Start Where You Are
My husband has been saying, “Situational awareness, Linda!!” He means, “Look around and see where you are before you step off that cliff.”
I looked up the term, and here is what I found: Situational awareness is the ability to perceive, understand, and effectively respond to one's situation. I guess that describes what he is warning me about. He now points out curb cutouts and trip hazards as we walk together. It is slightly irritating, but it has probably helped me avoid more trips (pun intended!) to the ER.
Situational awareness is essential for everyone, especially those with myositis, to avoid hazards, respond appropriately to others, see opportunities and resources, help others, and more. Developing a focused and robust situational awareness can give us a tool that benefits our lives in many ways.
These days, it seems like everyone is trying to multitask. People of all ages walk down the street, staring at their phones: reading texts, answering emails, following maps, or playing games. I multi-task, too. My mind is always going a mile a minute, and even though my body is present in the here and now, my mind is less aware of trip hazards and other dangers right in front of me.
I’ve come to put my phone away while walking, but I continue to look at it while visiting with friends or eating out. I’m still letting it draw me from the present situation to somewhere abstract. It’s something I need to work on.
Tennis legend Arthur Ashe once said, “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
It's often used as a reminder to focus on small steps to make a difference.
Start where you are: Be honest with yourself about where you are. If you try to make decisions and act from where you wish you were, you’ll find you can’t effectively play the game and open yourself up to get hurt and disappointed.
Use what you have: Recognize and use your best shots as your strategy and look to resources outside yourself, like family, friends, care team, and more to bolster your outcomes.
Do what you can: Put forth your best effort on every point, and don’t try to do what you are unable to do. This ties back into the first point of being honest with yourself but leans into how empowered you are to act in myriad ways, even if they are not the ways you used to be able to act.
It is tempting to think that we can still do all the things we did before we got this disease or do things in the same way we used to. I must remind myself that I am weaker while walking, need time to get up and down from chairs of all types, and am apt to drop things with my weakened grip. I look at my 10-pound weights and think how puny they used to look to me while using the 15- and 20-pound ones during my workouts. Now, that is where I start my workouts (and usually where I end them). But continuing to move using whatever weight I can handle is vital to slow down the pace of deterioration.
So, I start by being proud of myself for doing the workout at all—I start where I am.
To start where you are, you have to know where you are. This requires situational awareness, courage, and honesty, as does using what you have. Doing what you can requires grit and hope, and I know each of you has those qualities inside you.
Develop your situational awareness! Put down your phone when walking or spending time with loved ones! Use tools to take over what you used to be able to do without them. Nurture your support system and view that as a strength - because it does take strength to admit you need help.
Know that you can still “do,” even if doing looks a bit different than it used to.
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
We have a bookshop store HERE where you can find books Linda has read or that look helpful for folks dealing with chronic diseases of various kinds. You may see links to those books in the text of our blog posts. We do get a small financial reward if you purchase a book through the shop, but the price to you is the same. It also helps support independent booksellers. Thanks!
This blog post is based on personal experiences and is not meant to provide medical advice.
Always consult your healthcare professional for personalized guidance on your health journey.
