Living with chronic illnesses can make it hard to find activities that both you and the people around you can enjoy. It can be hard to explain to your friends what things you’re able to do and what things are very challenging for you. Friends can get upset when you have to constantly bail or just flat out say no to their suggestions to hang out.
Part of the problem is how different one day to the next can be with many chronic illnesses. On a good day, maybe you can do that thing your friend wants to do, but it’s impossible to predict when your good days will be. Because of this, I thought it might be helpful to put together a list of some of my favorite illness friendly activities. (Standard disclaimer: everyone’s illness is different and the things I can do won’t always line up with what other people can do).
1. Destination Sitting. This is one of the easiest activities for people with different levels of energy and abilities. The basic idea is that you find someplace fun to sit and hang out. You might find a place with a really pretty view, or a coffee shop with good people watching. It can even be someone else's couch instead of your own. Front porches are great for destination sitting, especially if the porch has a nice swing. This can be done as a group activity or a solo activity. If going solo, you may want to bring a book or some knitting. Find a bench in a park or a log in the woods. Whatever you like to look at. It’s amazing how much a change of scenery can make you feel better.
2. Visit a museum that lets you borrow a wheelchair. Personally I can handle walking around a museum most days now but there was a time I would not have been able to. You can think of the wheelchair as a back-up plan just in case you don’t feel good that day. You can even ask a friend to go get the wheelchair for you part way through if you start struggling and there aren’t sufficient benches around. Speaking of which, benches at museums make excellent destinations for sitting. Museums are also climate controlled so you shouldn’t have to battle the heat or humidity.
3. Go to a library. Libraries have lots of things to entertain you, they are also climate controlled, and they almost always have lots of places to sit down scattered throughout. And if they don’t have places to sit down you can totally get away with sitting on the floor without people thinking less of you. In fact, they will probably just think you’re so smart or such a book worm that you just couldn’t wait until you got home to crack open whatever happens to be on a shelf nearby.
4. Hang out with babies-but this is important-the little ones that can’t move on their own yet. The older ones can be exhausting, even to healthy people. Those newborns though just want to snuggle all the time. And the moms are usually thrilled to have two hands free to do laundry or take a shower or whatever. Snuggling a baby on the couch is really the chronically ill person’s moment to shine. This is what you’ve been practicing for.
5. Get yourself a penpal. Preferably from somewhere far away. I’ve got a penpal in Australia and it’s great. It usually takes us a month or two between letters because we are both sick but since that goes both ways no one gets upset about it. It’s just a nice surprise when a letter shows up in the mail. This is also a great excuse to use up that fancy paper you have that you don’t know what to do with. We all have some fancy paper that we bought for a resume or something and now we don’t know what to do with the rest of the package. Here it is: write actual letters. Also you feel very cultured when you go to the post office to get a book of international stamps.
6. Go swimming. If you don’t feel good that day you can just float in the water, which will probably feel pretty soothing. And if you are having a better day you can sneak in some exercise while hanging out with friends. Just try to make sure you have some shade available and don’t forget to keep drinking water. It’s easy to get dehydrated in a pool without realizing it because you don’t notice that you’re sweating.
The keys here are having opportunities to rest available most, if not all, of the time and taking the weather into account. There’s nothing worse for many chronically ill folks than being stuck outside on a hot day with no where to get out of the sun or sit down. Hopefully this list will give you some ideas, whether you are chronically ill or you have a friend who is that you’ve been struggling to connect with. What other activities would you add to this list?
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