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Are our fears, our fear avoidance beliefs and our unhelpful interpretations of our symptoms exacerbating our relationship with this illness?

Is mediation, mindfulness and positive thinking a daily coping mechanism for ME/Chronic fatigue Syndrome when faced with the enormous challenge this illness presents.

Can you develop habits to manage your symptoms and regain your health – by taking control of your own path to health, taking charge of your life choices, adopting holistic approaches and believing we can be healthy.

Will these daily practices stop you from being hard on yourself and why do you need to constantly adjust to accommodate this illness? Is being optimistic enough?

Is the key to recovery, simply, understanding, modifying or mediation and will brain retraining techniques trigger our bodies natural ability to heal itself?

How can a high energy go getter be bedridden with debilitating fatigue, brain fog and all the other symptoms associated with ME/CFS for 5 years and how did these daily coping mechanisms aide her recovery – this is Sarah Burgess story!

This is Sarah’s experience, in her own words, life with and without ME/CFS!

Key takeaways

• Meditation and mindfulness are the foundation to Sarah’s recovery, with a strong emphasis on self-compassion (Breathworks -Vidyamala Burch and Danny Penman), and positive visualisation and brain training (Gupta Programme) and Sarah still practises these everyday
• Can you benefit from the wisdom and experience of so many patients who have gone before you
• It’s ok, to want to try and learn from their experience, to be envious, to want your health back
• Taking control of your health and the paths to a healthier you are exhausting, but you can’t wait for a cure – for someone to come up with a well evidenced treatment for CFS
• Your brain is really powerful and its protective response to this illness keeps you in a sympathetic fight or flight mode and a holistic approach may be needed
• The brain and body must be treated simultaneously
• Brain training techniques can trigger your body’s natural ability to heal itself
• Why breaking unhelpful behaviour patterns that are associated to your cognitive response as protector may strengthen your recovery
• We know accepting a long-term illness is a scary thought as your new life will be quite different from your former life, there will be a sense of loss
• Acknowledging this illness is the first step – the key to coping is acknowledging, understanding, and then adjusting to this illness
• When or how you perform your routine isn’t important, but minimising your body’s need to adjust to this change is imperative
• You don’t need to be perfect; you just need to keep trying, believing and visualising
• Promise me, you will stop being hard on yourself & learn to be kind to yourself!

This is our journey unlocking our visibility! Together we can still make a difference.

Valuable resources: Action for ME and the NHS

Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram

Visit our official website www.jak-group.co.uk

With thanks to:

Sarah Burgess LinkedIn Profile: https://bit.ly/2YI7ex8

Sarah Burgess Facebook Profile: https://bit.ly/2N5H4ij

Jamie York

Oli Corse (Intro and outro)

purple-planet.com (Music)