Superwoman: A dedication

‘Superwoman’ by the amazing Alicia Keys is the song I would like to use for today’s Wordsmith Wednesday.  Alicia Keys is one of the artists that I really admire for being able to write such beautiful songs and perform them with such emotion.  I particularly like this song because it reminds me of two things that are close to my heart.  The first is my beautiful, hardworking and doting wife.  She is truly a superwoman for what she does.  The second is the lovely ladies that I have met through SWAN UK.  These ladies who are mothers, grandmothers, aunts and sisters, have to go through so much and deal with so many things that a lot of people couldn’t even comprehend.

Superwoman is Fighting the Fight….

For all the mothers fighting
For better days to come

When you have a child with such profound difficulties as a SWAN (Syndromes Without A Name) child does you need to fight every single day for absolutely everything.  Because you have no diagnosis, nobody is willing to listen or help you straight away.  They want you to justify absolutely everything that you ask for, no matter what that is, and often you are looked down upon as trying to ‘scam’ the system.  This results in having to go to numerous different sources and collect information to pass on to get the help that other conditions often receive with no questions asked.  The ladies who care for SWAN children fight every single day because they have to first ensure their child is cared for and catered for in the correct way and then start to deal with the mountain of paperwork, telephone calls and letter writing that has to be done to get their child some help and recognition in the system.

When the going gets tough……

Even when I’m a mess
I still put on a vest
With an S on my chest

As you can imagine these ladies get exhausted physically, emotionally and mentally from having to deal with so much pressure from every direction but they can’t afford to stop for a rest to recuperate because something always needs to be done.  Instead they pick themselves up from the ground, dust themselves off and get right back to the slog of doing what needs to be done.  I have witnessed some of the ladies there being physically injured and badly needing recuperation time to recover, yet, they still put the effort in and deal with the complex difficulties that their children have.  There is no opportunity to shirk that responsibility as it is the single most important thing to them.

Superwoman SWANS together can fly so high…..

When I’m breaking down
And I can’t be found
And I start to get weak
Cause no one knows
Me underneath these clothes
But I can fly
We can fly, Oh

I have seen these ladies all, at one point or another, reach the very limit of their capability to cope with their situation and they need to talk things out or vent their frustrations and they do so on the SWAN UK Facebook group.  A wonderful thing then happens where each of them band together and lift the spirits of the ‘injured’ SWAN lady and offer their support, kind thoughts and well wishes until she feels ready to ‘fly’ once more on her own.  The fantastic thing is that these ladies are never alone, that goes for the SWAN families as well, because once they make themselves known they are just a click, call or text message away from a countrywide support group.  It is truly an amazing thing to witness and it often has me speechless with how affectionate and caring every one of them can be.

Superwoman saves the day….

Cause I am a Superwoman
Yes I am
Yes she is

These ladies truly deserve the title of ‘Superwoman’ and they should get the recognition and appreciation that they deserve.  Sadly they probably won’t get the attention, thanks and praise they deserve but that will not deter them, they will still ‘Put on that Vest with an S on the chest‘ and carry on regardless because they have to.  They are carers, admin workers, specialists in medical care, advocates, charity workers, event planners and fundraisers.  Most of all though they are truly amazing people who are made of the strongest of stuff and will not be broken.

Well there you go, that is my take on ‘Superwoman’ by the fantastic Alicia Keys.  I hope that you enjoyed it but I would also like to hear your tales of any ‘Superwomen’ that you may know who deal with a lot of things that they never complain about and most of us would shy away from.  Are you fortunate enough to know someone like that?  Do you know someone who deserves recognition for dealing with a tough situation?  Tell us all about it, give them some praise and recognition and let the world know how super they really are.

Until next time folks, Stay Safe and Keep Smiling!

Related articles

• Superwoman Syndrome! Do you suffer with it?! (crescenttherapyandassessment.wordpress.com)
• Rita Ora looks up to Beyonce as ‘superwoman’ for juggling career and motherhood (standard.co.uk)
• First Look: Alicia Keys Gets Sleek For “Girl On Fire” Album (Peep Her Fierce Style!) (styleblazer.com)
• “An Average Woman in a Superwoman World” Launches New Website (prweb.com)

New ideas and a fresh outlook….

