• Mental Health,  MS,  Multiple Sclerosis,  Practical life hacks and MS

    40 Self-care strategies

    We all get preoccupied with our personal, social and professional life sometimes. In doing so, we often forget that self-care is quite important. After all, ‘mens sana in corpore sano’ or ‘a healthy mind in a healthy body’ is one of the biggest and best gifts you can give yourself. For those less fortunate in the health department – including yours truly – you can adopt a few easy steps to make yourself feel better physically, mentally and emotionally. You can only move forward in life when you take ownership of everything in it, my mantra is ‘Life is 10% of what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.‘ With that in mind, so, practising below hints makes them a lot easier to follow. Morning Wake up…

  • MS,  Multiple Sclerosis,  Practical life hacks and MS

    The Spoon Theory

    Today I was reminded of a story I heard of a few years ago about a girl who lives with lupus and who tries to explain to a friend what life with a chronic illness, especially fatigue, is like. It is told in a very powerful and imaginative way that will hopefully shed a better light on how fatigue affects people living with MS, lupus and other illnesses that take a toll on daily life. In my view, it is the best piece of writing about fatigue I have ever read. As you know, one of my main disabilities is severe fatigue which is sometimes so energy-sapping that walking from my bed to the fridge asks for a rest in between. From the moment this level of tiredness became troublesome,…

  • Advocacy,  MS,  Multiple Sclerosis,  Practical life hacks and MS

    Being active online

    It’s two days after travelling 230km west for MS Ireland’s National Meeting Day in Galway, Ireland. It was a fantastic day, and I learned a lot, but it was just as great being able to share information on how to be interactive when you have a mountain of free time when you’re stuck at home. “Panel Discussion: This session looked at practical ways people with MS keep active in employment (Grace O’Sullivan), through the internet (myself), physical activity (Anne-Marie McDaid, Olympic Gold Paralympic medalist) and through MS Ireland’s work and activities (Mark Mitchell). Trevis Gleason, chef, blogger and MS advocate facilitated this session. For the benefit of others living with multiple sclerosis, and to use the long list of how to be interactive I had written beforehand, I will add some of…