Mindfulness

How very enlightening!!!

I started my session with Michelle by asking if stress triggers brain fog and what is the process within your body after something stressful happens. I asked because id remembered that just before the brain fog struck i was extremely clumsy. So clumsy and so accident prone that i was laughing at myself. It was quite ridiculous – bumping into things, dropping things, knocking things over – the next thing i remember is nothing – literally nothing. The brain fog had struck.

Michelles reply is paraphrased of course (what i mean by that is i don’t always remember correctly but i did make notes so its close). She told me brain fog is part of the ME/CFS process. Stress can be real or perceived to trigger an adrenaline spike. For example a near miss while driving can trigger the adrenaline – its the old fight or flight thing. Your muscles gear up to running to save you or fighting to protect you. Among other things your breathing becomes shallower, digestion shuts down, senses become hypersensitive. Having ME/CFS usually means that adrenaline is spiking in you constantly to keep you going, so…… throughout the day your body is constantly powering up to fight or run way. This causes the exhaustion and the pain in muscles and other symptoms. The clumsiness was because of exhaustion – my brain was exhausted so it wasn’t giving me the proper messages ……… then it shut down hence the brain fog.

So……  the answer is Mindfulness and hey presto the whole thing is solved ha ha.  I absolutely LOVE this next sentence ………… Mindfulness is an antidote to delusion!!

‘Mindfulness’ is the art of being totally aware of your body and what is happening second by second. To be aware of any little changes.  If you can spot when something changes and what caused it i guess you are a step ahead of  ME/CFS? So I’m now obsessed with finding out about Mindfulness in the hope that it will help. I think i am pretty self aware and since i was re diagnosed with ME/CFS  I’ve been specifically trying to register when my mood, well being, heart beat etc change but i often miss the significant trigger. I’m very aware of pain and when that starts/lessens/worsens and heart rate (very rarely normal at the moment) but i often miss that I’m too tired to function properly or even when im starting to get tired and to be totally Mindful i know without a shadow of a doubt will really really help my situation.

If you would like to know some more (i would think it would help anyone in any situation even if they are totally well). Michelle is arranging an appointment for me to see (i think i have the name right) Hazel – who will teach me relaxation and Mindfulness – yay!!

Mindfulness – i like this explanation – the first paragraph was a bit confusing but after that its fascinating.

http://www.bemindful.co.uk/ – a great website which explains the theory and where you can find courses in ‘being mindful’.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness – wikipedias definition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mindfulness_meditation – wikipedias definition for mindfulness meditation

http://www.urbandharma.org/pdf/mindfulness_in_plain_english.pdf – a PDF book called Mindfulness In Plain English. This explains how to meditate to a state of insight or awareness rather than a state of tranquility or concentration which is the most known way to meditate. Its really easy to understand and very interesting!