Hey folks, I am back with a new outlook for the week, the year and for my whole life!  In fact this post is going to be the first of many that I will be linking up with another blogger called Melissa over at The Bright Side blog.  She hosts a series called LML (Love my Life) on a Monday and you can read about it here.

First I want to say sorry for the lack of posts last week but things have been absolutely manic for us with the kids being on their school holidays.  Pretzel decided she would scream at us all day, every day because she has been taken out of her routine, Manga has been getting bored because she has had nothing to do and my sleeping and pain have been giving me a right battering as well.  All of this together does not add up to a happy, energetic Keith!

 Time for a new beginning

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. -George Bernard Shaw

 This quote from George Bernard Shaw is one that I will look to for inspiration in the future when I am feeling stuck in a rut or when I need to try something new in order to change the direction in which my life is heading.  Too many times in my life I have talked about finding out who I am and what I want and I have even written about it on this blog.  Then I was reading a book that I bought recently that had this quote in it and it made me rethink the strategy I was using to try and change my life for the better.  Instead of looking backwards at the things that I used to dream about and where I wanted to be when I was younger, I have decided to take a different standpoint now and create a ‘new’ me.

You will never win if you never begin. -Helen Rowland

There isn’t just a new beginning for me at this moment in time though, my whole family is starting new things this month.  Pretzel will be getting a new one-to-one worker who will be taking her out on small trips during the week to give us a little bit more free time to do things for ourselves.  This is something we have been looking forward to for a while now because it means we can spend a little more time and attention on Manga and also gives us a chance to spend a little time with each other.  We may even get chance to have a regular ‘date night’!

Manga is starting secondary school in the next couple of days as well which she is so excited about.  She absolutely loves school and hates the fact that she has to have school holidays, especially when they are as long as this one in the summer.  We are so proud of her because she got her results back from her SAT tests and she aced all of them, even getting a grade for Maths so high that they don’t normally hand it out! A new school for her is an exciting prospect, but I have to admit it is a double edged sword for me because my little girl is growing up and it is hard to ‘let go’ of my little girl and embrace the young woman who is now in my life.  I think it is especially as the difference between her development and Pretzel’s development is so markedly different.  It is hard not to compare each of my daughters with each other but it is something I am going to have to learn to adjust and adapt to.

Jaffa is starting 6th form college in a couple of weeks to study Information Technology, Child Development and Health Studies.  She has said that she wants to work with children like Pretzel and I think she will be fantastic at it as well.  She dotes on her little sister when she comes to visit and she has a very calm way of dealing with things.  She also got fantastic results with her GCSE exams and had some very high marks as well.  It must be something in the water that is making them all so smart!

And now we move on to myself and Zanna.  We have got some new courses that we are going to be taking to give ourselves a break away from the house and, hopefully, might lead to some new and exciting things for us.  We are both starting a photography course which is something we have wanted to do for a while.  We often see other families with beautiful photographs of places that they have visited but we always end up with blurred, fuzzy pictures.  The plan is to do this course and then go crazy taking pictures of anything and everything so we can start using them for this blog and other things we are planning for the future.  After we have finished that course we are going to be going on a creative writing short course so that we can learn more about how to create stories and characters.  We are planning to write some books for children and possibly even a series of books giving information about life as a parent of a SWAN child with an undiagnosed genetic condition.  On top of that I am continuing my studies with the Open University and I have changed my degree to study creative writing as well.  It is something that has become my passion and, as well as writing this blog, has taken up the majority of my time over the past few months.  I am busy working on some ideas for some short stories, poetry and I am also looking into doing more research on an idea that I have for a non-fiction book as well.  I have decided that I will write under a pen name though as I don’t want to influence people about myself, my family or my friends when they read anything that I write.  I may decide at a later date that I want to reveal what my pen name is but for the meantime I will be keeping it under wraps.

So there you have it, those are our new ideas and our fresh outlook to the remainder of this year and beyond but I want to know what you have planned for the rest of the year and beyond as well.  Are you starting any new projects? Have you decided to have a new outlook on life?  What is motivating you to go forward into the winter months?  Drop me a message in the comment section and let me know.

