As we are all different, we all process our pain and emotions in myriad ways. I have been struggling with debilitating pain for 18 years. Prior to that, in my youth and early twenties, I struggled with severe anxiety and depression. I have experienced the dark night of the soul. But through countless struggle, I have found my way into the light. The goal for me is balance: the only pathway I have found that has no dead end. It sounds so simple but it’s actually damned monotonous and bloody hard work to attempt to live a life in balance while in constant pain. The slightest swerve has the potential of a car crash. But if I do not strive for balance scores of times throughout each day, I literally cannot get out of bed on the following day.
I’ve become a juggler; slowly learning a talent I never really had much dexterity for achieving. But as this necessity has been foisted upon me, I have slowly developed somewhat of a skill in keeping several rings in the air, flying overhead in a constant flurry. Once in a very great while, the stars align and I am able to keep all of the rings flying and it is indeed glorious. Life is beautiful and exciting. Adventure awaits around the very next corner.
Sometimes I drop one or two of the rings but manage to keep the others aloft, painstakingly re-adding the lost rings to the twirling tapestry one slow movement at a time. Life still goes on and the refocusing upon the dropped rings often results in new breakthroughs and achievements that may not have otherwise been found.
In a perfect world, we would be able to keep all of the proverbial rings in the air and manage our chronic illnesses with, well, perhaps not ease, but at least with efficiency. Unfortunately, fibromyalgia and chronic illness merrily fucks with our rings.
I have come to learn that, according to the laws of physics, it is inevitable that, at some point, there will be several triggers, a massive flare will ensue, and all of the rings will fall to earth, one after the other, as we watch, seemingly in slow motion, our entire world falling apart. It is tragic. It is devastating. We think there is no possible way that we can go on. And then, slowly, we pick up one ring, and then another and another. And then it is time to start juggling all over again.
Most people have a juggling act: their rings are generally made up of something like career, relationships, family, health, and religion or spirituality. Those of us with chronic health conditions have an additional set of rings to juggle and discovering what those rings are is imperative to managing our pain and living a life with meaning.
These are the rings I must juggle daily, and in no particular order, to maintain a purposeful life: diet, exercise, family, reaching inward, reaching outward, pain management toolkit, home, sleep. Each of these requires regular attention and care. For me, my over-active neural pathways are just as affected by any dereliction of these rings as is my heightened awareness to sound and light and pain during a fibro flare.
This is my world, these eight rings that rule my life. Each is necessary for the others to survive. And so, as my constant focus is to each of these rings, so will be the focus of the posts within this blog.