12 Ways to Effectively Manage your Chronic Illness, Health & Pain Management

Are you worried you will see a decline in your health this Holiday? 

Perhaps you find yourself staying awake at night due to an increase in pain due to managing all the Holiday tasks & upcoming festivities. 

Staying on top of our chronic illness, symptoms, and pain management is essential in the best of circumstances. However, it is critical during this Holiday season.

When we add external stressors, like the Holiday we can begin to see an increase in symptoms, pain, and trauma triggers.

So today's episode is dedicated to supporting your symptom, illness, pain and trauma management, so you can have the best Holiday and New Year yet. 

In today's episode, Amanda shares twelve ways we can be proactive to ensure we can continue or begin to take effective action toward our health. 

If you have not already, please download your FREE Holiday Planner & Workbook today. Amanda's Holiday planner will help you implement many of today's suggestions to ensure you are taking the best care of yourself and your loved ones, without compromising your health. 

Download FREE Holiday Planner & Workbook Here: https://www.embracingthepain.com/

Episode Recap: 12 Ways to effectively manage your chronic illness, health & Pain Management

1. Prioritize & Stay organized with medical appointments. Utilize your appointment tracker & note pages in the Holiday Planner to help make this step as simple as possible. 

2. Amanda had said it before & she says it again, Plan rest and recovery days. Planning, prioritizing and partaking in restful hours or days before and after an event is essential to us achieving our goal of a flare-free season. 

3. Handle Holiday events & social gathering accommodations ahead of time. When we approach accommodations early on we are less likely to run into misunderstandings & hurt feelings. Also, when we approach our accommodations early on we come from a mindset of empowerment & confidence versus shame or embarrassment. 

4. Stock up & keep track of medications and symptoms. Amanda has also included a prescription tracker in the Holiday planner, to make this process easier than ever. The last thing we need or want is to run out of medications. We also don't want to neglect our symptom and pain tracking because it provides us with important information that can make a huge difference in our treatment and care options this new year. Amanda has included a symptom and pain tracker in the Holiday planner as well.

5. Listen to your body & honour its needs. Our bodies can be the reason we feel so frustrated this time of year. Annoyed that our bodies won't do what we want or need them to. However, Amanda encourages us to listen and honour our bodies. We all know that pushing through will not end well for us.

Amanda also covers a challenge I know many of us can face when it comes to honouring our body or mind's limitations this season. Helping you know how to better communicate in a situation where a family or friend may not understand your limitations or need for rest. You don't want to miss it. 

6. Have pain management tools organized and in high-traffic areas. When in pain it can be challenging to know how to aid ourselves or think straight, which is why it is so beneficial for us to have our pain management tools near us at all times by using a GO-BAG. A bag that can hold our essential items like pain medication, lip chap, kleenex, inhalers, and so on. 

Also, keep items like heating pads, snacks, drinks, and comfort items in high-traffic areas like your bedroom, living room, and office. 

7. Be kind to yourself when and if a flare or increase in pain happens. We cannot control our bodies no matter how hard we try. We can do all the right things and still see an increase in our symptoms, pain or triggers. So if that happens this season give yourself time and space to process it. Then shower yourself in love, care and compassion. 

8. Manage stress levels. We hear it all the time but for us to effectively manage our chronic conditions, pain and trauma this Holiday we must find ways to destress. Not all anti-stress strategies will work for you. Get curious about what tools, strategies and coping skills work best to manage your stress. 

9. Plan travel wisely. Travelling at the best of times is stressful, when you add chronic pain, illness and trauma to the mix it will naturally involve more challenges. Amanda shares her tips for how to handle planning travel this season.

10. Delegate. For many of us delegating is not easy, however, we must embrace it this season if we want to continue to manage and thrive. Refer to the Holiday Helpers page in the Holiday planner and workbook to help you compile a list of people who can help you throughout this season. 

11. Ask & seek support. There are always a million and one excuses as to why now is not a good time to finally reach out and get the support you need. If you do not have friends or family please know that Amanda's inbox is always open and she would love to encourage, support and uplift you this season. You are not alone.

12. Break larger projects down and tasks into small chunks. Think about what is required to finish a task or project from start to finish and then focus on one step of that process at a time. Take breaks and instill the help of others if possible.

There you have a summary of what today's episode entails. Please don't forget to leave a review or share this episode with a fellow warrior today. 

P.S. Amanda will be releasing a new episode every week until Christmas, be sure to listen in next week for a new episode.

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