And the power of your mind…
I grew up abroad, in a place much warmer than the UK, where my dad grew pineapples in the back garden. We could buy pineapples all year round (unlike apples and oranges that were ridiculously seasonal). Sometimes you’d bite into a piece of pineapple and it was as sweet as Haribo. Other times, it would be so sour it felt like your mouth was turning inside out and your eyeballs were getting sucked back into your skull. The thing is, because these fruity beauties were ripened under a hot tropical sun, they all looked golden yellow-orange; you couldn’t tell how sweet they were going to be until you actually bit into it. Even now, nearly 20 years after I moved back to the UK, I only have to think about pineapple and my mouth starts watering at the thought of the horrendous, eye-watering sourness.
“But how on earth is this relevant to anything other than old lady reminisces?” (That was our front patch, complete with duck, papaya tree and yet another puppy) I hear you cry. Well, I do actually salivate just at thinking about pineapples (doing it right now you’ll be pleased to hear), and it gets worse if I pick a pineapple up, and even worse as I cut one, smell it and am just about to bite into it.
This is the power of my mind. I think about a pineapple and my mouth starts juicing up, ready to swallow down the horror should it turn out to be a lime, not a Haribo. I don’t even have to see one, or touch it, or smell it, just the memory makes my mouth go for it.
So my brain makes my body react. My thoughts alone can give my body a symptom.
Ha! I bet you can see where I’m going with this.
I recently started yet another recovery attempt, this time with ANS Rewire by Dan Neuffer ( https://ansrewire.com/ ) . He goes into detail on the mind-body connection. I have no problem with this at all. It’s not all in my head as in I’m imagining it, but it IS a neurological dysfunction. My symptoms are real, scary, painful and affect every aspect of my life but my brain has a lot to do with it.
When people ask me how I am, if I’m feeling a bit shaky and I start telling them about it, I feel worse. That’s not to say that my joints weren’t burning already, but talking about it, makes them hurt worse. While I’m typing this, my neck pain is getting worse simply because I’m thinking about it.
So I’m trying to harness the power of the pineapple and use my brain power for me, instead of against me. Trying to stop the negative, symptom-checking and assessing thoughts and concentrating on making good choices for health is hard work. I’ve realised I’m constantly scanning for problems but I’m hoping with practice, this will lessen off.
I’ll keep you posted.
Silhouette of Me 
Ohh! You have just given me a lightbulb moment! I used to be a medical secretary in the NHS but had to give it up when I became ill. Now I work at home doing medical transcription. I started doing 4 hours a day, then dropped it to 2 hours a day. About a week ago I stopped altogether for a while to give myself time to rest properly to see if it kick starts my recovery forwards. The specialty I type is Pain clinics, and on Fridays its fibromyalgia. Focusing on pain like this makes me focus on my own pain. Surely it can’t be helpful. Food for thought in the shape of a pineapple.
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Wow! That’s fascinating! Just goes to show how busy our subconscious is. I wonder if you transcribed a different type of clinic whether it would have the same effect.
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It is so true that the more you think of something the more you feel it. I think we briefly chatted about this. Lately I’m trying to focus more on the positive. Which is hard to do.
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It really is difficult, especially with certain persistent worries that your brain keeps going back to.
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