Managing Chronic Pain and Fibromyalgia

"Wisdom is nothing more than healed pain." 

~Robert Gary Lee

Several years ago, I received a letter from a reader asking for Self-Help recommendations to manage a label of Fibromyalgia. At that point I didn't know much about Fibromyalgia, so I did a search and learned what I could about this mysterious label. 

Fibromyalgia Quick Facts

• Affects 3 to 5 percent of the general population

• Occurs in people of all ages, even children

• Men develop fibromyalgia too, although more women are diagnosed with it

• Symptoms are chronic but may fluctuate throughout the day

• Roughly one-quarter of people with fibromyalgia are work-disabled

• Three drugs are FDA-approved for fibromyalgia treatment

What I found most interesting is that one of the criteria for diagnosing Fibromyalgia is tenderness or pain in at least 11 of the 18 specified tender points when pressure is applied. The 18 tender points associated with fibromyalgia are found in symmetrical pairs on the body. When I looked at the Tender Points Chart, I immediately thought of our Jin Shin Jyutsu Safety Energy Lock Chart! The "tender points" used to diagnose Fibromyalgia are all located on or near safety energy locks! 

Here is a tender-points chart side by side with a Safety Energy Lock Chart!

In Jin Shin Jyutsu we work with 26 pairs of energy centers in our bodies, referred to as Safety Energy Locks. These areas are much more than fixed points and encompass and area approximately the size of our hand. Each one of them has a specific meaning that is expressed through its number and is closely related to its placement on the body. They act like the circuit breakers on the electrical system in our homes and lock when the flow of energy in a pathway is too much, too little or stagnant-to warn and protect us from further disharmony.  

When one or more of these safety energy locks become blocked, a local disruption can occur, eventually resulting in disharmony of the energetic pathway completely. Just like in your home electrical system, if an outlet is overloaded, it blows the breaker that feeds that outlet, but does not shut down the whole electrical system. If the breaker is not reset, you can just shift the plugs to another outlet. This outlet will also break as it becomes overloaded and the process will continue until the entire system shuts down. A single breaker switch shutting down is a warning that you have overloaded the circuitry and attention must be paid to what you are doing. It is just the same thing with the energy system of our bodies. 

These twenty-six Energy Locks serve as breaker switches. If enough are blown over a period of time, disharmonies will occur in your physical, emotional, or mental well-being. The openness and flow of energy through our safety energy locks determine our health, balance and well-BE-ing.

It was easy for me to see that the relationship of these Fibromyalgia TenderPoints and Safety Energy Locks indicates a stagnation of the flow of life energy. 

Jin Shin Jyutsu teaches us to heed the warning of pain-which is our indicator that something is out of order and energy locks are shutting down. By simply holding the stuck energy center we can unlock the flow of energy and return ourselves to harmony. It really is that simple: Hold the pain and clear the stagnation!

I now see a number of clients in my practice who have the label of Fibromyalgia. Regular Jin Shin Jyutsu Sessions with a practitioner can be really helpful. One of my clients with this label usually comes weekly for a maintenance session. She finds the weekly sessions very helpful in managing her pain. This Summer she missed several weeks of sessions due to family vacations and house guests, etc... she said that she continued to do all of the other things that she knows helps her to keep the Fibro pain at bay (healthy eating, regular exercise including swimming, supplements and fibro meds) but she skipped her Jin Shin Jyutsu sessions with me. She said that leaving out the Jin Shin Jyutsu sessions was the only thing that she changed in her care plan and she was surprised to discover just how much the regular Jin Shin Jyutsu sessions made a difference in her pain level.

A common question people have when they first set off on the healing path is, "How many sessions will this take?" Well, it varies depending on the nature of the your project and what you want to achieve. Each of us is unique, so consequently, there is no set number of required sessions that works for everyone.

Know that the body wants to heal itself. The amount of time it takes to heal depends on how long and how elaborately your energy system has been adjusting to the disharmonies in the energetic pathways of the body and how out of balance you are - body, mind and spirit.  

It takes awhile for us to get out of harmony. The goal of each healing session is to focus on the harmony and to return the body, mind, and spirit to a place of balance. By releasing the blockages of your flow of energy, the life-force energy in your body is increased. Each healing session allows us to find and release energies that you may have tied up in a specific project, such as health issues, relationships, emotions and attitudes or anything else you wish to work on to bring more joy and harmony into your life.  It is in this place of balance and free flowing energy that healing occurs.

The process of change and transformation can happen quickly but it does not run on a fixed schedule. The rate of improvement is specific to you and may include a reduction in pain, deep relaxation, an increase in energy, or an improvement in overall health. If the condition is acute, it will usually resolve in fewer treatments, while chronic conditions may take longer. Your rate of healing is also dependent on how much energy or change that your body/being can withstand at any given time. Each session builds on the last since the healing process works in layers. As some parts of your body begin to heal, new underlying patterns become exposed and can also be addressed. Over a period of time, we clear more and more issues and learn how to operate in a new and healthy way.

When more time is spent receiving healing, the healing patterns are set more strongly, so your body begins to heal faster. The effects of regularly returning your body to balance are cumulative and lead to deep and sustained changes in the your life. These effects can become long lasting with a maintenance program of regular Jin Shin Jyutsu sessions paired with daily self-help.

“Pain is such an uncomfortable feeling 

that even a tiny amount of it 

is enough to ruin every enjoyment.” 

~Will Rogers