Keeping Busy, Living Life, and Staying Pain Free(ish)
The essence is all in the ‘ish’, right? But grant me this: at least I did use the words ‘pain-free’. And the words ‘busy’ and ‘living’. You [...]
November 9th, 2024
2:45 pm
July 28th, 2024
12:34 pm
Busy Advocating and Making Art – My Life Management
Although pain management is the undercurrent of my life, it no longer rules my life activity. This is a tricky mind battle that underlies everything I do. [...]
February 27th, 2024
12:29 pm
The 17th Anniversary Post
In 2013, when I began making progress with pain management, I had the idea to make a marionette of myself. Theo and I had just travelled to Italy (masks and Pinocchios everywhere!), and returning on the plane I watched the film, Marilyn. It dawned on me how seriously invisible many illnesses are. As much as I would have loved to make the marionette myself, at the time, any self-portraits I was drawing or painting were horrifying. They were brutal, disturbing, and sad to the point where I had to ask Theo to wrap them up one day – I couldn't look at them anymore.
September 7th, 2023
12:50 pm
Is Symptom Tracking Your Road Map to Better Days?
Soula Mantalvanos (me!) as a guest contributor on MoreGoodDays. If you're living with fibromyalgia, you'll know first-hand how the experience forces you into constant symptom tracking. What’s this niggle? Is this [...]
July 24th, 2023
10:33 am
It’s National Pain Week And I’m Celebrating by Writing the End of this Story
Every year I think something amazing will happen during National Pain Week. But every year, nothing amazing ever does. We all wait for answers, but either the answers don't come, or they prove more tiresome. Worst of all, the answers are a direction to a lonely zone – the figure-it-out-yourself zone! So, figure it out myself; I will this year! I'm making National Pain Week AMAZING by writing the end of this story.
June 4th, 2023
8:28 pm
‘Reading’ books, books and more books
Well, not entirely reading; using my ears instead! Where have I been? Seriously, how did I not get into Audible sooner? You would struggle to get me [...]
May 22nd, 2023
2:50 pm
A glorious facade – just look at me!
(Photograph Ivan Kemp) Do you like this picture of me? When I see this photo of myself, I see someone proud and accomplished. My posture reflects inner [...]
March 14th, 2023
8:29 pm
Here and There, art exhibition at Queenscliff Gallery
Here and There exhibition: paintings, drawings and etchings of Venice by me at Queenscliff Gallery. It's thrilling to be writing this post. To my friends and followers further afield than Melbourne, I will have a virtual tour of the exhibition published on the Queenscliff Gallery (QG) website where you can view the works forming the exhibition and some of my other available artworks. Here and There is a culmination of my recent trip to Venice... to date!
March 7th, 2023
6:07 am
Soula Mantalvanos in Times News Group’s Women in Business International Women’s Day 2023 Edition
(Image: Soula Mantalvanos, founder My Health Story features in Women in Business, Bellarine Times International Women’s Day special edition 2023) Feature, Women in Business, Bellarine Times International [...]
December 22nd, 2022
4:35 pm
Arrivederci 2022
(Image: Me in Cortona, Italy 2022) I’m signing off this year with Italian flare. I’m trying to stay positive after yet another messy year. It almost feels [...]