I was also feeling extremely overwhelmed, which was my usual reality since my big car accident AND the onset of fibromyalgia. Since fibromyalgia had entered my life, I continuously ran behind schedule and I wasn’t able to get everything done as I would have liked. And today was no different…I still had errands to run and gifts to wrap.
So I pushed myself to go to the store to pick up some last minute gifts and the ingredients for a dessert that I planned to make. When I got home I made the dessert and put it in the oven. Then I began to wrap gifts.
Of course being a perfectionist did not make life any easier, plus it was painful bending over to wrap gifts. It got to a point where I was so exhausted from running around, putting pressure on myself to get everything done, and being angry at my body for being in pain, that I began to doze off while wrapping gifts.
All of a sudden it hit me that I couldn’t stay up for one more minute, and I barely made it to my bed before I collapsed.
That night I slept for 18 hours!
I missed my neighbor’s party, AND I did NOT wake up the next morning. By the time I got to my sister’s house, brunch was long over and it was late afternoon. Most of the gifts had been opened (except for mine) and a good portion of the guests had already left! I was extremely frustrated with my body, and I swore that it would never control me again…that I would prevail the next time!!!
When I look back on situations like this, I realize how I was fooling myself. I wanted to be “normal” again and thought that I could just will it to be so. It took several more years of fighting my body before I realized that what I was doing just wasn’t working! That new understanding made all the difference for me, because it started me on my journey to find freedom from fibromyalgia.
Now that I am in charge of my symptoms and get to enjoy the holiday festivities once again, I am passionate about helping other women with fibromyalgia, like you, do the same.
LESSONS LEARNED FROM MY CHRISTMAS IN DENIAL
I would have done things differently if I had learned the lessons below before that Christmas:
1. To Prioritize My Time: I would have bought a pre-made dish for potluck instead of spending the time and exerting the energy to make one from scratch.
2. To Make Wise Choices: I would have realized that I only had the energy to attend one event, because they were so close together. At least then I would have been able to enjoy that one activity, instead of missing both.
3. To Not Be Ruled By Perfectionism: If I had let go of being perfect, I would have exerted less energy trying to make sure the edges were all straight and the ribbons were all perfect when wrapping the gifts.
4. To Get Support: I could have asked friends or family for help wrapping the gifts and I could have learned all the above invaluable lessons just by working with a life coach sooner, rather than later.
Find out how to create more ease and enjoyment this holiday season. Be my guest on my upcoming complimentary webinar, “5 Ways To Ease Your Pain And Fatigue So You Enjoy The Holidays” – so rather than fatigue taking over and missing out (like I did) – you get to participate in and enjoy the upcoming holidays.
Be sure to put the date on your calendar right now:
DATE: Thursday, December 8, 2016
TIME: 2:00pm EST (GMT-5:00) US and Canada
And don’t forget to sign up at this link: www.IntuitWisdom.com/webinar so we can send you the details for accessing the webinar. I look forward to seeing you there!
