postural orthostatic tachycardia syndome Archives

How I Succeed in School with POTS

Disclaimer: These posts are speaking from my personal experience and I am merely relaying what has been beneficial for me. I know everyone’s situation is different, and I truly respect that and want to say up front that I know my methods may not work for others. By no means am I looking to push my experience as the only way that works, nor am I trying to say that anyone is wrong or weak for not exploring the methods I propose, or for having a varying opinion or experience. I have tremendous respect for everyone fighting through POTS, and I am only looking to extend empathy, offer support, encourage resilience, all while attempting to be as positive as possible! I’m also just looking to share my story and connect with others!

POTS knocked me out of school for about half of the days in my junior year. I had to drop my first-period class because mornings were associated with throbbing pains all over my body and an inability to concentrate on any subject matter material at all. On the days when I did go into school, my time there was limited to a few hours at a time. The mornings weren’t the only tough times. Concentrating was a monumental task for all of my classes. Reading a textbook and finishing a test, which were activities I had always breezed through, gave me headaches and rendered me incapacitated due to the mental stress and overwhelm.

Being in and out of class didn’t help either. Instead of being viewed as my normal, friendly, academically competitive self, many people looked at me with confusion, indifference, or the occasional sense of disdain. I can’t blame them for not being able to see an invisible illness. It can be hard enough for you and me to conceptualize POTS, even as we live with it on a daily basis. Others, by way of human nature, tried to simplify my condition by placing me in a “sick” bucket or a “making something up to miss school” bucket. All of these things combined to make high school a battle socially, mentally, emotionally, physically, and psychologically for me. Every day was an all-around challenge.

I just painted a bleak picture of my time in high school with POTS. However, my experience improved over time, and my senior year was night and day compared to my junior year. I was extremely fortunate to have amazing people and resources to help me through high school, so I want to share what helped me to finish out my junior year and then build up to an even better senior year of high school. These strategies, along with strokes of luck and caring people, carried me through the college application process and have now helped me tremendously as a student at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, ranked the top public university in the country.

Before I give credit to myself or anyone else, I have to give credit to my mom. She worked tirelessly behind the scenes to set my siblings and me up for success at school, and, without her, none of my relationships with teachers or counselors – or any of my academic success for that matter – would be possible. That’s something to keep in mind during this post — I’m lucky enough to have an amazing mother who did all she could to work with doctors, school, and with me to help me reach my highest level academically.

I also want to give this post a bit more background by explaining the type of help I got from my high school. Through my mom’s efforts, I had the support of my guidance department and teachers that allowed me to do whatever it took to get me through my classes. I also had a learning support teacher and department to help me communicate with teachers – shoutout to Mrs. Kelly, you’re an angel – and I took most tests in the learning support room. Extra aids included extra time on all assignments, the ability to dismiss the completion of some assignments, such as more frivolous homework or in-class activities, without consequence, and the option to take tests over a multi-day period.

I was definitely an outsider in terms of how I was completing my assignments relative to the rest of my classmates, but my individualized education plan was designed purely to help me overcome my unique limitations and balance the playing field between the other students and me. It allowed me to work at my own pace and take tests quietly, with breaks in between. It also took some of the weight off of my shoulders in terms of communicating with teachers about assignments, which can be incredibly intimidating for someone struggling with chronic illness.

I’ll talk more about accommodations later on, but they were an essential part of my story and I was lucky enough to have the help I did. I know other people or other schools may not have the same luck with guidance. If any parents or kids who are trying to work with school are reading this and want to hear my mom’s view on how she got medical information and talked with our guidance department to get our accommodations, please reach out to let me know and I can arrange a guest post where my mom can lay out her approach with doctors and school for accommodations.

My last couple posts have been in list form, and I hope they aren’t coming across as similar to BuzzFeed-esque posts like “17 Ways to Slice an Avocado this Summer.” I believe laying out my content as separate points can help to differentiate between and highlight each major detail, and today’s post will be a “list” of 5 strategies that have helped me to get back in school, get through a day of school, and get back to my best self academically.

So, without further ado, here are 5 things that have helped me go from out of school to a full-time college student in two years. Keep in mind that my situation is unique and fortunate, so these strategies may not work for everyone. However, hopefully, you can pull one or two takeaways from this post that can help you in school, work, or life.

1. Build Up Over Time

At my worst, I was in school for 1-2 days a week, for only a couple hours at a time. At my best, a year later, I was in school 5 days a week for three full periods, or about six hours of time. This transition did not happen overnight. It was a gradual build-up, and I set small goals for time spent in school and then kept checking them off and building up upon them.

I remember my first goal clearly — my 3rd-period class was Advanced Placement English, and it was a class in the afternoon that was fairly fast-paced, leading to my desire to keep up with it the best I could. The class was in the second semester, and my first semester took the analogy of a valley. I started high, fell down to my lowest point, and then started to build myself back up. By the time winter break was over and second semester was starting, I was still struggling with my health. Nonetheless, I had built some positive momentum with school, so I wanted to transfer my momentum over to concrete goals for my second semester.

My only second-semester goal was to go to AP English every day. I started out with about 3-4 days a week of the class, and the other two classes I had at the time were less of a priority. A significant accomplishment on a daily basis for me was showing up in class. Once I was in class, I knew I was helping myself because I wouldn’t be missing out on lessons or assignments that I would’ve had to make up had I been absent. Even if I weren’t 100% focused, I knew being there would help me to remember and complete at least some things, and that was much better than nothing at all.

