Last Updated on July 30, 2023 by melissanreynolds
As I focus on what I can do to prepare myself for my operation (for endometriosis), I’m considering all of my coping mechanisms and what works the best. I’m optimising what works.
The nurture your nervous system challenge came about as a result of this. My yoga tools are key for me. For a few days before and after my operation I won’t be able to take my low dose naltrexone. For a couple of weeks before I won’t be able to take any supplements, including recovery factors. I won’t be doing much walking or physical yoga practice for a few weeks.
So what will be left? Breathwork, meditation, heating pads, hot showers and pain medicine. And rest!
It’s going to be a weird time for me.
I am going to keep notes for how I’m going as I recover and will share that here.
For now I’m leaning into my Yoga Nidra meditation for my daily rest, breathwork for my continual pick me ups and gentle yoga.
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How the Flare is Going
The sympathetic nervous system flare that I’ve had since March seems to be coming back toward baseline. I don’t think I’ll reach baseline until the endometriosis is treated. As long as I’m keeping up my relaxation practices (like those in the nurture your nervous system video), and don’t overdo things and cause a pain flare up, it’s relatively quiet.
I have been struggling with the line between too much and enough time spent colouring. I struggle to stop, but that is something I need to learn for a lot of things.
Colouring is something I’ve loved for a while, but with my neck, it’s a tricky thing to do. My family gave me a brand new colouring book for Mother’s Day so it’s been very tempting to make use of it. I have found that being slightly reclined in my lazy boy seems to help support my neck better so that I don’t wake up with a headache the next day (from trigger points). I don’t use anything fancy, simple Faber Castell Pencils like these. I also have three sets of colouring pens for different uses, here’s an example.
Walking and FOMO
I’ve been walking up a storm. It’s like I’m trying to make up for the time I won’t be able to and will then have to build back up again. I’m not looking forward to that part! As a result of all the walking I’ve had many days of burning leg muscles. Sigh.
It’s a funny thing. I’ve been meditating upon how I have been sick for all of my adult life. And for the past 10 years as I have gotten better, I’ve been wanting to do all the things. I strongly feel the things I’ve missed out on, the things I still miss out on. And I am hyper aware of what I will miss out on during surgery recovery. Just another emotional aspect of this journey.
What I’m working on
The Foundations of Yoga for Chronic Pain and Fatigue- I’ve added a new lesson (with downloadable report) and a new worksheet to make it even easier to take the tools and use them ongoing. It’s a tricky balance between overloading students with too much information and ensuring they can USE the tools.
I’m using my leave of absence and recovery period to load the Yoga for the Chronic Life virtual yoga studio from my old platform to the new one. It will be a big job as its a 12 month guided journey with several weekly plans and build your own challenges. But one problem we seem to have with doing yoga is a) getting to a studio b) that class being accessible c) us having the energy and ability at the times available and d) them having an understanding of chronic pain and chronic fatigue. Especially how they work together. You are most welcome to join us here.
