Purveyor of Aqua Yoga Resources 

Lupus Awareness

It’s Purple Day.

Welcome to Put on Purple Day.

My name is Christa Fairbrother, and I’m an aquatic therapist who specializes in aqua yoga.

You might be wondering, what is Put on Purple Day?

Put on Purple Day is a day to raise awareness about systemic lupus erythematosus, which is an autoimmune disease, and I am one of the one-and-a-half million people in the United States who lives with the disease.

It’s a disease that can attack any system in your body. It’s an autoimmune disease, so we can’t catch it from each other. But it does affect mostly women.

If you’re like, Oh, wow, this sucks. How could I support someone who has that?

I’m here to talk to you about sun safety awareness because one thing that can be a real trigger that will cause a flare in lupus is the sun.

If you’ve ever connected with me, you see me put out a lot of pictures of me wearing sun gear. I wear pants, UV pants, a UV shirt, a hat, sunglasses, except when I need to see you, and sunscreen whenever I am in the sun. There are lots of other conditions that can benefit from this sun safety gear as well.

May is also Arthritis Awareness Month. It is Mental Health Awareness Month.

Think about system affective disorder. Those people want the sun. So this idea of sun safety and how much sun exposure we should get for ourselves is important.

So you can help raise awareness about what to do in the sun.

You can, if you’re so inclined, donate to the Lupus Foundation of America. Today, they have a matching grant program. So for every dollar you donate, somebody else is going to donate $2 in addition.

You could share some information about Aqua yoga for Lupus.

I will put in the comments the sequence I have put out for Aqua yoga for Lupus. It’s the only sequence I give away for free to anybody who wants it because having Lupus sucks as well as any other autoimmune condition, which you can benefit from using that sequence for. Access the Lupus Class.

Really what it’s designed is for anybody who really needs to do that check-in. Am I feeling good today or do I really need to take it easy? That’s what the sequence is good for you. You could share that with somebody.

Or probably the simplest thing we can all do for each other is just to have a little bit of empathy.

When I show up in the pool fully dressed, it’s not, Why are you not in your suit? Or if I am talking about why I have an autoimmune condition, it’s not, Well, no, you don’t. You’re too young. It’s something like that. So just that ability to show up for each other and be able to say, Wow, that sounds really hard, is one of the simplest things we can do for each other.

So if you want any more information about lupus, feel free. Ask me a question. I’m happy to answer anything or refer you on. And to everybody I’m talking to who also has lupus, I wish you really big purple hugs today. Stay strong. Lots of purple love. And for anybody else who has any other autoimmune conditions, I’ve got your back, too. I know what it’s like.

Everybody stay healthy and strong, and happy May.

I hope you make it into the pool today, practicing sun safety. Take care.

Lupus Sun Safety Tips

Yesterday was Put on Purple Day, but the entire month of May is Lupus Awareness Month. And lupus is a systemic autoimmune disease that can affect any organ in your body. There’s about a million and a half people in America who live with some form of lupus. Most of us are women. Most of us are women of color. And so it is very impactful to millions of people in America.

And One of the triggers for lupus flares, an increase in lupus symptoms, is the sun, UV exposure. If you live in Florida, it’s hard to avoid UV exposure. If you’re somebody who, like me, who loves the sun, loves to be outside, lives to be in the pool, that’s really a problem. I’m coming to you today with some sun safety tips because if you live with lupus, you need this, as well as if you’re going to spend time in the pool, it’s relevant so you stay out of your dermatologist’s office.

Working top down here, you see this strange, triangular, tan shape above me. My husband’s really good to me, and he put up a sun shade above the pool so you could potentially do that. They sell these sunshades really inexpensively these days. You just need some pools. If you are a pool owner, some public pools will have some shade cover so you can work in those areas. Or I have worked with people who only go the indoor pools to stay out of the sun. So that’s an option.

Floppy hat- I like these ones that are actually made of plastic that look like they are rafia. It’s not one of the woven hats. It just looks like it because I can throw this in my swim bag after it gets totally wet and it gets all mushed up and it saves its shape. And I can put it back on, it doesn’t look flat. And then you got to have a strap. So not all hats come with straps these days, but you live in a coastal town and there’s always a lot of wind. That’s really important.

Sun glasses- You want the ones that are polarized because they help you see in the water better. If you’re teaching on the pool deck, you want to be able to see your people’s feet in the water or you’re going out on the I go to fishing a lot. Polarized really helps.

Sunscreen, not promoting any particular brand, but you want the one with the big number because that’s the higher SPF, higher sun protection. There’s an organization called Environmental Working Group, and they have some safety recommendations around sunscreens and their ingredients. Look them up if you have any curiosity about that. Super helpful.

Then sunshirts- they come in lots of varieties. What do you want? I like the ones with the hoods because you can put the hood up and then you’re always forgetting to sunscreen the top of your ears, and that’ll be covered for you. It gets around your neck, so you don’t have to worry about that. It gets you a little more cover up around the chin, and you can still put the hat on over them. So that’s really helpful. Also, you want the long sleeves. If you’re cutting off here, not going to be as effective. And along with long sleeves, get the ones with the extra arms that have the thumb slit because super easy to forget to sunscreen the back of your hands. And personally, that’s where all my sunspots are the worst because I always forget to get the backs of my hands.

And then, okay, moving down, sun pants- So I like the ones that have these little skirts on them because when you’re on the pool deck, then you’re not flashing your sun pants at people. So really helpful. When I am doing this head-out aquatic exercise like aqua yoga, this is basically the setup I wear and what I wear to teach in. When I’m swimming in the pool, I switch this sun shirt out for a tighter one that has the tape on the bottom because then it helps stay down. But I still swim in the swim pants and the sun shirt, and I put on the sunscreen before I put on the goggles to help me stay safe in the pool.

If you want any more information about lupus and what it’s like to live with lupus for a regular person, feel free to ask any questions. I can refer you out to any organization if you’re looking for resources for a colleague or family friend or a loved one. I will put the link below this video because having lupus sucks. I want to support anybody else who lives with Lupus. The only aqua yoga sequence that I produce for free and let anybody have is an aqua yoga for lupus sequence.

Again, I’ll put that link here (The LUPUS AQUA YOGA CLASS) so that if you or anyone you care about lives with it and wants to practice aqua yoga in a this for yoga in a sun-safe way so the lupus doesn’t impact your skin or cause you to have a flare up, increase your fatigue, anything like that, you can. So thank you so much. Please practice sun safety wherever you live and whatever you live with because your dermatologist will thank you and your skin will thank you. Have a great day, everybody.

If you liked this post about Lupus Awareness and Sun Safety, read these too:

Aqua Yoga for Lupus

Lupus Sun Safety

Managing Autoimmune Fatigue