The CP Diary

A passing thought:

When was the last time you helped someone out?

When we help others out, we emotionally begin to help ourselves take control. Helping someone else puts us back in the driving seat on our own lives …

We live in a world where some of us expect instant gratification.

In a blink of an eyelid we have the information we need at our fingertips through the inter-net. We work things out. We don’t have to write drawn-out letters to communicate anymore with family or friends. If we have access to a computer we can e-mail them, quickly and efficiently. We’ve moved on as far as technology is concerned …

I had a little bit of an up and down day yesterday and it seems to have marred my mood this morning. Having watched my daughter take part in her first Race for Life UK, Cancer Research event; brought back bittersweet thoughts about my own struggles with CP. My cerebral palsy has also become more spastic today. I just hate that.

It was a long way back to the car (3 miles in total) and as I struggled to walk in the 26c heat I started to feel sorry for myself and began to ask the same questions. Why did I have to deal with cerebral palsy and why …

What about our inner child? Is our inner child affected by our past? I believe that whatever we see in our formative years, we begin to feel those things inwardly. If we’re told we’re useless, we begin to believe we’re useless, if we’re not told we’re loved, we begin to question our ability to love and be loved. Our inner child begins to believe everything it’s told.

Our subconscious

I believe that on a subconscious level our behavior affects our relationship with our children and that instead of our children seeing love in their life …

Something sweet:

To add a little bit of fun to your beauty regime, why not try this edible chocolate facial?

It is well known that cocoa powder is a useful stress buster due to its high level of magnesium so this chocolate facial is good for both you and your tummy …

My facial keratosis, is bothering me today. Seeing my reflection yesterday made me realise how much of the problem I still have because I look as if I have aged with the condition.

My mother was always telling me from an early that it was important for me to look after myself and although I still make every effort to do that; there are days where I simply cannot be bothered because of my facial keratosis. I tend to switch off to the problems, so I don’t have to think about them.

My skin tends to dry out with the condition at certain parts …

Over the years I have been lucky enough to join a gym, but having cerebral palsy made it very difficult for me to work out on some of their equipment. It also never made any difference to the little muscle tone I have on my left side or my aerobic fitness because I am dealing with a brain injury and cannot exercise for long.

I have recently taken to climbing stairs as an exercise. The following information may help other people think about this type of exercise.

Its advantages:

• Climbing stairs is low impact and is safe on the knee joints;
• It can be done any time of day;
• Climbing stairs tones the leg muscles and supports the heart;

We need to quit talking about the things that we want to happen and start doing what we talk about. Basically we need to make things happen.

Isn’t it amazing that when we’re children, we’re curious about the world and the environment? Through our curiosity we want to explore more. As adults we should do the same.

The following may help:

Use confidence to know that you can set out to do what you want to accomplish; curiosity to see how things works; courage to have a go and constancy to remain focused and unchanging …

A passing thought:

Think about now and bring yourself back into the moment so that you turn some of those negative feelings into positive ones. It’s fine that you may have made mistakes; we wouldn’t be human if we didn’t …

Growing up with brothers or sisters leaves us open to being teased. Big brothers have a tendency to tease their sisters! So how many of us have been teased in our lives?

You can normally tell when someone is teasing you because they are fond of you; but how far does a tease have to go before it materialises into something more than a tease?

Why do we tease?

• To be noticed;
• To show others that we can be the centre of attention;
• To get satisfaction from the tease;
• To know that we can tease;