Integrating myself into a group setting was tremendously helpful as well. Our class had desks in groups that entire semester, and listening to my groupmates discuss the content we were learning or the problem we were working through greatly helped me enhance my understanding of the class material. The ability to speak up in a small setting also took some pressure off of me and allowed me to build my concentration and confidence by contributing my point of view, along with asking for help if I were confused on a section.

Whenever we had an in-class essay or small test, I went to a different room to complete the assignment. I usually didn’t finish in the time the other kids did, but I got better and better and faster and faster over time. At first, I would be plagued by headaches and brain fog after having to read or write for 20-30 minutes. That went to 35, then 40, then 45, and by the end of the year, I was able to complete full assignments in one sitting.

In my other classes, my top focus was again showing up and participating. I started out with 2-3 days a week, and then gradually progressed. Those classes didn’t have as intense a workload as English, so I was able to miss a bit more time without having to make up as much. I completed many assignments for those two classes late, in the learning support room with accommodations, but over time I built up my mental energy supply and started to keep up with my classmates. By the end of the year, I was able to take 3 AP tests, which helped me receive college credit that is incredibly beneficial for me at Michigan. I didn’t get passing scores in all of my AP tests, but I viewed sitting down for them, after all I had gone through, as a massive win given where I started.

My route to building up my time in school was: show up -> do what I could in class -> complete assignments on my own terms with accommodations -> complete what I could at the pace of other students. By the end of the school year, I was in school 4-5 days per week, and I attended all 3 of my classes on my best days. It was difficult all year, especially at the start. But school got just a bit easier day by day, and, by the time the year was over, I was doing so much better than when I started.

2. Get Accommodations

This part is tough. I mentioned it earlier — I had a unique situation and everything came together with my mom and I working with guidance, learning support, and teachers to ensure my academic success. I know every school is different; there were people in my class at Mayo Clinic that couldn’t get much done with their guidance departments at school and they were unable to secure much in the way of accommodations. Accommodations were and are a major part of my academic success, though, so I am going to run you through what my process with accommodations looked like in high school and how it looks today, in college. Hopefully, there are some overlying principles that can be applied to most schools and situations.

In high school, I applied for an individualized education plan with notes from Dr. Boris at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia about the severity of POTS and accommodations that would help best prepare me for succeeding in school. I’m not sure of the exact information of those health documents, but, again, if anyone wants an in-depth view, please let me know. My biggest challenges in school were the amount of work I could get done in a certain time as well as the mental and physical stress that sitting in class for 80 minutes straight would cause me.

I was able to use extended time to complete certain assignments over multiple days to combat the first challenge. There were no worries for me about pushing myself too hard with school or having to spend any more than an hour at a time on an assignment. I knew those were triggers for symptoms and crashes, so I instead split up my work into smaller chunks, using time and sleep as tools for resting and recharging to help me best attack the next part of my assignment.

As for sitting in class for 80 minutes straight, that was nearly impossible, especially when I was first getting back into school. My solution to that issue was that I had the ability to leave class at any time to walk around. I was also able to carry snacks and drinks on me at all times. These arrangements fixed a number of major issues, as I kept myself hydrated, fueled, and relaxed throughout all class sections.

Whenever I wasn’t feeling good, I could get up, walk out of class, and reset. Sometimes I would visit the learning support room and hang out, other times I would walk around then sit down and take deep breaths. If I was doing really poorly, I might’ve gone to the nurse’s office and laid down. The nurses knew my family and me well too, so if I needed to leave school for the day, that was a process that was low-stress.

A key part of my individual plan was maintaining consistent communication with my teachers about my assignments. It wasn’t too easy for my teachers because I was taking tests home and turning homework in late, but communicating with them in person, through email, and through my learning support specialist, Mrs. Kelly, allowed for clarity with regards to due dates and new assignments. Mrs. Kelly was an awesome go-between and would often turn in assignments late after I’d completed them. She would also collect them from my teachers for me when I was absent or out of class. It helped me beyond explanation to have the support of a counselor when dealing with busy teachers who may not have understood my situation at times.

I have to give my teachers credit too for being understanding and working with me, though. I am incredibly grateful for the compassion shown by my parents, the guidance office, learning support, and my teachers. We all worked as a team to make my experience the best it could be.

In my senior year, when I was back in school full-time, I still used my accommodations, just not to the same degree as I had previously. I took my more challenging tests in a Testing Room where I had, once again, incredible support and individual freedom. I was free to walk around and take breaks as needed, and I was able to finish almost all of my exams and essays the same day I started them. Since I was in class full-time, I was no longer behind on assignments or homework, which, looking back, was a satisfying step of progress from my junior to senior year.

If you can work in any way with your guidance department, administration, or individual teachers, I would encourage you to try. By talking to them, it helped me to explain all of the ways my invisible illness limited me in comparison to other students. The backing of medical records with a doctor’s signature lent credibility to my requests.

Getting accommodations can be extremely difficult, and my situation might be the exception, not the rule, with regards to how cooperative my school was with my situation. However, even getting one teacher to understand and getting her help can make a tremendous difference in the ability to get into school and keep up with assignments and classes.

College has been a bit different for me. I had the same medical records as I did in high school, and all I had to do was go to our Services for Students with Disabilities office and meet with a coordinator. The counselor there listened to my story, asked how my symptoms affected my academic life, and asked how accommodations could help me. After our discussion, I was basically allowed to pick my own accommodations! I opted for starting with time-and-a-half on tests and taking exams in a quiet accommodations room. I was told that in the future, if I needed more accommodations, all I had to do was communicate that to my counselor and I could obtain more time and individual flexibility.

