Fibromyalgia is a real downer… there’s no doubt there are a lot of things about this condition that can bring a person down. I experience them on a regular basis, and on most occasions, for me, the worst of it hits on the week-end for some crazy reason.

I can be “Debbie Downer” with the best of them, but I created my Twitter account and this blog to try and bring myself up (and those who I hope read this). I want to share my experience and hopefully give folks ideas on how to improve and live better lives. Selfishly, I hope folks give me ideas back so I can continue to learn. This week I thought I’d talk about my experience with yoga.

After dragging my feet for years, Restorative Yoga is really the getting me out of the house. I have been a hermit for months and finally my girlfriends convinced me to try yoga. Restorative Yoga, or I believe it is also referred to as Yin, is extremely gentle. I haven’t been able to get out of bed for months. This Yoga class has 15 minutes of gentle yoga to warm up… I’ll be honest, I generally only do about 50% of this as I can’t handle all of it, but I either modify or just relax during this part. This warm up part is where you do a lot of stretching exercises. I can’t bend over while standing so you can just forget that stuff!

The restorative part is where I am diggin’ this yoga stuff. Lights out, candles lit, soft relaxing music… all of these poses are done on the floor… EXTREMELY gentle. Each pose is held for 5 minutes. This is very relaxing…

I get two mats for the poses where you are on your knees, otherwise I am in pain. For the second mat, I fold it over twice and put it on top of the first mat so I have triple padding. It’s perfect!

I am a pretty anxious person… the first time I went I wasn’t quite sure about the class…. the second time I was starting to like it… now I love it! I look forward to it!! Honestly, this is ME time. Time to just relax and clear my mind for an hour. I don’t have to think about my pain, work, stress, or what words I need to use to finish my sentence! I can finally shut my foggy brain OFF! Woohoo!!

My girlfriends are the best, they go with me… grab your friends and go. I hope you find it as restorative as I do!

What do you do that takes your mind completely off your pain??