By Irene Roth, Blog Editor/Writer
I’m in the throes of a fibro flare today. But I decided to write, anyway. There are such moments when my life becomes so difficult and I feel so alone. I have difficulty focusing. My body hurts all over. My neck really aches and my head actually feels heavy. Not sure why. I don’t know enough about anatomy. But I know that fibro flares have widespread pain, and there’s nothing I can do about that.
So how can I ensure that I can accept my predicament? Probably by not fighting it and accepting this as my new reality from time to time. What we fight tends to grow. What’s more, we stress ourselves out by fighting what is. The more stress we feel, the more pain we feel. And we may even be bringing on a fibro flare, possibly by fighting it.
Also, by not fighting our pain and fatigue, we can become more resilient. People who live with fibro struggle with debilitating pain and various comorbidities, which can snap the joy right out of life. It’s very hard to live with fibro and still enjoy life unless we change our mindset.
Here are a few positive resiliency traits of individuals living with fibro.
*1. We are resilient. Fibro is challenging and complex to live with. We have to learn how to bounce back quickly, dogging triggers and attacks, or recover from them. This is a fundamental part of coping with the pain and fatigue of fibro, as well as all its comorbidities.
*2. We experience a lot of strength. We are able to tough out the debilitating symptoms and get our lives back on track quickly. Fibro flares are like battles. We must fight through them to get to the other wide as best as we can so that we can get back to living our lives.
*3. We are empathic. Because we struggle with so much pain, we are able to empathize when others are struggling as well. Seeing and understanding another’s pain, struggles, and difficulties are innate abilities we pick up along the way.
*4. We appreciate others with sincerity and without the expectation of anything in return. We accept help and know that without our tribe, we couldn’t survive on those hard days.
*5. We develop courage. Fibro knocks us down more often than we’d like to admit. Yet, we continue to have the courage to get backup and keep trying. This is because we face adversity often. This makes us stronger and more able to keep on living our best life.
By recognizing the amazing resiliency traits that we can develop over time because of living with fibro, we can be proud of ourselves. And when we have hard days, and yes, there will be quite a few, we can rejoice that we’re able to cope and find some modicum of peace in a day that’s riddled with pain and fatigue.