Beyond Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia and the Pain Body Pt 3: Breaking Free

by Bindu Johnson | Nov 4, 2023 | Emotional Health, Personal Growth, Self Care, Self Love, Spirituality

The pain body, is an integral part of fibromyalgia. It is the blend of destructive cellular memories, suppressed emotions, sub and unconscious negative beliefs that cause emotional pain, stress and contribute to physical symptoms.

In order to heal the pain body, it is essential that you break your identification from it. Otherwise, it literally feels like you are trying to kill a part of yourself. Your defenses will come up and sabotage your success.

In order to break your identification with your pain body, we need to develop Witness Consciousness or Awareness.

To understand awareness, we must first understand multi-dimensionality. Multi-dimensionality is the awareness that we are not one-dimensional linear beings. It acknowledges that we are the sum of many parts. The parts can be summarized in 6 dimensions:

Physical – body
Emotions – feelings, emotions
Mind – thoughts, belief systems
Expression – how we interact with others and the world
Spirit – the spark of God, consciousness that is the enlivening of our existence, our connection with God, Consciousness, Spirit
Energy – e=mc2 – meaning everything is energy

Why is this important?

When we are disconnected from our spiritual essence, we can become “identified” with our body, mind and emotions. We have forgotten that we are more than the body, mind and emotions.

When we have been subject to trauma, negative conditioning, or negative life experiences and haven’t resolved those experiences, they congeal into what is called the pain body. The pain body feels separate from God and everyone else and creates a separate identity to keep itself safe. The downside of this is that it also holds onto its pain.

In order to free our self from the pain body, we need to step outside of the pain body and view it from a detached perspective. Stepping outside of the pain body is accomplished through Witness Consciousness. Witness consciousness is the part of us who can step back and observe the body, mind and emotions. It is intimately connected with our spirit.

How do we do this?

The biggest block to Witness Consciousness is the mind. The mind is where we store memories of our past experiences. It evaluates and creates conclusions about those experiences and makes decisions and forms beliefs based on that. Many of those decisions and beliefs keep us stuck in pain and limitation.

To access Witness consciousness, we need to step outside of the mind. There are many tools to do this. I will provide a few here:

If we connect to our breath and watch our breath, it creates a momentary gap in the stream of thought. That gap is the doorway to Witness Consciousness.

Deepening the breath. When we slow down and deepen the breath, that gap widens, and we come into greater connection with our body and Witness Consciousness.

Pay attention to the current moment. Look around the room. See the furniture, photos on the wall, other people, animals.

If used correctly, positive thinking can quiet the mind. Our minds are habitually filled with negative thoughts and beliefs. When we balance the stream of negative thoughts with positive thoughts, the mind can slow down and become less identified with the old negative thoughts and beliefs.

Becoming aware of our emotions. Many of us demonize our negative emotions and suppress them. Emotions means energy in motion. By suppressing an emotion, we block the flow of energy and create increase tension and pain. We also block our awareness. By breathing and being present with our emotions, we can release the emotion.

Intend to step into awareness. By using this languaging, you are speaking from the witness. It encourages breaking identification with the body, mind and emotions.
- Simply say, my mind is thinking . . .
- A part of me is feeling . . . (insert emotion).
- My body is feeling . . . (insert sensation)

The Benefits of Embracing Witness Consciousness – Awareness

By breaking the identification with the mind, and becoming more aware of our breath, body, emotions, the environment around us, we are entering the present moment and Witness Consciousness.

From a state of witness consciousness or awareness, and its natural connection to our spirit, we can receive answers to the challenges that we have from outside the mind, our conditioning, and our deeply held sub and unconscious belief systems. This new awareness holds the key to healing and transforming every area of your life.

Awareness practice:

Take some time each day, even 2-5 minutes to just stop and notice your breath. When you are at a stop sign, waiting in a line, or every time you open a door. When you go to bed at night or when you first wake up in the morning. Put a reminder on your phone.
Pick any one of the steps above and take some time each day, even 2-5 minutes to practice it.

This begins the process of breaking the identification with the pain body and reclaiming your power.

