Connect
Let’s Go Walking! Join me for a virtual walking support group
Many of you living with cancer or an autoimmune disease, like me, deal with daily fatigue. You know that exercise is so important to your health, but it’s so hard. There’s always an excuse: it’s too cold or hot, it’s going to rain or it’s raining, or it’s snowy and icy, or I just don’t want to. I, too, have all these excuses, but I have a new rescue dog who wants to go out and who doesn’t care about my excuses! And I’ve got traction devices for my boots.
Now I just need a walking group who will keep me accountable. People who say, ‘let’s go for a walk.’
And I thought: What about my virtual friends on MayoClinicConnect? And Mayo Clinic has an easy 12-week walking program to get us started! Here’s the link:
– Get walking with this 12-week walking schedule
So let’s form a virtual walking group. We can agree to walk every day and encourage each other through Connect. We can walk outdoors, in a mall, or in the red center, or in the hallways of our apartment building.
Who’s in? Who’s going to join me? Come on, Let’s Go Walking!
Like
Helpful
HugInterested in more discussions like this? Go to the Just Want to Talk Support Group.
Balance is progressive. We all have our off days. & that's all right. No one be on go all the time. It doesn't mean we a loser, or we have to start over. Start from where your last step was no matter when it was taken. Don't carry the wasted weight of guilt & demand you climb Mount Everest as well. We need to be kind to ourselves, forgiving. Sometimes we're able to get back up on our own & step out again. But sometimes, we just can't. Maybe you just feel lousy. Maybe it's a memory day that you need to give yourself time to get through. Maybe you ate cheesecake ice cream & feel like a failure. Whatever it may be, we don't need help beating ourselves up. Life's events do that enough as it is, & there's far too many ads that want us to self judge that we are good enough for whatever reason they are selling. I'm not saying it is easy to get up or making light of a person's down time. I have plenty of my own. I don't like them either. & sometimes I just get plain ole stuck. We all do. I'm saying it's all right. I'm saying that to myself, I'm saying that to each of us. It's hard when we get blindsided. It can take years. I know. But one day I said to myself, it's all right. I have a right to be tired, to have heartache, to be tired of meds. It's all right to say no. Then one day I bought a composition book & pen in my daughter's favorite color purple, & rather than a diary of downs, I started writing about any positive thing I saw. Children laughing, my service dog's smile as she ran, a houseplant bloom, hearing an oldie song from a truck next to me at a red light, a squirrel, hearing an owl in the dark, seeing a young soldier & an old VET..there is so much heart lifting things around us. We've just been trained to see the negatives easier. We can unlearn that. Look, listen for just one thing that touches your heart. A memory that causes you to smile, that bluejay while you were walking, the cool colors of your sneakers, your breath, reaching a stop sign, they are endless out there. How many treasures can you find just today? Before you realize it, you'll be looking & listening without thinking about it. What did you hear that made you smile today? How many times did you see your favorite color? Try smiling at a stranger in a store. Your smile may have reached them just when they needed it. Now you're someone else's heart lifting memory.
-
Like -
Helpful -
Hug
6 ReactionsThanks for the warm welcome and so glad I haven’t missed the boat.
I’m starting the 12 week walking program tomorrow, despite the weather. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I’m in the foothills of the Sacramento Mountains in beautiful southern New Mexico and it’s currently raining. I don’t remember ever experiencing rain here before. It will probably be beautiful sunny and warm tomorrow. My friends back in Anchorage Alaska, where we are based (snowbirds since 2021), have complained of unprecedented cold for this time of year and lots of snow. Very grateful we aren’t shoveling the driveway this year. A little bit of rain is a small price to pay.
Best wishes. Julie-Ann 😊
-
Like -
Helpful -
Hug
3 Reactions