An Interesting Challenge

I'm a member of the online group 'Daily Challenge'. This website has many members from around the world and has built up a big community of people who take on challenges sent to them via email  every day, and then report back on what they did.

There are different 'tracks' to choose from. You choose a track you want to follow, and do the challenges sent to you for the month (28 days), then you choose a different track. I usually choose to do tracks that get me moving, usually gentle moving for me, not full-on cardio rampaging. I enjoy the exercises, but for the past couple of months have gone for quite different things. My last track I've finished was all about uncluttering.

I'm a bit of a squirrel, the way I collect things and file them away for a rainy day, then forget where I put them, when the rain comes down. This uncluttering track was certainly a challenge for me. I did it though, tidying up a couple of things, spaces, handbags, my phone and so on. I hope the things I've learned about will keep on happening.

When I look over at one of the spots I tidied up, it still looks neater than it was. That doesn't mean it's absolutely pristine, but it doesn't look quite like a junk heap/fire hazard. It's a start, and everything has to start with something ... The track I'm on at the moment is all about finding fulfillment. - https://challenge.meyouhealth.com/tracks/finding-fulfillment

My challenge for the day was to write a letter to myself now, from myself in five years time. It was an interesting challenge, where I had to think about where I want to be in five years time, and what I want to be doing. I also had to think about what advice or encouragement I could/should give to myself living here and now. Useful things to think about, that's for sure. The idea is that the person doing this challenge will take on that positive outlook for their life and their choices and it will help them to achieve what they want to achieve.

I certainly hope some of what I wrote comes true, but even if it doesn't, I'll have fun working at doing all I can to help it to come into my life. And isn't that an important thing? The destination may be wonderful, but the actual journey undertaken to get to that destination can be wonderful too. I'm enjoying my life, my journey to the greatness I aim at (tee hee), but even if I never actually make it to greatness, only pretty goodness, it's still a good life I'm living.

Do you ever get so caught up in doing the mundane things in the daily struggles of life that you forget about the wonderful things you're working toward? Or do you forget to look around, and enjoy the journey you're on? Having challenges, and thinking about them often can help you stay on a positive track in life, and yes, that wonderful destination may well be reached. And even if you never reach that wonderful place, the views and adventures along the way will be well worth seeing and doing!

Sharing my challenges and results to the people I connect with on Daily Challenge is fun - we meet each other, and get an understanding of their lives, and can become far-away friends. One day, I would love to meet up with some of my lovely friends from this website! Some of them are from South Australia, and it would be simple enough to actually meet them for real, but the others, in America, and other places, well, who knows what may happen! Making the connections online may be the first step to overseas fun. My community stretches all the way across the world!

Creativity and New Year's Resolutions

For 2015, I hope to boost my creativity even more and accomplish great things. I don't know what all of those great things are, at the moment, but I do know that being as happy and healthy as I can be will assist me in achieving them.

One of the things that helps me to achieve happiness is to have gratitiude for things in my life, with that in mind, and in response to my task today, for Daily Challenge, this is what I came up with for my " Three Things to Be Grateful For" challenge. https://challenge.meyouhealth.com/tracks" 


There are so many things to be grateful for, it's hard to limit the list to only three. The most important one is my darling husband. He brings so much good to my life, from the mundane - the money that pays the bills, to the funny things he does and says, to the dear warmth of him and his hugs. 

Second item I'm grateful for is the power of the written word - having books to read and enjoy or learn from, to the words others write and read aloud at the poetry readings I attend, and my own words I write and bring hope, happiness and understanding or a good laugh to myself and others.

Number three will always be Nature - I am eternally grateful for the trees and plants that grow and flower and fruit, bringing beauty and food to all. And Nature in glorious mode, with the dark cloud and gorgeous rainbows, and the beautiful big blue Australian sky that arcs over the lovely sunny Aussie days!

All of that and more bring me hope and joy every day of my life.

If I may have a fourth thing, that would be my friends, I am so grateful for each and every one of them - from my family who are the most important friends, to the friends I know in real life and all of my friends I've met through the wonderful Online world, I am so grateful for each and every one of them, of you!

Thank you everyone!

Living With Chronic Illness

When a person's body is doing the wrong thing, and the person is suffering from a chronic illness, it can be a sad and lonely time. There are quite a few chronic illnesses (auto-immune diseases) where it's the body turning against you, that causes the problem.

Thers are a few different auto-immune diseases:

Diabetes (Type I) - affects the pancreas. Symptoms include thirst, frequent urination, weight loss and an increased susceptibility to infection.

