I recently returned to school, college that is and it’s been several years since I’ve been in academia. I have been feeling out of place with the speed of learning, the pace at which students and teachers interact these days which seems to have sped up instantaneously since last I attended class. Everyone seems in a rush and the material is presented in such fashion which makes the whole experience feel overwhelming.
The challenges I find meet me on several levels of my conscious awareness of self, and make me more self-conscious of the distance that comes between you and others with age and more significantly life experiences, ie. UC. For example, finding time to eat between classes has become a challenge. Grabbing a bite used to be a bag of rice cakes and some veggies, which I guess it, could still be as I would just swap the rice cakes for the kamut cakes. But now, these little snacks are just not enough to get me satisfied through 5 hours of class.
The other challenge that I find is how to manage my time. I have become accustomed in the year or so of focusing on my health and well-being on the importance of slowing down, taking my time to do just about everything. School doesn’t allow for this pace at all, and this puts pressure on me to speed up which as we know doesn’t help the body to relax and therefore further aggravates UC conditions. With all this I find myself at times becoming stressed out and easily disagreeable. So I have taken time to find out how to remedy this for myself as I know this experience is part of the re-integration process back into society, after all we all have a lot of living to do.
So, I have told myself what I am now sharing with you, some basic points to keep in mind:
1. Give yourself time to adjust your clock: give your body and mind time to acclimate to the pace of the environment that you are introducing yourself to. Stimuli from various sources throughout your day will certainly have increased since you were last unwell, it’s ok, just be kind to yourself as your awareness is challenged.
2. Take time to find your rhythm: Just because everyone else is going quickly through their day with commitments and responsibilities that may or may not warrant their pace of actions, doesn’t mean you have to as well. Remember your goal is to reintegrate at the rhythm that best suit you; your body will be your guide.
3. Don’t be too hard on yourself: Remind yourself of the strength, patience and determination it took to find you well again. This is your journey and it’s all a part of what makes your life enjoyable.
If you have had an experience lately having come out of a flare having found yourself getting back involved with your community, I’d love to hear from you. We are all students at this thing called life, so let’s help teach one another!
