The hole in my pyjamas

No medicine has ever healed the body, rather it provides the right conditions so that the body can heal itself.

Those closest to me have wondered what prompted this 3 month break from work to travel to Sri Lanka and India. Well, some months back I got a hole in my pyjamas... And not just any old hole, from a snag or radiator burn... It was from wear. The problem was, I'd only had them about 2 months.

Since getting chronic fatigue 4 years ago, I have been gradually getting stronger, but in the past year my job has been getting more and more demanding and I've been compensating by spending more and more time in bed.

I felt the denial had to end, with my thoughts of, "It isn't so bad"... "Some people are much worse off than me" ... The hole was real and evidence of festering.

It was the sort of hole that was worth risking my job over, and so I asked if I could have time off. I didn't just want a half recovery, I want a full recovery.

Children are statistically more likely to recover than adults. However, as long as no additional health problems coincides, those that remain unwell seem to fall into two categories: you either become fearful of overexertion and wrap yourself in cotton wool, rarely leaving the house, or you get good at ignoring the body's signals and largely do whatever you want, running a boom and bust cycle. I'm in the latter camp, until recently anyway, when I started to take it all more seriously.

In March I found help from the Optimum Health Clinic. I've learnt a lot, but to make a simple summary, their theory is: do all the things that are restorative or feel good (that relieve stress on the body), and not the things that are unhealthy or make you feel bad (add stress to the body).

Here's my list:

Column A - Restorative
Complete rest
Massage
Meditation
Gentle anaerobic exercise (yoga)
Positive thinking
Purpose
Enjoyment
Staying within your limits but bouncing the boundaries
Friendship
Calm
Nourishing healthy food
Vitamins and minerals
Soft soled shoes and comfortable clothes
Warmth
The sun
Restorative sleep
Animals
Being in nature
Being in control
Being vigilant of your body's signals
Learning to say NO
Being good to yourself
Moral support
Liberation
Hugs


Column B - Draining
Over exertion
Alcohol
Caffeine
Intense cardiovascular exercise
Negative thoughts
Stress
Working too hard
Inflammatory foods such as gluten and dairy
Sugar (people have asked, "can't you just take an energy drink?" This works for getting cyclists up a hill, but it creates stress on the body as it's works to process the spike in blood sugar levels)
Overeating (ever felt it harder to breathe and your heart rate go up?)
Cold
Watching too much TV
Bright lights and too many visuals
Talking
Writing
Arguing
Loud noise
Pollution
Carrying things
Travel

Note the list includes a mix of the mental and physical, your mind and body are not separate entities - that is a fallacy.

Items in column B also clash with items in column A. For example, talking with friends can be energising but talking too much leads to brain fog and lack of cognizance. Similarly cycling in nature can be inspiring but climbing a big hill can lead to dizziness, serious muscle weakness and nervous system overload.

I have set out to spend 1 month in Sri Lanka and just over 2 months in India, following as many items in column A as possible and as few items from column B as possible. And when I come back I will get out of my pyjamas for good.

I realise it's quite self indulgent to spend 3 months focusing on my wellbeing and writing about it, but I've shared this on the ME association website etc. so others may enjoy some light reading on their recovery journey. Here goes!








Comments

  1. Cosmic Rhi3 November 2017 at 00:04

    Not indulgent at all. Taking responsibility for your health and happiness and striving to stabilise your life is so inspiring to others and will ultimately ensure you can support others more effectively x

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Magic or Physics? Energy Healing and the Great Mysteries of our Universe

"When we know how miracles work, they become technology", Greg Bradon, The Divine Matrix I always liked walking barefoot. As a child, I would wander around in South Africa with my grandma, feeling the ground beneath my feet. Last year, I trundled all the way back to the car at a music festival carrying my shoes, enjoying the squelch of mud between my toes. The Kogi tribe, buried deep in the rainforests of Colombia, refuse to wear shoes, they say it breaks their connection with nature. Nearing the close of 2017, I found myself standing barefoot in tall, aged, blades of grass in a circle of a group of fourteen, holding hands, in the Goan mountains. The energy in the earth is very gentle and grounding - if you ever find yourself in a panic, remove your shoes and stand on the earth, breathing deeply; you'll feel calmer. As I closed my eyes, I could feel energy gently circulating around the group, flowing through my hands in an anticlockwise direction, and I thought, ...
Read more

The Pink Kingdom and the Girl Power Guru

I was consciously drawn to Amma's ashram to write about it. I was curious to see for myself the female guru who travels the world, giving healing hugs to people willing to queue sometimes five hours for her “darshan” (opportunity with a holy person). The stories go that expectant recipients are enveloped in her arms and all the grief from many meridians is washed away. Some break down in tears, engulfed in her motherly embrace, others are touched to the core, some healed of strange illnesses. I realized I had developed a symbiotic relationship with my blog in that it now influenced me as much as I was influencing it. On my first blog post, hugging appeared on the list of healing activities to be pursued. Research shows that deep hugs, pressing hearts together, can heal sickness, disease, depression, anxiety and stress. A deep hug boosts oxytocin, serotonin and immunity. It can also regulate the body’s production of white blood cells, relax the muscles, ease pain, increase circula...
Read more

Surfing

Two girls were heading south to the beach after Vipassana so I went with them. It turned out both had been marketing managers -the Dutch girl for Nike and the Turkish girl for Microsoft. They quit their jobs suddenly, one to become a yoga instructor and the other was free wheeling it. They had separate hotels booked and so I ended up in the surfing town, Welligama with the Turkish girl, Neji. She wanted to go surfing in the afternoon. It felt a bit soon to be so active, but for some reason I didn't want to say no and surfing sounded fun, so I was game. The hotel was by the beach and it was a beautiful paradise of white sand, fishing boats and lush tropical vegetation that made you feel like you're in "Honey I Shrunk the Kids", because all the plants look like enormous shrubs. We had two instructors who showed us some of the theory on the sand and took us into the water. I'm not so active these days and waiting for a wave, I felt like a beached whale on the bo...
Read more