Grounded

Its our natural state to go to ground at this time of year; a bit like the glorious red maple leaves which, in my garden, are being mulched by rain and heavy dew to become next year's earthy sustenance wherever they fall. We go to ground not to vacate ourselves or deplete but to go into our most authentic selves more deeply, refinding the soulful aspect that brighter days tend to chase away with their spotlight and busy-ness. No wonder this time of the year is known as All Souls; for its not just the souls of the dead but all of our spirits that shake off flesh and bone and take off to fly free in all the hours of dreaming and slowing down as days become dark and cold. This hibernation is more akin to the seed that is fuelling itself with new imaginings of what it wants to be next year; the metamorphosis that looks like dying but which is really all about creativity and aspiration.

The electrolyte connection

I thought I knew about electrolytes but this feels like a whole new breakthrough in my understanding of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue...and it was right under my nose all along. Get to know your electrolytes (and how to replenish them) to deeply energise your life.

Super-sensitive abroad

Travelling away from home can be an extra-challenge for those of us with health challenges and sensitivities of any kind because it takes us out of our routine. It's not so much the distance but the upheaval that can be difficult to cope with (on top of the extra tiredness that comes with travel) when you probably have well-established survival tactics in place at home that enable you to cope pretty well with your health most of the time. Booking a holiday can feel a bit like planning to blow all that carefully created homeostasis to pieces in the name of having fun and there have been times when I wonder why I do it; is it even worth it (the answer, by the way, is yes). Changes in sleep arrangements and diet can throw health into disarray when maintaining that balance has become a finely tuned thing.

More energy…not less

It's a truth I've come to own over years of learning to hold the equilibrium of my physical body that allows me to lead a normalish life - akin to countless others who think they have a shortfall of energy, I possess almost too much energy inside my cells rather than too little. Those waves of crashing exhaustion that periodically seem to want to floor me are because my tank is overspilling with energy, not running dry. And its a trait I notice about a lot of so-called energy-depleted people, especially women....

Out of this world

Fibromyalgia is a shorthand code for “not designed for this world”, a label for being a misfit at a very deep biological level; but not because we are faulty but because the world isn’t ready for us yet or, you could say, we arrived early. It's a bucket title for those who are way too … Continue reading Out of this world

The joy of feeling everything

to fully claim my physicality....to not want to escape it, shrugging it off like an outfit I didn't choose but, rather, to feel the delight and exhilaration of it, daily, like a child that notices everything and never fails to marvel at how beautifully it all works...there are no adequate words. I would go through the whole of the journey again to have reached this point and know what I do about every square inch of this beautiful organic playground of me and how to operate it like never before, relishing its symphony of experiences and the delight of knowing how I chose to have them. It is in this overspilling love for the human bodily experience that the healing of just so many people (certainly mine) can be found and if, in any way, my experiences help to end the stalemate that has been perpetuated for just so long, between those who feel they have struggled with their own body and that they are at logger heads with it, then these words will have been worthwhile.

Hand-picking your support team

When you scan and tune into how all the various people in your life "see" you, what do you get and how does it mirror your own highest sense of self? Do they closely match or not even get close? Do those people really know that most extraordinary "you" that is online with some serious aspirations … Continue reading Hand-picking your support team

Putting your finger on the trigger point

So, if you have mystery, unshiftable, constantly morphing and moving pain affecting anything from your back to the toes and soles of your feet, to your teeth or your ears, the nerves or circulation in arms, legs or hands or those weird toxic headaches that are almost (but not quite) like a migraine and that come and go for no apparent reason, in fact anything that might seem like nerve pain, this topic might be relevant to you and the following article is the most plain-speaking introduction to the it that I've come across. If its not a recovery appoach that you've considered then, you never know, opening this door might be just what you need to get the new year off to a far brighter start.

Off kilter

I see in my dog a parody of same comic behaviour that plays out in me and mine at this time of the year, which he also finds something of a struggle being a sun-worshipper of the nth degree. He sleeps a hung-over type of sleep most of the day, his nose pushed deep into the pile of blankets that he insists upon, then he gets up for his walk (the one lively time of his day) and, once the sun goes down, obsesses about food and snacks like his life depends on getting another treat out of the cupboard, before falling back into a deep slumber in his bed. So what does this tell me..?

Living your life whole

Experiencing ever-increasing wholeness can throw us off our footing to start with, for all it is such an upgrade to our experience. For starters, wholeness is a very different thing to what we are used to experiencing or talking about over the dinner table with others; it includes aspects of everything, even those things that others might label wrong or broken or bad….yet in balance with the extremely high points and the most incredible feelings of synergy, balance and inclusiveness that it delivers, it is in a whole different ballpark to what we have come to regard as ordinary human experience. This is a new version of ordinary, with all the dials turned up, and it is coming everyone's way...if they want it. Allow that it is probably already happening to you (here's some clues) and prepare to be amazed at how far you have already come (Read more...)