July 21 - habits as therapy

Well, we have been blogging for 21 days now in the Ultimate Blog Challenge. They say the in order to develop a new habit you have to do that thing consistently for 21 days.

This morning I‘ve been thinking about my habits, both good and bad.

One of the best things I promised myself that I would do after the stroke was to get dressed every day. I know it might not sound like a big thing. We all have down days when we stay in our pjs. Days off from work when we don’t have anything important to do. Days when we don’t feel well and want to watch movies all day or binge some TV shows.

But I was not sick. Having trauma like stroke is more like a long term illness; you have to live with it. At the beginning when I first came home, all I could actually accomplish was getting dressed and even that I needed a little help with.

So that is one habit I have mastered.

I realized that I am a creature of habit. I like schedules and structure. I think I’ve always been like this but it works well especially now. Planning my activities helps with my neurofatigue.

When I had to "retire" from work, 9 months after the stroke, I was kind of lost. For the several months I had some speech therapy to occupy some of my day, but that left huge holes that I needed to fill.

In order to accomplish posting a blog every day this month, I have had to change my schedule and skip things that I like to do. It worked in the morning when I normally watch my videotaped soap opera. When I needed to finish the blog at the end of the day I had to skip time I usually spent with my husband after dinner watching our binged TV shows. Going forward I decided that I want this relaxing time with my husband.

In order to change a bad habit, I think you have to substitute another action which is better for you.

Make your habits work for you, that’s what I did for therapy. When formal therapy ended both physical and speech, I needed to keep the momentum going. I fell a bit short on the physical. After I got my rotor cuff working well again, I suspended the exercises. I also stopped doing the strengthening exercises for my right hand. I want to start the habit on doing strenthening exercises again. In order to do this I will have to make time and perhaps eliminate something else.

For speech and cognitive improvement I have developed certain habits that work for me. I do the Wordle every day. My daughter does it every morning at well and we text each other our scores. I also do Elevate. This is an app that has reading, writing, vocabulary and math exercises. In the evening I do the New York Times mini crossword puzzle.

I use my planner/journal to keep track of my activities, both social and things that help my speech and language progress.

This all didn't come overnight. I'll share how I came out with my current schedule some other time. Until then.....