Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Fibromyalgia and Visualization
The body has something to say, but it doesn’t speak English. It speaks FEELING.
Perhaps (probably) you have ignored your body’s feelings for years. It is now SHOUTING at YOU!
When you are resting but unable to sleep, after you have prayed for everyone and everything, then simply pay attention to what your body is feeling.
It might help to get a human biology book with lots of pictures to review. Medical encyclopedias or a high school human biology book will work well. At the very least you will be able to talk more knowledgeably with your doctors.
Try these exercises:
1) Get into your whole body. Sit or lie as comfortably as you can, lightly covered.
Notice the edges of your body, where your skin is touched by the covers. Start with the feet, moving up the legs, hips, back, arms, hands, neck, around your face. Look through your internal organs too. Just exactly where and what is that feeling? Just pay attention and feel it. Take as long as you need. If you do some mild stretching exercise first, this can be very relaxing and induce sleep. Example: I do this last in my stretching routine, the “Dead Man’s Pose” of Yoga. Lying flat on the floor, I look around inside my body, first every place that I touch the floor, then along the top side. Whatever hurts gets some more attention through stretching or massage.
2) When pain is there, don’t try to escape. Really notice it. Your body wants your attention. Notice where the pain is, where it moves, and how it feels. Try to see that body part in detail. Make up (“imagine”) what it looks like, what colors or shapes it has. Come up with some words for it: searing, intermittent, steady, sharp, dull, aching, hot flashes, coldness, tingling, burning, prickling, etc. Example: During a migraine I could “see” a net around my brain, with things trying to get through that were too large for the holes, which accounted for the pain as they got jammed. I later learned about the blood barrier around the brain.
3) Create (“imagine”) a helpful person for your insides, to help you focus. Give him/her orders. Example: My imaginary helpful person looked like a custodian, and a lot like my deceased father, with green coveralls. I asked him to show me more detail about the painful area. I “sent him” to investigate a lower back pain, and got “pictures” of a convoluted area full of holes, oozing snake like yellow threads. I told him to “cut off their heads!” I believe this was a mild kidney infection.
4) Music is helpful. Earphones guarantee you won’t bother your housemates. Select some piece you find restful, and as you listen to it, invent your restful place. Picture it in detail. Use this piece of music whenever and only when you need to rest, so there is a strong association. Example: I have a CD with calming music that has sounds of the ocean throughout it. My restful place is an island in the sun, with a sandy beach, a stream, a forest with palm trees, and a thatched hut too! But no bugs on my island! I have another CD I use only for stretching (“Tribal Voices” by Earthlinks), and yet another I use for walking with the walkman, as it helps me keep the pace up (“In Celebration of Life”, by Yanni).
5) Journaling with pictures is a valuable record. Do stick figure drawings to illustrate your feelings. A spiral notebook will work. Staple into it your doctor’s reports and prescription copies, for a handy record to take along to every medical person you visit. Be especially aware when you start a new prescription. Some foods may be affecting you badly also. Notice how you feel in the hour after you’ve eaten.
Make zerox copies of a body outline. Use colored pens to fill in areas that are painful to you, selecting whatever colors you think appropriate. Put the date and time on these drawings. It will be helpful to your medical care providers to see what you are experiencing.
To get even more from this technique, do the exercises described in The Well Being Journal by Cappachione. Or on your own, invest in a set of colored felt-pens, and “draw your insides” pictures using your non-dominant hand. Your “other hand” has not been trained, and will be truer to your feelings! Artistic ability isn’t important here; expressing your feelings IS.
6) Invent your own Pain Meter, and give the day (or the hour) a “score”. Example: My pain meter ran from “0” for no pain, to “10” with a description of each level, according to how I felt. A “10” was pretty miserable and poor functioning, with pain everywhere that affected life seriously. I used those words developed from my middle-of-the-night feeling sessions when I couldn’t sleep. As my health improved, the scores got lower. The pain meter let me know when I was getting better, and it described to my physician exactly what I was feeling.
7) Meditation and visualization: Here’s an example. Allow 15 minutes. Turn off your phone. Consider facing where the sun is, or ought to be. Sit comfortably, hands lightly folded or on your knees, wherever you can forget about them briefly. You can do this lying down and may go to sleep. If you like sitting on the floor, sit on a firm pillow that raises you up enough to take the pressure off your knees. Let your eyelids droop and drop your jaw but keep your mouth closed, and put your tongue on the roof of your mouth. Now you are ready to begin.
A. Breathe in and out four times slowly, from your stomach, through your nose.
B. Breathe four times, noticing and listening to all the noises around you.
C. Breathe four times, noticing inside your body, however it feels, but do nothing about it.
D. Imagine a ball of light over your head, just below the ceiling. Draw energy down from it to the top of your head, down your spine to your lower parts. Slowly fill up your body, your arms and hands, your legs and feet, up to your neck, and your head. When you are “full”, bend down and touch your forehead to the floor (or to your knees, or into your hands, whatever you are able to do), and pour out the excess energy-light. Sit up again, and say a prayer of thanksgiving. Repeat if you wish.
