How To Make Routines Work For Your Chronic Illness Life

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Routines aren’t for everyone. And sometimes it’s good to break away from them on occasion, to try something new, get out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself. But routines can be hugely beneficial when you need some structure, some comfort for your mental health, some system to help you pace with chronic illness, disability or pain. They can improve wellbeing, productivity and rest, while bringing some balance to your life and helping to prevent burnout.

Could a little routine be what you need at the moment? Here’s a look at how to make routines work for your chronic illness life.

Why Routine Can Be Useful

There are a number of potential benefits to having routines, be they big ones or little ones, regular ones or occasional ones. For instance, routines can: 

• Cultivate healthy habits and help in breaking negative ones
• Bring structure to your day
• Reduce anxiety and bring a sense of comfort 
• Help ensure you stick to self-care and medication requirements
• Give you something to aim for and a sense of achievement
• Aid you in managing symptoms of chronic illness and pain 
• Allow you to feel secure, confident and more in control of your life and your time
• Help to utilize your time more wisely
• Promote better productivity and focus
• Support you to pace to better manage chronic fatigue, illness and pain
• Help you to prioritise what’s most important to you right now

Now, life with chronic illness / chronic pain / other disability is nothing if not difficult and tumultuous. You may not know how you’ll feel from one day to the next, let alone one hour to the next. Plans are made to be broken and it can be hard to commit to doing certain things at certain times. Routines should therefore be specific for you and your needs, and they need to be flexible. That means no getting frustrated with yourself if you can’t always partake in those routines. It means using routines as a framework and general goal, allowing you to get a little more supportive structure in your life where possible but not sweating it if they need to be changed at any time.

Types Of Routines

What is important to you right now? What do you need? What could be useful for you? Routines need to suit your needs and current situation, so you should look to cultivate the framework best for you as an individual, not what anyone else thinks you “should” be doing. A few examples of types of routines might include: 

• Morning Rituals – Make sure you start your day positively with a little structure, incorporating healthy habits, a little mindfulness or some ‘me’ time for reflection and relaxation.
• Daytime Productivity – Plan your day around what works for you and play to your strengths, working around the difficulties you may have, such as the times when pain or fatigue are at their worst.
• Nighttime Wind Down – Time out to reflect on the day, get your thoughts out of your head and on to paper, and make notes for the next day so you’re not stressing or worrying. Gentle stretches, reading a good book, self-massage, technology-free space and sleep aids like pillow mist, lavender scents or earplugs can all help to relax and improve sleep.
• Skincare Routine – A morning and/or evening routine for cleansing, exfoliating, moisturising.
• Exercise Routine – If possible and physically doable, loosely committing to do some kind of exercise to suit your abilities can help with overall health. It might be stretching, yoga, light weights, resistance bands, aerobics, online fitness videos, a walk. A little something is better than nothing if it can help you feel better, fitter and stronger.
• Day Breaks – Pacing is so important with chronic illness, stress, fatigue or chronic pain. It’s not easy to do, especially if you’ve a seemingly endless to-do list or you struggle with feelings of guilt. Building small, regular breaks in to the day, perhaps aiming for certain times so you can be more sure to incorporate them, can be vital and priceless. 

These are just a few general, basic examples, but when put into practice, routines can be built upon, revised and harnessed to empower you and support your emotional and physical health.

Simple Suggestions To Boost Your Routines

• Green tea in the morning and 5 minutes of solitude to wake you up and clear your mind.

• Gentle stretches for a few minutes after waking, and some mood-boosting music to get you energised for the day.

• Lemon in water is a refreshing, healthy drink to hydrate your body and wake up your mind a little, and it’s also thought to help with detoxing the body and clearing skin. Drink hot or cold as you prefer.

• Mindful meditation for just 5 minutes each day, potentially building on the duration as desired. 

• Make the most of sticky notes and to-do lists to keep on top of things and tick off those nagging tasks that you don’t want to do first so they’re out of the way

• Reach out to at least one person meaningfully each day, even if it’s just to say hello, just to make contact.

• Start a gratefulness list and add to it whenever you can, taking note of everything from the seemingly inconsequential (“I’m thankful for the fresh bed sheets that are so comfy”) to the bigger things (“I’m grateful for my body letting me walk a little today and enjoy the fresh air”). It may sound silly, but it helps to find the positives and the things to be happy about.

• For food/drink routines, aim for adequate water each day – but not too much fluid – and a few portions of fruit/veg and ample nutrients from your diet where possible. 

• For med routines, aim to take your recommended medications and/or supplements correctly as required. Try a pill organiser or draw up a checklist to tick them all off if you’re not great at remembering to take them and this will help instil the habit.

• Get support if and when you need it – speaking to others can help provide support, encouragement, or give you a sense of accountability. Use local or online resources for self-help or advice when it comes to negative habits that you want to break or cut down on, such as with the use of tobacco or alcohol or disordered eating. Don’t struggle alone.

• Try to get an idea for how your day looks before it sneaks up on you. If you’re more prepared, you’re more likely to stick to doing the important things rather than getting sidetracked and procrastinating. Write up a schedule if that will help, just get an idea of roughly what you want/need to do and when you need to do it throughout the day. I find that if I leave the day open to chance, I can really struggle to focus and get things done, especially when everything feels too overwhelming. Just don’t worry if you can’t stick to it because your mind or body has other plans; go with the flow and work with what you’ve got, the main thing is that you’re trying and you’re adjusting as you go.

• Add some personal self-care to your routine, whether that’s making sure you look after your skin with a mini skincare session each day or showering with a favourite gel and picking fresh clothes that you feel comfortable and confident in.

• What do you enjoy doing? Do you have a hobby you could set aside time for each day or each week? Could you carve out a time for doing something fun, enjoyable or new each week or each month? The “nice” things can so often be pushed to the back of the queue wen life and health problems get in the way. Trying to make the intention of a routine for enjoyment, whether that’s 30 minutes of a hobby each day or committing 1 day a month to seeing a friend, going on a trip or whatever else, can give your life a touch more joy and balance. 

• Remember that whatever routines you might incorporate need to suit you. They can be changed and adapted, and they can be more rigid or loose as required.

• Do not berate yourself if you can’t stick to routines or they don’t work out as you’d like. You can adapt and change what you need any time. Plus, chronic illness life is all about things going belly up and we don’t need to add more grief or self-recrimination to our plate. Flexibility is important and it’s not failure if you can’t always meet your aims.

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Routines can be helpful as a general framework to better manage our day to day life. What do you think Do you find yourself relying on routines? Or do you think there are areas of your life that would perhaps benefit from a little extra structure like this?

Caz  ♥

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