Bath bombs and taking a break

I didn't post last week as I had a very tough week both physically and mentally so decided to take a step back, utilise self care and do some craft projects that were just for me. If you want to know more about self care i wrote a whole series that starts here. I apologise for the not very photogenic photos but i'm still not 100%.

While i was having a break I made this beautiful dream catcher just for me:

I'm torn between making more and listing them in the sending spoons store or keeping it as a hobby just for me. What do you think?

To keep myself busy I've been making bath bombs to give as small presents for Christmas. I thought I'd share how to make them and what I learnt from my disastrous first attempt.

The recipe:

1 cup bicarb (baking soda)
1/2 cup citric acid
1/2 cup epsom salts (I use Dr salts eucalyptus muscle therapy salts)
1 tsp water
2 tsp essential oil (I used lavender)
3 tsp oil (I used coconut oil. If solid microwave for 20 seconds first)
Extras like food colouring, shimmer, sugar stars etc

1.Add all the dry ingredients together (add petals too if using) and mix well.

2.Add the liquid ingredients together, including the food colouring and shimmer.

3.Carefully add the liquid to the dry a drop at a time whilst stirring. If you accidentally add a bit too much stir quicker until absorbed.

4.Once all the liquid is absorbed you should have the consistency of wet sand and it should hold its shape when squeezed together.

5.Fill a circular mold a little bit over, (for a mould i'm using a christmas decoration featuring Olaf from frozen, you can buy proper moulds or even cut a tennis ball in half for a mould.

It's important to fill it quite tightly and make sure it's firmly in place.

6.push the two halves together and leave to dry. 

I put mine in the fridge for 4 hours to dry.

Tips:

• To make different colours in one bath bomb, separate the dry mix into different bowls then add food colouring and mix before piling into layers in the mould.
• To put something in the centre of the bath bomb make a small hole in both halves and fill with goodies then press together.
• For petals on the top add petals to mould first then press mixture in.
• If you make a batch that reacts too quickly or doesn't work it makes a great toilet cleaner!

Apps for managing health and wellbeing

As promised in my last post about fatigue with chronic illness I thought I would write about some of the apps I use to manage my health and wellbeing.

All the apps I have are on Google play, they may also be on the apple app store or similar apps may be available for non android phones.

So these are the apps I'm using at the moment:

 The two apps I use the most are Medisafe and S health:

Medisafe

S-Health

MediSafe is a pillbox app that reminds me to take my tablets and allows me to log extra, skipped or missed doses. You can also add a list of all your medications so you can add or remove them from your pillbox as you need them. It also has a measurements function:

But for that I prefer to use S-Health.

S-health uses my phones sensors and interacts with my sleep app to track my sleep, heart rate, Oxygen Sats, steps, water, exercise and weight. It logs it all and you can then compare trends across days, weeks or months.

To track my sleep I use android sleep. It tracks your levels of sleep, time slept and amount of noise during sleep. It also records noise during the night so you can listen back and hear yourself talking about the unicorns or pick up any unusual snoring noises like sleep Apnea. Be aware that if you listen to white noise whilst you sleep it will pick this up instead.

To manage my M.E/CFS I use this app:

M.E Diary

You track your energy usage and symptoms for a set period of time and it gives you a functional ability percentage to help manage and prevent over exertion. I talk about this and how to use the percentage for pacing in more detail in my previous post.

Finally I find it really hard to rest, especially at night. For this I have various sleep noise, hypnotherapy and white noise apps. My favourite is this one:

Relax melodies

I hope there's something here that can help you manage your health and wellbeing.

Feel free to leave me Any question or comments below and as always thank for reading, if you like this post or any of my others you can follow me on Bloglovin or social media using the buttons on the right.

Thanks,

Laura :)

Emotional Self Care

*Mentions coping methods and help if things are too much*

Emotional health is just as important as physical health but is often overlooked. It is important to care for your mental health and emotional self care is part of this. We can all get a bit down in the dumps with our illness, frustration and anger is common. Some of us also have chronic mental health issues alongside chronic physical illness.

Its also worth noting that a grieving process can follow every new diagnosis, its changing our lives again and again. We can grieve for our old lives and our old abilities. Lets face it its hard to cope with been ill. Even harder to face never getting better.

Some of us manage with the odd breakdown, some of us cope by using Unhealthy coping methods and some of us can not cope at all and their mental health is suffering as a result.

There are healthy ways to minimise the emotional stress been ill causes (and all the other stress too). Taking time out to look after your mental health is always important. It is particularly important during a flare up / relapse / down day or when we are feeling at our worst.

So stop. take a breathe and take some time out. I Journal each night, somehow writing out my thoughts and feelings allows me to process them then let them go. This Is a good option if you like to write and love stationary!! I bought mine from Paperchase for £12. If you struggle to hold a pen to write there is always livejournal, you can opt to keep your entries private. Of course there is always blogging. I started this blog as I wanted to help other people with chronic illness and also have a platform to express my thought and feelings on life.

