Happy.fm

Ouch! If you’ve ever had a bad fall you know how much damage you can do. When Ruth stumbled and fell last week, she got “firsthand” experience of just how bad multiple hand fractures can be.

So if you ever happen to injure a limb and find yourself temporarily disabled, here are 5 helpful tips to help you manage your way through recovery:

1. Having received good medical help, follow through with every direction. You’d be surprised how many people ignore their medical guidelines. The result? Delayed healing and, sometimes, serious complications.
2. You will be sleepy! Being significantly injured reduces your stamina so you tire easily. Also, your body needs the help of rest to heal. So this is the time to do less and get practical help with all your daily duties.
3. Skip big decision-making. Whether it’s the effects of pain medication or the trauma itself, judgment often gets clouded.  So avoid doing anything needing a clear head. Heal first.
4. Live as normally as you can without doing harm. Although rest helps, there’s a wealth of evidence to show getting back to work and getting on with life actually aids recovery. Providing it’s medically supported, do it. Because your usual routines help sustain you, returning to a gentler version of normal life helps you cope.
5. Don’t expect help, plan on it. Assume nothing, by kindly guiding people to help if they don’t know what to do,. Organize help with chores and the personal care you need so you aren’t left in the lurch.

Real life can definitely be hard at times, can’t it? To live a happy life we need the coping skills to handle whatever is dished up. One of the most important  is the willingness to get help when you need it. Independence is good. But giving and receiving help make life measurably better.