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Bored & Sick: 30 More Fun Things You Can Do at Home Alone | The Health Sessions

Bored & Sick: 30 Entertaining Things You Can Do at Home Alone

It’s my most popular post of all-time: “28 Fun Things to Do When You’re Bored and Sick at Home”.

And that doesn’t surprise me. I know from experience how mind-numbing and depressing it can be to be stuck at home for weeks or months on end, unable to do the things you enjoy.

You might think that keeping yourself entertained while you’re sick is a luxury problem, but that’s exactly when you need good mental health the most. Positive distractions can take your mind off the pain and reduce stress, or act as a therapeutic form of self-expression that supports your overall health.

Of course, nowadays the Internet and on-demand entertainment provide you with an endless stream of movies to watch, books to read, music to listen to and social media to scroll through. And yet, staring at screens all day every day can be unfulfilling when you’re chronically ill – or worse, intensify headaches, eye strain and brain fog.

Are you done watching Netflix, playing video games and navel-gazing too? Then give these fresh ‘bored and sick’ tips a try to keep your mind entertained while your body rests!

How to Do Visualizations for Pain Relief | The Health Sessions

How to Do Visualization for Pain Relief

This blog post contains some affiliate links to products you may find useful, at no extra costs to you. All opinions are my own.

Do you ever picture yourself on a tropical beach, singing on stage or living your wildest dreams?

You may not realize it, but the mental pictures you create in your mind can have a powerful effect on your body and brain. Imagining yourself eating a decadent chocolate dessert literally makes your mouth water and your stomach rumble – even though you can’t actually smell, taste or see it in front of you. And fantasizing about that gorgeous guy or girl might make your heart skip a beat!

Visualization, also known as mental imagery or guided imagery, means you form a visual image of an object, landscape or situation in your mind. Many of us unconsciously do this every day, when we read a story, dream about the future or create a mental map of directions given to us.

But you can also purposely tap into your imagination and visualize peaceful, healing scenarios in order to support your health and happiness. Research has consistently shown that visualization helps you reduce stress, relax your muscles, and promote better sleep. Through this deep relaxation, visualization even has a positive impact on your immunity. It also literally takes your mind off pain, and significantly eases that aching. What’s more, by focusing on soothing scenarios or positive outcomes, visualization also reduces feelings of depression and anxiety.

So how does that work?

16 Let Go Quotes That Will Help You Move On | The Health Sessions

16 Let Go Quotes That Will Help You Move Forward

Chances are, you are no stranger to loss. Especially when you live with MS, kidney disease or a heart condition, you haven’t just lost your health, but perhaps also your career, people in your life and that unshaken belief in your body. And you have a right to grieve the things you no longer have, and all the dreams for the future that might never come true now.

But loss isn’t all bad. Sometimes we need to shed the old in order to grow or to make room for new things. As the saying goes, autumn reminds us how beautiful it is to let things go. So ask yourself, what’s weighing me down that I could get rid of? What no longer serves me now that my life has changed?

Maybe you’ve come to realize that it doesn’t make much sense to be overly attached to certain possessions or status symbols. Maybe you have toxic people in your life who drain your energy instead of support you. Or perhaps it’s time to finally kick those limiting beliefs and negative thought patterns to the curb.

Letting go of the past isn’t easy. It takes patience, self-compassion and inner work. You have to make room for your negative emotions to flow and learn the lessons from the situations. Because holding on to pain doesn’t fix your problems.

So hopefully these 16 quotes will help you to let go – of the good and the bad – and move forward again with hope in your heart.

“I’m Diagnosed with a Chronic Illness; Now What Do I Do?”

It’s one of the biggest shocks you’ll ever experience: being diagnosed with a chronic illness.

Finding out that you’re sick is always bad news, but learning that you have an illness that might never go away again, that’s a hard pill to swallow. Because getting diagnosed with diabetes, arthritis, MS or Crohn’s disease doesn’t just affect your body, it turns your whole world upside down.

Those symptoms that are hurting you, messing up your plans and keeping you up at night? They aren’t temporary. They don’t go away after a good night’s sleep or resting in bed for a few days. All too often, chronic illness affects every part of your life every day.That’s why you probably have to make permanent adjustments to your daily routines, your work and social life, your hopes and dreams.

But when you’re just diagnosed with chronic illness, where do you start? What can you do to make sense of this earth-shattering news? How do you figure out what to do next and get a grip on this new reality?

Fighting for Your Health: What I Love & Hate About the ‘Spoonie Warrior’ Analogy

Have you ever noticed how people talk about sickness and health in terms of combat and warrior analogies? We’re battling chronic illness, beating depression or losing the fight to cancer.

In a way, that makes complete sense. When you’re in pain and exhausted to the bone, everyday living can really seem like a quest from a Tolkien novel. Something as simple as grocery shopping suddenly feels like an expedition to Mount Doom.

For many many years, I turned to heroic stories to fuel my motivation, to strive for recovery, to keep reaching for my dreams. And it worked. With the ‘help’ from Buffy, Sydney Bristow and G.I.Jane (I’m clearly a nineties girl), I passed my high school exams against all odds, despite not being able to attend classes. Epic journeys like Lord of the Rings pushed me to get fit and mobile enough to explore the world, while survivor stories from Chris Ryan and Bear Grylls inspired me to keep going.

Thanks to the warrior analogy, I achieved many meaningful goals that made a big difference to my life.

But now that I’ve learned so much more about the impact of your mind on your body, and how your nervous system works, I’m not so sure any more that the ‘spoonie warrior’ analogy is always the best choice.