How have accommodations affected me in college? Well, extra time was tremendously helpful in one of my most challenging classes, as it allowed me to space out my test-taking time so I didn’t absolutely kill my brain in an hour. The exam was still extremely cognitively demanding, and I was pressed for time, but it was a big help nonetheless. On other tests, I was more comfortable with the subject matter and was able to breeze through my exams. The quiet, distraction-free room definitely helped in every situation, but I especially appreciated the ability to stay late on one test and leave early on others — it was the ultimate form of individual academic freedom!

Something I struggled with was the idea that I was giving myself an unfair advantage with my accommodations and I wasn’t truly earning the grades I was getting. Over time, I’ve come around to thinking accommodations shouldn’t be looked at as cheating or as taking the easy way out; rather, they’re a necessary component of leveling the playing field for students with differing limitations. Chronic illness may be invisible, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. Making the game fair for oneself by individualizing the academic process is a way to make school much more manageable and enjoyable.

3. Use Socialization as a Distraction

The most underrated component of school for my overall health and well-being was how it served as a distraction from my symptoms. After living a fairly isolated life in my junior year, I forgot how great it was to see my friends in class and at lunch. The combination of hanging out, goofing off, learning things together, and feeding off the energy of my peers made my symptoms “disappear” from time to time. When I was able to completely immerse myself in my work or my conversations, I stopped thinking about my pain. Even a few seconds was a big deal for me.

I believe an important part of normalizing life with chronic illness is getting back into social settings. Friends can allow us to escape our own thoughts, and I often find that I smile and laugh much more when I am around my buddies, or even any group of people my age. Additionally, being with other people can help us to develop perspective and remember that other people are fighting silent battles too. Sometimes, I have even found that someone in the room is suffering more than I am, and that thought radically changes the way I view my own circumstances. It helps to cultivate an attitude of gratitude.

The diversity of classrooms and academic settings allow for people to have a large group of people to which they can potentially relate. I found the socialization aspect of school to be a fun component that served as a distraction from symptoms, as well as an arena in which I had a newfound appreciation for those around me, especially people who I could relate to through a level of silent suffering.

4. Pack Salt, Water, and Snacks

I’m sure many people already do this, but I thought it was worth mentioning because of the impact packing nutrients can provide. Every day for school, I would pack a lunch with snacks for every 1-2 hours along with a reusable water bottle that I would fill up about every hour. Additionally, I would sometimes have a Gatorade or Propel sports drink to boost my electrolytes. I’ve since soured on drinking sports drinks, as I’m of the opinion that they are sugar bombs that can contribute to a rush and crash cycle, but I know they can be super helpful to some people.

For good snack ideas, fruit, nuts and nut butters, vegetables, RX Bars, and greek yogurts are always at the top of my list as healthy, energy-sustaining, snacks. I would take 1000 mg salt pills with some water with breakfast and lunch, but if that is tough on your stomach, pack some salty snacks to go along with your meals. Beef jerky is a favorite of mine! This is also something the POTS community does a great job of — check out other blogs, Reddit posts, and Facebook pages for awesome ideas for food, fluids, and ways to carry all of them! What I just mentioned may not suit your dietary tastes or needs, so keep in mind that’s what works for me and something else may work for you!

5. Take Breaks to Walk Around and Breath

Last but not least — we can remember school is a major challenge and a significant stressor on the body. Especially when building back up to a normal schedule, it’s important to take breaks. I found walking around, sitting down in a chair outside of class, taking deep breaths, listening to music, and talking to a counselor all to be useful strategies for dealing with brain fog, fatigue, headaches, and any pain that was brought up by stress. As mentioned earlier, I was fortunate enough to have the freedom to do all of this during normal class time, which was a huge benefit of accommodations. However, even just walking to the bathroom and taking some deep breaths was always an effective tool for me. I sometimes even tried mini-meditations to clear my mind, slow my heart rate, and take control of my autonomic nervous system!

I would take breaks at school as well as at home when doing any school work. I started very small and built up over time, as I did in many different areas of my life when I was most symptomatic with POTS. Breaks were always a great way to reset my mind and alleviate some of the stress put on my brain and body by work. Today, I am an advocate of using breaks at school and at work, and I typically will use a few minutes every half hour-hour to do some stretching, quick exercise, or browse my phone to find something that interests or entertains me and takes my mind off of my work. Whatever works for you is best, so I encourage you to try some different break strategies wherever you are and see how they help you. Whether you’re in school or not, taking a break is a good decision to make!

Let me know in the comments section: What’s your experience with school been like?

Additionally, please reach out if you want more information on accommodations with high school and college, applying to college, or anything else in this post or past posts!

Thank you for reading, and I’m incredibly grateful for all of the feedback and support I’ve gotten. Please keep it up — support makes my day and puts a smile on my face, and feedback helps to improve the blog for all future readers!

Have a great week, and my thoughts and prayers go out to you wherever you are on your journey.

Win the Morning, Win the Day

“Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.”
– W. H. Auden

For many people with POTS, mornings are the toughest part of the day, and that’s been 100% true in my experience. Whether it’s brain fog, dizziness, muscle soreness, or overwhelming fatigue after waking up, mornings can be a sizable challenge, and we all know a rough morning can lead to a rough day. However, the opposite is also true — a great morning can lead to a great day.

In three years of self-experimentation, I’ve learned that a morning routine has a significant positive impact on my day. Meaning, if I miss a component or two, there’s a noticeable difference in my energy levels and disposition, and skipping all 5 of my post-wake habits makes my day much, much, tougher.

I use 5 steps every morning to ensure I’ll be in a peak state when tackling the mental and physical challenges of the day. Each component of my routine has concrete scientific benefits, and every step I complete also leads to the feeling of a mental “win” that helps to build my self-esteem and willpower. I’m constantly changing the order and adding and subtracting things, but these 5 have consistently served me well across different times, places, and situations.

