HaHaHaHaHa - you totally crack me up, JSC! First laugh therapy of the day! 
We must definitely listen to our bodies, but I think I’ll stop listening until this freezing weather disappears, as my body is not talking - It is YELLING! LOL
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#86 - Climb hill instead … or a mole-hill…
THE MOUNTAIN
If the mountain seems too big today
then climb a hill instead
if the morning brings you sadness
it’s ok to stay in bed
If the day ahead weighs heavy
and your plans feel like a curse
there’s no shame in rearranging
don’t make yourself feel worse
If a shower stings like needles
and a bath feels like you’ll drown
if you haven’t washed your hair for days
don’t throw away your crown
A day is not a lifetime
a rest is not defeat
don’t think of it as failure
just a quiet, kind retreat
It’s ok to take a moment
from an anxious, fractured mind
the world will not stop turning
while you get realigned
The mountain will still be there
when you want to try again
you can climb it in your own time
just love yourself til then.
Laura Ding-Edwards (https://www.rainbirdroots.com)
This poem is read by herself here:
and set to music by amateur musicians
and
has been backed up by a video and slow acoustic music here
It reminds of Rudyard Kipling’s If:
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TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF 
I LOVE YOU GUYS - THANK YOU FOR ALWAYS MAKING ME FEEL BETTER ABOUT MYSELF. GOD BLESS.
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I think it’s time to take some time for some more… 
#91
When I am resting on a “flare-up day” I need to remember that I’m not wasting the entire doing nothing. I am doing exactly what I need to do. I’m recovering.
#92
Just because you see me posting online doesn’t mean I am feeling better. I am in a ton of pain, but my choices are to sit and cry or try to distract myself. Posting encouragement for others or being encouraged myself is how I face one minute at a time when everything hurts. Lisa Copen
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You are remarkable, JayCS! Thank you for saying what is in our hearts
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I haven’t been able to allow myself to self-care lately. First step is facing that here with you. Got out some memes which I hadn’t given that many points out of 10, because they didn’t fit me that well, but at the moment they really are me… oh… I’ll stop there… too many… So for a change, I am posting these for me, not for you, selfish, ehm self-caring me ;o) and I’m not going to describe them either, so there. At least not now. 
#93 SAY - NO - MORE…
#94 Ehm, is that arrow on the right really going up at all? - Joke or no?
#95 Ehm, how’d this meme get here? I can’t remember choosing it, but it fits 100% today.
#96 YESSSSS 
#97
#98 Getting things done at day, getting things done at night, in no time…
#99 For everyone on that thread: Spoonie without spoons
#100
#101 Pulling the rip cord, pulling back from the brink (or am I over already?), putting on the brakes, pulling my plug (or putting it back in for a change?)
#102
#103
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LOL loved #95 - I was NEVER a morning person, even before fibro hit! My hubby is just the opposite. I’ve always thought, “How can someone get out of the bed in such a good mood?? Even before caffeine!”
And, I definitely find myself needing that “Out of Order” sticker!
Also, loved Charlie Brown! When my hubby can’t sleep, I suggest that he try to empty his mind of all of the thoughts - He is such a planner! And to take deep breaths. If I’m up to it, I’ll give him a massage, but often my hands aren’t up to it, unfortunately. He refuses to listen to my relaxation videos, but he does like to play a thunderstorm recording, so it is always raining in the bedroom - LOL!
Thanks, once again, JSC, for the great memes!
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Happy Easter! 
#104
#105 For Good Friday…
#106
This is me the past few days, sleeping 12 or 13h… (partly due to CBD oil…)
#107
And me today after less than 11h…
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THAT IS SOOOOOOOOOO FUNNY AND TRUE! 
The last meme.
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Sleep
Wdn’t’ve thought that sleep would get such a problem for me… The only one that isn’t me at the moment is the anxiety one, #113, but there are those times too…
#98, #106, #107 plus
#108
Tomorrow I’ll feel better and be productive - I tell myself for the 1200th night in a row
#109
I am a person who wants to do a lot of things trapped in in the body of a person who wants to sleep
#110
I feel like I could sleep forever
#111
I pretty much spend all day, everyday, just looking forward to going back to sleep.
