June 13th, 2009
“What I am looking for is not out there; it is in me”, Helen Keller
The idea that fibromyalgia can be ‘cured’ through medications is erroneous. Drugs such as Neurontin or Lyrica can sometimes be effective to control the symptoms in some people with fibromyalgia some of the time. Is this really treatment or merely masking the symptoms?
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Posted in Fibromyalgia, Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Sharon Begley, Lyrica, The Mind and the Brain, body movement, diaphragmatic breathing, discipline, meditation, neurontin, remap brain, shaking, shivering, talk therapy, touch therapy, trembling, unlearn
May 17th, 2009
“The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn”,
Gloria Steinem
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Posted in Fibromyalgia, Jon Kabat-Zinn, diaphragmatic breathing, fibromyalgia and multi-tasking, letting go, living moment to moment, mindfulness meditation, racing thoughts, worry and anxiety
May 9th, 2009
“Self development is a higher duty than self sacrifice”, Elizabeth Stanton
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Posted in CBC video, David Suzuki, Dr. Norma Doidge, Dr.James Rochelle, Dr.Peter Levine, Fibromyalgia, The Brain that Changes Itself, The Naute of Things, Waking the Tiger Healing Trauma, allmothering, brain mapping, dis-ease, emotional trauma, empath, fear, florence nightingale, goodism, group gatherings, neuroplasticity, neuroscience, psychonuerologists, root cause of fibromyalgia, self sacrificing, self-regulation therapy, sensory input, talk therapy, ultra-sensitive person, unconscious brain
May 2nd, 2009
I have just been nominated as a Women’s Health Hero from the Our Body Ourselves collective by a former student. I am so honored by this nomination. The series of books written by this collective is superb. I wrote (with two colleagues) an article for their book on menopause which is a topic near and dear to my heart as fibromyalgia seems to speed up at mid-life. I also have a chapter in my own book on fibromyalgia regarding menopause. If you are interested in nominating me (or some of the other wonderful women) please visit their site as soon as possible www.ourbodiesourselves.org/heroes.asp Nominations cease May 8th/09! Just reading about those lovely women is inspiring.
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Posted in Our Bodies Ourselves, fibromyalgia and menopause, www.myheartsisters.org
April 12th, 2009
” Trust one who has gone through it”, Virgil
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Posted in 'emotional intelligence', Dr. Hugo Critchley, Dr. John E. Sarno, Dr.Peter Levine, Fibromyalgia, The Body Has a Mind of Its Own, The Divided Mind The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders, Waking the Tiger Healing Trauma, anger, anxiety, economically disadvantaged, fear, fight or flight, highly empathetic, highly sensitive, insula, marginalized, mindbody medicine, nociceptors, psychosomatic, racism, rage, sandra and matthew blakeslee, sexism, sexual orientation, testosterone, unconscious emotions
March 25th, 2009
“Memory, the warder of the brain”, William Shakespeare
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Posted in Craig Hassed, Daniel Amen, David Butler and Lorimer Moseley, Diane Jacobs and Nick Matheson, Dr. Bud Craig, Fibromyalgia, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Kalu Rinpoche, R, Richard Davidson, The Wellcome Trust, activity diary, adrenalin and cortisol, adrenals, aleksandr luria, autonomic nervous system, body/brain/emotions, body/mind/spirit, calm the nervous system, catastrophizing, central nervous system, diaphragmatic breathing, emotions, empath, imagery, interoceptive pathway, memory, michael merzenich, mind and brain, mindfulness meditation, movement, norman doidge, overly empathetic, pain, parasympathetic nervous system, paul bach-y-rita, peripheral nervous system, peter goodman, plasticity of the brain, psychological techniques, reconceptualize the problem, reframing, responding rather than reacting, sandra and matthew blakeslee, sympathetic nervous system, the brain and fibromyalgia, training the brain, women and fibromyalgia
February 14th, 2009
” I know that you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living”, Harvey Milk
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Posted in Fibromyalgia, amygdala, anxiety and empathy, emotional learning, fight of flight stimuli, gay men and fibromyalgia, gay men and straight women's brains, homophobia, marginalized groups, pain in the brain
January 31st, 2009
” A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So is a lot”, Albert Einstein
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Posted in Fibromyalgia, Lyrica, neurontin, psycho-neurology
December 13th, 2008
” The last day of the old year was one of those bright, cold, dazzling winter days, which bombard us with their brilliancy, and command our admiration but never our love” , Lucy Maud Montgomery