May you grow in awareness, 💗Bindu

Fibromyalgia and the Pain Body Pt 1

by Bindu Johnson | Oct 6, 2023 | Care of the Body, Care of the Mind, Emotional Health, Personal Growth, Self Care, Self Love, Trauma

Fibromyalgia, Chronic Illness and the Pain Body, Part 1

The term the Pain Body was introduced by Eckhardt Tolle several years ago. The pain body is the accumulation of suppressed emotions, negative thoughts, unhealthy beliefs and destructive cellular memories within one’s body or energy field. It is what I call the Fibromyalgia Matrix. The pain body keeps us trapped in the past and interferes with our health and happiness. It blocks our ability to feel positive emotions and sabotages our attempts at creating a better life for our self.

The pain body is self-perpetuating

The pain body is like an entity in and of itself and strives to stay alive and functional. It loves conflict and drama. The conflict, drama and negative emotions triggered feeds it. The bigger the drama the greater the banquet. It will attract those situations to itself and then revels in the drama and negative emotions.

The Pain Body is a major factor in fibromyalgia.

The pain body is behind chronic depression and anxiety. Suppressed emotions give rise to the feeling of depression. When you suppress a negative emotion such as sadness, you are also suppressing the ability to feel positive emotions and end up feeling depressed.

Suppressed fearful emotions don’t go away.

Suppressed fearful emotions live within us sending a constant message of danger to the nervous system. It keeps the body in fight or flight mode, always feeling threatened and the need to fight or run away. The nervous system stays in a sympathetic (on) status and doesn’t know when or how to shut down. This give rise to insomnia, chronic fatigue and feeling crummy. When the body doesn’t get the rest it needs, it doesn’t heal, detoxify recharge and rejuvenate the body. You end up with multiple chronic symptoms with no seeming cause.

The Pain Body becomes our identity.

These patterns become so normal that we don’t differentiate between us and the pain body. You might say that we become identified with the pain body. It becomes us. It becomes our identity.

One commonality between women with fibromyalgia is that many of us feel a strong need for people to hear our pain. And we often feel defensive when others try to help us. This is the pain body talking. It wants to be heard, but it doesn’t trust others. It also has a commitment to staying alive and well in its misery . . . even though another part of you wants to be alive, happy and healthy.

Pretty nasty picture. Yet it is real. And it keeps us in a state of misery and pain. Can you relate? I sure can. I lived it for many years. I was a pro at being miserable and in pain. It is such a relief to be out of this pattern. You can too.

There is hope. You can healing the pain body.

My post next week will show the 5 stages of healing the pain body. Stay tuned.

Healing the Pain Body is an important part of rebuilding our health.

I have been asking myself this last year why I focus to much on the emotional, mental aspects of rebuilding our health. As I wrote the post, I received my answer. We can do all the right things on a physical level to rebuild our health, but without addressing the pain body, our health and especially our happiness will be compromised.

Let’s focus next year on healing the pain body!

Next year I am rolling out online group programs that will provide education, training and support in healing the pain body and the physical body. One of my goals is to make the healing work that I do available to women and men with fibromyalgia at affordable rates. The group online programs will do that.

I am working on a program that I hope to launch in January focused on resolving trauma. Stay tuned.

May you experience increasing health and vitality, 💕 Bindu

I Know Your Pain – I Know Your Strength

by Bindu Johnson | Sep 9, 2023 | Care of the Body, Mindfulness, Personal Growth, Self Care, Self Love

I originally wrote this blog in 2019. I came across it this week and wanted to share it again. Reading it was a remainder of the pain I had suffered with fibromyalgia. But what I also noticed was the reduction of the emotional charge of the memories. That is another level of healing, reminding me how far I have come in my recovery from fibromyalgia.

Enjoy the article. I hope it gives you a sense of being heard and understood along with hope that you too can recover from fibromyalgia.

Here is the Post:

A few days ago, someone told me that I didn’t know how to deal with fibromyalgia pain. You might say that was a pretty big trigger for me. Brought back all the memories of those who didn’t understand the pain I experienced with fibromyalgia. Part of working through this was remembering the worst times of my life. The pain and suffering. The experience of living with fibromyalgia. Of dealing with the pain for 30 years. Of not finding solutions. I do know how to deal with fibromyalgia. To live with the pain of fibromyalgia. Only to well.

Out of that came this post. I know that I constantly say that you can improve. You can rebuild your health. You can move beyond fibromyalgia.