So until next time folks, Stay Safe and Keep Smiling!

Related articles

• Quote of the Week: Creating Yourself (cultofajracewood.wordpress.com)
• Life changes, are they important? (keithaddison.co.uk)
• Inspiring Quotes on Change (thebrightersideoflife.ca)

A New look….Again

Hey there folks,

I just wanted to let you know why there has been a change in the site theme.  It was brought to my attention by the excellent people Ciara Ballintyne and Gabi Klaf that the new plugin I have installed wasn’t working correctly.  It is because of this that I have changed the theme as they don’t seem to play together very well and the plugin was more important to me than the theme.  To be honest the theme didn’t sit quite right with me anyway and I am going to look at getting my own made for me at some point I think.  Anyway, I want to tell you about the plugin I just installed called CommentLuv.

I know a lot of the seasoned bloggers out there probably know about this one but I will tell you anyway as I think it is very cool!  It basically allows you to add a link back to one of your posts with each comment that you leave on my blog as well as stopping a lot of spammy posts and links from appearing on my blog.  How great is that?  If you share my post to Facebook or Google you can choose from even more of your posts to put whatever link you like on my blog.  I love this idea as it lets me share some of the fantastic blogs that I read with all of my other folks who comment and hopefully you will check them out and love them as well

So there you go 3:30 AM and I am updating my blog for you folkies………aren’t I dedicated?

Until the next time folks  Stay Safe and Keep Smiling!

My hidden illness: 30 things you may not know

Hey folks, I wanted to post this up as I have had it sitting in my files for a while and I never could find the right time to put it up.  It is an article that is all about my hidden illness or in fact my hidden illnesses.  It may be something that you are not interested in but there may be a few things in there that you can identify with or that may even surprise you.  It is not my intention to offend anybody or to make anybody feel uncomfortable but I hope that there may be a little more understanding comes from it about the things I have to deal with on a daily basis due to each different hidden illness.  So here we go with the 30 things you may not know about my hidden illness:

1. The hidden illness I live with is:

Chronic Pain, Diabetes, Insomnia and Binge Eating Disorder

2. I was diagnosed with them in the years:

Chronic Back Pain – 2000/2001
Diabetes – 2010
Binge Eating Disorder – 2003
Insomnia – 2011

3. But I had symptoms since:

Chronic Back Pain – 1985
Diabetes – 2010
Binge Eating Disorder – 1993
Insomnia – 1993

4. The biggest adjustment I’ve had to make is:

With Chronic Pain I have had to accept the fact that I need to use a wheelchair to travel long distances and have adaptations made to my house to get into the shower. My memory is now a lot worse and it takes me twice (sometimes three times) as long to do tasks as I used to and if I don’t write it down I usually forget.

5. Most people assume:

That I am either faking it with the back pain, my Insomnia is a “poor night’s sleep” and my weight and binge eating disorder are just because I am greedy and eat all of the wrong foods.

6. The hardest part about mornings are:

Waking up in excruciating pain knowing that the day is going to sap the energy out of me even before I have finished my breakfast.

7. My favourite medical TV show is:

Embarrassing Bodies – Sometimes I wonder how the people on there haven’t pushed for a doctor to sort out the problem. It is fascinating but not for anyone without a strong stomach.

8. A gadget I couldn’t live without is:

My PC as it is where I do all of my writing, studying, gaming, internet use….pretty much everything in my life happens using this. I don’t know if that is a good or bad thing.

9. The hardest part about nights are:

Feeling absolutely exhausted from whatever I have done during the day but knowing as soon as my head hits the pillow I am going to be awake because of my insomnia. Sometimes I don’t sleep for 3 or 4 days at a time which is a nightmare.

10. Each day I take 43 pills & vitamins.  This totals 15,695 tablets in a whole year.

11. Regarding alternative treatments I:

Have tried TENS, Acupuncture, Pain Management Clinics, Massage, Aromatherapy, Herbal Tablets for sleeping, Meditation, Exercise Programs.

