A few weeks ago I had a surgery that resulted in some stitches. Throughout that healing process, I was hyper aware of how my routines changed due to accommodating the pain and limited movement. I have found it challenging to keep routines for long periods of time after I got my HSP diagnosis for the same reason I struggled to keep a routine during my surgery recovery. This week, I want to highlight how chronic pain, managing health, and varying schedules can make it hard to find habits that stick and share some of the things I am doing now to form some new habits.
I have a few blockades to maintaining habits. One of my main issues is at this point in my life, I have some sort of health related appointment every week day. These appointments vary greatly in type, location, time commitment, and time of the day. Having that contrast in days makes it hard to form habits around time. My other main hurdle in forming habits is the inconsistency of my chronic pain. My symptoms with leg and back pain from my HSP, as well as unrelated stomach issues and other pain, are not consistent. Some days I feel 100% okay, while other days I have a hard time getting out of bed due to pain and energy depletion from that pain. Combining that with the medical appointments leaves me feeling like sometimes my disability controls my life more than I do. To help combat this feeling, I have started trying to form habits that feel less like reaching for the stars, and more like taking one step at a time. I will share my tips and journey forming habits below.
1: I am trying to start a habit of breaking down the work I do for school into smaller chunks. I pride myself on being a good student, but sometimes I don't have the energy to turn in work. My old hack for this was to try to get all of my work done as soon as possible to avoid needing an extension. I like the goal, but the execution left me feeling frazzled and stressed. The habit I am trying to start is breaking off any work I have into chunks to do a little bit each day. I will still start writing the paper early, but I will break it off into chunks to allow myself time to have a life outside of my program. The execution will look like forgoing writing a paper in one day, and breaking it off into two or three days if needed to keep the goal in mind without reaching for a star that might not be reachable. I will update once I start school again on how that goes.
2: I keep a glass of water next to my bed to start drinking water when I wake up. Many people have told me that I need to drink more water. I have seen things about how I need to get 60 ounces, or 90 ounces, or however many ounces. It feels like everytime I talk to someone, the amount of ounces I need to drink increases. Right now, the habit I am trying to start involves getting a glass of water at night to leave in the morning for when I wake up. This solves a few problems. I can have access to water without needing help getting up if I am having a bad leg day. It also gets rid of the opportunity to procrastinate about getting up to grab the water, or make excuses that I am running late. It can be right there, ready to go. I still need to find ways to drink more water, but this feels like a manageable start.
3: To help prepare for my new school schedule, I am changing some of my current routines slowly over the next few months to accomodate a new schedule. I struggle with making habits I know have a time frame because my autism makes it harder for me to adapt to change. For example, I know that once I go back to school, I will have classes at night twice a week. This makes it hard for me to try to form any habit at night, because I don't know how my schedule is going to change, but I know it will change. I know having my days more open and some of my nights become busy will be a huge change from how I currently make my schedule. To help myself manage that change, I am slowly starting to change my routines to fit that schedule with the information I can access from the school. I have been trying to address my water intake and medical appointment planning with this information, so that I can create routines I know I can keep. I am even writing this blog in the morning to get in the habit of carving out this time for school.
4. I downloaded Google Calendar to keep track of everything I do from appointments to seeing friends. I love this calendar app more than the one that comes on my phone because I have the ability to color code events. My main medical appointments have a color, anything to do with school has a color, social plans have a color, etc. This way, I can quickly see what my day will consist of without having to read each entry in great detail. It took me a long time to get into the habit of using a phone calendar, but now that I have one it has really helped my days feel more manageable. The color coding tool is the key in that habit sticking, because I could see how having an organizational system that worked for me helped address some of my anxiety around having a slightly more unpredictable schedule.
5. I have started buying protein that comes prepackaged, so I can have a breakfast that is not time consuming and doesn't trigger my texture issues with food. I am not a morning person, and I am not a breakfast person. For a while I would skip breakfast and wait for lunch but that is not a healthy habit. Recently, I have started buying cheese sticks and some sort of prepackaged meat like salami, or beef sticks to eat in the morning. If I am feeling really ambitious, I will cut up fruit with it. This helps limit how much time I am thinking about food, and is something I like eating. I have been feeling better in the morning since doing this, so I am hoping I will stick with this new habit. Eventually I hope to add to what I am doing, but I try to break my goals into smaller habits so I am more likely to stick with it.
Thank you for reading about some of the habits I am trying to form while navigating chronic pain and schedule changes. If you have any new habits you are trying to start, send me a message at @Anniekrollblog on Instagram or Facebook. I hope to see you next week!
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