What we eat can and does play a role in how we experience the symptoms of fibromyalgia and related chronic illnesses. Even if nutrition is not the initiating cause, it is a major contributing factor and can increase and prolong our symptoms. As the film says - food matters! And speaking from personal experience, I can directly attribute the recent improvements in my health to the majors changes I made in my eating habits - eliminating gluten and processed foods, and increasing lean proteins, and fruits and vegetables. In her program The Eat to Beat Fibromyalgia Challenge, Deirdre Rawlings, … [Read more...]
Celebrating – Birthdays, Re-Birthdays, and Showing Up
I have written posts before on why it is important to "show up." Why it is imperative that we take active rolls in our health and wellbeing. Just yesterday, at the gentle yoga class I teach, one of my support group members was sharing with someone the amazing things she has experienced since joining our local support group and beginning to practice yoga regularly with me. In her very generous way she was trying to attribute some of the benefits to me, but the fact is - she is the one doing all the work, making all the efforts to connect and heal. She is the one who keeps showing up, and her … [Read more...]
A Life of Essence, Not Illness
Not that long ago my thoughts, emotions, and daily functions revolved around being sick. It was how I identified myself. I was sick, and living in a state of "I can't." Everything seemed like an enormous task and too big of a risk to take. I was certain that anything outside the safety of the small little zone of comfort I had made for myself would send me spiraling into the depths of my illness. I was sick. That was pretty much the entirety of who I was and the lens with which I viewed the entire world. But I was never happy or content with that state of being. Who is? Who could possibly … [Read more...]
Blueprint Series: What’s Your Trigger?
How can we begin to heal if we do not understand why we are ill? Healing from chronic illness is so much more complicated than just treating the symptoms. Prescription meds may help us cope, but they do not correct the original imbalances that led to dis-ease. And with difficult-to-understand illnesses like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, it is not always possible to pinpoint just one specific cause. Often it is a series of causes like a traumatic event experienced while in the midsts of some other type of recurring life stressors. There are many different types of traumas that can … [Read more...]
Sometimes You Just Have to Ask
What are your experiences with asking for help? I think we can all agree it is not an easy thing to do, especially in dealing with chronic illness when you are not even sure at times what it is you really need. Asking for help is something I have never been good at, and accepting unsolicited help is even harder for me. This is something I have been working on as I feel it is due to an unhealthy amount of pride and ego. I never like to seem weak or vulnerable. Very primal of me really, like a pack animal that hides illness or injury to continue to blend in with the herd and not appear like … [Read more...]