Living with cerebral palsy proves an ongoing battle. You face multiple challenges, “attacks” to maintain the metaphor. Many assaults which your own body launches. What a traitorous jerk! Empower yourself to fight back through equipping the heavy weaponry, daily habits.

CP stands a formidable adversary due to the condition’s persistency. Symptoms never let up! For example, spastic muscles remain a consistent threat. Neglect stretching and the tightening increases. Only an equally persistent counterattack supplies you effective offense against cerebral palsy. Therefore your best retaliation builds off daily habits.

Now you might react thinking “Daily habits?! Sounds like A LOT of work! ” Initially maybe, but long-term daily habits become routine. No different than say eating or going to the bathroom.  Heck, the right habit could save you exertion regularly. I will share one such practice later in today’s post.

Yet before I divulge my personal daily habits, I want to emphasize the routineness. These daily activities come to me second nature oppose to requiring a conscious focus. To the point my life camouflages them! Without the need to brainstorm Youtube video ideas, I probably overlook my habits’ important roles in combatting my CP.

Also worth noting your CP and my cerebral palsy will differ. I am mentioning daily habits I find beneficial. Depending on how your CP manifests, the following may not represent options. Please consider talking to a doctor or medical professional about beneficial daily habits you should adopt.

A Shave and Shower

Again your tactical approach might resemble ordinary tasks. Nonetheless here I am referencing an addition to the conventional shave and shower. Shaving you complete utilizing a pumice stone.

See, thanks to the way cerebral palsy makes me walk I develop calluses underneath my feet. War wounds you can call them! Using a pumice stone after showering I am able to keep their sizes down, making each step I take slightly more comfortable.

Combined alongside PediFix’s All-Natural Tea Tree Ultimates Funga Soap* and said comfort elevates to refreshment. I began enlisting the abovementioned funga soap to clean my feet in 2016. Within my funga soap product recommendation I described the sensation “tingling with refreshment.” To date amazement still washes over me nearly every time I use Pedifix’s All-Natural Tea Tree Ultimates Funga Soap.

Together the pumice stone and funga soap integrated, becoming my daily CP foot care regimen. A daily habit I perform subsequent showering. Demonstrated in my video “My Cerebral Palsy Foot Care Routine,” you witness the exact application. Go ahead and view visual learners.

Crunch Time

Prior to my daily wash comes another daily habit. Preceding entering the bathroom I lower myself to my exercise mat and execute some reverse crunches. Upon first implementation “some” originally equaled 15 reverse crunches. Throughout the years the number slowly increased. Currently my daily set expands to 43 reverse crunches.

Along the growing reps I noted a drastic difference. Amidst the day to day less stumbles turned to falls. Increasingly I managed to autocorrect my thrown balance. Perhaps writing “autocorrect” discredits my own efforts. Allow me to rephrase.

Via the everyday repetition I strengthened my core. A mighty ally when battling cerebral palsy! An alliance most efficiently forged by adding reverse crunches to my daily habits.

Admittedly, I started exploring reverse crunches in college. Even so, I failed to reap benefits because I performed them sporadically. Transitioning the exercise to daily habit proved challenging. In the beginning remembering to get my set in required conscious thought. However grouping the exercise among my pre-shower activities enabled the reverse crutches to eventually evolve naturally into a regular daily action.

Loosening Up

Variety choices exist to stretch the same muscles.

Perchance the above sounds boring and rigid, other daily habits provide variety. Stretching in-particular provides you choices in countering CP’s unwavering assault. Various choices exist to stretch the same muscles.

Although I lack a specific stretch done daily, I basically stretch minimum once a day. My different exercise routines feature a separate exercise loosening my hamstrings. Plus I utilize my knee immobilizer and leg cast to relieve spasticity.

Actually the latter contains secondary advantages, positives better arming you to handle cerebral palsy’s tiring toll. “Tiring” serves the keyword. According to Cerebral Palsy Guide, “People with cerebral palsy use up to five times the amount of energy that able-bodied people do when walking or moving about.” Considering, fatigue unsurprisingly emerges an obstacle.

Designating an hour in the day to stretch out wearing knee immobilizers allows you to rest. Think nap meets productivity. Opposed to letting napping leaving you feeling guilty, feel accomplished! Muscles relaxed and you physically refreshed.

Giving Yourself a Helping Hand

A lot earlier I referenced a daily habit that “could save you exertion regularly.” Behavior related to a trick, essentially a life hack. Deployed, the tip eliminates a commonplace task cerebral palsy turns difficult.

Sabotaging fine motor skills, CP disrupts otherwise typical actions. Kindergarten level material, literally! I mean I recall my kindergarten teacher evaluating our shoe tying abilities. Possibly the curriculum changed since 1992.

Nevertheless I ask you avoid losing yourself inside the analogy’s details. Rather understand the concept. CP potentially irritates. The elementary resurface as frustrating encounters. Thus minimizing the necessity to repeat an activity akin to tying shoes goes far.

Honestly, I hardly tie my shoes. Instead I keep my footwear double knotted. Positioning my hand like a makeshift shoehorn I slide my shoes on. To remove, I merely grab the heel and pull. I showcase the habit in my video “Cerebral Palsy Life Hack: Avoid Untying Shoes.”

Daily Habits, the Heavy Weaponry

Ultimately, living with cerebral palsy equates to fighting an ongoing battle. Given CP’s persistent attack, the most effective counterattack relies on daily habits. Tasks when structured correctly blend into your day-to-day life.

Personally my daily habits to combat CP includes a specific foot care procedure, strengthening my core via reverse crutches, stretching, and a cerebral palsy life hack to avoid untying shoes. Maybe one or more could aid you in your own battle. Perchance you know other possibly helpful daily habits I invite you to share by commenting. Remember you may want to consult a medical professional before adopting any daily habits mentioned today.

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