WELLNESS WEDNESDAY

Hey folks, Sally Riggs here, fellow long hauler, psychologist, and your Long COVID Coach, and welcome to another Wellness Wednesday. Now, as I am making this video for you today, it has my three-year Long COVID anniversary. And it felt like it was important to talk about that this week, partly because many, many people got sick in the first wave. And we'll be having anniversaries at this time. And even if your anniversary is not this week, I'm sure you will come across it at some point. And there are some important themes that we can think about.

First of all, I thought I was going to be okay with my anniversary this year because I'm doing so much better. And yet, of course, it has caught up to me on a weekend when I was dealing with some fatigue again, and all the thoughts and all the feelings have come up again. And so I want to take a moment just to acknowledge that. And to talk a little bit about some of the strategies that I have highlighted before that will be really, really applicable today.

So I had a weekend where I actually did quite a lot on Friday. And as a result, on Saturday, I was quite fatigued. And then I started some new medication late on Saturday, which gave me a lot of nausea overnight and into Sunday. And so it's very easy on the back of that feeling the fatigue, to be disheartened. And what's really important, as you know, is to feel our feelings. So what I definitely want to do today is lean into the feelings. I'm actually not so fatigued today. But if I'm feeling any kind of sadness, disappointment, anger, all of those things, I want to make sure that I take time to properly feel.

Because it's very easy to say, "Oh, but aren't we supposed to talk about gratitude on our anniversary? Aren't we supposed to talk about acceptance? Aren't we supposed to do a nice little ritual?" And if that's how you're feeling, then absolutely do that. But if that's not how you're feeling, then we don't want to invalidate ourselves any further. We do want to take a moment to start with the feelings and acknowledge them. And yes, absolutely, I am doing so much better than I was even a year ago. And there is so much that I am grateful for. And I do have a lot of acceptance and a lot of compassion. But I'm not really feeling terribly much of that right now. And so if I try and force myself to turn that frown upside down, it isn't going to be relevant because my body is not in that place. And then I'm just perpetuating other traumas of being invalidated from past experience.

So we do want to take a moment to really notice how we're feeling and to lean into that. And one of the big themes that inevitably comes up around Long COVID And especially on our anniversary is about loss and grief. And, coincidentally, I'm actually in a six-week training right now about grief and the biology of grief and how it relates to all this polyvagal stuff that I talked about. And I actually have the new material releases each week on a Sunday. And so I have videos to watch today. And I have a live call this evening, in which I will fully get to experience that grief, which is important. And please watch this space. I will be sharing some of this information in coming weeks, as I kind of get a sense of how it's relevant to us with Long COVID, because these are enormous, enormous themes.

And I think the other thing that I do need to take some time today is just sit with and acknowledge that I can't do everything that I did on March 13, 202, anymore. In fact, that Saturday I got up even though I already had COVID at that point more than likely, and went for a 10-mile run. And I haven't been for a 10-mile run since then. And that is a huge loss. And I definitely need to sit with that today and allow myself to be tearful and let those feelings move through. Because inevitably what is happening here, and this is something I talk so much with my Long COVID clients about. The lives that we build in the future will be a new life, we don't get to go back in time.

Inevitably, when I ask people, "What is the life that you want in the future?" they will say to me, "I want to go back to my old life", and we don't get that option. And yet, here I am in a place today where "But I want my old life back". And that's okay. Because when we are a little bit more sympathetic, or a little bit more in the freeze response, it's harder to acknowledge those differences and the positive benefits that this has brought to my life. And so I'm not going to force it today, I'm going to allow myself to have a little bit of a wallow in the feelings and be upset about the things that I have lost because we do need to feel the grief and we do need to let it move through our bodies.

And I am sure that I have been holding that at bay for a long, long time. Because I felt so awful that I didn't want to add to that. And now that I'm actually in a much better place, there is some space to go back and do that work. So something for you to think about in your journey, in terms of the loss in terms of the grief in terms of the feelings that you might be feeling today, whatever day this week, your anniversary is, or whether it's in the forthcoming months. There's a lot for us to process. And it's okay if that takes time.

I hope that has given you some food for thought today. Even if it isn't your anniversary this week, chances are there are some feelings of grief and some significant losses that you are also acknowledging, and give yourself time. I'm not going to challenge you to feel that all at once because that will be overwhelming and that will be too much. But these are themes that we will definitely revisit. And if you're feeling like you couldn't tolerate a little bit of it today, then just do take a moment and let yourself feel because that is important.

Goodness, all of these feelings in my body and my mind has gone blank. I hope you have a tolerable week. Please do sign up for the links below. If there's anything there that interests you. If you would like to jump on a call and talk to me about individual coaching or the Safe and Sound Protocol. You are more than welcome to do that at any time. I look forward to meeting you. And I look forward to seeing you again on another Wellness Wednesday. Take care.