Comes the Dawn: A Healing Journey
The Healing Journey with Fibromyalgia
Living with a chronic illness such as fibromyalgia was not something any of us expected to encounter on our journey of life. For most of us it has caused multiple detours in the trajectory of our lives. Here we are, forced to traverse a complicated path of searching for ways to cope and feel better as we manage our fibromyalgia.
What has your journey with fibromyalgia been like for you? What have the major turning points in your story? Where are you right now in your healing journey?
A helpful exercise is to create a timeline of significant events in your journey including such milestones as the onset of symptoms, the diagnosis, the search for help, discovering and implementing healing strategies and utilizing healing resources, finding a good, new normal and eventually sharing and helping others find their way.
Some people illustrate their timeline as a winding map, others like to create a collage of significant healing events. I encourage you to find a creative way to express your healing journey and I would love for you to share it with me via my email drrobinpfaff@gmail.com.
In my book, “Living Your BEST life with Fibromyalgia: Reclaiming your Health and Reimagining your Purpose” I have a whole chapter called The HEROine’s Healing Journey in which I discuss all this and more.
As I was exploring the motif of the journey, I found The Heroine Journeys Project online that gives voice to all kinds of journeys including the Healing Journey. They write:
“The healing journey is a third distinct arc that includes elements in both the hero and heroine journeys. The focus of a healing journey is a physical and mental/emotional/spiritual paradigm shift that enables the protagonist to accept his or her circumstances and him/herself and view herself with compassion.” [1]
A qualitative research article on the healing journey of people suffering from trauma and illness the authors found a wide variety of experiences. The authors observed:
“In the healing journey, bridges from suffering are developed to healing resources/skills and connections to helpers outside themselves. These bridges often evolve in fits and starts and involve persistence and developing a sense of safety and trust.
From the iteration between suffering and developing resources and connections, a new state emerges that involves hope, self-acceptance and helping others. Over time, this leads to healing that includes a sense of integrity and flourishing in the pursuit of meaningful goals and purpose.” [2]
A “new state emerges.” I love that. This new state is a new normal. It is that experience of post-traumatic growth in the aftermath of post-traumatic stress.
A Healing Perspective
I share a lovely poem in my book that is well loved in 12 step communities and has meant so much to me in my life journey and I will share part of it with you here:
Comes the Dawn
attributed to Jorge Luis Borges
…And you begin to accept your defeats with your head held high and your eyes open, with the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child.
And you learn to build all your roads on today, because tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain for plans. And futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight…
So, you plant your own garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you can really can endure, that you really are strong and that you really do have worth…
And you learn, that with every goodbye comes the dawn. [3]
As we travel on our healing journey with fibromyalgia, we find that while we can plan for some things other issues inevitably crop up unexpectedly to demand our attention. As we reach out to access healing resources, we also dig deep into our own souls to access and trust in our own inner knowing and wisdom. We truly are on a journey “to decorate our own soul” as the poem says.
Do you find that you are in a stuck place in your journey with fibromyalgia? You’re reading all the articles, listening to the podcasts, talking to your healthcare providers, trying to follow complicated treatment plans. You’re doing everything you know to do and you are now mostly confused and frustrated. I have been there myself and so have the women I work with. I am here to tell you that there is a way forward for you.
Recently, in coaching session with my client, Sheryl, we had a moment that I always anticipate with great joy. In essence she said (and she has given me permission to share.) “I think I am feeling a little better. I’m sleeping better. I have less pain. I’m feeling hopeful that the strategies we are implementing are making a difference.”
Sheryl had turned a corner from dealing with a set of chaotic and worsening symptoms into a new state of taking charge of her health and feeling in greater control of her fibromyalgia rather than having it control her.
This did not happen accidentally. It was the result of Sheryl making a conscious decision to deliberately build her health care team with a variety of skilled practitioners including hiring me as her Fibromyalgia Coach.
And then, with the support of her healthcare providers she has been implementing her treatment plans step by step and eventually she reached that place the other day where it was all starting to come together. She turned that corner into greater health and greater ease in managing her symptoms.
This does not mean everything is all blue skies and sunshine. Not at all. But she is gaining self-awareness and confidence and feeling empowered in managing her chronic illness.
If you would like some help in finding this way forward on your journey with fibromyalgia, I’m happy to set up a time for a free consultation to see if we would be a good fit to work together HERE. I’ve helped dozens of women move forward with joy and grace in their healing journey with fibromyalgia and I would love to do the same for you.
References:
[1] https://heroinejourneys.com/healing-journey/
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5629625/
[3] https://thebaobabway.com/words-treasure-comes-dawn/
