How Small Things Can Sometimes Be Huge

And how it can make a difference

In my life the smallest things can make the biggest difference.  Today my senior carer told me that are putting time in my care plan to wash my hair once a week.  This has made my day.  It’s a relatively unimportant thing in the grand scheme of things at the moment but for me it’s huge.

Back in the day when I was living my ‘normal’ life, I would get up and shower every morning.  It was my routine and I washed my hair everyday.  I have very thick hair so I would often wake up looking like I’d got a bush from the garden stuck on top of my head!  This would have to be dealt with before I faced the world.

The issue of washing my hair has become more and more pressing over the last few years.  Sometimes my daughter will come and wash it for me but she is a busy working girl with a young family, so it’s not always possible.  Lockdown has made it impossible.

So, I found online the most amazing shower cap which contains shampoo, water, and conditioner which all comes out on your head and washes it. Yes, you did read that right – it washes my hair and in order to do that my husband has to massage my head for 2 minutes.  Win win as far as I’m concerned!

Whilst this is obviously a brilliant product for those of us with life limitations, for me there is one major problem.  As I wrote in a previous post (https://bellesdays.com/2020/02/06/how-a-hard-decision-could-improve-my-life ) I have a dermatological problem with my scalp. This means I have to use a treatment shampoo once a week.  This is why knowing my hair is going to be washed every week is so important. 

So why is it so huge

The significance of this started me thinking about how sometimes the smallest things can be huge to those of us with disabilities or living with chronic illness.  When it’s not possible to carry out jobs and tasks which to someone else are just the everyday, it can add to depression, a sense of isolation, a lessening of self worth.  In the present lockdown situation this can be much worse.

Self-worth is so important if you suffer with life limiting disability or chronic illness.  Lack of it makes it almost impossible to carry on from day to day, to motivate yourself to even get up in the morning.

So, if somebody suggests a small thing that you know is going to solve a problem, or make your life better or easier in some way, believe me, it’s huge.

In the interests of self-care any single thing is worth doing.  Having my hair washed is no easy thing.  It involves bowls, jugs, towels and sitting far back in my wheelchair without a head rest which is painful. But the mere fact of having my hair washed far outweighs all that.  It’s a huge positive.

And there you have the key to the point I’m making – a small thing can be large enough to make you feel positive and can lift your spirits.
So next time somebody suggests a small thing and you revert to your default setting of ‘no I’m fine really’ stop, take a minute to think and realise that it just might be huge.