Turning Pain into Purpose: My Journey with Fibromyalgia

When I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2021, I remember sitting across from a doctor behind a mask, (yes covid!) receiving the news with a strange mix of relief and isolation.

 The diagnosis finally gave a name to the awful symptoms I had been silently battling for years —  since childhood — but there was little encouragement, support or guidance on what to do next.

Fibromyalgia is a complex condition, categorised by chronic widespread pain, muscle stiffness, fatigue, and a heightened sensitivity to pain. 

It doesn’t stop there — many of us experience trouble sleeping, cognitive issues (what’s often called “fibro-fog”), headaches, IBS, and intense emotional fluctuations like anxiety, frustration, or low mood.

And just to make things trickier, these symptoms don’t follow a set pattern. 

One week might feel manageable, while the next can hit like a tidal wave.

Navigating Treatment — My Way

There’s no known cure for fibromyalgia. 

While prescription medications are commonly offered — including antidepressants — I made a conscious decision not to take them as a long term solution.

Not because I think they’re wrong, but because I knew I needed to take a different path for me. 

I wanted to understand what was really going on in my body and mind.

 I became deeply curious about how the brain and nervous system play a role in pain.

 That curiosity led me to a new way of living — one that involved significant lifestyle changes.

The more research I did and changes I implemented, the more it enabled me to wean off Codeine and Naproxen — the medications that had been masking my pain.

From Coping to Healing: What Really Changed Everything

I’ll share the tools that changed my life — and they truly did.

Regular Exercise (even just a long walk) became more than fitness. It was freedom from pain.
Relaxation techniques — sound baths, meditations, sister circles, body scans — became my sanctuary.
Talking therapy helped me uncover emotional wounds I didn’t even know I was carrying.

After nearly two years of strict consistent work, something incredible happened:
I felt vitality again.

Energy. Hope. Joy.

This is why I protect my gym time like it’s sacred.
Why I keep showing up in healing spaces.

Because without them, my health — and my life — begins to spiral.

But here’s what I’ve learned:

These tools are essential…
But they’re not the whole story... because my symptoms were still coming in waves...

So, What Does Cause Fibromyalgia?

The truth? No one knows exactly.

 I coach from a place of lived experience, self study and following the most current neuroscientists looking at new research.

It’s believed to involve chemical imbalances in the brain, and changes in the way the nervous system processes pain. 

Genetics might play a role too.

A dysfunction within the central nervous system.

For many — myself included — fibromyalgia was triggered by trauma: emotional stress, physical injury, illness, burnout.

That’s where my real healing began:
Not just treating the symptoms… but healing at the source in which the pain was created.

When Support Isn’t Actually Supportive

In the beginning, I turned to online support groups looking for community.

 But too often, I found myself in cycles of negativity and symptom-sharing with no real momentum toward living your old life before everything got too much.

I didn’t want to just cope.

I wanted my life back.

Even now, setbacks happen.

Recently, I ended up in A&E — terrified, thinking I was having a heart attack.

But it was just my body, crying out for rest and to address an issue I had been avoiding.

This is what chronic pain can do:

It mimics danger.

It amplifies sensation.

It screams when we won’t listen.

Have you read "The Body Keeps the Score?"

It’s more than a book title — it’s a truth I live by.

Our bodies hold onto everything we haven’t processed.

And when we don’t release it, it will eventually speak through pain, exhaustion, anxiety, and illness.

The Tools Help — But They're Not Enough

I still use all the techniques I mentioned: movement, breathwork, nervous system regulation, mindset work. They’re pillars of my day.

But let’s be honest:

They give you strength, yes — but they don’t always lift the heaviness.

That undercurrent — the dark, heavy cloak worn everyday- that's the cloak of unprocessed sadness, fear, shame, guilt, grief judgement —  that doesn’t dissolve through routines alone.

To feel truly free… we must heal the emotional wounds at the root.

That’s what changed everything for me.

It took heart work.

Cognitive rewiring.

Radical self-honesty.

By facing my own fears, shame, grief, and inner judgement — and releasing what no longer served me — I finally let go of what had kept me stuck for years.

Now?

I feel freeer than I ever remember feeling.

From Suffering to Serving

Today, I coach others on the same journey — but with faster, more direct results.

My approach blends:

• Conscious breathwork to regulate and release,
• And Belief Coding®, a powerful cognitive rewiring tool that creates deep, often immediate shifts in mindset, energy, and emotional healing.

This isn’t surface-level work.

It’s transformational.

It’s what helped me reclaim my life — and it can help you reclaim yours.

If you’re struggling with symptoms that won’t shift — especially if it’s been more than six weeks — please, reach out.

Send me a message.

Let’s hop on a free 15-minute discovery call and explore whether this is the path for you.

Because 2025 doesn’t have to be another year of surviving.
It can be the year you finally break free — from the cage of invisibility, from the weight of pain no one else can see.

This is your time to rise.
To be seen, NOT as someone broken, but as the warrior you’ve always been beneath it all.

And I would be truly honoured to walk that path with you.