Healing Archives - LIVING with Fibromyalgia

Simple, Just Get Active They Say

The moment the words ‘get active’ escape their lips my focus shifts 100% to holding back the incredible urge to roll my eyes. For the most part, unsuccessfully.

It’s like constantly replaying the perfect vine loop or watching Groundhog Day over and over. We keep hearing how we need to get active in order to feel better. But, what people don’t understand is, we need to feel better in order to get active in the first place.

Press play and repeat day after day after day the exhausting loop plays.

For five years I spent a lot of days, months actually, beating myself up for not being active. It’s exhausting silently screaming at yourself constantly to get up and get active.

Music is Good Medicine

Then about a year ago I started listening to music again. Not only did the right playlist cheer me up, but often I’d catch myself bee bopping to the music.

Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t pulling off DWTS or anything. Sometimes I was simply swaying to the music or shuffling around like Tim Conway. But, I was standing and I was moving.

Which when your battling fibromyalgia’s chronic pain, counts as getting active as far as I’m concerned. Music doesn’t always get me moving. But, it does some days and in my opinion that’s better than no days at all.

Anyway, I remembered how much I loved going out dancing and how good it made me feel and so for awhile now I’ve been working at wiggling my butt daily.

Music helps me get active — The right playlist lifts my spirits and gets me moving

I created a bunch of personal mood lifting playlists. Each one is 6 songs and about 20 minutes long. While prepping for my shower, I press play and more days than not the music gets me swaying. I always try to get boogieing before hopping into the shower, because I’m usually physically zapped after.

Turns out, well for me anyway, that music is good medicine. Hmmmm, who knew?

Get Active, It’s a Personal Thing

What I had to learn was, to set the bar at a realistic level for me. And, to give myself credit for any and all physical activity. To encourage myself to get up and just get moving instead of putting myself down because I expected my version of “getting active” to be on par with die hard gym goers or the people I see out jogging.

It’s time Fellow Fibro Warriors to pat yourself on the back each and every time you wiggle that butt, even if it’s ever so slightly.

PS – I started this post back in April. Little did I know that one of my all time favourite funny people would be moving on from this world before I finished it. RIP Tim Conway, thank you for filling my life with laughter.

Free Writing the Night Away

Night Time is the Right Time for a Little Free Writing

Yippee! I write like I tweet…or is it that I tweet like I write?

Hey wait a minute! I tweet and write like I talk. That’s it! No silly, I don’t mean messy. Sheesh. Sure I write messy but, what I’m talking about is this tendency I have to babble in verbal conversation.

When I’m writing, I simply put to paper, or screen if you will, my thoughts exactly as they are flowing. I try not to skip a beat. I try to sound in written word exactly as if I’m talking directly to you.

It’s tough to keep up with the thoughts, especially with pen to paper. I type quicker, but I tend to edit A LOT less when I write it. Once I start editing, the tone of free flowing words dissipates, though spelling errors disappear. Side note – > I was pretty sure I made a spelling mistake when I wrote “disapates”.

What was I originally talking about? Twitter! That’s it!

Twitter and writing, or the tone of writing. Mostly what I was going to say was that I love tweeting because with so few characters, it’s even more fun trying to be witty, and talk about having to think. If you’re looking to sound smart on Twitter, you really do have to put a lot of thought into choosing your words wisely.

That’s sometimes quite challenging. Me? Sometimes I just love a challenge.

Twitter is for me. It’s the place I like to be 🙂

End of free writing here.

Side note: Yup, that is exactly word for word my free writing. I even drew a smiley face. I was hoping for about 300 words and it ended up being 246. I’m going to run it through yoast to see how the SEO ranking is for the keyword “free writing”. Just for curiosity sake though because I’m not going to make any changes. I think it’s fun just the way I wrote it. One spelling mistake and one “I’m” instead of I. Not bad if I do say so myself.

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Writing Makes Me Happy

Writing is Healing

Just keep writing…just keep writing…just keep…you know Dory’s song? I changed it up a little from swimming to writing. But, ya, hum that to yourself while reading this. In fact, good luck getting the song out of your head anytime time soon. Now that you’ve started humming it 😉

By Jove! I think I’ve got it! Scheduling the post, that’s what holds me back every single time! Well, that and sweating the details.

An idea pops into my head, yes! I get inspired about something new to write. Then by the time I grab my lap top, log in to my website and get ready to start typing, the original thought has faded.

Of course, once I do start typing I then have to worry about search engine optimization. Is what I’m writing going to please human visitors? Will google find it? Will it come up in the search results? What’s the keyword phrase I should be using anyway? Guess I better stop writing and do a little research first.

Worrying about SEO sure can be a kill joy, when it comes to writing.

I had a thought and I was inspired to write. So I grabbed my notebook and pen, and wrote. Quicker than expected I’d filled 5 pages. Haven’t typed them up yet, but looks like maybe one spelling error. Get this, not a single line or word scratched out in this free writing session, ha!

