About mindfulness

Towards the end of 2019/beginning of 2020 I was introduced to the practice of mindfulness. If I'm honest, I didn't really understand how it was going to help my chronic pain at first. I felt that my pain needed physical treatment through medication or heat for example, to help reduce the pain. However, I then got to thinking about what I had learned about fibromyalgia: my main trigger for a flare is stress and it is an overreaction of the nervous system so not a physical issue as such but something that has a neurological source.

So I started to meditate every so often and it became even more sporadic as time went on. It is one of those things that I know I need to be doing every day but just don't seem to find the time to do. However, a few weeks ago I began a pain management course where the main focus was mindfulness practice so I have tried to incorporate it into my daily routine as much as possible. Have I practiced every single day? No. Some days I forget, but I have managed to practice almost every day and I immediately feel relaxed when I do.

As someone living with fibromyalgia, my body is constantly in alert mode and I find my muscles persistently tensing up, most of the time subconsciously. I really believe that this is part of the key to my pain and if this practice could reduce this from happening then I believe it could make a difference to my quality of life.

So far my experience has been that particularly on days where I have been really busy or stressed out at work, meditation has helped to calm my mind and make my body feel more relaxed. On days where I have been having a flare, it has helped to reduce the pain from feeling like I can't cope with it at all to making it more manageable. Does it stop me from needing to have a day in bed? Not at the moment but I do feel immediately more relaxed and it does take away some of the intensity of the pain. I am hoping that over time as I get used to the practice I will feel more relaxed on a day to day basis and my body may start to tense up less when on high alert mode. Here's hoping! Clearly this is not the only method I will be using to treat my fibromyalgia however I think it is also a good method to use to address the stresses and chaos of adult life too.

I feel that you really need to buy into the idea of mindfulness and that the aim of it is for you to look after your thoughts and feelings, focus on being in the moment which relaxes you as you are not thinking about the daily stresses. It is also important to be open to the experiences that you have whilst doing this practice and understand that it is not the same treatment as using medication or a TENs machine etc. It is hard to do this initially as I think most people, including me, can't really see how this practice of focusing on your thoughts and breathing could actually be helpful. As time has gone on, however, I have seen some of the benefits that mindfulness can bring and I do feel more relaxed in my body when I practice mindfulness. It is a skill that I want to incorporate into more aspects of my daily life as I feel this will help me to relax my body and hopefully manage my pain better.

I would really recommend a mindfulness course and using apps such as headspace or mindfulness exercises on Youtube as a way to practice this skill and method of pain management.