Tag: Tai Chi

When something has to go…

I’ve been very quiet this last month and a bit and I have a very good reason for this. I’ve been super busy doing written assignments and fixing up the garden (pacing myself in 15 minute blocks) so I could do video assessments outside, learning how to edit videos and also going back to Tai Chi. So something had to go, so I haven’t been writing much here. But I’m back now!

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that in my pre-FibroTroll days I was a Veterinarian. I’m still registered, so I’m technically still a Vet, but I haven’t worked since September 2012. I struggled a lot with the loss of my career. It was a very big part of my identity and I loved it. Sure, it has its bad bits, but on the whole, I actually liked going to work and doing my job.

I still haven’t fully accepted that I may not ever be a vet again, but I am slowly getting better at saying the words “I used to be a vet” and being somewhat okay with this. I have a whole post on this, that I’ve been working on for a while on and off, and I will post it one day.

But the reason for all that assessment work, is because I have been working on a Certificate IV in Celebrancy. I was really running out of time to finish before my enrolment expired. I already had to get an extension because of the damn FibroTroll, and I can’t get another one, so it just had to happen. Today, I submitted my last assignment – with a day and a half to spare! So fingers crossed I don’t have any re-submissions to do!

I decided to do this about 15 months ago -around the time of that ridiculous marriage equality debate and postal survey that should never have happened. The politicians should just have done their damn job and passed the Bill without wasting so much time and money and inflicting hate speech on vulnerable people. Imagine how much that $166M would have helped our hospitals and schools! I am not ashamed of being a supporter of Marriage Equality and I really wanted to do more to show my support.

I also needed to find a vocation that I am passionate about, that I will enjoy, and one that I can work around the FibroTroll. After doing the course, I am confident that this is something I am going to enjoy, and not wanting to blow my own horn too much, I think I will be good at it too.

Having a career path again, one where I can offer a valuable service to society (and maybe bring in a little extra cash into the household) is such a wonderful feeling. Hopefully, in a month or two I will have had my registration approved and be a fully fledged Marriage Celebrant!

The other thing that doing this course has reminded me of, is that I really do have some amazing friends and family. People have come to my house to do mock interviews, to perform a complete wedding ceremony from start to finish and a rehearsal beforehand (and coming to re-film a bit I wasn’t happy with!) and to perform a full naming ceremony complete with their gorgeous little bub! Some of them even came to more than one assessment! To all of them, I am profoundly grateful.

My Knight in Tarnished Armour was there every step of the way, helping prepare, arguing with my printer and scanner for me, helping feed people, being videographer, and cleaning up and taking care of me afterwards when we knew I would be paying the FibroTroll’s toll. I honestly do not know what I would do without him.

My mother has also been wonderful, she has come and helped cook for people, printed things when the Knight didn’t win the argument with the printer, hemmed tablecloths and helped out in so many ways. Then she happily played mother-of-the-bride to a person she had never meet, then grandmother to a baby she had never met!

Thank-you simply isn’t a strong enough phrase to cover the gratitude I have to all of these people.

Exercise and Fibromyalgia

Exercise is such an important aspect of health. Our bodies are designed to move, and to do it regularly. Aside from the obvious fitness aspect of exercise, it has many other benefits. Exercise helps keep our muscles and joints strong, it assists digestion, heart and lung function, blood flow, lymphatic drainage, liver and kidney function and even mental health! Basically every part of the body benefits from moving our bodies.

But what happens when we have a chronic illness? One that zaps energy and causes increased pain? I can tell you. It makes exercise exceedingly hard to do.

Before I was diagnosed, before I had any idea what was wrong with me – that the FibroTroll was coming to stay – and long before I had any idea how long that visit would be (spoiler alert – probably forever), I thought I was just unfit.

I decided to fix this by playing indoor beach volleyball. I enjoyed playing volleyball – I won’t pretend that I’m particularly good at it, but I enjoyed it. I also took up indoor rock climbing. Both of these activities are a lot of fun – and a lot of hard work. Even just walking through sand is harder than walking on a flat surface, so playing a sport on it, is significantly harder.

This turned out to be a bad idea. Fibromyalgia is not the sort of disease that you can force to get better. Until you learn some level of pacing, it is very common to have a push-and-crash cycle. This would happen to me. I would keep pushing until I ended up bedridden. Then as soon as I was able to get out of bed, I would try and do all the chores that I felt guilty for leaving to the knight in tarnished armour, and then relapse.

This sort of cycle continued until I basically became too afraid to push at all. Every activity or function became a source of stress. I would pretty much always flare afterwards. This was a contributing factor for my battle with depression and anxiety.

About 18 months ago, I started seeing both my psychologist and my physiotherapist. With their help I have made small but significant improvements. I have continued working with my naturopath – with her help, and metabolic balance I am back to my ideal weight! I just need to develop some more muscle and still stay the same weight and to do that, I need more exercise.

I joined up to Healthy Moving‘s Coaching and Challenge program – which if you can afford it, I strongly recommend it. If not, just sign up for her free emails and you’ll get some helpful tips anyway.

But the pinnacle for me in terms of improvement in pretty much every aspect of my life- fatigue, pain, confidence, independence, mental health – is that this morning, I went back to Tai Chi.

Tai Chi is one form of exercise that has been actually been studied in randomised control studies and has shown to be beneficial in the treatment of Fibromyalgia. Here’s the link to one such study. I used to go when I was first diagnosed, but haven’t been for a couple of years. It is gentle, can be altered for restricted movement, or even done in a chair! It also focuses on mindful movement, and is sometimes referred to as moving meditation.

This morning, the long suffering knight rode his bicycle to work and left me the car. I was quite determined that I wanted to drive myself. It’s not a long way and I feel I need to get some of my independence back.

I got myself ready – I chose not to do a full yoga session this morning, and made sure to give myself plenty of time. I fed the chickens, breakfasted, showered and meditated, then drove our little manual car to the lesson. I was pleased to recognise one of the instructors cars in the car park when I arrived. Not having to explain myself to a new person was very welcome. I got up the stairs and walked into the room, not realising how much I had missed it until that exact moment.

I managed the entire lesson. I sat down for a lot of it, but I very quickly started to remember the moves. My balance isn’t what it was, but that will come with time. I felt welcomed and valued. I met new people and caught up with old friends. And while I am definitely tired, I don’t have that bone weary exhaustion that comes when the FibroTroll has had enough.

So if you are at a place where you want to try some gentle exercise, or struggle with meditation and need a form of movement mindfulness, then I strongly recommend Tai Chi. If you are in Australia, then try the Taoist Tai Chi Society of Australia. The Brisbane branch has a health recovery class and I can vouch that it is well worth the trip up the stairs!