What does it mean to “Fight Like A Girl” you ask? It means to learn how to have the courage to speak up, to share your story! To battle against your disease or life adversary and continue to have hope. To encourage others and soothe the soul. It means banding together and reaching out to a fellow sister regardless of the different battle stories because we are all fighting to live!
Now that we know what it means to “Fight Like A Girl”, let’s learn how to do it!
Step 1: Acknowledge it!
First we have to acknowledge that we have an illness before we can take a step in any direction. This is sometimes the hardest step for most of us who have come back from the doctors’ office with a shocking diagnosis. Take a deep breath, and exhale! We must come to terms with the fact that being sick is not our fault and we should not be ashamed because of it. Denial is extremely unhealthy! If you don’t believe you’re sick then how can you possibly fix something you don’t believe is true? In admitting that we are not healthy we have taken the first step towards getting better!
Now that we’ve acknowledged our illness it’s time for the next step!
Step 2: Claim your power!
Ask yourself a question. Are YOU ready to be a “Fight Like A Girl” club member? If you’ve already joined the club then congratulations! You are on your way towards greatness. If NOT, then learn how! It’s very simple and the best part is that its free to join. You even receive an awesome membership kit in the mail full of goodies, like reminders to “Fight Like A Girl!” you can post on your fridge, car, and anywhere else you’d like to strut your stuff. Join the Club!
By claiming your power you pledge to stand strong and fight against your illness. You declare that you have a power within that will help prevail against weakness and that if by chance we fall while struggling to stand we will not feel guilty but reach out to our sisters for help! After all we’re all human, and we make mistakes. We pledge to do all this and believe we can because we have claimed our power!
How amazing! I’m so proud that you’ve claimed your power! Now let’s get ready for the next step.
Step 3: Find your E-family!
One of my favorite discoveries is the realization that we are not alone! Think about it. There are over 9.8 million cancer survivors and over 1.5 million lupus survivors in the United States. No matter what our illness there is family to be found on the world wide web. Facebook has hundreds of different groups and pages dedicated to raising awareness and support for just about every illness.
Twitter is a home to millions of different people; the way to find someone is to search for a hashtag mentioned in a tweet. For instance I would tweet: ” Today was a bit rough b/c cold weather brings achy hands! #lupus” The hashtag is in bold, if you tweet something similar and then click on the hashtag you’ll be shown pages of tweets where other people have mentioned lupus. This is how I’ve found my e-family on twitter! We should never feel that we are alone because it’s simply NOT TRUE!
Together we share our pains and sorrows, our joys and pleasures. Whatever we experience we can learn to share it and fight it together! Now that you’ve learned how to find your e-family it’s on to step number four.
Step 4: Become an educated patient!
As patients we cannot just depend on our doctor to tell us everything. It’s imperative to our health that we become “hands-on” patients and educate ourselves on our individual illnesses. Don’t be afraid to do your own research! Find out the current medical news, keep a food/illness diary (this helps to discover what foods trigger symptoms), look up alternative medicines, talk to other patients and find out what works for them. It’s as simple as doing a Google search! Be pro-active!
…and last but not least!
Step 5: Share it!
Now that we have learned how to “Fight Like A Girl” the best part is to share it with others. Each one can reach one! So reach out and help someone else begin the journey to overcoming their disease. Together we can stand strong!
This year we’re going to “Fight Like A Girl”!
Love,
Tiffany Marie
Power Team Writer
This article is intended to convey general educational information and should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional healthcare advice.
Absolutely Love this site!!!
So do I Chrissy! Thank you for reading!
Tiffany, great web sight. The work your doing has been so helpful to me. I know there are many others who will benefit From your support and knowledge. Thanx a bunch.
*hugs* Thank you for your kind words Rachel! Remember knowledge is power <3
LOVE this! I see me doing a lot of shopping, reading and hopefully contributing to this site!
I have
*Rheumatoid Arthritis
*Lupus
*Diabetes
*Sjogren’s Syndrome
*Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
*Fibromyalgia
*Raynaud’s Phenomenon
*Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis
*PCOS
That’s pretty much the big ones!
I also have my faith which gets me through….
I often think that no one understands…then again, I don’t want anyone to understand, because if they do, they have to walk in my shoes, battle these diseases, feel the pain…and I don’t wish any of this on anyone!!
Hi Cheryl! Thank you. Keep on being positive & fighting endlessly, I’m totally rooting for you to kick all of these illnesses in the bud!
Hello, I was diagnosed with Lupus in October 1995, it’s an ongoing struggle, but I’ve learned you must have faith to keep going.
Truer words never spoken! Stay strong lovie!
Awesome site.. thank you for the encouragement.. Sometimes I feel like I’m all alone… I’ve lived through 3 cancers, 2 bad car accidents and now this…. I know God wouldn’t do this unles I could handle this but it does get tiring on the body.. I’m very tired….
Spring is nearly here in England – and the cherry trees are slowly starting to bloom, all pink and merry… like your blog. Hope you are coping alright this month – I have two brothers and they would definitely argue that I fight like a girl 😉 Keep the optimism going – it is our best ally.
Thank you so much for creating this website. It has inspired me to do so much. My fiance is now involved with helping me feel more comfortable with me having a seizure disorder, partial onset seizures to be exact. Because of the awareness that him and I have of this common disorder, he fights for me and bought a purple tie for our wedding, just to support me. He is also now more interested in learning more about seizures. Also, thank you for allowing me to share my story, at this site I feel normal, like I’m not alone. I actually got a purple bow tattooed on my chest/shoulder area in honor of the women and girls who have gone through abuse and have also suffered from seizures. I also plan on getting “Fight Like A Girl” tattooed on me as well to show the world that fighting like a girl is NEVER a bad thing.
Fighting like a girl; using talk to text. But had to stop doing homework; can’t type anymore tonight. Thank you for making this website.
Love this! Thanks! 🙂