E. Breathe and listen to the noises around you again.
F. Open your eyes last.
Questions or comments? womenbefriends@yahoo.com
Perhaps (probably) you have ignored your body’s feelings for years. It is now SHOUTING at YOU!
When you are resting but unable to sleep, after you have prayed for everyone and everything, then simply pay attention to what your body is feeling.
It might help to get a human biology book with lots of pictures to review. Medical encyclopedias or a high school human biology book will work well. At the very least you will be able to talk more knowledgeably with your doctors.
Try these exercises:
1) Get into your whole body. Sit or lie as comfortably as you can, lightly covered.
Notice the edges of your body, where your skin is touched by the covers. Start with the feet, moving up the legs, hips, back, arms, hands, neck, around your face. Look through your internal organs too. Just exactly where and what is that feeling? Just pay attention and feel it. Take as long as you need. If you do some mild stretching exercise first, this can be very relaxing and induce sleep. Example: I do this last in my stretching routine, the “Dead Man’s Pose” of Yoga. Lying flat on the floor, I look around inside my body, first every place that I touch the floor, then along the top side. Whatever hurts gets some more attention through stretching or massage.
2) When pain is there, don’t try to escape. Really notice it. Your body wants your attention. Notice where the pain is, where it moves, and how it feels. Try to see that body part in detail. Make up (“imagine”) what it looks like, what colors or shapes it has. Come up with some words for it: searing, intermittent, steady, sharp, dull, aching, hot flashes, coldness, tingling, burning, prickling, etc. Example: During a migraine I could “see” a net around my brain, with things trying to get through that were too large for the holes, which accounted for the pain as they got jammed. I later learned about the blood barrier around the brain.
3) Create (“imagine”) a helpful person for your insides, to help you focus. Give him/her orders. Example: My imaginary helpful person looked like a custodian, and a lot like my deceased father, with green coveralls. I asked him to show me more detail about the painful area. I “sent him” to investigate a lower back pain, and got “pictures” of a convoluted area full of holes, oozing snake like yellow threads. I told him to “cut off their heads!” I believe this was a mild kidney infection.
4) Music is helpful. Earphones guarantee you won’t bother your housemates. Select some piece you find restful, and as you listen to it, invent your restful place. Picture it in detail. Use this piece of music whenever and only when you need to rest, so there is a strong association. Example: I have a CD with calming music that has sounds of the ocean throughout it. My restful place is an island in the sun, with a sandy beach, a stream, a forest with palm trees, and a thatched hut too! But no bugs on my island! I have another CD I use only for stretching (“Tribal Voices” by Earthlinks), and yet another I use for walking with the walkman, as it helps me keep the pace up (“In Celebration of Life”, by Yanni).
5) Journaling with pictures is a valuable record. Do stick figure drawings to illustrate your feelings. A spiral notebook will work. Staple into it your doctor’s reports and prescription copies, for a handy record to take along to every medical person you visit. Be especially aware when you start a new prescription. Some foods may be affecting you badly also. Notice how you feel in the hour after you’ve eaten.
Make zerox copies of a body outline. Use colored pens to fill in areas that are painful to you, selecting whatever colors you think appropriate. Put the date and time on these drawings. It will be helpful to your medical care providers to see what you are experiencing.
To get even more from this technique, do the exercises described in The Well Being Journal by Cappachione. Or on your own, invest in a set of colored felt-pens, and “draw your insides” pictures using your non-dominant hand. Your “other hand” has not been trained, and will be truer to your feelings! Artistic ability isn’t important here; expressing your feelings IS.
6) Invent your own Pain Meter, and give the day (or the hour) a “score”. Example: My pain meter ran from “0” for no pain, to “10” with a description of each level, according to how I felt. A “10” was pretty miserable and poor functioning, with pain everywhere that affected life seriously. I used those words developed from my middle-of-the-night feeling sessions when I couldn’t sleep. As my health improved, the scores got lower. The pain meter let me know when I was getting better, and it described to my physician exactly what I was feeling.
7) Meditation and visualization: Here’s an example. Allow 15 minutes. Turn off your phone. Consider facing where the sun is, or ought to be. Sit comfortably, hands lightly folded or on your knees, wherever you can forget about them briefly. You can do this lying down and may go to sleep. If you like sitting on the floor, sit on a firm pillow that raises you up enough to take the pressure off your knees. Let your eyelids droop and drop your jaw but keep your mouth closed, and put your tongue on the roof of your mouth. Now you are ready to begin.
A. Breathe in and out four times slowly, from your stomach, through your nose.
B. Breathe four times, noticing and listening to all the noises around you.
C. Breathe four times, noticing inside your body, however it feels, but do nothing about it.
D. Imagine a ball of light over your head, just below the ceiling. Draw energy down from it to the top of your head, down your spine to your lower parts. Slowly fill up your body, your arms and hands, your legs and feet, up to your neck, and your head. When you are “full”, bend down and touch your forehead to the floor (or to your knees, or into your hands, whatever you are able to do), and pour out the excess energy-light. Sit up again, and say a prayer of thanksgiving. Repeat if you wish.
E. Breathe and listen to the noises around you again.
F. Open your eyes last.
Questions or comments? womenbefriends@yahoo.com
# posted by MJS @ 12:54 AM 
