Sleep is the foundation for everything! I’m Annette Leonard of https://www.annetteleonard.com find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theannetteleonard If you're watching this on video you can see I'm wearing my dark shades -- that means my migraine is off the charts. Part of the reason is that my sleep is gone to s*it. If you're tracking, you'll also notice I haven't dropped an episode in a couple of weeks and that's down to the same reason. We are the proud parents of (1:05) a...

Searching for joy? I’m Annette Leonard of https://www.annetteleonard.com find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theannetteleonard I was recently reading about what to do if you've lost your happy. This is not specifically related to depression, which requires more specialized tools and perhaps deeper interventions. This is more about fleeting joy and temperamental stuff. The suggestion was look your happiness the same way you'd look for your keys. "where did you last see it?" ...

Colonoscopy and autoimmune disease? I’m Annette Leonard of https://www.annetteleonard.com find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theannetteleonard Do you have an autoimmune disease and you're getting a colonoscopy? Consult your physician and take their advice, not mine. However, I have a lot of experience so let's get into that. In advance of the colonoscopy, prep in advance for food. You'll get detailed instructions about what to eat. The instructions are daunting. At the very...

I’m Annette Leonard of https://www.annetteleonard.com find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theannetteleonard I recently read Emily Henry's, "The People We Meet on Vacation." She did a great job putting to language the ways we are confident and insecure, and how relationships expose us to new layers of ourselves. In the book one of her characters said that the more someone got to know her, the more she was afraid they'd discover the ugly and unlovable in her. I highlighted that...

Can setting boundaries be life-saving? I’m Annette Leonard of https://www.annetteleonard.com find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theannetteleonard $49 Boundary Course (through April 2024) https://jennywalters.thinkific.com/courses/boundary-uprising A few more words about boundaries. With chronic illness boundaries are critical for our health. I recently read Dr. Pooja Laskhmin's best-selling book book "Real Self-Care." She examines the difference between what capitalism has...

Can setting boundaries be life-saving? I’m Annette Leonard of https://www.annetteleonard.com find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theannetteleonard You know that I'm a big fan of Dr Gabor Mate. His book, "When the Body Says, 'No'" is a big part of why I'm still ALIVE today. That's a big claim and I really mean it. His work has transformed my life. If you've had cancer or an autoimmune disease, get this book. He talks about how our personalities, our family structures, our...

Your health journey is all your own. I’m Annette Leonard of https://www.annetteleonard.com find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theannetteleonard Several things made me think about this topic. I recently was talking about my friend Amy. She died almost exactly a year before I got my diagnosis of Pulmonary Fibrosis. She was waiting for her lung transplant and when she passed she was a frail shadow of herself. Also, my mom died with complications of several of the autoimmune...

I’m Annette Leonard of https://www.annetteleonard.com find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theannetteleonard It's February, Black History Month, and we just had the Super Bowl. After watching the Netflix movie about Diana Nyad, my wife mentioned that people living with chronic pain have some things in common with elite athletes. Intense pain. Of course, unless there's injury involved, athletes can choose to stop. Obviously, living with chronic pain we can't skip the practice,...

Chronic illness doesn't exempt me from other opportunistic illnesses. I’m Annette Leonard of https://www.annetteleonard.com find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theannetteleonard [I don't know what happened to the visuals shortly into this video....] I didn't record Chronic Wellness last week. Two weeks ago I went to Seattle to meet with my specialists. While up there I contracted a virus. With a fever up around 104, I had fever dreams. When I first started to get sick -- I...

Is there an antidote to chronic pain? I’m Annette Leonard of https://www.annetteleonard.com find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theannetteleonard If you suffer daily from chronic pain, I know that you, like me wish that there were ways to resolve that pain. We've talked about novel ways to try and resolve pain. What if there were other solutions? This one takes a page out of lateral thinking. Hungarian born psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, coined the term "flow," to...

Could micro-disciplines be the key to transformation? I’m Annette Leonard of https://www.annetteleonard.com find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theannetteleonard With the start of the calendar year the allure of resolutions and making sweeping changes is real. However, when I try to make big changes, I am often setting myself up for failure. The notion of "micro-discipline" came from one of my favorite poets, David Whyte. Rather than making big, sweeping changes, how can I...

400 Episodes! I’m Annette Leonard of https://www.annetteleonard.com find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theannetteleonard It's 2024 and this is my 400th episode. I've been absent for a couple of weeks. Part of what's been happening is my tech has been hinky but also with the 400th episode looming I wanted to have something profound to say for my 400th episode. How do we self-sabotage and bock the things we most desire? For those of us living smaller lives because of our...

