of Chronic Illness? Connecting Online
    Often living with chronic illness includes solitude. In these times when we are feeling physically broken and tremendously isolated, it is hard to remember that we are not alone.
    How can you connect with others dealing with the same things you are?
    What if you don't yet have a diagnosis?
    What do you stand to learn or gain from forums or chat rooms shared by others managing similar circumstances?
    Regardless of whether your illnesses are common or rare, you can find others who are in the same boat and doing so can lessen your sense of isolation and contribute to your well-being.
    6 min
  • Episode 055: How Do You Deal With The Isolation Of Chronic Illness? Creature Comforts
    One thing I cannot downplay about makes my life possible is my marriage. My wife gives me support, help, and love, and makes many more things available to me that wouldn't be if I lived alone or were having to navigate this journey without a partner. One of the things that she enables is having dogs.
    How does having dogs help with my body and spirit?
    What do animals have to offer to those of us with chronic illness?
    When coping with isolation, how can pets help address our needs?
    These are some of the questions I'm answering in this episode.
    6 min
  • Episode 054: How Do You Deal With The Isolation Of Chronic Illness? Time As Units
    Regardless of whether you were an introvert or extrovert prior to getting sick, you likely have more solitude now that you are sick. How do you manage the isolation of chronic illness?
    How does breaking my day into units help make the day more feasible?
    When thinking about how to maximize my time and energy, why are units helpful?
    What is practical about chunking out my time this way?
    Particularly on my worst days as my time out of bed shrinks, units are a helpful way for me to be thoughtful and sometimes playful about the way that I organize my time and deal with my isolation.
    5 min
  • Episode 053: How Do You Manage Brain Fog? Capsule Wardrobe
    This may seem like a departure, but bear with me. You'll notice that I try to get dressed for these videos each day. I operate from the belief that I try to dress for the way that I WANT to feel (not necessarily the way I DO feel that day). For this reason, I have a capsule wardrobe.
    How does a very limited wardrobe help with brain fog?
    By limiting decision fatigue, how am I making my day easier?
    If everything in my closet goes together how much simpler it is to get dressed!
    When everything else in my body feels lousy, feeling good in my clothes matters a lot to me.
    5 min
  • Episode 052: How Do You Manage Brain Fog? Pairing Habits
    As brain fog gums up the works, what are some tools to help manage?
    How can I pair different habits?
    What does pairing do to help me compensate for my faulty memory?
    In this video I give practical ideas for how to pair things we must do every day, like take our meds, with things we mean to do each day.
    6 min
  • Episode 051: How Do You Manage Brain Fog? My Journal
    Wouldn't it be great if we had a fog horn that could cut through brain fog? With 10 years of experiencing managing and compensating for my own brain fog, I've acquired some tricks and tools.
    For the past 18 months I've been using a journal.
    How can a journal help with health tracking?
    Having an index is what makes this journal a powerful tool.
    This low-tech system has become a great device for making up for some amount of brain fog.
    6 min
  • Episode 050: How Do You Manage Brain Fog? Subscriptions
    Brain fog, persistent pernicious, eats away at our capacity to function. One of the ways I compensate for brain fog is by engaging subscription services.
    How can subscriptions help with brain fog?
    What things can be ordered by subscription?
    Setting these deliveries up ahead of time and dialing in what's needed is a way to save my time, energy, and resources. This is a way I contribute to our household, get necessary things with minimum expenditure of time and expense, and keep stocked up on things we'd otherwise run out of.
    5 min
  • Episode 049: How Do You Manage Brain Fog? Voice Recorder
    Chronic illness so often goes hand in glove with brain fog. Having tools for handling brain fog is imperative.
    How is brain fog similar to alpine clouds?
    Does your brain fog track with your pain or disease flares?
    What can our phone's voice recorder be used for?
    In this episode I discuss how I'm using technology, and specifically, the voice recording tool, to compensate for my brain fog and help make life a bit more manageable.
    6 min
  • Episode 048: How Do You Manage Brain Fog? Smart Home Devices
    Chronic illness so often goes hand in glove with brain fog. Having tools for handling brain fog is imperative.
    How can smart home devices be useful?
    What things can do I use them for in my daily life?
    How can they help compensate for some of the functions I'm lacking in my daily life?
    In this episode I discuss my experience with brain fog and the ways I use my Alexa devices to make my life a bit more manageable.
    4 min
  • Episode 047: How Do You Manage The Guilt Of Chronic Illness? True Comfort
    In this episode I'm talking about these questions:
    What brings you true comfort?
    What are the things that light you up and bring you joy?
    When you are the lowest, what nourishes your spirit?
    We can take the opportunity that guilt offers to reach for the things that offer us true comfort. You can see a picture of my comfort collage @theAnnetteLeonard -- check it out and tag me when you show me yours!
    6 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.