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Making the most of it with chronic illness.

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Kelsey Harris, MA, RCC
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From babyhood to adulthood I’ve always played music. And throughout my life I’ve noticed that it can calm anxieties in addition to being enjoyable. Did you know that even just listening to music let alone playing it can make you more resilient to chronic pain? Since I’ve had my piano back in my possession (it lived with my parents for a long time) I’ve been playing more and more often, fully engaging. And while it by no means takes my pain away, I do feel resilient. Now we can totally argue how much music is influencing that but how I see it is if the research seems to say it’s helpful, why not try it?!

I’m not at all anti-medications. I take hydroxychloroquine for my UCTD. I take Celebrex as needed for pain. I have a prescription for CBD for pain. I did manage to reduce my need for Celebrex and stopped taking lyrica because I started to see a lot of benefit from my lifestyle changes. However this approach is not possible for everyone. I think there perhaps some truth to what Jon Kabat-Zinn says in this quote - we got for the pills first - and then only look at lifestyle when the medication is perhaps not as effective as we’d hoped. Both meds and lifestyle factors are important for health and mental health when we observe from a biopsychosocial approach. What do you all think?

I read a one page ad/article on foods for the brain in a magazine for clinical counsellors and was very interested if (a) I was/can eat these things and (b) what overlap there was with recommended foods for AI disease. That being said we all follow our own ways of eating that work best for us, which I’m all about, but still it’s literally food for thought. How does this list compare to how you eat?

Pain refers to a group of sensations. Often doctors will ask us to describe it. Burning? Stabbing? Throbbing? Sharp? Dull? Achy? Etc. I think this can go beyond medical practice

I was in Kelowna last week (for my brother’s wedding) when my blog post came out so I have 2 to share this week.

We have emotions for a reason. And we do need to express them. Usually we want to repress our emotions because they feel uncomfortable and if you already have chronic pain or chronic illness than you probably don’t want any more uncomfortable feelings in your body. Repressing emotions is like putting on a bandaid. It might help in the moment but it is rarely a long-term solution and can do more harm than good. When we do express emotions we also want to be able to do so in a healthy way. Rather than yell at someone we can feel anger and learn to effectively communicate that we are angry. Rather than burst into tears at the drop of a hat, we can learn to feel sadness and go through our day (not that I think there is anything wrong with crying when it’s safe to do so!)

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Posted on December 26, 2020December 26, 2020Author truetalesoflifeandlupusTags church, cleansing, connectedness, deep dive, essential oils, exercise, forgiveness, hiking, life meaning, meaning, meditation, mindfulness, nature, peace, premium blog, premium content, self-care, selfcare, selfcompassion, selflove, spiritual, spiritual self-care, spiritual selfcare, spirituality, video, yoga

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