A few days ago I wrote that I’d signed up for a series of activities this winter, to force myself to get out of the house. Sometimes, when living with severe chronic pain, it seems easier to just stay in during our cold, icy, and snowy winter months.
It might be easier, but it’s definitely not healthier! Not for me, at any rate. I need to get out and do things, with other people; I’ve particularly noticed this ever since I had to step away from my career in late 2018, because of my rare disease.
What types of activities did I register for? First off was an aquafit course for folks with arthritis and other autoimmune diseases, which began last week. My physiotherapist had been encouraging me to try this for months, so he was thrilled when I finally took him up on this challenge.
The aquatic centre assured me that the course is given in a warmer-than-usual pool, because cold/cool temperatures trigger excruciating neuropathic pain – nerve pain – from Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). This means that I can can’t swim in a regular pool anymore, or at our local lakefront beach.
My CRPS-affected arm and hand have been ‘handling’ the course well. Get it? ‘Hand’ and ‘handling’. Yeah, I know, it’s a horrible pun; I just couldn’t resist! ‘-) As an added bonus to the Aqua-arthritics class, there’s a dry sauna in the women’s locker room. My CRPS loves dry heat, so I stop in there after each class.
Next month I move towards more creative activities, which should be a lot of fun. I’ve never been a talented artist, but have a lot of fun trying! I got the idea of using creative arts as a form of self-therapy for my chronic pain disease from a two-day Play the Pain event, in which I participated last October.
One of the many workshops, during this live event, was entitled art therapy for chronic pain. This was intriguing, because:
Researchers in this area have found that the act of participating in art making has the potential to distract from, and thus alleviate, perception of physical pain”(1)
Right after that art therapy for chronic pain session, at Play the Pain, I’d signed up for a hands-on art class. It was a two-hour workshop on making clay flowers, at my town’s public library.
My physiotherapist had told me that I could count that workshop as a form of physical or occupational therapy, because I was able to try to use my CRPS-affected right hand to roll the very soft clay ‘-)
In early February, this year, I’ll be trying something completely new; a workshop on hand-making candles from soy-based wax. The instructor will be the same lovely woman who taught that clay-flower workshop. And, as a bonus, my physical therapist views the candle-making as another occupational therapy session! If I use my CRPS-affected right hand, of course.
You may recall that I participated in a few ‘creative writing for pain’ workshops last year; one on during the two-day in-person Play the Pain event, and the other online with the US Pain Foundation.
I adored both of these one-hour sessions, so I included creative writing in my searches for local low-cost winter activities. It was something of a surprise to find two different courses, each of them for only $10; one for a six-week session and the other for eight weeks. I also found a free on-line course!
The on-line creative writing course is at a truly introductory level. This one lasts eight weeks, and began on January 6; stay tuned for some posts of my attempts at writing fiction! This course is broken up into 5-minute videos and very short readings, interspersed with students’ attempts to write 😉
Even though one of the symptoms of my rare disease is mild cognitive impairment (MCI), my brain can usually manage to concentrate and focus on something for about an hour; provided that I don’t do anything else mentally challenging that day… which is why I’ve had to give up blogging on an almost-daily basis.
This on-line course is perfect, because it’s set up for students to move along at their own pace – as long as each student completes the week’s activities within the allotted 7-day period. If my brain were still fine, I’d have done the entire week’s work in a single day… that’s just how I was.
MCI doesn’t let me do that anymore, which also allows me to slow down and enjoy the course a bit more. That’s me, always with the bright side or the glass half full…
Then in early March I’ll start a series in-person one-hour workshops about using WordPress. These will be once a week, for four weeks. That should be very helpful, because it’s the platform I use for this blog ‘-) Then from mid-March to early May, I’ll get back to writing.
While searching out short-duration activities at local public libraries, I found two that really resonated with me; each involves creative writing, but in surprisingly different ways. I couldn’t decide which to take, so I signed up for both!
The first, which begins in mid-March, will be a weekly creative writing sessions that seems to go beyond the introductory on-line course that I’m currently taking. The timing is great, as I’ll have just finished the online course when this ‘live’ one begins.
Then in April and May I’ll be trying out a brand-new course. It’s being offered at the same public library, for the very first time. These weekly sessions will be on how to create an ‘artistic journal’. I’ve already come up with the idea of creating a chronic pain journal. Studies of this type of journaling, for patients with chronic illness, have found that:
Though more studies are needed, many behavioral researchers believe such approaches could also work with treating chronically ill people.
Writing is another potential tool in the armatorium of the clinical professional”(2)
By the time that course ends, in May, I’ll be back out in nature again, where I feel best! Back on my bike, in my gardens, able to just sit on my patio and watch the birds and creatures in our gardens. Between now and then, I have all of these activities planned – to get me out of the house during the long winter months…
And, because I’m no longer shutting out my friends they way I did last winter, I also have several coffee get-togethers or lunch dates each week. When I looked at my calendar for this week, there wasn’t a single day on which I had nothing planned… and I’ve realized that this is exactly what I need, for my mental health, until spring arrives.
Whatever it is that you need, to get you through the days, I hope that you find it. Remember that it’s not a sign of weakness to ask for help when you need it; it might be more a sign of stubbornness if you don’t ‘-) That was definitely the case for me during last year’s dark winter, yet I created that horrid situation for myself. Don’t make the same mistake!
Thanks so much for stopping by, and please feel free to reach out or comment over on Instagram or Twitter. I’ve disabled the comments on this blog, to avoid all the obscene spam I was receiving from overseas, but love hearing from you.
Have a lovely day, and many moments of joy!
References:
(1) Chronic Pain and Art Therapy. PainPathways Magazine. 19 Jan 2014. Accessed 17 Jan 2020:
https://www.painpathways.org/art-therapy/
(2) Writing to heal: By helping people manage and learn from negative experiences, writing strengthens their immune systems as well as their minds. Bridget Murray. Monitor on Psychology; American Psychological Association. 2002(33):6;54. Jun 2002. Accessed 17 Jan 2020:
https://www.apa.org/monitor/jun02/writing