It’s time for January 2022’s Link Party with Sheryl at A Chronic Voice. According to Sheryl,
“The linkups are a monthly get together for anyone with a chronic illness, mental disorder or disability. An opportunity to share, to listen, and to learn from one another through shared writing prompts. I also think it’s a great way to provide insight into life with chronic pain, from many different points of view.”
Sheryl at A Chronic Voice
This month’s writing prompts are: Recuperating, Reversing, Dawning, Mapping, and Re-Defining.
Recuperating
I’m in the place where every time I leave my house, I need to recuperate from the activity. I also have to rest between activities. Do some dishes then rest. Taking a shower needs a rest afterwards. It’s annoying, but necessary. I figure at least I can do these tasks. We need to remind ourselves of all the things we can do instead of just focusing on what we cannot do. Rest is just as important as getting things done.
Reversing
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could go back in time and make different decisions? However, what we know now we didn’t know then, so would we really choose differently? Somewhere I read we shouldn’t judge our past decisions by today’s knowledge. We did the best we could back then. There is no sense in beating ourselves up for past decisions.
Sometimes we need to reverse decisions we made for the day or the week. For example, when unexpected things come up, I often have to change my plans. It can be very smart to reverse our plans then, as we try to pace ourselves better.
Dawning
I firmly believe that each new day is what I make of it. I got fed up a few years ago with always being down and miserable. My life has things I don’t enjoy in it, but this is my life, so I’m going to make the best of each day and season that I can. I love the following image.
Mapping
This January I’m mapping out what I want to accomplish with my blog and book. I’ve written 3 goals for January. Just knowing what I need to do helps me slot it in on any day that I have the time and energy to get it done. My planner ends up looking messy with arrows moving tasks from one day to another or from one week to another week. That’s okay with me. Life is messy. LOL!
If I don’t get everything done, I want to do this month, there’s always February. Keeping things flexible this way keeps me from getting frustrated when I don’t get everything done.
Re-Defining
When I think about it, re-defining comes from evaluating our lives and making changes for the better. My perspective of 2021 changed dramatically when I looked at all I accomplished instead of focusing on the things I didn’t. You can read more about how my perspective changed in last week’s post if you missed it: https://www.upbeatliving.net/starting-new-year-chronic-health-conditions/
Perspective changes can be life altering!
Wrap-Up of January 2022 Writing Prompts
Thank you, Sheryl, for continuing to provide interesting topics to write about! I hope these prompts and my answers have given you some food for thought. I’d love to hear your thoughts below on any of these topics. If you wish to read what other chronic illness warriors have written about these topics, click here and scroll to the bottom of the page: https://www.achronicvoice.com/2021/12/26/january-writing-prompts-2022/
Till next time, Kathy
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