Mindful ways in busy days

Nutrition really is the key to healing. My family I'm lazy, it has to be said, very lazy. So when my sister told me she had found an excellent book, quite scientific but definitely an essential read I asked her to summarise the key points rather than having to read it myself. Fortunately she persuaded me otherwise. When I was doing my degree in the late '80s I was also an Officer Cadet with King's Regiment in Liverpool.  Early morning PT with a log across our shoulders running through fields, over assault courses was a great way to wake up. Except, for me, one in 4 of these PT sessions would end up with me curled up in agony in a sleeping bag on the changing room floor for an hour or two. Roll on a decade and I was a PE teacher in a secondary school, still active, eating quite healthily. I thought that what I was feeling was normal. Every time I had a number 2 I had to grab onto the walls in pain, when being driven in a car if we went over potholes my abdomen would feel bou

George was 12 years old when his mum became unwell and was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2016. He had just started secondary school in 2015. Now as a 16 year old he reflects on this time. What was your mum like before she got ill? She was like any normal mum, she used to be really sporty and active and would always play with me. If I wanted to try something or needed help with something then she would just do it without any persuasion just because she wanted to give me the best that she could. She used to help do First Aid for my rugby team too. What was she like when she became ill? She was tired all the time. She got angry quickly which was not normal for my mum. She didn't play with me so much because she had to look after herself more, which, as an only child made me feel quite lonely at times. She had to focus on trying to cope with work, with teaching. I used to get angry with some of her students for making her feel stressed and ill when they argued and messed about because

How often do you hear "I'd love to meditate but it's not for me" or "I don't know where to start" or "I haven't got time to meditate" I have often heard it said if you haven't got 10 minutes to meditate you need half an hour! We find time to go for a walk, read a newspaper, scroll though Facebook or Instagram, have a long soak in the bath. Maybe there is a spare 10 or 15 minutes in our day to really look after our mind. My sister thought she couldn't meditate as 'that's for people who sit cross legged or hug trees!' (she has overcome that now). I didn't think I could meditate as I was way too busy and I needed to do so much. My mother didn't think she could meditate as it was all of that 'focus on your breath' and she didn't think she could change the way she breathes after all these years!! So we can all find excuses but you know it makes sense to meditate. There is plenty of research and science say

I will see your head nodding in understanding and agreement. You will have felt the same, you will have done the same. But this is fibromyalgia.... Not fibroyouralgia. So whilst sympathy, patience and understanding is greatly appreciated by anyone with this condition.... It is quite unique and has a very bizarre pathway. Epstein Barr, that's who I'm initially 'blaming'. In 1989 I got glandular fever as we Brits call it... Or mononucleosis. I was in my second year at uni studying French and PE in Chester. I was 19 or 20. I couldn't move, my lovely dad drive to Chester from Nottingham one evening and scored me up from my student accommodation and drive me home. My head was propped on the seat belt as I slumped in the seat for the couple of hours drive home. My lovely mum (the White Witch with all of her old wives tremendous and knowledge of medicine and healing) got me from not being able to climb the stairs, not even being able to tolerate an ice cube to cool my bur

Previously as a secondary school teacher of PE and French my life would be full of routine, patterns, rhythms. The rules of language, the rhythm of sounds, the patterns and tactics in games and sports, the daily, weekly monthly, termly annual routine.  I would know exactly who would be sitting where in which room on the first week in September and the last day of term in summer. And since starting school aged 4 this had been my routine, my pattern, my structure. Someone else's timetable. For 40 years I followed that pattern more or less. Currently with working for a charity and working from home it is now me who puts my patterns and rhythms into my day. It's not easy is it? What time should you wake up? Is it OK to chat to other members of your family while 'at work', what do you do for lunch? How do you manage the umpteen video calls? But it is possible to find some really lovely moments when maybe you hear birds in your garden, when your husband pops out of his '

Are you BRASSED off?   B -Brain fog, you can't remember the last sentence you said, what you were about to do next, how to spell simple words, why your car keys are in the fridge! R -Restlessness, you may find it difficult to pace and are boom or bust, always on the go trying to do everything but totally and utterly exhausted. Almost unable to stop, fidgety and uncomfortable.  A -Anxious. You may feel anxious with or without any reason. You might have heart flutters, breathing is shallow or you may find it difficult to switch off and relax  S -Sensory issues, you may be very sensitive to light, sound or touch. You might be left feeling exhausted by listening to the TV or family members chatting. The slightest thing might cause great pain or an accumulation of movements (eg vacuuming the floors) might result in muscle pain and joint stiffness for days after.  S -Sleep. You may get 10 hours yet wake feeling exhausted and totally unrefreshed. You may snatch and fight at sleep tossing