Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Ya Think?

I've been reading two new books I just got.

One is called Food That Helps Win the Battle Against Fibromyalgia--Ease Everyday Pain and Fight Fatigue.

The other is called Freedom From Fibromyalgia--The 5 Week Program Proven to Conquer Pain.

The first book is one part discussion of fibromyalgia, one part nutrition, and two parts cookbook. Very interesting, mostly the cookbook part, because each recipe has an introductory paragraph explaining the nutritional benefits of the ingredients. For example, the recipe for Zucchini and Mushroom Quiche begins like this:

Zucchini is an excellent source of the antioxidants vitamin C, beta-carotene, and lutein, which promote eye health and are anti-inflammatory. Mushrooms are probiotic and help the body restore balance and regain strength.


See, that's good, because that's information I can use any time I cook, not just out of this cookbook. I think it will be very useful. Plus, surprisingly, many of the recipes actually look tasty.

And a lot of them even use ingredients I already use, such as the How Sweet It Is Potato Gratin (sweet potatoes, russet potatoes, butter, Parmesan).

Not ALL of them of course. Like, I can't see myself making the Berry Buzz Smoothie (raw macadamia nuts, tofu, rice protein powder, D-ribose [huh?], bee pollen).

So that's looking interesting and useful.

The other book, the Five Week Cure, is also interesting, in other ways.

The two authors propose that fibromyalgia results when sensitive people have emotions and don't acknowledge them. Rather, those feelings get morphed into physical reactions, which cause very real, and very painful symptoms.

The cure then, is to learn how to recognize your stress and emotions. Sometimes that's enough-- just the recognition. Other times, you need to find an acceptable outlet for those feelings, and find a way to deal with them.

For example, you suddenly have a very bad recurrence of pain and after thinking about it you find you're angry with someone, like a boss who mistreats you, or a spouse who misunderstands, or a child who leaves his stuff all over. Sometimes just admitting that it makes you angry is enough to ease the physical pain. Sometimes you need to speak to the boss, or have a talk with your spouse, or tell the kids to pick up their stuff, it's driving you crazy.

The authors recommend taking one to two hours a day for meditation and keeping a journal, and simplifying your life.

I've been thinking, and I wonder...

About three years ago I made a decision to stop ranting when I was upset, and also to stop talking as much as possible. I thought that was the healthy, Christian thing to do. Stop complaining, stop being negative, stop speaking those words into my life, stop hurting the people around me with my frustration.

And then I took it one step further. I felt that I only got angry or frustrated when stress boiled up and over. But I also thought that what comes out in that situation was only what was there all along. After all, when a pot of soup boils over, you get soup.

I figured, then, that my problem was having the emotions in the first place. If I never felt angry or frustrated, then I wouldn't need to let off steam or boil over. My goal was that if I ever did boil up, all that would come out would be sweetness from the pot. So I tried to never feel anything negative. That way there would never be anything negative that needed to be expressed.

But something must have been wrong with my logic.

After reading the book, I realized that it was about three years ago that I began suffering from debilitating fatigue, extreme achiness, and sleep disturbances; and it's been gradually getting worse, especially when I'm under stress.

Obviously, my "solution" was not helpful in the long run and I need to find a more healthy option.

3 comments:

orneryswife said...

Last night the message that Jim Richards spoke was about healing the broken hearted, and how that is what the Holy Spirit does. He talked about the physiological effects of improperly dealing (or not dealing at all) with "issues" (i.e. hurts, pains, loss, abuse, frustrations, etc.).

The main point he brought out was that if we truly believe the finished work of Jesus bought us freedom from lack, abundant health, etc., then all the work has been done for us. The second book says dealing with stress is important, and he mentioned something similar in the message. (I should just order the CD for you-- although the whole series he has been doing for the past several weeks talks about similar things. It is called a Heart Awakening, and deals with the VERY things you wrote about here!)

Anyway, rather than add more stress by concentrating on the pain, he recommends finding a scripture that reveals the provision we are given based on what Jesus has already done. "By His stripes I AM healed." By repeating the verse and allowing it to "soak in" and then waiting to see what emotion surfaces, you are able to release that pain or hurt or abuse,etc. because Jesus has already taken care of it for you. (This is Biblical meditation)

I am probably not doing a very good job of explaining this, but how interesting that I heard that last night, and I read this today!

I think you are on the right track, and I hope you do feel like this is a safe place to vent. We all need something/someone to release our frustrations with. And as for trying to bury them, remember the scripture that says, "Be angry and sin not"? I think that means that we should experience the emotions, but that we shouldn't allow them to drive us to do something that will cause chaos in our lives.

One last thing. Jim said one of the keys to being able to express emotion is by being assertive--speaking the truth in love. "When you do this, I feel ____." If the other person doesn't KNOW they are hurting you, they can't remedy it.

I will be praying for you as you travel this road--just know you aren't on it alone! Hugs!
tm

PS if you want me to order the CD for you, I would be happy to! email me! <3

carrie said...

You can come vent on my blog instead if you want ;)

Honey, we all get frustrated, we all get upset, people don't always do right by us. That's because we live in a fallen world. There is only ONE who is perfect ~ Jesus. So as long as we have to live here and continue on our path we will not have a perfect, happy, smiley, no pain, walk. I know I can handle hearing a bit of griping and complaining if you aren't feeling well or if someone is being meanish in your book ;) On top of that the Bible does say that we are to pray together, and lean on each other and go to the elders when we are sick, etc. So don't always put up a happy lovely front...God doesn't like fake. He called the Pharisees fake and see where it got them ;) You aren't a Pharisee...*hugs*

Ronda said...

Oh I think I am gonna respond to this one via email...

and if you need a safe place to write, I can certainly hook you up! :)