丽莎·布鲁姆在一岁时被诊断患有关节炎，但她并没有让关节炎定义她。

A challenging childhood

“It doesn’t define who you are.” This is how Lisa Bloom describes arthritis. That’s a pretty amazing thing to say, considering she’s had it as long as she can remember.

“My journey with arthritis started when I was about one year old,” Lisa explains. “Evidently (since I don’t remember) I had started walking…and then I stopped. My parents took me to a series of doctors and eventually ended up at the Mayo clinic.” That’s where she was diagnosed, at eighteen months, with what was then called “juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.”

The first flare-up that shecan记得发生在她十二岁的时候。在20世纪70年代早期，医生们对关节炎的治疗方法与现在非常不同。他们的建议是尽可能久坐，所以丽莎不得不停止所有的体育活动。她说:“这对我来说非常痛苦。”“我从一个非常外向、投入的人变成了一个非常内向的人。”

她回忆起当时的感觉，就好像她是世界上唯一患有关节炎的孩子。这就是为什么她和她的丈夫李如此致力于支持关节炎基金会为患有关节炎的孩子举办的夏令营。她想象着，如果她也能从事这种活动，事情会有怎样的不同。“我就不会感到如此孤独了。”

“It was very scary when I was very young. Because I would go into the rheumatologist’s office and I would see all these elderly people in wheelchairs, and I thought…that’s going to be me.”

An active adulthood

Lisa credits the fact that she has stayed healthy and active to the good medical care she’s had. Now retired from her job as a software designer, she and her husband Lee enjoy cooking, hiking, scuba diving, walking their dog, and snow shoeing.

It hasn’t been an easy road. For one thing, as so many arthritis patients know, the signs are not always obvious. “I’ve had people say to me ‘I don’t believe you,’” she says. “Because I don’t have all the obvious signs of somebody with arthritis, so my hands look good.”

At other times though, it’s all too visible. “When I’m having a flare up in my knee, it swells up such that I really can’t pull a pant leg over. It swells up to the point where the skin can’t push out anymore.”

尽管如此，丽莎说，她仍然对未来充满希望，因为所有的治疗进展。“这些年来，我吃了很多不同的药物，因为在某些时候，它们不再起作用。所以，有更多的选择，而我还没有达到终点，这真的很令人鼓舞。”

It has occasionally been challenging to get an appointment with a rheumatologist. Recently, she was calling around to get an appointment with a new one and the earliest available was three months out. “That just tells me that that we need more rheumatologists or there needs to be some change.”

A promising future

为了加速这一变化，创造一个每个人都能在需要时预约到风湿病医生的未来，丽莎和她的丈夫李怀着节日的精神，给关节炎基金会送了一份非常慷慨的礼物。这是对其他支持者的一份礼物:加倍!

MATCH MY GIFT!

布洛姆夫妇的捐赠将有助于我们扩大风湿病学家的研究机会，重点关注最严重短缺的社区。他们希望这能激励其他人尽其所能，“支持这个组织，所以它也会支持你。””

Celebrating holiday wins

Living with arthritis can be a constant battle, and people like Lisa know that celebrating the small wins can be encouraging – especially at this time of year.

Since stress can exacerbate arthritis symptoms, a holiday win for the Blooms looks like quiet time at home, baking with their son. Inspired by watching the Great British Baking Show, they have challenged themselves recently to learn some elaborate dishes – ones that take shape over several days. Whether it’s a quiet evening of baking, a brisk hike or a getaway, they don’t take any of it for granted.

Arthritis is a life-altering disease for nearly 60 million Americans like Lisa. With a gift today, you can help conquer it.Learn moreand help us meet the challenge match offered by the Blooms!

Make aDonation. Change the future of arthritis.

By Lauren Brooke

Have you ever desired to transport your mind’s energy to a state of calmness and tranquility? If you answered yes, then MBSR might be the right journey for you to embark upon. MBSR stands for mind body stress reduction, and as a participant, I can say it certainly is. TheMBSR course, originally developed at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in the 1970s by professor Jon Kabat-Zinn, is designed for participants to become aware of the mind-body connection and through the various practices to become mindful. As you explore breath work, meditation and mindful body movements, you can learn new tools to not only reduce stress, but to also be present in each moment.

As an individual who has been living with arthritis since my teenage years, I am well-versed in the effects stress can have on my body. Stress equals more pain, tightness, the ever-looming fear of a flare and more. It also increases my anxiety and makes me feel “stuck in a loop” with my own thoughts — which I can’t say is always the best place to be. It is precisely for these reasons that I decided to sign up for the eight-week course, with the hopes to become anew and better me.

At first, I wasn’t sure what to expect — I had tried meditation and yoga in the past and not much came of them. These practices seemed great in theory, but in real-life applications they came with much difficulty. So, what would be different this time? The answer: everything. Instead of attempting yoga or meditation classes in person, which often resulted in uncomfortable chairs or positions, this course was offered on Zoom. This meant I could participate in the comfort of my own home and in my comfortable chair! Next, you have the option to turn your cameras on and off. Want to close your eyes and embrace focusing on your breathing without worrying if others are looking at you? Feel free. Do you want to be in comfortable clothing or even pajamas? Be my guest. For me, I liked having these options and it really made my experience that much better.

Now, let’s talk about the energy from the instructor and participants that was present throughout the course. If you’re thinking that energy can’t be felt through Zoom, think again. From the first class, the instructor creates a safe and judgement free space. There is full acceptance to be who you are, just as you are, with absolutely no judgment. Sounds pretty amazing, right? Well, it is! My fellow students were eitherLive Yes! Connect Group关节炎患者的助理员或护理员。这种化妆为真正了解关节炎是什么样子的人创造了一个天堂——他们明白。这是你渴望的吗?被看到和理解?对我来说，这是至关重要的，我在这群人中找到了它。我们可以自由地探索我们的感受，讨论我们的经历，而不做任何评判。此外，我们也得到了老师的尊重和尊重。He didn’t make us feel like we were justpatients, but rather strong warriors whom he wanted to learn from!

Also, through the use of body scans, I learned to label sensations I felt, as just that — bodily sensations. Instead of catastrophizing what I am feeling or getting all caught up in the worry of a sensation, I can now calmly say this is a sensation that will pass — and it eventually does. By learning how to focus on my breath during meditations and use it as an anchor when I am stressed, I can regain a feeling of being centered. When I practice yoga, I can honor my body and provide the release it needs through various positions to ease muscle tightness.

But perhaps one of the best things that I learned as a student, was that I am in control

of me. Not others, not my arthritis,me.正念减压训练教会我，我可以选择。我可以选择如何应对压力。通过做出选择，我不仅能够有更多的解决方案，而且我被赋予了力量。

As a graduate, I am now able to practice mindfulness on a daily basis. It has been ingrained in my mind to be present in each moment. To say MBSR has allowed me to become anew and better me, would be an understatement. It has been life-changing and I am forever in gratitude for this incredible opportunity.

Lauren Brooke is a facilitator for the Live Yes! Connect Group in Monmouth County, New Jersey. She is passionate about arthritis and invisible disability awareness. As a writer, she focuses writing about her journey of living with arthritis.