Self Care - 3

  If you haven't checked the previous step, please do so as its important you look at all the possible options to manage your situation. This post I will talk about external factors and see if making different choice will help you in the long run.


  • If you and your family members do different chores, try to pick up chores which has a little bit of flexibility on when you do it. This could be washing clothes if you have washing machine, washing dishes ( using dishwasher if available) etc.

                  Couple of simple things you can keep in mind is, with dishes for example if you are washing before your dishwasher gets full due to running out of some utensils ( spoons, bowls, plates etc), get extra of those. Same thing applies for clothes too.  


  • As most of us will have chronic neck pain and pain associated with neck issues, its important you start looking down with your eyes ( whenever possible) rather than by bending your head. 
                Our head weighs a lot and the more we tried to look down by bringing down our head, the more strain it puts on our already suffering and sensitive neck. Few practical tricks you can try to apply are:
    • When washing dishes, try to keep your phone at the eye level ( if there is window ceiling next to sink for example, you can keep it there) and watch something while doing the dishes. This will help you to stop looking down all the time you are doing dishes
    • When using phone, try to keep at a higher elevation. Most of us also have arm issues, so I couldn't do it in the beginning, but I try to do it whenever I remember. 
    • Same thing when trying to type. If you need to look down at the keyboard, look with your eyes rather than the neck. Initially it will be hard but it will get better

  • Related to holding the phone, try a pop socket. It helped me quite a bit with positioning and pain near the thumb base due to holding the phone.

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