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Thank you! Two “takeaways” 1. I didn’t realize how necessary a “safe place” is to folks and 2. Self care like compassion & thanking self & inner dialogue (quieting chatter is especially critical 4 me) ) are important for caregivers!!! One gets tired with the constant inner chatter about getting a loved one ‘fixed’.I appreciate you Rae.
Wonderful video! I had a week of being fully recovered from LC one month ago and then I got covid again and it was difficult to be back to LC after that. It's heartbreaking, but I'll continue to work on my recovery as much as possible.
Another great video with wonderful ideas how to calm the nervous system which is absolutely key when retraining the brain and recovering from CFS. The biggest challenge I find is to stay calm and optimistic in the face of seemingly never ending symptoms. We basically have to fervently believe in recovery before seeing the first positive signs that it is actually possible. Raelan‘s videos, especially when watched daily, go a long way to keeping those spirits up. Thank you so much for your wonderful work, Raelan! We are all so thankful for it.
Wonderful video as always....Great some bodywork therapies have been mentioned. I probably wouldn't be here now if not for craniosacral therapy. It helped enormously not only calm my ANS but also to help my tight membrane where cerebrospinal fluid flows. Covid has tendency to inflame the brain and interfere with healthy blood flow (some also going through the mambrane) and craniosacral therapy have been amazing in releasing some of the tensions in the membrane system, improving headaches and my vision. Personally, I don't know where would I be without craniosacral therapy. Sending lots of love to all. May we all find our way to full recovery.
The breathing exercise that I have found to be the most effective for me has been to breathe in deeply and then hum out. Maybe a slight hold on the out if I feel like it. I do this for 9 minutes. Why 9? Idk but 9 worked the first time so never tried any other amount. The humming extends the outbreath and some theorize that it stimulates the vagus nerve. Maybe this is a 2 for 1 exercise. Breathing plus vocalization. I find that at about 20 minutes after the exercise my symptoms are gone or diminished
Thanks for sharing. I did the breath/hum today. At first I felt worse but about half hour later my mood was noticeably lighter. Humming does indeed tone the vagal nerve.
Amazing explanation of the polyvagal theory. its understanding this that helped me heal from long covid. Great job Raelan! Many that find this will be helped by this video
Great job! I started healing so much as soon as I realized my pattern of traumas and old experiences I held onto were mostly based on being in freeze and not speaking up. A lot of therapy and meditations around this, nature walks, visualizing myself actually speaking up, crying to release (inner child and timeline therapy), etc. all so helpful. So happy to see you digging deeper! My trauma informed background high fives you with music therapy in the form of a loud boombox lol.
Thanks for sharing Raelan! Just wanted to express my gratitude for all your videos. The education around cfs really has allowed me to shift my recovery journey with a better understanding of what's going on (comforting) and enabling me to practice new things to support my recovery (that I would have previously been closed minded about). Still early days and haven't seen the shift in symptoms yet, but am feeling more hopeful and confident in a recovery again which feels like the first important step :)
Raelan , I have watched lots of your videos, so I figured it was time I subscribed. I am a recovering from long Covid, it’s a long and challenging road and I find your channel is a great source of information and inspiration- thanks x
Thank you so much for this. It's such a tricky topic to try and explain to those who tell you to 'put your big girl pants on' and get on with it! I wish I could. I'm doing my best 🙂xx
Stephen Porges developed the Safe and Sound sound therapy protocol. It’s passive rewiring of the autonomic nervous system. You can get access to the music through any certified Unyte Health Practitioner.
I love love love listening to your podcasts! I always walk away with learning something new towards recovery or reinforcement reinforcement that the path I’m on will indeed work ❤
Hi Crista, great interview, ladies. Much needed information needs to get out, and you're doing it. I'm in the program with Crista, and it's been a game changer. Like you said, Raelan, this info wasn't out for us years ago. I've had it for 50 years. I'm so happy I found your channel as well. You all have something different to add to the table. ❤🎉🎉❤
3-4 weeks on H1 and H2 blockers as well as a combination of alpha keto glutarat and 5hmf, 20 mg (furfural) made a huge difference for me, i was barely able to push a shoping cart- to at least physical 90% recovery (depression still present, but workin on it) .. did lots of other stuff too, but the main shifts happened when i started doing those..
I just found your videos and I am really grateful to hear you talking specifics about long COVID. I am facing symptoms since my infection in 2021 and I usually look information about ME/CFS because is what more resonates with what I am going trough. I hope to also find my full recovery. Thank you for all the information, I really appreciate it ❤️
Gaz Medinger (sp?) interviewed a microbiologist who has found cellular evidence of viral persistence even post mortem 😮. If she’s right, then our immune response, and SNS, virtually doesn’t get a break. 😢
Viruses go dormant as to the Chicken pox virus later causing cold sores and Shingles. As well, on post mortem… some 70-90 year olds had large kidney and gall stones but never complained if pain. Hip and back fractures too but never complained of these issues. Something to think about as to how our sensitized brain/body connection works.
