A Way to Connect Your Body-Mind-Spirit

Dealing with pain and/or fatigue on a daily ongoing basis can really get you down. I know. I have fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue immunodysfunction, and chronic myofascial pain from trigger points. Regardless of the cause of your pain or fatigue, when left untreated, it can be devastating to your well-being. Treatment should include your daily thoughts and plans to improve your mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual functioning. Following are goals to help you accomplish this through journaling.

Use your journal to:

• Guide wellness
• Understand self and others
• Set and achieve life goals
• Record events and relationships and improve or release them
• Promote problem solving
• Develop spontaneity and positive attitude
• Understand feelings and meanings
• Explore dreams
• Pinpoint and address stressors
• Communicate effectively with self
• Identify good things and growth
• Work through feelings safely
• Learn creativity
• Reevaluate beliefs and behaviors

Your journal should include topics that are important and relevant to what you know or would like to know about yourself. It is a place to document your most intimate thoughts, hopes, and dreams. Dreams change, reality happens, but your thoughts are yours to keep for a lifetime.

We all have strengths and weakness, they are the treasures of humanity. What we choose to focus on is what makes the road well paved or full of potholes. Acknowledge who you are. Difficulties encourage growth when you acknowledge them, and growth creates self worth. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and prepare to put on a new hat. Utilize your resources and make your own personal contribution to yourself and others. Start journaling.

Following are a few journaling tips to get you started.

• Describe your ideal place to live.
• Describe yourself and draw a self-caricature.
• Identify your creative self, talents, personal skills, and gifts.
• Write your own prayer.
• Describe a special moment.
• Make a calendar for tasks.
• List the best and worst events of the day, month, and year.
• Write a dialogue with another person, event, or thing.
• Have a positive dialogue with a part of your body.
• Do something exceptional for someone else.
• Identify blocks to spiritual growth.
• List five reasons to stay with your significant other.
• Body improvements, make plans for exercise and diet.
• Make a list of things to do when in a flare.
• Plan an outing.
• Write down things to laugh about.
• Learn to meditate.
• Reflect on your support structure. What do you see as strengths and weaknesses?
• Who are your favorite people?
• Read a self-help book or listen to a tape once a month.
• Why do you like yourself?
• What do you like about someone else?
• What do you fear?
• List your reasons for being alive.