When life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. Or Mojito’s. I guess it’s something that I’ve tried to keep in mind when I got to deal with RSI.
First, let me be clear that there are thousands of issues that are much bigger than what I’m experiencing. I’m very well aware of all the things I can do – I’m still able to see my friends, to move freely, to do whatever and go whereever I please. I just can’t work the same way I did and there’s quite a bit of pain involved every day. But I know that, even though recovery is taking longer than expected, there will be a day on which I’m pain free. And a week. And a month. Yay!
In the mean time, having a body that isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do at age 25, is teaching me quite a bit. There is no way to deal with illness that is caused by stress and exhaustion without having to take a long, deep, hard look in to your life ;). And so I did.
When I first shared a story of my RSI on CHAPTER FRIDAY, after keeping it to myself for almost a year (I felt like it was a bit too private and personal), I was overwhelmed by your response. Many of you e-mailed me, sent messages, left comments and so many of you have been dealing with similar complaints. That’s what the digital age will do to you! After I told you there are actually some valuable life lessons that I’ve learned though this, some of you were interested in hearing more. Let me tell you about some eye openers I experienced.
1. Let acceptance in, and let go of the idea that you need to be perfect. The absolute harderst part in all of this for me was accepting that this is a situation I’m in. And that I can’t really do much about besides giving it time, taking rest and seeking out professional help. After a while I realized it’s ok if things take time. You don’t need to perform at your top level all of the time. In fact, it’s impossible and you’ll need little (and big) breaks to see things clearly again. Embrace your imperfect self.
2. Little things that friends do for each other make all the difference. Friend offered to go to doctors appointments when I felt overwhelmed. ordered groceries or just sent me a daily voice note (that’s how we chat now instead of WhatsApp messages. So much fun!) or help me get some e-mails done. I sometimes feel like it’s a bit of a burden to others to ask for help. So to know that friends and family offer concrete, little bits of help (without me ever asking for it) means the world. And the same goes for my readers. Your supportive comments and messages really help me get through this and it’s great to know you’re still here! It totally motivates me to keep going and create great articles for CHAPTER FRIDAY.
3. It’s ok to let go sometimes. It’s tempting to replay mistakes you’ve made or scenarios over and over again and cling to the frustration. It’s what I did too. But after a while I noticed how that only drained my energy and didn’t give me any power over the situation. I realize that there will never be a time when life is simple and I’m a hundred percent in control. And guess what? Everthing is still fine.
4. There’s absolutely no point in living in the future or dwelling on the past. Fear of the future (Will my business hold up if I can’t give it 200%? What about my income? What about the pageviews?) or regrets (What if I listened to my body earlier? Why did I work so much when I needed a break?) will get you nowhere. You only know how you feel right now, so take that as a positive and new starting point.
5. Don’t be afraid of the unknown and of what other people might think. My work is who I am. So, naturally, it defined a lot of how I feel about myself in terms of self esteem. I take a lot of pride and happiness in running my website and I love seeing how much you enjoy it. Even though I can’t put in all the effort I want to (which would be every hour of every day ;)) I hope you know that the blog is still my baby and I’m doing everything in my power.
6. Re-charge your battery. Seriously. It’s ok to take a break sometimes, in fact, you need it. Right now, I’m focussing on things that give me energy and try to leave out the rest. So I focus on things like spending time alone, spending time with positive and likeminded people in my circle of friends and family, sleeping well, doing yoga, lazy Sundays in my house, going to a party every now and then and dance everything out.
Long story short, I found out that how I feel has a lot to do with my perspective. And although you can’t always control what’s going on in your body, this is something you can positively influence. I loved writing down some of my thoughts and hope that this is helpful for some of you who are in the same situation!
Jeans by Made in Heaven (MiH) / Weekday tank top / L’enfant Terrible heels
(Picture by Karen van Duijvenbode)
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BY THIS CHICK'S GOT STYLE
Welcome to CHAPTER FRIDAY! Your online toolkit to an awesome and successful life, curated by Yara (and team of supergirls). Hopefully you are excited about this next chapter, and the natural transformation of fashion blog This chick's got style. Find out more about that process here.
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Yara Michels is a professional blogger, all-round business chick, award nominated marketing author and freelance ELLE writer. She hosts blogging masterclasses, takes on online cases for big companies and is an experienced speaker on online topics. Curious yet?
