Such a benefit

When it comes to wellness, keeping moving, and how you balance that, is very imporant.

I grew up in the mountains of Colorado and we had dogs, and a mountain with a path / trail on it by the time I came along. In the winter the hike was with snowshoes over my boots sometimes. And we had a lot of snow to shovel, wood to cut for the fireplace, dogs and horses to feed, and I wanted to garden as a child so that grew into something that my mother and I did for about four months out of the year as well. I was thought to be 'in good health' but in reality, once you learn what causes a person to have a health collapse that would be called 'chronic fatigue syndrome', symptoms track back maybe to birth (and before when you study genetics and epigenetics). 

I went to college at 18 and by that point, if it were today, I would know I was in a slippery slope. It was a progression. In junior high I didn't miss a day of school because I went to school when I was sick, and I remember having terrible colds. I'd have coughing attacks in classes if I wasn't able to talk and things could be draining in some different way than when you're 'shut up'. I recall realizing in choir that I was not being disruptive with my coughing. By high school I was getting rounds of what sometimes was strep and other times looked like it but didn't show that when cultured.

And I had my first UTI which was a 'bladder infection' (not kidney, which came in my 40s and went on for years due to medical mismanagement which included my not being proactive enough, which was a contributing factor to my enthusiasm for the Lumigrate YOU! Model when I created that in a brainstorming session in 2007 with my collaborator in allopathic practice as an OT, Dr Chris Young (a psychologist / pain management specialist).

Looking back, my diet changed a lot when I lived in the dorms, which thankfully was only the first year and I figured out a way to economically live off campus. Beer was widely available, Colorado was a 3.2 state at the time and it was even purchased for us on Fridays in the dorms for our 'mixers' on the floors. Most evenings we'd take a study break about 9 and walk over to the "Towers Tap" which had all kinds of snacks and drinks, including beer. My family hadn't been very restrictive about alcohol, it was available if I wanted it at home, but it had not been 'my thing'. And we didn't have soda pop, and at the dorms you could have all you wanted, as well as anything else. I'd been diagnosed with blood sugar issues in my teens and had been very compliant. And I was still aware and being cautious, but I realize that could be why my health shifted.

I was MOVING a LOT, though, because it was a large campus and the dorm were far from where classes were, and you had to go back to the dorm for lunch, then back for more classes (unless your classes had to do with athletics, and I'd not thought about the layout of the campus and it was really impossible to get between classes in 10 minutes, so on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I'd get up and shower and go to breakfast, back up four flights of stairs to my room, brush my teeth and get my backpack and go to the main campus at 8 am, back to swimming at 9 am, then I'd be expected to be dressed and looking presentable in a shorthand class at 10 am and then I'd go back to the dorm and be very ready for lunch at noon). 

Ten years later, my health would fall apart, while I was working for the University, through funding from the National Park Service. One day I woke up with the alarm to go to work and --- I just couldn't wake up and get up. My eyes wouldn't stay open and look where I wanted them to look, until mid morning. I showered and drove to work (which was at a remote research campus) and walked up the slight incline from the parking lot into the building and started up the stairs to my office and had to stop on the landing halfway up and rest. I sought the advise of my general practice MD, PCP they were called then, and fortunately he knew generally what it was and that there was one group of doctors (ENTs) who had gotten information / training from National Jewish Hospital in Denver. And after the first doctor there misdiagnosed and provided a medication that actually made me almost pass out in the shower the first morning after I'd taken it, I went back to the one that my doctor had recommended in the first place (stating he was easier to understand, they were all from India and I'd worked with Indians and had no problem understanding them after time). 

I was fortunate that he said to me "I know you're not going to feel like exercising, but if you can just go out and walk and don't go past when you are tired, and keep doing that as much as you can, it will help".  And I did, and it did!  

That fall I joined the health club near my house, and when they started a yoga class (imagine that, it was NEW at some point, and that was 1990ish, so funny when you see how common it is today). To this day I use what I learned from that instructor, in that class, every day.  The practice I'd had for years of meditation and yoga with a focus on the breath was in my internal 'toolbox' when I had surgery in 2006 and there was mismanagement within the nursing and doctoring (he wasn't supervising them close enough because in the past he'd never had to, but it was the timeframe that the nursing program graduated a new batch of RNs and they'd gotten a lot of them and the more experienced staff had been ousted somehow, voluntarily and not I ended up hearing a lot of stories). 

Then for my 31st birthday, my husband bought us Rollerblades, it was something he wanted to get into. So I did and we did! And I enjoyed that through most of my 30s and sustained very few injuries, but they were rather significant. And with what overall went on within my body and what I was learning about things that were extenuating circumstances, I guess you'd say, I've gotten away from that. And somewhere in there I got out of the 'habit' of 'doing yoga', but I realize that I had figured out how to incorporate a lot of the movements into my daily routine (putting on lotion, for one example). And walking has been my 'staple' throughout. When I badly sprained an ankle in 2001, in the fall and it was a year for rehabilitating it to where I could safely walk beyond paved surfaces, I had a relapse of symptoms (that were identified as 'fibromyalgia' in those days). 

BUT at that time I was listening to a lot of live blues music, as my beau and I had gotten into that. So I was getting out at least once a week to wiggle around. Many things that others enjoy frustrate me because of incoordination. I really didn't realize how uncoordinated I was until I was in college and my future husband and I took a country western 'swing' dance class. I thought he was this science brain, jock (football) who had done martial arts and had a similar upbringing to me as we grew up together. I thought he'd struggle with learning it and I'd just sail through. It did not work that way, I was needing things broken down for me. And we'd practice and then go out dancing and then you'd not have known anything 'was wrong' with me.

But as I continued to learn about what I have going on inside that's causing a variety of symptoms, I now recognize that it's interrelated with what has been considered 'fibromyalgia'. (I was diagnosed in 1998/9 but had symptoms kick up in 1994, after regaining a higher level of wellness by age 31 when I got the in-line skates I referred to, above, than I had EVER had.

This is why I'm encouraging people if they've lost their wellness, recently or long ago, to find ways to get movement into your daily routine. And if you think of yourself as 'well' and are wanting to stay that way, to look into new ways to keep growing and moving as well. Please look at what's in this forum, and it will be a 'grate' start.  

Sometimes people are 'bound' to their chairs, couches, beds because they've been so taken down by chronic illness. Some sort of movement is needed; as an occupational therapist, I learned that if someone is unable to move, they will be moved 'passively' with the trained professional or whomever cares for the individual being the active one. Find something you ENJOY, that brings those 'happy chemicals' to you beyond what happens simply from the circulation and inspiration that goes on with 'movement'. Remember to seek out the professionals who can help you, sometimes insurances will pay for things that are really helpful to people, and sometimes there are providers who aren't recognized by organized medicine, but they're VERY helpful (such as Analli and Kohava in this forum who so kindly provided information at Lumigrate to help others learn about what they do and find helps people.  

Live and Learn. Learn and Live Better! ~ Mardy

NOTE from Mardy, September 13, 2014 - I modified this topic to make it current and reflective of what Lumigrate YOUsers are looking for in today, which was very different than our audience in 2009. (It had 388 reads in all that time).