The habits of my morning routine have transformed my mornings into a time of day when I feel lively and motivated for the tasks ahead. My habits set me up to perform at my best physically, mentally, and psychologically, and checking things off in the morning makes checking off the day’s more difficult tasks later on much, much, easier.

(For reference, I currently go to bed at 11-11:30 PM on weeknights and wake up with an alarm at 7-7:30 AM on weekdays. Weekend bedtimes range from 11:30 PM-1 AM and wake times are 7:30-9 AM. I’m currently trying to exercise some discipline and align my weekday and weekend bedtime schedules for greater consistency across the board.)

Pop Out of Bed

Quick disclaimer here: If you are at a high risk for fainting, it’s probably best to take your time getting out of bed because rapid movement could bring on dizziness. Having a glass of water near your bed can be a good idea, and sitting up and monitoring how you feel before you get up can help as well. I’m just sharing what’s worked for me, and this is an approach I’ve learned from the Mayo Clinic that’s worked for my siblings as well. It could help some people, and may not be a good fit for others. I’m talking in this section more about not hitting the snooze button on an alarm, and waking up only once during the morning, rather than physically jumping out of bed.

Ever since I’ve set my alarm to wake myself up in the morning, I’ve jumped right out of bed, the second I hear the alarm. I despise the sound of my alarm in the morning, and I want to turn that thing off as soon as I can. Sometimes I wake up in a daze or am confused coming right out of a dream, but I always get up immediately when I come to my senses.

The fact that I jump right out of bed may not seem interesting or important, but I believe popping up is crucial for my morning. When I get up right away, I am starting my day in complete control, and I’m not wasting one second lying comfortably. letting time tick away. Once my day starts, I want to get right into attack mode.

This habit wasn’t an easy one to begin. When I started setting a consistent alarm, it was an attempt to get myself on a schedule, and, at the time, my mornings were rough and I was highly symptomatic. Because of this, I needed an extra boost mentally to help me power through and believe in myself. For about 18 months, I followed the advice of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and his incredible book The Power of Positive Thinking by repeating an affirmation from the Bible verse Philippians 4:13 when I got out of bed in the morning:

“I believe, I believe, I believe, that I can do all things through He who strengthens me, and that if God is on my side, then no one and nothing can oppose me.”

Usually, after waking, I would feel lightheaded or dizzy, and self-doubt would creep into my mind. I remember thinking, “maybe I can’t do this today, maybe I need to go back to bed.” However, repeating my affirmation strengthened my belief that I could push through the start of the day. It wasn’t just a “mental toughness” aspect, it was the thought that I had God on my side, and I knew He is more powerful than any worldly impediment. I applied the same logic to win the rest of the day, as I convinced myself I had God’s support to carry me through any challenges I would face.

Today, having built up my habit, I find it much easier to get right out of bed. One new addition that also helps is thinking about something that excites me for that day immediately after waking. Keeping a person I love or a dream I’m passionate about in mind can be a fantastic morning motivator.

Funny enough, the first step in my morning routine doesn’t take much more than a second. An important distinction is that I go right into the next part of my routine after getting out of bed.

Once I wake up, no matter how I feel or how tired I am, I follow my routine. I focus on the step-by-step process, and each progressive action gets easier over time. An added bonus? The Silicon Valley-esque notion that I am eliminating decision fatigue, which is the mental exhaustion that accumulates and saps brain energy with every new decision in the morning.

Make my bed

“If all else fails, at least I made my bed.” That’s the thinking behind the habit I picked up after reading the highly inspiring and informational book Make Your Bed by Admiral William H McRaven. Much like my other habits, the utility of making my bed is twofold. As I mentioned earlier, making my bed gives me a sense of control over my morning, my day, and my life. It’s the one thing life cannot take away from me and something I can complete every morning, no matter what.

Making my bed also improves my ability to form habits. Every day, when I’m making my bed, I am reinforcing a positive habit. I find it easier to start and take control of new habits and routines when I’m in the process of practicing already-existing ones, and making my bed is a good reinforcement of habit practice.

By making my bed, I don’t mean doing it flawlessly. I don’t think any home improvement magazines are featuring my sleeping quarters anytime soon, so I don’t feel a need to make it look prim and perfect. Instead, I make sure my sheets are tucked in at the bottom, my covers are evenly pulled to the top of my bed, and any major wrinkles are smoothed out. I place my pillow at the head of the bed, and voilà. I’m finished. On to the next one.

Cold Shower

(Disclaimer: I know some people are highly sensitive to extreme temperature, and even a warm bath or regular shower can make them feel worse. Additionally, some people may react negatively to overwhelming physical stimuli. I understand that and a cold shower is probably a good idea for only a certain subset of people. I encourage you to try one, or even just turn down the temperature on your shower or bath a bit, but I know it is out of the question for certain people, and I completely acknowledge and respect that.)

“Cold shower? Cold shower?! Cold Shower?!?! That sounds like the worst idea ever!!”

That’s usually the reaction I get when I tell people that I take a cold shower every morning. And you might be reading this thinking, why the heck would he take a cold shower in the morning?

First of all, let me preface this by letting you in on a little secret: my morning shower is hot 90% of the time, only it’s topped off with 30-60 seconds of cold at the end. I enjoy basking in a hot shower and I often want to stay in there forever, leading to me occasionally spending a bit too long under the hot water. However, I balance out my pleasure with some discipline. I make sure I always muster up the courage to end my shower with cold.