I suspect there are many who doubt me; wonder if I am just pushing some new magic cure that doesn’t really work. Of capitalizing on other people’s pain. Of not knowing what I am talking about.

I am not. I have lived the experience of fibromyalgia and I have improved tremendously to the point where I am not in constant pain and misery. To the point where I have a life worth living. To the point where many days I forget that I have had fibromyalgia. Yes, it is there. It is real. It is possible.

I know your pain.

I may not know the specifics of your symptoms or of your life circumstances, but I know the pain.

I know the pain of being in constant physical pain. Of being in so much pain that you can’t even think. It takes all of your resources to be present with the pain. I know the fear and frustration of not being able to get rid of the pain. The fear of the pain never ending. The confusion of why this is happening and why can’t anyone help me. Why can’t anyone hear me or understand how much pain I am in.

I know the pain of insomnia. Of deadening fatigue, but not being able to sleep. Of night after night lying awake and not being able to sleep. Of waking in the morning feeling like you have been hit by a mac truck . . . maybe two. I remember the nights where my legs were so restless that sleep was impossible.

I know the pain of being depressed. Of seeing life through a constant cloud of negativity. Of feeling like you are moving through molasses. Of having brain fog so bad that you can’t think clearly. Of wishing you could die. Of feeling like everyone else has a normal life . . . why can’t I. Of wanting to just crawl in a hole and stay there.

I know the pain of chronic itchy burning skin. Of not being able to wear anything except loose soft comfortable clothing. Of not being able to wear jewelry because the weight of a simple neckless pains your neck. I remember the nights that I couldn’t fall asleep because my skin felt like it was on fire or that I was being pricked by 1000 needles at the same time.

I know the pain of chronic anxiety. Of panic attacks randomly showing up uninvited. Of being triggered by simple normal things. Of feeling unsafe. Of feeling trapped by the pain, depression and anxiety. Of walking through life terrified moment by moment.

I know the pain of endless mind-numbing fatigue. Of waking up totally exhausted whether the sleep be deep or uninterrupted. Of hating the thought of getting out of bed in the morning and facing the day. Of just wanting to sleep for 6 months . . . a year . . . more.

I know the pain of going to a doctor and hear them say there is nothing physical wrong with you . . . when you know there is. Of hearing them say it is all in your head. Of having them give you pills that may or may not relieve the pain and provides a whole new set of symptoms.

I know the pain of loss, unrelenting loss. Loss of confidence in your self and your body. Of losing people, loved ones, family, friends that don’t survive your illness. Of losing jobs, income, security, safety.

I know the pain of insecurity. Of financial stress. Of not being able to trust your body. Of not being able to schedule a lunch date because you don’t know if your body will get you there or not. Of having to cancel engagements at the last minute because your body flares up. Of going and then being in pain and not enjoying the event but feeling tortured the whole time you are there.

I also know how it feels when you are told there is no cure. Of wondering if you can continue to live like this. How it feels to imagine a lifetime of this pain and unhappiness. Of trying treatment after treatment and feeling discouraged with the results. I know.

I know the pain of being criticized, ridiculed and persecuted for having an invisible disease.

I know the pain of missing out on family events. The pain of feeling distanced from my family because I couldn’t keep up with their pace. Of not being able to keep your house clean or torturing yourself to clean the house. Of being left behind when the rest of the world is speeding forward.

I know. I have been there. I lived it for 30 years. I am better now, but I remember. I know.

I also know your strength

The strength of getting up every morning. Of facing the day. The pain. The depression, the anxiety, the loss, the feeling unheard. Of feeling powerless. Of feeling unheard, of feeling invisible. Of feeling frustrated.

I know how hard it is to live the life with fibromyalgia as your constant experience. I know how much strength it takes of live that way. I know. I have been there. I lived it for 30 years. I am better now, but I remember. I know.

I know how to deal with fibromyalgia pain. How to live with it ungracefully and how to live with it gracefully (as humanly possible). How to breath, be present with the pain. How to exercise within my limitations. How to eat well to minimize symptoms. How to function on a tank half full. How to set boundaries to take care of yourself. How to manage my lifestyle to accommodate a devastating invisible illness. How to have less than I want or need because of my limitations.

I know. I did that for 30 years. I am better now, but I remember.

I also know that rebuilding your health is an option.

