What’s in a name?

Welcome to the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge brought together by WEGO Health – a social network for all health activists.  Again, I am participating in the annual Writer’s Month Challenge in which I will be writing about my health activism and health condition based upon prompts given.

The prompt reads as given:

“Health Tagline”…Give yourself, your blog, or your condition, or some aspect of your health a tagline. Make sure it’s catchy!

Again this is a prompt that has been involved in the Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge during a previous year; so again I thought I would do the prompt a little differently than described.

What is in a name?  Not only is it a very famous quote from Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ but it  also has a significant value in everyday life; every person recognises themselves by their name.  A name gives an identity  and meaning whether it be a person, a book, or even a blog.  A names enables us to be able to identify a person or an object, as well as being able to differentiate one thing from another.  A name is powerful tool in language.

So to choose a blog name is important; it not only gives the blog its own identity but also gives the writer a voice.  A name gives the audience an understanding of the subject matter of the blog, even before they start to read. So, what made me choose the name ‘My Brain Lesion and Me’?  For starters, I thought the name was reminiscent of a book; of a story and in my opinion that is exactly what the blog is about – it is a story of my life and experiences with living with a neurological condition.

In a previous year, I had decided to come up with the tagline ‘Once upon a Dizzy Spell…A story of a girl living with a neurological condition’.  What made me choose this particular tagline is because as a young girl I loved fairy tales, especially the classic tales of princesses and princes.  I was an avid viewer of Disney films such as ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and ‘The Little Mermaid’ and loved the romantic stories and the promise of a happily ever after.  Another reason for the chosen tagline is that my life living with a neurological condition all started with that very first dizzy spell all those years ago.  And that dizzy spell was the beginning of the journey to where I am now…

And what if I were to give myself a tagline, what would I choose to give myself?  I was thinking long and hard and decided in the end for:

Stumbling along the silver lining

I decided upon this particular tagline, as for starters my legs have been particularly bad recently, and often due to the trembling, walking becomes a lot more like stumbling!  Furthermore, I would like to think that I am a positive person despite my neurological condition.  For example, I keep a positivity board and scatter various items adorned with positive quotes as an attempt to look for the silver linings in life, as hard and difficult as living with a chronic illness can be, and so the above tagline for myself was born!,

If you had to create a tagline for yourself, what would yours be?  As ever would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions so please feel free to add your comments below…

WEGO Health Advocating for Another Carnival: Wrap it Up!

Welcome to the final post of the WEGO Health ‘Advocating for Another’ Carnival!  Hope you have all enjoyed the posts of this special week-long blog carnival.  I welcome any comments that you may have and now you can also contact me via email, or even on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or even Google +

The last prompt of this carnival says:

Put a bow on our Advocating for Another week by sharing what you’ll plan to do going forward.  Free write or choose one of the bonus ideas…

So, what next?  Well, I am certainly going to continue with the blog – writing about life with this condition, problems and the truths behind living with an invisible illness and spreading awareness to others about the reality of invisible illnesses.  I am hoping to continue my work by blogging for the Invisible Illness Awareness Week.  And will take advantage of every opportunity to write that I can, from upcoming WEGO Health projects to the Invisible Illness Awareness Week – they all provide excellent opportunities to blog and spread awareness as well as providing brilliant inspiration on what to write.  The prompts and ideas often challenge us as writers’, often making us better storytellers and writers.

Will also continue using social media along with the blog – Facebook and Twitter to connect with others and hopefully making new friends along the way!

And in my private life, I am hoping that the group I am involved with will continue to grow and thrive, and am looking forward to the new opportunities that will present itself as secretary of the group – we already have so many great plans for the group.  Along with that I will also continue my work as a volunteer and now have been lined up as a potential tutor for courses as well as being asked to produce a newsletter for the Centre.

And all of this whilst trying hard to maintain my health and keeping as well as possible!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Inside

The WordPress ‘Weekly Photo Challenge’ asked, what does inside mean to us?  Well to start, the word ‘inside’ is defend as something which is ‘the interior, inner or enclosed part or surface.’  Now, as my blog is concerned with my life living with a neurological condition, I thus decided to take a photo of a diagram of the brain, and specifically the brainstem.

This organ weighing approximately 3 pounds lies inside our skull, in charge of all the most important functions such as breathing.  It also holds the key to our being – memories are stored here, personality develops within certain areas of the brain, it can control whether we feel pain or other emotions.  And when things go wrong within the brain or some part is damaged can result in deficits according to where the damage lies – it can also result in experiencing weird symptoms such as my dislike for high ceiling!!

So, what does the word ‘inside’ look to you?

 

HAWMC Day 8: Best Conversation I had this week…

Happy Easter Everyone!!  Hope you are all enjoying your Easter Eggs… Well, it’s now day 8 of WEGO Health Activist Writer’s Month Challenge, which means a brand new post, and today’s prompt reads:

Best conversation I had this week…Try writing script-style (or with dialogue) today to recap an awesome conversation you had this week

Well, unfortunately, today I am not feeling well today, and am unable to vividly remember any conversation I had this week.  However, quite recently a very nice woman got in touch with me via a website that I am a member of, she recently moved into the area and was looking to meet new people.  Anyway, she first came to my house a few weeks ago, and last week we arranged to go out into our local town for lunch.  We were talking about my blog and she said something that stayed with me:

Your blog is a great idea, is a great way to educate people about your condition and you never who you are going to help by writing it.  Some person may read it, and having the same symptoms as you and go to the doctor’s with the information and get a diagnosis.

I have never really though about it that way, sure I wanted to educate people about my condition and to raise awareness of hidden disabilities in general.  But would be amazing to think that maybe someone could helped by my blog, especially as it took me years and years to get a definitive diagnosis, instead doctor’s telling me it was all down to anxiety and my problems ‘were in my head.’

It was also probably the best conversation I have had this week, as for one it wasn’t with one of my parents, who I spend most of my time with. And second of all, going out with someone and having a fun conversation enabled me to forget about my problems for a while, and just have some fun…

Anyway, I am going to keep this short for today, especially as I don’t feel well, so will see you all tomorrow…