Are you feeling ongoing effects from Lyme? Add rejuvenation activities to your recovery plan.  Long term Lyme disease deeply depletes nutrients and negatively impacts the quality of the tissues your body produces. So you limp along instead of thriving.  Rejuvenation will strengthen your Lyme recovery. Invest in improving the health of your life going forward with self-care.

Many people consider rejuvenation an unnecessary form of pampering and dismiss it as mollycoddling.  Rich people go to spas to rest and get pampered.  But for chronic Lyme disease, rejuvenation is an investment in reclaiming your life.  When they get through antibiotic treatment, many people feel much better than before treatment.  That doesn’t mean they stay well. Ongoing Rejuvenation supports you feeling well moving forward.

3 Key Elements of Rejuvenation

Lyme creates much wear and tear on the body. We need to take care of ourselves actively, or breakdowns occur. The pain and stress actively undermine, deplete natural reserves that support well being. With Lyme disease, it is difficult to get restful sleep, you often feel anxious, stressed because you feel out of touch with your body and impaired digestion makes it challenging to get the nutrients you need for repair from the standard American diet. You probably realize that rejuvenation will strengthen your Lyme recovery but where do you start?

The pace of regular life doesn’t promote recovery. Our culture pushes busyness, multitasking, and eating on the fly; this builds stress into each day. Rejuvenation requires less busyness, relaxation time to digest nourishing foods, and deep rest.

 Over time people and things wear out. We refurbish cars, computers, and smartphones all the time to extend their useful life.  They might have a scar or two but are fully functioning and ready for action.  How about some ongoing self refurb? Build three vital elements into your day to support rejuvenation and recovery.

Nutrient-Dense Easy to Digest Foods.

After treatment and medications, your digestion won’t be at its strongest. Keep away from dead nutrient-deficient foods that tax digestion and create considerable waste. Add color and living foods to your meal plans. Make time in your schedule to sit down, eat, and chew each meal rather than gobble food down.

Pay attention to how you feel before and after you eat.  Food that is healthy for you makes you feel good. Depending on how you have trained your taste buds, you may not love the taste of healthy foods, but your body still loves how they act in your body. When eating makes you groggy or exhausted, this is a sign of too much food and too much sweet.  Also, if you feel bloated, have acid indigestion or get diarrhea or constipated after food that indicates you are not digesting optimally.

Consistent Relaxation or Ease

The sympathetic nervous system is in control when we are stressed.  Research has documented the negative impact of stress on health in the body. Emotions like anger, frustration, fear create a stress response in our body. When stressed, the sympathetic nervous system is dominant, digestion, detox, and healing and repair get turned off, so you can be focused and ready to respond to threats.

On the other hand, relaxation helps us move into our parasympathetic nervous system, where the body prioritizes taking care of itself.  Find relaxation practices that work for you.  Add them to your day.

Meditation is relaxing and rejuvenating, but if you have trouble sitting in stillness, try a progressive relaxation video, a yoga class or an afternoon walk each day.  To keep activities relaxing, let go of measuring or needing to compete.  Just be when you relax and notice how that feels. Joy happiness and peace are common feelings associated with relaxation.  When people begin to relax, it can make them feel the fatigue hiding under all that stress. 

Sleep

Well-nourished relaxed people sleep better than nutrient-starved stressed people do.  Recovery needs deep, enjoyable sleep.  Health benefits get optimized when you sleep between 10 pm, and 6 am.  While that is not possible for everyone, go to bed early and wake up early. Try to sleep at least 7 to 8 hours each night. Give your body the nighttime rest time it needs for digestion, clean up, and repair.

If discomfort from pain, anxiety, or having to pee too much is disrupting your sleep.  Address these issues.  Develop a wind-down routine to move you into a state where you want to sleep

Lyme teaches the need for self-care. Rejuvenation supports rebuilding and recovery; it sends a message of self-care and love.

The purpose of this article is to share and educate on  Lyme disease recovery strategies. The information provided on this website 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.