Jul 08 2008
The Fear of Pain
What is your pain keeping you from doing? For me, a lot of times, it is the fear of pain that keeps me from doing things that I want or need to do. The reality exists that certain activities really can bring on a lot of pain for me, but, the truth is that there are ways to “tweak” most of these activities so that I can actually do them. I have to get past the fear.
Everyone knows that exercise is important for us, right? I have heard, too, that when we exercise regularly we can reduce the pain that we experience, especially for those of us that suffer from Fibromyalgia. I have been very much afraid to start an exercise plan. I am fearful that if I exercise I will be in too much pain the next day or maybe even later that day. Because of that fear, I have allowed my body and muscles to atrophy. If I build up, gradually, an exercise routine, I will strengthen my muscles and I will not be in pain afterwards; in fact, I should be in pain less overall!
I have decided that it really is time to get over this fear. I am 32 years old and I can actually see where some of my muscles are misshapen due to atrophy. I have spent a huge amount of time either in bed or on the couch these last couple of years. I have had and continue to have legitimate pain and fatigue, but now, it has been too long and my muscles need to be rehabilitated.
It will be of the utmost importance to start out with “baby steps”. I will need to start with short walks and gradually lengthen the time and the intensity. It will be important to do some kind of weight or resistance training as well. I think that if I take it slow, I really can do this.
There are plenty of other things that I need to allow myself to do as well, but I am going to start with this one. “Baby steps”. . .
