Dealing with Fibromyalgia Pain, Letting Go, Finding Peace

I practiced martial arts for many years and have written about that time before in this blog and in my original website called SkyScraps.com.  Imagine my surprise though when a friend told me about a technique to help with the gnawing pain of fibromyalgia.  And what surprised me wasn't that there was a technique I hadn't investigated.  There are plenty of those.  What surprised me was that one of the first things martial artists learn is to use their bodies as weapons and the influx of adrenalyn when going into a fight to stiffen their arms and legs.  In fact, we were always told to keep the fight techniques simple because of this stiffening.  The better fighters, though, were always able to maintain fluidity in their fighting techniques flowing from one hit to another block to a third strike and then circling out to start the cycle again.

Fluidity, letting go, circling are all essential in moving from pain into non pain.  Stretching helps muscle stiffness, meditation helps mental stiffness.  But perhaps the most powerful technique, for me at least,  is asking a leg or an arm, or a hand,  or a back to 'let go of pain.'  As I sit here typing this post, my hands don't hurt, my typing errors are fewer, and that comes the awareness of pain creeping back in and reminding my muscles to let go. 

Pain in my case is a habitual frame of mind and body.  Relearning how not to live in pain will be the work of the rest of my life and I think I can live with that.

May all beings know peace.
namaste  

Typing is getting tougher, folks

Typing is much harder these days--probably due to the fibromyalgia pain getting worse.  What is making typing even harder though is that my keyboard skills are deteriorating.  My fingers hit multiple keys at once and all of a sudden my screen goes blank or my text goes somewhere else on the page.  It is weird.  I am sure there is a fancy long name for this condition.  I just think it is annoying, frustrating and weird.  Gah.  More later after I do a little research to figure this out.

Feelings and Listening

My conclusion about pain today, after 5+ sessions with my un-crinkle guy, is that pain for me is a concept...a belief or a mental habit, if you will. If I think I hurt, then I hurt. And it doesn't really matter what will trigger that thought that I hurt. Good things happen, I hurt. Bad things happen, I hurt. I find I hurt most when I am trying to stay away from people. Ummm, I did mention that I find people only slightly less scarey than childhood nightmares? So to keep myself safe from people, I create barriers to closeness. Pain works well for that. Headaches are terrific reasons to stay at my desk during lunch or at home after work. Panic attacks when I get stressed out. So now my homework from my various coaches is to stay calm when I sense a panic attack threatening to engulf me and to just say hi to whatever part of me is starting to experience panic as pain. And stop to listen to what really is bothering me.