You don’t have to believe in ‘mind over matter’.  But it’s probably obvious that your outlook and state of mind have a huge impact on so many levels of your functioning.  Every person with chronic pain has the capacity to feel better and function on a higher level. Much of it depends on your willingness to choose and use what helps you.

The big question is whether your reality is going to be led by your body, or by your capacity to choose with your intellect?  Are you going make choices that support your healing, or choices that feed into the problem? Are you going to be able to see the opportunities that are in front of you, or will you be stuck in unproductive thinking?

Key# 1. Forget About A Cure And Start Healing

Many people with fibro are caught between two false premises.  

One false premise is that fibromyalgia is incurable.  

The other false premise is that someone has a miracle cure.  

Both premises are ridiculous.  Let’s talk about why, and how you can start healing.

The Miracle Cure nonsense is easiest to explain.  Many people think they’ve got the miracle cure. Maybe it’s because they found what worked for them.   Maybe it’s because they’re selling something. But the facts point toward the reality that fibro is a complex syndrome with multiple related triggers and perpetuating factors.  And that it is different in different people. No research has ever shown a treatment that helps everyone. And the accumulated clinical experience tells us that different folks respond to different treatments.

Why do people sometimes believe that fibro has no cure?

I see two reasons.  One reason is that some people have struggled for years or decades and they’re still stuck.  It’s unfortunate and I have compassion on that situation. But just because some people don’t find an answer, doesn’t mean that nobody can.  

The second reason why people think there is no cure, is that mainstream medicine doesn’t understand fibromyalgia.  The diagnostic criteria for fibro don’t take into account the underlying cause. So what are they trying to treat? The symptoms! 

There is a middle ground.  People with fibro who are successful in healing think out of the box and look for solutions.  Typically the solution is multifactorial, and individualized. I’ll speak more about that in this and future documents.

So the first part of your mission is to find the middle ground.  To find your individual path to healing fibro.

Key #2.  Open Your Mind, But Don’t Let Your Brain Fall Out

The people who get better from a fibromyalgia diagnosis are people who go beyond what their doctors tell them.  I’m not telling you to stop going to your doctor or stop thinking about medical research. Quite the opposite. I study all the research that comes out about fibro.  

But you need to accept that current research methods aren’t adequate to study all the variables that appear to be involved in fibromyalgia.  I’ll talk more about that in another email or piece of content. There IS a rational picture of how the different pieces fit together to cause your symptoms.   And there are relatively safe ways to address those underlying causes. There are various lines of research that support the principles. But it is going to be decades before we have randomized controlled trials that sort out the different parts of the multi-disciplinary treatment that helps people with fibromyalgia.  Until then, we have to rely on common sense, pre-clinical science, and careful trial and error.

Key #3. There’s No Failure, Just Success In Finding What Doesn’t Work.

There’s a famous quote heard by someone who was trying console Thomas Edison when he was struggling to invent a lightbulb.  There are various versions, but Mr Edison reported replied with something like, “I have not failed 700 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work“

I doubt you’ll have to try 700 things to start seeing some improvement in your fibro symptoms.  But you may go through some trial and error. That’s totally normal.

As you might have guessed it’s not an exact science.  

But there are sensible choices about how to address the physiology that underlies fibromyalgia.  So you need to be open to trying and learning what works and doesn’t work.

The most important thing is that you are finding your own individual path to healing.

Key# 4. Childlike wonder and Curiosity

I’ve been at this integrative healing thing for over 20 years.  It has become clear that healing isn’t only about the technical things we do to ‘fix’ ourselves.  Healing is a process that comes from within. Your bodymind is a highly organized and self-correcting system.  And there is a currently unquantifiable transcendent quality of your being that has intelligence and wisdom. 

You can insist that it’s generated by your brain.  Or you can acknowledge that you have a higher soul.

Regardless of your worldview, your ability to access knowledge that is beyond you comes when you stop trying so hard.  When you get curious. When you’re playful.

Curious playfulness unlocks creativity and joy.  And those qualities are part of what opens us to healing.

Those are qualities that you can cultivate and develop.  And they can help you.

Thanks for reading.  Please comment below, and share this post with others.

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