Ik vind het stoer dat je zo het een en ander over je rsi schrijft. Ik hoop dat al deze ontdekkingen je verder gaan helpen om van die RSI af te komen (en jezelf dus de rust en tijd te gunnen ;))
This was such a lovely post that I had to comment! Some of the things you’ve written are some of the things I need to remind myself of (e.g. “You don’t have to perform at you top-level all the time”), which I unfortunately not am, and I feel like it really helped to see it written black on white. So thank you very much for that!
I hope you will get better soon! :-) (Btw: I still think the blog is running great, and the posts are still amazing! Keep up the good work!)
* , unfortunatelyI am not good at that, and I…
Love this personal note on the blog. Hope you recover quickly so you can get back to your work again. In the mean time, do try to relax and do not rush into things when you’re not ready yet! ;) Good luck!
A very lovely post. I can totally understand that you kept what was going on for a while, because I probably would have done the same, but I am so glad you shared your story. Even though I don’t experience RSI myself, it gives me a lot of inspiration to hear what you have learned out of dealing with RSI. I believe that the lesson you’ve learned could be similar to other things we could deal with. So thank you so much for sharing, this personal post. And always I love getting to know the girl behind the curtain.
I hope you get better soon. Sending you lots of wishes.
xoxo, Ronja
http://www.sothisiswhat.com
Thank you for your lovely comment Ronja.
Like you say, I felt like it might be valuable or interesting to share, because it’s lessons I would probably have picked up otherwise. They just come all at once now :) But I like my readers to know what’s really going on, and let them know that nobody’s life is perfect all the time.
Thanks everyone, for your patience and understanding and for being the super duper sweet readers that you are! :)
Love, Yara
These tips definitely apply to so many things, we really need to learn to relax more in our society
Lauren x
Britton Loves | Fashion Lifestyle + Photography - http://www.brittonloves.blogspot.co.uk
Cross my fingers for your recovery.I’m struggling also with some health issues and I know how difficult it is sometimes to accept all these downsizes in life and patiently wait for things to get better. Be strong and positive:)))
http://www.mymoodmyday.com
Take care babe! I have similar RSI/rheumatic complaints and I guess the best way to deal with it is to know your limits and say ‘no’ more often. And like you said, re-charging is very important. Hope you do all those things and start feeling better!
x Iris
http://www.adashoffash.com
Thanks for sharing Yara! Voor nu: heel veel sterkte en keep up the good (read: amazing) work voor Chapter Friday! X
el-eventh
Take care babe! Thanks for the update I’ve been dealing with health issues all my life and it has learned me to take care it as its best. Listen to it carefully and the future will give you the rest…
X
Joy. | justlikesushi.com |
I have struggled with this also. I was diagnosed with rheumatics a few years ago.
Besides learning how to handle my health as good as possible, I also wanted to enjoy life to the fullest: Keep up with my social life, enjoy life with my husband, make sure my house was always perfect, eating healthy, and of course looking perfect while doing all this.
And I couldn’t.
I finally went to speak with a psychologist which has helped me a lot. Besides not always trying to be perfect in everything, it is also important to learn to compliment yourself. Just say the thing you have done great out loud. It felt so weird doing that, and so good at the same time.
I am in a much better place now, and I am sure for you it will only get better as well! In the mean time do not forget to compliment yourself with all the things that are going great in your life!
Btw: Can you tell me the details of were you got your jeans? Because my name is written all over those babies!
Hi Jolanda,
Wishing you so much good luck with that. And I absolutely agree… putting pressure on yourself to be perfect at everything in no way helps. And it really, really isn’t necessary :) Great feedback!
PS. added the denim brand to the post for your info!
Thanks for sharing. I am not dealing with this in particular but I have got a similar issue and I really loved your advice.
http://thinkworkandgo.blogspot.com/
Yara, thank you so much for sharing this. I think I’ll have to print it out and read it to myself every morning. This is something that I’ve been thinking about a lot during my vacation. The continuous pressure to perform a 100% all of the time, to give your everything, ignore your body and mind and never take breaks or focus on the now. These are things we need to quit. I read the book Thrive by Arianna Huffington and I feel like it might be a source of inspiration for you as well. It focusses on leading a full life and not losing yourself online, in your work or in things that in the long run don’t matter. Thanks again for sharing this post with us, and for being a daily inspiration, together with your team.
I loved reading this post! It’s so well written and a good reminder that the glass is either half full or half empty, depending on how you see it.
Thank you for the inspiration!
http://lartoffashion.blogspot.com