Station Faith You have arrived at the Station called FAITH Having Faith in you makes all the difference in dealing with chronic illness. Having faith in your Maker, yourself, and that you are going to try to be as well as you can be. Dealing with the anxiety and stress of having FMS is not easy. When we have a chronic illness, we have to deal with the kinds of emotions that surface when we leave the well-understood area of science to an illness that is misunderstood, misdiagnosed and unpredictable. Nobody really knows the part that emotions play in illnesses, or the effect they have on diseases, contracting it or getting well again. Our emotions are often difficult for a patient and doctor to discuss. Because we are usually rushed through our appointments, many times the personal aspect is missing so in order to get your feelings across; you have to tell him. Many doctors do NOT understand why FMS is such a big deal for all of us. You need to tell him and say, "I need to talk about these things with you." Emotional baggage is unfortunately, a big concern for those of us suffering from FMS. We have accumulated this baggage for years and Fibromyalgia is unique in the fact that for a lot of varied reasons, it does involve some kind of emotional baggage. Try to remember that you are on the train because you are ill and that you are going to travel to a new destination. When you pack your grip to go on a trip you go to the ticket counter, purchase your ticket and CHECK your baggage. It's the same with emotional baggage. You cannot carry it with you or you will not reach your new destination. Your negative files in your own mental hard drive are holding you back and weighing you down. HAVE enough FAITH in yourself to understand that you do not NEED these memories anymore. You now need to delete those negative memories and take the trip without them. Having FMS, we probably have more negative baggage clogging up our minds than you realize. There may be somebody that has had FMS diagnosed immediately by the first doctor they have seen, but there are probably not very many of you. Almost all of us have been told at one time or another, "this is just stress, it's all in your head, you are imagining this, you are just upset." And so forth. I would bet that collectively we could not count the many tests we have all been put through before we were diagnosed. And even then, there is the possibility of misdiagnosis with doctors jumping on the bandwagon and telling you that you have FMS when in actuality, you have something else. Going through innumerable tests causes stress and the emotional cost can be very high. You have to go through a lot more than most people with a "usual" chronic illness. And then, after the diagnosis, there is the wonderful and helpful treatment of NSAIDS, Anti-depressants, muscle relaxants that are expensive and usually have to be disbanded due to adverse side effects. So by the time you go through all of this you are tired, and you are stressed out. You are tired of being in the middle of the controversy as to whether FM exists! This is part of the baggage of FMS and that which is so different than that of most people with other illnesses. We know in our minds what sometimes the emotional heartfelt part of us has to learn to accept. The experience of the soul must be added to the cognition of the brain. Once you understand that emotions do play a part in illness, and learn to deal with them, you are on the way to THE HEALING STATION. This exercise of FAITH has no time limit. For some, the deletion process may take a week or two or three, for others, a few months or up to a year. This is an ongoing process for like maintaining our computers, we must keep our mental files cleared and up to date. It is with this kind of challenges and positive attitude that we are able to touch the highest and most brilliant of all stars, the star which shines in the firmament of the Universe, and which, there can be no doubt, is knowledge of one's SELF. EXERCISE IN FAITH 1. Invest in a bath pillow, the kind that you blow up 2. Invest in lavender bath salts, for healing 3. Invest in lavender candles for healing and to bring light 4. Find some motivational reading and play your favorite soothing music (not near water please) 5. Clear the cache of your mind. Clear you mind and sink into your warm tub and relax. 6. Surround yourself with white light, looking at the candles edging the tub and feel the essence of healing surround you as though you have just walked into a fluffy cloud in the heavens. 7. Dig deep and find a painful memory. Relive it slowly, paying attention to every nuance and detail. 8. Relive the memory and repeat it from beginning to end three times Relax and forget the memory. This may be painful, and yet when you run it through repeatedly you will notice that each time desensitizes you to the pain or discomfort of that particular memory. Think about the memory, analyze how you feel, what brought the circumstance on and why you are still holding on to it. LET IT GO. Picture it floating upwards out of the top of your head as a dark angry cloud and up into the ethers where it is neutralized by the angels and recycled as pure white healing light. Repeat this exercise once a night until the memory becomes so boring to you that you cannot bear to run through it. THEN you will know that it is time to delete this negative file. Hit the delete button with JOY and watch it float away - never to be seen again. It's now a done deal and after a rest of a few days, you can start on the next memory. As your progress, you will notice that a weight is slowly being lifted off you. By the same token, you will feel a sense of urgency to delete them all at once. DO NOT do this please. You might feel a little depressed as well but the end result will be tons of liquid sunshine that you can transfer to your mind at will, for there will be room for sunshine, love and laughter once you have cleared out your mental filing cabinets. Prayer and Meditation before the exercise is a plus. It will help to center you and give you divine focus. After you know that your hard drive is clear, and that you notice that your step is more buoyant, that your mind is clearer, that you are smiling more often, it is time to jump on the train and head for the next station. To know ourselves, we must look at how we see others. What we see in others is the reflection of what we are. We must open our minds, knock down the barriers of rationality, of our fears and our insecurities, and we must stop condemning what we do not understand. Next Station: Choice Please visit the message boards and post a message See Photo's of members Please Sign Our Guest Book Healing Station Newsletter Disclaimer Any information posted on The Wellness Train - e-group list, message board, newsletter, FMS Project 2001, Wellness Train Home Site and the Healing Station Newsletter, or MSN community live chat area should not be taken as professional medical advice. All information posted in any areas pertaining to "WELLNESS TRAIN" must therefore be recognized as "personal opinions" only. Articles and research posts copied and distributed from the Internet are for information purposes only. To obtain medical advice, patients should always consult their own Health Care Practitioners. 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