12. If I had to choose between an invisible illness or visible I would choose:

A visible one if anything as people might realise that you have a disability instead of assuming that you are just ‘faking it’ or that there is no reason for you using disabled facilities. Of course in an ideal world I would have neither but I guess that goes without saying 

13. Regarding working and career:

I can’t work as I am a carer for my disabled daughter. I am currently studying with the Open University to get a degree so that I have a chance at getting a job if I get the chance to when my daughter is older.

14. People would be surprised to know:

That I am constantly in pain as I try to keep a smile on my face and an upbeat attitude when I am out in public.

15. The hardest thing to accept about my new reality has been:

Accepting that I can’t do certain things that I used to do before I was diagnosed with these things.

16. Something I never thought I could do with my illness that I did was:

Lose weight as much as I have. I have been trying to lose weight for many years but because of my pain and binge eating it has been very difficult. I have managed to lose over 49lbs (22 kilos) since January this year (2012)

17. The commercials about my illness:

Are non-existent. Nobody seems to talk about chronic pain, insomnia or binge eating disorder in the media very much at all. It is something I am sure affects a lot of people but never gets discussed.

18. Something I really miss doing since I was diagnosed is:

Cooking. I wish I could get back to making meals and baking bread as it was one of the things that kept me very relaxed.

19. It was really hard to have to give up:

Playing music in a band. I loved doing this so much but now there is no way that I could jump around on the stage like I used to or move all of the equipment in and out of a venue.

20. A new hobby I have taken up since my diagnosis is:

Creative Writing and Blogging. I have enjoyed writing for my blog so much that I decided to look into other forms of writing and I’m loving it so far. It is a good way for me to empty my brain and gives me the best chance of sleeping at night.

21. If I could have one day of feeling normal again I would:

Go for a long walk and picnic with my wife & kids and then come back and play some bass guitar.

22. My illness has taught me:

That there is a lot of intolerance and ignorance in the world about disabilities and illnesses and especially if they are ‘hidden’. It has also taught me to be a lot more tolerant towards other people as well because you don’t know their situation without talking to them.

23. Want to know a secret? One thing people say that gets under my skin is:

‘You just need to get some exercise and lose some weight and you will be fine’.

24. But I love it when people:

Come to visit me when I don’t have the energy to go out. It doesn’t happen often but when it does, it makes my week!

25. My favourite motto, scripture, quote that gets me through tough times is:

“Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it.” – Dennis P. Kimbro

26. When someone is diagnosed I’d like to tell them:

You are not the only person who is going through this. Stay strong and seek others who can support you and whom you can support.

27. Something that has surprised me about living with an illness is:

Just how much I used to take for granted in my daily life. Little things that I would do without thinking now take a great effort to achieve.

28. The nicest thing someone did for me when I wasn’t feeling well was:

Sat with me for a whole day and watched films (my wife and kids) so that I wasn’t on my own and bored in bed.

29. I’m involved with Invisible Illness Week because:

There needs to be a lot more done to tell people about invisible illnesses and through invisible illness week there may be a chance to do just that.

30. The fact that you read this list makes me feel:

Very grateful for your time and I am so happy that there may be a little more understanding about my life and the things I go through each day.

So there you have it each hidden illness discuss a little bit.  I hope that this wasn’t too long for you folks and I am sorry that it is all about me but hey what are blogs for if it isn’t for talking about yourself!  I hope you found it interesting at least and now you have a little bit more about each hidden illness I suffer from  so you know where I am at mentally when I talk about these things on my blog.

So thank you for reading this and until next time folks, Stay Safe and Keep Smiling!

Related articles

• Eating my way to an early grave (sleeplessinnewcastle.wordpress.com)
• Why men don’t admit to binge eating (theglobeandmail.com)
• invisible illness week 2012 (phylor.wordpress.com)
• Diagnosis, Treatment, And Prevention Of Sleep Disorders (smmirror.com)
• Insomnia and anxiety (butterflywarrior.typepad.com)
• Insomniacs ‘should be given therapy not sleeping pills’ (independent.co.uk)
• Sleep: How to Deal with Insomnia (momitforward.com)

Chronic Pain sufferers get new hope?

Is there hope for Chronic Pain sufferers around the world?

Scientists at the University of Liverpool and the Royal Liverpool University Hospital have been awarded -1.4 million to design a new drug for the treatment of chronic pain.

