[00:00:00] Before we jump into today's episode, I wanna ask you a question. What was your biggest win this summer? If your first thought was, "Honestly, I have no idea," you are not alone. Last week, on one of my Healing Habits coaching calls, I asked our members that exact question. And for a second, I got radio silence, and I wondered if everyone was sitting there thinking, "I didn't really accomplish anything this summer."
Because I know how easy it is to overlook your own progress when you're living with MS. But then one woman shared, and then another, and then another, and something incredible happened. As each woman shared her own win, the other women started recognizing their own. It was like one woman's story gave another woman permission to finally see herself differently.
And as I'm [00:01:00] sitting there listening to this all unfold, I found myself wishing that every woman listening to this podcast could have been in that Zoom room with us. Because I have a feeling that you are giving yourself far less credit than you deserve. So today, I wanna help you recognize a win that you may be overlooking.
And before we get started, I wanna invite you to something special. Living with MS can feel overwhelming, but one habit can shift everything. That's what I'll show you inside my free webinar, How to Help Slow MS Progression, Starting with Just One Habit. Think of it as your first step towards more energy, confidence, and hope.
Save your seat at aleenebrennan.com/webinar. Welcome to my MS podcast, where women with MS learn how to slow progression and live a life they love. [00:02:00] I'm Aleene Brennan, your MS sister, and a practitioner who knows the science and the reality of living this too. Each week, I share simple, science-backed habits to boost your energy, stay consistent, and feel like yourself again.
Because MS may be a part of your story, but it doesn't get to write the ending. Welcome back to my MS podcast. I hope you guys have been enjoying your summer. So I've taken a couple weeks off here from recording, and I am so excited to be back, and I think this topic is a good one. Do I say that with every episode?
Possibly, but it's because I mean it. I'm not gonna do a podcast episode if I don't think it's worth our time discussing. And I'm just gonna jump right into today's topic, right? Like, you pressed play, let's go. So this topic is one that I think would probably be relevant for every [00:03:00] woman, MS or not. But absolutely, like non-negotiable to listen to this if you are a woman living with MS.
And I say that because I think most of us as women aren't very good at celebrating or recognizing our wins and progress in life. Most of us finish one thing and then immediately move on to the next, right? Like, we don't stop. We don't stop to acknowledge how far we've come. We don't celebrate. We just keep it pushing.
But then when you add MS into the picture, it becomes even harder. But as an ambitious woman living with MS myself, I can say firsthand, some days it feels impossible to recognize any success. And it's not necessarily because we're comparing ourselves to everyone else. We're comparing ourselves to the version of ourself before our [00:04:00] diagnosis, like our pre-MS self.
And I think that's where so many of us get stuck because we're measuring ourselves with the wrong scorecard. When you're an ambitious woman, it's easy to measure l- your life by productivity Finishing projects, checking off the to-do list, getting everything done, right? Feeling productive, efficient, feeling like you've made progress.
That feels good. It feels good, right? It's a feeling that I love to experience. That's the scorecard that so many of us used before MS, and I get it. I was the same exact way. I call it our pre-MS scorecard. But here's the problem. Most of us are still grading ourselves with that pre-MS scorecard, which means it feels like we are losing every [00:05:00] single day, not because we're not making progress, but because we're measuring the wrong things.
And I don't think we do this on purpose necessarily. Like, nobody wakes up in the morning and decides to ignore their own progress. That's not it. I think we've simply gotten so used to looking at everything that MS has changed that we stop noticing everything we continue to build and maintain. So the reason so many of us aren't celebrating our wins is because we're still grading ourselves against our pre-MS scorecard.
So this week on the Healing Habits coaching call, I asked one question: "What was your biggest win this summer?" And just like that, there was silence. The pregnant pause, right? And honestly, I kind of expected it, not because nobody had anything good to share, but [00:06:00] because I know how easy it is to dismiss your own progress.
But then one woman spoke up, and then another, and then another. And as each woman spoke, you could see everyone else's perspective starting to change. It was like they were borrowing one another's definition of success. One woman's win gave another woman permission to recognize her own. And I think that's the most beautiful part about being in a community.
If you've ever heard me talk about the Healing Habits community, like, it is a gem. It is a gem of incredible women who are all in this together. And we all know, like, you go on Facebook and so many of those pages are, like, doom and gloom. And maybe you go to some in-person support groups, and you feel like you don't quite fit in there.
And then you go online, and you see all the worst-case [00:07:00] scenarios, and you're like, "Where are the other women like me?" Like, the other women who are living with this diagnosis and have really hard days, but also, we don't wanna get stuck in the doom and gloom. We wanna call it like it is. We wanna hold the space for one another when we're having a moment, but then we wanna lift our chin and keep walking and hear other stories of hope so that we can walk in our own story of hope and best case scenario.
