Snowflakes and Spoons

Adaptive Reading Strategies  I recently came down with the flu. After a few days of sleep, social media and TV I was frustrated and bored.  I used to love to read. To hold a book in my hands and escape into another world. Having some time on my hands, I was able to come up with several strategies to get back into this hobby and conserve my spoons. I have put together some ideas to help it easier to maintain strength and focus when reading. Visual Fatigue:  Visual fatigue and drooping eyelids are two main symptoms of ocular Myasthenia Gravis. A highlighted reading strip helps you to remain focused and assist your eyes to track the sentences. You can make one by cutting a coloured transparency sheet into strips and taping masking tape along the borders. Alternatively, you can purchase one online. Magnifying glass to enlarge text decreases the strain on your eyes. Double vision can be combated by using an eye patch to cover one eye. Muscle fatigue:...

Why is work important? As occupational therapists, we regard individuals as occupational beings that benefit from active engagement in meaningful occupation  1 . A meaningful occupation does not need to be paid or formal employment. The key here is that it needs to be meaningful. You have to enjoy, value, be inspired and look forward to doing it. If we are able to engage in this type of work it is noted that you have a higher chance to not just live successfully, but thrive 1 . Advantage of meaningful occupation:           Beneficial health ‘spin-offs’ 2,3          Achieve individual and social change 1         Freedom of choice = ability to experience well-being 4           Allow you to become more self-directed 5          Develop a sense of agency 5          Develop a more positive self-view 6      ...

Connect with me on Facebook : https://m.facebook.com/snowflakesandspoons/ I'm no longer a slave to fear… How do I go from singing this song on Sunday to actually believing and living it out on Monday? It's so easy to seem confident, raising my hands and proclaiming this when I'm safe and protected. It's not so easy to remember this in the face of fear. On a closer look at the lyrics, they don't state 'I am no longer afraid', but rather that 'I am no longer a slave to fear'. Being a slave means being bound and forced to participate in actions without free will. "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love." ( 1 John 4:18 ) What are you afraid of? Sickness, violence, spiders? Being a slave immobilizes us to fully participate in life. We struggle to move forward, to be confident. It makes us anxious and we feel betrayed. Fo...