Balancing major life changes with chronic illneses

5 tips to keep you healthy during chaotic times

Author

Aqilah Pope
August 07, 2024

Summer is often a time of exciting lifestyle shifts.

However, when you are experiencing a huge transition, exciting or not, it comes with a fair deal of stress.

And ya girl has been stressed 😅.

After 7 years of being a military family, we are closing that chapter and entering into the unknown.

We’re moving to a new part of SoCal,

And for the first time in our adult lives, we can finally settle down Alhamdulillah.

Between packing, apartment hunting, job searches, etc the past couple of months have felt like treading water, but we’re getting through it!

If you are also going through a transition, I’d like to share 5 tips to help you manage your stress and prioritize your wellness amid the chaos.

I. The Fastest Way to Get Somewhere Is Slowly

This is a safe space, right?

Okay, so… I’ve caved to the AI wave and trained chatGPT to be my personal assistant 😬

I know, I know, terminator and such…

But, Chatty has been incredibly helpful at helping me break down my week into a schedule that is much more approachable.

Instead of stressing and flaring up my symptoms, I delegated the planning to Chatty.

This way, instead of not managing my energy well with work and feeling too exhausted to pack or vice versa, I have a plan that gives me structure and keeps me much less stressed.

For example, I told Chatty about my chronic illnesses, the move, my stress, etc, and she helped me plan this newsletter, a content calendar, and a day-by-day packing schedule around the work I do with my clients.

It took what would have taken me 1-2 hours, 10 minutes.

Saving me both energy and time.

2. Taking time for silence and grounding

I think many of us have an issue with silence.

~Sitting with our thoughts can make our skin crawl, but when we constantly ignore the chatter, often, it just gets louder.~

I know I used to, but during the pandemic, I stopped listening to music on my car rides, and would just vibe (or listen to the occasional podcast).

I love doing this because all the thoughts I have and objectives that need to be accomplished throughout the day, often become jumbled, like a ball of yarn.

Almost as if I was trying to operate with 37 tabs open and took the time to organize them and close each one.

When I take the time to sit with my thoughts, everything becomes streamlined, and I find myself more mentally clear and alert.

Some other ways to “sit” in silence are spending extra time in sujood, journaling, drawing, painting, or going for nature walks.

I’ve done a bit of almost all of those lately and this weekend, I planned a last-minute trip to Joshua Tree.

My husband and I drove into the park, lied atop our car, and just stared at the stars.

We saw the Milky Way, shooting stars, and were so far away from the buzz of industrialization, that we could hear the earth’s natural symphony.

The crickets, occasional howl, the flap of bat wings…

It was cleansing, and grounding.

I experience a similar sensation when I go to the forest or the ocean.

Immersing yourself in nature, and utilizing your senses in this way, through sight, smell, hearing — and when you can— touch, can be incredibly healing during stressful times.

Long story short, sometimes we just need to touch some grass.

3. Making time to move

Supersets

Making time to stay in the gym has been…a trial for sure…

Whether it was due to lack of time, or simply being too stressed or low energy to do a full 60-90 minute lift.

So I added some variation to my routine.

I started doing supersets, typically alternate-peripheral or antagonist supersets.

Alternating an upper body movement with a lower body movement- Pull ups→Hack squat

Alternating “opposing” muscle groups - hamstring curl (hammies)→ leg extension (quads) 

I also began adding in more compound or multi-joint movements like Squats, deadlifts, pull-ups, step-ups, etc to get the biggest bang for my buck.

More joints/more muscles = more energy used = more calories burned in less time.

My Walking Pad: arguably one of the best inventions of the 21st century

We’ve talked about the dangers of sitting …

How it can increase the likelihood of obesity and chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension.

But I have yet to talk to you guys about my experience with my walking pad. (it’s on sale right now for $119.99 instead of $249.98)

Needless to say, it’s been a game-changer.

My chronic back pain has subsided substantially and I’ve been closing all of my rings on my Apple watch…

Moreso than when I was trying to lift 4 days a week, do cardio 2 days a week, and have an active rest day because, in this season, that’s just too much.

Getting on my walking pad while I’m writing content or programs for clients or apartment hunting and signing documents, has gotten me to where I’m hitting nearly 10k steps a day…

The last time I did that was during uni.

And funnily enough, even though this wasn’t the goal, I got back under 170 for the first time in almost 1.5 years.

My stress has been manageable, and if you know anything about chronic illnesses, the more you move, the better you feel.

Just “Ticking The Box”

There have been multiple days where I sat in the trainer room at my gym and had to hype myself up for 20-30 minutes just to get on the gym floor and work out.

And some days…I wouldn’t even finish my workout.

I’d get halfway through and notice my form was trash, or my energy was zapped, and I would stop my program and go stretch.

The key to this was not shaming myself for “quitting”.

I preach with my clients all of the time, that I’d rather them just keep the momentum ball rolling than overdo it, get injured, and have to halt their program.

When you are emotionally spent, it’s like carrying another 100lb on your back.

If you’re not locked in, you could get hurt, further exasperating the stressors in your life.

It’s counterproductive.

So if you find yourself too stressed to do a full workout, just do half of it, or use the Energy Inspired Movement Method I taught you guys before.

~here’s a link to the template~

Here are some of my go-to’s based on time and energy:

High Energy, High time- email me at [email protected] and I’ll send you a sample workout on my app.

4. Taking lazy and unproductive out of my vocabulary

One of the best sessions I had with my last therapist was about the origins of my need to be productive.

We talked about the racist origins of laziness in black and Hispanic communities (She was Latinx) and how many of us, especially black women, have internalized this problematic ideology.

If you’re like me, you grew up watching your moms and aunties have “busy women syndrome”.

They prided themselves on “not having time” to relax and any time they or we needed time to decompress it was labeled as lazy.

Because of this, we made a pact to take unproductive out of my vocabulary, because our thoughts become our reality.

Now, when I need to rest, or just want to I recognize that as either neutral or another form of productivity.

Rest is productive.

The amount of repair and processing your body does when you allow it to rest is astounding, so if you find yourself falling into this trap, remember resting is just as if not more important than working.

Because if you don’t take the rest, your body will take it for you.

5. Allowing myself to Delegate: I can’t do bad all by myself

I have officially relinquished the strong, independent, black woman title.

I don’t want it and it’s done more harm than good.

But it took some work to get here.

I started by asking my husband to help me before burnout - this was incredibly tough.

This has probably saved me an additional 2-3 hours a week.

Then I moved to delegating grocery shopping to Instacart, saving me another 2 hours or so a week.

After this, I invested in Thistle, a gluten-free, dairy-free, and naturally vegan meal prep service (there are meat add-ons if you’re an omnivorous household like mine).

And this was really key.

Because of my dietary restrictions, sometimes, I was spending 10 hours a week cooking.

When I didn’t have the time or energy, I would end up eating out and flaring up my symptoms, causing more stress.

Delegating all of these tasks got me nearly 15 hours a week back.

That’s crazyyy.

This allowed me to be more productive and present at work, gave me more energy to move consistently, and reduced my chronic illness symptoms 10 fold.

InshaAllah, in next week’s newsletter we will discuss the difference between time and energy management.

Mastering the latter can change your life and create more breathing room in your schedule.

Life transitions can be tough, but with a well-stocked toolkit, we can manage with more ease and less stress.

I hope you found some of these tools helpful, and if you’re struggling with newness in your life, I pray it becomes easier for you.

InshaAllah I’ll talk to guys on Sunday 😊

As always,

Abundant light and radiant health.

Assalamualaykum warahmatullahi wabaraktu 💕

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