I was very honored to be tagged by A Chronic Voice for the Sunshine Blogger Award last week. Thank you!

I thought this was really fun to do and a nice distraction from the usual sifting through medical studies…

What is the ‘Sunshine Blogger Award’?

It is a nomination given to bloggers by bloggers. If someone nominates you, it means that you’re one of 11 people whom they find inspiring, and brings sunshine into the lives of your readers. If you decide to continue the tradition, then follow these simple rules:

Rules for the ‘Sunshine Blogger Award’:

• Thank the blogger who nominated you and link back to their blog
• Answer the 11 questions the blogger asked you
• Nominate 11 bloggers to receive this award and ask them 11 new questions
• List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post and/or on your site.

Q&A 

Here are the questions A Chronic Voice asked me and my answers:

1. What is your greatest fear in life? – That people I love die before me.
2. What is your biggest dream or ambition in life? – To help people be well and make a positive difference to their life.
3. What are your hopes for the future? – I would like to experience great vitality and get rid of any lingering health issues. I would also love to turn my passion about health into something I can make a living of. I would like to build my own self-sustainable house one day.
4. Where are you on your journey towards acceptance? – Not very far. My inability to accept illness has lead me down a long road of learning how to get better. Now I find it hard to accept any lingering health issues although overall I’m pretty healthy now and I should be content and accepting. But alas I keep searching…
5. What about a healthy person do you envy the most? – I count myself to be pretty healthy now, but I still can’t eat whatever I want and there are issues that appear when I’m out of my day to day comfort. I envy people who can do anything and go anywhere without having to worry and without being affected by it.
6. What is the best lesson you’ve learned from living with chronic illnesses? – That we’re all individuals and not one thing will work for everyone. That chronic illness can improve when we get to the root issue and when we take out harmful things and give our body the nourishment/materials it needs to do its countless jobs. Not a day goes by where I’m not amazed at how remarkable the design of the human body is!
7. Of all the different kinds of pain you experience, which do you find the most unbearable? – The regular belly ache. But it’s nowhere near as bad as it was and I’m pretty lucky compared to other people.
8. What do you find most beautiful about life? – Being part of nature and the intricate design of everything in nature.
9. What is your biggest strength, and how does this help you cope with your everyday life? – I have very strong willpower. Once I set my mind to do something, I will do it (sometimes to my own detriment).
10. What is your biggest weakness, and how does this hinder your everyday life? – I find it very hard to accept help and love and that can hinder my everyday life for all sorts of reasons.
11. What is one thought that you rarely vocalize, because people brush it off or tell you off? – That a lot of people’s ailments could probably improve if they ate a diet that was ‘species-appropriate’ just like we would feed the ‘right’ diet to an animal in the zoo 😉 (I’ve learned that no convincing will make people change their habits unless they’re truly ready to do so! I usually keep my thoughts to myself now).

My Nominees for the ‘Sunshine Blogger Award’

My nominees are mainly blogs that have inspired me on my healing journey and also to start my own blog to (hopefully) provide similar help to others. It also includes blogs from the chronic illness bloggers group that I find particularly inspiring, even if the topic does not affect me personally. So here goes:

1. Lauren at Empowered Sustenance
2. Donna at Cultured Food Life
3. Stefani at Paleo for Women
4. Donna at February Stars
5. Tamsin at Eco Fluffy Mama
6. Stacey at Chronically Whole
7. Julie at Counting My Spoons
8. Shelley at Chronic Mom
9. Jaime at I Told You I Was Sick
10. Valerie at Lilac and Lyme
11. Alexa at Girl In Healing

My 11 Questions for the Nominees

1. What inspires you everyday?
2. Where are you in your healing journey?
3. Has chronic illness had any positive impact on your life?
4. How long have you been blogging for?
5. What is your biggest goal when blogging?
6. What is the nicest thing a reader has ever said to you?
7. What inspired you to start a Blog?
8. Who has given you the most support?
9. What is your biggest passion besides blogging?
10. What makes you feel good?
11. Can you share a book that has changed your life?

I’d be very interested to see your answers but I understand that many of you are very busy and may not be able to pass this on. That is absolutely fine. This is just to let you know that your blogs have inspired me and/or that I think you provide great content for you readers. Keep it up!

Love,

Layla xx