As I presently suffer from a number of chronic conditions, I say presently because I believe that nothing is permanent, I am invested in pursuing self help methods to overcome these setbacks.
In addition to Nutrition and Exercise, some of the methods I’m going to incorporate into my wellbeing schedule are:
- E.F.T. (Emotional Freedom Technique)
- The Emotion Code
- Breath Work
- Dream Work
- Energy Healing
- Meditation
As you can see, the first two subjects on the list are related to emotions. This is because I believe that emotional stress is the major contributing factor to most of my symptoms.
Like many people I went through my earlier life ‘coping’ with stressful situations in a very calm and controlled way, well that’s how it would have appeared to others anyway. In some situations, such as being in a toxic relationship or trying to support close relatives through serious and terminal illnesses, the calm exterior that people would see on the surface was just a front to show others that I could cope. Underneath the surface, I felt helpless and alone, I was agonising over things that were out of my control and didn’t feel I could ask for or get the help I needed at the time. People often turned to me for help because I was the one who could and I may have appeared strong and in control so no one thought I may need support myself. Because of this I found it impossible to show ‘weakness’ or ask for help. This all took it’s toll on my body and I truly believe this is what led to the fibromyalgia.
I’ll talk more about fibromyalgia in later articles but I will say that the condition has made it so I can no longer be that person who can take on the world. Yes, I still help people when I can but I have to put my own needs first, I simply cannot function under any form of stress, my body literally seizes up. In order to deal with any complicated or stressful situation now, I have to detach myself from any emotion to avoid anxiety, the more I practice this, the easier it becomes.
So I’ve learned a coping strategy, I’ve also learned to pace myself to avoid physical burnout but I still have a lot of work to do. The methods listed above will be incorporated into my daily routine, one step at a time. I will be updating my progress in future blogs and my next article on EFT will give a brief explanation about the subject and how to use it. I’ll go into more detail on the other subjects in future articles and blogs.