I thought today was the perfect opportunity to jump on the stress topic.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve always struggled with stress management. I remember sitting in my neurologist’s office a few years after diagnosis, struggling to manage the heaviness of MS. He was a pioneer in the MS field, he even worked with Dr. Swank directly, and by the time he was my doctor, he’d been treating MS patients for about 45 years.
We sat and talked about stress and he finally turned to me and said, “Carolyn, you’re a type A personality, which isn’t surprising… most people with MS are.”
It was probably a random thought to him, but it stuck in my brain for years, even after he passed away. Why would so many people with MS have a similar personality type? What’s the connection?
I started studying stress management and put the tools to practice… and soon after, everything became easier. Every action we take comes from a thought first, but if our thoughts are overwhelming and scary, and negative, it’s tough to take positive and clear action!
The way you think is the answer to healing the body, which is why the OMS group spent so much time talking about it at the symposium we all attended.
Could it be that Stress Management (SM) is truly the reverse of Multiple Sclerosis (MS)?
Considering that I’m completely symptom free for multiple months now, I have to say, I sure believe so.
There are multiple ways to manage stress….
- Deep belly breathing (make sure your belly expands)
- Keep a journal of things you’re grateful for
- Stretch/practice yoga
- Take a walk in nature
- Spend 5 minutes a day focusing on the present moment
- Turn off the TV/Enjoy silence
- Eat an unprocessed anti inflammatory diet (physical stress counts too!)