Food for thought.
Men and Women with fibromyalgia are kind giving souls.
Yet, do you hold yourself with the same love and caring as you do for others?
Are you able to hold the abandoned, isolated, exiled and hidden parts of yourself with love and compassion?
Can you give to yourself what was withheld by your family?
Can you ask for what you need?
Can you tend to your own needs?
May you hold your self with all the love and compassion that you provide for others.
💗Bindu
Fibromyalgia is a devastating illness. Not only are we in pain all or most of the time, but it impacts every area of our life.
It challenges our relationships. It can limit our career and ability to express ourselves in the world. It brings anxiety and depression daily. It limits our ability to socialize and enjoy it. It steals our sense of self worth and well-being.
It can completely take over our life and sense of self.
Yet, we can bring some balance and sense of self by emphasizing the positive. One of my favorite teachers taught me that we had to balance our experience by emphasizing the positive.
Especially with fibromyalgia, there is so much negative experience on a daily basis it can be very easy to be consumed by it. To the extent that it can become our identity. We forget who we really are.
During my worst years of my fibromyalgia, I was nearly consumed by it. My saving grace was my practice of yoga and meditation along with teaching yoga. Those practices gave me a sense of who I was beyond the fibromyalgia. They brought love, joy and peace into my life. And helped me greatly.
Since then, I have learned more ways to emphasize the positive on a regular basis.
I understand the challenges of emphasizing the positive. There are days that you simply can’t do it. On those days, practice compassion and kindness for yourself, accepting where you are. That in and of itself is emphasizing the positive.
The idea of cultivating joy had always been something that I didn’t think I could do. Joy seemed to be out of my reach. Then one of my teachers explained that Joy wasn’t jumping around in a state of bliss.
Joy could be finding peace in reading an inspirational book or listening to some calming music. Or doing something that you love, gardening, drawing, watching a funny movie, having a talk with a dear friend.
Anything that you do that helps you to feel uplifted is cultivation joy. The options are endless. What do you do, or can you do that gives you a sense of peace, relaxation, or upliftment? That is you cultivating joy.
Kindness to yourself and others is a wonderful balm for the heart, mind and emotions. Even if you are having a horrible day, if you are compassionate with yourself, that is an act of kindness. A smile or compliment to someone, whether a family member or stranger is an act of kindness.
I used to notice things I appreciated about people, like I liked a piece of jewelry or clothing that they were wearing, or a hair style. Then I thought, why share that with them person. It is remarkably amazing. Lifts my spirit and theirs.
When you have a bad fibro day, kindness to yourself is your best ally. That could look like sleeping and resting for the day, taking a nap, having a warm cup of tea.
How do you show kindness to yourself when you are having a rough day?
When you are cultivating kindness and joy, peace and love are natural and flowing. It brings you in touch with your heart, your needs, and your self-love.
This week, take some time to contemplate where you are regarding cultivating joy and kindness or love, and peace or compassion into your life. Easy? Hard? Got it mastered? Could use some work?
Then make a list of things that you do or can do to cultivate joy and kindness in your life. Get creative around this. Here are some questions to consider.
By making a list, on those days when you are having a fibro flare and life seems miserable and never ending, you will have a list of things that you can do to navigate the day.
May you cultivate Joy and Kindness into your life, 💕Bindu
Fibromyalgia is a devastating illness
It robs us of our peace, joy and happiness
It challenges our relationships
It robs us of our sense of wellbeing
It can destroy our career and ability to express ourself in the world
It creates an environment of constant pain
It steals our sense of self worth
It brings depression and anxiety
Yet, we can nurture a sense of
Love, Joy and Peace
To remind us that we are more than our illness
We are Light
We are Love
We are Joy
We are Peace
Remember who you are!
True connection can exist within any relationship.
Friend, family, lover, spouse, children, acquaintance.
This is when the richness of connection
warms and opens heart and soul.
May you nurture true connection, 💗Bindu
I was in the library the other day and came across a book entitled “Change Your Questions, Change Your Life”. It reminded me of another book entitled, “The Secret Code of Success” by Noah St John that I read with a similar theme of considering what questions you ask and how changing the questions you ask can impact your life.
The essence of both books suggests that if you ask negative questions in your inner dialogue, you will get negative answers and negative results. Here are some examples:
You get the idea. If you ask these question, you will get these kind of answers to those questions:
This first list of questions will hold you back in the status quo and work against improving your health.
Noah St John also suggests the following:
My Experience with this
Years ago, when my fibromyalgia was really bad, I often asked the questions, Why do I hurt so much? Why can’t I heal myself? I was working with a wellness coach that suggested that for a full month focus on these statements and questions:
In the beginning, it felt like a lie. But for the whole month, I stuck with my phrases even though it felt wrong and untrue. By the end of the month, I began to believe that I could heal my body and that it was healing.
This was a turning point in my journey with fibromyalgia. I began seeing and receiving insights and signs and information that led me to truly improving my health. I had to be open to the insights, signs, and information that I received, and put them into action. Otherwise, I would not have improved.
The medical community has declared that there is no cure for fibromyalgia. That is true.
But in my experience, there is a lot we can do to improve our health. I am living proof. I have changed from being in excruciating pain all the time. And so fatigued, I could barely function. I hated my life and often wished I could die. I would lay in my bed in absolute torture with physical, mental and emotional torment. I hated waking up in the morning because I didn’t want to face another day.
The song, “Sleep is the only Freedom that she Knows” was my theme song. At least I had a few hours of sleep to get away from the torture that I lived every day.
Some of the symptoms have completely left, like irritable bladder, brain fog, insomnia, restless legs. Some of the symptoms are mild, like pain and fatigue.
I used to have lots of skin irritation, burning, and itching. That is mostly gone and only flares up on rare occasions.
Even as I write this, I know that I have forgotten many of the symptoms that were part of my daily experience. They are even gone from my memory.
My main symptom now is IBS. When my intestines function properly, I feel great. When they flare up, other symptoms flare up. I experience increased pain, my mind and emotions get more negative, I am fatigued. I am still limited by this.
The good news is that this is progressively healing as well. I now understand what flares my IBS up and have an established protocol to heal it. The healing process has its ups and downs. But the ups are more frequent and long lasting, and the downs are not as bad, and I know what I need to get them back on track.
I know it is on its way out and looking forward to that.
See if they resonate with you. I wish for you relief from the ongoing fibromyalgia symptoms.
May you improve your health and reclaim your life. ❤Bindu
Remember . . .
Include yourself in those that you love.
It is love that allows you to walk away from a hostile situation.
It is love that allow you to set healthy boundaries.
It is love that enables you to create time for your own self care.
It is love for you to speak kindly of and to yourself.
You can do all of this and not limit, put conditions on or withhold your love.
💗Bindu
