Wednesday, January 1, 2014

A New Year - A New Chapter to my story.....

2014-- is here. Looking back over the year it was a tough one just like the one before. 2013 had many challenges for me. Both physical and mental.

Finding doctors is always hard in a new city. Here in az is no exception. The year before it was WI and searching lead to some really great medical care there. However, here in AZ it has been a bit more involved. I have gone through several psychiatrist just because their offices keep closing and now I am frustrated with the new one I have found because I am not sure they are the place for me.

Before Chronic pain I wouldn't have worried so much about the mental health care I was getting but with being in pain daily I absolutely must keep on top of my mood and make sure I am not falling into negative thinking. It causes me pain and more struggle to do so.

So, I continue with this challenge of getting my mental health in order along with finding a new Neurologist, Dentist....and so on.

What I see for this new "chapter" of my life is that I will for the first time in 9 years take steps toward my future career again. I don't see my career the same way as I once did. I have chosen YOGA and a healing path so that I may keep my health in check and at the same time help others who are ill or struggling.

I will start a yoga therapy program at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts end of January. Starting with Aromatherapy. I am both scared and excited at this change in my life. I think often that I might not be able to handle it and might end up having to (once again) give it up and try something else. What I have this time is a back up plan. If I am not well enough to actually do the yoga part of the training herbal-ism and aromatherapy very much interests me. Whats great about this school is they offer all of that.

How did I come to the realization that YOGA was something I wanted to DO. Well, I gotta tell ya, over the last many many years of being ill i wasn't drawn toward anything. Nothing at all. I have been down about so many things i have lost the ability to do. My husband asks me over and over what I will do with my life and he so badly wants to see me doing more than just lay on the couch in pain. I gotta say so do I. Thing is there was this barrier to doing something....to making that decision of what it might be. Well, because it had to be possible...physically and mentally possible for me. I was feeling pretty weak and incapable.

I added yoga back into my life about a year ago and found myself getting stronger and more focused and feeling more drawn toward it than ever. It brought something for me in terms of physical healing and also mental focus. Unfortunately, the migraine and pain meds I am on create quite a fog. It makes it very hard to think straight about anything. It actually became so hard for me to think that I choose not to.

I addressed this problem with a doctor I see here and he was just wonderful and my savoir. He said that "it is no way to live feeling in a fog" . he gave me medication to help me focus and even though I was reluctant to add anymore meds to my routine I did and am so thankful. I have regained my art again and reading again. I haven't read in 9 yrs. Not articles...not books ....nothing. Now I read all the time so that I can learn. and I LOVE IT.

So, I began my second journey with yoga in about May 2013. My first journey with Yoga was years ago before I was sick. From '98 to about 2004 I enjoyed studying at a gym. That type of yoga was more about fitness and only fitness. This new path I am taking is more than that.

This yoga journey is about a total ME. spiritual as well as physical.

I will post more as it comes to me. .......