...DEFEAT Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: ...............................................................You don't have to live with it
  • Home
  • About
    • This Site
    • Martha
  • Participate
  • Contact
    • Contact Form
    • Submissions
  • Links
  • Book
  • Further Lessons
  • Thanks

SEID/CFS Staycation – A New Definition

8/4/2015

2 Comments

 
Picture© 2015 TSM
This is the season when many people take vacations – from the Latin meaning ‘freedom from’.  And the newly popular staycation where leisure time is spent at home and at nearby attractions as day trips.  The staycation started when the economy and foreign exchange rates made travel vacations out of reach for many families and individuals.  For those struggling with SEID/CFS, a staycation could seem like more of the same forced rest and isolation.  But I’d like to offer a different view.

Many of us create inviting spaces in our homes.  And although very few of us would ever make the cover of ‘Better Homes and Gardens’, we do succeed in making a nest that we like.  But most of us, when healthy, are too busy to actually enjoy our homes.  Yes we may cook and eat.  We sit with computers and TVs.  We have conversations.  But most of this revolves around errands and chores and ‘to dos’.  And the dreaded, ‘fix this’ and ‘clean that’.  Honestly, one of the things we enjoy about vacations is going somewhere else where we can’t work on stuff around the house.  We’re forced to relax and indulge in leisure time.

So if you get a break from the routine you’re trying to juggle along with your struggle with SEID/CFS, why not create a lovely staycation for yourself.  Instead of looking at those four walls as a kind of jail, why not see them as a place where you can indulge in leisure.  OK, full disclosure, I didn’t get this perspective when I was struggling with SEID/CFS until someone else pointed it out to me.  Linger over a nice cup of coffee in the morning.  Read a good article.  Catch up on brief emails to friends and family.  Get outside.  Sit under a shade tree and doze.  Eat off your best dishes and glasses.  Invite one friend over for afternoon tea.  Take a good nap.  Make an entry in your health log :)  Order fun takeout and have a friend pick it up or have it delivered.  Watch an old movie that you love.  Give yourself a foot bath and a hand message.  Have a nice phone conversation with someone you miss.  You get the idea.  No chores or ‘to dos’.

Could you fully relax at home?  It takes restraint to do nothing at home.  Please COMMENT on this blog or Send in your thoughts and I’ll post them with your permission.  You can use the Contact Form or send an email to Martha at DefeatCFS dot net.  And Guest Blogs are most welcome!

Look for a weekly posting on Tuesdays.  And consider being part of the conversation.

Be Well Again,

Martha

2 Comments

Vacation - a 180 on the Definition

8/23/2011

0 Comments

 
Picture
© 2011 TSM
My apologies for not posting last week.  I was fully consumed with the multiple tasks required to launch two kids off to college in the same week – one an experienced senior and the other a rookie freshman.  As I scrambled over the hurtles, I often thought that I could never have been successful if such a week had been required of me when I was sick.  And my thoughts sometimes strayed to other friends who were off on vacations enjoying the last weeks of summer.  Not that I resented giving up this time to my kids, I was pleased to be a part of getting them established at school.

The idea of vacation stayed with me enough to eventually look up the entomology of the word.  It’s from the Latin verb vacare – meaning to be free.  So when we take vacations we a free from the normal routine.  This would usually translate as relaxation, rest and for some a bit of adventure.

For those who are struggling with ME/CFS, and who are carefully pacing themselves, meticulously adhering to sleep, avoiding normative activities which would push them into relapse, etc, etc, a vacation would be a one week gift of living completely healthy.  They would joyfully do all the ‘mundane’ tasks that others seek relief from.  To be free from this cruel disease just for a week would be a vacation by their definition.

Although that seems impossible, there are things that someone (or several someone’s) could do for a struggling patient – just for one week – that would make it a close approximation of a vacation.  What are your ideas?  What have you done for a struggling patient?  Please COMMENT or send in your thoughts and I’ll post them.  You can use the Contact Form or send an email to Martha at DefeatCFS dot net.

Look for a weekly posting on Tuesdays.  And consider being part of the conversation.

Be Well Again,

Martha

0 Comments
    Picture
    Hello,  I'm
    Martha Kilcoyne

    Welcome
     to our Community!

    After struggling with CFS for four years I am fortunate now to be fully well and making choices about how I want to live my healthy life.  One choice is to be an active part of the CFS community and to offer one voice from the fully recoverd to the dialogue.  I'm glad you're here!   For more about me, here's my Bio.

      Join Our Community
      Enter your email address to
      follow this blog.

    Join

    For Books, Supplements, Sleep aids and more

    Picture

    Archives

    December 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011

    Categories

    All
    Appreciation
    Attitude
    Being Positive
    Brain Fog
    Choices
    Community
    Connect
    Coping
    Data
    Diagnosis
    Doctor
    Emotions
    Energy
    First
    Food
    Funding
    Genetics
    Goals
    Gratitude
    Groups
    Guest Blog
    Gut Feelings
    Health
    Helping
    Holidays
    Hope
    Humor
    Immune Support
    Inner Voice
    Ion Channelopathy
    Irony
    Isolation
    Journal
    Log
    Mantra
    Memory
    Mind
    Negativity
    Nutrition
    Opinions
    Organizations
    Outlook
    Pace
    Participate
    Patience
    Patterns
    Personality
    Perspective
    Protocol
    Provider
    Pushing Too Hard
    Pushing Too Hard
    Record
    Recovery
    Relapses
    Research
    Resolutions
    Rest
    Sleep Depravation
    Step By Step
    Step By Step
    Strategies
    Supplements
    Support
    Take Control
    Take Control
    Thankfulness
    Vacation
    Variables
    Version

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Copyright © 2011-2012
    Triple Spiral MEDIA LLC