I know that you can move past the experience of fibromyalgia. To end the anxiety and depression. To get a good night’s sleep and wake up feeling refreshed in the morning. To feel good in your body. To enjoy life again.

I know that you can improve. I know because I have experienced it myself. Improvement, release from the pain. Finding a life that offers peace and contentment. I know.

It isn’t a quick fix. It takes commitment, a willingness to make changes in your eating and lifestyle. It means looking within to discover the true source of pain and loving yourself enough to feel and heal your own pain. It means discovering the unhealthy beliefs that rule your life and keep you in negative cycles. It takes a willingness to change who you are. Not from force or willpower, but by allowing life to change you, allowing the illness to transform you into a different person. The important unchanging aspect of you will still be there, but the masks and fake part of your that you adopted to survive will be shifted, changed and/or released. Like the lump of coal that turns into a diamond after its transformation.

It isn’t a quick fix. It is a journey that is very rewarding and fulfilling. You will discover a you that is healthy, whole and complete. Who is awesome and powerful.

If you chose this journey of rebuilding your health, I am here to support you.

I am here to support you, to educate you, to hold your hand if needed. I am here to remind you when the going gets tough that you are not alone. That you can and will make it and you will be happy and thrilled with your new self and new life.

I hold the space for your wholeness and improved health. It is here for you to claim and embody.

My intention is to build a community of women committed to their health and wholeness. Committed to rebuilding their health and the transformation that entails. A community based in safety, compassion and love, where we can come together to discover love, acceptance and healing.

Please join me/us as we grow together in love, peace and harmony.

Always remember, there is hope.

💕Bindu

8 Keys to Enhance Health, Wellness and Wholeness

by Bindu Johnson | Aug 25, 2023 | Care of the Body, Care of the Mind, Emotional Health, Mindfulness, Personal Growth, Self Care, Self Love

Fundamentals of Health, Wellness, and Wholeness

Fibromyalgia and other chronic illnesses are challenging on many levels. We are physically compromised, emotionally out of balance, and mentally stressed. We want solutions to our pain and discomfort. We search and often the solutions come up with none or minimal results. This becomes stress on top of the stress of being ill in the first place.

What then can we do to reclaim our health and happiness . . . our wellness and ultimately wholeness?

Today’s article is focusing on what I call the Fundamental of Wholeness. These are eight important aspects to rebuilding our wellness. Below is a list of the fundamentals of wellness. They create a foundation upon which to rebuild our health, wellness and wholeness.

Awareness
Compassion
Balance
Acceptance
Introspection / Self-inquiry
Self-Responsibility.
Insights
Integration

Awareness

The ability to be self-aware. To observe our body, our mind, our emotions from a place of awareness rather than identification. In other words, to be able to observe our self objectively. We can be aware of the sensation and pain in our body, the emotions that we feel, the thought that we think. We can start with our conscious thoughts, and then delve into a deeper layer of subconscious thoughts and emotions.

Compassion

As we meet our self with awareness, compassion is a necessary ingredient. There are parts of us that we might judge or disown. By meeting our self with compassion, we can identify positive and negative experiences, emotions, thoughts, and memories. We can see the good, bad, ugly and beautiful parts of who we are. Without compassion, we may block truly seeing because we have literally and figuratively exiled parts of who we are as they are deemed unacceptable. Yet, until you can meet these parts with compassion, wholeness will continue to elude you.

Balance

Balance is at the root of health, wellness and wholeness. Everything in nature survives and thrives because of a state of balance. Your physical body has 12 homeostatic (balancing) control mechanisms that keep your body functioning and healthy. Emotionally, we need a balance of positive and negative emotions to be emotionally healthy. Mentally, we need a balance between positive thoughts and negative thoughts. A healthy optimistic attitude with a healthy dose of reality and awareness of possible difficulties. We need a balance of rest and activity, work and play, alone time and time with others. When discovering the right balance for you, health, wellness and wholeness will be the rewards.

Acceptance

Acceptance is acknowledging what is. That doesn’t mean we have to like it. It means telling the truth about what is. When we are honest about what is, we have the power to change is. If we are denying the truth, ignoring it, or pushing it out of our awareness, we are powerless to change it.

