Hi Emily,
Meditation can be very simplistic too--just put yourself somewhere in a situation you find peaceful and beautiful--we all can do that. Anything that works, we all need to step backwards from stress and all the problems in our daily life and this can help!

Hmm. Somilar to some stuff I did with yoga. I haven't done it lately, though, like not the last year or so.... I will give it a whirl, thanks for bringing it up!:-)

Anything that works is a good thing.

I did one where I pictured my pain as a black cloud leaving me on the exhale, and I was inhaling white light. I may revive that one too. Good thread!

Thanks for sharing.

I have used a meditation that is similar - the light doesn't have to have a specific source - it can be thought of as just a "healing light" and in my meditation it came in at your head and out at your feet - passed through the whole body - and was very soothing along with healing.

I need to get back to a regular meditation practice - I was a lot less stressed.

My husband went to a stop smoking clinic years ago and came home with a tape similar to that one to help him quit smoking. He was able to be successful and quit thanks to using that tape every night before bed. I believe there is healing energy all around us in nature that we just have to learn how to tap into. Einstein was quoted as saying energy never is destroyed or changed. It always exists everywhere. Energy is healing which is why all the experts are constantly advising us to get more exercise so we can increase our energy. FM suffers just have to learn to exercise in a way that doesn't cause stress to the central nervous system and muscles. That's one reason why daily stretching is so beneficial if done consistently. A 20 min. relaxation through visualized meditation when done before stretching is especially helpful for FM sufferers because it helps loosen tightened trigger areas of the muscles. Also the stretching helps to relax thoes tight muscle areas. I have been stretching each of my major muscles three times each session holding the stretch to a count of 20. I also am doing massaging (12 strokes on each of my trigger areas) with a small tennis ball in a long stocking. The stocking helps me hold the ball in place on the muscles of my mid to lower back and up against a wall I massage the ball between me and the wall my sore muscle area that I can't reach. Also I get a better massage with the ball than I can with my hands and fingers. They tend to get tired quickly but the ball never tires me out. This whole routine take me about 45 min three times a day. All good daily practices to help ease FM to tolerable levels when done consistently. I don't think that if I wasn't doing this routinely I would have got to the point now where I can walk for 5 mlles on my treadmill every other day. The result is showing up on me and how in just two months I have gone from daily pain levels of 6 & 7 to today I have no pain or aching anywhere. This is a milestone that has been achived through trying non-medicinal alternatives. I still expect to have flare-up days but I have decided never again to let FM control how I live my life. I feel I am now in control and never want to give over that control again.

Bossmommy, this is wonderful. I wish that you would cut and paste it and start another thread. See, it ties in with some of the other issues that have been raised lately, like the myofascial syndrome and the issue that our body fails to "down-regulate" pain. What you are doing is what I suspected was doable. It sounds like you are manually or mechanically encouraging/ pushing the body to down regulate.

Please clarify, do you stretch first and then massage?

Meditation is soooo good for everyone. My old (who was awesome!) rheumatologist told me that to deal with fibro. I really want to meditate on a daily basis this year...