Today, August 8 is Severe ME Awareness Day. 25% of the estimated 250 000 Australians with ME/CFS are bedridden or housebound. This figure skyrockets when you count those living with Fibromyalgia and Long Covid. I have been housebound and often bedbound with severe Fibromyalgia and ME/CFS for 33 years now. Today I share two posts illustrating severe ME/CFS.
This second post illustrates stages I have developed in my practice for pacing, called ‘Wholehearted Rest’. Wholeheartedly resting means to rest with no sensory stimulus: to turn off devices, turn off the lights and music and stop reading. Being bedridden, in pain and payout does not have to be like punishment, like a life sentence, like barely existing and no longer living, like missing out on life. Wholehearted Rest and being alone is incredibly challenging at first. However, with practice, loneliness can turn to solitude and by being kind to yourself and befriending your spirit within, wholehearted rest may become fulfilling. Wholehearted rest can become like truly, profoundly living. Wholehearted rest can become empowering.
By @byshi.art ByShi Art by Shiloh Moore on Facebook and Instagram