Endometriosis Blog: Coping Skills... What Are Your Favorites??

(Picture courtesy of Hammocks.com @ http://www.hammocks.com/)

We all have our favorite coping skills and methods for managing our chronic illnesses. We have methods for improving our quality of life, reducing pain, and remaining productive despite our limitations.

In this post, I'd like to ask readers for participation!!!

PLEASE post comments outlining your favorite coping techniques. This doesn't need to be anything elaborate or fancy.

I'll give some examples: drinking a cup of tea, listening to relaxing music, taking a hot bath, and talking with a supportive friend would be just a few examples of ways to manage chronic illness and improve quality of life as well.

Maybe you enjoy meditation. Perhaps you enjoy visualizing relaxing places... like a beach:


(Picture courtesy of wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beach)

I'd really like to hear from readers on this. Many readers of this blog are wise, insightful, and experienced at coping with chronic illness. If you could take just a moment to share your successful tips for coping with chronic illnesses, for remaining productive without causing your body more harm/overdoing, and pinpointing methods for pain relief and relaxation (i.e. for me, acupuncture is VERY relaxing and definitely helps my pain)!!!

So... bring it on! Please! I really want to hear from you! Please share your ideas and tips. Let's see how many ideas we can come up with for coping with chronic illnesses!

I greatly appreciate your comments!!

"However much we are affected by the things of the world,
however deeply they may stir and stimulate us,
they become human for us only when we can discuss them with our fellows...
We humanize what is going on in the world and in ourselves only by speaking of it,
and in the course of speaking of it we learn to be human."
- Hanna Arendt in "Confiding"

This article was posted by Jeanne via "Jeanne's Endo Blog" at www.endendoat.blogspot.com.

Endometriosis Blog: Still Away From Endometriosis Blog But Hope To Be Back Soon!

I hope to be back very soon to write a proper post. I welcome your continued comments and will moderate the already-existing comments soon!!

Whether you are a regular reader of this blog or a first-time visitor, please feel free to look through previous postings and keep up the insightful comments!!

There is a fair amount of information in them and you are welcome to comment on any of the articles, regardless of when they were posted. I welcome your feedback!!!

The recent "listening to your body" post seems to have "struck a nerve" with many of you! I'm thrilled to see the number of responses that post has gotten because I truly believe it's a very important topic.

Readers have made some thought-provoking comments there and I would encourage readers to take a peek there if they haven't already.

Just look at the post: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 Endo Blog: Importance Of Listening To Your Body!!

Well... I'm afraid I need to run but have a great weekend! Here's wishing you a flare-free/pain-free day with your endometriosis or other chronic illness! :)

This article was posted by Jeanne via "Jeanne's Endo Blog" at www.endendoat.blogspot.com.

Endometriosis Blog: The Value Of A **REAL** DAY OFF!!

Endometriosis blog entry for 7/31/08:
"OUT OF OFFICE NOTICE"...

Yesterday I didn't "practice what I preached". I meant to rest but instead I didn't. What I saved in blog-writing time, I made up for in blog-related emails and long replies to yesterday's comments.

Therefore, I am going to take a true day off from blogging today: no posting entries, no replying to comments, no networking with fellow bloggers, no installing tools on the blog, no checking blog traffic.

This will be the first 100% ***REAL*** DAY OFF since I began blogging on June 1, 2008!

After that we have relatives coming into town and I will be pretty busy. So if you post any comments and don't get an immediate response, you'll know why. I'll do my best to catch up on answering comments when I return but they will remain in moderation until I resume blogging.

So we'll call this my "out of office" message for at least a day.

I hope you'll keep those comments coming in while I'm away and that you'll stay with me/check back soon on my endometriosis & chronic illness blog!!

This article was posted by Jeanne via "Jeanne's Endo Blog" at www.endendoat.blogspot.com.

Endo Blog: Importance Of Listening To Your Body!!

I would love nothing more than to write a detailed, inspiring, thought-provoking article today. My body says no. So this brief post will have to do for today but I hope it sparks a conversation with endo blog readers!

I have learned the importance of listening to my body. I think this is an important lesson for anyone who is chronically ill.

Years ago, I would feel guilty when I had to slow down and rest. I don't feel that so much anymore. I have accepted the fact that I have numerous chronic illnesses and I do the best I can to manage them and be productive... but there will be days when I just have trouble functioning at a basic level.

So this quick post is about the importance of listening to your body. I have learned some hard lessons about the consequences of not listening to my body. Now I know that when my body says, "slow down and rest"... I need to listen.

So I'm going to go do that but I would be thrilled if this post can spark a conversation with others out there who know what I'm talking about. I know there are others out there because about 90% of my local endo support group members have shared with me that they have these days too.

Please share your comments on the topics of listening to your body, physical exhaustion, emotional exhaustion, chronic pain/illness, co-existing conditions, and feeling drained. I know there are readers out there who know what I'm talking about and I'd love to hear from you!

That's going to have to do it for me for now. I'm just too tired to type!

This article was posted by Jeanne via "Jeanne's Endo Blog" at www.endendoat.blogspot.com.

Endometriosis Blog: The Importance of Relaxation To Your Health...

I have found a cool relaxation blog I'd like to share with readers here...

There is so much information available on the Internet that I have been having some trouble focusing and deciding how to spend my time reading the many blogs available that will inform me and help me to write a better blog myself.

There is a blog I have been following that I'd like to highlight today. It is written by Konstantin Koss of Germany.



It's called "Real Relaxation" and is described as a "Portal on Stress Management, Wellness, Massage and whatnot".

Here is the link to the main site:

http://realrelaxation.net/

Also, I'd like to highlight a section on stress management that I found particularly helpful:

http://realrelaxation.net/go/stress-management

Stress management and relaxation are SO important when dealing with chronic illnesses like endometriosis (and fibromyalgia and interstitial cystitis... and the list goes on...)!!!

I have found this site especially helpful and have added it to my favorites (see bottom of my homepage). I hope you find it as helpful as I do!

I really think as an endometriosis patient that you will appreciate the tips this blog has to offer.

There's even a funny video clip in the stress management link. :)

So relax and go check it out! :)

Peace!

P.S. After you check this relaxation blog out, please post comments here and let me know what you think!

This article was posted by Jeanne via "Jeanne's Endo Blog" at www.endendoat.blogspot.com.