Thanks for including my essay in your resources. I enjoyed reading about your grief to acceptance to recovery journey. It has mirrored much of my own, though I wouldn’t call myself near recovery yet. As you beautifully wrote, I have learned to enjoy what I’m capable of now and know it’s enough even if I never regain the abilities I once had and continue to grieve. Good luck with your new job!
I really admire your work here on Substack, Dr. Talia. I’m going for my therapy hours and hope to serve folks with chronic illness, so your latest post really resonated with me. Thanks for reading and for your kind words! Happy to be connected.
Such a great comment (as per usual). You’re always pulling back to look at the bigger picture. And I think you’re right about this collective awakening. Something has to give, and our bodies aren’t waiting around for us to make the right moves - they’re sending us messages constantly! So wise…
It feels more like I’ve received confirmation this year that yes, this is indeed the journey we are on. The lessons in acceptance, surrender, trust, purpose etc. they’re revealing themselves in the way to us for a reason. And chronic illness is such a big part of activation and initiation.
Your newsletters have not been showing up in my inbox in my email OR on the app 🤯 this is so bizarre. This happened to another writer I’m subscribed to. I have so much to catch up on!!
Yikes! That happened to me with the Cafe Anne newsletter. I had been mysteriously unsubscribed! I wonder if that’s what’s happened here? Please don’t feel you have to catch up. My musings are pretty non-linear.
Couldn't agree more, and I'm curious if the individualized nature of long COVID recovery tools ever gets too heterogenus to catagorize, even with clever AI pattern recognition.
Thanks for reading and commenting. It’s really interesting, if you just listen to recovery videos on Raelan Agle’s YouTube channel, you realize that there are so many common themes among how people recovered, even if they seem to have taken different paths or programs. So many are basically the same messages just packaged or delivered a bit differently.
I loved reading this and your writing felt visceral in such a wonderful way. I have been on the grief to acceptance highway for a while now, not quite processing I was on it, and oh is it is a bumpy ride!! Thank you for sharing💌
It’s been so cool to read your journey from Long COVID to recovery here. And even though there won’t be a recovery for me with my disability, you’ve shared so much wisdom that’s helped me along the way.
Omg the interview with Mr Fritz 😂😂😂. I love your words. And forgive me if I missed it because I have been highly absent due to my own all consuming day job that is stressing me out (trying to learn a thing or two here tho ), how do you feel the tonic might evolve as you do?
That’s a good question! That’s part of what I’m trying to stay loosey goosey about. I’m really not sure what my interests will be as I continue recovering and moving back into everyday life. The Tonic might become more ‘observations about life’ than totally health oriented. We’ll see!
Loved this, so much richness here - thank you! I am really glad you mentioned Mindful Gardener's take as I have been finding his work (and Sam Miller's, of The Great Allowing, who used to share his channel with him) really valuable in my chronic fatigue recovery journey (there's that word again - had a look at that article and had to stop reading it as I found it too negative! Each to their own!).
Great to hear you've come so far in your recovery and I couldn't agree more about the acceptance piece. Reading your post made me realise that I've made huge strides in this lately, and a lot of it has been through working with a somatic therapist for 7 months who also has extensive chronic illness experience including recovery followed by relapse and now recovering again - so real. I'm very grateful that I no longer WANT to go back to my 'former life' (which i can barely remember from 12 years ago) but I do have hopes and dreams for the future that having more physical capacity on board would greatly support. So I was fascinated to hear about how you worked with fear and how powerful that's been.
Thanks very much for reading and commenting, Morgana. I do love that wacky Mindful Gardener guy, along with Sam Miller (though his stuff now resonates with me more than hers). It helps to hear similar messages delivered differently sometimes, right?
Oh, and I agree with you - I still call it a journey and I too thought his essay was a bit negative.
Congrats on the strides you’ve made! My therapist sounds so similar to yours. She has been such a huge help to me. And CFS Recovery has been helping me tremendously with the fear piece.
Thank you for this wonderful essay. It’s good to be reminded of longer timelines. Just because it’s not happening today, or there was a step backwards, doesn’t mean there’s not still a lot of forward progress to be had (and activities to enjoy).
Absolutely! I have taken many steps ‘back’ along the way, including as recently as a month or two ago. And yet my graph is still trending upward overall. And perspective/mindset goes a long way here. Thanks for reading!
Thanks for including my essay in your resources. I enjoyed reading about your grief to acceptance to recovery journey. It has mirrored much of my own, though I wouldn’t call myself near recovery yet. As you beautifully wrote, I have learned to enjoy what I’m capable of now and know it’s enough even if I never regain the abilities I once had and continue to grieve. Good luck with your new job!
I really admire your work here on Substack, Dr. Talia. I’m going for my therapy hours and hope to serve folks with chronic illness, so your latest post really resonated with me. Thanks for reading and for your kind words! Happy to be connected.
“Dancing cheek to cheek with grief” I loved that. So much packed into those 6 words!
I’m so glad to see how your journey has evolved and how much you’ve grown as a human.
I’ve often wondered if all you outline here is why chronic illness is taking us down in the millions.
