I've been following the work of Toni Bernhard at PsychologyToday.com through their marketing on Facebook, and I really enjoy how she writes about having a chronic illness and decreased function.  I remember well being 29 and having had my health go from tipping from fine to some problems to clearly 'a big problem'; unable to climb a flight of stairs, carry a heavy box or bag, or walk a block, I was scared that I'd be one of the % with chronic fatigue syndrome that didn't get better.  

I've gone on to work for over two decades not only at recapturing my wellness -- though it is illusive -- to complete college and have a career as an occupational therapist which eventually took me to working with people with chronic illness. In insurance-based medicine, you cannot just do an evaluation the first day, you have to send people home with some sort of exercise or activity, which can be difficult when they have a complex history to take in the first appointment.  

Frequently, I would set them up to start learning Mindfulness Meditation at the very beginning because it would help them to get centered and be better at navigating all the decisions they have ahead of them with a chronic illness. They would become more compliant with their home program and simply 'get further faster'.  I didn't ever formally study this, it was my subjective observation backed by scientific studies that were similar. In my years studying to be an OT, I had picked up a book and the tapes that accompanied it, called "Full Catastrophe Living", by the granddaddy guru who brought East to the West, Jon Kabatt-Zin (it might be Kabat-Zinn, I can NOT keep it straight which).  He's an esteemed researcher at an esteemed college who had studied way back in the 70s, the meditation of the East/India. Wikipedia does a good job about him, I think, if you're interested. 

If they were my patient/client for 1-2 months, if they started at the start of our time together, they might be getting the benefits by the time we were leaving off from each other, and they'd have better success on their own.  In theory, it would also shorten their length of time needing therapy and thus saving their resources for other things, and that includes their insurance benefits.   

I found it was helpful to my patients/clients that I'd 'been there' and understood.  Naturally, I'm therefore always looking to include information at Lumigrate which includes appropriate, reliable sources from the chronic illness set.  

I encourage you to follow the link and see what Toni has to say about her history with Mindfulness Meditation -- she does a good job of talking about the difference in her approach before and after chronic illness occurred in her life.  

And it has THE BEST response for those who say they try meditation and just don't want to do it! So please, go read what Toni has to say -- it includes some instructions and I think is a GRATE piece for those interested in meditation and the mind/body connection.  Or not!  ~~ Mardy

www.psychologytoday.com/blog/turning-straw-gold/201201/mindfulness-meditation-why-do-it-and-how-do-it

 From Psychology Today -- About

 

Until forced to retire due to illness, I was a law professor for 22 years at the University of California – Davis, serving six years as the law school’s dean of students. I had a longstanding Buddhist practice and co-led a weekly meditation group with my husband. Forced to learn to live a new life, I wrote How to Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and their Caregivers (Wisdom Publications, September 2010). The book is Buddhist-inspired but is non-parochial. The tools and practices in it are intended to help anyone. I live in Davis with my husband, also named Tony, and our hound dog, Rusty.

How to Be Sick has won two 2011 Nautilus Book Awards: A Gold Medal in Self-Help/Psychology and a Silver Medal in Memoir. It was also named one of the best books of 2010 by Spirituality and Practice.

Books by Toni Bernhard, J.D.

How to Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and Their Caregivers

by Toni Bernhard, Sylvia Boorstein

Wisdom Publications

buy now