#Mind Body

[nemfrog]

Mayan assignment of animals to parts of the body. Life symbols as related to sex symbolism. 1924.

Internet Archive

[eatclean-bewhole]

Take the “mental health” day you need to be well.

[beachandpalms]

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[random-xpressions]

You overwhelm her mind first, you wreck her body later, every inch of it...

Random Xpressions

[odettecarotte]

If you know you can say no or stop, you relax. If you don't know you can say no or stop, you can't afford to make such an offer. You will be on guard, worried about what's coming next, because you have to be. I came to see that knowing it in our minds is not enough. We have to know it with our bodies -- that is, we have to have a body experience of exercising that choice.

Betty Martin with Robyn Dalzen, The Art of Receiving and Giving

[Emphasis mine]

One of the awesome parts of Betty Martin's work is her absolute insistence that we learn these agreements through literally touching each other's skin. That's how we learn what a no or a yes or a maybe feels like in our bodies. Many trauma survivors report a disconnect between bodies and minds. Betty's emphasis on a pace of touching and talking that's S-L-O-W as molasses gives mind time to observe the body, and to speak what the body wants.

It doesn't have to make "sense." Like, it might not make sense to you that your stomach seizes up when you imagine your friend stroking your palm lightly. But she guides you on honoring the fact that if it doesn't feel delightful, then it isn't the thing you want!

[gramarobin]

...ut oh 😬

[snkrbonbon]

Nike ISPA MindBody

[rewritingtrauma]

The Invisible Illness: Living with Long COVID ME

Two and a half years ago, my life took an unexpected turn. After a long COVID-19 infection that left me almost bed bound for a month, I tried to rebound and get back to “life as usual” but every effort seemed to be redoubled with exhaustion, pain, dizziness, palpitations, and confusion. I kept pushing - returning to freelance and employed work, to all of the house and garden chores, to maintaining the allotment, to socialising… But it was like being immersed in mud, with the worst hangover I’ve ever experienced, every day. Still, I kept pushing, thinking this was just temporary, that I would get through, get better, be “back on form”. But over the four months that followed, with increasingly frequent crashes (that left me, at times, unable to even walk) I ran myself into the ground. What followed has been a relentless struggle with Long COVID ME. It's a condition, or cluster of conditions, that has drastically altered my daily life, and one that many people still don't fully understand.

The Daily Grind

Every day is a unique challenge. The constant fatigue is debilitating, and even the slightest exertion can trigger a bout of severe post-exertional malaise. I wake up at 2 AM, night after night, my body refusing to rest (perpetually overstimulated nervous system). Pain, a persistent and sprightly companion, dances throughout my body - headaches, muscle aches, nerve pain, eye pain, sometimes it feels as though my skeleton is aching. I experience, at times extreme, sensitivity to noise and light, which can make being outside or in public spaces overwhelming to impossible. It’s an interesting and entirely horrible experience, that sensory overwhelm, like 360 degrees of nails being dragged down chalkboards as someone gives an impossibly dry lecture on quantum mechanics that you are on pain of death to absorb and remember for a test which is happening yesterday… And then there’s the fevers, the orthostatic intolerance, the dizziness, the balance problems, the changes in my sense of taste and smell, the depression, derealization, and anxiety… 

The worst part for me, even beside the loneliness that physical isolation causes, is the brain fog, or Cognitive Dysfunction. I feel entirely unlike myself… My memory, which was always unreliable, has become completely faulty, words disappear like melting ice caps, and even simple tasks become insurmountably complex puzzles. The world around me often feels like a confusing, unmappable cacophony of sensory noise. I involuntarily check out in the middle of conversations, not out of choice but because my information processing engine has sputtered and died and I’m suddenly adrift somewhere… and i see it, in the faces of the people who are talking, when it happens: they become irritated, bewildered, or worst of all, judgemental. I’m deemed stupid, spacey, or disengaged. When in reality, I can’t control it any more than I can control the direction of the wind. 

It's disheartening when people say to me, "You look well." I know their intentions are good and that, in their world, it is a compliment to look well but those words clash so completely with my reality - with the invisible battle I face constantly, and everyday. Every social interaction, every text message exchange, drains my limited energy. The Iris you see on a good day (and you will likely only see me on good days or else high-masking average days) is just a glimpse of who I am. The majority of my days are marked by average or poor health, where cooking a meal or walking a short distance becomes a significant challenge. Good days take a lot of preparation: if I know I have a social appointment, a meeting, or something I need to be "OK" for, I have to take things very easy in the three-to-five days prior. And "very easy" from someone with chronic illness looks like a proper sick day for someone without. So, when I can't be spontaneous, accept that last minute invitation, please know this is why. Then, on the worst days, I'm confined to bed, a prisoner in my own body. Thankfully, I have fewer of those days now but the price of that is a life which is much, much smaller and quieter than anything I could ever have imagined.

