|
Fear
 Jon Kabat-Zinn Overcoming fear to relieve the symptoms of Fibromyalgia is to realize that you only have the present moment. Although there is no FMS cure, overcoming fear can help you deal with and relieve your symptoms of fibromyalgia. We torture ourselves with disturbing thoughts of what will happen next week, or next year, these are only imaginings, tricks played by our minds. Fear is holding on, and not letting go, this will not relieve your symptoms of fibromyalgia. There is nothing that you hold onto in this life. Fear creates a physiological imbalance in our body, we begin to feel stressed, and soon begin to suffer from a some sort of illness. Learn how you can achieve optimum health, you will have more energy and contentment and continue to learn more about overcoming fear to relieve your FIBROMYALGIA symptoms.
How much does Fear run your Life?
Fear is a recurring issue in the practice of life. Dealing with fear can be an integral part of overcoming FIBROMYALGIA symptoms. You can overcome unhealthy fear by practicing mindfulness, the simple act of concentrating on your breath, rather than listening to your negative internal voice.
Below are excerpts from Living from the Heart, © Brooke Broadbent 2005, which will help you address your personal issues of fear:
"First of all, the fear that keeps you from smoking and other unhealthy practices is healthy fear, and it is useful to have it in your life. The fear we are talking about is unhealthy fear, the type that gets in your way from leading an interesting life, from having solid relationships, from growing. Do you act out of unhealthy fear in relationships? Do you say to yourself, “I’ll do this just in case he or she does that?” Have you bolted from relationships because you feared, perhaps unjustifiably that they wouldn’t work out? Or do you say to yourself, “I can’t do that. I know I’m not able.” Do you sometimes get a gnawing feeling in your stomach? Do you have a nagging cough? Have you visited doctors and specialists, only to be told there is nothing wrong with you?"
It’s easy to sum up the symptoms of fear because we all have them. Fear has played a dominant role in many people's lives. We let fear overturn relationships, make us ill, and hold us back from believing that we can have what we want. Mindfulness can be a way to cope with fear.
Ways to Combat Fear to Relieve Fibromyalgia Symptoms
The writings of Thich Nhat Hahn and Jon Kabat-Zinn can be very helpful in learn mindfulness, to combat fear and relieve fibromyalgia symptoms. Hahn is a Buddhist monk, poet, peace activist, and the author of many other books. He lives in a monastic community in south-western France called Plum Village, where he teaches, writes, gardens, and works to help refugees worldwide. Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD is the founder and director of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and associate professor of medicine in the Division of Preventative and Behavioural Medicine.
Although these two men are from opposite ends of the world in terms of geography, culture and training, they have similar messages. We can improve our lives and create a state of personal calm by practicing mindfulness. Hahn advocates making time to sense your breath no matter what you are doing, including washing dishes.
In Kabat-Zinn’s work, his focus is on meditation exercises. He says, "By concentrating on your breathing, you are able to overcome fear, negative thoughts and other feelings that hold you back. It’s simple yet it works. When negative thoughts enter your mind, just be aware of them. Don’t act on them. Through mindfulness you will be able to identify your fears, talk about them with others and in general become more peaceful. You wilI accept your fears and will not fear fear."
"The process works like this: When you feel fear coming on, just be aware of your breathing more than anything else. Breathe deeply. Concentrate on your breath. Be mindful of the air as it enters and leaves your body. Feel your breath in your nostrils. Be mindful of being. Hear your internal voices. There is no need to listen or to engage them. Just listen to your breathing. That’s the power. Your consciousness of your breath stops the internal voices from entering your soul."
How to Embrace Fear
Face fear and negative thoughts by accepting their existence. Do not engage fear and negative thoughts. Do not let fear and negativity lead you to make life-changing decisions. Do not let fear and negative thoughts undermine your journey. Live fully in the present. Do not regret the past or fear the future. It seems simple enough, but our Gremlins, or negative internal voices, keep getting in the way, telling us we messed up in the past and we will repeat the same mistakes. The ideal is to get to a point of accepting what we have as ‘perfect’ because it is what we have, and then we can be at peace. To accept what ‘is’, helps us to stop looking ahead to see what is coming. It helps us to stop looking at the negative side of things.
The present is all that exists. The past is an interpretation of what happened, influenced by where we are in the present. The future is unknown. The secret of life is to live in the present. Just concentrating, a meditation, on our breath helps us to live in the present. It’s straightforward. In the end, mindfulness meditation does not dispel fear, it helps us to embrace it, to acknowledge that fear exists and to live with it.
|