Pain Sucks
Hey, well I…oh, I’m still alive. Sorry I’m a child of the 90s, I can’t help quoting Pearl Jam lyrics. It’s still my internal sound-track, although the grunge era (and my teens) are well over. But being alive is feeling pretty good even though I dropped down to a low ebb this week. Its funny how I believe I’m tough and can cope with anything – hey I’ve got Parkinson’s! We Parkinson’s people are the toughest of the tough. But then I get my tooth out and whamm-o, I’m crying.
I tried to remember all the things that I used to know (Pre Tooth Extraction Era – so long ago!) about how to be calm, and deal with anxiety. But well, I stopped sleeping, I started to feel like an imposter (‘Who am I kidding? I can’t do all these things! I can’t even do one thing well! Oh no…what if someone notices how crap I am at stuff?). My mind told me all kinds of things I needed to worry about. Writing a paper for work suddenly felt harder to birth than my first baby who got stuck trying to find the exit.
I’m still on a lot of pain meds (i.e paracetamol and ibuprofen as much as I can safely take. The dentist can’t find anything to worry about – i.e I’m healing normally, all is well, just give it time and …rest.
Meanwhile after a few days of no exercise I’m starting to move like this guy…
Deep breaths Emma, in and out. Push out your belly on the in-breath, suck in your belly on the out.
Breathing always helps me – sounds a bit obvious! But reducing your breath to around 4 breaths per minute) does trigger a parasympathetic system response and helps me deal with stress and anxiety .
For a great calm down breathing exercise try whiskey breathing (only do it while sitting down, but never while driving) –
- Inhale through your nose to the count of 1-2-3-4
- Hold 1-2-3-4
- Exhale through your nose to the count of 4-3-2-1
- Hold 4-3-2-1
Repeat for at least 10 rounds.
(Find more at: https://www.yourdailybreath.com/water-whiskey-coffee-breath-breathing-as-a- health-tool/)
Then someone reminded me of a blog post I’d written about things I learned about being chill during lock down And I remembered, ah yes I’ve been here before, I can do this! So I’m off to watch some Monty Python (number 21 on the list refers).
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed or in pain, and want to get back some happy? We’dreally love to hear from you – put a comment on this blog post or email us! The more tools in your tool belt the better!
Kitty Fitton is a motivational speaker, MC and comedian. She is also a full-time blogger and writer. She is mother to four small people and was very cross to discover she had Parkinson’s Disease.
Find out more at her personal site below.
Emma Kyriacou is a real-life ninja. Taking up Karate to help fight her Parkinson’s Disease, she’s co-founder of Good Moves and is passionate about promoting exercise to improve mobility and neuroplasticity. (Is that a word? It should be.)
Find out more at her personal site below.
Hey you – Tekki Shodan often helps 🙂
Bring your smile back to the Dojo
Osu