Positively Chronic

A 6-week mental and emotional fitness program for people managing long-term illness

Next Group Coaching Program: TBD

Solo Coaching Program: Start any time!

Living with a chronic condition can feel like

an uphill climb that never ends

with a heavy pack you can never set down.

At least, that’s how it feels for me. For 40 years, I’ve been living with Type 1 diabetes. (You can read more about that over here.)

It’s true that those of us with chronic illness can’t set down our packs, but we can lighten the load of managing a long-term condition by strengthening our mental and emotional fitness so we can build resilience and feel optimistic, even when things are tough.

It took me nearly 35 years to figure out how, and now I want to help you. Because I’m living proof that life with a chronic illness can be fulfilling, and it can be easier. It’s my mission to bring you hope and help you turn it into your reality. I’m here to tell you that you get to choose your path and decide how heavy your pack is, not your illness.

In my case, I used to be ruled by these thoughts. They’d spin me into despair and hopelessness…sometimes for a day, or for weeks. It sucked. But I eventually learned to see my illness not as a limiting factor in my life, but as an enabler. I stopped being defined by it and started living my life for me, not my disease.

I saw it through new eyes, and shifted my thinking so I was in control of my life and disease, not the other way around.

And the impact of shifting my mindset has been transformative. I still get stuck in negative thinking some days (I’m human too!), but my recovery time is quicker and I’m way more forgiving of myself — and my condition — now than I was even five years ago. My life has become so much more enjoyable, despite carrying this chronic backpack.

If you’re sick and tired of being mentally and emotionally burdened by managing your long-term illness, then join me to learn how to:

• Build mental and emotional stamina and endurance to handle the challenges of managing a long-term illness for the long-haul

• Bounce back from setbacks more quickly

• Quickly dial down the worry and anxiety that accompany a long-term illness

• Recognize when fear is no longer helpful and move through it more easily

• Appreciate progress over perfection in how you manage your condition

• Notice when you are avoiding and denying your condition due to mental or emotional distress

• Use strategies to shift from negative to positive thinking during even the toughest moments

• See and appreciate the gifts your condition brings to you life (it might seem unfathomable, but it’s possible — really!)

• Be motivated to take inspired action in the management of your mental fitness and your long-term condition

• Connect with and learn from others who are experiencing the same challenges

This program is now available in several formats to best meet your learning and timing needs and preferences:

Solo Coaching Program

Rather participate on your own with individualized support? No problem!

The Solo Coaching Program offers 7 x 50-minute sessions so you can focus on your unique experience with personalized support from Jilly. We’ll work through the program curriculum, and you’ll receive all the tools, resources and content from the group program, with flexibility to adapt it specifically to you.

Begin any time and move at a pace that suits you (within 3 months from start date).

Investment: $1500 CAD, or three monthly payments of $500 CAD (+ GST/HST where applicable)

Self-directed Program

Rather go it alone? I got you!

The Self-directed Program lets you go at your own pace, and is delivered virtually, on-demand, with short videos, a workbook and all other program resources.

Begin any time (coming soon) and move at a pace that suits you — as fast or as slow as you like!

Investment: $350 CAD (+ GST/HST where applicable)

Program Overview

Week 1: This Sucks: Acknowledging What Is

• Naming and claiming our conditions by sharing what we’re carrying in our backpacks

Week 2: Stopping the Swirl: Understanding Emotions and Thoughts

• Noticing our unpleasant emotions and thoughts, and learning how to pause, reset and redirect our responses to the hard stuff

Week 3: Mindset Reset: Powerful Perspectives and Shifts

• Shifting from victim to empowered, and choosing how to hold our conditions

I want this program to help people — like me — who are managing a long-term condition on top of everything else life throws at us, especially those whose illnesses are invisible to the untrained eye.

Often others don’t see or understand the burden we carry as we go about our work, our families, and all the other responsibilities we hold with the added backpack full of information, considerations, financial expenses, decisions, preparations, etc. that long-term illnesses bring to our lives. They don’t understand decision fatigue. They don’t get how we can look “fine” but feel awful. Even those closest to us struggle to understand the true weight of our packs.

But there is hope, and there are accessible, practical tools to lighten the load and make it easier to keep going.

How many of us have been told by our health care team to manage our stress or to get enough sleep, that those “simple” things will help manage our illness?

How many of us have figured out how to recover gracefully (i.e., without anyone noticing) when a symptom or side effect flares up?

How many of us know what to do to integrate difficult information, like when we get news of a relapse or unfavourable test results?