When you experience a life-changing illness, you keep holding out for that wonderful thing called recovery. But if recovery means being cured, then many people will never recover from their illness. So how do you define recovery? What does it mean to have recovered from your illness? What does it mean to be in the process of recovery?

If absence of symptoms is unrealistic, perhaps people need to be looking at how they are managing their symptoms as an indication of recovery. If you are managing to go about your daily activities, then this is a sign that you are recovering. If not, then that is something you should be working towards with your doctors. I think your quality of life is the most important indicator of recovery, much more so than absence or presence of symptoms. If you are enjoying life, and managing your symptoms well, that is very much a sign of recovery. If you aren't, then you need to keep working towards this. How can you change your activities so that your quality of life improves.

At Beautiful Identities, I talk often about the importance of not being defined by your illness, but it is also important not to be defined by your recovery. Don't let the things you need to do to manage your symptoms define you. Your altered diet, accommodations at work or school, or your medications should not define you any more than your illness should. For example, if exercise is important in maintaining your wellbeing, you don't want to be feeling like this is the only reason to exercise, you should be finding a type of exercise that you enjoy, so that this can be a part of your identity separate from illness or recovery.

How do you define recovery? How do you avoid being defined by your tools for recovery?

Today I'm going to share with you a talk which I thought was really cool. It showed a real understanding of how disability can affect someone's life, but also how it does not need to define one's life. Maysoon says she's not an "inspiration", perhaps by that she means that she doesn't use cliches and make every sentence deep and meaningful, but she is certainly inspirational in the way she has overcome barriers to achieve her goals.

What are your thoughts on this video?

Hi Everyone.

Happy New Year. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season.

Today, I'm not going to share any of my thoughts with you, instead I'm going to encourage you to think about something.

What is one thing you have achieved over the holiday break, that you could not have achieved a year ago?


It can be absolutely anything, big or small. Everyday we are growing, but sometimes it is gradually, not all at once, so we don't notice. Looking back can be a great way of realizing how much you have grown.