“While it may not be possible for us to cure ourselves or to find someone who can, it is possible for us to heal ourselves – to learn to live with and work with the conditions that present themselves in the present moment. Healing implies the possibility that we can relate differently to illness, disability, even death, as we learn to see with the eyes of wholeness.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
If you’ve been following my blog (or podcast) for awhile, you might have read (or heard) the term well-being come up quite a bit. Because, like the above quote says, we can’t cure ourselves, but that doesn’t mean everything in our lives is out of our control. The illness(es) we have aren’t directly in our control, but our experience of having them is. This is a lot to break down, certainly more than just one blog post (and to be honest I get into this way more in the new season of the podcast – check out the first episode of season 2 here for Apple and here for Spotify). What I would like to do is just be a little more specific about what well-being is and why’s it is important for Chronic Illness Warriors.
I would say the first year to year and a half after I was diagnosed initially (so back in from Feburary 2016-sometime midway through 2017) my well-being was low. I felt like my illness took so much out of me. Initially I had a lot of anxiety, maybe some depression, and then a bad breakup, and then even when I went out with friends as I moved on I found I would have to leave early or cancel plans. I called in sick often to work. I thought a lot about the pain I was in. But things slowly started to shift as I realized my well-being (or all of this stuff) was more in my control than I thought it was.
Wellbeing (or well-being, which way is right? Depends on who you ask!) can be defined as the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy. Note that it doesn’t necessarily say all three at once. There is a ton of research on wellbeing and chronic illness, which is not surprising since the incidence of chronic illness is constantly growing. Wellbeing often includes physical, psychological and social aspects, and often it is a little bit of each together that gives us this. It is also related to coping. How well we can cope, how we cope, our self-efficacy (last week’s blog post). Truthfully, wellbeing is an important part of being able to exist and wanting to exist on this planet. Too often I read chronic illness warriors post how they have no wellbeing and that they feel like giving up. It’s heart breaking, because it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way.
Why is well-being important for people with chronic illness. Well, for one, the research has shown that chronic illness warriors who have better wellbeing show lower disability, lower pain, less mental health problems, and overall a better quality of life. Sounds pretty good, right? And please remember that doesn’t mean they don’t have any disability, pain or mental health problems, it means that it is lower than for people who’s well-being is poor. I do want to point out that achieving greater wellbeing takes a lot of work. I’m not exaggerating here either, and I think this is often where people get stuck. Because it’s easier if someone or something else (like a doctor or medication) can just make us feel better, rather than having to make changes to our lifestyle or go on a personal growth journey. This is ultimately why I have the blog and the podcast – to help provide some options here (and again the podcast this season is really diving deep into finding ways to improve wellbeing so check it out). We are looking for ways (myself included because I certainly don’t have all the answers) to improve our wellbeing, to make our lives better.
My journey has been several years in the making and is really never-ending. Change is slow. But I’ve taken many steps to improve my wellbeing and continue to do so. I’m at the point where I can say I have pretty good wellbeing, and I can personally corroborate the research and say that in general my pain is lower (still can depend on the day) and in general I have less disability (have not called in to sick at my practicum in 6 months) and in general I don’t have mental health problems (though I am willing to acknowledge them when they come up because emotions are normal!). It is a journey that I hope you are all ready for.
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Chronically Living 