Chronic pain or illness can be overwhelming to navigate especially when you have other responsibilities too. Sometimes you feel like you can never catch a break- from going to work, keeping a house, caring for children, or pets. You might feel you have no time or energy left for your partner, or yourself. All of your ambitions are out the window. You feel like you are barely holding yourself together.
When I was in my 20s, I started living with chronic pain and I didn’t know how to manage anything. I cried because it hurt to breathe. I laid around thinking I could not do anything, and I was going for disability while going to therapy to manage chronic pain. There is something I learned that I find valuable in every struggle I have today: even though it hurts, keep moving and keep doing all of the things you need to do. It makes rest time more valuable, and it keeps me productive.
Take a well-deserved break and reset.
Find something that you enjoy doing and take time to really enjoy it. It could be something small like watching a favorite TV show, a mini- vacation, spa day or day at a theme park. Don’t let yourself feel guilty for taking a break to celebrate life and forget most of your stressors.
Transitioning back to daily life may be difficult for some. Maybe you had your break, and you have your goals that you want to accomplish, but you don’t know where to start or you cannot find the motivation to.
The token board
A token board is a physical reminder of every time you reach a goal; you get a token/ point/ star/sticker. After so many tokens, you trade them in for something more reinforcing like a special dessert, fun night out, favorite restaurant for dinner, etc. In ABA, we give tokens in exchange for whatever is reinforcing for each client that is appropriate for the setting. In school, it may be free time in a sensory room, or more time on the playground.
The Backwards Token Board
So- the backwards token board is used when we really are not meeting our goals and we are having a really hard time, but we want to see the contingency of the reinforcement and making real changes in the behaviors. If normally for every 5 tokens you would get your backup reinforcement, you might give yourself 4 tokens and only need to earn one more to get reinforced. Then after your celebration, you would then need to earn 2 tokens to celebrate. Then 3 to celebrate, then 4 and then all 5. Once you get to completing the whole token board forwards, you know you can do it and you do it again- from the beginning and moving forward.
If you don’t want to do the token board or backwards token board, that is ok too. It is a tool we use in ABA, but not necessarily something everyone needs to be successful with their ambitions.
You can always reach out to me to talk; I am here for you.
