On living with Pain

I’ve been living with a shoulder injury since June.
And I have been living with pain.
Enough pain to make me take a prescription pain reliever.
Until a couple weeks ago when I ran out. And freaked out.
And started taking Turmeric.
While I got my prescription filled again, and ended up taking the prescribed medicine again, enough time had passed and enough Turmeric had made its way into my system that I am off the prescribed meds.
For anyone who may have sat in judgement of people who are on pain medication (me) I’m here to tell you, don’t.
Until I’d been in pain for months, taking ibuprofen daily, round the clock and have that fail me, this was all something that I only judged about.
There’s a reason why people take medication. It’s because they’re in pain. And there’s all the fun side effects, basically my stomach couldn’t take much more.

For me, this has been awakening. I’ve had to be more diligent about self-care, meaning sleeping right, eating right (anti-inflammatory diet) and taking time off from everything not necessary.
Humbling.

I’ve also been using a lot of topical ointments. There’s some really great stuff out there and I’ve tried a lot that work. When I got the opportunity to try something for free in exchange for a review, I jumped on it. It’s called PainAway Synergy by Phytopia. I was a little skeptical at its ingredient list. I was a little snooty about the smell, citronella. But it works. It really does. Today I came home and my shoulder was hurting, put some on, and it works its magic.

You can buy it here.

If you can live with the citronella smell, you might get some relief.

But they all smell, so make your choice.

It comes in a nice package, a little too much packaging for me, but it’s really nice.

 

Lean In

Me at a very happy place in life

This has been a mantra of mine for a while.

The realization of sometimes people get way too much on their plate. And it’s brutal.

I’ve stopped saying “This too shall pass” and more of “What can I do?”

What I’ve learned:
It’s way more important to listen…
Lean in and hear what they’re saying..really what they’re saying…
Offer more ‘I love you’s’ than ‘this is what you can do’
And personally, when there’s moment of joy I lean into them
It’s not that life is hard
no, it’s really, really hard sometimes
but there are moment of joy that if truly present, I can experience them, be present in them.
And those memories carry me through the hard times.

So when life is hard what are some things that can be done? Self-care needs to be number one. It’s not because it’s an instant relief. It’s putting on the air mask so you can do what needs to be done.

According to Ayurveda we’re entering a very VATA period.

Autumn. Dryness.

Can you spend 5 minutes before bed applying some lotion or oil to your feet or hands?

Take a bath with some drops of lavender essential oils?

Turn off the devices and spend 5 minutes practicing a slow deep breath before you go to sleep. Sleep.Sleep in when you can. Stay in bed even if you think you’re really just going to get up, let yourself lay there. I’ve often thought that I’d just rather get up but if I lay there sometimes I’ll fall back asleep.

Watch a funny movie. Watch another one. Laughter raises the good hormones and feelings in your body. Even if laughter is the last thing you think you can do.

Drink more water to help your body keep functioning.

Simple things, not another to-do list item.