Joy doesn't wait for your symptoms to stop
And what I found at the Met
Some of you already received part of this newsletter. It went to the Believe Your Body waitlist first. But I've kept thinking about my visit to the Met, and I've gone down a deep research rabbit hole since, so it felt wrong not to bring the story here too.
I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Sunday in NYC and just needed to tell you all about it.
First, because I just felt so much joy! A kind of joy I really didn’t know was possible with chronic illness a few years ago. And the joy had nothing to do with which symptoms were or weren’t showing up that day (I’ve been dealing with some pretty intense neck pain & stiffness. My head could not move to the left this past weekend **eye roll**).
And second, because what happened there was one of those serendipitous moments I absolutely love.
What a coincidence (or was it intuition?)
The exhibit I planned to see was paintings by Finnish artist Helene Schjerfbeck. I felt called to go to this exhibit despite knowing nothing about her. I didn’t even have the idea to go to the museum until an hour before I got on a bus and did!
And now I know why. Not only were the paintings beautiful, and emotionally-resonant, but Helene lived with chronic illness her whole life, including periods of deep isolation and chronic, severe pain.
Again, I did not know this before I decided to go to this exhibit!
If there’s one thing I love, it’s people who were dealt the shittiness of chronic illness and found their joy anyway. And if I hadn’t gotten on the bus Sunday morning with an intuition I needed to see that exhibit, I wouldn’t have found her.
Lots of painters lived with chronic illness
Last night, feeling restless in bed, I broke my rule of not using my phone while trying to fall sleep. I was just so jazzed about researching other artists who lived with chronic illness and chronic pain—and when a former academic PhD researcher wants to research, she will research, let me tell you. During this frenzy, I found 15+ artists and read about their stories. Stories of pain, abrupt injury, lifelong illness, late-in-life illness.
Here are just a few:
Frida Kahlo (this one I knew already), iconic Mexican artist, lived with polio and underwent 30 surgeries in her life.
Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch Post-Impressionist painter, who likely lived with bipolar disorder and temporal lobe epilepsy. I was able to visit the asylum he lived at in the South of France a few years ago.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French Impressionist painter, who continuously adapted his painting techniques when Rheumatoid Arthritis impacted his hands and he became a wheelchair user.
Ijeoma Ogwuegbu, contemporary Nigerian artist, who uses bright colorful art as a way to cope with Fibromyalgia.
These are only four of the interesting stories that I found beyond Helene. It reminded me how completely human illness is, and how it doesn’t need to dictate what creative pursuits one can pursue.
Even more motivated to help people Believe Their Bodies
Joy. Creativity. Living life as yourself. This is why I’m so passionate about what I’m teaching in Believe Your Body.
Here's the thing about Sunday—I got on that bus because I was curious and I wanted to enjoy my day, neck situation and all. And I found Helene and ended up completely absorbed in an interesting rabbit hole.
That's what following your joy, and your curiosity, actually looks like with chronic illness. Doing the things with symptoms. And while it is absolutely your birthright, that kind of joy often gets beaten out of us by circumstance. Because connecting to it requires wading through the muddy waters of grief, acceptance, and advocacy before you can really trust yourself to be joyful again. And that's hard to do alone.
Chronic illness, for lack of a better phrase, just sucks. But it doesn’t get to co-opt your joy.
This is what we're doing in Believe Your Body. And if Helene and I running into each other at the Met isn't your sign to join, I don't know what is.
✨ Sign up before March 31 for a chance to win a free 1:1 coaching session with me.
Sending lots of love for joy and healing always <3,
Dr. Talia
P.s. Who is your favorite artist with chronic illness? I wanna continue to go down this rabbit hole... Lmk in the comments.
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Lia Pas - her embroidery of symptoms is amazing. Follow her on Substack.
This is beautiful.
I love the reminder that joy doesn’t wait for everything to be “fixed.”
So many people feel like they have to earn joy by getting to the other side of their symptoms…
and meanwhile life is happening now.
Also something really comforting about realizing how many people have created, contributed, and lived fully alongside illness—not in spite of it, but with it.
It makes it feel a little less isolating. Thank you for sharing this—it’s such a needed reframe