Can you be gentle with both a physical condition and your worry about it? Read on…
Jennifer writes:
I have CFS and worry I won’t have enough energy to have fun with my granddaughter when I go visit soon. At the moment I’m having yet another setback of fatigue and my trip is less than 2 weeks away.
How can Inner Relationship Focusing help me endure my flare up while hoping for the best?
Dear Jennifer:
So there are two things here. One is how to be gentle with yourself so you guard the energy that you have. The other is how to be gentle with your anxious thoughts about the trip. Let me respond to both.
My approach in a situation like this one is based on my own version of the serenity prayer. When I’m worried about something negative in the future, I do everything I can to prepare — and then when I’ve done that, I turn my attention to being kind to the worried part of me, so it (the part) knows I care about it.
As a person with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome I’m sure you know more than I do about what helps you guard and conserve your energy. I would just add that it’s good to do so with an attitude of caring toward yourself, rather than thinking “poor me that I have to do this.”
You aren’t wrong or bad to have a condition. And it is something that needs your care.
Once you do the things you can do, then turn toward the part of you that is anxious about not being able to have fun with your granddaughter. Pause… and feel that part of you in your body. Imagine you are sitting down next to it and saying, “Yes, I know you’re there… and I’m listening.”
Let it tell you its worries, and for each worry, keep on saying “Ah, of course, that’s something you wouldn’t want to have happen.” After a while, that part of you will start to really feel you there… your kind and compassionate presence. I think, from that, you will feel a shift.
When I do this with my own anxious parts, I definitely start to feel better!
