5 Effortless Tips to Live Well with Chronic Illness | A Chronic Voice

To live well with chronic illness is tricky. Life with a chronic illness is like driving down a mountain road. You drive carefully, fearful of losing control and veering over the edge. Raise your hand if your life is marked by ‘careful’ habits to accommodate the monster that has invaded your life? Maybe, you have […]

How to be a Positive Thinker: Without the Unicorns & Rainbows

Wait…What Did I Just Think? I woke up feeling like crap. One of those depressive days that arrive unannounced, bringing joint aches and other chronic pain friends along with it. “Today is a bad day”, was the very first thought that surfaced in my mind. Quite the positive thinker, as you can tell. And then, […]

How to Use the Tetris Effect to Invite Positivity Back into Your Life, Despite Chronic Illness | A Chronic Voice

What’s the Tetris Effect Got to do with Chronic Illness? Wait! Don’t stop reading – I’m definitely not about to start talk about gaming! While the Tetris effect may have started out with a phenomenon identified from heavy video game use, the Tetris effect is now used to describe instances when people devote so much […]

The Value in Seeking Out Moments of Gratitude (and How to do it) | www.achronicvoice.com

*Note from A Chronic Voice: Lisa is writing a series of guest posts on the blog on effective methods to cope with chronic illness, principles which she has applied to her own life with success. In this article, she shares how her initial skepticism (and even derision!) about using a gratitude journal turned into an […]

Flowers are the Most Beautiful When They're Just About to Die (and What That's Got to Do with Being a Spoonie) | www.achronicvoice.com

A Surprising Thought During a Floral Workshop Recently, I attended a floral workshop as part of a good friend’s hen’s party. Such classes aren’t that cheap, so in a way I was glad to finally have an ‘excuse’ to go for one without feeling guilty 😉 (P.s. I understand why they’re charged at those rates, […]

Life with Chronic Illness: Happiness & Pain Can Co-exist | www.achronicvoice.com

*This post was first published on februarystars.co.uk A Day in the Life of Chronic Pain My partner massaged shampoo into my hair as I hunched over in the bathtub, shivering with pain. His finger movements were awkward but gentle, which made it all the more endearing. The pain was unbearable, yet I had insisted on […]

The Subtle Difference Between Saying “Think Positive” and “Stay Positive” to Someone with Chronic Pain | www.achronicvoice.com

I don’t know about you but for me, there is a difference when someone tells me to ‘think positive’ as opposed to ‘stay positive’. The former implies an undermining of suffering, while the latter tells me that you’re on my team. Perhaps I have a case of word oversensitivity, but I’ll go ahead and tell […]