Change is good, and that’s as well because it’s never-ending.
Happy Autumn Equinox, Grimalkitties! How has fall arrived where you are? We’ve already had the first rains up here in northern California. Night time temps are dropping, especially when the skies are clear, and the deciduous trees are turning golden as sunlight recedes. I’m a masala chai kind of gal these days, but pumpkin spice tea and everything is back for the season. Around here, that’s the surest promise that winter rains are not long behind.
Change is in the air, as they say. In that spirit, I’d like to tell you about our coming expansion and explain what prompted it. So find your reading glasses and settle in with your favorite beverage, if you please. This one’s a bit longer than usual. I’ll try to keep it entertaining, I promise.
But first, a bit of context to illuminate where this is coming from. Some of you may remember that I spent quite a bit of time this past summer recovering from a painful left hip injury. I succumbed to bed rest from debilitating pain on June 21st, not believing I’d be down for more than a few days. I’m glad I didn’t know then what I know now, because I’m not entirely sure what’s left of my sanity would have made it through if I had.
A Change of Mindset
“Recovery” took over six weeks. The first two I spent just trying to find a local clinic that would see me in a timely manner. I couldn’t stand up, or sit up, or even stretch out in my bed without debilitating pain. I couldn’t sleep, or eat. In spite of all this, the soonest available appointment I could have gotten was on August 8th.
Fam, there was just. No. Way. That was going to happen. Long hours alone trying to breathe through pain that NSAIDs couldn’t conceal were taking a toll on my mental resilience. By the end of the second week I was already taking twice to three times the recommended doses. It wasn’t sustainable. As such, I began to worry about consequences to my liver and kidneys if it went on for much longer. Evidently something had to change, and for the better.
It became apparent that timely help was not available from our understaffed and overwhelmed medical community. Consequently, I realized that if wanted my life back, I had to figure out how to get it—for myself, but not alone. Others had been over this ground before me, and I blessed them for it as I researched. Using a basic knowledge of human biology and a bit of internet research, I discovered the hip flexor muscle. And realized I must have damaged it with one imprudent move on the yoga mat, about a week before I collapsed.
The treatment regimen I put together included a brace for walking and a topical pain relief cream. Then also, some walking and some gentle hip flexor exercises for physical therapy, once my body could handle it.
Cross Stitch as Therapy
I’m happy to say I was out of pain and on my feet again by August 15th. I’m also so grateful for my husband’s care, the good friends who helped out, and the good-faith reviewers online who helped me find the proper pain cream and brace for my recovery.
As I’m sure you can imagine, I did A LOT of thinking about the subjects of health, health care, and wellness through that interlude. Such as, how important it is for us to feel well, in our bodies, in our minds, and in our hearts. And about what wellness was, and how to define what “all-levels wellness” might look like.
For instance, flat on my back as I was for days on end, I couldn’t stitch. Without it, I came to realize how much I’d relied on cross stitching to manage anxiety. And also the slew of new symptoms that came with perimenopause —or, the “change of life,” as they used to call it. Like art, hobbies are indispensable for human health and wellness. But “lip service” about that is all they ever seem to get.
In a way, the recovery process tended to reinforce how much I missed cross stitching. What good company it and my stitchy-sisters have been through the years! Stitching had been a been a steadying comfort throughout my adult life. And, it remained so through the changes wrought by perimenopause, including insomnia, hot flashes, and emotional volatility. In a way it even helped me manage brain fog, and I’ll be writing about that in future posts.
Cross Stitching for Wellness
Through it all, I just kept coming back to the word “wellness,” using it as a big-umbrella term: Wellness for human beings, who are creatures of body, mind, emotions, and spirit, and who need wellness on all levels to thrive. I began to ask myself:
- What would prioritized wellness look like in societies, families, and individual persons?
- Which things would have to change?
- How might we achieve wellness as a priority for all?
I dreamed about what we could achieve as a more wellness-centered race, working tirelessly and with great enthusiasm to undo the harms we’ve perpetrated to this planet and the other species who call it “home,” too. Hey, I said it was a dream, eh?
When I finally picked up my stitching again, I felt a peace in my heart that hadn’t been there in months. I felt an urge, or maybe an internal kind of pressure to do something, more than simply raising awareness about wellness.
Now, I’m not talking about “let’s go spend a day at the spa” level of wellness necessarily, though I’m told spa days can be real personal wellness miracles. Instead, I’m talking about how to recover levels of wellness that are more durable in the human psyche.
The kind that stick around even when change kicks down the doors of your life in a bad way.
The Taboo Trifecta. It’s All About Change
Aging. Menopause. Mental illness. Living with these as a cross stitcher. They are the wellness subtopics that have engaged my attention lately. I want to help raise awareness about them because they have been so taboo. Even though every body ages, and roughly half the population will go through perimenopause. And twenty million people in this country report experiencing symptoms of depression. I want write about these topics in a way that helps us get past the discomfort and outright stigmatization that inevitably arise when these topics get aired.
Obviously, for my sanity’s sake, I have to do this in a way that didn’t entail setting up and maintaining another blog site. I’ve already got learning curves on my learning curves, just trying to keep up with this one!
Coming Back to Find What I’d Gone to Seek
Maybe it’s a “pivot” for this space, but if it is, it’s only a bit of one. A quick look at the charts we have on offer here will show that the groundwork has already been laid. Charts like Limitations, Life Goals, How Crazy I Am, the Crone’s Corner charts, and the entire Karma Charms design line all touch on some aspect of wellness.
So in that sense, you’ll likely notice little change, going forward. It’s just that now, the written content is going to expand to match the design content—and I’ll be talking about how cross stitch among all hobbies is suited to help out with symptom management, and better quality of life.
Most of all, I dream of this being a safe place on the web to come to ask questions, find support, and to get some information that might lead you (and me) to better questions, and new answers.
Transparency moment: I have no official medical training beyond an in-home caregiver certification from the early 00’s. I’ve had to do self-care (mental, physical, emotional) for decades. I’ve learned a lot about that, including its limitations. I raised my sons with “home health care” almost exclusively, and treated our beloved furry family members too. BUT, I will not be giving specific advice to anyone about their medical conditions because I am not a certified medical professional, and I am also not an idiot. 😉
Click here to read our brand new medical disclaimer page.
Bringing It Back Home
Do you have any suggestions for topics that you’d like to see covered? Are there have been questions on your mind about anything to do with the “taboo trifecta” of aging—menopause, or mental illness? If you don’t mind me answering them from a cross stitcher’s perspective, please let me know in the comments section!
I do realize that airing health or wellness concerns on a public forum can be risky, and these issues can be among the most intimate and private imaginable. So, if you have a concern that you don’t want to leave out on a public blog site, I completely understand. Instead, you can safely use this handy link to our contact form. These entries are sent to our support email address. I monitor that. All emails and contact form submission are treated with utmost confidentiality until they are deleted (not just “trashed”) from our system. I work hard to earn your trust, and I will work even harder to keep it.
If you don’t have questions, you can always let me know what you think. It’s wonderful to read about your experiences! Comments are open!
And, as always, thanks for stitching with us!
- Too Old for Snapchat Too Young for LifeAlert - November 2, 2023
- Fast 5: Ways to Destress Yourself with Cross Stitch! - October 31, 2023
- October 2023 is Menopause Awareness Month! - October 5, 2023