So sometimes we need someone else to help us see that we are making progress. So I wanted to dedicate this episode today to share some of the stories of the women in this community so that maybe in turn you can start seeing your own wins. So I think the very first woman who spoke talked about her win of the summer was taking a two-and-a-half-week road trip with her family.
Now, someone [00:08:00] outside of our community hears road trip and probably thinks like, "Hmm, that's a fun vacation." But that's not what I hear. Because when you're living with MS, a road trip isn't just a road trip, right? You're leaving behind the comforts that help you manage your symptoms. The air conditioning in your home, your comfy bed in your bedroom, your comfy spot on the couch where you know you can rest when you need it.
And also just the predictability of your daily routine. Whereas when you're on the road, you're constantly having to think about, like, "How am I gonna keep my cooling devices cold?" Or, "If fatigue hits, who else can help drive? Where can I find a quiet place to rest if I need one?" Like, those aren't things that the average person is gonna think of, but they are for us.
But those are the realities that we have to think about And as she was sharing her story, like I was hearing [00:09:00] somebody who was listening to her body, adjusting, adapting, and making decisions that allowed her to keep participating instead of pushing through until she crashed. Like she talked about going to a water park with her family, and it was a hot day.
It has been a hot summer. I don't care where you are in this country, it has been a hot summer. And she's at a water park with her three kids, and she had a moment where she just had to turn to her husband. She's like, "I, I need to step away. I need to go like get in some shade and just take a rest." That's a win.
Like it doesn't feel like it in the moment. It feels like maybe you're missing out or, or maybe it feels like a sense of guilt, like you're not able to participate with the family the way that you had thought you would. But those decisions are what allowed her to keep participating instead of pushing through and then crashing and not being able to enjoy any of [00:10:00] the rest of the road trip.
The win wasn't just surviving two and a half weeks on the road. It was making the small decisions each and every day that helped her body to show up for those entire two and a half weeks. That is a huge win, right? That's a huge win. But people outside of our community don't hear that. Again, you tell somebody you went on a road trip or you took a family vacation, they're like, "Oh, that's great.
Sounds fun, you know, where did you go?" Like all the normal questions. But women in our community see the truth behind that experience. And because she decided to listen to her body and make the adjustments and adapt where she needed to and to speak up where she needed to, she is walking away from that vacation not feeling completely drained and fatigued.
She's walking away with great memories, great memories. And yes, there is no [00:11:00] doubt that she had to rest a lot more when she got home. There's always that re-entry of vacation, right? Like there's the recovery period that you need to go through. But again, that's part of adapting and listening to your body so that you can still enjoy the summer.
Well, after she told that story, another woman shared that one of her greatest joys this summer has been spending the weekends with her grandson, and she shared something that like just melted my heart. So her grandson is little, I don't remember the exact age of him, but like toddler age. Well, he comes over to the house and is fascinated by her cane.
Like every single time he's walking over to Nona and grabbing her cane. And we all know that feeling, like none of us wants our cane or our mobility devices to become the thing that our child or grandchild notices. That's not what we want. And I guess she must have said something to a family member, like just [00:12:00] kind of like having a moment and sharing it with them.
And the response that the family member said to her was so thoughtful. She said, "He's not obsessed with your cane. He loves you, and that cane is a part of you." I mean, is that not the sweetest thing ever? It's sweet because it's true. 'Cause sometimes the thing that we're most self-conscious about isn't what the people who love us see at all.
They don't see the cane, they see you. And yes, the cane may be the thing that allows you to move around and be more active with your grandchild or child or whomever it may be, but it also can be something that builds really sweet bonds and moments and memories together. And that, my friend, is a huge win.
Then another woman shared that she finally started using trekking poles, and I love the way the conversation unfolded because we were talking about how, [00:13:00] like, hikers use trekking poles all the time, but nobody sees a hiker using it and thinks, "Whoa, they're totally weak." No, they look at them and they're like, "Whoa, they're a serious hiker.
They're prepared. They're smart. Like, they're serious about their hiking." So why do we tell ourselves a different story when we're using them? Using support isn't giving up. It's allowing her to still do the thing that gives her great joy, which is hiking. And I know that's one of the hobbies that so many women in our community love doing, and it's one of the things that they wanna hold onto the most.
They don't want MS to take away their ability to walk or to hike because it's so much more than just putting one foot in front of the other. Oftentimes, it's a social activity that you're doing with your friends. You're also getting outside and getting the fresh air, and it feels like you are living [00:14:00] life when you are doing it.
That's what we're focusing on as we do these diet and lifestyle changes. It's not about getting more broccoli or kale on your plate. It's about what those habits help you to do. They help you to still live the life that you want to live, the life that you worked so hard to build. Well, then this woman even shared that she took a 20-minute walk and wasn't completely exhausted afterwards.
