recovery

Yes, brushing your teeth is hard, but only doing it for 30 seconds is better than not doing it at all, and it makes the days where you can stand at the sink for the full 2 minutes all the more triumphant.

Sometimes, washing my face is just beyond me, so cleansing face wipes are the hero of the day when I can’t handle the sensory ick of splashing my face with water. The face lotion’s in a pump bottle right next to the wipes, so even if I take the easy way, it’s simple enough to then grab a pump, slap it on and go.

Washing my hair is a monumental task for me, so dry shampoo lives on the same shelf as the face wipes and lotion. If I get out of the shower and my hair is still dry, I can grab the bottle and dust out my hair to get another day or two out of it.

My deodorant also doesn’t live in the bathroom, it lives on my bedside shelf, because I get dressed in the bedroom so my brain automatically connects putting on deodorant with putting on a shirt.

Even with the stuff that feels like a Big Chore, sometimes you have to cheat and break tasks into smaller steps. Sure, “doing the laundry” is big and nebulous, but when you break it down like this,

Suddenly, you have a bunch of really small, easily manageable tasks. (I also highly recommend, if you own an apple product, taking advantage of the checklist function in the notes app. It’s a game changer.) With each one you finish, you get closer to being done the big thing, and you get a little dopamine for acknowledging you’ve finished each step!

Motivation, patience, and energy are limited resources, especially for people with executive dysfunction, mental disabilities, and physical disabilities.

Next time you want to assume you or someone else is being “lazy”, consider the actual reasons behind why there is not enough in them to do the thing.

Left to their own devices, free people are naturally driven to improve their lives and the lives of others,

Right wing arguments’ foundations depends on the assumption that humans are naturally selfish, evil, and “lazy”, and must be controlled by higher powers and punished when they don’t contribute enough (with the insistence that certain groups of people are more deserving of being controlled and punished than others)

Next time you notice you or someone else is struggling to accomplish something, don’t assume “laziness”, instead ask yourself: am I tired? Depleted of patience? In a bad mood? If I keep pushing myself through this, will it really be worth the distress?

I have chronic fatigue, anemia, and insomnia. I don’t need people bitching at me because I’m tired all the time. I don’t need people assuming my fatigue is related my ability to do the work.

Not even to mention how many people called me lazy because I can’t get out of bed because of my migraines.

And think about how this compounds on BIPOC disabled people. Many minorities are called “lazy” as is. When you add the stigmas associated with disabilities.

Speaking of chronic fatigue. I’m too tired to do words. Here’s an article.

1. “I said something I didn’t mean to say and I’m sorry I said it.” There are lots of things people leave unsaid because they know it’s unfair, irrational, or unnecessarily hurtful. Also lots of things that are just hurtful, so it’s a mixed bag

2. “I made a dumb leap of logic because my angry brain wasn’t working like my calmed brain.” This can apply to projection (“Why are you mad at me?”), paranoia (“I just know you’re about to break up with me.”), jumping to conclusions (“Oh, you just want to run off to that friend of yours, don’t you?”), etc etc

what i mean by that is that i’m (still slowly) beginning to realize that the only remedy for those particular types of crisis is not isolating yourself even more radically from tangible human experiences and trying to find the answer in your own head, but to fully immerse yourself in daily life as much as possible, and allow yourself to be really, truly part of the world you live in - a kind of poiesis of being, if we’re trying to be poetic, that’s about reinventing yourself with each second you remain open to the reality that is existing in the present moment. that won’t magically sort shit out for you, but i get the feeling it helps paint a different mental picture in which your thoughts can roam in, and maybe find different, new and hopefully better paths of thinking/being

normal: feeling tired at the end of a long day

not normal: feeling tired regardless of what you’ve done that day

normal: waking up tired every now and then due to stress or lack of sleep

not normal: waking up tired most mornings

normal: getting a little tired after standing for long periods of time

not normal: not being able to stand for very long without tiring out. being stood up drains your energy

normal: being tired more often during times of peak stress and lack of sleep, but otherwise fine

not normal: being tired/exhausted consistently for over 6 months

normal: melting into the sofa after a long day, and then struggling a little to get up

not normal: being too exhausted to move, to eat, to talk, or to do anything a person might be expected to do in an evening

normal: not liking to get out of bed in the morning

not normal: having mornings where you physically cannot get out of bed, or struggle greatly to get out of bed