Practical 1 ~ sharing skills and strategies for fibromyalgia
Welcome to day 3 of Fibromyalgia 28 days.
28 days, 28 posts.
I hope you have found something useful from days one and two so far.
There is much to come.
Today I wanted to share a practice with you.
This is a skill that I commonly share with the people who come to see me.
If you happen to be a regular reader, it maybe familiar.
Great!
Using your beginner’s mind, there is always something to learn and improve upon.
If you are new to my work, it may or may not be familiar.
Great!
Awareness
Cultivating awareness and being aware.
Key skills.
This is something you can learn and practice.
Which means you get better at it.
What does it mean?
Being aware means you are present in the here and now, the only real moment.
To look after yourself and meet your needs, you must be here now.
If you are aware of how you are and what is going on, you can decide what to do.
With clarity.
The opposite would be a lack of awareness, in which case you would not be in a position to take a step towards your picture of success.
Your picture of success
This is your aspiration. Your goal.
What are you working towards each day?
Your picture of success gives you direction.
What small steps can I take today?
It is important to remember that your picture of success is an imagined future.
You can put whatever you wish on your pinboard of possibilities.
Doing so raises the chances of success.
Then you need the steps and the know-how.
Your picture of success focuses you on what you want, eg/ to walk a certain distance, to engage with an activity, to return to work etc. They are framed in the positive, rather than, I want to get rid of my pain.
Why?
Because to get rid of pain, you have to have pain and hence your focus is back on your pain or other symptoms.
It’s like saying, don’t think of elephants.
An important practical insight: focus on what you want and the step you are taking now in that direction, rather than what you don’t or can’t do.
This too is a skill to practice.
The practice
One way to cultivate awareness is to practice mindful breathing.
Or you can call it breathing awareness.
The concept is simple.
The practice is….well, you will find out.
- Sitting as comfortably as you can, upright and relaxed.
- Close your eyes.
- Take a couple of slower breaths.
- Feel your body in sitting. Notice the sensations without judging or trying to work them out.
- Now become aware of the sensations of breathing.
- Follow your breath as you breathe in, and follow your breath as you breathe out.
- You may find it helpful to say ‘breathing in’ as you breathe in, and ‘breathing out’ as you breathe out.
- When your mind wanders, begin again*.
The Know-how
Some practice points and insights:
- Decide how long you will practice. Set the bar low, ie/ how long will you definitely practice? Start small to make it much more likely you groove the habit.
- Use a timer.
- Set a notification to prompt you to practice.
- Acknowledge and celebrate when you finish — feel the success. This matters for creating a habit.
- Your mind will wander. That is normal. Just start again. The practice of noticing and starting again is part of building awareness in your day to day living.
- There is no such thing as a bad practice. Always something to learn.
- It is in your day to day that you will begin to notice positive changes. But only if you are consistent and practice each day.
- This is one skill of many. But an important one that enables other practices to be more effective.
I hope that is helpful.
r.s.
Other resources:
🚀 What is Pain Coaching? https://richmondstace.com/what-is-pain-coaching-for-chronic-pain/
⚡️ About me: https://richmondstace.com/about/
🚚 My daily newsletter to understand and overcome pain: https://open.substack.com/pub/richmondstace
📖 My book, Understand and Overcome your Chronic Pain: https://amzn.eu/d/hJm0hdG
🎥 Pain in the Person ~ a short film: https://youtu.be/zidJbZHEGzM
🎙️ Podcast: https://youtu.be/nEa3UHb0Gos?si=QZuvP9541jzLz0UT