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Summer Renewal

© Cynthia Webber (Jausten)

Summer is upon us, and with it comes different stresses and changes in our lives. Those of us with children have them home from school, and even those without children have to put up with the noise and disturbance of children outside playing. Trying to take a nap during the afternoon when windows need to be opened for a breeze can make resting difficult. Also, trying to nap with children or even young adults frequently disturbing us can become draining.

The weather can affect our levels of pain and fatigue, and depending upon where one lives, it can either be a blessing or a curse. Some of us do better when the weather turns warmer, but others of us become more fatigued as the weather changes. Trying to walk or do something outside when the weather is unstable makes it more difficult for us to stick with an exercise program.

The lazy days of summer aren't always helpful for those of us who are trying to keep our pain and fatigue levels down. Holidays and outings can cause more stress, pain, and fatigue, and trying to limit ourselves to what we know we can handle when others make demands upon us is also difficult. Summer visitors can create more stress for us unless we plan and prepare for their visits. Letting visitors know that we can't spend an entire day walking through a park or driving for hours to visit something of interest to them can be difficult to do. However, we have to be assertive about what we know we can do and what we can't do.

Gardens and yards need work to be done on them as plants and weeds grow, and trying to spend an entire day ridding one's yard of weeds is unreasonable to expect of ourselves. Even spending an hour bent over trying to maintain our yards can cause us to go into a flare and be in bed for a day.

The important thing to remember is to pace ourselves. The sun may be shining, and our windows may be dirty, but trying to clean an entire house of windows isn't something that we should be doing. Our neighbors who don't live with the pain and fatigue of fibromyalgia may be able to do such things, but we have to remember that we can't. We can clean one window each day, or weed our gardens for a short period of time, and even go on an outing, but we can't do all three things in one day.

The copyright of the article Summer Renewal in Fibromyalgia is owned by Cynthia Webber (Jausten). Permission to republish Summer Renewal in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.