Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME (CFS) is a debilitating condition and can often take years to diagnose, usually when all other diagnoses have been exhausted. Overwhelming fatigue is one of the most prominent symptoms, others may include low-grade fever, muscular aches and pains, poor memory and concentration ‘brain fog’, sleep disturbances, headaches, sore throat, noise sensitivity to name but a few. With CFS, multiple systems within the body are affected: nervous, immune and hormonal systems. Yoga teaches us to retrain the body and calm the bodies systems through synchronization of the breath with movement.
Long Haul Covid Recovery
We were told that most of us would be ill with Covid-19 for 2-3 weeks, however there is a growing number of us who are continuing to experience a variety of symptoms for weeks, months and years following initial infection. How you manage your recovery is so important and finding the right support is vital. CFS/ME research has been underfunded for many years and hopefully now more funds will be directed into looking at why some of us are now ‘long haul’, effective treatments, benefiting those who have been unwell with CFS/ME for years and more funding for the NHS CFS/ME fatigue management services.
I found an nice link: Covid-19 Road to Recovery with simple tips which may offer some help:
https://www.csp.org.uk/public-patient/covid-19-road-recovery
I have posted on my Facebook page links to other helpful resources and research studies.
Having joined a ‘long haul’ support group, it was a relief to know I was not alone with on going symptoms. With re-establishing my own yoga practice, I can seen feel my body responding, muscle aches easing, muscles relaxing and energy slowly creeping back up. I learned through my CFS experience that its important not to mind feeling tired, surround yourself with positive people ask for help and remember with each crash we learn. Have fun and do nice things, sit in the garden and nature, breath and smile.
Recommended Facebook support groups:
Suzy Bolt runs classes and courses specific to Long Covid Recovery recordings of classes can be found on her YouTube channel: Yoga for Long Covid with Suzy Bolt 360mindbodysoul – YouTube its a fantastic resource and Suzy is a real inspiration.
(1) Yoga and meditation for gentle Covid recovery with Suzy Bolt. | Groups | Facebook
(1) Positive Path Of Wellness – (Long Covid Uk) | Groups | Facebook
I am producing a series of yoga videos to help with long covid recovery, they may not be suitable for everyone or your stage of recovery, a starting block is breathing exercises and relaxation, then progress to dynamic relaxation sequence. The quality of my lockdown recording can vary, I suggest watching first to see if the class is right for you.
Please read my disclaimer and listen to my safety recording prior to class participation found on my Classes page.
I have made my meditation and relaxation recordings public on SoundCloud.
Long Haul Covid Recovery Yoga: Louise Dennis Yoga
Class 2: Bedtime Yoga
For when you are feeling more recovered:
Class 3: Yoga and meditation to support the immune system
The first part is more active with standing movements, depending on your stage in recovery you wish to fast forward to practice the humming meditation and relaxation.
Letting go of Fear Sequence Christmas Class
This sequence starts standing and includes forward bends (can also be performed seated), seated breathing exercise and a guided meditation.
Dru Stepping forward Sequence
This is a short sequence for letting go of yesterday and stepping forward into a new day. Can be practised standing or seated.
Living with Wisdom Sequence: Dru EBR4
When you are ready for a more active class (includes forward bends) this class includes a gentle warm up, EBR4 (could be performed from a chair), Flowing tree (to help improve balance and concentration) and is completed with a guided meditation.
NEW: JOIN A RESEARCH STUDY: DecodeME (due to start 2021, register your interest here).
Get Involved
A study using an isometric yoga programme designed for CFS/ME have release a 20 minute video enabling a guided seated home practice. Slow movements, co-ordinated with humming, the ‘bee breath’ (helping to reduce stress and anxiety) were shown to reduce symptoms of fatigue in the study participants when practised daily. Give it a try! Follow the link to YouTube: http://CFS/ME isometric programme
Why is so little known about ME? Listen to TV journalist Gary Burgess experience of living with CFS/ME: http://BBC Radio 5 Live
To read more about Dru Yoga and its health benefits click on the link below:
Exciting new research Yoga and CFS 2018
Whilst the NHS is able to offer Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Graded Exercise Therapy as a treatment for CFS new treatments are being sought. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines recognise and recommends yoga as an effective treatment for treating pain, stress, depression and post breast cancer treatment fatigue. Despite breathing and relaxation being seen as beneficial for those with CFS, yoga has not been included as a recommended treatment due to lack of research evidence. A small number of studies have shown yoga to be acceptable and beneficial for CFS sufferers and I now know a number of yoga teachers who have also experienced and recovered from CFS. Yoga is not a cure for CFS and may not work for everyone but it has been shown to improve sleep, reduce fatigue and promote feelings of well being in those who took part in the research studies.
