Enough is enough
Having to recalibrate your mind, body and soul to deeply understand (and be aware of) when enough is enough post stroke takes skill! A lot of skill in fact!! Because us stroke survivors moods can change quite a lot, it can be a task in itself to simply manage how we are feeling on any given day. To manage how we are feeling on any given day is a great achievement in itself, but then what happens next? Now you need to somehow manage your energy on top of that as well. Lets say you are improving in all areas of your recovery. Being a stroke survivor does make it harder to notice all of the slight changes in your mood, energy and overall wellbeing. So lets say you are doing well, you are starting to manage to do more things on your recovery journey, so you start adding in more things, because you think you are doing so well.. This is a perfectly normal thing to do, right? But then one day you might push yourself too far, and this is where you may have wished you had more self awareness. You may have wished you knew you shouldn’t have added that extra thing you thought you could have managed doing..
When I chose the title of this blog: Enough is Enough, I knew that it had to be talked about. Its an incredibly normal thing to do to keep on adding tasks & activities etc on top of each other that is. Until one day it all comes crumbling down..
It’s a very obvious thing to say isn’t it? “Just be aware of what you are doing so that you don’t over do it. It is far simpler said than done, thats for sure! Yes it is obvious (to be more self aware), yet why don’t we all follow this advice? Well, none of us are “perfect”, a lot of us are lazy, simply arent interested in learning to be more self aware, or we simply forget. Yet I can tell you whole heartedly it is worth its weight in gold to learn to be more self aware of yourself on your recovery. Coming from one survivor to another, it is well worth learning!
It is obvious yes, to be more aware of if we are over doing it or if we are becoming more self aware of what we are doing. However what isn’t so obvious is this: on a stroke recovery journey, you are probably told to do the conventional things, like see a physiotherapist, a speech therapist and occupational therapist etc.. Seeing these therapists are important, but what happens after you see them? Then what? Well there are countless directions you can go in. You really can go ahead and design your own recovery program by seeing your chosen therapists..
It’s important for the stroke survivor themselves to follow what feels right for them (to a certain degree). Obviously guidance from a loved one is important as during the early phase of a stroke survivors recovery journey they wont be as clear headed as their loved ones because of their injuries. It is important to get you involved in choosing what direction your rehabilitation goes in (when you feel you are ready). This does play a big part, because otherwise you’d be left feeling as if you don’t have a choice in what happens with your recovery.
There comes a time that simply relying on family to care and support you only goes so far. I say this as I know how important it is to talk to someone outside the family support network to really dig deep on where you actually want to end up in your life. Because your life has changed, lets face it. So there are a combination of different things your going to have to learn. Self awareness for your energy is one large aspect (and when worked with guidance outside of your family it can work hand in hand, and very good progress on different levels can come about). If youd like to talk further about this, you can make a booking to discuss this further with me here.
I remember deciding that I wanted a life coach to be introduced into my ongoing therapy team. This felt “just right” at the time because it put me more in the drivers seat of my rehabilitation. When I decided to get a life coach involved in my rehabilitation, I started to shift more into a mental rehabilitation. Getting my mind involved far more helped me dramatically. That’s why I have combined my counselling and mentoring experience to in a way become a combination of a counsellor, mentor, and a life coach. This way I can help stroke survivors and their families with a combination of different areas. To help stroke survivors figure out what they want to do with their life, instead of just “getting stuck in the mainstream rehabilitation process”. If you only follow “the main stream rehabilitation process” you can be left having recovered so far and then quite honestly be left not having a clue where to go next. So if you feel you are ready for some support on your journey going forwards, feel free to get in touch here and book your first session.
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