Fibromyalgia & Chronic Pain LIFE Spring 2015, Issue 11 | Page 20
BOUNCINGBACK:
Finding Energy Resilience
by Lucia Amsden
inadequate, and out of the flow of
the world.
F
or many of us who are living
with chronic illness, loss of energy is a primary concern. We look
back with yearning to an earlier
time in our lives, when our energy
seemed boundless. We think about
how we have gone from seeing how
much we could pack into our day,
to wondering how we will even get
through it.
E
ach time we wake up in the grip
of fatigue, or have to cancel an
anticipated lunch with a friend, or
find ourselves dreading a vacation
that should fill us with eager anticipation, we face again the energy gap
that separates us from the lives we
would like to live. We particlarly
feel the energy gap as we see others
around us continuing with the hustle and bustle that seem to define a
useful and productive life. We look
across the chasm and feel slow,
20 Fibromyalgia & Chronic Pain
Life
T
here are tools, however,
that can help us overcome
our energy limitations. One
especially useful concept for
dealing with energy limitations
is energy resilience. When we
are more energy resilient, we
are less likely to be drained by
events and circumstances. Our
energy levels rebound more
quickly and completely.
A
s is often the case, awareness is where we must begin.
We all know we have an energy
gap to deal with, but we need to
be aware that our energy level is
dependent on more than just our
physical condition. Our thoughts
and emotions also play a large
part in how much energy we feel.
O
ur minds and bodies have a
powerful connection. The
challenges of our illness can
Spring 2015
make us feel negative about
ourselves, about those around
us, and even about our lives
in general, and that is a major
cause of low energy. We’ve all
been through the down times,
when we are unhappy, frustrated, or sad; and we are more
familiar than we would like to
be with the feeling of being
drained that results.
O
n the other hand we have all experienced happy times, periods
when we lived less in our illness
and more in the rest of our lives.
Those are times of good energy—we
flow along with our friends and the
events around us. The mind-body
connection has a huge impact on
how we feel in any given moment.
N
euroscience tells us that
due to the fight or flight
response, humans have a
tendency to believe negative
thoughts more readily than
positive ones.