What is your relationship with your body?

Healing your relationship with your body is an essential part to a sustainable recovery from CFS.

For most CFS is diagnosed after a lifetime (or a long time) of self-sabotaging behaviours ... conscious or subconscious. Sure there are events that can be a trigger (viruses, pregnancy, surgery, grief etc) but it's not the event alone that results in months/years of struggling with chronic symptoms. It's your general state of health before hand that leaves you vulnerable to CFS, & your ability to be accepting & compassionate towards your body.

In my own case...my relationship to my body was something I was very unaware of, I just saw my body as a thing that I took for granted & often hated, I was always trying to change myself, be it through exercise, diet, work, instagram filters, social anxiety, an eating disorder, or toxic relationships (romantic/familial/friendships). Honestly the list is endless.

I was on what you may know as the 'hamster wheel of life', doing but never being.

Of course this is unsustainable, of course my body couldn't carry on that way. It really doesn't surprise me now that I got CFS & knocked for six by a virus (at the time it did surprise me...because I was soooo unaware).

The place a lot of "treatments" for CFS go wrong is the shallow approach to what is essentially a lifetime of damage. There is no single technique that is going to undo years of ignoring your body.

To achieve a full recovery you must get curious about your relationship to your own body...

Do you see it as something that deserves nourishment?

Do you prioritise its needs (imperfectly)?

How is your self talk?

What internal narrative do you have around you ability to be healthy?

Do your behaviours support the version of you you want to be...& if not why not?

Your relationship with your body is always evolving, just like any other relationship - it is supposed to change throughout different seasons of life. But also just like any other relationship its all about being curious, compassionate & connected (My favorite 3 C's).

Whilst being chronically ill makes it even more challenging to befriend your body& building your self worth/compassion, because its probably at a place where it isn't functioning particularly well & fluctuations in body image/shape are also common. But this is the most essential time to start doing it & the real reason to start.

If you can do it now, you can do it at any other time of life.

I would recommend getting your journal out & getting curious about what your relationship with your body looks like using the questions above. Start with awareness, then you can go on to the process of change.