So you’ve been diagnosed with a chronic illness…Responsibility and surrender
- Hello and welcome back to the blog! We have a new podcast episode today. Here is the transcript and show notes!
- So you’ve been diagnosed with a chronic illness…Responsibility and surrender
- Intro
- Hello lovely people and welcome to the Lovely Digest podcast. I am your host and friend Emily, founder and creative director at BECK Creative, sharing weekly wellness wisdom with you every Wednesday. My goal is to help you design your dream life and make the transition from being in information overload to being your own personal success story. Make sure to subscribe to get notifications every time a new episode comes out so you don’t miss the latest simple and actionable tips for improving your wellbeing.
- Today’s Topic
- Hello hello lovelies and welcome back to the podcast. First things first, how did last week’s homework go? If you weren’t able to keep up with it, or didn’t listen, go back and give that episode a listen and do the quick meditation exercise at the end of the episode.
- Meditation is a great way to calm the nervous system, get into rest and digest, and help yourself to think more clearly. Often we can get wrapped up in the to-dos and endless things we feel we need to get done. I am certainly guilty of this.
- When you have a chronic illness, time doesn’t stop. When I was first diagnosed I was sick for the longest I’ve ever been sick in my life. I had to live at home with my parents. I couldn’t work or even do basic activities like eat or get dressed without help.
- I felt like life was moving without me and I was getting stuck. And the more I thought this, the more I believed it. This is the tricky thing: it’s ok to have bad days. It’s ok to have bad thoughts. But there comes a point where our thoughts DO start becoming our reality. Let me preface this. For some, chronic illness is unavoidable. I don’t love when some wellness people say, “our thoughts are our reality,” or “think positive,” or things in that category. This gives the illusion everything is within our control. This is what led to disordered thinking for me. In my world, there’s a balance. There’s a balance between taking responsibility, of what we put in our bodies, when we indulge, if we move our bodies or not, etc. and surrender to knowing that beyond a certain point we can’t control everything.
- For example, my boyfriend has a disease he was born with. What is in his control/his responsibility: his diet, exercise, learning about his condition, coping mechanisms, and staying on top of new treatments. Where can he surrender: knowing he didn’t bring this disease on himself.
- When I was first diagnosed with Crohn’s I became passionate in learning to eat right, meditating, self-help, all the things. I was able to stay off biologic medication for over a year because I completely changed my lifestyle. This is my responsibility. However, towards the end of that first year, I became obsessive. I overanalyzed how I felt, got anxious when friends asked me to dinner, and had panic attacks frequently. I missed the line between responsibility and surrender. I stubbornly refused medication for longer than I should have. This is what led to my hospitalization I talked about in the previous episode.
- OPT 2: Commercial BECK Creative
- I’d like to take a pause in the episode to talk about my business: Beck Creative. I launched Beck back in 2020 when I was just starting my health coaching business after doing contract work and working for several designers during my college career in Industrial Design. After securing a few clients via the health coaching platform, I quickly realized how much I love serving wellness businesses. A few prompts from clients later, I re-branded and officially became a marketing agency. I am so proud to have made a dream that felt really far off come true so early in my career. If you’re in the wellness field, you are doing amazing work and I would love to help you grow. Whether it’s social media management, digital materials, or a whole marketing audit, I would love to see how I can be a part of your team. Head to beckcreative.co/contact to send me an email and connect with me on Instagram at beckcreative.co
- Second Part
- What I want you to take away from this episode is to start identifying your line between responsibility and surrender. Only you know where it is.
- Assignment
- Today’s assignment is to reflect on responsibility and surrender. Get a journal and list three ways you can take more responsibility for your health and three ways you can surrender and forgive your body. For example, mine would be taking responsibility for eating a little too much sugar lately, calling myself out when I get repetitively down on myself, and stretching after working out so I’m not so sore. And I can surrender more by being aware of when I get anxious around food, put my hand on my heart and breathe rather than “push through” that project I’m frustrated with, and have a hard stop at 5pm to read my book and wind down before dinner – all will get done in due time if I’m taking care of my body!
- Now I want you to make an action step for each. How can you implement each into practice. For example, if I see myself getting down in the dumps, I’m going to write a gratitude list to do my best to help myself out of that mentality. (More on this next week.) Or, if I don’t want to eat so much sugar, I’m going to write in my journal I can have one piece of chocolate after lunch if I’m craving it and track the sugar I’m eating rather than eating intuitively, because in this case, I know I’m taking advantage a bit!
- Lastly, set an end date. For me, I know I can change my habits in around 30 days. So at the end of the 30 days, I’ll stop tracking my sugar intake because I’ll have rewired my brain to not crave as much sugar, but it’ll be before it becomes an obsessive habit. Good luck and please let me know over on Instagram what you’re taking responsibility for and what you’re surrendering to this week!
- Outro
- Well that is it for now lovelies, thank you so much for tuning in. For more tips, and to join our online community off the podcast, follow lovelydigest on Instagram and Emily Beck on Youtube, the links will be below. To join our email community and get notified of new discounts, tips, and resources, follow the link in the show notes. If you thought this was helpful or know if it might help a friend, please make sure to share it and if you feel inclined, leave a review. It really helps get these tips in front of the people who may really benefit from this community we have here. See you next week.
- Intro
Show Notes:
- Assignment check in: Meditation
- Responsibility and surrender
- “There’s a balance between taking responsibility, of what we put in our bodies, when we indulge, if we move our bodies or not, etc. and surrender to knowing that beyond a certain point we can’t control everything.”
- Today’s Assignment
BECK is a multi-disciplinary marketing studio located in New England and available for travel. To connect, head to beckcreative.co/contact or instagram.com/beckcreative.co
