Relationship Stress Triggers Fibromyalgia

Look in your close relationships for clues to your Fibromyalgia Triggers.
 
The most common denominator in Fibromyalgia triggers for me is stress from my closest relationships.  It is not all of the cause of symptoms, but it is probably the biggest culprit.

I have seen it repeatedly in myself and with clients as well.

Relationship stress can be very subtle.  You may not even be consciously aware that you are being triggered.  But your body knows.  Your Spirit knows.

Watch for the physical and emotional patterns in yourself.  Look into your most recent interactions with others and identify how you were feeling physically and emotionally, how you were affected by the experience of relating with them.  Watch for a tightened jaw, gritting of teeth, a headache, a sudden dip into depression or despair, feeling superior, feeling inferior, shallow breathing, tightened shoulders, aches and pains cranking up in intensity.

These are all clues to something deeper going on in your relationships--much deeper, in most cases.

Allowing ourselves to be in the presence of others who are chaotic, manipulative, depressive, bullying, passive-aggressive or openly volatile, increases symptoms--any kind of symptoms, not just Fibromyalgia, but particularly Fibro symptoms.

I do my best to be conscious of how I am reacting and feeling, and then I limit my exposure to the situations and the people that I discover are triggers for me in my life.  This is just common sense.

Being conscious is required!  But that is not always so easily done!

In general, most people are very unaware of how they operate and why they do so.  Sometimes this requires a healer or a counselor--someone who can help us to become more conscious of ourselves.

It takes great courage and persistence to keep showing up and doing this kind of personal growth/spiritual healing work.  It is always easier to feel like the other person is the problem.  But that is rarely the case.

We are the problem. How we react is the problem. 

Limiting negative exposure and creating healthy boundaries opens up other areas of healing work that must be addressed that are just as vital to creating a joyous life, in my opinion--like, what do you now do with the holes in your life that used to be filled with other people's stuff???

You stand in the quiet and peace and listen to God's input--sometimes for the very first time in your life, because now God can actually get through to you!

And you keep growing and learning and getting better at living life joyously and as pain-free as possible!

Love and Hugs,

Barbara

© Copyright 2009-2015, Transformation Of A Mystic | Barbara F. Manning. 

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Recoiling From Pain Intensifies It

Recoiling from pain is futile.  For me, trying to do so actually makes it worse.  It significantly intensifies it.

This goes for any kind of pain--physical, emotional, mental or spiritual.  But in this instance, I am referring to physical pain--the kind that brings deep suffering on every level of existence.

Part of the problem is that I unconsciously resist pain.  This is an automatic and very unconscious response from me.  I don't like feeling pain.  Resisting it always comes first for me.  

In the resistance, I begin tensing up my muscles and my joints in some kind of unconscious effort to brace myself to surmount and bear the pain.

It is not easy to stay conscious and aware that I am in pain avoidance mode. Usually I discover it when I am feeling even more pain and I do a "body check," and I realize that my entire body is now into the resistance of the experience.

It is completely natural to want to avoid things that feel so uncomfortable.

A total mind-blower to me is my discovery that by mentally directing my attention into the center of the pain, facing it, focusing on it, allowing it and accepting it, alters it in a positive way for me.  

This seems very illogical to me.  But I am here to tell you that sometimes it is the only thing that brings relief.

Perhaps the relief comes from not adding the extra tensing and anxiety to the already difficult experience to bear.

I am not sure.  But I know that for me, relief is in the heart of the pain.  That doesn't necessarily mean that acceptance and allowing makes it go completely away.  But it surely does bring some peace and liberation from the depths of the suffering.

Try it!  What have you got to lose?  Maybe some pain!!

Love and Hugs,
Barbara

© Copyright 2009-2015, Transformation Of A Mystic | Barbara F. Manning. 

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Comet Watching Can Trigger Fibromyalgia???

No Comet Lovejoy Watching is possible where I live, tonight.  It's just way too cloudy out there!

It is a good thing, too!!  I am all Fibro stove-up from peering into the Heaven's with a heavy set of binoculars last night, doing exactly this comet watching!  

Who the heck ever heard of stargazing triggering Fibromyalgia???

You have GOT to be KIDDING!!! 

I'm here to tell you...sadly...that this is true, at least for me right now, anyway!  Crooked neck, heavy tools, holding arms above my head for a long while--all of it added up together triggered a massive YEEEE...OUCH for me after Comet Watching!

I am unbelievably stiff and sore today, even still, more than 24 hours later!

Another goofy piece for me is that I didn't recognize the cause of all the pain for a long while today.  It wasn't until I raised my arms over my head to put a Christmas box up on a shelf, that the massive pain zap helped me to remember where this unbelievably deep pain began!

Stargazing would not normally bother me in the slightest!  

It is impossible for me to know when Fibro will be triggered!

So what?! 

I dearly LOVE stargazing!  I am NOT giving it up!  I will modify it somehow--when required!  But I will never be able to 100 percent predict when it may lay me low.  Fibro is unpredictable for me.  My reactions can be unpredictable.

There is always a way to make accommodations and adjustments, though--even if only by being very compassionate and loving with myself when I have done something that is causing me to feel like a huge pile of crap!

