Learning Through Others - HAWMC Day 25

Today's prompt is about "Learning":

Share something you learned from another Health Activist (that everyone should know!) or share something you'd like to teach other Health Activists.



This week has been quite difficult to get through.  Heightened anxiety, feelings of depression, and of course pain have kept me from being or feeling very productive.  Figuring out how or what I am going to write about for each prompt this week hasn't been easy.  My brain is on blank and stuck in distraction mode.  So, when it came to today's prompt I felt quite stumped.  I couldn't really pick just one Health Activist or one particular thing I've learned.  But, as I was browsing through different blogs, I noticed that there is a common thread among many of them.  Humor and witty sarcasm.  Being able to laugh at how comical chronic pain can be and finding the humor in what could easily be a very sad lifestyle is important.  It lightens the load a bit and gives us permission to laugh.  Allowing ourselves to feel something other than pain can be challenging.  But we deserve and need to giggle, chuckle, and laugh out loud at all the crazy ways our bodies react to pain.  The "dumb blond" moments thanks to fibro fog or insomnia or the multitude of inappropriate noises that our body makes are reasons to laugh.  And, I found that being sarcastic about what we experience can also help take the edge off of a usually low moment.  There usually isn't much we can change about the fact of chronic pain being a prevalent part in our lives.  Yet, we can navigate through it a little easier by allowing the light of laughter into it.

I don't know if there is anything I personally can teach other Health Activists that they are already doing.  For me, I just try to stay as transparent and hopeful about my illnesses as possible.  This is something that I see everyone doing already, so not much to add there.  The only other thing I would add is that, sometimes I can be intimidated by how much or how influential some H.A.'s are.  I frequently need to remind myself that what I'm doing is valuable, no matter how big or small it might be.  Maybe some of you have felt the same way (or not).  All that matters is that something is being done to shine a bigger light on the chronic pain epidemic.  Every person and their story has an impact.  This is a lesson I'm continually learning.