Living not Surviving

“The most important thing is to enjoy your life - to be happy. It’s all that matters.”

It can feel like your condition has taken everything from you - freedom, happiness, a life without worry. But having a chronic illness doesn’t mean you have to stop enjoying life, it just means you have to adjust your expectations. When I look back I realise there are so many things I used to take for granted - walking, shopping, sports, living. But now everything I do is a gift, if I can go out for a walk on the beach I am grateful, if I can play one game of basketball I smile because these little things mean so much more when they were once taken away.

When you have a chronic illness everything changes, but you will always have the ability to enjoy life. Be grateful for everything you can do and everywhere you can go, treasure every laugh and smile on your face, because you know just how much living means. At some point you have to stop waiting for that miracle cure, stop delaying your life until you are ‘better’ because life is happening every day. So let go of the things you can’t do, don’t let your pain, which has taken so much from you, steal your enjoyment of life.

I have learned my priorities and try to never let my limitations get in the way. At the beginning I felt robbed of experiences and as I grow stronger I make up for that every single day. Something high up on my list was concerts - that also meant standing for hours on end, trapped with no relief, but to me dancing and singing with my friends to live music was worth the struggle so I prepared my body for days and let it take the time it needed to recover because in the end I don’t remember the pain I felt on the dance floor or the suffering in the days after but the sound of the music crashing through the room, the vibration of the floor as we jumped and sang and the feeling of happiness and freedom that gave me.

Challenge the illness you carry, if you are like me you will have it for the rest of your life so you can either wallow in the weight of that or fight for your only life and make it a good story. Don’t let go of your hopes, dreams and aspirations, don’t let a shadow fall on your smile, catch on fire with a burning determination to defy your condition and live not just survive.