Lupus and living well - the cumulative effect

My feet, unfortunately, are not pretty. It's not that I have weird ankles, bad arches, or ugly toes (well, come to think of it, my toes aren't all that glamorous), but my feet seem to need more maintenance than the rest of my body put together. They're dry, cracked, and scaly - and I'm always reluctant to get a pedicure because my toe nails aren't very "pedicure friendly". (I've been known to buy Lamisil...need I say more?)


So despite the fact that I don't get out too often to have my feet professionally worked on, I have found that that good old remedy called lotion works pretty well. That's right - if I lotionize (as I call it) my feet every night for about two weeks - they're smooth as silk. And given the fact that my sister recently gave me a PedEgg to really help remove dry skin, my feet can be as good as new.

Now, that said, it's not "once a week" that works, or even "three days and then wait a month." My lotionizing requires a commitment - every night or else. It seems to be the cumulative effect that really works. And how long does it take each night? About 10 seconds. But how easy it is to convince myself that's too long, or that I don't have the time? Way to easy.


And though I sometimes struggle to add this 10-second task to my daily routine, I've come to the same conclusion about what it takes to live well with lupus. It's the cumulative effect of striving to live well - of allowing my efforts to build upon one another, day after day - that keeps me well.

I can't choose to slow down once a week, or to rest up only when I feel like it. I've had to readjust my thinking so that I instinctively think, "Live Well" rather than "Push Hard" every single day. And as I've mentioned before, learning not to push myself beyond my limits time and again has gotten easier. And what a treat it is not to have to try so hard anymore. I still have to work at it, as you know from my posts as recently as last week...but I love that it comes a bit more naturally now.

So here's to choosing each and every day to keep the momentum going, to let the cumulative effect of making good decisions lead me closer and closer to living well, despite lupus.

And yes - here's to that 10-second ritual that will bring my heels and toes to a whole a new level of softness. Bring on the lotion - I'm committed to my new routine.

At least for tonight.

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