Finding Balance: Being a Volunteer & Ballerina with Lupus

As promised I am continuing my effort to add more posts and to blog more about daily life living with Lupus.  There are a couple of things I want to talk about today; adding to much to your schedule and the importance of keeping your body active.

Right now my day to day is a bit overwhelming.  I am back into the vicious cycle that I talked about in my post, Lupus: I am well trap.     The never ending cycle of being well, saying yes, then having a flare.

I have been feeling well for a very long time now.  I’ve  seem to have finally perfected my medicine and supplement cocktail even with the  addition of the Crohn’s medicine.  I have more energy and I am sleeping better.  The downside to this is that I have said yes again to the activities and organizations that I love being involved with, causing me to slightly flare once again.  This is the affliction that all of us type A personalities with a chronic disease have.  We say yes when well and then spiral.  Unfortunately I don’t just spiral physically, but also mentally.  I get so overwhelmed from all of the commitments and the mental stress of worrying that I am going to make myself flare, that I shut down.  I pretty much bury my head in the sand and pretend that all is well with the world and I have nothing to do!  Which is not a good idea because I will then have too much anxiety over the fact that I am not getting anything done.  Like I said it’s a viscous cycle.

I do this to myself because I really want to be a part of the normal world and I believe I do have something to offer, talents and God given gifts that are being wasted when I flare and become a hermit.  It makes me feel good to know I am a part of the healthy and I am using my abilities to do something good instead of always focusing on me and my health.  Unfortunately I and other people that have chronic diseases trick ourselves into believing that we are normal, that we won’t flare and this time will be different.  I am now in the process, once again, of reevaluating my priorities.  It’s one of the reasons I can’t work anymore because when I am well, I do great, but when I flare I become totally unreliable and unable to heal because I am doing too much.  As stated above this is a never ending cycle.  I really need to just find a happy medium.  I am sure that a lot of you can relate, that balance is very difficult to find!

That being said what I really want to talk about today is ballet.  I am excited to announce at 47 I have become a ballerina! , you heard me right! I am taking ballet classes with my daughter who so graciously, with no embarrassment,  has allowed me and a friend to join her and other teenagers in their ballet class.  I am sure that having two middle aged women in their class provides them with great entertainment.  Once of the reasons I decided on ballet was because I needed to stretch my body and other forms of high impact exercise are now too hard on my joints and fatigues me way to quickly.  Ballet has a ton of health benefits for adults: you use every part of your body, you use more of your brain than you would if you stayed sedentary (it’s tough to remember all of those moves and positions), plus it keeps your body, especially us with chronic diseases from completely breaking down.  All of these benefits keep me younger, flexible and active.   I also still walk to keep myself active.  Exercise is extremely important both physically and mentally.  I talk all about it in my post, The Importance of Physical Activity: Find your passion & inspiration.     Okay, to tell the truth I just like being a ballerina, it makes me feel young :-).  Well, I am hoping it eventually will make me feeling younger!  Right now I am so sore I can hardly walk!

Keeping active, maintaining a healthy diet and exercise is especially important for those of us with chronic conditions.  Not to mention finding a balanced schedule.  We have to actually be more purposeful and proactive in maintaining a healthy lifestyle because if we don’t we can become dangerously sick and have the inevitable flare.  Recovering from these flares takes weeks, sometimes months, but when I maintain an exercise schedule, eat healthy and don’t overload myself, these flares take less time to recuperate from.

Now all I have to do is take my own advice!

Once again, thank you for sharing my journey with me and being a part of my life.

God Bless you and keep fighting the good fight.

Deena