Healing from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia
The world-leading team at The Optimum Health Clinic offer strategies to support healing from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia.
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Why inspiration matters
01/19/2021
Why inspiration matters
Alex talks about the importance of finding ways to stay inspired on the recovery path, including listening to stories of people who have reached milestones or made recoveries over various hardships. Having the mindset that improvement or recovery might be possible changes how motivated you might be to make helpful decisions and take positive action.
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AMA Part 3
01/12/2021
AMA Part 3
Alex continues his Ask Me Anything list of questions from participants on Facebook and the Facebook Community Group - this week covering issues around how to afford treatment and deal with HR and benefits from work, building up confidence in stage 3 of recovery, and what can cause relapse after a full recovery was made.
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New Beginnings
01/05/2021
New Beginnings
"Courage isn't the absence of fear, courage is the ability to take action and keep moving forward in spite of the fear." On the eve of announcing the Fatigue Super Conference 2019, Alex shares a moment on the launching pad about taking risks and trying new things - and we hope you'll enjoy what's coming up next for The Optimum Health Clinic. Find out more about the Fatigue Super Conference at https://fatiguesuperconference.com/
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Set goals you can achieve
12/29/2020
Set goals you can achieve
As we turn into the New Year and think about the goals we want to set, Alex gives advice on the kid of achievable goals that can be explored with ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia, and how to take into consideration what stage of recovery you are in to make realistic resolutions.
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Dealing with overwhelm
12/22/2020
Dealing with overwhelm
Alex addresses a common worry amongst patients - especially with the recent Fatigue Super Conference - that when starting a new program or course there can be a feeling of too much overwhelm. Alex offers some tips on how to tackle overwhelm and also shares his vision moving forward with new short filmed sessions with patients
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Surviving the Holidays
12/17/2020
Surviving the Holidays
Alex offers some tips on how to approach the holiday season as strategically as you can by communicating your needs, acknowledging your boundaries, pacing your energy and relax and have fun based on your protocols and parameters with where you are. (recorded 2018)
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Ask Me Anything Part 2
12/09/2020
Ask Me Anything Part 2
Alex answers questions directly from users on Facebook, discussing the achiever type and the inner critic, how to address anger and resentment with ME CFS, and ways to work with trauma other than EFT.
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Why work with a practitioner?
12/02/2020
Why work with a practitioner?
Solving the individual puzzle of ME CFS and/or Fibromyalgia for each patient is a very complex problem in the personalised medicine approach. In this video, Alex explains why it would be beneficial to work with a practitioner specialising in interpreting tests and personalising your therapy for your best healing journey.
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Ask Me Anything
11/25/2020
Ask Me Anything
Alex takes questions from The Optimum Health Clinic community group about recovering from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia and updates about the work at the clinic.
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Don't forget the big stuff
11/18/2020
Don't forget the big stuff
Alex discusses the importance of taking a step back to look at the bigger habits or themes in our life that cause ongoing stress that need to be addressed. So many of the tools for recovery are small daily habits to help calm the nervous system and support the healing process - but larger problems like chemical or mould exposure, stressful relationships, or difficult life circumstances need to take precedence and steps in our attention to help us move forward in a meaningful way.
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The Power of Self Awareness
11/11/2020
The Power of Self Awareness
Being able to understand our own issues, limitations, and challenges helps us find the best techniques to allow us to heal and grow. Having a lighthearted approach to ourselves, our faults and our weaknesses can empower us to have better relationships with ourselves and others.
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Do we need to fix everything to be well?
11/04/2020
Do we need to fix everything to be well?
In this Facebook Live session, Alex dispels the idea that we have to become perfect before we can heal. There are SOME issues that will need to be resolved, or at least attended to to remove some blocks to recovery, and to get you into a healing state.
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Healthy Living James' Recovery Story
10/28/2020
Healthy Living James' Recovery Story
James became ill with ME CFS in 2010, so ill he was bed-bound and his father had to carry him to the hospital. With support from his family, James slowly has recovered to 85% over 9 years by listening to his body and pacing carefully, and is now sharing what he has learned about healthy eating with his successful social media brand, Healthy Living James. While James was not a patient with the OHC, he found inspiration from our OHC Live videos and reached out to us to share his story.
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It's not what you do, it's the way you do it
09/08/2020
It's not what you do, it's the way you do it
Alex talks about the difference between using the tools to feel better and focusing on the state of mind we are in while using them. Having an awareness of where we are emotionally can help us loosen the grip on the effort we are making and we can practice our tools from a better place mentally.
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The OHC's approach to supplements
09/01/2020
The OHC's approach to supplements
Alex talks to Helen Lynam, previously the Director of Nutrition at The Optimum Health Clinic, about our approach to supplements, why we recommend what we do, how individualised each patient's protocol is, and why we use the suppliers we do.