#112
Morning: exhausted! Afternoon: dying for a nap! Night: can’t sleep!
#113
Anxiety is not being able to sleep because you said something wrong two years ago and can’t stop thinking about it.
#114
Chronic illness: no matter how much sleep you get you will still be tired, and no matter how tired you are still won’t be able to sleep.
#115
Sometimes the most productive thing one can do is to sleep.
#116
I hate that moment when you’re tired and sleepy, but as soon as you get to bed your body is like, “Just kidding”.
#117
I’ve forgotten what it’s like to have a normal sleeping pattern.
OMG! This one (#113) cracked me up SO MUCH! Sometimes, this is ME! I have to stop myself and say, “Girl, this is ridiculous!!!” and finally go to sleep!
Thanks, JSC! Sometimes it is very therapeutic to laugh at ourselves 
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#118 Reposting a great one, seen by @Sheila_W on fa$ebook yonks ago…:
Then looking for further pics hinted at by her, I found this thread
which has cats all over, a bit of a dog here and there, visualizes mainly brain fog,
and the last post tells a story which fits very well in this visualization-thread, and could almost be true…
#119
A nice overview by @Katha I found which I don’t want to be lost:
Holy cow, most of these are extremely relatable. Thank you for posting this and to everyone else who also contributed with their memes. It’s reassuring to know that there are people out there in this vast world that I can relate with and know know what we all have to deal with on a daily basis. Love to all your lovelies. 
I’ve been ‘lazy’ here, but still got 100s in the pipeline… so ask… 
In the meantime I’ve realized today that invisibility is a core “symptom” of fibro and these memes are “treatments”, so I’m putting them at the top of my online symptom & treatment lists (0.), even above pain (1.). Oh: As lack of understanding also may be a additional trigger, for a vicious circle, I’ll put it on “causes/triggers” too.
(It’d got mentions at the beginning, but not clearly enough.)
I’ve also changed this thread title so it reads “visualize … (the) … invisible”
Thinking about the term “invisible chronic sicknesses”, I realized that chronicity is another, and complexity (/polysymptomatic) also (via a quote on wordhippo when I looked up chronic as a noun there) as core symptoms.)…
What I’ve added there for the moment as “treatment” is the short form of this:
On the emotional level I try some of the memes/pix, e.g. on threads here or elsewhere (<pics & memes visualize fibromyalgia>, ), clear descriptions (flu, rhino/train, tin man, our drama of “sick etc. on good days, sicker on the others”), if I were a woman, I’d ask if I’m being discriminated as a woman (‘drama queen’/‘overdramatizing’/‘hysterical’) and point out that many men have it too (recent research reflected on wikipedia says 2:1), take my partner with me to a knowledgeable doc.
On the insight level: learn to describe my symptoms clearly, educate myself (books, videos, online resources) to educate all others (docs, partners, friends, bosses, colleagues, acquaintances), brochures & similar summaries…
Thank you. Made me chuckle. I needed that.
For @fibrohelp (pun there too…) - I’ll celebrate you and @Dodi saying hello on this thread with my remaining subjective 10 out of 10s. Before going down to all the many 9s - if anyone is interested…
#120
“I can’t remember the last time I was comfortable, sitting, standing, lying down, playing, relaxing. With fibromyalgia the most I can hope for is the least uncomfortable of all possibilities.”
#121
FIBROMYALGIA is like a tree. It branches out like nerves THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE BODY. Now set those branches on fire. That is what it feels to have FIBROMYALGIA.
#122
"The biggest lie I tell myself is “I don’t need to write that down, I’ll remember it.”
Eugh? It’s no lie: I BELIEVE IT! Every b***** time.
#123
“WORKING WITH CHRONIC PAIN IS LIKE RIDING A BIKE. Except the bike is on fire, and you’re on fire, and everything is on fire, and you’re in Hell.”
(Ehm, I’m a biker/cyclist: Never can I be in hell when I’m on a bike…)
OK, there’s a few more in the same sub-file
#124
“I’m just going to put an “out of order” sticker on my forehead and call it a day.”