Like, that's a win. Sometimes the support that we need doesn't make our world smaller. It gives us our world back It gives us our world back. Well, as I was listening to these women, I started to realize none of them had changed their dreams. They were still taking the family vacation, playing with their grandkids, going for the hike.
They just changed how they got there or made a few adjustments along the way. [00:15:00] And I think that's one of the hardest parts about living with MS. Nobody hands you, like, a new definition of success. So we keep using the old one, the pre-MS scorecard, the one that says, "If you didn't get everything done today, today wasn't a success."
But maybe that was never true, MS or not. Maybe success was never been about doing everything. It's about continuing to build a life that you love, even if it looks different than it used to. So I wonder, have you talked yourself out of celebrating wins this summer? Like maybe you asked your husband for help when you typically would have just pushed through.
Maybe you rested before your body forced you to. You drank water. You finally believed your fatigue instead of questioning whether you were being lazy in that moment. Or [00:16:00] maybe you made it to your granddaughter's soccer game or spent 20 minutes playing on the floor with your child. You said no without writing a five-paragraph-long apology to the person, right?
Or you made it through a family vacation because you allowed other people to support you. Or I know another woman in our community, she did a raised garden instead of giving up on gardening altogether this summer. Maybe your win is super impressive to the rest of the world, but maybe it's not. Mine aren't.
Our wins may appear smaller, but they are so much more meaningful under the surface. It's the version that tells you what you were able to do despite living with MS. Each and every win counts, every single one of them. My friend, don't talk yourself out of celebrating your wins this summer. And after having this conversation on our coaching call, I realized [00:17:00] I never actually answered my own question.
Now, if you asked me a month ago what my biggest win of the summer was, I would not have hesitated. I absolutely would have said my 10-year anniversary of my MS diagnosis because it marked 10 years of stable MRIs. And yes, that is a huge win. It felt so validating of all of the things that I have done over the past 10 years.
The diet changes, the lifestyle changes, the supplements, you know, like all the things. It felt super validating, like it was proof that it all worked. But the reality is that wasn't the win that meant the most to me. The win that has meant the most to me is what those stable MRIs have made possible. When I look back on this summer, I don't think about the MRI reports.
I think about my daughter, that I have been able to spend so [00:18:00] many days this summer at the pool and on the beach. Those places were a huge part of my childhood. So it means so much to me that I have been able to give my daughter those experiences too. And this summer has been extremely hot. So yes, I had to adapt a lot of things.
I had to wear the ice vest when we went to see fireworks on July 4th. I wore my ice necklace almost every single day at the pool. I had to sit in the shade, even when that meant that I had to step away from conversations that friends were having in the direct sunlight. I had to stay on top of my water and boost it with electrolytes, and I had to rest when I wanted to keep going But this summer, I was able to be there.
I was able to spend those days at the pool with her. I was able to watch her learn how to swim, do a cannonball in the water, [00:19:00] go off the diving board, build sandcastles, and build her own memories of summer. That is my biggest win. 10 years of stable MRIs is a super, like, yes, impressive, like, headline or whatever you wanna call it.
But these days with my daughter are what those stable MRIs have made possible, and that is what matters most to me. I don't wanna take a single moment of motherhood for granted. It brings me the greatest joy in life, and I wanna soak in every moment of it, especially these younger years with her. So now I wanna turn to you.
What was your biggest win this summer? Not the one that Instagram would celebrate, not the one your neurologist would have written in your medical chart, the one that mattered to you. Because if you keep measuring yourself with your pre-MS scorecard, [00:20:00] you're going to miss the beautiful progress that you are making right now, today.
And my friend, I think you've accomplished so much more this summer than you're giving yourself credit for. And when you do have that answer, I would love to hear it. Send me a DM over on Instagram. It can just be a simple sentence. "My biggest win this summer was..." It would mean the world to me to hear your wins as well.
All right, my friends. I'm gonna wrap it here today. I hope this has been helpful. This topic actually really reminds me of the reason why I started this podcast. It was to open up these conversations that we need to have with other women living with MS, because we are living with an invisible chronic disease that other people just truly cannot understand, but yet we are not in this alone.
So I'm so glad that you hit play on today's episode, and I look [00:21:00] forward to chatting with you in the next episode. Take care. And that's it for today's episode of my MS podcast. I hope you're walking away with one small step you can put into practice today, because that is how real change happens. And remember, MS has its own biological clock, which means the sooner you start, the more power you have to influence your future.
The best time to begin is now. That's why I created my free webinar, How to Help Slow MS Progression, Starting With Just One Habit Today. Grab your spot at alenebrennan.com/webinar. See you there