How to Keep Working While Living With Multiple Sclerosis - #SMartWednesday

Last year I was telling you about my plans of starting a business while living with MS. Today I’m going further on, and begin talking about how I think of making it a reality. I hope sharing my story can inspire you to do great work yourself.

The first thing I learned in my journey so far, is that you need to focus on your strenghts, on what you can and love doing. All the rest is weighing you down from achieving your goals, be them career or personal ones. We are all good at something, or do some things especially well. Think about what you love doing and what are you really good at, what do people always compliment you on.

Money and financial security keep you healthy and basically alive, as they provide for all that helps you going on living from month to month. But on the long run, are they really worth your health, mental clarity and emotions?

Adjust your current conditions at work. Talk to your employer about what your needs are and what can you both do to continue having a productive and healthy collaboration. If all this fails, go back to your main resource: yourself.

Invest time into searching for a new job or take a leap of faith and start your own thing. Read here some of the conclusions of the twittchat #WorkOutMS that I was on last year, organised by shift.ms and the European Multiple Sclerosis Platform. You'll find it useful.

By age 25-30 you are certainly very good at something. Think how you can transform that into a product or service and start your own business. But start small and gradually go upwards. It’s going to be hard at times, but think that the alternative can be having no job at all, and not being able to contribute to your family’s income. You have MS. Can starting a business scare you more?

Of course, there are also the cases when you can’t move, or have a mobility issue. As long as you can write, speak and express yourself, you can do it. There are tens of examples of people with major disabilities who have made it through and established a name for themselves. Prove society wrong! You are a perfectly gifted individual, who has a lot to offer to the world. Be that only your MS experience. Write about it, turn it into a workshop… You know best what you’re good at.

For me, I decided last year to focus on my writing skills, on portrait photography and on developing my yoga practice. The business I’m starting is all about visual storytelling and family portrait photography. Starting this while I dedicate the rest of my time to writing and developing my yoga practice (planning to become an instructor someday).

This is one of many articles to come regarding work issues and how to start and manage a business while living with multiple sclerosis. It’s a broad subject and a passionate one for me, as I always was an independent spirit who loved to do things my own way, and help people along the way. You will be seeing more of this topic! Hope you like it!

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Love,

Alexandra

December 2015 - Monthly Favorites & Inspiration - #LifestyleFriday

This is the part where I tell you all about my December favorites and inspiration sources. Let’s get to it!

The first thing I want to mention is Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Big Magic”. And a big magic...al book it is! If you ever wanted to boost your creative activities or career whilst accepting and getting over the fear of failure, this is the book for you. It’s part motivational, part self-disclosure, as Liz takes us through examples of her own life and what has she learned about the ongoing battle between creativity and fear. The book was the gift I gave myself for turning 30.

Besides her, other inspirational people I learned a lot from were Gary Vaynerchuk and Tony Robbins and Marie Forleo. Such motivational and hard-working people!

Another important staple of my month was a recap of all the Star Wars movies. My boyfriend persuaded me into getting to know/remember what the story of Vader and Skywalker is. We awakened the Force by watching them in chronological order. As we saw little Anakin grow up and bit by bit turn into Lord Vader, I couldn’t help but to think of how similar the message is to budhism and the no violence philosophy!

That leads us to the next favorite.

Yoga played a huge role in my life for this month also. I have been doing Vinyasa Yoga for more than a year now, every single day. This month, as it was all rushed and had loads of things to do, I was fine with doing only about 10 minutes of it with or without the help of my lovely Adriene Mishler (Yoga With Adriene on Youtube) during my morning routine and then going off to my other tasks. But don’t be mislead: a little yoga goes a loooong way! It’s more about connecting to your body and easing up the mind, making your day more at ease.

The way I managed the holiday stress and my MS was by sticking to meditating for at least 20 minutes a day (10 min in the morning and 10 min in the evening, before I went to bed). It allowed me to let go of all the December cheer that was too much at some point. Taking time to clear your mind and relax the body does wonders for your overall wellbeing. Plus you get to find out how well (or not) you react if an itch happens while you’re standing still! True story! Seriously now, in time, it teaches you how to be patient and don’t react to every tiny thing that happens to you. It teaches you acceptance and how to become more at peace with yourself.

Every morning, just after I got out of bed, I went into the kitchen and made myself a glass of lemon water. Cut a lemon in half, squeeze one of it, pour it into about 500 ml of water and drink it all then and there. It cleanses and hidrates your body from the inside out, kickstarting the metabolism and making you feel better. Can’t stand the taste of lemon? Put about 1-2 teaspoons of honey. Morning lemonade. Enjoy! I forgot to mention tangerines and oranges! The only fruit that make the house smell like Christmas when you open them.

As I mentioned before, I’m opening my own business, in spite of dealing with a diagnosis like multiple sclerosis. December was the month I always decide to relax and unwind so that I come back strong the following year. I worked so hard throughout the year and my mind needed a rest from all that. What use am I to this blog if I get exhausted? 

