Part Two*
Hi Emma, I am so sorry to hear this. I sympathise totally as I’m in the same boat… school skiing trip first week of Easter holidays and on the fourth day someone clipped the back of my skis and brought me down. I’ve torn two ligaments and am on crutches for six weeks minimum. No driving and yesterday my husband started working away again until Friday, so now on my own. Here’s what I’ve been doing to keep myself sane (grab a cuppa… it’ll be an essay I’ll bet!):
Get someone to fetch down your boxes of old things from attic, garage, spare room. Sort through old photos, memories, diaries etc. It could be an opportunity to organise photos into albums or to sort and declutter.
Read some of those amazing books you’ve never had the chance to pick up.
You may be injured and feeling frustrated – but you can bet your life there’ll be someone else very local to you who needs an hour visit. I visited with my elderly neighbour yesterday. Her husband is in hospital. She was thrilled to bits and I came away feeling good too.
Keep a journal. I got this idea from Sarah Williams of Tough Girl Challenges. It’s an amazing exercise and if you set a timer and do it for just 10mins a day it doesn’t feel too onerous. Set yourself a theme or a question each day to reflect on… look online for journalling ideas too.
Similar to above – you could decide to blog about your journey of having a broken arm, how to deal with it emotionally and physically. How you did it in the first place. Others who are experiencing same injury will benefit.
Use your social media to benefit you – sign up to the 100 Happy Days campaign. I did this in 2014 after a horrible break up from a long-term relationship. It helped me to focus on the positive stuff in my daily life. I had a load of lovely comments and photos at the end of it too!
Off the back of 100 Happy Days, last year I invented 100 Mappy Days. 100 days in a 365 day period of using a map or map app. I’m still doing it this year… well I was, until I ended up on crutches! 🤣 I’m still trying to get out and some places have wheelchairs that have helped me. Walking and being in the outdoors is such a huge part of my life that having that taken away would be like chopping off my right arm (oops, sorry!) My husband and I have loved following the maps and even in the local vicinity have found little short walks to do that we didn’t know existed. I can sit with my maps and trail books and plan my future adventures too.
Listen to a podcast. There’s loads out there – Tough Girl podcast is top of my list and now The Minalmalists too. There’s something for everyone.
I keep Netflix for my evening treat to look forward to, as otherwise I’d probably sit and binge-watch all day!
Arrange for a visit from a friend or colleague. They might bring you a book or something to borrow too!
Buy a stack of cheap postcards. Plan to go somewhere every day… can be something or somewhere very simple, short or mundane or a bit special if you feel inclined. Just don’t think every day you have to head off into the far flung wilds. It could just be a bus trip into town or a walk around the park. Send someone in your circle of family or friends that you haven’t seen in ages a postcard telling them about it. When you write about it to someone else, you’ll have the tendency to ‘dress it up’ – find the good bits and focus on those.
There’s loads more I’m sure!
Hope this helps and keep looking for new things to occupy and stimulate. We’ll both get there!
Z x
*Today’s blog is a copy of a Facebook post written in April 2019, following my ‘Ski-Knee’ incident. It was posted to the Adventure Queens group, in response to supporting another member who was also injured.
Thanks so much for sharing this – a great list!
Author
Thank you Sarah. Just the act of writing it was helpful to refocus and rethink how I perceived my enforced rest!