Just one thing

It’s been a bit since I’ve written, but I’ve had to give myself permission to scale back, to think differently than I normally do. It’s hard when we have conditioned ourselves to expect so much from ourselves, we can’t blame anyone else, we can’t blame society, we have taken it on. We have placed huge expectations on ourselves to complete everything we’ve felt necessary to do and attend. We would never put those expectations on anyone else yet we do it to ourselves.

Why I wonder do we tell others to take it easy, to look after themselves take all the time they need and then in the same breath berate ourselves for not managing to do it all or more.

We are driven, we are passionate, we want to feel like we are contributing to our lives to the lives of others to things that matter to us.
Many of us with dementia often talk about how tired we are, but we keep pushing to show up, to support the others we care about, to help drive change that is long overdue, we sacrifice ourselves, our own well being, because we take our commitments serious, maybe because we are working so hard to get others to hear us and take us serious.

Often groups and organizations that are working to make things better for those with dementia, to include us, ( some use us), who talk about ensuring that changes happen to make things more dementia friendly, when in fact those very same organizations ask us to attend and participate expecting us to be up at unrealistic hours middle of the night, to make presentations, to participate in discussions, because they base the hours for themselves that work for them, ( they are paid ), they only participate during their working hours. But we who live with dementia and who we know how vital rest is to our rest is, to our cognitive well being, are asked to give of ourselves freely, to put our already challenged well being at further risk, by attending at unreasonable hours.

For use feel like we have no choice, if we want to be heard if we want to help make changes that actually impact us directly we have to be willing to be the sacrificial lamb so to speak. The one thing we must do then is give ourselves permission to ease up when and where we can. It’s hard not to keep high expectations on ourselves.
I have learnt in this past year to do a one thing a day rule. This has come about because in the past year I’ve only actually had about two months where I have felt good. My health has been significantly challenged and continues to be today, many with dementia have many other health factors that come into play, does the dementia make them worse, or do they make the dementia worse, I am never sure and bounce back and forth on that. I do know though that my ability to keep my health stable becomes more difficult each passing day. so I have taught myself to be happy to make it and attend one meeting, or do one thing like clean put my spice cupboard, one thing a day, somedays I can’t manage that, but if I miss a meeting, if I miss a support group, I no longer berate myself, make myself feel worse. I remind myself that I do live with a terminal illness, that today I’ve done pretty well. Today I’m still here, I’m still smiling, I’m living only for today, and that’s enough.
It’s important and maybe more so right know with everyone dealing with this underlying stress of living during this pandemic that we remind each other it’s ok to say not today, it’s ok to not put that extra pressure on ourselves. Give yourself permission and give those around you permission and encouragement to take care of self. That is truly how we will make it through these very turbulent times, and maybe just maybe on the other side of it, we will see the change we all know is long overdue. Maybe the silver lining is that through it all we continue to learn and grow, despite living with what is still previewed to be the worst possible illness to end up with, yes maybe the silver lining is that we indeed are living each moment much more than we are dying. Maybe the world could all learn if they did like us and lived like they were dying.