{"id":1881,"date":"2015-11-17T19:51:31","date_gmt":"2015-11-17T19:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=1881"},"modified":"2015-11-12T20:04:45","modified_gmt":"2015-11-12T20:04:45","slug":"chronic-illness-just-starting-out-part-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/11\/chronic-illness-just-starting-out-part-four.html","title":{"rendered":"Chronic Illness: Just Starting Out – Part Four"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Second<\/a>Bringing comfort to our lives with a chronic illness can be very difficult, especially if the illness comes with physical and emotional pain. We might not have the energy for stress-busting activities we enjoyed before our diagnosis. We might not have any money for recreational activities after we’ve paid for our medical care, medications, and the “props” that go along with some illnesses. Very few of us can redesign our living spaces, making them easier on ourselves and our aching joints. And still fewer of us (probably) can move to a climate or geographically desirable area that will be cooler\/warmer\/more humid\/dryer for us.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, as we battle those early days of our illness (and in many ways, it is a battle), we do ourselves a tremendous favor to find even very small ways to bring comfort into our illness-drenched world.<\/p>\n

Some of the things that brought me comfort in my early days after diagnosis were seeminly ordinary, but very powerful. A blooming houseplant that I could admire from the “comfort” of my living room sofa. The play of fish in my aquarium (also observed from my sofa). A new, softer pillow. A taste, however small, of my favorite food. Reading from a few pages of the comics that never failed to make me laugh. A gentle walk on a shady street. A few moments of meditation on one of the many comforting psalms.<\/p>\n

One of the most comforting things for me was, and still is, refocusing my eyes, mind, and heart to only the now. “Checking in” with my breath, heartbeat, and giving special, relaxed attention to anyplace where I might have worry or carry stress.<\/p>\n

We don’t have to spend a lot of money or completely redesign our lives to bring comfort to ourselves after a harsh diagnosis. We can find it nearby, within our hearts, and it will have as much, if not more, of a positive impact upon us as we nurture it today, now, and in the days to come.<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Maureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bringing comfort to our lives with a chronic illness can be very difficult, especially if the illness comes with physical and emotional pain. We might not have the energy for stress-busting activities we enjoyed before our diagnosis. We might not have any money for recreational activities after we’ve paid for our medical care, medications, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,360,43,1242,4,1047,578,379,1420,1245],"tags":[1953,29,1954],"class_list":["post-1881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronic-pain-and-illness","category-determination","category-encouragement-in-life","category-food-for-thought","category-words-of-encouragemnent-and-info-for-all","category-good","category-goodness","category-lupus-2","category-pain-2","category-positive","tag-bringing-comfort-to-ourselves","tag-chronic-illness","tag-chronic-illness-and-comfort"],"yoast_head":"\nChronic Illness: Just Starting Out - Part Four - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Comfort is important and need not cost a lot of money\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/11\/chronic-illness-just-starting-out-part-four.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chronic Illness: Just Starting Out - Part Four - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Comfort is important and need not cost a lot of money\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/11\/chronic-illness-just-starting-out-part-four.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-11-17T19:51:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-11-12T20:04:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2015\/10\/Second-close-up-of-picture-257x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mpratt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Chronic Illness: Just Starting Out - Part Four - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","description":"Comfort is important and need not cost a lot of money","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/11\/chronic-illness-just-starting-out-part-four.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Chronic Illness: Just Starting Out - 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She expected to be writing scripts. God had other plans. A few years after her graduation, Maureen was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of organ-involved lupus. Her life turned upside down as she grappled with the effects of the illness and other health conditions that ensued. She was no stranger to serious health challenges; even as a child, Maureen had survived numerous bouts of pneumonia, flu, and other infections. But lupus made her take a fresh look at her life goals - and took herlifelong, strong Catholic Christian faith and writing in a direction she'd never imagined. Today, Maureen writes and speaks about walking with the Lord while living with chronic pain and illness. Her most recent book is \"Don't Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough (Franciscan Media). She is also the author of, \"Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain & Illness\" (Image Books\/Randomhouse), \"Beyond Pain: Job, Jesus, and Joy\" (Twenty-Third Publications), \"The First Year: Hypothyroidism, Second Edition\" (Perseus) and \"Taking Charge of Lupus: How to Manage the Disease and Make the Most of Your LIfe.\" She writes the syndicated column, \"Living Well,\" for Catholic News Service, and has also written for Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine, Journey for Women Magazine, The Upper Room Magazine, LupusNow, and Arthritis Today. Maureen's health continues to be a challenge, however she feels honored to be able to bring her perspective, from experience and knowledge, to others. \"Good Days...Bad Days with Maureen Pratt\" is a new way for Maureen to reach people who carry the burden of illness and pain in their lives, or who care for someone who does. Through the blog, she hopes to bring issues of health, wellness, and spirit into focus and, especially, inspire others that, no matter what health challenges, illness, or hardships they endure, each person can find a good way to realize the wonderful potential God has placed within each heart and soul.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.maureenpratt.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/author\/mpratt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1881"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1883,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1881\/revisions\/1883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}