I thought about calling this series “This Old Bodymind” to evoke “This Old House”, but I don’t want to reinforce the notion that you have to be old to be disabled. So, I’m trying on “This Chronic Bodymind”.

This first installment of “This Chronic Bodymind” is about an essential part of my coping system: pillows. I don’t know how I endured before assembling my trio of body pillow, pregnancy pillow, and head pillow.

Contents:

• Separate, Isolate, Bolster, Squeeze
• My Current Coping Trio
• Body Pillows
• Head Pillows
• Pregnancy Pillows
• Conclusion

Separate, Isolate, Bolster, Squeeze

I’m a side-sleeper with chronic pain and chronic muscle spasms who prefers fetal most of the time but also likes yearner. Some pillow rules-of-thumb I’ve developed in my quest for relief and sleep are:

• Separate
• Isolate
• Bolster
• Squeeze

It starts with the tuck. I tuck one arm of a U-shaped pregnancy pillow in along…