Qi Gong and chronic pain

This is really part 2 in my Qi Gong story and it will not be the last part! Last week I wrote about how I  started out and how much I liked it. As I have chronic pain problems myself in shoulders, neck and arms I was amazed how well I was doing the first 2 weeks I was practising.

That was when an old enemy reared it’s ugly head. Overconfidence. Even for me it is hard to stick to the guidelines of being gentle to my body and not overdoing it under certain circumstances. Maybe they are familiar?

•    I have been doing this for a while now and all is going well, I can move ahead faster.
•    When in a group and there are people who are older than me, or other people with health issues I get the urge to do better.

The last one is a problem for me, I know intellectually that it is wrong and silly but often the body just wants to compete.

This happened a week ago during class. As so often my pain warnings don’t come at once but boy did they come that night! A sleepless night with headaches and severe pain in my shoulders.

At this point it is so easy to give up. To say, ‘See this is not right for me after all. My body can’t take this.”
If that happens to you, be honest. It is not the Qi Gong that made me feel bad, it were my own thoughts about how I wanted to behave. So I did not quit and did very gentle exercises that week, respecting my body.

During the next lesson I was honest and told the group what had happened and what had triggered it. This has the advantage that now the teacher and the other group members will help me not to over perform as well.

Needless to say this week’s lesson went a lot better and I have learnt some valuable lessons.
•    Respect your body
•    Take it easy and stick to your schedule, even if you think you can do more
•    Don’t go it alone, inform others of your weak points and ask for help! Or     ask a friend to give you honest and critical advice.

I would love to read other people’s experiences in this area.

Qi Gong

I might have mentioned before that for me the hardest part of healthy living is excersise. I never used to be good in sports and I just don’t enjoy most exercise. And if you don’t enjoy something it is much harder to keep it up. Something you enjoy hardly seems an effort and time flies. But do something you dislike and that clock just seems to crawl.

But now I think I have found a solution. Thanks to the suggestion of a good friend I tried a trial session of Qi Gong. Officially Chi Neng Qi Gong. It is really a combination of gentle movement and meditation. While you move you are quiet and listen to relaxing music but your attention is directed inwardly.  The trial session was a big success and I have made the decision to do a ten part course. So far we have had two lessons and I have enjoyed going there. I even enjoy doing the exercises at home every day! For me that is a big thing. It is not strenuous but I am doing something for my body every day.

Chi Neng Qi Gong has a healing effect as well. It was invented by a doctor in China who ran a hospital that did not use medication. Yet 95% of all patients who came to him recovered with Chin Neng. Some patients were very ill and could not do the exercises. The power of Chi Neng is that even if you cannot move much, if you visualise yourself doing the exercises it has the same effect. So on a bad day you can chose to do that. That makes it very accessible for people with chronic pain complaints.

What I am trying to say is that there is something out there for everyone. You don’t have to do Qi Gong, but do have a look around and try to find something that you would enjoy doing. It is important that when you start working out, that you don’t expect too much of yourself at the start. Don’t set your goals too high and even if your goals are reasonable, do not get angry with yourself if you are not able to make them. Doing something is better than doing nothing, and positive energy makes you happier.

So what do you do to keep your body in shape and why does it work for you? I look forward to hearing from you.

Weather and health

I don’t really believe in coincidence that is the reason I am writing about the weather today. Last Friday I was thinking about our strange Dutch weather and posted about it on my Facebook wall, not 10 minutes later I came across an article about the relationship between weather and moods. Now that was too big a coincidence to pass up.

Is there a coincidence between the weather and our moods? Some people think there is, some think there isn’t.  I belong to the group who think there is. Why otherwise do people get winter depression? [And as my friend Vilma Kuzmiene told me summer depression as well] As soon as the days get longer, some people start to feel down.

I can think of the following reasons [both physical and psychological]:
•    We need sunlight [vitamins] to stay healthy and as the sun loses its strength we lose the vitamins.
•    Women can feel less mobile during the winter months. If you don’t like going out in the dark you are housebound many hours of the day in winter.
•    The cold can affect your muscles making them stiff and painful.
•    Staying warm despite the cold takes up energy.
But as Vilma said there are reasons for summer depression as well:
•    Constant heat for sometimes weeks or months on end can make people prickly.
•    Heat can make people sick, especially the elderly and people with physical problems. Fighting the heat takes energy.

For those who live closer to poles mid winter and midsummer can play havoc on the system. There will be weeks were there is no darkness or no light. Our system needs the clue that the sun gives us, to tell us when it is time to go to sleep and to wake up.

How does this all affect me?

My moods are not affected much by the temperature. I have to admit that I do love the long evenings in summer, when I find it easier to set out on my own. I used to be a person who loved spring and fall and did not like the extremes of summer at all. Until about 6 years ago I began to notice that a good, warm summer gave me a lot of reserves for the winter. My muscles soak up the heat and store that energy. So my body still dislikes the heat [I find it hard to concentrate when the temperature reaches 30 C and above] my mind is now much more motivated to endure it and even enjoy the benefits. Is was very interesting for me to observe that change. Last year we had no summer to speak of here and I am beginning to notice it.  That meant it was time to take care of myself.  In February I will be spending a week in Lanzarote to soak up some sun.

Please tell me about you. Does the weather affect your moods or your health? And what do you do to stay on top of it?

Happy new year

Welcome to 2012. A new colour for a new year and many more changes in store. This blog will not stay active for much longer hopefully. Soon you will be able to read the blog only at; http://www.safehavenonlinetherapy.com/blog/

Right now I am working hard on adding new pages and making it really awesome. Very different and more orientated on what you the reader are looking for. [hopefully so feedback is always more than welcome]

That leads me to my new year's resolutions. It is almost impossible to avoid those this week, aren't they. Are you sick of them already? Chucked yours out?

So many people make their resolution and then within weeks fail to stick to them. On the 1st of January we sit down full of confidence, the holidays are behind us and we have new energy.

And that is often the start of the problem. We are so enthusiastic that we ask too much of ourselves. We want it all and we want it now. That might work for a few weeks, yet too often we burn ourselves out that way.

As with everything it is better to plan your resolutions and not ask too much of yourself:

• Be flexible in your scedule
• Leave time for fun things!
• Leave blank spaces for unforseen events
• Start small, many small goals are easier to achieve then one big one
• Try not to go it alone. Select a good friend to go over your plans and ask for feedback
• Don't throw it all out if you are dissapointed with your progress. Little things are better then nothing.

I don't make a year plan anymore, I make 3 months plans, both for what I like to get done for work and some projects in my private life. I started experimenting with that last year. What I found out so far is that for me smaller is better. I started out with making my list of goals much too long and that way I had so much added stress. Now I have a few things that I really want to achieve and a small lists of things that I can do if I have time to spare and it works so much better.





Let me know what works for you! And good luck in this new year.