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Use the carrot not the stick
08/25/2020
Use the carrot not the stick
Motivation is usually stronger when we are moving towards things that we want, versus trying to avoid negative consequences. Finding inspiration to move towards a reward will help you feel a lot clearer about your actions than trying to achieve something simply to avoid pain. Are you waiting for something worse to happen before you will feel motivated to make change, or can you find a positive reason for working towards feeling a little better now?
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Paulie's recovery story
08/18/2020
Paulie's recovery story
Paulie from the Netherlands shares her story and recovery journey through ME/CFS. Beginning as a teenager, Paulie suffered from anxiety, IBS and severe fatigue, which fluctuated for a few years before steadily becoming worse. Now 90% recovered Paulie has a new outlook on life, is able to continue working her career in nutrition science, has better tools to manage expectations, and continues to improve her physical symptoms.
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The boring middle way
08/11/2020
The boring middle way
Finding the balance between being sensible about our recovery and being very driven and disciplined with our tools can be a challenge. Sometimes making deep and lasting changes for life may not be as thrilling as the idea of it is - and here Alex offers some guidance on how to navigate the patience and excitement of making real change.
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Paddy's recovery story
08/04/2020
Paddy's recovery story
Alex talks to patient Paddy who at the time of this recording was in the late reintegration stage of the recovery process from ME/CFS. Paddy discusses the onset of his symptoms and what helped him most through working with The Optimum Health Clinic
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The importance of support
07/28/2020
The importance of support
The isolation of chronic illness can change and reset many of our relationships. The people and activities that used to make sense for our life no longer fit the same way. Alex discusses the importance of making a conscious effort to build new relationships that fit the context of our life during and after the intense experience recovery from ME CFS and/or fibromyalgia. (Nov 2018)
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Commitment and Surrender
07/21/2020
Commitment and Surrender
Commitment and surrender are two keywords that are essential in the psychological approach to healing from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia. Both words can be a double-edged sword, and finding the balance in each is essential to being aware of achiever patterns and practising acceptance.
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Gemma's Recovery Story
07/14/2020
Gemma's Recovery Story
Gemma shares her recovery story with Alex, from starting to feel ill with a viral-like illness she couldn't recover from to acknowledging and working with her achiever patterns in order to relax and recover. Gemma shares what tools worked for her and how her sustained practice over a few years helped her reach full recovery. (Nov 2018)
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Use technology don't let it use you
07/07/2020
Use technology don't let it use you
Founder of The Optimum Health Clinic Alex Howard discusses the benefits and pitfalls of technology as both useful and overly stimulating tools. The importance of being in a calm healing state is essential to recovery from ME/CFS and if you decide to practice mindfulness around your technology use it can be a great benefit to making sure you don't get too overloaded by it. A great way to know if media is helping you is to take a moment to ask, is this helping me right now? (recorded Nov 2018)
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Embrace the tortoise
06/30/2020
Embrace the tortoise
In this week's Facebook Live, founder of the Optimum Health Clinic Alex Howard uses the fable of the tortoise and the hare as a metaphor for recovery from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia. (recorded October 2018)
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The boatload of recovery
06/22/2020
The boatload of recovery
Just as multiple factors often are involved when one falls ill with ME/CFS (the overloaded boat), the process of recovery also includes multiple factors, methods, and variables to re-build health. The practitioners of The Optimum Health Clinic use an integrative approach to craft individualised programs to help patients during different stages or recovery with variable symptoms to help them move forward in the best way possible.
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We are all messed up
04/07/2020
We are all messed up
Once we begin to do work on our own patterns and issues, we can feel like we're more "messed up" than other people - Alex reminds us that everyody has issues, but not everyone is looking at them or working on them. In working on your practices be kind to yourself and remember that nobody has everything figured out.
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You can't fill up someone else's emotional well
03/31/2020
You can't fill up someone else's emotional well
Energy depleting relationships tend to follow a pattern of having to constantly support or hold up another person in a co-dependent relationship. Helper types tend to use their energy attending to other people before themselves. Alex discusses some ways to recognize if this pattern is taking place in your life and how to start to build up your own resources and your own well of self-importance on the path of recovery from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia.
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The body's innate wisdom
03/24/2020
The body's innate wisdom
Being chronically ill can mean all of our conscious attention is usually on the things that are not working. Alex gives the suggestion to also give mindful attention to the things in the body that are still working properly.
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5 stages of meeting our needs
03/17/2020
5 stages of meeting our needs
Alex Howard discusses understanding our own needs, including emotional needs, and how we might look to get those needs met. Alex discusses the tendency for Helper types to put other people's needs first and how we can start to prioritize our own. Once we recognize what we need, and learn how to ask for help and/or develop resourcefulness can be an important piece of supporting recovery from ME, CFS and Fibromyalgia.
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The importance of practices
03/10/2020
The importance of practices
Following up on the importance of the basics, Alex discusses the importance of practices - the practical activities we need on a day to day basis to encourage the recovery process. He also emphasizes the importance of following different practices during the right time and stage of the recovery process.
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