Archive for the ‘Jon Kabat-Zinn’ Category
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness…”, Howard Zinn
The death of Howard Zinn yesterday is a sad loss. He has had a profound impact upon me. I had the privilege of hearing him speak at St. Mary’s University, Halifax, almost one decade ago. Since then I have heard him recently on Bill Moyer’s PBS. One of the great American social activists, historian and playwright, he has been a beacon of hope in a time of great despair. 
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Posted in Bill Moyers, Fibromyalgia, Jon Kabat-Zinn, hope/despair, howard zinn, personal and political | 1 Comment »
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
“What is required is a willingness to look deeply at one’s present moments, no matter what they hold, in a spirit of generosity, kindness toward oneself, and openness toward what might be possible” Jon Kabat-Zinn
I’m told that pain cannot be alleviated with massage or other kinds of body work(?); massages may feel good but will not help pain, a meditation instructor declared in my presence recently. Furthermore, this expert in meditation says that only by accepting the pain will we be able to reconcile with it. The more we suffer and struggle, the more we will continue to suffer and struggle. It is about letting go.
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Posted in Fibromyalgia, Jon Kabat-Zinn, knee pain, letting go, mindfulness meditation, struggling, suffering | 2 Comments »
Sunday, May 17th, 2009
“The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn”,
Gloria Steinem
Women are often prone to say that we are experts on multi-tasking whereas men are more linear and less circular in their thinking. This of course suggests then, if this is accurate, that it is more difficult for women to ‘be in the moment’ as it is for men who are presumed to be more focussed on the main task at hand. I wonder therefore if this could contribute to the higher incidence of fibromyalgia in women than in men? The more tasks we are responsible for, the less we are focussed on one specific moment in time. Rather we are intent on handling not only the many present responsibilities, but that of other tasks in the future and the perceived needs of others.
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Posted in Fibromyalgia, Jon Kabat-Zinn, diaphragmatic breathing, fibromyalgia and multi-tasking, letting go, living moment to moment, mindfulness meditation, quilting and fibromyalgia, racing thoughts, worry and anxiety | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
“Memory, the warder of the brain”, William Shakespeare
This is it!!! In my view this is the most significant in-sight I have had about the pain of fibromyalgia. It has been a long and interesting journey beginning with my book in which I laid the foundation about why women are more prone to developing FMS and my conclusion that it is actually caused by an over-aroused nervous system. However, while this was the first step, and the primary one, more has been revealed to me and I am very excited over the unlimited hope there could be for us all. I still don’t have all the answers and it may be that I am presenting information that is not quite accurate, but it has been a steep learning curve and requires much un-learning, which is said to be more difficult than learning. It all began with my physiotherapist, Nick Matheson who brought me to a path which I had never travelled down before, that is, to explore the relationship of pain and the brain, rather than looking simply at fibromyalgia as the result of a hyper-aroused nervous system. The journey down this path is not yet complete so I welcome comments from others who are more learned in this domain than I am.
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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 | 6 Comments »
Monday, December 1st, 2008
” There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in”, Leonard Cohen
While I have read about and practiced (somewhat… and not diligently), mindfulness meditation, I have not often successfully been able to ‘let go’ of the pain messages from my brain, which seems to be from where anxiety and stress originates. Certianly there has been good success with mindfulness meditation for fibromyalgia (See the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn). Meditation is a life long undertaking and the practice itself is intended to be daily. Now I have been told of another way to facilitate bringing more peace into our lives and ‘letting go’. It is called Tonglin Practice. Although I am not a Buddhist, I do believe that there is much to be learned from Tonglin. It too appears to be another way to work with the breath and training the brain.
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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 | 7 Comments »
