Now that August has come to an end, I’m taking some time to reflect and look forward.
Over the past month I have focused on using positive psychology interventions in an attempt to flourish with chronic illness. I have been focusing on incorporating more: adventure, colour, movement and nature into my life.
Adventure doesn’t have to be jumping out of a plane or climbing Mount Everest; it can be anything that deviates from your usual routine, or anything that takes you outside of your comfort zone. Increasing the novelty in my life has been easy as I have been off work for August. I’ve been on holidays and have had days out with friends and family. I’ve visited new restaurants and I’ve tried new things like paddle-boarding.
Another way I’ve challenged myself is by attending coaching sessions and having a personal shopping session. Both of these things have helped me to work on my confidence and identity: two things that have taken a battering due to Hashimoto’s and the pandemic.
At the start of the month I was consciously wearing bright colours and painting my nails and it definitely boosted my mood. More recently, I’ve sometimes fallen into old habits of wearing neutral colours. Colour definitely helps to inject fun and playfulness into life, so I’m going to ensure that the next time I buy an item of clothing, it’s bright!
I’ve definitely been moving more, which is a good job as I’ve been eating out constantly! Most of the time getting my target of 7,000 steps a day requires a lot of effort, but I’ve noticed this month that it’s actually really easy if I leave my sofa and go out for the day! Just walking around and sightseeing on holiday would easily clock up 10,000 steps a day and I haven’t been feeling the need to rest as much as I usually would.
Apart from walking, I’ve been playing netball twice a week (like I always do), but I’ve also joined a netball club. This is something I have wanted to do for ages as I absolutely love netball and I really want to get better at it. My illness has put me off as I worry about the impact of over-exercising. In reality, I think over-exercising is more like trying to run a marathon or HIIT workouts: two things I have zero interest in doing anyway. Rather than draining my energy, I find that netball gives me more energy and puts me on a real high. I often drag myself to matches feeling awful or after having no sleep but, as soon as the game starts, a separate energy reserve seems to kick in and I find myself in a state of flow.
This month I’ve even tried running again. I’ve dabbled with running over the last ten years and managed to complete a 10K back in 2016. I don’t love it, but in the past I’ve done it with friends and enjoy the social aspect. I’m very competitive, so I also like trying to push myself to go slightly further/faster each time. During lockdown last year, I did start going for short runs again but stopped as I’d started feeling really breathless. Rationally I know that the reason for that was because I’d stopped taking my iron medication (on the advice of a particularly unhelpful doctor) and I also wasn’t taking anti-histamines (something that has really helped with sinus issues this year). Because of this, I’d convinced myself that running wasn’t for me and was ‘bad’ for my Hashimoto’s.
A few weeks ago I decided to have a jog around the block to test the water and was surprised by how easy I found it. Since then, I’ve completed three short early-morning runs with my partner. The first two were along the beach on holiday and I absolutely loved it! The sea air was invigorating and going first thing meant that it gave me a mood boost to start the day. It also meant that we had more than earned the amazing brunches we went for after! Running around our local field really didn’t have the same impact, so I’m going to have to think about where we can run nearby that rivals the coast!
I’d really like to get into yoga again. I’ve had periods where I’ve practised it regularly but then fall out of the habit. I did the first session of ’30 days with Adrienne’ for the hundredth time today, so I need to keep it up!
Time in nature is something I always prioritise. It’s like I have a physiological need for fresh air. Even when the weather is awful, I still like having the patio doors open at home and being outside. Being locked down with a toddler last winter really reinforced the idea of there being no such thing as bad weather – just bad clothes! These days, I’m more than happy to go for a dog walk in the rain! I read an article recently about the power of wind to ‘blow away the cobwebs’ and it’s true that a walk in nature really does make you come home refreshed. I’ve spent a lot of time this summer in my local park or by the coast; the main thing I’d like to work on going forward is trying to vary the places I visit more as I tend to stick to what I know. I’m desperate to go and visit somewhere in the mountains! A little village in Switzerland would be ideal. It’s probably not going to happen this year but I’m sure there are some mountains in the UK I could visit.
Now that the summer is coming to an end, I need to ensure that I still use my garden. We spent thousands on it during lockdown and I’ve really enjoyed eating alfresco. There’s no reason not to continue with this – I might just need to invest in a couple of blankets!
Overall, I definitely feel much better than I did at the start of the month! I’ve enjoyed myself and I’ve barely thought about my chronic illness, as opposed to before when it occupied my mind constantly. There have been times when the fatigue has been overwhelming but I’ve tried to see this as my body’s way of telling me to rest, rather than it filling me with anxiety about what I’ve done ‘wrong’ to cause it. My illness hasn’t really held me back. I’ve been going out for the day and have stayed up late now and again – things I hadn’t been doing before. Most of the time, my friends and family are more than happy to have regular rest breaks when we’re out – it’s normal to have pit-stops for food and drink, or just to enjoy a view anyway.
Going forward, it’s going to be much more difficult to stay happy and energised. Therefore, I’m going to have to work much harder. Summer is over and I’m back to work tomorrow.
The past two years have been anything but ordinary and I had found myself starting to feel apathetic about my job. Having coaching this summer has helped me to have more of a sense of direction career-wise and feel more positive. As much as negative emotions are normal and helpful, it’s easy to become consumed by them. Research suggests that we require three times as many positive emotions to negative emotions in order to flourish. There are ways that we can consciously increase the positive emotions that we have (like the interventions I have been trialing) and decrease the negative.
We all have a negativity bias – it’s evolutionary and has helped us to survive. Personally, my happiness ‘set-point’ is quite low. I’m naturally pessimistic and I’m prone to low mood and anxiety. One way I’m going to try and counter this is by challenging my automatic negative thoughts. Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is the practice of applying doubt to our negative thoughts rather than accepting them as the truth. Even if they are the truth, if they’re not helpful to us, the process requires us to re-frame them. For example, I saw a colleague out shopping recently and she said hello but clearly didn’t want to chat. My immediate response was to think that ‘she doesn’t like me’, which made me feel upset. By applying doubt to this thought and reframing it to something more helpful like ‘she was in a hurry’ was much less threatening.
To conclude, happiness isn’t something that just happens; it’s something we continuously need to work on. We have to nurture our mental health in the same way as our physical health whether we have a chronic illness or not.
The interventions I tried during August have been helpful, so I am going to continue with them. As well as this, I am going to work on re-framing my negative thoughts.
During August, I did over-indulge, so, now that I’m going back to work, I’m also going to focus on looking after my body and not abusing it with junk food and alcohol! Now, these things are fine in moderation, but living off of fish and chips is, I’m sure, not thyroid (or waistline) - friendly!
Here’s to an awesome autumn!