Graves' disease - affects the thyroid gland. Symptoms include weight loss, elevated heart rate, anxiety and diarrhoea.

Inflammatory bowel disease - including ulcerative colitis and, possibly, Crohn's disease. Symptoms include diarrhoea and abdominal pain.

Multiple sclerosis - affects the nervous system. Depending on which part of the nervous system is affected, symptoms can include numbness, paralysis and vision impairment.

Psoriasis - affects the skin. Features include the development of thick, reddened skin scales.

Rheumatoid arthritis - affects the joints. Symptoms include swollen and deformed joints. The eyes, lungs and heart may also be targeted.

Scleroderma - affects the skin and other structures, causing the formation of scar tissue. Features include thickening of the skin, skin ulcers and stiff joints.

Systemic lupus erythematosus - affects connective tissue and can strike any organ system of the body. Symptoms include joint inflammation, fever, weight loss and a characteristic facial rash.

                             http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Autoimmune_disorders

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is the one of these auto-immune diseases that I know well. I was diagnosed with MS in February 2010. I'm a poet and writer, and at the time of my diagnosis, both before and after, I used creative writing to help me to keep a hold onto how I was feeling and coping.

I'm doing well with MS. My current medication seems to be working well, and I'm able to still do most of the things I want to do. As well as my medication though, I believe my positive attitude to this illness helps me to manage how I'm going. I'm using positiveness and physical exercise to keep on moving. Not everyone with MS progresses inevitably to a wheelchair, and I want to stay out of a wheelchair for all of my (long) life, if I can.

I've written a variety of different kinds of things about MS, depending on how I'm feeling. Some of my pieces of writing are serious, some funny. Some are prose and some are poetry. The important thing, is that these are MY words, telling MY story.

I feel that an incredible important part of dealing with a chronic illness like these is to have some sense of control. I feel in control of MS, at least to some extent. Looking at MS in a positive way, and taking actions such as physical exercises to assist my body to cope, help me to be in control.

Creative writing, and Wii Fit exercises are helping me to keep on keeping on.

I'm currently writing a memoir about my experiences with MS. This memoir is in verse, and includes some of my poetry and prose about MS. Writing this memoir has been an interesting process, and I have had some amazing sources of help with the writing.

I applied for and received a grant from the Richard Llewellyn Arts and Disability Trust to pay for a verse mentor (Ray Tyndale). I applied for and will receive an award from the MS Society SA & NT Choice Awards, which will assist with the printing of my memoir as well as some other expenses. Ray has been a terrific mentor and has helped me in many ways.

One of these ways was to introduce me to an illustrator, Simon Kneebone. I met with Simon, we talked and he read a draft of my memoir. Simon then set about doing some fantastic illustrations for me to look at and use if I wanted. I loved his illustrations, and I'm thrilled to be paying a talented artist, whose work will add so much to my memoir.

I'm hoping my memoir will be launched not too long after the middle of this year. My memoir will be titled "Mick, Jane and Me, Travelling Well With MS".

I've written some more about this memoir on another of my blogs, here

If you'd like to know more about my experiences in creative writing, or in living with MS, feel free to contact me.

Bounce Back and Live!

Have you ever read an article and felt you had to share it with the world? This article here was like that for me, so I've put this link here for as many people as are likely to read this blog post.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/03/the-benefits-of-optimism-are-real/273306/

I've been told by others that I'm a resilient person. I've had troubles and trials in my life, as we all have at times. My life is a good one though - I have family and friends I love and who love me back. My life allows me to do the things I love to do, and that give me enjoyment.

I can't really see any reason at all not to look at life in a positive way. No matter what happens today, the sun will go down and then come up again tomorrow. Read the article, and feel the truth of it. And please, leave a comment here - I'd love to know what you think about it all.

Sitting and Thinking...

Sitting and thinking are two of my favourite things to do. My thoughts often appear on Facebook on my own page and in the comments of friends and others. 

These thoughts sometimes surprise me, and I wonder whether I am repeating things I've read previously. The following thought is one I quite like, and feel the truth of. I've done a quick search for it on Google, and didn't find it there. 

I'll post it here, and if anyone knows if it's ever been written down before, please let me know where and by whom. So here is my thought:

There are none so ignorant, as those who falsely claim knowledge.

This thought came to me this afternoon, after reading through the goings on that happened on my Facebook page yesterday/last night. I'm not saying any more about that - I'll leave it for others to draw their own conclusions...