Fibro Works

Time for your accounting lesson.  Each fibromyte has to learn her own energy “accounting system”.  This will take a few weeks or months for you to establish, but once it’s established it is possible to keep the balance stabilized, and even to make a deposit once in a while.  I’m deliberately trying to be “flip” here, by referring to our energy levels in banking or accounting terms.  But it’s very simple really, to understand it in this fashion.  Think of it as a cash drawer, or a jar of pennies.  You have 24 hours, but less than 24 pennies or Dollars.  Eight hours are devoted to sleep, so that leaves 16 waking hours, but less than 16 Dollars/pennies.  Assuming you’re working full-time, that’s another eight hours, which will use up more than eight currency chips.  Why will working eight hours use up more than eight chips?  Because, with fibromyalgia any mental or physical exertion, and any work-related stress, uses energy faster than that expended by a person without fibromyalgia.  And you still have to take a shower, get ready for work, take care of the kids, fit in some exercise, eat right, play with your pets, work on a hobby, grocery shop, clean, cook…

No longer can you “do it all” like you once could.  Those days are gone.  Give them a bittersweet send-off, bid them adieu, it’s time to style a new life.  Grab hold of your new chapter, this is growth, this is positive change.  Fibromyalgia is not a death sentence, it can be one of the most positive things that ever happened to you.  It’s just possible that you are “doing too much”, and fibromyalgia has forced you to slow down.  That’s what happened to me, and it’s one of the best things that’s ever happened in my life.  So, please, don’t let it get you down.  Seize life with both hands and enjoy the new delights and challenges around every corner.  This is what life is about:  challenge and growth.  I truly believe fibromyalgia was given to me so that I could grow and change.  Before I had fibromyalgia, I was stagnant, unmotivated, and uninspired. I was given the gift of an invisible illness that was incredibly hard to diagnose so that I could share my experience with others and carry the message.