Mentoring for Women who Live with Chronic Pain
Living with Chronic Pain can leave you feeling boxed in - restricted. It can leave you feeling that your body is fighting against you. When you add the overall tiredness to those feelings, you find yourself in desperate need of hope.
People around you may wonder if you really are sick since you look "fine". People may tell you that "fibromyalgia" is a "dump" diagnosis. In other words, when the doctor can't figure out what is truly wrong with you and you keep complaining, she/he decides you have Fibromyalgia. Sound familiar?
My name is Joss and I am the Crowing Crone. My journey with Fibromyalgia began twenty years ago.
I have experienced all the ups and downs that come with a chronic "invisible" syndrome. From pain so severe that I breathed myself through the day five minutes at a time, to endless fatigue. From trying supplements and medication to lying on the couch for months and not even having the strength to wonder what was happening to my life. I've researched; I've read articles and books and medical journals; I've listened to countless people's advice. I've attended Chronic Pain clinics and I've wondered what it must feel like to sleep through one whole night and wake up refreshed.
Over these twenty years, I have learned a lot. Not only about what exactly Fibromyalgia is, but I've learned how to live a joyous, effective life with chronic pain. More importantly, I've learned to listen to the messages that Fibromyalgia has communicated to me. I've gone from wondering how I was going to live with this to knowing that this syndrome has manifested itself in my life for many reasons.
One of those reasons was so that I would learn to make wise choices; so that I would choose to live rather than to survive.
And in living, I choose to share what I've learned. Not just the strategies I've developed although those are vital. More importantly, to share how I have learned to honor who I am and who I am includes being a woman who has lived with chronic pain for twenty years.
