I wrote this piece for someone in the Myositis support group on Facebook.
They had posted about their fears of getting older and how they’d cope with this terrible burden in the future.
I wanted to lift them up—because I know exactly how that feels.
Myositis is a hard disease. It tests your body, but even more than that, it tests your mind. Staying positive and hopeful when your body is fighting you the whole way can feel impossible.
Here’s what I came up with:
Learning to climb out, one thought at a time.
I’ve been down this rabbit hole many times—and that’s exactly what it is—a hole.
A place where nothing good can come from it.
It’s a trap.
It’s the what-ifs.
I start worrying about things that haven’t even happened yet.
It’s a waste of time and energy—energy I need to save for something better.
So I stretch. I work out. I walk.
Nothing crazy, just a few moves in my living room.
But I keep moving—every day.
I write a lot too. It keeps my mind in the right place.
Otherwise, I drift off into those dark corners I don’t want to visit.
Inside my head, things can get complicated.
It’s a fine line between being positive and being negative.
That’s why I make it a rule:
I have to find something that makes me happy every single day.
It’s not optional—it’s required.
But the hardest thing for me is forgiveness. Especially forgiving myself.
When I get depressed and don’t leave the house for days…
When I skip workouts…
When I eat a whole carton of ice cream…
Those are the worst days—the guilt hits hard.
I get mad at myself.
That’s when I have to stop, forgive myself, and get back to work.
Because no one else is going to do it for me.
And you know what?
No one’s going to do it for you either.
We’ve got to shake off the guilt and start again.
Sometimes that means baby steps.
For me, a win might just be getting out of the chair.
For you, it might be walking six miles.
Either way, take that little victory—use the momentum—and throw it toward something better.
That’s how I see it.
That’s what I try to do.
I hope it helps.
I hope you find what lights you up.
Life is short. We’re not guaranteed anything—
not even tomorrow.