The first thing you’ll notice when you take a cold shower is the shock value. A cold shower jolts the Central Nervous System and stimulates blood flow quickly throughout the body to all extremities. This can be a fantastic way to enhance circulation – especially to the legs – in the morning for people with POTS. There’s an added benefit to cold showers for helping with POTS because of the way they stimulate the autonomic nervous system and strengthen the sympathetic nervous system. I talk more about the balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems and POTS in my post on meditation, and to sum it up, cold showers can be an essential tool in helping to control your fight-or-flight response and rapid onset breathing. Moreover, according to published studies, cold showers are a common and useful treatment for depression, they can help to burn fat, and they help the body recover to homeostasis quickly.

The science behind cold shower benefits is still small and emerging, so you may elect to dismiss the findings I presented. That’s fine — the biggest benefits I get from cold showers aren’t even scientific, rather they are practical and immediately noticeable.

A cold shower wakes me up like a cup of coffee and sends an adrenaline rush through my entire body. On a psychological level, cold showers are my first big “win” of the day. It’s a challenge to step into the cold water, and it’s something my body doesn’t exactly want to do. Despite that, standing under the cold water helps me to build my willpower and solidify my hold on a more difficult habit. Once I go in, any fear and anxiety I have is replaced by a mini-mental celebration and, sometimes, a desire to get out as quick as I can. When I turn the water off, though, I come out feeling alert and, quite frankly, that “I AM A BEAST!”

Mark Twain said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” Taking a cold shower helps me to “eat a frog” in the morning. I know if I can stand in that cold, I can face any symptoms or challenges that come my way that day.

If you want to try taking a cold shower, start small. My first few were 3-5 seconds, and I gradually built up my tolerance. Your body will have an initial negative reaction from the CNS shock, but I’ve learned and confirmed that it only takes about 4 days to build up a tolerance. Now, I’m used to the cold, and it actually feels refreshing and calming when I’m under the freezing water.

I use water that’s about 55 degrees Fahrenheit, and I recommend you find a sweet spot that is stimulating but also relatively bearable. Additionally, go easy on your first few, as some people, especially with autonomic dysfunction, could have an unpredictable experience with all of the stress a cold shower can put on the body. I encourage you to look up the benefits and try it out. It can change your morning and your life!

Meditate

Meditation is an integral part of priming myself to be calm, non-reactive, and focused for my day, which is why I’ve covered the benefits of meditation for POTS, as well as techniques and easy ways to get started, in my meditation post I linked to earlier. With regards to how meditation fits into my morning, I have been experimenting with the timing of my practice. It’s usually the second thing I’ll do when I’m out of the shower — the first being drinking a glass of water to rehydrate myself and get fluids into my body.

If the sun is out and it’s not super cold, I’ll go outside shirtless and sit down on a chair or bench to start my practice. There are many benefits to getting morning sunlight, with the most impactful being increased Vitamin D production and a more natural circadian rhythm, which helps to promote sleepiness and wakefulness at the right times of day. Additionally, getting sun in the morning has been proven to be healthier for the skin than getting sun in other parts of the day, because the infrared light present in the AM helps the body to absorb UV rays more efficiently.

In an article on his blog, famous neurosurgeon Dr. Jack Kruse said “The fact that UV and infrared light in AM sunlight work in unison to create this circumstance says something very deep about sunlight importance… mood will be altered by a chronic lack of AM life.”

The sunlight is important, but the meditation is where the real magic happens. I’ll sit down, load up Soundcloud or Headspace, and focus on diaphragmatic breathing while listening to and acting on the prompts given by my guide. This will go on for about ten minutes. If I’m distracted at all, I do my best to keep my eyes closed and focus on my breathing, getting up only for absolute emergencies.

Once the ten or so minutes are over, I’ll open my eyes, take a few deep breaths, and get myself set for the next part of my morning, which is movement.

If you want to learn more about meditation or hear more about my experience with a practice, the post I did here is an awesome resource — you can also find it in the sidebar and under the “Posts” header.

Morning Movement

The purpose of my morning movement routine is to get my blood flowing while lengthening my muscles and setting my joints in the right place, which helps me to move well throughout the day. Additionally, moving helps to mitigate the negative effects of sitting.

I start my morning movement practice by going to a room in my house where I have a rug, open floor space, and a foam roller/lacrosse balls. I tend to do everything in my routine in the same rooms and at the same times every day (on weekdays), because I find it’s easier to build my habits by compartmentalizing them and linking them to specific times and places. For example, when I sit down on the bench outside my house in the morning, my mind and body know it is time for meditation, which allows me an easier time getting into a relaxed mental state.

Another act that precedes my morning movement practice is turning on a podcast, an audiobook, or an affirmational/motivational speech. I learn most of what I know from podcasts and audiobooks, and motivational videos can help to quickly get me in a prime state, ready to attack the day. I’ll use Audible for audiobooks, Apple Podcasts for podcasts, and Soundcloud or YouTube for motivational videos. If you’re interested in any of those and want my recommendations on shows and titles, please reach out to me in the comments!

Not only do I enjoy starting my day off with learning and entertainment, but I also find I am more mindful when I am paying attention to auditory content rather than if I am just doing my exercises, letting my thoughts wander. Especially after my meditation practice, where there’s an emphasis on mindfulness – but also not trying too hard or focusing too much – it’s good to get my brain and body into a state of focus and concentration.

As for my specific morning movement routine, I outline my favorite drills and resources about midway through my guide to exercise with POTS. My outline in this post will be a bit lighter on detail, but if you are interested and want more in-depth content, check out the post I linked to previously.

