March Link Up Party

Hello everyone ☺️ how are you all? As always leave me a comment and we can have a lovely chat ☺️

So the lovely Sheryl from A Chronic Voice has done another Monthly Link Up Party and you know I LOVE these and always like to get involved.

This months prompts are below

Sorting

What I’ve decided to sort out this month is… My wardrobe!!

I’m becoming more and more excited and interested in the world of minimalism and making my home living a clutter free place.

I’ve noticed that when everything is best, tidy and the space is clear that my stress levels and overall anxiety is a lot better.

Going back to my wardrobe. I’m not a fashion expert (far from it — that’s more my sister lol) and there are corners and bags in my wardrobe that just don’t get worn etc.

So I’m going to sort them all out this monrh and the clothes that I don’t wear or don’t fit and the bags that I don’t use that often.. and going to charity!

Yes I could sell them, however giving something to charity makes me feel better and also it’s great to know that someone maybe less fortunate than myself can enjoy some of my items.

Rising

The only thing that I could think of that would fit with this prompt would be “rising earlier in the morning”

I’ve been listening to Mel Robbins – 5 Second Rule auido book recently and it’s truly amazing and is really working for me.

I’ve always been a “Morning Person” ever since I was little. However I always used to waste my mornings just “faffing or staring at social media” social decided to set my alarm a little earlier in the mornings and RISE!

I get up at 6:30am and I make the most of my time.. it usually takes me around 15-20mins to get ready for work, 10 mins to do my morning yoga and 5 mins to get some breakfast. I try now to do at least one little house chore before I go to work to “Help future me, because future me is always exhausted in the afternoons, whereas Morning me has the most energy”

I’ve been doing this for the month of March and I shall continue to practice this from now on. 😊

Rejoicing

Since my NY motto “Not My Problem” I’ve been rejoicing most days! I always try to keep each day as positive as I can — when I’m over tired or fatigue kicks in, that can sometimes be quite hard! My mind can sometimes take control when I’m exhausted.

But rejoicing each day is what I try to do. I also feel since starting my vegan lifestyle and trying to be more mindful of what I put into my body, I feel a lot happier and relaxed mentally.. isn’t that strange 🙂

My main this I’m rejoicing is deciding this week to increase my hours at work to 5 hours a day! I feel I’m ready and I’m excited to venture to this new chapter of achievement. Yes I’m nervous but I feel more excited and ready to try.. so I shall rejoice this!

Reading

Right now I’m reading this lovely book called “A Secret Garden” by Katie Fforde. It’s a really happy and uplifting book.

The last week I haven’t read much because it’s was a very busy week resulting in me crashing out asleep between 9-9:30 most nights, but I shall keep going!

Priding

Priding. I have one thing to say about this… IM PROUD OF ME!

I’m so proud of what I’ve achieved and how I’ve achieved it.

* sticking to my wholefoods plant based diet and not allowing other people’s negativity to stop me.

*Going back to work and not allowing people’s negativity to stress me out

*Becoming more minimalist and learning to love myself and giving myself more Self-Care moments.

And finally I’m so proud of ME for getting up, whacking a smile on my face and slaying each day!

I’ve decided that you have ONE life! I know there might be really hard times (I’ve definitely been there!!) But I know, truly know that we all get through them! My mission for 2018 is to not allow other people’s negativity affect myself and to have the best year by far with Multiple Sclerosis!

MS is apart of me and I have accepted that and I will work WITH my body and not against it.

This is what I’m priding on 🙂

And that my lovelies was my March Link Ups. I really hope you enjoyed the read and I hope this post finds you all relatively well or at least having a slightly good day!

I’m sending you all lots of love and hugs!

Hannah xx

MS Awareness Month

The Journey..

Hey everyone! How are you all? I hope you’ve had a good week? Do you have any plans for Mother’s Day?

This month is MS Awareness month and I wanted to write a post about my journey so far.

I was diagnosed with MS in 2014. I had gone numb down my left side and was admitted to hospital for a week. I think apart from waiting to find out what I had, it was the most unsettling and stressful time of my life.

Once being diagnosed with MS my first feeling was relief when I chat to people about it many of them say that they felt relief. Relief that it was nothing worse and also relief at the fact that they had actually been diagnosed with something… It starts to send you a bit mad not know what’s wrong but knowing that something is wrong, you know?

I went through a lot of highs and lows through my beginning stages of MS, I was very fortunate and lucky to have family members with the condition too. There was still something missing though, people either my age or going through the start of their MS journey to talk to.

Some of my family members I don’t think truly understood at first, I also felt that they tried to bury the fact that my fatigue levels meant that I couldn’t do certain things and that I was feeling low because of it.. also trying myself to come to terms with everything and trying to rebuild my life with MS.

June 2017 I joined Twitter and started following people who were either my age with MS or on a similar wave length and wow I’ve met some truly amazing people and some of even call internet friends!

