quote:

---

"In order for journaling to be effective against fibromyalgia, we're going to lay down some rules that will help focus it at the right targets. Most important: Do not write about your pains and other symptoms. It's counterproductive, so we absolutely forbid it. Don't write about the temperature, what activities you've done (or left undone), what you ate, how well or poorly you slept, or what medicine you took. They all have little to do with what causes your fibromyalgia or what you can do to get rid of it. Consider all those thoughts your brain's way of distracting you from confronting the anger, grief, or shame that may be boiling up inside of you. That's what you must focus on now.

Here is the absolute bottom line: You must think about an experience that provoked enough anger that you couldn't stand to see it, feel it, or remember it. Fortunately, it is absolutely not necessary to relive or even to amicaly resolve that experience in order to purge the effects of the hidden anger and its resulting witches' brew of damaging biochemicals.

Recall our earlier discussions of where fibromyalgia comes from: those strong emotions you've stored, hidden, repressed, or avoided..."

---