(Ehm, yeah, some of my days are just stickers on my forehead, when I’m in brain fog…
Sorry for that, bit cheesy…
)
#125 I was made aware of this one by a male colleague, who just saw it’s a man (for a change), but didn’t see the butterfly wings…
“Foundation for Chiropractic Progress Supports Fibromyalgia Awareness”
#126
“It’s better to be slow going than to be not going at all! Chronic Pain Hurts!”
and totally off-topic, so not getting a #number, a picture spotted at a charity event for children and thought to look like Winnie the Pooh, posted elsewhere the other day… (my wife thought photoshopped…):
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Sometimes we give up when others outside our support here don’t understand what we are going thru.
Several reasons & ways of changing this… (but only) if or when we feel able to.
1 reason is to raise awareness for us all. Another 2 to make ourselves stronger. A third 3 to encourage empathy generally. It’s not just about FM, it’s not just about all invisible chronic pain diseases, it’s about everybody who’s different, whether physically, mentally or identity. Every time we perhaps manage to do it, we are raising mutual understanding. That isn’t to put pressure on us tho, that would not be self-caring/self-understanding.
I’ve put a 4th and 5th very important reason down below, at the end.
To get thru to others (incl. “our previous selves” and even our present selves!) we need to increase empathy by relating to known experiences and to use pictures and memes. Experiences would be the flu or a cold. First it helps for people to remember (by being asked by us) what a flu feels like, and then we can tell them in a build-up: Now imagine you had the flu “several” days a week, and the other days a week just a cold. Pre-fibro I’d’ve really needed to hear storyies like: Only 2 hours of non-REM sleep… feel like I’ve been in a car crash… sun burnt … needle pricks all over my arms… IBS… sensory overload… nausea… And if people can’t take that and shun me or don’t ask that darn question anymore, they’re very welcome.
In the last few months I’ve been developing various “percentage”-scales - first for others, but it’s also become useful for myself. I’ve been using 60-90% for how “well” I’m feeling and the typical “pain number” of 1-4 of 7 (incl. loads of treatment and not overdoing it too much). But my colleagues want to know “if/when I’ll get better” or “when I’ll be back” after the jabs. For the first question my answer is now that for my activity level compared with pre-fibro (let’s say 10h/d) I’m now aiming for 40% , after fibro brought me down to 20% and esp. meds and doc treatments brought me down to 5-10% and my own physio & supps were bringing me up again. For the second question again the jabs have brought me down to 5-10% and with a lot of extra physio & supps I got this up to 30%, 2nd jab brought it back down to 10%. I’ll be back when I can again start aiming for 40%. So I don’t paint pictures any more - they know that - I just put it in a number. That’s the 4th reason it’s good to explain: So people can get the perspective on what may be coming up.
A different way of explaining how I’m feeling is also very necessary in interaction, a 5th reason it’s good to explain how I’m feeling. At the moment I can only meet people for 30 minutes. Today I had a 20 minute phone call to get someone else help which knackered me for about 2 hours. Online 60 minutes can be OK, depending. All altho I’m mentally and emotionally 100%, no fog, no depression, no anxiety etc. So no way am I gonna pretend I’m fine. Whether I feel pain & exhaustion coming on or I don’t after a time I say, “OK (not!: sorry), I’m at (or over) my limit, let’s continue some other time”, Bye and put the phone down or go in! So “over the limit” would be another way of saying how I’m feeling, even if I’m not exactly explaining it. “Why didn’t I pick up the phone the other day?” “Cos I was over the limit.” No discussion.
The “Spoon Theory” is one well-known example for a ‘picture story’, originally more for fatigue, but it can be adapted for pain as well: the less spoons the more pain.
Some people imagine putting pics and memes like the above up somewhere or on T-shirts in non-web life, but I don’t know if anyone really does…? O.o
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About time for a few new pics, too, from my gigantic collection, not just my long blah-blah…
No comments, no explanations, takes too much time and is probably the main reason I’d taken a break. I always put them up at 50% size. Sorry if that’s too small, but I think it’s better for such a loaded thread…
#127
#128
#129
#130
#131
#131
#132
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Actually I do think it’s very sensible for docs to tell people with fibro to look it up on good sites and join forums, far better than pretending they new exactly how it works for every single person they only see on average for a few minutes a month… and not knowing anything about this specific variety of it…! Ha - @AussieMom, am I gonna beat ya to it? 
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