In this (very belated) episode, I'm joined by the brilliant New York Times bestselling author of steamy, diverse romance, Talia Hibbert.

Her latest book is "Act Your Age, Eve Brown", an autistic romance, and her first book "Get a Life, Chloe Brown" features a protagonist living with Fibromyalgia.

Talia says she "lives in a bedroom full of books. Supposedly, there is a world beyond that room, but she has yet to drum up enough interest to investigate," and ooh is that relatable!

We take a deep dive into how she became an author, the role her chronic illnesses play in how she works, what it's like writing characters inspired by your personal experiences, "incidental" diversity (inspired by Olivia Dade talking about incidental fat rep), and much more.

Even if writing isn’t something you’re interested in as a career or hobby, we discuss many aspects of living and working with chronic illness that I'm sure will hit home for many!

I really enjoyed this conversation, and I hope you do too!

This episode couldn't have happened without the editing skills of Amit Rai, the transcription by Evangeline Talbot, and the art by Shona Sawhney.

TRANSCRIPT: http://bit.ly/taliahibbert
TALIA'S WEBSITE: www.taliahibbert.com
MY WEBSITE: www.natashalipman.com
FIND ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA @NATASHALIPMAN

Writing, Chronic Illness & Incidental Diversity with Talia Hibbert

Welcome to Episode 3 of The Rest Room!

In the last episode, we looked at ways to address the barriers that come up when figuring out how to start incorporating movement and exercise into your life.

We learned that we need to throw the whole ‘workout’ mentality in the bin, especially if movement is new to you, but we didn’t cover how to get started in really practical, tangible ways.

Whether you have little confidence in your body’s ability to do the things that you need (and want!) to do day-to-day, or you struggle to find a way to make movement a sustainable part of your life, this episode is for you!

Our aim is to help you find a way to move that feels safe, and that you’re confident you can stick with, even if it needs to be adapted on more challenging days. 

There is no doubt that this work is hard. It takes courage, patience and persistence. 

I hope this will give you a really tangible place to start thinking about your own movement practice. 

Remember, It doesn’t matter how slowly you need to go. If you're consistent, you’ll still be building habits that will hopefully enable you to do what matters in your life.

*One thing I forgot to mention in the episode is that when you're figuring out what your "normal" is, it's important to seek help if something new pops up, even if you have learned coping strategies! I talk about this more in the blog post*

WORKSHEET DOWNLOAD: http://bit.ly/movementworksheet

FULL BLOG POST: http://bit.ly/exercise-chronic-pain

TRANSCRIPT: http://bit.ly/RRe3transcript

Art: Lucy Dove

Editing and music: Amit Rai

How to Start Exercising when Everything Hurts

I’m joined by one of my best friends in the world, Colin Gorrie. Or should I say Dr. Colin Gorrie.

Colin is a linguist and lifelong language learner. These days he works on bringing knowledge of language and linguistics to a wider audience online. 

Colin also lives with EDS and experiences a lot of brain fog and fatigue, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to sit down and have a chat about some of the challenges of language learning when your brain doesn’t really retain information in the way that you’d like.

You may know that about a month ago I started learning Yiddish. II honestly don’t think it would be happening or going as well as it is if Colin hadn’t spent hours blowing my mind with how the way we often approach language learning…is not…great.

And that’s exactly what we’ll be discussing:

🌟 How people currently learn languages
🌟 Whether there is a better way (spoiler alert, there is!)
🌟 Figuring out our motivations for language learning and how to get started
🌟 Getting the most bang for your language learning (and energy) buck
🌟 Ways to take some of the pressure off and make language learning fun
🌟 How to think about pacing and retention of information when it comes to language acquisition 

As always, language learning may not be something that you're interested in, or you have the ability to do at the moment. 

This information is here for people who can make use of it!

-----

BLOG POST: https://natashalipman.com/how-to-learn-a-language-with-a-chronic-illness/

TRANSCRIPT: http://natashalipman.com/how-to-learn-a-language-with-a-chronic-illness-transcript

LINK TO COLIN'S COURSE (10% DISCOUNT): https://hyperlink.academy/discount?discount=02b38cc4-6f47-4d0b-8533-56d2fe92a6f7

Theme music and editing by Amit Rai

How to learn a language with a chronic illness

Struggling with reading is something that can be really upsetting to many people, so last year I took to my Instagram Stories to find out what your biggest challenges are when it comes to reading, and what has helped you find a way to make it more accessible. 

Helpfully, and perhaps unsurprisingly, most of the reading issues that people shared can be broken down into a handful of categories:

🧠 Concentration and processing
🌩️ Physical issues/pain
😫 Energy
🕰️ Making time

We're going to cover a bunch of tips, tricks, and ways of thinking and approaching reading that I hope will help you!

It’s worth remembering that everybody reads at a different pace. Some people are extremely quick readers and the only things they struggle with are the impact of specific chronic illness symptoms. Others may have bigger challenges on top of that. 

I am someone who is naturally an extremely quick reader and writer, and that’s something that I’m eternally grateful for. 

This gives me automatic advantages when it comes to tackling these issues because my barrier to entry is already much lower. I’m thankful for everyone across the reading spectrum who has shared their experiences to help widen the scope of this piece of work. 

We'll be covering topics like pacing (I know, but it's two different ways of thinking about it!), why reading is reading is reading is reading, different methods of reading, helpful resources, making physical books easier to read, the tracking trap, reflecting on your own experiences, and much more. 

I'd love to hear about your relationship with reading: how do you find it, how does your chronic illness impact it, and what tools have you learned that help you?

You can find me on socials: 
www.instagram.com/ NatashaLipman
www.twitter.com/NatashaLipman 

Cover Art: @MimiButlin

Editing and music: Amit Rai

Blog post: https://natashalipman.com/how-to-read-more-when-you-live-with-chronic-illness/

Transcript: https://natashalipman.com/the-rest-room-reading-transcript/

How To Read More When You Live With Chronic Illness

The Rest Room is a podcast about living well with chronic illness.

I'm Natasha Lipman, an award-winning chronic illness blogger and journalist from London. 

I've been working with experts to bring you evidence-based guides on a whole host of topics like pacing, exercise, and chronic pain. 

I'll also be talking to people who live with chronic illness and disability who are doing awesome things and learning how they make it work, as well as digging deep into the businesses and brands that are focussed on accessibility. 

Think fashion, theatre, film, work, and play - there's a whole lot coming up to explore. So why don't you get cozy, make yourself a cup of tea, and join me in The Rest Room?

The Rest Room

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