Hello lovelies,
I hope when you're reading this you're having a wonderful day.
For November, WeGo Health has created The Health Activist Writer's month Challenge. WeGo is a wonderful organization that highlights people who work at spreading awareness for illnesses and diseases. There is a prompt for each day for bloggers to write about, mostly surrounded your illnesses/conditions/diseases. I discovered the challenge whilst scrolling through my twitter feed (@bridgetparker). I haven't actually mentioned on my blog but I was nominated for a WeGo Health Activist Award for Chronically Jewelled's Instagram! I'll admit that before I was nominated I wasn't aware of who they were, and I am so glad to now be part of their community!
I haven't been blogging recently as I've been flaring rather bad and resting as much as I can. I've also been working on something special that will launch soon so whenever I'm online I've been focused on that. I have been feeling a little better, and feeling a little guilty that I haven't been blogging, so this challenge came around at the perfect time. I am several days behind but I do believe I can catch up to join the challenge as I believe it's a great one! Over the next year days I'll be posting the first 6 days to catch up, after that it'll be back to once a day for the challenge.
Day One Prompt:
What drives you to write about your health?
What do you want other Health Activists to know about your condition and your activism?
For me, I believe there are a few reasons I write about my health. Firstly I feel it's incredibly cathartic to put thoughts and feelings out into the universe. There's something soothing and healing about writing through struggles, as well as venting about the frustrations of being chronically ill. There's such a wonderful validation in posting what you feel in your heart and having someone say "that's exactly how I feel!".
There's also a blessing in having others relate to your journey and connect with you on that level. In a post I wrote about Anxiety and Fears as a Spoonie I had a lot of people reach out to me and thank me for writing about something that they often think about but don't talk about. I did get a little backlash from my family with that one, and I'll admit it put me off blogging for awhile. But those who didn't understand now do, and for those who did understand, totally supported me.
I've learnt that there are lots of things that us spoonies think about and worry about but don't tend to voice. Maybe because we don't know how other's will react to what we feel? Maybe saying it out loud solidifies the scary thoughts we have about life and death and loneliness and isolation that chronic illness can bring.
I want to be someone who not only lived with chronic illnesses, but turned them into a positive. I want to spread awareness of invisible illnesses and broke the stigma surrounding them. I want my life to count as something, and have people know I helped as much as I could. It started with jewellery, then Facebook support groups, a blog for spoonies and soon to come a special website for spoonies to connect, be motivated, celebrated and supported.
Gentle hugs,
Bridget
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