Free Writing Your Cares Away

I’d forgotten how liberating free writing can be. Just let the words flow out onto the paper. Sounds cliché, right? Who cares, it’s the truth. Let them flow, and they will flow.

I’m not saying that SEO isn’t important. Writing to please both the web crawling spiders and the human visitors will need to be taken into account, eventually. However, these technicalities don’t have to get in the way of writing.

They can be done after the fact, but not at the expense of the way your words flow.

Who cares when is a good time to post to your blog or social media. Write the content for use at a future date or time. Free write the words when they are flowing. Not only is it more fun to free write, I do believe the finished work is also a wee bit more fun to read.

Did I mention I finished the notebook I was writing in? Well, I did. Timing was good, back to school specials just started (in July, go figure) so I got myself three new notebooks and, not one, but two of my favourite pens. Ahem, right, you may not know that about me yet. I absolutely looooooove stationery and pens.

What can I say? Sometimes it’s the little things in life that mean the most. Take care and remember…just keep writing!

Shelley

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PS – I’ve since typed up what I wrote, soon you’ll be able to read it here. Hopefully by this time next week.

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Optimism What’s That?

Who’s to say what optimism really means…

Hmmm what can I say about optimism? Let’s see, first off for some it may be easier to muster up than others. Take me for example, you try looking at the bright side when everything hurts ALL the time. Not an easy thing to do.

That being said, I try. Goodness knows I try to be optimistic. Sometimes, the best I can come up with is that, this too shall pass. At least that’s something, right? I mean, it’s a glimmer of hope. A reminder that whatever big pile of steaming poop you’re dealing with right now will become a memory, eventually.

Now I realize that may not sound very optimistic to the average person. Believe me though, when your entire body, mind and soul are engulfed in an agonizing flare, knowing that it will pass at some point is pretty much all you have.

With chronic pain, when there is no relief to be had, you hold on to the hope that it will pass sooner rather than later. That my friend, is what I call optimism.

Optimism, It Can Mean Different Things to Different People

According to dictionary.com the noun optimism can mean, a disposition or tendency to look on the more favorable side of events or conditions and to expect the most favourable outcome.

Taking that definition into account, if each time that you are suffering you hang in there because you know the latest flare will eventually end, does that not mean you are optimistic? Optimism is hope and having hope is optimism. Believing that there will be relief and that the flare will end.

Now, I’m not saying the pain ends completely. That’s the tricky part. When the flare ends the pain doesn’t just go away, it lessens. Sometimes a little bit and sometimes a lot. You just never know until the time comes, which it’s going to be. When you’re really lucky the chronic wide spread pain will drop from a 9/10 to a 4/10.

I know, we more than likely don’t sound very positive to the healthy. In fact, it’s probably tough to wrap your mind around just how much optimism it takes for us to get through most days.

When you hear the words “today is going to be a pain rating 3 kind of day”, what we’re really saying is “today is going to be a great day!”

Hang in there baby….

People; Why So Mean?

Blargh! Blasted people!

I am in the habit of forgetting that not everybody is nice. Some people are just plain mean.

Swore I’d never do this, but it’s been eating at me. I am thinking that if I come clean maybe I can finally “let it be”. Then I can skip happily off into the sunset leaving behind the toxicity. Ok so maybe when I said “skip” it was figuratively.

WHAT? Is with the rhyming?

I am no Dr. Seuss, he I am not. I swear it’s a coincidence, because to write it that way I did not plot. The words flowed from brain, to fingers (ever so slowly) onto the “white” page of a Word dot doc. This paragraph I wrote though, to get a chuckle or a laugh 😉

Oh goody the fibro fog is setting in. What the heck was I talking about?

Right I was about to release some flaming gas balls of fury, albeit with a wee bit of discretion thrown in.

I worked really really really really hard. I was dedicated to the point that people thought I owned the place. Some people still think that. I took something that was losing money. Worked extremely hard with an amazing team doubled the sales and turned a profit in under four years.

Then I got sick, so I had to work harder. Then I became even more ill. To the point that I had to stop working. A year later it became clear that I wouldn’t be able to perform in the same capacity as I had before Fibromyalgia.

I assumed we would discuss other possible jobs or altering my responsibilities to accommodate my newly acquired limitations. I know, I know best never to assume. Anyway, never heard a word, not so much as a thank you, take care nor a goodbye from the owners. It hurt!

There I said it. I admit that it hurt, that it still hurts. It ends now. I am taking ownership of my emotions and today I move on. I am after all the lucky one who got away from a highly toxic environment.

Yessssss! I feel better already. In fact YAWN, I think I’m going to have the best sleep I’ve had in a long time.

Spring cleaning time, and I am learning how to clear out my emotional clutter. No longer stressed; calm is best. There is room for nice people only in my life.

Take care, Shelley

PS – Please like this post and share your story, your thoughts or your suggestions in the comments. That would make me feel real special 😉