What exactly is Mindfulness and how can it help with Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue?  

Simply put, mindfulness is the practice of being fully aware of the present moment—without worrying about the future or dwelling on the past. While this sounds straightforward in theory, it’s often a bit more challenging to practice in real life, but there are simple hacks to build it into your day. 

So how does this help with Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue? 

Well, if you are suffering with Fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue, the chances are that your body is stuck in a stress cycle.  You will have heard of Fight or Flight; this is your body’s way of preparing you to cope with a stressful situation.  

You see a bear in the woods, your body needs the stress hormones necessary to run or fight.   The coordination of hormones between the hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal glands is vital to get us out of danger.  This is the sympathetic nervous system in play. It will make us run faster and fight harder- vital if you are up against a bear! What your body doesn’t do during this time is waste energy on other, not so urgent tasks like digestion, or healing.   

Once the bear is gone, there is no longer any danger and your para-sympathetic nervous system should kick in, returning the hormone levels to normal.   If you stay stressed, say you have a work deadline or are worried about a new symptom, your body doesn’t return to normal.  It keeps firing out stress hormones and not doing the vital work it has to do in keeping you well.  It basically thinks you need to be ready to fight a bear all the time! 

This is called ‘sympathetic dominance’ which exhausts your adrenal glands.  This has a knock-on effect on other systems and organs in the body.  Negative or fearful thoughts keep creating an anxiety loop which increases mental and physical exhaustion. 

How do I stop this stress cycle and boost my health? 

The fight or flight response is essential for survival.   What you can learn to do though is manage your stress so that you are only stressed for short appropriate amounts of time, then your body can relax and restore properly.   

Mindfulness helps by calming your mind and preventing it from triggering the stress response unnecessarily. When you practice mindfulness, you bring your attention to the present moment, which can help quieten your body’s stress reactions.  

 There are many ways to practice mindfulness.  You may be picturing someone in yoga pants chanting “ommmm” for half an hour. It can be like this, but there are easier, shorter ways.  Doing something where you must totally focus is one thing, like an absorbing hobby.  Don’t have anything like that?  Then apply it to anything you do.  Here are a few of my favourites,  

• Brushing your teeth – notice the smell, the flavour, the sensation on your gums/tongue.  Really pay attention to the feeling of the brush, the bubbles, how your teeth feel at the beginning and end 

• Mindful drinking – before you drink, notice the cup/glass, how does it look?  How does it feel? warm? cold?  Raise it to your lips, but before you take a sip, can you smell it?  Is the steam or fizz hitting your nose?  Take a sip, feel the hot/cold, revel in the flavour.   

• Sit outside for five minutes.  Close your eyes, notice the sun/breeze on your skin.  Listen to the sounds, can you hear birds tweeting? Traffic?  What kind?  Voices, near or far?   

• If you’re interested in meditation, but not sure where to start, there are plenty of guided meditations available on YouTube, or you can try mindfulness apps like Headspace, which offer exercises and resources to get you started. 

 Whatever you do, the more often you do it the better.  These simple tricks above can easily be incorporated in your day several times and can make all the difference to a fatigued nervous system.   

Give it a go, and let me know how you get on.  

Lucie Oakley

Acorn Wellness Coaching

www.acornwellnesscoaching.co.uk