I am not going to stop doing things I love doing on the chance that I may get Fibro-triggered.

That's no way to live.

Life and living is way too precious to live in fear of what might happen!  I will continue to live in the moment, make concessions where I feel it wise and deal with whatever happens along the way!

Comet Lovejoy, you were worth it! 
 
Love and Hugs,
Barbara

 

© Copyright 2009-2015, Transformation Of A Mystic | Barbara F. Manning. 

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 Thank you Google Images, for the Commercial Reuse of your Images!

Photo credit: Comet Lovejoy on December 13 from the 

Astronomical Society of Victoria's Astrophotography Observatory, Heathcote, Victoria.

Oh! The Aching!

Fibromyalgia makes no sense whatsoever.  Because it seems so difficult to understand, it is easy to think I must be daft or some kind of hypochondriac.  

But when I look deeply enough, I always find the seeds of the latest siege.

My calendar has been busy.  I did my best to balance it and take down time in between things.  I did well with that, in fact! 

Sometimes no amount of personal care-taking and self-responsibility does a darn thing to prevent a flare up.

It would be easy to get into self blame and loathing.  But that serves no purpose, helping nothing whatsoever about this!

So I decide to be kind and forgiving to me.  I do my best not to resist the pain.  I look forward to the lifting of the aching, (and it is better than it was.)  But I accept that it is here.  I rest when I need to rest.  I let all things be alright, just as they are.
  
Was it the nearly three week trip to Ireland that caused it?  Was it the many family birthday parties, the dinners and extended time with grandchildren?  Was it the seminars, my classes or working with clients?  Was it the repeated trips to the accountant to work through my father's estate?   Was it the deaths of two very dear friends, very unexpectedly?  Was it the house guests?

Who knows?  It matters, not.  I am here.  And aching is a reality at this time. 
  
I've been well for months--truly for well over a year.  Does this mean I have been painless for all this time?  Heck, no!  It means that pain has been bearable and manageable, doable.  

I decided years ago that I am not going to let Fibromyalgia and chronic pain ruin or rule my life.  I get a choice about the first part, but the ruling--well, it definitely is there lurking in the background, and sometimes right, square between my eyes on a daily basis.

What goes on between my ears makes more difference than any drug, treatment, or fad has ever done in the management of chronic pain in my life.

Thank God I have learned to be an optimist.

I have had to learn to cherish myself.  I have had to become my own best friend  This is an ever growing experience.

I am glad for a new year and even more growth, joy and empowerment!

Love, Hugs and Blessings,
Barbara

© Copyright 2009-2015, Transformation Of A Mystic | Barbara F. Manning. 

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Sometimes I Feel Paralyzed

Sometimes I feel paralyzed, psychically and energetically.  It feels like a paralysis of my personal power, my will, my intestinal fortitude.

It feels like being caught in muck and mire and not being able to gather enough strength and power to actually accomplish something.

I have learned not to fight it.  Fighting it only digs me in even more deeply.

The only thing that provides relief is Acceptance of what is.

But I would so love to be able to get through things I desire and truly need to complete!

These paralysis cycles grew more frequent as I fell deeper into Fibromyalgia's hallmark debilitating chronic pain, overwhelming exhaustion and brain-farts that leave me wondering if I am coming down with a case of Alzheimer's disease!   

The worse I felt in the beginning of my Fibro journey, the less I could do--about anything. In fact, this experience literally drove me into early retirement from a much loved career.

It has been an exercise in acceptance and continuing to plod on--when I am able, and doing my very best to not pass judgment upon myself for the facts and experiences of this journey of mine, however I manage it.

There is a grieving process that cannot be circumvented.  Nor will trying to get through this by "pinning on a stiff upper lip" or "puttin' on Big Girl Panties" get you anywhere but into deeper and longer suffering.

At first I was in horrific judgment of myself.  I've always been able to push myself to do anything--even things I did not want to do.

Maybe this is why I have such trouble pushing myself much these days!  I pushed myself a great deal all of my life, before Fibro.  Perhaps this pushing is even a key element for my manifestation of Fibromyalgia.  

I believe this is so.

At any rate, healing has come--healing of sorts, but not always in accomplishing that which I so desire to accomplish nor in the time lines I desire and sometimes by just having to abandon a goal, period.  

Paramount is my letting be whatever is without slapping myself around for not being able to make circumstances and me be as I wish.

There is a consolation in successfully allowing all of this experience.  The act of surrendering to "That Which Is" has provided immense relief and peace, a releasing of much suffering in this difficult, multidimensional and otherwise deeply painful experience.

Surrender...or suffer....Surrender or suffer... ???

Ha!  Who wants to suffer?!  Surrendering is much better!

But I still have much that I desire to complete.

For today, surrendering is enough.  I am enough, exactly as I am, however I am.  Accepting that I want things completed and I am unable to do it is enough, too. 

Things will get done when they get done.  This is perfect, exactly as it is. 

Love and Hugs,

Barbara

© Copyright 2009-2015, Transformation Of A Mystic | Barbara F. Manning. 

All Rights Reserved