road blocks in healing and polarity therapy: what is it and can it help with….
April 29, 2008 by missisyphus
my counselor and i began discussing polarity therapy…energy work. i wanted to read more about what exactly it was. i’m very familiar with a variety of yoga, meditation and have had reiki, massage and acupuncture work done…but i wanted to know more about polarity therapy because this is just another area that can use improvement when one is trying to work towards a healthy lifestyle. so here’s a good, straight forward article, from the american polarity therapy association, on what polarity work is: http://www.polaritytherapy.org/page.asp?PageID=24
an interesting book that my counselor gave me by caroline myss, phd, called “why people don’t heal and how they can” (also wrote “anatomy of the spirit”) deals with incorporating energy work into a holistic mind, body, spirit approach to healing. now i know the title might put you off, but i’ve been following other works that deal with “road blocks” in healing and this is a positive and good read if you’re experiencing “being stuck”.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0609802240/interactiveda936-20
i’ve been at this “wellness” gig for over 20 years. i began searching out many spiritual and nutrition based approaches as a teenager. initially i was concerned with the usual teenage issues like acne and weight but what i discovered, worked, so i stuck with it. as i was digging around that community, which was very small back then, i met a lot of people and was turned on to a variety of readings and experiences. i was learning about ways to heal some deep inner pains that i was already wrestling with, and having some horrible consequences from very bad, maladaptive behaviour and personality issues. i became a devout buddhhist in my early twenties and the search continued. but i am convinced from the many positive experiences that i’ve had, that this whole arena of mind, body, spirit healing is key for living well.
i still struggle with a lot. i’m not whining, but life just can never be normal for me. i keep stumbling across huge hurdles and crashing into brick walls. by now my problems must largely be due to brain damage from all of my collisions with life! but MRIs and other say that, anatomically, i seem “normal”. my gastro. dr came into the room a few days back, sat down and looked at me squarely and said “your tests are normal but…you are not!” and we laughed.
so, after over 11 years on a battery of psych meds for bipolar and spotty treatments for fibromyalgia, i felt i was not longer benefiting from the pharmaceuticals and was going broke in the pursuit of maintaining that. i guess i’m finding out that no matter which direction you go in…if you live out here…it’s not going to cheap and access to help is going to be limited. moving is not an option for me. so i have to work with what i can learn to do.
just what can i do from learning? i can maintain a healthy diet and exercise (walking, yoga, physical therapy). i can work on my spirituality (reading, AA, community). i have limited access to a counselor but she’s great and that’s what counts. books and videos are helpful. i have a good thing with my AA community and they do what they can (moral support and other help). there’s the phone, which can be my lifeline on days that i’m not doing well. the internet provides many opportunities to learn of up to date information on nutrition, techniques and therapies. while attending classes and having practitioners would be optimal…you do what you can. at best, things can get frustrating…very. but when the rewards appear and even if they’re small, it’s great. you learn to appreciate the small things because healing from life long spiritual wounds and chronic issues is a slow process. i may rush with some things but i can’t afford to be down for long or maintain costly therapies that i have no funds for. but much of my process is about patience…the patient practices can be a long and lonely journeys some days and it’s easy to get despondent when you are just plain hurting and down. i’m not a monk…i’m just human…a sick human trying to heal.
while i’m off all of my “psych” meds i am still taking lyrica. i don’t think i’m fond of the lyrica? i take melatonin and it does help me sleep very well and i wake up feeling good. i ran out of guaifenesin a couple days ago and found out just how much that was helping my fibromyalgia. i ran into the 4 corner town a few miles down the road to see if they just had something containing guaifenesin…i didn’t think they’d have what i take, but i found it…after half an hour i was feeling much more on track. gaufinesen an oddball therapy for fibro but it was in the book my dr. gave me and i thought i could try it…it seems to really help. (Fibromyalgia and Chronic Myofascial Pain: A Survival Manual (2nd Edition) by Devin J. Starlanyl and Mary Ellen Copeland) also a good article on guaifenesin therapy: http://www.fibromyalgiatreatment.com/Articles_HYSTERIA.htm for now, i’ll take any help, because simply being able to do anything but lay on the sofa is an improvement and i need to be able to be up, moving around and communicating. i’ve got a lot of writing to do and i’m just trying to avoid it right now!
I came to know that polarity therapy is based on universal principles of energy–attraction, repulsion, and neutrality. The interrelation of these principles forms the basis for every aspect of life, including our experience of health, wellness, and disease.
I stumbled across your blog when searching for something else and am so pleased to find a positive blog on fibro/ME/CFS. I was an active cyclist, sailor, writer and was working when hit hard in the course of one day (Sept 23, 1990) with what was later diagnosed as CFS. The world was blurred. I shook inside, couldn’t keep my balance, threw up daily, couldn’t remember the names of things or even how to make a sandwich. After I lost ten pounds, my mother moved in for two months, cooking until we discovered I could eat spaghetti, of all things. So, spaghetti it was for several weeks until I could begin to stomach other things. For nine years I had no life outside of the house, mostly my room. I couldn’t read, watch tv, look at a computer screen…I even lost my voice for three years and, after that, had only limited periods of talking before pain or larygitis shut me up again.
I survived by telling myself that all I had to do was make it though the next 15 minutes, then the next, and so on.
In the late ninties a craniosacral therapist began working with me. She was skilled, knew energy work well, and since we also became friends, treated me multiple times for the price of one session. That was the beginning to my road back. I then found a good doctor who understood the illness. My friend moved four years ago and I feel her absence intensely. I’ve tried to continue energy work on my own, but found that having help made a huge difference.
At this point I’m a published poet, am writing other things, and have more of a life. Dizziness and disorientation still are big enough problems to keep me mostly homebound and on the days I’m clear enough to drive a short distance I use a GPS since I get confused so easily. In my previous life I was a Ph.D . psychologist, so I’m not a dummy.
Your blog is so positive and hopeful. It helps to read it and see how far you’ve come. I just wanted to say thanks for sharing your life here.
Pris
hi pris,
thank you. it sounds like you’ve had to go a long road with the CFS and fibro. the last decade hasn’t provided much in the way of support and treatment. but, i do believe we’re comming into a new age for fibromyalgia and CFS treatment. with that leading the way there may be a new awareness that will help others with the silent and seemingly invisible chronic conditions people are struggling to live with.
i find solice in knowing just how many of us there are that are simply fighting to be well and learning to live with the unfortunate deck we’ve been dealt. but i believe we can all find our own way of managing and coping through the caring support we have from our peers. the support we need is there, sometimes in unlikely places but a seeker who keeps open will find what they need…may not be what you wanted or how you wanted…but an open mind and heart often finds more than expected.
it seems that with your background you been given a greater challenge to learn and help others in ways you may have never realized before encountering the storms of fibro. i’m sure you will embrace this new opportunity for growth and put it to great use for yourself and others! so glad to have you on board. and i hate to say this but, no one ever promised us life was going to be easy, nor did they give a manual to navigate this crazy world…but we are given challlenges and i believe we find the spirit to rise and not only meet them but grow by them. painful at times…yes…but it’s awesome, really.
peace out!
Thanks for your reply. Oddly, I think this illness was meant to lead me to poetry. I don’t write many poems about illness, something the poetry draws me away from, but I write about a lot of women’s issues, life issues, aging issues, love issues and get a lot of feedback from other women that I’m speaking for them. That’s the best kind of feedback to get.
Yes, it’s never easy, is it?