Meditation can lower stress levels, (it doesn't have to be sitting cross logged humming OMMMMMM, but if that appeals to you go for it). Meditation can just be laying down, closing your eyes and listening to some relaxing music whilst focusing on your breathe. There's some great guided meditation videos on youtube and hypnotherapy videos for various issues. My favourite guided meditation is one for sleep where you visualise floating amongst the stars.

Bubble baths, the more bubbles the better. You get maximum points if your bubble bath has rubber ducks and / or candles. Lavender and chamomile based bath goodies are both relaxing and calming.

Have a long talk with someone you can trust, go spend time with people who make you laugh and forget about your problems. If that's not possible find a pet to cuddle, stroke. Don't have one, find one! (im not condoning animal kidnap). Animals make us smile, comfort us and stroking an animal is relaxing, theyre also great listeners as they never too busy to talk at! You can "borrow" some animals to stroke and talk to by volunteering at animal charities or rescue centres.

Volunteering is also a great way to support your own wellbeing. Giving your time to help other people or animals helps to lift your self esteem and keeps you grounded. Of course, not everyone's health allows them to do this but it's there for those that can. Check out doit.org for a (UK) database of volunteering opportunities.

Go outside. Sometimes just been outside and feeling the sun on your skin is enough to perk you up. Just 5 mins of fresh air, looking at the plants and flowers or weeds (there is beauty in everything if you look hard enough!) And hearing the birds singing is somehow soothing.

It goes without saying, if your mental health takes a turn for the worst and you feel you need help, seek it, there is lots of support out there and lots of other people who are going through the same things. See your GP, join a support group (either online or in person), talk to someone, a friend, family, Samaritans, counsellor. Don't keep it to yourself.

As always thanks for reading and hopefully this will help someone out there. Check back tomorrow for the next post in the series: Social self care.

Laura :)

The basics of self care.

Spoonie self care

This week I'm going to be covering self care, I'm currently having a flare up of my ME/CFS so I'm writing this post at quite an apt time over several days. Todays post is covering the basics, over the week I'm going to cover each area in more detail with more ideas for adapting to good days and bad days.

I spent two years learning health and social care at college when I was younger. That taught me the basics of how to care, nurture and support someone's health and wellbeing. I then went on to spend 10 years working in the health and social care sector where I put this into practice again and again. I'm now going to apply that to nurturing my own health and well-being and hopefully help you to do the same.

So the acronym we were taught was P.I.E.S but I think an extra "S" is needed. PIES stands for:

Physical

This is nurturing your physical health, for those with a chronic illness this could be as simple as ensuring that you have taken your medication, eaten properly, drank plenty of water and completed  your Physiotherapy for the day. This can also include exercise (if able) and anything else that you may need to do to look after your physical health.

Intellectual

keeping your mind stimulated. Read or listen to audiobooks, learn new things, take classes, complete puzzles, write, anything that keeps your mind busy. Remember that your brain is a muscle and also needs exercising. Spoonie life can be boring, this keeps things interesting.

Emotional

This can be a tough one for a lot of people especially those with disabilities who can have mental and physical issues. Counselling, journaling, crafting, getting out of the house, been around nature, cuddling pets, taking a bubble bath and chatting to a good friend can all help nurture emotional wellbeing. Emotional ill-health is just as serious as physical ill-health and should be treated as such. There are symptoms which are called "psychosomatic" these are physical manifestations of psychological issues like hair loss and rashes when stressed or a twitch when nervous.

Social

Pain and fatigue can make you cranky, anxiety can make you want to build a fort and never leave but its important to maintain contact with the outside world, even if your fort is amazingly comfy and you need a "warning, approach with caution!" sticker on your head. This doesn't have to be going to a massive party and talking to everybody you see! It can include social media chats like #spooniespeak or @spooniecult on twitter, support groups on facebook, having a Netflix and pizza party with your closest friends or simply making time to call your family and friends for a chat once in a while. Of course if you have the energy and confidence to go to a massive party and chat to everyone go for it! Its about what's right and feels comfortable for you.

Spiritual (The added "S")

This doesn't have to be in the traditional sense of the word. This can be anything from prayer to meditation or even spending time appreciating nature or animals. Watching a sunrise or sunset can be a spiritual experience for someone. As hippy as it sounds whatever makes you feel at peace with the world can take care of your spiritual needs.

Self care should nurture each of these, it doesn't have to be all of them everyday, but as long as they are all covered in some way you can take some control and responsibility over your own health and wellbeing. You can do as little or as much as you can. Adapt your self care to how you are feeling and remember you are important make some time for yourself.

As always thanks for reading. Each heading is now linked to each post from the series.

Laura :)