Because maybe this is the collective awakening journey we are on.
Such a great comment (as per usual). You’re always pulling back to look at the bigger picture. And I think you’re right about this collective awakening. Something has to give, and our bodies aren’t waiting around for us to make the right moves - they’re sending us messages constantly! So wise…
I loved that phrase too! such tender, beautiful imagery
It’s really staying with me that one🥰
Thank you! ☺️
wow, that third and fourth sentence - such an intriguing possibility...
It feels more like I’ve received confirmation this year that yes, this is indeed the journey we are on. The lessons in acceptance, surrender, trust, purpose etc. they’re revealing themselves in the way to us for a reason. And chronic illness is such a big part of activation and initiation.
Your newsletters have not been showing up in my inbox in my email OR on the app 🤯 this is so bizarre. This happened to another writer I’m subscribed to. I have so much to catch up on!!
Yikes! That happened to me with the Cafe Anne newsletter. I had been mysteriously unsubscribed! I wonder if that’s what’s happened here? Please don’t feel you have to catch up. My musings are pretty non-linear.
Couldn't agree more, and I'm curious if the individualized nature of long COVID recovery tools ever gets too heterogenus to catagorize, even with clever AI pattern recognition.
Thanks for reading and commenting. It’s really interesting, if you just listen to recovery videos on Raelan Agle’s YouTube channel, you realize that there are so many common themes among how people recovered, even if they seem to have taken different paths or programs. So many are basically the same messages just packaged or delivered a bit differently.
🫶
back atcha ❤️🩹
I loved reading this and your writing felt visceral in such a wonderful way. I have been on the grief to acceptance highway for a while now, not quite processing I was on it, and oh is it is a bumpy ride!! Thank you for sharing💌
Sooo bumpy! Thanks for reading and commenting. You’re definitely not on a deserted highway!
thanks - great topic, great links. Love the more than an egg, perfect time of year for breath links, and always keen for more on MCAS.
Thanks for being here!
Thanks for the great newsletter! I enjoyed many of the links, and screen shotted your book list.
Xoxox T Rex Sleeper 😳
😆😆 🦖😴
It’s been so cool to read your journey from Long COVID to recovery here. And even though there won’t be a recovery for me with my disability, you’ve shared so much wisdom that’s helped me along the way.
So appreciate you spending time here, Jackie!
Omg the interview with Mr Fritz 😂😂😂. I love your words. And forgive me if I missed it because I have been highly absent due to my own all consuming day job that is stressing me out (trying to learn a thing or two here tho ), how do you feel the tonic might evolve as you do?
That’s a good question! That’s part of what I’m trying to stay loosey goosey about. I’m really not sure what my interests will be as I continue recovering and moving back into everyday life. The Tonic might become more ‘observations about life’ than totally health oriented. We’ll see!
Thanks as always for your words and another great round up, and thanks for including my New Year’s Day workshop info!
Of course! Thanks for all you’re doing as well 🌟
It’s so wonderful to hear, every time you talk about recovery. So happy that you are well!
So nice to hear from you, Helen! Thanks for your kind words of support. I hope you are still well?
Yes I’m great thanks
Loved this, so much richness here - thank you! I am really glad you mentioned Mindful Gardener's take as I have been finding his work (and Sam Miller's, of The Great Allowing, who used to share his channel with him) really valuable in my chronic fatigue recovery journey (there's that word again - had a look at that article and had to stop reading it as I found it too negative! Each to their own!).
Great to hear you've come so far in your recovery and I couldn't agree more about the acceptance piece. Reading your post made me realise that I've made huge strides in this lately, and a lot of it has been through working with a somatic therapist for 7 months who also has extensive chronic illness experience including recovery followed by relapse and now recovering again - so real. I'm very grateful that I no longer WANT to go back to my 'former life' (which i can barely remember from 12 years ago) but I do have hopes and dreams for the future that having more physical capacity on board would greatly support. So I was fascinated to hear about how you worked with fear and how powerful that's been.
Thanks very much for reading and commenting, Morgana. I do love that wacky Mindful Gardener guy, along with Sam Miller (though his stuff now resonates with me more than hers). It helps to hear similar messages delivered differently sometimes, right?
Oh, and I agree with you - I still call it a journey and I too thought his essay was a bit negative.
Congrats on the strides you’ve made! My therapist sounds so similar to yours. She has been such a huge help to me. And CFS Recovery has been helping me tremendously with the fear piece.
Onward for us both! 🌟
He is wacky and wonderful yes! Totally re different presentations of the message... we're lucky to have so many options!
Great that you have a good therapist too. Makes the world of difference having someone in your corner.
Thanks for connecting. I look forward to reading more.
Thank you for this wonderful essay. It’s good to be reminded of longer timelines. Just because it’s not happening today, or there was a step backwards, doesn’t mean there’s not still a lot of forward progress to be had (and activities to enjoy).
Absolutely! I have taken many steps ‘back’ along the way, including as recently as a month or two ago. And yet my graph is still trending upward overall. And perspective/mindset goes a long way here. Thanks for reading!
Thanks for the book recommendations too, I’m going to check those out.