Introspection / Self-inquiry

Self-inquiry allows us to go within and discover who we are, what we think, feel, need, want, like, dislike. What are greatest joys are, what are greatest challenge are. Self-Inquiry allows us to discover internal causes of challenges and discover resolutions from within.

Insights

The process of awareness, compassion, acceptance, and introspection results in insights from within. We can see parts of our self we had previously denied. We can see how we are creating our own stress. We can see how we have given our power away. These and many more insights are available with meeting our self with awareness, compassion and acceptance.

Self-Responsibility

When I first heard the word responsibility, to me it meant self-blame. Then I heard a new definition of the word which was, “ability to respond.” The ability to respond rather than the old knee jerk reaction to any situation is a step to reclaiming our power. To look at any situation or challenge with awareness, compassion, acceptance and introspection gives us needed information and insights upon which to make internal changes or take external actions, guided from within. That is self-responsibility.

Integration

Integration happens as the new awareness’s, insights, internal shifts and responsible actions become integrated into our lives. We begin to feel more empowered in our lives. We can let go of feeling like a victim to our circumstances or feeling like the answers to our problems are outside of us. We can let go of coping mechanism and begin to let our true self shine through.

Summary:

The fundamentals of health, wellness and wholeness have the power to impact us on all levels of our being: physical, mental, emotional, energetic, spiritual and in our expression in and interaction with the world around us.

This week’s introspection:

Contemplate these fundamentals and notice which resonate with you and which don’t. Pick one or more to experiment with becoming aware of how it operates or not in your life. Remember, awareness is the foundation of all change.

May you be healthy and whole, 💗Bindu

Are You Asking the Right Questions?

by Bindu Johnson | Jul 25, 2023 | Care of the Body, Care of the Mind, Emotional Health, Healthy Living, Mindfulness, Personal Growth

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:

Why am I always in pain?
Why can’t I find a solution to relieve my pain?
Why do I always screw up?
Why doesn’t anyone like me?
What is wrong with me?

You get the idea. If you ask these question, you will get these kind of answers to those questions:

I am always in pain because I have fibromyalgia.
There is no solution to fibromyalgia, there is no cure, so I will have to live with this for the rest of my life.
The third question will bring to mind all the mistakes you have made.
The fourth question will bring up all the things that you think people don’t like about you.
The Fifth question will bring to mind all the things that you think are wrong with you.

This first list of questions will hold you back in the status quo and work against improving your health.

Consider these questions instead:

How can I reduce or remove my pain?
How can I recover from fibromyalgia? Or “How can I rebuild my health? “
What have I accomplished today?
Why do people like me?
What are my best qualities?
What am I grateful for?

Noah St John also suggests the following:

Why is it so easy to reduce the pain in my body?
Why is it so easy to heal from fibromyalgia?
Why is it so easy for me to be competent and accomplished?
Why is it so easy for people to love and appreciate myself?
Why is it so easy to be an awesome person?

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:

My body is healing.
How is my body healing?
What does my body need to heal?
What can I do to rebuild my health?
Why is it so easy to recover from fibromyalgia?

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.

Can you open your mind to the possibility that you can improve your health?

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.

Most of my symptoms are greatly improved and some non-existent.

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.

Yet, I am not completely free from fibromyalgia.

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.

Play around with some of these ideas that I am sharing with you.

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

14 Tips to Diffuse Anxiety

by Bindu Johnson | Jul 8, 2023 | Care of the Mind, Emotional Health, Personal Growth, Self Care, Self Love

People with fibromyalgia struggle with anxiety. It is part of the fibromyalgia syndrome. Fibromyalgia makes every area in our life more difficult including finances, relationship, family, and career.

We have a lot to be concerned about, not only our health, but the impact it has on our lives. Add to that all the craziness on the planet right now leaves lots of space for worry and anxiety.

How can we manage or diffuse our anxiety?

Below are several suggestions that can help to diffuse anxiety.

Step 1: Breathe

Breathing might not seem like a big deal, but if you slow down and deepen your breath, you can connect to a calm inner presence and reduce your anxiety. Here is a great article on how deep breathing eases anxiety.

Step 2: Endeavor to witness the anxiety.

With any emotion that we feel we can watch or witness it rather than be taken over by it. Deep breathing from Step 1, helps us to witness the anxiety. Set that as an intention and see what happens. Intention is a powerful choice and can achieve unexpected results.

