Break Free: A Heart-Centered Path to Healing Fibromyalgia
- May 16
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 2
By Michelle Seguin
Fibromyalgia is so much more than chronic pain. It’s the silent scream of a nervous system pushed to the edge, a body begging to be heard, and a soul quietly asking, “Can we come back home now?”
I know this because I lived it. My symptoms began around age 32 after a minor stroke. I was working a high-pressure job, balancing career and family, constantly pouring from an empty cup. What I didn’t know then was that my body had been whispering for years. When I didn’t listen, it started to scream with pain, brain fog, and exhaustion.
1. Listen to the Body’s Cry for Help
Eventually, my body shut down. I spent nearly two years on bed rest. Some days, the pain was so intense I could barely use the remote. I couldn’t play on the floor with my granddaughter. She had to climb onto the couch beside me to spend time with me.
I went to countless specialists who told me it was all in my head. Their dismissiveness only caused me more anger and frustration. But the pain was real. It wasn’t until my body broke down entirely that I finally heard what it had been trying to say all along: Slow down. Come back to yourself. You're allowed to heal.
2. The Trauma-Fibro Connection
It’s easy to focus only on the physical symptoms of fibromyalgia when they’re so overwhelming. But once I began working on the trauma, layer by layer, I saw the truth. Fibromyalgia was my body’s way of expressing everything I had suppressed for so long.
After losing my beautiful son, Devin, I stopped believing I deserved joy. I carried guilt, grief, and unspoken sorrow. But the moment I gave myself permission to feel again, to process the pain, and to live, things began to shift. I realized my body wasn’t betraying me. It was asking for care and attention.
3. Shift from Survival to Safety
The turning point came during the worst flare-up of my life. I was down to eating Jell-O and drinking water, and even that caused unbearable pain. I lay there, curled in the fetal position, tears streaming down my cheeks, and then I felt the choice rise inside me: give up and go be with my son… or fight for my life.
I chose to fight.
That’s when the healing began. I used affirmations to calm my mind, meditation to find peace, and somatic tools to reconnect with my body. I did trauma work, met my inner child, and learned what it meant to love myself. It wasn’t easy, but it was real, lasting change.
4. Build a Body You Trust
Flare-ups used to send me to the hospital, where I’d be put on morphine for a week. Sometimes, I’d sense one coming and rest, and it would subside. But other times, it still knocked me down no matter what I did. That unpredictability was one of the hardest parts.
What changed everything was learning to understand my body and its signals. Awareness became my anchor. Now, as I release trauma, feel emotions fully, and let them move through me, I truly believe I will never have another flare-up again.
Healing didn’t come from a magic pill. It came from choices: peace over pressure, rest over guilt, truth over silence.
Now? I ride horses with my granddaughter, and at 52, I went skydiving for the first time.
So, if you’re in the thick of it, please, please listen to your body. It’s talking to you for a reason. And when you finally listen? That’s when your life begins again.
Connect With Michelle
댓글