Jess, I have been journaling for about the past 15 years. I finally had to start throwing some notebooks away..I just couldnt keep them all. I have slowed down since the fine motor abilility got mixed in with the pain. I had over 300 songs/poems/thoughts I also had written. Now after I write just a few sentences I have to stop because my neck and jaw will start throbbing. I think you will love journaling. It opens up things you didnt know were there. Often God has spoken to me through journaling. I think as you say, being mindful, is the key. When we are mindful we are "present" and we are a human "being" not a human "doing".
Taking time to be still and know is so important to me. I had to learn to breathe correctly and rhymically. That is a great way to get still and be also. I hope you have a better day. Love. Pauli

Yes, Paulie JB beleives awareness is key. I too have been jounaling already,since I had pudendal neuralgia, so about 1.5 years, not as long as you,but i find it does help with feelings, awareness etc.
I wantedto share in the hopes that others may also do the same, but also so that i can also bring more mindfulness to my situation instead of anger and despair.
I am less stiff this morning, after treatment yesterday and I think not stretching for a week will give my body a break. Hope your day is better too!

Jon Kabat-Zin is the medical guru of mindfulness. There are hundreds books on mindfulness. Kabat-Zin is different because he was the first to apply it to cardio patients. I recommend starting here with a mindfulness practice. I've cut & pasted a short bio from Wikepedia:

Jon Kabat-Zinn (born June 5, 1944) is Professor of Medicine Emeritus and founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Kabat-Zinn was a student of Zen Master Seung Sahn and a founding member of Cambridge Zen Center. His practice of yoga and studies with Buddhist teachers, led him to integrate their teachings with those of Western science. He teaches mindfulness meditation as a technique to help people cope with stress, anxiety, pain and illness.

Tink, I found some quotes by him. I liked this one pertaining to this topic:

Non-doing has nothing to do with being indolent or passive. Quite the contrary. It takes great courage and energy to cultivate non-doing, both in stillness and in activity. Nor is it easy to make a special time for non-doing and to keep at it in the face of everything in our lives which needs to be done.
Jon Kabat-Zinn

Thank you both. I will have to look into more information on this. I do find this very difficult. Yet, at the same time, it is freeing to "clear your mind" as I have been able to do in some of my MFR sessions. You are right Paulie, I have told my therapist, that I get into the habit of times, of such routine, that we are on autopilot. JB is often about "being n the moment". ( i think he said this before Oprah!) hehe

Personally I do not journal. I did at one point and for me, it seemed to hold me back. Instead I have taken a different approach and use outside time as a means to pray and reflect on things. I like to use time when I am driving to think or to pray too.
Posting from time to time is as close to a journal as I get.

I'll be honest...I'm so over 'sitting with the pain', lol! It's a core part of pain management, reflecting on what's going on and how it affects me not to mention the nightly meditation I do. I have no problems staying with the pain, it doesn't freek me out or anything anymore and I am generally quite a chilled person so maybe it does work in the long term? I guess it allows me to keep some mental energy for other things and not use it all for thinking about the pain.

I've actually really enjoyed all the posts about the myofascial release. Just think how you could turn this skill and knowledge into helping other people in the future? This is how alot of healers start out......

thanks Pumpkin, my husband has said something to that affect. :-)


These days i journal, and have journaled for awhile, writing down how i feel, if i am stiff, pain levels out of 10, what i could do. stuff like that. I have to work on the mindfulness.

I used to write a lot of short stories for people instead as a sort of journaling but I was always "stuck" when I did. So I rarely do that anymore. I really sturggle to sit down and just journal. Heck, I can barely sit and watch TV unless I have my hands doing something.
For whatever reason, my best meditation comes when I am doing something that takes a lot of concentration. I really miss being out on the tractors making hay. You have to really keep track where you are and not mow thru the wrong spot, but when doing that, I can focus and think clearly of those things I need to meditate on. Same thing when I bead which I often do while watching, really listening, to the TV. I watch mostly documentaries so listening is all you pretty much need to do. Or I listen to a lot of folk music that tells a story.
I can't just sit and meditate or journal, my mind wanders and my body starts to squirm. I never could sit still in school either unless my hands and mind were well absorbed into the lesson either!