I use a combination of yoga poses, YouTube mobility drills, quick exercise, and self-massage in a 5-10 minute span for my movement practice. What I do depends on how I’m feeling and what my plans are for the day. For example, if I wake up with a sore upper back or hip, I’ll use a lacrosse ball to massage the aching area for about a minute. On the other hand, if I plan on doing a leg workout in the following couple hours, I’ll do some air squats or active mobility drills to get my hips and ankles moving. My morning movement routine is the time of day where I listen to my body the most, and I use the short timespan I have to address any nagging pains and nip them in the bud.

Let’s jump into the movement possibilities. For my poses, I like downward and upward dog along with cat/camel pose the most because they involve core and back activation. I find mobilizing those areas allows me to get the biggest bang for my buck with regards to how my entire body feels during the day. Luka Hocevar and Kelly Starrett have awesome YouTube channels and almost all of my mobility drills come from their resources.

Attempting to describe their routines would not do them justice, so click on those links and you’ll find an abundance of drills and exercises for people of all fitness and skill levels. Even watching just one of their videos can help you eliminate tightness or soreness in an area that might have been bothering you for months, and I only know that because their videos have helped me eliminate nagging pain from all over my body in minutes.

“Quick exercises” means standard bodyweight movements that most people are familiar with, like push-ups or sit-ups. 5-10 reps of those movements along with others such as air squats, lunges, and any assisted/modified versions of those movements have done wonders for me in clearing brain fog, and they always make my body feel much better. On a biological level, they stimulate the neuromuscular connection to promote easier movement throughout the day. On a psychological level, they can give you a real boost in self-esteem and a feeling of accomplishment. I know people have differing levels of physical fitness and ability, and I want to say even one or two reps of these movements can make a big difference! It’s not about where you are right now, rather, it’s all about how you can get better for tomorrow.

I mentioned self-massage earlier with the lacrosse ball example, and the benefits of a massage practice include decreased muscle soreness, increased flexibility, and greater range of bodily motion. All of these things are important for our body, especially if we are dealing with issues like Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, or any other body-related maladies that may tag along with POTS. Just like the mobility drills, trying to describe how to perform self-massage in this blog would be doing it a disservice, so here’s a video (https://youtu.be/u86d5zV2jKc) that does a fantastic job explaining.

Once I’m finished with my mobility drills, I’ve concluded the “structured” portion of my morning. This is when I’ll check my phone for the first time, and I find my anxiety is reduced in the morning if I am not flooded with messages or social media stress immediately after waking up. From here, I almost always go right into breakfast, but that can change, and this is the point at which I allow myself leeway for the rest of the day!

Breakfast

I needed to throw breakfast in at the end because I’m a big believer in the first meal of the day. I’m usually a fan of eggs and vegetables with the occasional side of avocado or bacon, and a smoothie with fruits, veggies, and a non-whey based protein powder are options that have also suited me well in the past. Overall, my belief is to eat something and feed your body with some good, real, food in the morning! Of course, different people react in different ways so breakfast may not be the best option for everyone. I just wanted to throw in my two cents as a proponent of healthy breakfast and add in that it’s definitely a part of my morning routine, just not a “habit” that some people might think fits in with the others!

Other Thoughts

I’ve recently started journaling in the morning. I primarily focus on gratitude, getting rid of negative mental chatter, and reviewing my goals for the day. I can’t judge yet whether or not it will make a profound impact in my life, but my journaling habit at night has been good for me, so I’m hoping for the best. I think journaling and self-reflection, along with goal setting in a written form, are highly rewarding habits, so I’m looking to put them into practice as much as I can.

The only problem with adding journaling to my morning is that it can lead to my routine getting a bit too long, and I often only have a limited amount of time before I have an outside commitment in the morning! Although, as Abe Lincoln said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening my axe.” Judging from that quote, and my experience, I’m not sure if there’s such a thing as being too overprepared for the day!

I’ve also recently tried the Lion’s Mane and Cordyceps mushroom coffee from Four Sigmatic. It tastes good, is low in caffeine (leading to no afternoon crash), and the mushrooms in it have been scientifically proven to provide benefits in cognitive function and performance. I feel pretty good and can churn out longer periods of work than usual after sipping it in the morning. I know caffeine can be bad for POTS and can lead to symptoms such as anxiety and rapid heartbeat, so I’m careful to monitor how my body is doing before I pour myself a coup. With that being said, on days when I’m feeling good, the coffee makes me feel even better. I’ve been throwing grass-fed ghee butter, MCT oil, and coconut oil in there, and along with my eggs, I’m intaking a ton of healthy fats in the morning, which helps me to feel sated until lunch.

My morning routine is ever expanding, as I’m a fanatic for learning more about morning and evening routines along with habits in general. As a result, I’m sure I’ll make some additions and possibly some subtractions in the near future. If you like this stuff as much as I do, check out Tim Ferriss and Hal Elrod; they’re pioneers in the morning routine game. There’s also content all over the internet about the morning routines of celebrities and top performers that are pretty cool, and that can be another great way to learn about new habits if you so desire.

What I’ve learned from my research and personal practice is there’s no magic morning routine that’ll give you superpowers. Everyone is different, and one person might like to have his first two hours planned out while another can thrive by laying in bed for 30 minutes on her phone and then rolling out of bed, throwing on some clothes, and getting out the door. I encourage you to try some different habits and techniques and see what works for you. Mornings can be tough, but adding some structure and daily habits can really help you start the day strong.

Let me know in the comments: Do you have any specific morning habits or routines that work well for you? I would love to hear from you, and I’m sure I or someone else could benefit from learning about a new strategy that works well for POTS or in general!

