A good number of PWME have, understandably, described feeling 'stuck' - stuck in body, or mind, or stuck in life itself. Even worse, the trauma of illness can easily lead to a genuine sense of feeling 'frozen'. Alleviating this stuckness should naturally mean improved wellbeing. But additionally there is a group of ME recoverers for whom a central thread in their recovery could be characterised as taking physical steps to breathe new life into body and mind - to, perhaps, add some blood, oxygen, 'chi' or 'flow' where previously things were stuck. It might be said they reclaimed their bodies from illness.
Sometimes this has involved ongoing commitment to mind body exercise regimes like yoga, qigong, tai chi or Alexander technique. If there is a common theme or process here, it appears to be a sense of these recoverers building wellness in themselves which naturally generates a continuing enthusiasm (often a passion) for building more. Some of these regimes can be pursued very gently and imply no increase in exercise levels.
The gentle stretching that is widely recommended as appropriate exercise for ME seems to be the natural place for PWME to plug into the process just outlined. ME can be a very passive, constricted experience: 'things we should resist doing', 'things we must do to get better'. Replacing that somewhat dull 'gentle stretching' with a joyous goal of reclaiming our bodies form stuckness by stretching and breathing in new life seems a positive approach to replicating the pathway of these ME recoverers.
Yoga seems to be the most straightforward choice to illustrate this, but 'other brands are available'. Regular experience of even a few moments of vitality can be a 'reconnect' to a type of wellness long forgotten with ME. What might 'vitality for ME with yoga' be? Perhaps it starts with adopting and simply staying with appropriate yoga postures, rather than attempting any increase in activity. Next level: the stretch which is just a tiny bit more than any movement or posture you usually achieve.
Sometimes a regime like yoga will feel exactly the wrong thing for stuckness - something looser, freer, without format, more expressive can suit better. MeMap has frequently witnessed a shaking out of the body exercise before qigong classes. Attendees just shake out, loosen, stretch out any part the body or mind that needs freeing in whatever way it seems to want. A few sounds or groans are added too to let out anything being held in.
Sensations of stuck breathing are commonly reported by PWME. The above activities should naturally tend to unstick breathing. For those for whom activity is unrealistic, attempts to lie or sit in positions where the arms, shoulders and chest are more opened (or naturally stretched) out, might help any sense of the breath being stuck.
Everything written above perhaps equally applies in a slightly different scenario. PWME have described becoming somewhat divorced from their own bodies. If our ill body is not giving us what we need of it, it can naturally follow that we return the compliment in some way by ceasing to give the body what it needs from us. So, to paraphrase, instead of waking in the morning and thinking, 'How will I cherish my body today? What does it need?' We may instead disappointedly rather ignore, and disconnect from, it. Most of the words written above for 'Unsticking the stuck' would seem to offer a natural way to re-engage with the body.