The project funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC), addresses the long-standing and urgent need for effective therapies for chronic pain which affects around 20% of adults in Europe and the US, and more than eight million adult patients in the UK alone. Medication currently available to treat the condition is effective in only around 40% of sufferers and even these patients often struggle to maintain the balance between adequate pain relief and the adverse effects of current therapies.

The research team is examining compounds which target the glycine receptor, one of the principal inhibitory neuronal receptors in the central nervous system and crucial in the sensation of chronic pain. Through medicinal chemistry, computational methods and experimental testing, scientists successfully identified novel compounds which could be used for the treatment of chronic pain without unwanted sedative effects.

Professor Martin Leuwer, from the University’s Department of Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology in the School of Translational Medicine, said: “This is an exciting project that expands our drug discovery portfolio into a new therapeutic area with a huge unmet medical need. Our collaborative team of medicinal chemists, molecular modellers and neurobiologists have made significant advances in this area and this funding provides us with the opportunity to drive the project forward towards an entirely new class of drug for the treatment of chronic pain conditions.

via MRC awards grant to design new drug for treatment of chronic pain.

 

It is great to see that finally the clinicians are starting to listen to what their patients have been saying all along with Chronic Pain.   It is an awful thing to live through and it can be so isolating and depressing at times.  When every day is filled with pain and it prevents you from getting on with things that you used to do with no problems, you can end up feeling so down and useless.  I hope that they can find something that doesn’t have the really bad unwanted side effects which, with me, are memory loss, lack of concentration, Insomnia, stomach aches and muscle fatigue.  It is such an odd feeling to be fighting pain by trying to keep moving while the medication that is supposed to be helping with the pain is designed to make you sleepy.  You end up walking around half of the time in a dream like state not knowing what is happening from one day to the next.  The worst of that is the people who don’t realise what it is like to have a hidden illness don’t know that it is like being trapped in a version of your own body but one that is wracked with huge amounts of pain all of the time.

I think one of the other things that often gets missed is the emotional and mental fatigue that plagues the chronic pain sufferer as well.   We often have to put on our best faces just to get though the day and not seem like we are moaning all of the time, while inside our bodies are screaming at us in agony. Trying to keep these two sides in check is so hard that by the end of the day you just want to crawl into your bed and sleep.  Unfortunately for me that sometimes doesn’t come either and I end up spending 2-3 nights wide awake in agony (I have been awake for 2 days as I write).  My fingers are screaming at me to stop typing now and they feel like they are going to fall off at the moment so I am going to leave it there for now.

Just to let you folks know that I am going to be dropping Feel Good Friday as I feel it is too similar to the postings I am making on Mondays and I am not getting to talk about the things I would like to.  I will be throwing a blog out as I find things that interest me and make me want to talk about them as well as the two themed posts that go out on Mondays and Wednesdays.

So until then folks Stay Safe and Keep Smiling!

Related articles

• Is chronic pain in the brain? (blogs.abc.net.au)
• Blaming the Brain for Chronic Back Pain (news.sciencemag.org)
• Chronic pain sufferers ‘sidelined’ by NHS (express.co.uk)
• Pet Therapy and Chronic Pain (painfighter.wordpress.com)

50 shades of something different! *Raunchy*

Hey again folks and welcome to another Wordsmith Wednesday and I thought I would share something I found by a writer called Jack Daniel Hunter.  It is based on a reading of 50 Shades of Grey but takes it in a different direction and I thought it was quite funny so I decided it had to be shared with you folks.  I do warn you though it is a bit raunchy and racy so if you don’t like that sort of thing then please be aware that you probably wont like it.   There is nothing graphic in there but I thought a fair warning was in order just in case.  So without further ado here we go with 50 Shades of Something Different:

The bead of sweat made it’s way from her brow, down her neck and ran across her bosom before disappearing out of view in her cleavage.  The heat had been steadily rising as she had been furiously grinding away. Her backside was numb from working so hard and her arms were beginning to tire.  She couldn’t remember how long it had been since she had worked so hard and enjoyed it so much.  The craving to do it had been there for some time and she had held off for as long as she could before the urges just got too much and she had to submit to it. 

