Supporting fibromyalgia treatment with mindfulness

Fibromyalgia is a disease that is untreatable. Most treatments for fibromyalgia focus on reducing symptoms and learning to live with the condition. The symptoms of fibromyalgia can be so severe that it is difficult to live a normal life, people with fibromyalgia suffer from chronic pain that makes sleeping difficult, for example. This combination of chronic pain and lack of sleep makes it difficult to live a normal life.

To ensure that you can still make the most of your life despite fibromyalgia, in this article I will discuss how mindfulness can support fibromyalgia treatment.

Current treatments for fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is currently treated primarily with pain relievers and techniques to reduce stress. This is because stress can exacerbate fibromyalgia symptoms, such as muscle pain and headaches.

In addition, it is often recommended to adjust your lifestyle if you suffer from fibromyalgia. This means being less hard on yourself and taking more time to relax.

Finally, dietary habits are often adjusted to help you get as much energy as possible from your food. A healthy diet is therefore also recommended.

In recent years, there has also been an increasing amount of research into the effectiveness of alternative treatment methods, such as hypnosis and mindfulness.

Research on mindfulness and fibromyalgia

In 2007, a study ( 1) was conducted on the effectiveness of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction for people with fibromyalgia. This study involved women aged between 54 and 60 years, and after 3 years another measurement was conducted to determine the long-term effects of mindfulness for fibromyalgia.

This study showed that the participants experienced less chronic pain from fibromyalgia and, if they still had pain, were better able to cope with it. As a result, they also experienced fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression.

After three years, these effects were still visible in the results. From this you can conclude that mindfulness helps to improve the quality of life for women with fibromyalgia.

In 2003, a study ( 2) was conducted on the effect of mindfulness meditation on fibromyalgia in combination with QiGong, a Chinese movement technique with characteristics of yoga, but also making flowing movements rather than static poses. This study involved 128 people, both men and women. After 8, 16 and 24 weeks, the subjects were examined. During those examinations, they had to fill out a questionnaire on the impact fibromyalgia had in their daily functioning, pain and depression. They also had to walk for 6 minutes.

Compared to the beginning of the study, the mindfulness meditation and QiGong group had significant improvements in the degree to which fibromyalgia impacted their lives, they had less pain and depressive symptoms. However, there was no improvement in the distance covered during the 6-minute walk.

Research conducted in 2009 ( 3) shows that mindfulness especially helps reduce psychological symptoms due to fibromyalgia.

Mindfulness exercises against fibromyalgia

After all this scientific evidence that mindfulness can help improve the quality of your life while suffering from fibromyalgia, you naturally want to know how it works.

If you suffer from fibromyalgia, it's probably familiar to you that you wish things were different, that you get frustrated and perhaps even angry with yourself or your body. Or that you worry about the future or even when you actually want to go to sleep.

Mindfulness is a way to accept the situation as it is, to experience emotions without over-identifying yourself with them and getting carried away.

Mindfulness is a way to live in the here and now, which means not worrying about the future or blaming yourself for the past.

Mindfulness is also a way to avoid trying too hard and thereby pushing yourself over the edge. Something that comes all too easily when you cannot accept that you are not 100% healthy.

Reduce stress through regular mindfulness

One way to achieve greater peace of mind is to have mindful moments throughout the day . To do this, you can turn on a timer on your phone that sets off an alarm every hour or every so often.

In that moment, you momentarily let go of everything you're doing and focus on how you feel and your breathing. You stand or sit (if possible at that moment) and take a few deep breaths.

You also check how your body is feeling. You will take a short body scan to make sure muscle tension is noticed and, if possible, reduce it.

When a thought arises you name the subject of the thought, such as work, and the emotion you have with it, such as fear. Then you let this go again to shift your attention back to your breathing and connection with your body.

When you are relaxed again, you let this moment go and continue what you were doing.

Mindfulness yoga

The beauty of mindfulness yoga is that you don’t have to perform the pose perfectly. If fibromyalgia gets in the way during mindfulness yoga, that’s okay. Mindfulness yoga is about feeling the pose in your body, not forcing your body into the pose ( 4).

Poses that fit to reduce fibromyalgia symptoms can also be used to improve sleep.

Mountain pose

During the mountain pose, you actually just stand upright with your hands along your body. But in this pose you focus on having the right posture, shoulders back, your belly in and your breathing.

You also feel how your feet are firmly planted on the earth and how you are in contact with it. Especially on grass, this is a very nice mindfulness yoga practice. You feel the contact with the earth, the air along your body, the action of your muscles and bones to make sure you stay upright and the movement you make when breathing in and out.

Hold this pose for about 30 to 60 seconds and notice how the stress leaves your body.

Lean forward pose

In this pose, you stand upright and bend forward and down, like a slow big swing of your upper body. You let your arms hang down by your head and grasp the elbows of the opposite arm with your hands. This pose stretches your lower back and the part between your shoulders.

You can also keep your legs stretched to stretch your hamstrings, but with mindfulness yoga, remember to listen to your body. Bent legs are also good.

Allow yourself to hang out and breathe quietly for 30 to 60 seconds. Feel your muscles get a stretch they deserve and how it helps you relax.

The Warrior

For people with fibromyalgia, it's important to keep muscles strong, and the warrior pose does just that. You take a big step forward, making sure the front leg has a bent knee and the back leg is extended. Your back foot points forward at an angle and your front foot points all the way forward. This pose stretches your back leg and strengthens your front leg and buttocks.

Continuing, bring your outstretched arms in a circle overhead and point your fingers forward. Lower your shoulders and look up. You feel your muscles in your upper body working to keep your body standing.

As you perform this pose keep breathing. Hold this pose for 30 to 60 seconds and then perform it again with the other leg forward.

Mindfulness meditation

Mindfulness meditation can be performed sitting down, or while you are engaged in something. What matters is that you live the experience as consciously as possible. For example, when you are walking, you feel your body moving, you feel the contact with the ground, you feel your breathing, you are aware of your surroundings and your thoughts are mostly with the walking and the environment around you.

When your mind is distracted from walking, or whatever activity you are engaged in, name the subject of the thought and the emotion you are having with it and then go back to what you were doing.

In this way, you create distance between your thoughts and emotions and experience immediately that they do not have to have a direct impact on your life. You can also do something with them later, but now you are in the here and now. In this way you train your self-acceptance and learn to better deal with the situation as it is at that moment.

Want to learn more about improving your life through more control over your thoughts? Then come to a seminar or check out Hypnosis Institute Netherlands' training courses.

Sources:

http://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/101501

http://www.jrheum.org/content/30/10/2257.short

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10880-009-9153-z

http://www.doyouyoga.com/8-yoga-poses-for-fibromyalgia/