Going at it hammer and tongs!

When I first got chronic pain and then my Fibro diagnosis I researched as much as I could about how to help myself get better. Once I was ‘armed’ with information I thought the answer to healing myself was approaching it as I would a full-time job – something I could ‘fix’ if I only tried hard enough and threw enough at it!

I set myself high standards and approached my healing with the same efficiency I would any other job. I knew what I needed to do and I did it full tilt! I tracked every symptom, logged everything that went in my mouth, tried every strategy and supplement all at once.

I wish I knew that my self care routine was unsustainable.. It was an inflexible regime full of self-chores, not self-care!

My pain and many of my fibromyalgia symptoms remained. I had no idea what I was doing that was working and what wasn’t, because I was in a frenzy..and exhausted by the effort.

And worse, I was stuck in a revolving cycle of hope and despair. Something would work for a while and then not – at which point I would become discouraged and blame myself for my lack of progress. Not a good place to be.

What I’ve learnt

In retrospect I understand that this was part of my high achieving perfectionist approach to life. I was going to lick this thing! Spoiler alert – I didn’t. Finally, and with the support of my coach I realised what I was doing and began to change my approach.

I wish I knew then that I couldn’t control every aspect of my condition and my life, but there are things I can do – and that small steps lead to great change over time.

These days I implement things slowly one at a time and only keep using strategies that work for my particular body. I stripped it right back and made small changes one by one – noticing the successes I did have, even if they weren’t perfect. And slowly they started to fit together into a manageable & flexible routine.

What works for me

I have lots of strategies in my toolbox – to mention just a few:

• Calming my nervous system with research proven methods such as meditation, mindfulness, listening to music, and gentle movement (preferably outside in nature!)
• Resting
• Planning
• Pacing
• Slowing down – rushing is off the agenda, and frenzies are a thing of the past!
• Setting boundaries

Over the next few posts I’ll break these strategies down for you, so you too can work on living better with Fibro. It can be done – one step at a time!