Breathe Deep

Once again, Yenta, you've come in and written something you've been inspired to write which was EXACTLY what has been going on in my life latey. 

I've been seeing a new provider related to what I do for my health and well being (I've found a key to my restored relative wellness has to do with supplements of nutritional things as well as hormones, but via biologically identical means and those providers are not on every street corner.  But I found a really GRATE one last year which I hope to share more with y'all about soon.)

Anyway, I learned in the fifteen years my hormones went 'awry' and thus I was in the fibromyalgia spectrum in terms of symptoms (as that's part of FMS is the hormones from thyroid to testosterone being off in most people in one way or another) that if I get tearful when frustrated it's not because I'm any more frustrated than usual, it's because my hormones are also off.  And I HATE THAT. 

I've had to find new medical providers in the last year and it's been my experience that it takes a year to get the 'new way' finessed to where things are really good again.  And to me, to have worked as hard as I have for my health improvement and have it go 'off road' as it has because of things outside of my control generally, has really frustrated me.  The 20 years of having my health be precarious or bad or better or worse and all the time, energy, and money that I have put into it and not into other things, frustrates me.  I haven't had a vacation in 15 years where I had a week off and went somewhere.  The only times I've been on airplanes is to go to family things that were due to obligations such as funerals, or professional conferences.  One year I spent 10% of my income on things insurance didn't pay for related to my health care.  Insurance is another several hundred dollars a month.  Supplements alone are as much as some people spend on fast food a month!  

You know how Oprah talks about 'doing the ugly cry' and not letting herself do that on camera?  Well, my M.O. as a child, teen, young adult by my friends, family, coworkers, supervisors, etc was I was stable as a rock.  I wasn't moody even as a teenager! I was the student in junior high they would ask to watch the school office if the secretaries all had to be in meetings at the same time.  I was commended at age 19 by my supervisor in the Statistics Department at Colorado State University because I was more trustworthy and competent with how to handle the office that she finally could take time off, even though there was a secretary in the office who was in her 20s and worked there for years. 

I went through all I did with my husband's health (MRSA in his cerebrospinal fluid from a brain surgery about the time we met), his daughter's troubled teens, my mother's sudden and dramatic death, and kept a huge research program running like a top.  My boss there made a man cry in a meeting once -- he never got to me!  (We had a disagreement once when I'd taken my first medication for migraines -- for some reason it brough my ability to censor my stubbornness down.  We're still close friends and he still remembers it too!  

So Friday when I got tearful when talking with one of my close friends I saw that familiar look that people get when they've known me through 'thick' and I don't cry and fuss, as they are surprised.  And what it essentially comes down to is I don't have the emotional stamina to hide my emotions about my frustration.  At that point in time my neck had just done it's big SLAM thing it does when the nerve gets pinched when I am laughing (or shaking me head).  Every other second for a year it won't do that as I keep myself 'right' enough body-wise, but I'd sat on a hard bench in the sun the day before by the river and talked with with a friend and didn't want to disrupt the dynamic and switch sides. And I did walk afterward, but then I sat at a meeting that evening and then 24 hours later I was sitting on a hard seat in a restaurant, which we chose because we like the owners so much and have a loyalty to the place. 

But it's funny you mention becoming a Yenta to others, Yenta, because I saw someone there that evening who I know and who I'd seen wearing a cervical collar lately.  She described what had been going on and what she has been doing for her health, which includes biologically identical supplementation.  However, this isn't my first rodeo with bioidenticals and you've inspired me to put her on my 'follow up with ASAP' list. 

And I'll also seek out someone to contribute something about the effects of BREATHING on the brain. 

I don't know if you saw my post about the Ideal Daily Game Plan, but it's a way to help people with cognitive issues track what they're doing so they get everything in that they want to each day.  I'll write on mine "Breathe and think of Yenta" (and then you copy the master and use the copy every day).  It's in the OT Forum that I'm putting more and more things in so that people can become their own health coach if they don't want or cannot afford to have one of the ones we have on Lumigrate or elsewhere.  I work with some people individually but wanted to create Lumigrate so that people could get the next best thing and have it be within their means.  Because there's nothing more frustrating than wanting to get better and not being able to afford to.  Here's the link to my piece about the Game Plan which also includes Gwen Petit (Life Coach and PT) and her goals/resolutions for 2011 piece which dovetailed nicely.  www.lumigrate.com/forum/ideal-daily-game-plan-tool-compensate-cognitive-and-memory-dysfunction

~~ Mardy

I did a "search" in Lumigrate on 'breathing' and came up with something from Dr Dee, Lumigrate's nutrition and fibromyalgia expert provider titled "Seven Easy Steps to Increase Your Energy and Reduce Fibromyalgia Symptoms" which is really a good 'complement' to this; in the component about water she says 'next to breathing clean air'....   So I hope people will follow this link if they're inclined and check back as I hope to have something really good added soon related to breathing and the brain/body/spirit.  Live and Learn.  Learn and Live Better! ~~ Mardy

www.lumigrate.com/forum/seven-easy-steps-increase-your-energy-and-reduce-fibromyalgia-symptoms

One of newest registered users at Lumigrate.com is the amazing woman behind Family Guidance System. 

I'd been fortunate to recently become networked with her via social networking and have gotten a little of her very scarce time to talk about what Lumigrate and Family Guidance System are.  She incorporates HeartMath® and PsycheK® into her health education and coaching, both of which are of particular interest to me because local providers in Grand Junction that are working with Lumigrate's Grate Groove in 2011 utilize those tools.  Lumigrate features and supports local providers as well as those who have a national or international presence and therefore I seek out providers who are valid and progressive and who have things set up to work remotely with people and providing information on websites Lumigrate can reality link out to if someone's wanting to focus in that direction. 

Gerrianne Clare, MN and her website have been very impressive to me, so I hope you take a moment to go look if you're so inclined to learn about BREATHING... She has a very nice breathing exercise which for your ease I'll put under this link so you can have an example (and then I'll let her know I've done this to be sure it's good with her).  Thank Yenta for bringing up breathing and helping us get Gerrianne's nice work included here on Lumigrate as part of the Grate Group of providers at Lumigrate.com!  ~~ Mardy

I have identified 5 key steps for being successful in 2011.  

Each of these steps has an exercise for you to do. Give it a try and see if you can get closer to achieving your goals for 2011

1.  Stop and Breathe –

When I get into a hyper reactive state about all of the things I want to change in my life I tend to identify numerous things I “need to change”. This frenetic activity gets me planning and resolving around everything in my life. When I STOP and BREATHE I calm my body down and I develop a little perspective and compassion for my foibles. The whole New Year’s Resolution thing becomes less intense and more centered in what I want. 

2.  Compassion for myself ........

(Follow the link below to go on to her website and continue reading this VERY nice piece if you're interested, I really LOVE it!)  www.familyguidancesystem.com/blog/5-steps-to-success-in-2011

The results of a study were published in a big professional journal within a very short time of Yenta's writing this and I've reported on it in the Forum in the Integrative Medicine (Parts that Make the Whole) section showing mindfulness meditation (which is the form I've practiced for years, it's focused on breathing and focusing your mind on the breath essentially) was shown on MRI scans to increase some of the areas in the brain that shrink with dementia.  With the growing numbers of people concerned with that important topic, and the brain and cognitive component which goes with fibromyalgia and related syndromes such as chronic fatigue, I encourage you to read if seeing science cheers you on related to breathing.  Here's the link. 

www.lumigrate.com/forum/mindfulness-practice-leads-increases-regional-brain-gray-matter-density-article-psychiatry-res