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Introduction to myself - repost from a comments section

Introduction to me
- ME/CFS since 2016. Mostly housebound. Varied btwn moderate to severe to moderate-severe.
- Designer, entrepreneur, management consultant, professional events. Do-gooder, thinker & doer, visionary (LOL can hardly believe that was me). Haven't been able to work since 2017. Loved my career - made a difference, built community of special creative kind people.
- learning ukulele. Have filled out 18 and a quarter sketchbook/journals in the last 6 years. Make zines. One day hope to make book from best bits of sk/ournals. Will probably be something deep about chronic illness and trauma healing.
- queer jewish polyamorous mixed ethnicity Londoner, probably autistic
- I miss coffee and bread

Tips
- play ONE song a day, do only ONE drawing a week (or whatever is too small to have an impact on your health). Means you can have a regular practice of it. So you CAN sing, it's part of your daily identity. If it means an artwork takes months, so be it. You still end up having done it. It's not all or nothing.
- use mediums that don't require clean up (get into pens, forget lino printing). Put ukulele within arm's reach.
- caco nibs/hot chocolate/dark chocolate give me emergency energy
- acyclovir fixed my viral symptoms
- LDN allowed my brain fog to lift enough to have ideas again, to feel more myself
- 5 mins yoga daily prevents aches more than 2x 20 min walks a week.
- cocktail of supplements... luteolin and selenium are undersung
- radically accept limitations and oneself. Then the right people will come to you. You show them how to respect you by how you respect yourself. Have dates that are radically accessible to you. I will only have dates in my garden.
- learn to ask for help by starting with small things you don't really NEED to test if a particular person is not going to be weird about it
- live somewhere quiet where you can rest. If not, get Loop earplugs. Comfortable for side sleeping, effective.
- lots more tips, hence the one-day book

Comments

Great post and I love all these tips, @PracticingAcceptance

We are alchemists, we can keep reframing, rearranging, and perhaps here and there something works out and we can feel creative and more alive.

Kudos for the work you have put in to figure out these things which have worked for you.

I was playing a song the other night. For about three minutes, I pounded away on the wooden table top, as if I was the drummer in a Rock and Roll Band.

It was entirely fun, and I didn't have to hit any correct notes.
 
Sharing a breakthrough!

I achieved a twenty minute session of sit at table, wiht paints and apply to paper and enjoy doing it. And somehow I got around some odd paralysis I've been parked in.

I'm Ok enough. I did the art at 10 pm when my eye inflammation was at its lowest- which is a huge issue with why I crash trying to draw or paint. (plus the eye thing is also the brain thing...its all the same).

It made me very happy. that feeling is what I was craving.
 
And somehow I got around some odd paralysis I've been parked in.
It sets in after you havent done something that, before all this, was like breathing, but somehow after, became an unscalable wall ....
It made me very happy. that feeling is what I was craving.
That's just splendid, Red .... it's an inexpressibly joyful feeling, to take control of that gift that you used to have that somehow sort of escaped your orbit, and draw it back in ..... CONGRATS :balloons::balloons: :star:!!!
 
I have guests coming , my daughter and grandaughter for several weeks. So I am scheduling some creative fun with toddler soon! I'll check your inspiring recommendations.
Oh wow !!! When are they arriving? Your g'daughter (Cataleya???) must be somewhere between 3 and 4 .... crap .... time is really a m'fo .... it's wonderful that they're coming up for a visit, and probably not as exhausting as the last time, cause I thin you're a little better now than then ....:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: ....

I'm guessing that Fun With Paints will be very high on Cataleya's list of Things To Do, and that she's inherited your gift with them, and what fun you two will have !!!!
 
Yes, my grandaughter is here, my daughter is six months pregnant. They stay about five weeks. My grandaughter is three and a half.

She is really really fun to hang out with. Generally, she is very creative, and very imaginative. Mostly pleasant. Helpful stage. Two languages going , somehow.

Thats so amazing.

She assigned my husband the role: Police and he was to arrest Gramma,.....

I said I didn't want to be arrested, so I ran off!

Somewhere in this place, are fingerpaints...got to go hunting for where did I put that?

Thank you for your encouraging words. I'm trying to bootstrap myself. But I"m crashed since Tuesday. I just slept eleven hours. if thats sleeping.
 
It made me very happy. that feeling is what I was craving.
Awww <3 <3 <3

I achieved a twenty minute session of sit at table, wiht paints and apply to paper and enjoy doing it.
This really made me smile!

Fun With Paints will be very high on Cataleya's list of Things To Do
I misread that as 'Fun With Pants', and thought that that might be high on the agenda too.... but maybe that's more of a 6/7 year old thing? Finding pants hilarious?

I said I didn't want to be arrested, so I ran off!
Haha that made me laugh. So glad you got to play!
 

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PracticingAcceptance
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