This is a journal entry from a dear friend of mine who gave her blessing to share her words as both a caregiver and a spouse to someone going through cancer treatment. The names have been changed to protect their privacy, but the hope is that her words will help those going through similar struggles, and will resonate with others that share similar stories.

Living with chronic pain and illness can bring up a lot of anxiety. You might be feeling a daily sense of worry, wondering if you will be able to manage your anxiety that increases when health and pain symptoms suddenly strike. While everyone’s anxiety symptoms and experiences with chronic pain and illness are different, I hear so many stories about how health symptoms interfere with daily life.

I am sure you have heard it over and over again how important it is to get a good night’s sleep. It’s right up there with eating well and exercising right? In this article I hope to add new perspectives as to why bedtime rest is important and what you can do to support better nighttime habits.

Trying to show support to loved ones living with chronic pain and illness is hard. You may even feel like your efforts to help are falling short. In this article I explore some main points about this topic so caregivers and loved ones have more information about chronic pain and illness.

Are you familiar with the term secondary trauma? Chances are that this is the first time you are hearing about it, so let me give you a brief description of what this phrase actually means. Secondary trauma is defined as experiencing, hearing about, or being witness to life threatening or life-changing events of another person on a regular basis.

Experiencing life when you have chronic pain and illness can be difficult when it comes to maintaining relationships. If you developed your illness as an adult for instance, adjusting to your new normal also means having to make big life adjustments. Making adjustments due to medical illness was something I did, and it was hard. Some of what I share here is based on my own experiences and the experiences of friends with medical illness.

When experiencing uncomfortable sensations in the body what do you do? Do you ignore them? Do you try and distract yourself from what you are feeling? Or do you stop and sit still to understand what is going on within yourself? Most of the time it is hard to stop and take a moment to check in with sensations and emotions because life is just too busy. There are so many obligations and distractions that keep you moving from place to place without a moment to catch your breath.

When becoming a parent the last thing that comes to mind is the possibility that your child will develop a chronic illness. When chronic illness affects your child, the impact it can have on the whole family is significant. Of course the child is not the only one who is affected but the parents and siblings are experiencing it too.

Have you recently moved passed the hurdle of your medical illness? Are you feeling better now for the most part? Do you find that you have more energy to interact with others and get back to what you enjoy? In the past, most of your time was put towards doctor appointments, medical treatments and more. But now all of that has changed. You have fewer medical appointments, giving you more time to get back to what it is you enjoy doing most.

You have been told by your doctor that you have chronic pain and a chronic illness. So now what are the next steps? And more importantly, how will you be able to parent with chronic pain?

How can we get through the holidays more stress free? This can seem managing holiday stress is an impossible task, but by exploring some ideas shared here you will see that it is possible. After all, the holidays are not just about running around trying to please everyone. That desire to please others and be everywhere for everyone can leave you feeling both depleted and resentful. Instead, these ideas can help keep the stress and overwhelm at bay allowing more time for fun, enjoyment and connection.

Practicing deep belly breathing is one of the most effective ways to help calm down the mind and body. To get an idea about what a deep belly breath looks like, I want you to place one hand under your belly button and the other hand on your chest.

There are so many studies showing the positive effects of meditation such as improved sleep, reduced blood pressure and greater focus to name a few. Even though we are aware of these benefits, it seems to be hard to actually implement this practice. Why is this? Well for many, the idea of mediating can sound a little intimidating.

Pain management often means incorporating a regular self care routine. That is because our bodies respond well when we stick to a schedule. This is especially true when talking about sleep routines for pain management. When we do this, our body intuitively knows when to go to sleep and when to wake up in the morning which aids in healing and repair work.

Living life with a high levels of physical pain is something many people experience. I deal with chronic pain and know how much it can interfere with daily life. It is my hope that the approaches shared here will provide options to those who dealing with persistent physical pain.

Some people say that change happens when we push ourselves outside of our comfort zone so that is what I am doing today in writing my first blog post! In sharing a little about myself, my hope is to provide support and be a voice for those of you who suffer from chronic illness and pain since this is also part of my story. I also hope to provide some clarity to those of you who are supporting friends and loved-ones dealing with a chronic health condition.