So, starting from the 21th of December, I layed back, got the Christmassy mood on and enjoyed some well-deserved time with family and friends. I thought and did most of the things that I love, not forgetting to express my gratitude for the wins, blessings and life lessons I received throughout 2015.

This was all for this week’s #LifestyleFriday and for 2015 posts! 
Thanks for being here!

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Love,

Alexis

How I Plan To Start a Business While Having Multiple Sclerosis - #LifestyleFriday

This #LifestyleFriday we deal with the impact multiple sclerosis has on young individuals careers and how I dealt with the situation. Keep on reading.

Work is an important part of my life. It gives me something to do, something to contribute to society, it supports me financially. It even defines my identity and self-worth. That’s why, when I got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, I entered mourning. I grieved not only my long lost health, but the future of my job and/or career. What will it happen now?

I basically grabbed the bull by its horns and took the matter into my own hands. After receiving the diagnosis, I simply told my employer what my situation was like and that was that. If he cared, he cared, if he didn’t … he didn’t. For me it was the second option so I left.

I decided to get that out of the way as soon as possible so that I could focus on my health and future. Why struggle with hiding an incurable, chronic and potentially debilitating illness? The stress of nondisclosure was not worth it in the long run.

STOP AND ANALYZE OPTIONS

If the employer is a person that values skill and mastery, he would probably understand that helping you work in good conditions is advantageous both for him and for you. It’s a win-win situation. If he doesn’t understand anything than profit, understand him in return, and leave. It’s the best choice you can make.

OK, you may want to keep your job because you like it and it earns you a good pay. That’s it? Money over health? Because you can take your passion and start something on your own.

Why live in constant stress and tension just for a paycheck? I personally don’t understand that. It’s only a material thing and as all of its kind, it’s volatile. OK, I understand that you have bills to pay and a life to maintain. The thing that you really fear losing is your independence and self-worth. We live in a world where self-achievement and careers are top of the game and we easily identify with work-related successes.

But to what end? You lose your time, your relationships and eventually your health doing what? Working to fulfill some other person’s dream and fortune? And above that you also live with multiple sclerosis? Stop doing that right now! Just stop it!

Are you a puppet that acts only when being directed by the pupeteer, or are you a talented human being that can put its talents to good use and live a life working on and with its passion? You’ve got this far by mastering your skills and being recognized for that at your workplace.

What makes you talented? What do you enjoy and are good at doing?

Think how can you monetize your talent, gather a team and start your own dream. If you are passionate working in a certain area, why not work for yourself? It will be hard at first, but the rewards are far higher. You are the master of your own schedule, are using your skills to the fullest, have the opportunity to make your own choices and set prices. And most of all you are at peace with your situation. 

Being calm is one of the most important things when you manage life with multiple sclerosis. Let me get things clear: having your own business is not a peaceful and serene environment, it involves responsibility, stress and dealing with challenging situations. But it is worth it, as you have the freedom in working by your own rules and terms.

WHAT ARE MY PLANS?

That was my own approach in choosing to work with multiple sclerosis. I am passionate about designing projects, I constantly have new ideas and enjoy my daily schedule. As of a year now, I have been staying at home, taking a break to sort out my mind around the new path I must follow for my life from now on. It was  a breath of fresh air, as I came to terms with many of my issues and have grown in so many areas. Details about those in articles to come.

But that year was over at the end of this summer and I am now officially bored. Not selfishly bored, but in the sense that I want to be of use to people, to be able to provide value and use my skills and knowledge to make a change for the better in people’s lives.

SMart Choice Lifestyle started as a platform where I can be open about my multiple sclerosis journey and where I can help you make the right choices in living a healthy lifestyle, choices that through becoming habits will surely change your life for the better.

This platform is a result of my internal struggles and self-analysis throughout the last 12 months. I got aware of many things, I understand things a little better than I did before I started and I made peace with my diagnosis.

I am ready to ride this rollercoaster and to make the best of my life as best as I can.

So I plan to start my own business and to put to good use all the things that I learned about myself and the world in this past year. It is a work in progress, and I will let you know about it as things unfold. I do not like telling before doing, so you’ll know when it’s ready (Because I’ll write about it and you will probably hear me yelling “I DID IT!” from wherever you may be. Kidding! Or not.).

The message I want to convey is that you can do anything that you set your mind to do. It’s only a matter of releasing the fear of failure. And that’s one big problem, I know.

For me personally, regret of not trying it is bigger than any fear. The regret of wasting my life away, living and working in fear, waiting for the next paycheck as I spend 12 hours with an Excel sheet and email in front of my eyes. And on top of that living with multiple sclerosis.

This was all for this week’s #LifestyleFriday! Thanks for being here!

What is your opinion on the topic? Tell me all about it in a comment in the box below. I would love to hear your story and help you in any way.

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With love,

Alexandra