She had been at it now for hours and still had no desire to stop.  The feeling was just too good and she knew that she would enjoy it even more later on.   Her breathing was heavy now and the light headed feeling had started to cloud her mind.  Her vision blurred slightly as she pushed even harder and faster than ever before.  Her pace was furious now and her face contorted as she made one final effort to finish. Almost……Almost……..The release was like an explosion tearing through her body.  She screamed out as she pushed the pedals round with one last Herculean effort, surging over the finish line to win the 55 kilometre cycling road race.

I know it is a short little piece but I thought it was clever in how it was written and I thought it might be a bit of fun to try and get some of you folks to try your hand at it as well.   I might have a go and post some of the contributions I get up for next Wednesday’s posting.  What you will need to do is pick a fairly mundane task or activity and try to rewrite it in a raunchy kind of way but don’t give away just what it is until you reach the very end of the piece.  Let’s see if we can have some fun and get creative at the same time!

That is your challenge should you choose to accept it.  If you do take part let me know on Twitter @nosleepintoon or through Facebook on my Fan Page

Until Next time folks, Stay Safe and Keep Smiling!

Related articles

• Peter Andre to pen male version of ’50 Shades’ (thesun.co.uk)
• Ian Somerhalder Continues Push For Fifty Shades of Grey Role (thehollywoodgossip.com)
• 50 Shades of Grey (therabbitbooks.wordpress.com)
• 5 Hilarious ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Parodies (mashable.com)

7 ways to change and be happy with life

7 ways to change and be happy with life – Motivational Monday

Today I am going to post up some different things that have helped me when I was reassessing my life not so long ago.  They are the few things that I go back to each time I feel I am losing my way and I want to share them with everyone in the hope that it helps you to reach your own place of happiness with your life. So here we go with the changes:

1.  Accept the fact that you can be wrong and stop feeling the need to always be right.

This one may seem to be really obvious but it is much harder to do than to say you are going to do it.  There is a difference between checking up on facts to see if they are correct and feeling the need to always be right.  I used to be the type of person that would argue until I was blue in the face about a point and, even if I later found out I was incorrect, would say the information that I had was given to me incorrectly.  It was always someone else to blame and not me.  Everyone is human and we all make mistakes from time to time, so be human and accept responsibility for your mistakes as well as your accomplishments.

2. Stop thinking that you have to be in control of every minute detail of every little thing in life.

Life is unpredictable.  Accept that fact and even embrace it and your life will take you in a million places you never expected to go and probably wouldn’t go if you had planned it.  I never thought I would have enjoyed my writing so much as I am at this moment in time and it all came about from this blog.  I wanted to tell a story about my family and it opened the door to me about so much more and I am enjoying the experience so much.  I would never have planned to take a creative writing course in the past but now it is something that has me excited and enthusiastic to get started.  Life should be a mystery tour so once in a while just go with the flow and see where it takes you, you never know you might like it!

3. Stop playing the ‘blame game’.

This ties in with the previous point of feeling the need to be right.  Don’t feel the need to point out where others have gone wrong or blame someone for something that has happened.  Every one makes mistakes and you never know that mistake could turn out to beneficial in the long run.  Some famous ‘mistakes’ have led to great discoveries such as X-rays, the microwave and Penicillin.  You never know what may come from an error so don’t be too quick to judge and blame someone for their part in it.

4. If you defeat yourself before you have started something, you will never reach your goal.

If you convince yourself that you are going to fail or you are going to struggle in something then you probably will.  You should praise your achievements and have self-belief that you can achieve what you set out to do.  Nothing will defeat your efforts quicker than your own belief that you are going to fail.  Keep positive and let the magic happen.

5. Stop criticising, it is so easy to do and so hard to take!

Nobody likes to be criticised about anything and it is so easy to do but it is not easy to take when somebody does it back to you.  I am always reminded about a saying I was told by my teacher once which was this ‘Do not try to take the splinter out of another’s eye before removing the plank from your own’.  That has stuck with me for many years now and it always reminds me that I have so many things I could be criticised for in my own life that needs to be examined before I can criticise somebody else for.  That is why I spend my time working on myself and my own life and focusing less on what others are doing.