Radical Acceptance 

I am such a long way from the person I was three years ago. It wasn’t even three years ago that I was getting married, dancing and singing all night, when I cycled every day, swam every week, gardened all weekend, hiked, made art… Now, most days, it’s good if I make it out of the house. Nowadays, I’m 23 kilos heavier than I was three years ago. I get vertiginously dizzy and out of breath just taking the stairs. The cognitive dysfunction makes things like this (writing a blog) a mission which takes four to eight times as long as it would have three years ago and, when I’m finished, I know my brain will be of such a calibre of mush that the best I can hope for is a day of sitting without too much noise, light, or pain.

Everyday I get some degree of boredom, frustration. Most days I cry. Some days I think of ending it all. It has been very hard to have a sense of a future when you can’t work, are unsupported financially by the state i.e. can’t afford to live, when you are this socially isolated, and when all the things you were dreaming of are - on this health trajectory - impossible. When the things you used to do that gave your life shape and meaning are impossible (movement, drawing, socializing). And then, some days, there are these moments - glimpses - when I accept what is happening to me, when I forget the past and the future, and just for a moment, everything just is. Those moments might be the key to what will save me - moments of radical acceptance. They may be crumbs at present but perhaps a path of them will lead me out ofthe darkness…

The Unseen Struggle

Long COVID ME is an invisible illness affecing tens, possible hundreds, of thousands of folk in the UK today. It's a condition that often goes unrecognized, misunderstood, and dismissed. It can be a constant struggle, a daily fight for normalcy, for recognition, and for acceptance. I’ve had GPs roll their eyes, shrug their shoulders, as though I’m making it up. And yet, these experiences are real. I wish they weren’t. I spend a good majority of my time in brain retraining programmes, doing EFT, meditating, therapy, practicing DBT and yoga nidra, all to try and reregulate my nervous system, to get well again.  I yearn for a life free from pain, fatigue, and cognitive fog. At the same time, I know that change only happens once we fully accept where we are now. 

I hope that sharing my experiences will shed light on this debilitating condition. I’m sure there will be people you know, possibly you even, who are going through similar. If you would like to know more about Long Covid ME, there are a few resources I recommend. Let’s keep this conversation and awareness of Long Covid ME alive: 

The ME Assosiation - advocacy, information and support for people and their familiies living with ME and Long Covid: The ME Association - The ME Association

National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) - Guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of ME and Long COVID in the UK which can be very useful for getting both.

The Long Covid Podcast Long Covid Podcast Podcast - Apple Podcasts

Visible health tracker (great for getting data on Heart rate, Heart Rate Variability and for tracking symptoms, also they are involved in a lot of studies into Long Covid & ME): Visible - Activity tracking for Long Covid and ME/CFS

[nvraln]

art tip: take a deep breath and clear your mind. with a pen or pencil draw random lines or shapes. with you paintbrush continuously outline the lines with different colors until you run out of room. do this in an abundance to find the right grip, you may discover just the right amount of paint to glob onto the tip, and so much more. with practice we gain confidence and we learn to trust the process over the product. time, abundance, and space all allow us to find our personality and feed it into our art

[shabnamcurtis]

What Does a Life Coach offer?

For thousands of years, philosophies and religions have come and gone to help people become their best selves. In recent decades, advanced psychological studies have shown that humans do not stop growing psychologically after reaching adulthood. Some call it gaining life experience, and others call it maturing. What does that mean? As humans, we are inherently designed to create meaning. We…

[familythings]

Experience Vitality in Just 15 Minutes with the Five Tibetans

The Five Tibetans, often called the Five Rites of Renewal, are a series of simple exercises that anyone can do. Originating from the Himalayas, these movements have gained popularity worldwide for their ability to boost energy and improve overall well-being. Best of all, they require no special equipment or preparation, making them accessible to everyone. Push up Leggings for self-confident…

[ruporas]

dragon meat, you, and me

[chloesimaginationthings]

The ending of FNAF Help wanted..