I know I said I wasn’t going to ‘show my face’ here again for a while, but I forgot about the initiative that is always run on the 21st of June by migraine advocates around the world. They pick this date because it is the summer solstice; the longest, sunniest, day of the year – and therefore, also the most potentially triggering for people living with light-sensitivity related to migraine.
(In Australia, funnily enough, it’s the reverse; it’s our Winter solstice and so not exactly sunglass weather at all!)
The photo that I chose to use comes from a little over a year ago. I went looking for it after I finally had a chance to listen to the Chronically Empowered podcast interview I gave, in which I was surprised to hear myself confessing to a weird practice I had adopted but kept private.
Towards the beginning of my healing journey, I used to feel bad that I was so weak and unfit that all I could do was walk to the park and back. I used to imagine all the influencers posting their happy-snaps of themselves in exotic places, and feel like a loser that I was mostly stuck at home. So, although I never posted them online, I started documenting my successful walks, so I could remind myself on bad days; you did it before, you’ll do it again; keep going.
When I went back looking through my phone, there they were, a handful of photos of me standing in a park or beside someone’s fence or hedge, smiling into the camera: “I did it – I walked a few blocks!”
I’m posting it here today as a reminder – with invisible illnesses, people often see the smile and assume there’s no pain, but in reality, there is often a lot going on behind that smile.
So today, on the longest / shortest day of the year (another pivot-point like my angel number 5), let’s all aim to make the second half of this year as joy-filled as we can, so that our smiles are as genuine as possible!
Take care, always, Linda xox
The Mindful Migraine 
Leave a comment