{"id":1221,"date":"2020-04-27T11:25:48","date_gmt":"2020-04-27T15:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.driventosurvive.org\/?p=1221"},"modified":"2020-04-27T11:25:48","modified_gmt":"2020-04-27T15:25:48","slug":"maintaining-distance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.driventosurvive.org\/index.php\/2020\/04\/27\/maintaining-distance\/","title":{"rendered":"Maintaining distance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Social distancing day 10,548:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Not working today, so lazing at home.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Agenda:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Discussed the news with the hubs.<\/li>\n<li>Made menu and grocery list for next two weeks.<\/li>\n<li>Studying my Spanish book.<\/li>\n<li>Getting ready for a continuing education webcast.<\/li>\n<li>Gave the cat her flea treatment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Living the dream? Oddly, yes. While this is a horrible situation, it takes me back to the end of my cancer treatment.\u00a0 I fully believe that any situation that drives you to the brink of a meeting with the grim reaper makes you assess your priorities.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Was I working too much?\u00a0 Was I not focused on my family?\u00a0 Was I doing anything for my own mental health?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I gravely thought about all these questions and more.\u00a0 And I incorporated the answers into my life.\u00a0 Yes, I worked too much and allocated too much stress to my job.\u00a0 So I went back to work in a lower position and salary and loved it.\u00a0 No stress allowed, I promised myself I would quit if I ceased to enjoy it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I slowed down my life.\u00a0 I accepted that I needed more peace and downtime.\u00a0 I stayed home and eliminated much in the way of outside activities.\u00a0 I tried to let myself heal.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>But at some point, I started pulling harder on my leash.\u00a0 As I took on more responsibility at work, I fell into bad habits.\u00a0 I let stress creep in.\u00a0 I pushed myself to get out more.\u00a0 While that was mostly a good thing, sometimes I regretted going against my better judgment.\u00a0 I convinced myself that staying home and resting was wrong because I am healthy.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When the self isolation mania first started, my anxiety went back off the charts, practically overnight.\u00a0 I had flashbacks to chemo.\u00a0 All the progress I had made in the last year with my mental health was out the window.\u00a0 I seriously felt out of control.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Then I remembered what my therapist told me early on.\u00a0 That I should not beat myself up, and that sometimes I need to give myself permission to not be ok.\u00a0 It was sort of like slapping myself.\u00a0 From that day on I slowly reintegrated the control mechanisms I have learned.\u00a0 Taking a break when stressed.\u00a0 Appreciating little things.\u00a0 Focusing my attention and energy on productive activities.\u00a0 Resting when I need to rest.\u00a0 And the most basic, cold water and a fan when the panic attacks flare.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I am getting back on track.\u00a0 Even when the world re-opens for me, I am slowing my life back down for the things that matter to me.\u00a0 And locking the stress out.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a wake up call that I will heed.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For those who are struggling, please find help.\u00a0 A therapist, a friend, a support group.\u00a0 This is not the time for a stiff upper lip.\u00a0 You can live your best life, but use your tribe to get there.\u00a0 Let&#8217;s do this together.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>For more information for your breast cancer journey, please see our website www.driventosurvive.org.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Social distancing day 10,548: &nbsp; Not working today, so lazing at home. &nbsp; Agenda: Discussed the news with the hubs. Made menu and grocery list for next two weeks. Studying my Spanish book. Getting ready for a continuing education webcast. Gave the cat her flea treatment. &nbsp; Living the dream?\u2026 <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.driventosurvive.org\/index.php\/2020\/04\/27\/maintaining-distance\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,4,49],"tags":[29,70,30,16,63,72,134,135,93,52,20,132,17,32,8,37,19,133,125,65],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.driventosurvive.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/pexels-photo-1076429.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.driventosurvive.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1221"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.driventosurvive.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.driventosurvive.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.driventosurvive.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.driventosurvive.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1221"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.driventosurvive.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1226,"href":"https:\/\/www.driventosurvive.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1221\/revisions\/1226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.driventosurvive.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.driventosurvive.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.driventosurvive.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.driventosurvive.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}