Coping with Fibromyalgia: 12 Steps You can Do to Help!

Coping with Fibromyalgia: 12 Steps You can Do to Help!

Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain accompanied by fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues. Researchers believe that fibromyalgia amplifies painful sensations by affecting the way your brain processes pain signals. The good news is that by following the 12 Steps in this article will help relieve your pain significantly, if not eliminate it altogether.

The word fibromyalgia comes from the Greek myos meaning “muscle”, Greek algos meaning “pain”, and New Latin fibro meaning “fibrous tissue”. Therefore fibromyalgia is pain that occurs in the fibrous tissue of the muscle. You may see fibromyalgia referred to as a rheumatic condition that causes joint and soft tissue pain.

If you a person suffering from fibromyalgia you will find there will be a level of tiredness and lethargy. Other symptoms will include:

• Chronic Muscle Pain
• Anxiety
• Concentration and memory problems — known as “fibro fog”
• Depression
• Fatigue
• Headaches
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Morning stiffness
• Painful menstrual cramps
• Sleep problems
• Numbness, and tingling in hands, arms, feet, and legs
• Painful, Tender points
• Urinary symptoms, such as pain or frequency
• Can lead to breathing problems and difficulty

What Causes Fibromyalgia?

As with most conditions there can be a  myriad of factors, such as –

• Trauma, stressful circumstances, emotional upsets
• Repetitive injuries
•  Hormone changes
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Lupus
• Disturbances to the Central Nervous System
• Toxic lifestyle habits such as smoking, excessive drinking and taking of drugs. Build up of toxins within your system, becomes stored in your muscles causing damage and fibrous content.
• Inadequate nutrition and malabsorption of nutrition with a damaged digestive system
• Some medications may exacerbate the problem.
• Inactive lifestyle

Your body’s attempt to balance and heal the problem is to cause pain, this is why you will often find that over time not only will pain killers not be effective, because of blocking the pain. The body will increase the level of pain in the hope of balancing the problem.

Fibromyalgia will affect you by making everyday activities quite difficult and tiresome. Short term relief may be found with medication.

However long term relief can only be found by lifestyle changes: such as becoming more active, learning positive ways of dealing with stress, eliminating harmful habits such as excessive alcohol, cigarettes or other forms of drugs that will build up toxicity within your muscles, dietary changes eliminating certain foods such as soft drinks, processed foods, including high sugar foods such as lollies, cakes and biscuits.

Long Term Relief and Management of Fibromyalgia

To keep your body functioning and working effectively it is always important to take any symptoms that it presents to you of being out of balance seriously and taking the necessary steps to support it to be able to function optimally for you.

Follow these 12 Steps to Help your Fibromyalgia Symptoms

1.  Diet: This is the first stepping stone in helping your body to receive adequate nutrients to perform at its peak, help to detox any unwanted chemicals or harmful substances. Following a daily diet with alkalizing forming foods will help you body to recover. Supplements that have been found to provide relief are Krill oil capsules, Magnesium powder especially when incorporating Vitamin C and B Vitamins and not exactly a supplement but 1 tablespoon of Apple cider vinegar add warm water, drink twice a day morning and night.

2. Exercise: Yoga, walking, swimming, Thai Chi and stretching your limbs. 30 minutes everyday.

3. Bathing: Two to three times per week indulge in a bath using a half a cup of Epsom salts, an organic bubble bath and a few drops of lavender, eucalyptus and rosemary oil.

4. Recognize and Deal Positively with Stressful times: Disturbing times, people, events and circumstances are all part of life. However there are many that you can avoid and some that you need to go with the flow. It is a definite skill to live a happy and healthy life. Learning to live in the moment, allowing your feelings to follow through without judgement or critism.

5. Continue to work at your chosen line of work or career. Monitoring your time for regular breaks, stretching and drinking of filtered water throughout the day. Work with your supervisor at a manageable “To do List for the day”. By continuing to work this is important to give you the motivation and determination to rise above this condition.

6. Time Out: Allowing time just for you. Have a goal of something each day that you want to do that allows you to feel happy. Listening to your favourite music, motivational CD or reading a few passages from your favourite book.

7. Understanding your Limits: Learning to say “No”. If it is something that you don’t feel right about or it is going to cause you distress or inconvenience. Maybe you just don’t have the time at the moment or the timing isn’t right. It is OK to say “NO”.

8. Make Plans: To achieve anything it is important to firstly know what you want, have a vision of what you want. Then you can plan and put the activities, actions into place to achieve your goals and dreams.

9. Sleep: As fibromyalgia can have a disturbance on your regular sleep pattern, it is important to still have a regular sleep pattern. Preparing yourself for bed with a nice warm bath or shower. Cup of chamomile tea. Allowing thoughts to just flow, just acknowledging that it will all be OK tomorrow. If not you will certainly be able to deal with life better because you have had a good night’s sleep.

10. Body Mind Relaxation: Incorporate relaxation techniques such as meditation or prayer each day. This is important throughout the day, just engaging these for 10 minutes or so every 3 hours for example.

11. Change your Thought Patterns: It is a normal process for your brain to take you through all the negative processes that may occur or be throughout the course of a day. It is important to real in positive thoughts to change these negative ones. Whether this be a negative thought toward something you are doing, a friend, a work colleague, past events that may have created pain for you. So thank you but no thank you. I choose to see this situation in a positive light or to let go of the painful experience because I am feeling good today.

12. Gratitude: When you focus on the things that you are grateful for, no matter how small or insignificant they may seem. This brings about a whole different perception of the world and what you can achieve.

Read Next: Getting to the Root of Pain with this Simple Drink

The Food you eat will always be your first line of defense and support in healing, providing your body with the nourishment it needs to function optimally.

Learn about the foods to eat and why to support optimal health and vitality. Enjoy the easy to follow recipes in – Julie’s eBook: Eating to Live 

Quit the Habit

As you are probably more than aware “Smoking” is one of the most destructive habits on the planet and a major contributor to Fibromyalgia. In my eBook – “Why Can’t I give up Smoking” the underlying elements that make this habit appear so difficult to break with the help and support for you to become a “Non-Smoker” for Life.