One way to create distance between us and our thoughts is to help move them along (which in turn changes the way we perceive our thoughts) so that we don’t get hooked by them. This is done through a visualization, imagining you are looking up at the clouds drifting by and you can just place your thoughts onto them.
Keep making the most of it everyone!
This year, let’s focus on living by our values instead of setting goals. Connecting with our values is one way to improve our lives with chronic pain and illness. Check out the video below for more on the difference between values and goals:
I hope this helps us all to make the most of it in the new year!
It’s not a secret that I like natural methods for helping physical and mental health. I’m not against medication – I take it for my AI disease and additional for pain as needed, and I often encourage clients to take it for their mental health issues if needed – I just prefer a combination of Western medicine and natural healing. People see me as a clinical counsellor because they want coping skills for their mental health. Coping skills are a natural way to heal. Sometimes supplements can also be very helpful, especially ones that tend to help both physical and mental health. So this week I thought we could talk about the benefits of magnesium (something I take) for our holistic health. Did you know that approximately 50% of Americans (likely Canadians too) don’t consume enough magnesium (Centre Spring MD). “Enough” magnesium would be between 300-420mg per day and up to 600mg per day.
Mental Health & Magnesium
Magnesium is something I typically take around my period. I tend to get bad cramps and it helps to relieve them (particularly the type of magnesium I take) and I’ve also noticed a lot less PMS-type symptoms since doing this. While the research doesn’t mention PMS, it does talk about depression and anxiety. According to research by Botturi, et al. (2020) magnesium has been shown to reduce depressive symptoms and even reduce the risk of developing a depressive disorder, if taken orally. Low magnesium levels can also be a cause of anxiety (or worsen anxiety) and cause difficulty with sleep (which often overlaps with anxiety and depression) (Ferguson, 2020, Healthline). It seems magnesium plays at least a partial role in the onset and/or maintenance of anxiety and depression (in some people at least).
Physical Health & Magnesium
As I mentioned magnesium has helped me with pain. The type I take (glycinate) is a muscle relaxant. In general people with low magnesium have been shown to have more muscle pain then those with sufficient amounts (Ferguson, 2020). There is also research to support that magnesium plays a role in the “prevention of central sensitization and in the attenuation of established pain hypersensitivity” (Na, Ryu & Do, 2011). Many of us with chronic pain are (or become) hypersensitive to pain. This seems to suggest that increasing our magnesium intake can help with the reduction of pain. These researchers also looked at certain types of pain such as perioperative pain, neuropathic pain, dysmenorrhea, tension headaches, and acute migraines and found that increasing magnesium helped with these.
How Can We Get More Magnesium?
I was listening to a podcast that suggested even using lotions infused with magnesium is helpful. However, most of the research seems to say that we need it orally – either as a supplement or as part of our diet. Some ideas of foods to eat include leafy greens (i.e, spinach and kale), avocado, dark chocolate, legumes, whole grains, nuts and seeds. Personally there are lot of things on that list that I eat regularly and enjoy consuming. If you don’t like those foods (which have a lot of other health benefits that I’ve blogged about before) there is always the supplement route!
Do you take magnesium? Have you noticed a difference with your physical or mental health? I’d love to hear your thoughts. And everyone, keep making the most of it!
Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507245/
https://centrespringmd.com/the-benefits-of-magnesium-for-mood-mental-health/
https://www.healthline.com/health/magnesium-anxiety
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7352515/#:~:text=Some%20epidemiological%20or%20observational%20studies,symptoms%20%5B50%2C51%5D.
Last week I wrote about macro self-care – doing something “big” for yourself as a way to recharge. These things are important, but also a little harder to do, especially for Spoonies/Warriors. The other side of macro self-care is micro self-care. These are little moments you can spread throughout your day in order to get that oh-so-important self-care in. Micro self-care can take as little as a few seconds, up to several minutes. Not only is micro self-care easier (and less expensive) to engage in, it can be done on various energy levels (so important for anyone with chronic pain and illness, as you all know) and it has more benefits than macro because of the frequency of it.
If you Google “micro self-care” you will literally see hundreds of different ideas for what you can do. Here are a few of my favourites:
These are just some ideas to get you started with micro self-care. There are many more that I do. Some of these daily, many of these within a day, and some of these less often. I know that the more I do, the better I feel (mentally and physically). What are your favourite micro self-care practices?
Keep making the most of it everyone!
This practice is particularly good for anyone finding themselves in a caregiving role. This may be as a healthcare practitioner, doctor, nurse, or as someone taking care of an elderly parent, a partner or child who is chronically ill, or really any other caregiving role. Sometimes the best thing we can do is offer compassion to another, while also taking care of ourselves.
Keep making the most of it!
The one chronic illness diagnosis I seem to talk about the least is glaucoma, yet this is the first one I was diagnosed with. I remember getting the diagnosis and being quite upset. Why? Because I was only 29 at the time. Both of my parents have glaucoma, and it runs on both sides of my family. My siblings and I have literally been tested for it yearly with our annual eye checkups since we were children (I am also the only one of my siblings that currently has glaucoma). Usually when I do mention that I have glaucoma a number of misconceptions come up for people. So, with some research, I thought maybe I could address those now.
But first, what is glaucoma? Glaucoma is a degenerative eye disease that causes damage to the optic nerve, which is required for good vision. Usually this is due to high eye pressure.
Now on to 5 myths & misconceptions about gluacoma!
So while glaucoma is definitely not fun and can have some not-so-great consequences, for most people – when they take care of their eyes – it’s not the worst diagnosis. For the most part I actually forget I have it. I hope this helps to clear up some myths and also, I hope this normalizes glaucoma for any other “young” glaucoma warriors out there! Keep making the most of it everyone!
Our difficult thoughts and feelings are like disgruntled passengers on a bus that we are driving. What do we do with those passengers? Is it working? What can we do instead?
Working with our thoughts is one way to keep making the most of it!
A few weeks ago I wrote about the myths and misconceptions about UCTD, one of the diagnoses I have. Another diagnosis I have is fibromyalgia. This is because some of the pain I’ve experienced is not joint related, and the best explanation that could be given for it is fibro. While there are a ton of misconceptions about UCTD, I think there may be even more about fibro, particularly from the medical/healthcare community, which is unfortunate. So I wanted to see if I can help clear some common ones up.
Hopefully this helps you feel better about your diagnosis, and/or this is something you can show friends and family who maybe have trouble understanding what you’re going through. And most importantly, keep making the most of it!
This short guided meditation can be a useful way to help clarify your values. Having chronic pain and illness sometimes interferes with us living by our values, or even remembering what they are. I find it useful to re-clarify what they are for me so that I can keep making the most of it, and I hope you can too!
Also, I just launched a side-business as a meditation teacher. If you’re interested in 1:1 classes online and self-paced programs online, check out my website – Aligning Mindfully. I also started a second YouTube channel for Aligning Mindfully with 5 minute meditations on it.
One of the most effective practices I do in order to better cope with physical pain and other sensations of chronic illness is the body scan. The research also supports it being helpful. Interestingly it’s also been used as a meditative practice for hundreds of years (possibly longer) to help cope with physical sensations. While it can be a bit scary for chronic pain/illness warriors to go inside, the benefits can be well worth it. This practice is also great because you can totally do it lying down (as long as you’re not at risk of falling asleep). This versions is half an hour long, so if you’re not quite up to doing it that long yet, check out my meditation channel for the shorter version.
Keep making the most of it!
Chronically Living 