Typical daily routine as a creative person with hEDS - 30 day blogging challenge day 3

Welcome to Day 3 of the 30 day writing challenge 🎉🎉

Instead of going over the parameters of this challenge in this post, I'm just gonna link you over to the day 1 post where I explain everything.

Ok, so day three's writing assignment is: "What is your typical daily routine?"

At first, I thought to myself, "I really don't have one."
But that's not exactly true.

My idea of daily routine has changed a lot

My idea of daily routine was always something like: Get up at X:XX time. Eat something. Go for a run. Shower. Get ready for work... you know... all that "normal" stuff. But my life is drastically different from that, these days. Living with a chronic health condition means that the typical routine is thrown out the window.

That doesn't mean I didn't try to live with a typical routine for a long time. I certainly did. And, to be honest, it nearly killed me.

So, here we are, over 10 years into my most symptomatic time in my life and I am only just settling into the reality that I am medically retired. (I borrowed that term from Michael J Fox.) Let's look at how I'm balancing my current level of acceptance with some semblance of a daily routine and my insatiable need to create.

The biggest parts of my daily routine are health-focused

The things I do to support my health are (mostly) non-negotiable. I won't lie though. There are definitely days when I prioritize the experience of actual living over the routine of health care and self care. But, for the most part, health comes first.

 

 

This means that, while things never happen in the same order, every day includes:

Time for rest

This is especially necessary if I didn't sleep the night before. Adequate rest is extremely important for my body. As someone with hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, typical day to day tasks cause micro, minor, and sometimes major injuries throughout my body. Resting allows my body time to heal (or at least begin to heal) before I move on to something else.

Gentle yoga / movement

Stretching can be dangerous for people with hEDS and can actually lead to more hypermobility but my body also needs to move (as all bodies do). So, I like to make sure I work in some gentle yoga every day. It's often a delicate balance, for me, between stiff muscles and lax joints and I find that yoga tends to be the best way to maintain stability without pushing things too far.

If you also have hEDS and want some great info on how to move without injuring yourself, click here to check out Jeannie Di Bon's website. I've been following her since 2019 and she is an absolute wealth of knowledge!

Making healthy foods

For me, hEDS isn't just about the laxity in my joints and associated pain and dislocations. It also means a whole slew of other symptoms including food allergies and severe gastrointestinal problems. One of the most important things I can do, for my overall health, is track my food intake and make sure that it is as healthy as possible.

Now, let me be clear, there is a LOT of conflicting advice about which foods are the healthiest. People talk about different "diet" types and super foods, etc. What I know is important, regardless of the diet type, though, is that real whole foods will always be the easiest things for our bodies to recognize. As a species, we weren't eating things out of boxes and bags until recent decades and I refuse to believe that my body can properly identify what to do with things like blue dye #2 (or whatever).

So, a good amount of my time goes toward planning and preparing healthy meals. This includes baking things form scratch when I want a treat. 🤔 Maybe I should start sharing some of my fave recipes...

Strength training

I want to act like this is actually a daily thing but it isn't. There are brief bouts when I can actually maintain doing my strength training on a regular basis but there are also times when I know I've been too ill to push myself into a workout routine.

When I can, though, strength training is a very important part of my routine, because it helps me grow the large muscle groups that best support my lax joints. I'm going to link over to Jeannie Di Bon for this, again, so that other hEDS people can get the proper information about how to strength train in a healthy way.

Making space for the arts in my everyday routine

Since so much of my day ends up focused around my health and other regular tasks (appointments, cleaning, etc.) I really do need to make a conscious effort to build space for the arts in my everyday routine. I let the muse guide me, though. If I'm not feeling well or I'm just overall uninspired I do not force myself to create anything.

But if the mood hits really hard and I'm feeling halfway decent, I just might drop everything I'm doing and seize the opportunity when it's there. As someone with a chronic health condition, I know how few those opportunities can be, at times. It might mean that I start a project I won't finish for weeks or even months, but at least I got it started!

So, whether it is working on a charcoal drawing, crafting a piece of jewelry, painting a watercolor sky, or writing part of a novel or recording a new song... or even if it's just a part of a blog post or reading a book, I make sure to do some type of artsy fartsy thing for at least 20 minutes every day.

 

What does your daily routine look like? Do you balance your routine with a chronic health condition, too? Let me know in the comments.