A couple of years later! – A fantastic voyage
By Angela Irving-Brown
Mickel Therapy Practitioner
19/9/2015
When I go out and promote Mickel Therapy, as a Mickel Therapist, it is often difficult for people to see where I have come from. Nowadays I look so fit and healthy. I take the dogs out for miles at a time. I get up by 7.30 most days, even at the weekend, and stay up all day long. I have zero nana naps. I am able to meet up with friends and go and visit family. One huge difference is the ability to drive long distances. I am the only member of my immediate family to drive so we were very restricted in where we were able to go when I was ill.
Imagine the scenario – We look at something that we want to go to. It is three weeks away, at a weekend and there are a few quiet days either side of it. This shouldn’t be a problem. It is a few hours out, with people I love, not far from home.
After a military like level of organisation of my time, to ensure I am rested and able to drive for 20 minutes, sit for a couple of hours and drive home again, we think we are ready to go. Oh how daft we were!!
On the morning of the event, say a meal out for lunch, I wake up after very broken sleep. I am sore from head to toe. I have a migraine and my joints are seized. Food makes me feel nauseas. Thinking is difficult so it takes a while to figure that I have to be up and dressed by 11.00am. Then it becomes an impossible task. Frustrations rise, both internally and externally, for all of us. The fun wanes to hating the whole idea. The pain increases and my abilities decline even further.
The day ends up a write off and I feel extreme guilt for ruining yet another day for us all.
This was in no way a single time event. It was the same process in a different light every day.
Then I found Mickel Therapy! It was a bit like finding God, but I found me instead. I began to see the value of me and the fact that I could take control of how I respond. I found myself!
Nowadays life is completely different. I get up and do stuff. EVERYDAY! I have no time in bed in the day. I feel rested after I sleep. Am I cured? NO. Am I in control of my body? Most definitely. My body still tells me that I am not paying attention to things by giving me symptoms, but the difference is I can deal with them. I can look at what I need to change and change it straight away to alleviate the symptoms. If someone upsets me I tell them. If someone crosses a boundary I reinforce it. If I get body bored at the computer I move away. This allows me to be in control of how my body feels.
Just last weekend I drove for 2.5 hours to get to Wales and go on three zip wires. Then drove home, via Preston to drop off my son’s friend, stopping on the way for a lovely meal. Got home some 12 hours after leaving and still felt human. How is this possible? The following day I was fine.
I honestly never thought I would get to do these things again. But I could do this every week. My next adventure is to complete the via ferrata at Honister in Cumbria. This is an outdoor adventure using a series of metal cables, rungs, ladders and bridges to ascend and descend tremendous and precipitous climbing routes and paths up the outside of Honister slate mines. I managed the Infinity Bridge last year and that gave me the bug.
So, how has Mickel Therapy changed things for me?
The very fact that I am able to be me again, and do the things I want to do on any given day is great. That is the greatest thing I have gained, ME!