Thank you as always for reading and, if you want to be a superhero, please be sure to spread this post and the word of POTS positivity with your family, friends, and social media. I appreciate the feedback and support immensely, and responses can go a long way in improving the content on this blog. You can also reach out to me through the “Contact” section at the top — I am always looking to answer questions or provide support in any way I can. Thank you again for reading.

Let’s keep making POTS a positive!

5 Perks of Having POTS

What?!?!? Perks of having POTS? Doesn’t a perk mean a benefit or a positive thing?

Yes, I am going to talk today about the perks of having POTS. To preface this post, I wouldn’t say living with POTS is the best thing in the world. It can take a dramatic negative toll on people’s health and well-being and limit their ability to do the activities they love, possibly for the rest of their lives. For me, POTS meant I never achieved my dream of playing varsity basketball and I went unranked in my high school class after working so hard to be in the top 5%. I was still able to achieve some of my other goals, but POTS made me fall short of goals I had envisioned for my entire life.

However, that was in 2015 and 2016. Much has changed since then. Today, I am thriving athletically, academically, and personally, and I realize most of my recent success and happiness in my life has stemmed in one way or another from my negative high school experience with POTS. I hit rock bottom in 2015, and so I quite literally had to build myself back up as a new person. I was fortunately able to progress health-wise, becoming less symptomatic and able to do more and more than I could before. Along with that, I built up new personality traits and personal skills that helped me better connect with myself and others. Even though I seemed to have it all before I was diagnosed with POTS, I view myself today as vastly more well-rounded and on a much better path for the future. I still have to be mindful of my limitations, but I think the current impact POTS has on my life is more of a positive one than a negative one.

If I never experienced POTS, I don’t think I could be the person I am today. I believe living with POTS provides people with a unique skillset that can set us apart from almost anyone else in society. Here are five positive personality developments that have come through living with POTS, and how they impact my life today.

Resilience

I know that if I can live through POTS, I can live through anything. While it sucked for me to lose out on most of the high school experience, I can now say I am grateful, in a way, for all of the struggles I’ve had. Without my challenges, I know I wouldn’t have built up all of the resilience I have today.

Resilience is described by some psychologists ((https://qz.com/1289236/resilience-is-the-new-happiness/)) as a new-age superpower and the most important skill to cultivate in modern society. The trait of resilience helps me to bounce back from problems quickly, learn and grow from challenges instead of getting discouraged, and quickly adapt to new environments in today’s ever-changing world.

Resilience is said to be a developed skill and is currently being taught at schools around the country. I am fortunate because I got a real-world crash course in resilience, and I can say I passed with flying colors —I’m extremely happy with how I’ve bounced back from living with POTS and how I’ve adjusted to living with it today. Better yet, resilience isn’t something I’ve just learned and used in the past. It’s a skill that is needed on a daily basis, and I’ll never stop cultivating it. To me, “problems” are not problems at all! Challenges in my life lead to my development of new skills that I need to get past those challenges. I’ve also found it easier and easier to get through roadblocks over time as I keep failing, learning and growing. I’m still very human, and it’s not like I get all happy every time there’s a problem in my life. But, I always know I can get through any problem, and I realize that I’ll be building up myself and my resilience by doing so.

This book (https://www.amazon.com/Resilience-Science-Mastering-Greatest-Challenges/dp/0521195632) was something I read when I was at my most symptomatic, and it was an extremely useful tool. It has practical strategies, backed by science, for building resilience. Check it out!

Perspective

I was always a star student, multi-sport athlete, and leader around my school. It’s funny how most people with autonomic dysfunction seem to be high-achievers, and I think that’s part of the reason why we have such a resilient and amazing community despite our challenges. When I was diagnosed with POTS, though, I nearly lost my identity. I was no longer an athlete, wasn’t doing anything outside of school, and suddenly my reputation was one of a “sick kid” who was chronically absent. I hated when people didn’t understand my situation, and I felt depressed about my new label. Many people either turned a blind eye towards my situation or, even worse, joked about it or made fun of me. The people who stuck by and supported me were there too, though, and I really appreciated them.

Being out of school and losing my identity led to a radical shift in my perspective. Before my diagnosis, I was always chasing what I thought were important goals, such as getting top grades, playing for varsity in sports, and winning awards in extracurricular activities. When I was no longer able to chase those goals, I didn’t really know what my mission and purpose were. For a while, I had none, and those moments were some of the darkest of my life. However, as I built myself and my body back up, I started to chase things that nowadays seem far more meaningful to me.

My main goal now is to work as hard as I can to constantly improve my life and the lives of those around me, as well as the lives of anyone I can reach through business or media. I feel as if I am now chasing the more important intrinsic goals of growth and contribution rather than extrinsic goals of grades, jobs, sports, and peer approval. Don’t get me wrong, I am probably setting more goals about my grades, athletics, and social life now than I was before POTS. Today though, I have a better perspective and realize that there are more important things in life outside of winning competitions and pleasing people. Coupled with my resilience, my perspective helps me to look at small problems and setbacks and smile and laugh; I used to consider them the end of the world, and now I see them as bumps in the road that could help me on my road of impact and improvement.

Empathy

In gaining a new perspective personally, I was able to better appreciate the perspectives of others. I was always able to relate to the popular crowd, the jocks, and the smart kids, because I was a part of all three of those social circles. However, even though I thought I did a great job of making friends with everyone, there were always some kids who seemed to be invisible. I assumed, with misunderstanding and unawareness, that they were invisible because they were not inherently talented or because they weren’t working hard to achieve their goals.