Having personal experience of CFS and experienced the benefits of regular yoga practice I was delighted when the CFS team who cared for me in Oxford asked me to develop a Yoga based programme for CFS patients. Over the coming months I will be designing the programme with the help of CFS patients and experienced yoga teachers and yoga therapists.
As CFS sufferers, our own experiences and symptoms will differ greatly, as will the experiences of our family, friends and work colleagues supporting us. This verse from a poem ‘I struggle’ by Tracy Davies, reflects some of my own experiences of living with CFS/ME and how other people responded with the best but often unhelpful of intentions!
I Struggle
I struggle
I struggle a lot
You won’t see it
You won’t feel it
That’s the way for me to be
Don’t disregard me, push away
That’s why you don’t get to see the real me
It hurts, it pains, knocks and blows
Try real acceptance and looking at thee
Don’t judge yourself by how I do
Judge yourself by how you do
Free and accepting of me
This is healing, this is real
If you have experience of CFS you may recognise this, the ‘don’t you look well’ when you are feeling truly dreadful ( you won’t see it). Putting on a performance just to crash the moment they walk out the door (you won’t feel it). The ‘well I can’t do that’ (don’t judge yourself by how I do) or the other unhelpful opinions of what is really wrong with you….it’s your age, its the menopause, you must be depressed.. familiar?
I feel very fortunate that despite my life being put on hold I am now traveling a path that perhaps I would not have found if it wasn’t for CFS so for that I’m grateful. I have been fortunate to have a fantastic support network surround me, if not always able to understand, always there. Whilst my body keeps telling me in various ways that I’m no longer an endurance runner or triathlete, I’ve been able to transfer my competitive side into a more chilled out yogi! Yoga has helped me to become more grounded, flexible, regain muscle strength, improve my breathing and taught me the art of relaxation. Teaching friends yoga lake side in the summer, work colleagues in a lunch break, slowly they are beginning to understand and feel the benefits I have been telling them about, amazing!
The athlete has been tamed……well almost! Open water swimming has helped fill the gap not being able to run has left, the lovely support of the water, the meditative quality of being in a quiet bubble, lulled by the rhythm of each stroke.
Not only do I feel relaxed and have made lovely swim buddies it has opened a whole new world of possibilities! Open water swimming is thought to help boost the immune system and will promote feelings of well being.
I definitely feel more alive after a dip in the lake! The compression of the wet suit, it’s buoyancy and the swimming so relaxing, it was something I could do without completely wiping me out, go figure! Other physical exertions could wipe me out for days! More recent pre-swim yoga warm ups proved a great hit at
my local lake and saw improved performance in many
of my friends!
Whilst I tend not to ‘race’ I have been able to take part in events with friends. As my wonderful Specialist CFS Physio Charlie, once said when I told her I’d entered the ‘End-to End Swim of Lake Coniston’ (5.25 miles…yes really…) ‘why not, it will all be about how you recover’. I was expecting a lecture of “why I shouldn’t do it!”
With careful training, use of a heart rate monitor and yoga, lots of visualisation using a Dru sequence, EBR3 involving goal setting and the removal of obstacles I successfully completed the swim!
See: Coniston End to End
I even made it onto the video! I’m in the pink wave!!!!
Throughout my Graded Exercise Programme there were triumphs and set backs, Charlie helped me to gradually increase my exercise tolerance, rebuild muscle strength, enable me to manage set backs and not to be frightened to do things. The thought of doing something that may have a negative effect for days afterwards would stop me sometimes doing something I would enjoy and the message that has stayed with me is ‘NOT TO MIND BEING TIRED’. As my recovery progressed it was hard to challenge some of the barriers I had put up to protect myself but with support and yoga, I managed to find ways to manage my symptoms and to recognise when old patterns start to creep in and hopefully stop the ‘push crash cycle’ I once
inhabited. Sometimes more successfully than others!
Following discharge from the CFS clinic after two years of treatment I still felt there was more that I could do to aid my recovery further, a friend suggested I try Functional Medicine and after many months of procrastination I met with a Functional Medicine GP, Dr Sarah Davies, through in depth questionnaires, medical history and a host of tests she unearthed a number of undiagnosed medical conditions contributing to my on going fatigue. Through supporting my body with supplements during this time of healing, an overhaul of my diet and a lot of hard work I have succeeded in improving my energy levels further. Whilst I’m not cured, I’m managing my symptoms better and can see year by year improvements, some set backs and then glimpses of ‘normal energy’ only to be snatched away
…however I know it is there, can be achieved and in time sustained.
How we think can directly affect how we feel, not minding, being relaxed and having fun is so important. There is something different and special about Dru Yoga, it is difficult to put in words and best experienced, my latest slogan is:
‘ For the new you it has to be Dru!’
Being
The joy of being
Has begun again
Be open and willing
To receive to feel
To taste to hear
To see to smell
The essence of everyday magic
Within every minute thing
Tracy Davies 2016
