I’ve just signed up for Diabetes Blog Week with the intention to write for the next seven days to a specific topic. Todays topic is deeply personal… What are the things I wouldn’t share about myself with regards to my illness…

As I discover more and more about the diabetes online community and all the support that’s out there I feel incredibly lucky. For the first 6 years after my diagnosis I felt completely isolated. The only other person I knew with diabetes was a friends son who’d had it since he was 8. He was already on Insulin while I was still managing with diet so we couldn’t really compare notes. To say I was roaming around in the dark would be an understatement. To top it off my job required constant travel, meeting new people and appearing the model of perfect health.

Yoga Teachers don’t get sick!

I’ll never forget a time, when I was teaching in Kyoto, where our host had organised us a hotel room instead of an apartment. I’d agreed to it thinking I could find something to eat even if it was just a salad and boiled eggs with an avocado from a local supermarket. What I hadn’t factored in, was a frustrated hungry husband and son who wanted more than just take away. An argument ensued which left me a quivering mess with soaring BG levels. Somehow I managed to placate the situation, feed myself and head out the door in time to teach my class.

I remember smiling through clenched teeth for most of the yoga class reflecting on all the moments, as a dancer, where I had to go on stage and smile when it was the last thing I felt like doing.

The beauty of being  dancer is that you use your body as the instrument of your heart. You don’t need to say anything. But society and life requires the word. So is it possible to keep my thoughts and feelings about Diabetes on the QT?

Not really…. because I am a share-a-holic

Perhaps the only thing I wouldn’t readily divulge is the minutia of thoughts that parade their way through my mind.

Luckily my meditation practice takes care of that!

with great respect…. Rachel