6. Get over your fears and embrace the changes you need to make.

Changes are always something that is difficult to go through.  The anxious fears that something might not work out or something may go wrong can often stop you from taking a chance and living through the experience.  Whether it is a new job, new school, new house or new country the feeling is always one of trepidation of what is going to come next.  Try to stop thinking about tomorrow and live for today and you might find things easier and enjoy life a lot more.  We only get once chance at life so enjoy it while you can and have no regrets wen you look back at how your life has turned out.

7. Stop trying to live your life trying to fulfill the expectations of others.

Trying to achieve what others expect of you will make you miserable.  I guarantee it.  I lived for many years believing that I had to live up to how I thought others wanted me to live.  I did things because I thought they were the ‘right way’ of doing things.  I spent a lot of time thinking about what other people thought of me, and in truth I still do every now and then even now, but often my perception of what they would think couldn’t have been further from the mark.  If you live your life seeking only what makes you happy then you will surround yourself with happy people who are comfortable with whatever decisions or choices you make in your own personal life.  It is a work in progress for me but it is one that is proving to be worthwhile as I am so much happier today than I was even just a year ago.

So far these have worked for me and I am in a much happier place than I have been before with regards to my life and although I still have a long way to go to be totally satisfied, I have taken those first few steps on my journey and it feels absolutely great.  Why don’t you give some of these a go yourself and tell me how it turns out for you?

Do you have any ‘rules’ or mantras that you use each day to keep you motivated?  Are there some of these that you can identify with as well?   Why don’t you let me know by posting a comment or sending me a message on Twitter (@nosleepintoon) and share how you think you can change to be happy with your life?

I hope you enjoyed this installment of Motivational Monday and until next time folks,

Stay Safe and Keep Smiling!

Related articles

• “A Better You”: Making Happiness a Habit! (thefirstwire.wordpress.com)
• Stop Existing and Start Living: How to Dramatically Change Your Life in Just One Week (lifehack.org)
• 7 Ways to maintain Positive attitude (harikrishnamurthy.wordpress.com)
• How to Be Happy In Life. (rhubblog.com)

Does Video blogging work for you?

Always the one to try something new I have decided to take the plunge and let you hear my (not so) dulcet tones and see my (not so) lovely features in an attempt to see if some Video Blogging may be an option for this personal blog over here.  I would obviously tackle different subjects if you folks did like them (and could understand me) and possibly even look at doing some funny bits and pieces for a bit of a laugh every now and then as well.  So without further ado, I introduce you to the ‘real’ me :

So what did you think? Do I need to put some translations up there or could you understand me?  Is my ugly mug too offensive to ever be seen near a screen ever again?  Did I frighten your pets or children? 

Let me know whether you think I should do more video blogging or whether I should banish the webcam to the depths of a drawer bottom for the rest of eternity.

Until next time folks, Stay Safe and Keep Smiling

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Without a Diagnosis – The Video Story

Without a Diagnosis – Video Documentary as part of Feel Good Friday

Hi folks, here we are at the end of the week once again and I wanted to share something that made me feel quite good this week which was the discovery that the documentary “Without a Diagnosis” that Kat Williams had been working on was ready to be shared with the world.  We have had a pretty rough time of it during these holidays with illness, stress and a million other little things that all add up to a bit of an unpleasant time of it.  We often feel like this, as do many other families of children without a diagnosis, but especially during the summer holidays as our children are taken out of their daily routine and plunged into a totally different one without any warning.  This is often the case when they go back to school as well because we have to get them back into a new routine once more.  This is why we all try and grab onto anything that gives us a little hope or makes us feel a little bit better during the holidays and Kat’s video documentary is one of those things.