Step 3: Watch the mind

Our mind can be a great ally or a terrible naysayer. The mind can pull up all negative experiences from your past to protect you, but really, all that does is fuel your fear and anxiety. Deep breathing can help us to watch the mind rather than be taken over by it. Watching the mind allows us to evaluate our thoughts and then choose to believe them, challenge them or dismiss them.

Step 4: Accept this moment as it is.

Accepting this moment doesn’t mean that you need to like it. I am simply suggesting to fully get/see/understand what is happening in and around you. From that place, you can begin to create a new reality.

Fighting “what is” only feeds what you don’t want. Accepting what is, empowers you to create change.

Step 5: Write it out

I find that making a list of all the things I am worried about helps. Often, it doesn’t seem quite as big on paper. That is because the same frightening thoughts continue to circulate in your mind, making it seem bigger than it really is.

Step 6: Past, Present or Future?

Notice if your anxiety is about something that happened in the past or something that you are afraid will happen in the future or if it is a real problem in this moment. Mark each item on your list as past, present and future.

Step 7: Letting go of the past

If an anxiety is about something that happened in the past, you can discover ways to release the cellular memories and emotions causing the anxiety. Tools such as EFT and the Healing Codes are great tools you can use at home to release past traumas and negative life experiences. If they are deep and painful memories, you may want to seek out a professional who is trained in releasing trauma.

Step 8: Addressing or releasing the future.

Look at your future fears and do a reality check. For each fear about the future, ask yourself if that is a realistic concern or something isn’t likely to happen. If it is something that isn’t likely to happen, find some affirmation or truth focus statements that help you to shift your thought patterns. Write them out on paper and repeat them at least once a day or more. If it is a realistic concern, add it to your list of present concerns.

Step 9: Present concerns

Look at each present concern and ask yourself if it is something that you can do something about. If so, make an action plan of what you can do to address your concern. Even if it is a baby step in the right direction. If you cannot do anything about it, try the other steps in this article.

Step 10: Stop and look around your environment.

In this moment are you safe? Do you have a roof over your head? Do you have food and water? Is your environment free from violence or potential violence? If you answer yes to all of the questions, take a few moments to appreciate the safety of this moment. Afterall, this moment is really all there is.

If you answer no to the question of violence, get yourself to a safe space. Then take it from there. If you answered no to some of the other questions, apply Step 9.

Don’t hesitate to ask for help. You don’t have to do this alone. There are many services to help people in need.

Step 11: Gratitude

Taking some time each day to remind yourself of all that is good in your life can change your experience. We often forget or take for granted the simple things in life.

During my worst years of fibromyalgia, just being grateful for a roof over my head, food to eat, help from my parents and the loving companionship of my cats and dog was all that I could muster. It didn’t seem like much or enough back then. But now, I can see how important those things were and am even more grateful for them than ever. That reminds me how important the things in my life now are.

Step 12: Redirect Your Attention

Sometimes, nothing will ease your anxiety. At those times, I will find something else to focus on. Maybe watch a funny movie. Work in my garden. Clean the kitchen. Watch a romantic movie. Take your kids to the park.

You get the idea. Make your own list of things to do to redirect your attention to in times of anxiety.

Step 13: This too will change

Sometimes if our current situation seems unbearable, it is helpful to remember that the only constant in the world is that everything changes. This can help to accept more fully what is in this moment. Knowing that it won’t last forever. Everything changes.

Remind yourself of other situations in your life that were difficult and that you successfully navigated. You will get through this also!

Step 14: Set an Intention

Setting an intention is a way of identifying what you want rather than focusing on what you don’t want. Form follows attention. Focusing on what you want, rather than what you don’t want, can be a game changer.

Make a list or create a vision board with all that you desire in your life. Refer to it often. Pray, create truth focus statements, affirmations, and goal with where you want your life to go.

Perhaps one of the most powerful intentions is to be calm, grounded and centered.

Many ways to diffuse anxiety

As you can see, there are many ways to diffuse anxiety. Add these suggestions to your toolbox on how to diffuse anxiety. Experiment with the suggestions above and see what is most helpful for you. Perhaps a combination of the above suggestions will be warranted. Different steps may be more helpful in different situations.

May you be calm, grounded and centered. 💕Bindu

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