By Mary Ellen Telesha

As with any chronic condition, how well we handle the difficulties of fibromyalgia starts and ends completely in our minds. With these following easy and fun practices we can still maintain and even improve our mental and emotional well-being, in spite of fibromyalgia.

1. Shift your focus to positive thoughts. There is a real sense of loss of control with a chronic condition like fibromyalgia, but our thoughts are something we do have control over. See if you can catch yourself in a negative thought loop and be determined to turn it around. Fill your day with as many positive thoughts as possible. Start your day with a gratitude practice. Find a positive thinking website and sign up for daily quotes. Doing a search for positive news websites on-line will provide abundant sources to counteract overexposure to all the negative news stories.

2. Reduce negative influences. Negative thinking creates negative feelings, and negative feelings can cause a fibromyalgia flare. Limit bad news from the media and negative people and opinions that bring you down. If you hear something negative repeat “next” to yourself with the intent of letting it go, and move on. Practice this like a game and notice how it makes your mind feel lighter.

3. Tickle your mind. Our brains love a challenge and we get a good feeling rush of brain chemicals by doing something that seems almost too hard. Pick a subject that interests you and start learning more about it. Whether it’s quantum physics or the secret to the perfect souffl�, there is plenty of information out there written for the layperson. We don’t have to become the next rocket scientist or celebrity chef; we can explore ideas just for the fun of it!

4. Learn to root out sources of emotional and mental pain. Pain is unavoidable, it’s part of our human condition, but suffering is optional and can make fibromyalgia feel worse. With any type of pain, physical or emotional, there is clean pain; the pain that is actually happening, and what’s called dirty pain; added thoughts that cause suffering. Dirty pain often includes thoughts about our past and worry about our future. In effect we are sending our minds to a place that doesn’t exist; dwelling on things that have already happened, aren’t happening now, or may never happen at all. The part of brain responsible for stress reacts the same way to a scary thought as it does to a “real” situation. Peace is only found in the present moment; be there as much as you can. As a wise man once said, tomorrow will take care of itself.

5. Turn your story around. Instead of writing your life story as a victim, write it as the hero you are! The hero’s saga is the story of facing insurmountable odds, finding the courage to keep going and in the end, claiming victory. See yourself as the hero in your journey with fibromyalgia. On some days your victory may be just getting out of bed! Know that living your best life possible with this condition proves you have emotional courage and mental strength.

6. Stop comparing. In a society focused on hard work and productivity self-esteem can plummet with fibromyalgia. Re-create your value system. Measure your accomplishments based on what you know you are capable of doing, not what everyone else can do. Your to-do list may not look the same as those with normal functioning, but your effort is just as valuable. Make a big deal of what you can do, instead of what you can’t.

7. Learn flexibility. This has to be one of the biggest lessons with fibromyalgia’s unpredictability. What we can do one day is impossible the next. When we have to change our schedule unexpectedly, it’s tempting to get into story telling about what we are missing, how awful our life is, and what we can’t experience. When this happens, look for the next best thing that you can do. Find a gift in the day that wouldn’t have happened if your schedule hadn’t changed. How many stories have we heard about delays that saved people from accidents, or synchronicities (divine coincidences) that couldn’t have been predicted!
Even with a chronic condition like fibromyalgia, we have the power completely accessible within our own minds to make our lives better. No one escapes the inevitable down days, but with practice we can learn to handle life’s challenges, on most days, with grace and peace.

Mary Ellen Telesha is a Certified Martha Beck Life Coach. With increasing numbers of women burning out from juggling relationships, family and work stress, she helps women figure out their own personal stress dynamics and creates a personal plan to increase joy and rest in their lives! Find her at http://www.purelightcoaching.com/ where you can get her free e-workbook, Wild Women Don’t Get The Blues, a do it yourself mini workshop to reduce stress, reboot creativity and find your authentic self. Inquire at http://www.purelightcoaching.com/contact/ for a complimentary discovery session.

Article Source: [Martin Allinger | Dreamstime.com