Kat Williams is a student journalist who is studying an MA in Multimedia Broadcast at the University college of Falmouth and she has made this documentary about children in the UK who have a genetic condition without a diagnosis or a Syndrome Without A Name (SWAN).  I know I have spoken about SWAN UK before as I am a member because of my daughter Pretzel.  It is not very often that we get a spotlight shone on us in this kind of way so we all jump at the opportunity of promoting these things when we get the chance.  I have sat  watching through this video at least 4 times now and I have to say that I have never seen something that has so accurately caught the feelings, sentiments and the real situations that families like ours face each and every day.  It is a fantastic piece of work and I hope that it gets seen by as many people as humanly possible.  I will be sharing it everywhere that I can and that is where I would like you folks reading this to come in and help me as well.  First I would like to share with you the documentary “Without a Diagnosis”:

 

 

I hope that you may now have a little more understanding of the dilemmas and some of the problems that can face people without a diagnosis and I hope that you will feel like you would like to help families such as mine.  I hope I am not sounding too preachy or self-righteous with this post as it is a simple way of letting you folks know what families like mine go through on a day to day basis.  This is such a Feel good Friday feeling for me because it is just an extra step towards my family being understood and maybe having to fight a little bit less each time a project like this is done.

I would love for you to share this video with as many people as you possibly can and I would also ask that you please go and visit Kat’s blog and let her know what you thought of the documentary and how it has made you feel.  Please let her know how much this kind of support means to families like mine and at the same time get a message of hope, understanding and love out for all of those families who are struggling without a diagnosis across the world.

Thank you folks and until next time,

Stay safe and Keep Smiling!

Related articles

• SWAN UK children get Gold Medals for Olympic feats (keithaddison.co.uk)
• Equipment – Hot wheels! (swanuk.wordpress.com)
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• ‘SWANderful’ to see SWAN in the papers (swanuk.wordpress.com)
• 9 things special needs parents don’t want to hear (keithaddison.co.uk)

Poem: Heaven's Very Special Child

Wordsmith Wednesday

Poem: Heaven’s Very Special Child –

A meeting was held quite far from Earth,

“It’s time again for another birth”,

Said the Angels to the Lord above,

“This special child will need much love”.

Her progress may seem very slow,

Accomplishments she may not show,

And she’ll require extra care,

From all the folks she meets down there.

She may not run or laugh or play,

Her thoughts may seem quite far away,

In many ways she won’t adapt,

And she’ll be known as handicapped.

So let’s be careful where she’s sent,

We want her life to be content,

Please, Lord, find the right parents who

Will do this special job for you.

They will not realise right away,

The leading role they’re asked to play,

But with this child sent from above,

Comes stronger faith and richer love.

And soon they’ll know the privilege given,

In caring from this gift from Heaven,

Their precious charge, so meek and mild,

Is heaven’s very special child.

Copyright © 1981 by Edna Massimilla

I chose this poem for Wordsmith Wednesday for my wife who told me about it.  It was given to her by a teacher at a nursery that our niece was attending at the time.  She had never met our daughter but had heard lots about her from my sister.  It is such a nice poem and the sentiment behind it shows just how special parents who deal with the extra strains and stresses of caring for a disabled child are.  I am not a believer in God and the Angels myself but the thought and feeling that goes behind the writing of the poem and also the fact that someone was able to associate it with my family makes it extra special.

I love to receive a poem that I may not have discovered and I love the fact that using the right words in the right place can evoke such strong emotions in the reader.  I think that people should read and send a poem to each other a lot more regularly than we do now.  There are some fantastic writers out there who do some stunning work but they don’t get the coverage and readers they deserve.  Maybe we should start making our own greetings cards and put in them a poem that we have written ourselves instead of relying on the awfully corny, cheesy and very short offerings that the greetings card companies seem to offer up to us.  The personality and individuality that a poem in a card would give would be much more appreciated by the receiver than the standard cards that are bought in the shops would give.

Have you been given a poem or piece of writing to help cheer you up or keep you motivated?  Would you share your own poem in a card for someone close to you? Would you participate in a poem swap if you had the chance to do it? Let me know what you think and if there is a poem or piece of writing you would like to share with the world and I will put them up here as part of my Wordsmith Wednesday series.

Thank you for reading and I would appreciate it if you could leave me a comment to let me know what you think about the poem and the series in general.

Until then folks, Stay Safe and Keep Smiling!

 

Related articles

• Wordsmith Wednesday (keithaddison.co.uk)
• All Mixed Up – A Motley Horde Of Funny Poems by Shane D. Williams (kid-lit-reviews.com)
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• Postcard Poetry (teachingcollegeenglish.com)
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