There is still one big thing which I dont get about it all: you described in your own journey how you had to bounce boundaries with graded exercise for 2 years to get really well. I experience something quite similar on my way back of having to bounce boundaries. I totally see the way my ans gets activated and i feel in a very calm, connected and social state and in good control of my ans. Why do i still have to bounce boundaries for so long and why is my body not getting back to its original strenght faster as was the case for you?
Yes! Fantastic video! Understanding polyvagal theory and how it applies to this illness has been a key puzzle piece for me. Deb Dana has great books/resources on this topic. Some things to add that have been really helpful to me in putting this theory into practice: 1. ‘Mapping’ my own nervous system - getting to know how the different states feel in my own body 2. The polyvagal system can be seen as a ladder. Dorsal vagal at bottom, sympathetic next, ventral vagal at ‘top’. By default, to move out of dorsal vagal into ventral vagal you must go through a sympathetic state. You have to ride the sympathetic train to get out the other side, and trust that you will get there 3. Learning which tools to use and when depending on which state I’m in. When in sympathetic (hyPERaroused) i might want to do calming practices, but also move the energy through with somatic practices or more vigorous movement. When in dorsal vagal (hyPOaroused) i might need some gentle stimulation and small gentle movements to encourage myself up the ladder rather than more calming practices 4. Some suggest that freeze and shutdown are different states. This is my experience. Freeze as a blend of sympathetic and dorsal vagal - ‘I can’t but I must’. Shutdown as dorsal vagal dominant - total collapse. Thank you for all that you do Raelan!
I agrée. Feeewze and shit down are different. Freeze is a response state. Shit down is what your body does to protect itself. It doesn’t need uniment threat or freeze response to trigger it. When we’re at our worst, standing up can be enough to trigger it, and there’s nothing « freeze » about deciding to stand up and go to the bathroom or have a shower.
Great video. I have found with my dysautonomia and PEM/CFS is no matter how many supplements, acupuncture etc that I take if I stress out excessively I fall back into the strong long covid symptoms. MY problem, and I suspect with many folks is our inability to "let go" of what is happening around us. I have this inherent need to fight which manifests as a desire to "stick it out" "push thru" a challenge, prove I'm strong or a good boy. I have no doubt that this response drove covid deep into my system as i went back to work (at home) while I still had covid, rather than resting. :)
I sat down and worked out how long I could go without experiencing symptoms. With me it was half hour. I stayed mildly active for half hour and then rested for hour and did this throughout the day. At first I had to adjust this to ten minutes in evening and rest totally in evening from 5. After 7 years of severe illness by making baby steps in increasing my activity by 5 mns every fortnight after two years I am back working and leading normal life. Needed lot of discipline and family support. My illness was due to an old virus that kept reactivating itself and by slowly regaining my strength while still holding virus back I was able to defeat it. When I was able after about 6 months I started gentle yoga with iPad sessions. Mostly relaxation at first.
How do you stop or mitigate getting symptoms during a sleep cycle. I can feel my body warming up, and bam I wake up fatigued and with sore muscles. Do you know of a strategy to stop this or minimize it.
Thank you for this episode and the article abstracts. I immediately saved them to PDF to share as needed with the skeptical medical community. I have had ME/CFS since 2019, then COVID in March 2020 and again just recently. I've been working with polyvagal theory in the context of complex PTSD, but this is the first time I've seen that someone has referred to it in the context of ME/CFS or long COVID.
This is fantastic. Polyvagal theory is one of the first things I learned when I started psychotherapy after my ME/CFS onset. That being said, it still took me some time to make the connection between my symptoms and this theory. You did a fantastic job explaining it!
Autonomic nervous system Disregulation, yes; but WHAT is causing disregulation of the vagal nerve? Stress does impact disregulation. That's a prime claim along with exercise intolerance of those with CFS. Much of this presentation tends toward the notion that " it's all in your head". Maybe there's a more physiological explanation. Maybe there's some agent/pathogen directly interfering with the physiology. May we infer the word 'poison'? It seems this is what we're talking about when we use the word 'covid'. Covid IS a poison. It's no good for you. Covid (vax) also IS a poison. It's been documented by French researchers years ago that interference/blocking of the a7 nicotinic cellular receptor by a toxin can cause disregulation in the autonomic nervous system, thereby negatively impacting brain stem function, explaining severe disability such as food aspiration; blurred vision; brain fog; weakness; dizziness; and many other 'physical' abnormalities. One of the main entrances of covid is accepted that it enters thru the respiratory system. It festers in the nasal cavity where it can spread to nearby sensitive receptors....
covid messed up my sleeping patterns. .. i wake up 7+times a night and constantly dreaming.. it feels like i dont have any restorative sleep at all. This is started as soon as the covid illness was over. You mentioned putting a focus on sleep.. hence why I messaged. any thoughts on this please raelan?
Really great to have scientific links to share with some other communities who are mostly waiting for the magic pill cure. (Of course if there is one as well that would be amazing- but I believe nervous system repair is key)
Thanks Raelan, love watching your videos, you have helped me more than anything else in my recovery of which I'm 90% there. I now refer your videos to anyone else on Facebook etc starting out on there cfs journey. I still can't run more than 5 minutes at a time without a flare of symptoms but with your running strategy I'm getting there. 😊❤
