Hi Deb:
Yep, me too. Trigger hunting, I call it. In my case I can usually be or get pretty sure what the trigger is. If not immediately then I check my week or month on my blog and often find it out after. I'd think my rate is >80%. What I
need for this however is the
time to self-care - so there's no sense in doing more - and a
clear head - so there's no sense in taking meds that dull my brain. What I
don't need is people like my acupressurist telling me 'a lot of others are having a problem at the moment, it's the moon or the weather change'. Yes, it may be a weather change, but by far not every weather change is a big problem for me: If I can change my habits, e.g. clothing in time, it's OK.
My biggest flare triggers in the 1st yr of fibro were
meds & treatments which harmed me & made my fibro worse long-term. Now trying new herbs or supps usually again means overdosing until I've found the right dose, but in the mid- and long-term I'm making progress.
Overdoing now I'm making progress still happens fairly often, cos it's sometimes hard to see what is too much, if I feel good. Sometimes instead of listening to my body I need to use my head or listen to my wife.
Stress I find much more effective to prevent rather than to alleviate with Relaxation.
Like Jemima's psychologist's idea my body and mind need everything in shorter amounts. Not just the frequency and variety of mind exercise, but stopping any stress before I'd need days to recover.
Since changing what/how I work I don't have it much any more. With all other forms of stress (like socializing) I limit the activity so I only slightly overdo it. Fibro has made me decide I can no longer and do not any longer want to tolerate much stress. A lot of things which would stress others doesn't stress me, or I've learnt to tolerate it well or say it out loud to those who are stressing me or just as a matter of course stop going into situations where I wdnt've batted an eyelid before fibro´. What remains I take for a while and then go out of the situation. When others like my wife are stressed I deflect that (can then take the brunt with no problem, and not personally), separate and talk about it later. In the past 3-4 evenings, encapsulating my amino acids (all white powders
) has become a stressor and sleep postponer, so I'm gonna do this increasingly systematic as from today.
Relaxation: Like a lot of you, meditation is hard for me, altho I've tried it off and on since my teens. Main problem used to be the pain I've always had. What I can do very well now is
autogenic training - at night replacing sleep (altho not that nec. anymore), or short at daytime. What's great about that is that I can very quickly manage to produce a 'stim': a lovely tingly feeling in my toes (they move a bit then too), up to my knees, I'm managing to get it into my hands/fingers a little bit too. This makes me enjoy it, so I'm keen to do it regularly. Very similarly relaxing I find
Yoga Nidra videos to be. If possible (not too much pain)
progressive muscle relaxation can be an alternative for me.
Just reminding of the terminology: AFAIK a
body scan means you go thru and say 'hello' to your body parts, whether hurting or not (without tightening the muscles) - the 'not a threat' part belongs there too, because you just practice awareness, without judging, bemoaning etc. The tightening and releasing is actually
progressive muscle relaxation. So this is an interesting combination of both. Also generally interesting that we can combine & adapt things to help us.
Whilst I occasionally do and definitely like quite a few
breathing exercises (fave: breathing out and in thru one nostril, then the other), my definite favourite one is Wim Hof's, cos it recharges.
And often a cure-all for me, resetting, destressing, stopping rumination, even at night, is still his
cold showering a minute.
My main combination of exercises is my
twist-stretching "everything" outward, then inward, which also very muich helps me relax quickly. Praps similar to
@sunkacola's recommendation of doing a walking meditation: Maybe the same doing tai chi/qigong or yoga with appropriate breathing.
A major problem has been my
sleep, and I've only been getting the hang of that since starting amino acids (an balance of GABA, glutamine, theanine, now adding small doses of tryptophan), stopping magnesium glycinate, and increasing passiflora to 4x289mg. Busted my record on Monday night: Only 10', 3 breaks. But cracked that up again last night due to heartburn (followed by other things), probably due to taking the tryptophan doses too close to one another. But my generally good effective and reduced sleep is still incredibly fragile, so I'm still testing stuff to ground that more, which again costs me a few sfx. But it's fun and I'm getting there.
I love
@sunkacola's "I try to be my dogs when the pain is bad." - yep, that's what it feels like for me, too. I actually don't even need to try that hard. It irritates this however when my wife starts dramatizing ... and then when I start protesting she starts saying I'm sugarcoating my condition ... I just ignore that, say something deliberately silly and don't try to explain it in that situation, but come back to it in a serious moment when she asks me what she can do for me....
and I feel it is helpful. But there are so many ways to get into a meditative state. For instance, if you knit or crochet, tie flies, sew or embroider, build birdhouses or furniture, paint or make ceramics, or do anything with your hands, you can get so into what you are doing that the world goes away and that period of time is like meditating in that it is excellent for you both physically and mentally.
- or throw f*** around in a spontaneous f***-rap.