I’m Annette Leonard of https://www.annetteleonard.com find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theannetteleonard Today I'm wrapping up my series on empathy and compassion. These words are not synonyms. Once I feel empathy - identifying with someone's experience, I can behave compassionately - take action on those feelings. Empathy's shortcoming: if I don't see myself in someone else, I might not feel empathy. However, compassionate action means that I can lend myself to a cause...

What's the difference between compassion and empathy? I’m Annette Leonard of https://www.annetteleonard.com find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theannetteleonard Last week I talked about whether we could feel another's pain. Taking a step back from that I'm deconstructing what compassion and empathy means. I identify as an empath -- in seeing one's pain I feel and identify with that pain. Mattieu Ricard, a Buddhist monk from France has studied the neurobiology of empathy and...

I’m Annette Leonard of https://www.annetteleonard.com find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theannetteleonard I'm listening to the podcast "The Retrievals." In which a fertility clinic at Yale had a nurse who was swapping out fentanyl for saline. The women who describe their pain go into great detail. They were systematically denied, told they had the maximum dose, suggested alternate stories to try make sense of the pain, and numerous other examples of how the doctors, nurses,...

"But you don't look sick." I’m Annette Leonard of https://www.annetteleonard.com find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theannetteleonard Learning how to respond to, "but you don't look sick," without getting frustrated is a difficult thing. Maybe I don't -- and yet, I am. I often try to look fierce, because I don't feel good. Last week was Hidden Disabilities Awareness Week (Oct 15-21). Don't let the fact that we're a week late, stop you from disclosing. For those who are...

This list compiled by Charity Watch Doctors Without Borders (http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/)/MSF is donating medical supplies to hospitals/health facilities in Gaza responding to medical needs. MSF does not run medical programs in Israel, which has strong emergency and health services. MSF has been running medical programs in Gaza for more than 20 years, supporting a health care system that urgently lacks both medical personnel and supplies. Their teams work in three hospitals and...

Can this supplement improve long COVID? I’m Annette Leonard of https://www.annetteleonard.com find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theannetteleonard My journey into chronic illness started with mono. My start of mono was Epstein Barr Virus. At the 6 month mark, I still wasn't better. When my doctor told me that meant I qualified for being under the umbrella of chronic fatigue syndrome, I burst into tears. CFS, later called ME or myalgic encephalomyelitis, is now called Post...

Do our words and thoughts directly affect our health? I’m Annette Leonard of https://www.annetteleonard.com find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theannetteleonard In the early 2000's there was an independent film called "What the Bleep do We Know?" exploring how quantum mechanics work in our lives. It was my first exposure to the idea of manifesting. In that movie I learned about Matsaru Emoto. He documented the impact of various things on water. He has a book called "The...

Does how we talk about our illness change the trajectory of our illness? I’m Annette Leonard of https://www.annetteleonard.com you can find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theannetteleonard Often when faced with illness we speak in violent metaphors: being a warrior, tackling, battling, fighting. We talk about me against the disease. We think of it as a fight. This seems logical. It seems like I'm working against something that's working against me. As the pandemic proved...

Change just one thing. I’m Annette Leonard of https://www.annetteleonard.com you can find me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/theannetteleonard/ I took the longest break I’ve ever taken since starting Chronic Wellness. It’s good to be back. I’m excited to announce that I’ll be starting a broadcast called Chronic Wellness Conversations on IG Live. This will be starting this fall on Thursdays at 11am PST. I’ll be chatting with authors, thought leaders, activists and other sick folks...

This is is a brief video to tell you I'm Out of the Office. I'm taking a break this summer. My recording space (our guest room) is going to be occupied and we have some other projects so I'm going to pause. I'll be returning at the end of August/beginning of September. There are more than 385 episodes for you to watch or listen to if you're missing me. If there are topics you want me to discuss please tell me. The reason my channel is called Chronic Wellness is about seeking spiritual...

Duality is either/or thinking. We tend to gravitate toward this type of thinking by habit. However, non-duality allows us to embrace multiplicities. In the context of chronic pain and illness non-duality allows us to recognize "I am not this illness." We are often pathologized. Rather than thinking just about what's wrong with us we can remember we contain multitudes. Also, non-duality can remind me I am the being experiencing x. There can be a layer or distance that gets inserted. ...

It's the first week of Pride month so I'm talking about families of choice. When I came out it was not welcome. While my folks are fairly liberal and who, in the early 70's adopted kids of color and fought against racism (even in their own families). However, they weren't similarly prepared to accept me as queer. Especially for my mom: the church and the south led her to believe that my love was inferior, was wrong, and separated me from the love of God. That meant that I started...