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Posted in Fibromyalgia, calmness and fibromyalgia, climate change, cold winters, emotional sensitivities, holiday stress, hope for the future, negative thoughts, weather patterns, west and east coasts
December 1st, 2008
” There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”, Leonard Cohen
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Posted in Buddhist, Fibromyalgia, Jon Kabat-Zinn, PEACE, Tonglin, anxiety, beginning mindfulness, breathing, compassion, mindfulness meditation, re-training the brain, stress, winter solstice
November 1st, 2008
“If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people”, Thich Nhat Hanh
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Posted in Brain and Consciousness, Fibromyalgia, M Deric Bownds, Melzack's Neuromatrix Model, SomaSimple, The Biology of Mind-Origins and Strucutures of Mind, children and fibromyalgia, early socialization, fibromyalgia and parenting, highly sensitive nervous system, hope, hyperventilating, hypervigilance, intense family obligations, mindfulness meditation, myofascial release, nature vs.nurture, nightmares, overly empathetic, pain and the brain, parent blaming, pre-disposition, psychotherapy, repressed memories, self reproach, situational generalized hypervigilance, sleep walking, types of massage therapies, unrealistic expectations
October 10th, 2008
“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it” , Lena Horne
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Posted in Fibromyalgia, John Sarno, adrenalin, anxiety, apprehension, catastrophize, chronic stress response, cortisol, deep breathing, hysterics, mindfulness meditation, over excited nerve cells, over-stimulated nervous system, sandra and matthew blakeslee, sore hips
September 7th, 2008
“Once it is understood that sufferings cannot be compared, then it is possible to speak of different sufferings in the same story, because there is no comparison”, Arthur W. Frank
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Posted in Anti-itch lotion, Atul Gawande, Epsom salts, Fibromyalgia, New Yorker, bouts of itching, brain state conditioning, central nervous system, cold packs, fibromyalgia and itching, humidity, nerve transmissions, neurotransmitters, newer theory on itching, retraining the brain, skin as a sensory organ, weather changes
August 15th, 2008
” So, like a forgotten fire, a childhood can always fla
re up again within us”, Gaston Bachelard
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Posted in Fibromyalgia, childhood issues, elaine scarry, episodes, flare-ups, flare-ups subside, life events, localized pain, pushing too hard, weather conditions
July 25th, 2008
“One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion”, Simone deBeauvoir
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Posted in Estelle Getty, Fibromyalgia, Golden Girls, advocates, buddies, chronic fatigue, compassion, emotions and feelings, estrogen, fair weather friends, female friendships, friendships vs. support groups, life partner, love, male friendships, maternal behaviour, meaning of friendships for fibromyalgia, oxytocin, pity, secrecy of fibromyalgia, sick role, sisters, testosterone
July 11th, 2008
“Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please”, Mark Twain
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Posted in EFT, EMT, Eastern philosophies, Emotional Freedom Techniques, Fibromyalgia, Jin Shin, NEAT, Power healing, Pranic healing, Qi Gong, TT, Theta healing, acupuncture, auras, body discourse, body/mind, brain activity, chakras, chi, conventional medicine, empirical evidence, energy medicine, healer, mainstream medicine, meridians, mystical, nervous system, reiki, tai-chi, therapeutic touch
June 23rd, 2008
“Men are from Earth, women are from Earth. Deal with it”, George Carlin
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Posted in 'emotional intelligence', Fibromyalgia, George Carlin, Gulf War Syndrome, IQ, Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, cannot generalize, caring work, empath, empathy, feminine traits, fibromyalgi and highly intuitive, fibromyalgia and high energy, gay men, high achievers, highly motivated, human emotions, interaction, masculine traits, men and fibromyalgia, political issue, sensitivity, women's movement
June 20th, 2008
“Bridge is essentially a social game, but unfortunately it attracts a substantial number of antisocial people”, Alan Truscott
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Posted in Fibromyalgia, angry people, bridge games, concentration, friends, fun, hobby, laughter, life long learning, positive thoughts, relaxation, stress and pain
June 12th, 2008
” Things are going to get a lot worse before they get worse” , Lily Tomlin
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Posted in Fibromyalgia, Michael Sherman, New Age beliefs, Why People Believe Weird Things, alternative/complementary practices, attachment relationships, bright lights, cure vs cause, elixirs, empathy, lack of scientific data, nature/nuture, pharmaceuticals, psychoneurologists, right hemisphere of brain, smells, social cause, strong winds, toxic substances, toxicity in our systems