Suddenly, though, I could relate to them. I was diagnosed with an invisible illness and I felt a bit invisible. I started noticing more of the kids on the outskirts and relating to them. I no longer took for granted everything I had, and I realized that some kids didn’t have as much as I did or they were going through challenges that no one knew about.

I believe everyone has some sort of struggle; some are external, some are internal. Some are plainly obvious, and some are invisible. It’s easy for everyone to see that the school bully might have an insecurity problem or the kid in the walking boot sprained his ankle. It’s not easy to see, though, that a different kid walks into a broken home on a daily basis or that that girl in math class has to take an insulin shot in the nurse’s office every day before lunch. Some people noticed me taking salt pills at lunch or leaving class to go on a walk, but no one could notice my brain fog, dizziness, or anxiety over walking into class for the first time after being out sick.

As a result, I started to pick up on cues people gave off that signaled they might be going through something, and I exercised much more caution and understanding in social settings. I had a newfound insight into the lives of everyone, and whether it was the star athlete or the loner in the back of the class, I got better and better at listening to others and relating to them. I focused more and more on providing others with a listening ear and a positive spirit. I know I was able to make a positive impact on people and form deeper relationships based on emotional connection in my senior year of high school — all because of the perspective and empathy I have developed. This past year, in my freshman year of college, I was able to thrive socially in a brand new, extremely diverse, environment, and I know the reason I connected with people of all ages, interests, colors, and creeds all stemmed from my ability to put myself in others’ shoes. I would’ve never had that level of empathy if POTS didn’t make me put on some brand new shoes myself.

Creativity

I never saw myself as a creative person. To this day, if you ask me to draw a self-portrait, the best I can do is a glorified stick figure. I always associated creativity with being good at art or design. However, I have realized that my personal quest to live better with POTS has sparked a creative fire in me — I am constantly looking to use creativity to innovate and improve my health and well-being.

Everyone with chronic illness or pain has to be creative in some way just to function on a daily basis. Whether it’s carrying around a POTS pack, trying a unique diet or exercise plan, or finding a new way to incorporate salt into a meal, a quick look at POTS forums shows that POTSies are constantly innovating to improve their health.

Personally, I was willing to try anything and everything to improve my situation, which led to me researching and trying different habits, strategies, exercise plans, ways of eating, and anything else you can think of. I took what worked, discarded what didn’t, and tried to add anything new that I could. I loved making changes and seeing positive results. Self-improvement continues to be one of the main tenets of my life to this day for that reason.

My daily routine now includes cold showers, which help me with brain fog, body temperature regulation, and anxious thoughts. Meditation helps me control my thoughts and feelings and stay focused. An appreciation journal, allows me to reflect and keeps me focused on the positives in my life. Recently, I’ve also adopted a morning mobility/stretching routine (helps my muscles feel better for the day), a low-carb diet with minimal grain intake and no dairy (limits inflammation and solves lactose and gluten-caused stomach issues), and a planned strength-training workout routine (always makes my body feel better, clears my mind, and give me an endorphin rush, and I like the aesthetic part too!). All of these changes to my lifestyle are a result of my intellectual curiosity and my desire to set my body up for success. My motivation to optimize my health comes from my past handicaps from my health, and I will never again take my health for granted; I’ll always be looking for new ways to better my body.

This creativity has carried over to my daily habits and has led me to become a student of life. I am now a voracious consumer of podcasts and audiobooks, and I listen to people such as Tim Ferriss, Tony Robbins, and Aubrey Marcus for inspiration and strategies on how I can improve my habits and happiness. Honestly, I just try and read about people I admire or want to emulate, and then I see which of their habits and mindsets I want to adopt.

One podcast I listen to, in particular, The Model Health Show with Shawn Stevenson, is an invaluable source of health information for me, and I’ve probably applied to my own life something from every episode (I definitely think some episodes there have helped me with POTS. Especially the ones on sleep, diet, and mental models).

I now view myself as a creative person. I also know I am an innovator and a learner, and I think that’s all because of the initial initiative and creativity I used to help me live a better life with POTS.

Positivity

The last perk of POTS is that I now live with an overwhelming sense of positivity in my life. I think I kind of paid for this positivity by suffering through some of my “prime” and “easiest/happiest” years, but I truly can say that I’ve come out of my unusual high school experience with a much more optimistic attitude. Since I hit such a low point in my life, I have seen myself continually rise above, bettering my health, relationships, habits, and happiness. I am not discouraged or intimidated by much (except for asking a girl on a date :)) because I know that I have the tools to get through challenges and the perspective to learn from failures. I feel that I can relate to almost anyone I meet or know, and I am constantly looking for ways to educate myself and improve myself, especially my health and fitness. I can truly say I believe I’ve been taking steps in a positive direction every day recently, and my drive to get better comes from knowing how it feels to be at my lowest — I want to do everything in my power to never be there again. I also force myself to be optimistic, especially when I don’t want to be. I’ve been through my fair share of tough situations and I’ve reacted to each one in a different way. I know that reacting negatively will often only make it worse, so I feel as if I owe it to myself to be optimistic.

What I love the most about my positivity is when it affects others. Some of my closest friends at Michigan fed off of my optimistic energy, and it was a great feeling to pump them up, help them through tough times, or put a smile on their faces when I saw them. Having a joyful moment with someone truly keeps me going. I want to lead by example, and I know, most of the time, I and the people around me will be better off if I keep up my unbridled positivity. It’s helped me all the way from Mayo to Michigan.

Let me know in the comments: Are there any perks or positives of your unique situation with POTS or chronic illness? I would love to hear your view, as would everyone else reading this post!

Let’s keep making POTS a positive!