Out of this diagnosis and a few years or just dealing with things on my own (mentally not physically, I’ve had great support) I finally felt I had built a little community and it wasn’t just people who had MS.. it’s was everyone battling chronic illness.. from ME to Fibromyalgia etc and it was wonderful to meet all these people and still be in contact too!

June 2017 was a rather dark time for me, not having certain people truly understand or bury their heads etc and battling with my own mental health demons.. I decided to set up a Facebook group for young/newly diagnosed people with MS. It was THE best thing I ever did!

I set it up with the lovely Natalie – Surviving Life’s Hurdles and so far I think we have about 130-150 members! That’s fantastic!

October 2017 I decided to change my diet (I was going through my fourth relapse of the year) and focus on a wholefoods plant based diet (No Animal Products at all) I also tried to include a lot of anti-inflammatory ingredients too for example, turmeric, cinnamon, ginger etc. And I can honestly say that I’ve actually felt healthier than I ever have and I also believe my symptoms have been slightly reduced!

NYE 2017 was when I decided to change my mindset. I decided to embark on a new motto and that motto is called “Not My Problem” I’ve spoken about it in more depth in my previous posts, however since training my mind to think this way and becoming a more positive person, i find that it’s really helped!

I don’t “ignore” my MS… Far from it! I acknowledge it every single day! I’m constantly listening to my body and pushing myself just a little, because at the end of the day our body’s will take over and MS can take control sometimes. So I try to just listen to my body! Don’t get me wrong I still enjoy myself and I’ve learnt now how to socialise with friends and manage MS! Also how to have a work life balance!

But most importantly… To appreciate every single thing and everyone! I am honestly so grateful for MS! Showing me how to slow down and appreciate this beautiful world, how to actually take control of my life and start doing what I want to do! Becoming a stronger person inside and out.. and finally I’m grateful for MS and all the amazing wonderful people I have met along the way.. whether you have MS or not! I am grateful we crossed paths!

So yes it’s MS Awareness day and I think we need to shout it from the roof tops because looking so normal majority of the time with a chronic illness definitely makes us super heros! Now… Where’s my cape! 😂

Sending you all lots of love

Hannah xx

A Hang over & MS

Hey everyone, how are you all doing? I hope you’ve had a great start to the week and feeling good!? Let’s have a chat in the comments below!

So at the weekend I went out with some friends from work.. we didn’t go “out, out” just “out” and it was lovely! We all stuck to the same drink… Prosecco and have some tasty food.

However, I don’t know if any of my lovely MSers out there have this too. When I drink alcohol (which is very rarely) I find that my symptoms flare up, either I get really wobbly on my feet or my arms and legs go really heavy etc.

I found myself when I awoke this morning, not with a traditional hangover, but just more tired than usual (fatigue is our tired right!?) Anyway so I thought about how can I make myself feel better and recover from this mini MS hangover without doing too much.

I’ve come up with some simple tips to help combat the hangover & MS symptoms and I found that these helped me 😊

1) Drinking Water! — I could tell that my body was dehydrated mainly because I had this full headache that wouldn’t budge.. so for the whole day I drank nothing but water and by the end of the night. I definitely felt much better. If you don’t like water you can flavour it with different fruits (a favourite of mine is lemon and lime)

2) Getting More Rest — When I woke up at around 7:30am I definitely felt an overwhelmingly feeling of fatigue/tiredness so I decided to not get up and make a coffee.. instead a took care of my body and gave it what it wanted.. sleep! When I woke up again at around 8:30am I still felt tired and groggy, however not as bad and I made myself get up then.

3) Eating Well Throughout the day — We all know how hard this can be at the best of times, however studies that I’ve read shows that eating a good wholesome meal instead of the traditional greasy ones actually cures a hangover quicker!! Get my all the veggies and fruits please! I try and eat as well as I can, however sometimes we all fall off the wagon and land in the take away trolley don’t we? We are only human. Try sticking to good wholesome foods throughout the day and if you grace something not so wholesome in the evening. Don’t deprive yourself of it.. just have a little bit.

4) Light Exercising — There was a time when I hated the thought of exercise. When someone would say that exercise helps you to feel better… However, since doing light yoga everyday (5-10mins) I can actually say that it DOES help you to feel better. Even when you’re feeling groggy or can’t be bothered to do it.. once you have it does help a little 🙂

5) Having some “You” time — I’ve found that this is so important at any time really, not just with this mild hangover lol.. but taking time every day to do something that j love to do makes me mind and body feel better. Even if that’s just, writing in my Bullet Journal, or having a relaxing bubble bath.. anything that I love to do I try to do it every day!

6) Getting an early night — So when you’ve had a slightly late night the previous night, getting an early night seems like a great idea the following evening. I do find that when I do my evening routing and totally relax and get that early night, I feel a lot fresher the next day and I don’t really suffer with that dreaded second day Hangover lol!!

And these everyone are just some simple tips that helped me to manage this hangover with my MS symptoms and they really helped me. I hope they can help any of you out there too and I hope you enjoyed the read.

I don’t have any pics on this post, purely because I forgot to take any 🤣😂

Sending you all lots of love

Hannah xx