It’s been a tricky couple of weeks, Fibromyalgia wise!
Life has been ‘life-ing’ as they say, and the last couple of weeks have been busy and hard. There’s also been some loveliness, with three family birthdays (including mine!), but even lovely things can tire you out, right?
It’s made me think about how unpredictable it is living with Fibromyalgia and what we do to manage it, when life throws you curve balls.
To be completely honest, I had a little wobble. Instead of kicking in with the things I know that help me, I lost sight of them for a moment, and consequently got quite overwhelmed.
It’s perfectly reasonable to feel NOT ok when this happens.
We’re not just affected physically by our Fibromyalgia, but also emotionally, mentally & socially, so it’s inevitable we won’t always handle a difficult times perfectly
My lovely Mum always used to say;
It’s ok to have a melt down, but don’t unpack your bags and live there!
So that’s what I did – had some time to ‘feel my feelings’ and live in my dressing gown for a bit. And it was lovely, I have to say – a kind of hibernation!
And then, I pulled up the plane and went back to my usual routine.
So..here’s some things that have helped my clients and myself when a Fibromyalgia melt down happens
- Cancel what you can.
- Adapt what you can’t – can you work from home, or meet that friend via zoom instead of in a busy cafe?
- Accept help – and learn to be honest with the people around you so they will see you need it & offer to help
- Try the smallest strategies in your toolbox (eg set a timer for a slow breath out)
Here’s what won’t help
- Pushing through
- Pushing down your feelings
- Being mean to yourself about why you can’t be better, do better..
- Wishing things were different – I can categorically promise you, this will not last forever.
Learning that ‘this too will pass’ and how to ride the waves of my Fibro instead of drowning has been the best lesson I’ve learned, without a doubt.
Recently I learnt about he ’90 second rule’ which I think could be really helpful for when you’re in the melt down phase and the thoughts are racing.
The gist of it is that a reaction to something only last 90 seconds in our body, biologically. Any reaction we have (negative or positive) is only made longer than that by our thoughts.
A suggested way to become more aware, and halt a negative thought loop is to watch a clock (preferably with a seconds hand) or a timer for 90 seconds. You observe the thought and then you have the choice to change it!
Here’s a more in depth explanation of the ’90 second rule’
I’d love to know what you think about this! You can let me know here