Sometimes when I go for days in pain, I don’t understand the source. Pain takes up a lot of mental space, makes me tired, and disrupts my productivity. When this happens “honor your boundaries” pops into my head. When out of balance, I have learned to prioritize my self-care, engage anew with the guidelines that keep me healthy. I try to remember that this is part of life, to weather and learn from disruptions; after all, healthy people have disturbances like a cold or staying up too late too. Years of Lyme disease erode resilience so that you might have a few more bumps than average.
Lyme disease is not my life, but it is a design element in my life. Just as the weather, where I live, my job, my social needs, my health plays a part in what and how I do things. Ignoring it will not work and only hurt me in the long term. I know I need to stay actively aware not to push too hard, to help me feel good and stay healthy. How about you?
Honor Your Boundaries
Honoring boundaries requires awareness, sensitivity, and honesty with yourself. You have to pay attention to the subtle signs or symptoms as you are approaching a limit; otherwise, you run yourself off the road into a ditch. Subtle symptoms are individual, I needed to learn what mine were. You may want to identify your subtle symptoms. Then identify and prioritize your needs in order to honor your boundaries. Begin to pay attention as life gets busy or stressful so that you can adapt quickly.
In Yoga, Brahmacharya is one of the five Yama (restraints) of nonexcess. Celibacy is one aspect of this Yama, but Deborah Adele in The Yamas and Nyamas teaches ways of honoring your boundaries to open your life to presence, real experience, and joy.
Playing with then embracing restraint as a tool works better than mandating restraint as a rule. The whole notion of must and should bring out the rebellious child in me and drive self-destructive behavior. When I ignore what I know is true and right for me, I blow through just right to too much, and go from feeling whole to diseased and out of balance.
My Subtle Signs of Lack of Restraint.
Fatigue
When I have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, I get exhausted. Day after day of fatigue is a subtle signal for honoring a self-care boundary. I know I need to look at my evening routine and make an adjustment. Give myself the wind-down time I need to get proper rest.
Itchy
Back itch, foot itch, eye itch, means check-in. Lighten up on my food, let go of anger, and spend less time staring at my computer screen. Do some self-massage and give my eyes a break.
Achy
When my hands and feet ache, it generally means I ate something to cause an inflammatory response. Most often, this happens at a restaurant, when I accidentally eat an ingredient not listed on the menu. I need to clean up my food, cook at home, and support healthy circulation to help calm achy symptoms down.
Weight Gain
Weight gain is a not so subtle sign that I am struggling with healthy food boundaries. Eating too much stresses my digestion and taxes all my systems. I am working to restrain and retrain my appetite. Finding just right the right food that nourishes me and keeps me healthy is a challenge that I am working on.
What Boundaries Do you feel you need?
Boundaries may be very individual. But when you pay attention and identify your needs, you can save yourself a lot of trouble. I will use myself as an example to jog your thinking process. My essential needs involve earth and space. As I write earth and space, it reads abstract even to me, so I will ground what I mean in examples.
Earth
Substance, grounding, and structure are vital for me to stay well and on course in my life. I need to be doing things I love in balance with active self-care and the stuff that needs doing. Love brings joy and keeps me in a relaxed state. At some level, holding to my daily self-care routine, (meditation, whole food, ease and healthy sleep) empowers me and motivates me to prioritize based on what I desire in my life. Co-creating my life at this level reminds me to take responsibility for my feelings and actions.
Space
Space in my schedule for self-care is critical. Space opens time for fun and creativity that keeps me engaged with my life and fuels my desire to live and learn. Space in my schedule keeps my stress level down and supports ease in my life.
Sometimes holding space open is tough, I have to accept that I can’t be president or do as many speaking engagements as my ego would like, but the alternative of feeling awful is not for me. Honor your boundaries is a phrase I use to remember that I want to feel healthy and do more as I am able in an upward spiral rather than crash and burn from over-extension.
The purpose of this article is to share and educate on Lyme disease recovery strategies. The information provided is not a substitute for professional medical care, treatment, or advice. All the material here is for information purposes only. Always share strategy and work with your health care team.