Hello! Glad you are back! I hope you are stirring with our own ideas by now to help make every day, whether in retirement or not, full of joy and purpose!
My trip to Roatan was really an eye-opener to me for my retirement preparation journey. I suppose that is in part because I finally got to start writing these blog entries, so my thoughts began coming clearer and faster. By the way, writing not only your list, but perhaps writing or dictating an actual journal, might be good for you to consider too, to sort out your swirling thoughts! If you don’t like it after a couple of weeks, no worries. What helps me may not be your cup of tea, and that is OK!
But one other thing that was rather eye-opening is related to my health. I am “generally” healthy, and I like to learn about and implement natural methods of health maintenance and healing. But, I know I have a lot more to learn, (and some issues and bad habits to break) and so my list contains learning about essential oils, herbalism, healthy eating, exercising and other health-related topics.
When I arrived in Roatan, I had a large amount of swelling in my right leg. I thought it was just leftover from the plane ride. But on our 3rd full day there, I was walking around and found not only was my leg swollen, but I was having pain in my ankle and foot. As I got back from my walk I thought I would just stop by the nurse’s office, figuring she would have an ace bandage for me for a sprained ankle. As she probed, no evidence of sprain, but she was concerned about the one-leggedness of my swelling. Since I had a small blood clot history, she was concerned, and through a lot of rigamarole, I ended up going to a clinic where the local folks go to get an ultrasound. Not my favorite day of the trip, but I was happy to hear no evidence of a blood clot. I was advised to drink more water, eat a little more protein, but nothing real definitive otherwise.
I decided to really observe my leg and how I felt generally, which I don’t normally have time to do. I largely stayed off of it the next morning – while swelling had gone down overnight, it swelled back up pretty much immediately after I got up. In the afternoon I tried a short walk, and my ankle started hurting again. I wanted to do a tour at the end of the week, and I feared that was out if I couldn’t walk.
Then, I decided to experiment. I am not one to wear flip flops generally, but I had to get some because the sandals I had brought were not working since they were too tight due to the swelling. I decided to try my tennis shoes again and took a walk. Voile! No more ankle pain! Apparently non-support plus holding onto shoes with my toes does not agree with me, causing foot and ankle pain! Swelling was still there, but at least I could walk…and do my tour at the end of the week! All because I had the time, and made it count, to observe my own health and symptoms!
Do you have any health issues, or at least things you would like to improve, that will benefit from mindful observation of yourself? Make sure to put it on your list…and preferably start doing that now as much as you can, even before you retire if you aren’t there yet…so that when you DO retire, it is as healthy as it can be!
Take care, Mary