Travel actually went... fine?

I just did a long travel sequence for the holidays (10 hour flight + several trains and drives) and was shocked to find that my pain was only at a 1 or *maybe* a 2 the entire time. I had a tiny bit of a spike during a stressful moment when I found out one of the trains I needed to take wasn't running, but it passed as soon as I figured that out. A month ago a 2 hour car ride would send me into a massive flare.

On the plane, maybe this was just in my head, but I started watching an in-flight movie and felt the familiar tightness that I usually do when sitting in a movie theater seat. So I stopped (the movie wasn't that great anyway) and figured I would pick up where I left off with Mindbody Prescription, which I'd downloaded to my phone. I didn't intend to, but I found myself just reading and reading for the entire flight, and (while this still kind of feels crazy to me) it felt like the reading was soothing my pain, so I kept going. I didn't even sleep at all, just kept reading and copy/pasting bits to my notes app. I finished the book!

Somewhere in there I had a few 15 minute stretches where I realized I wasn't in pain AT ALL. Then I'd shift a little and some discomfort would come back a little, but I just kept reminding myself that whatever happens, I can handle it.

It almost scares me to say it (and to be as hopeful as I am) but it feels like things really are shifting. This morning I woke up early, super jetlagged, and just lay in bed for a few hours feeling happy and safe instead of stressed and scared. And NO pain, amazingly. Later on after getting up I still feel some symptoms going on, but nothing that concerns me really.

I'm on to the Steven Ozanich book now and really tearing into it. If nothing else this stuff is interesting! I don't want to go on forever here but my feeling right now is something like, even if I have a little pain left I'm at least on the path of figuring out some deeper things about the path I'm on in life. There's some stuff in this book about "choosing a false self over authenticity" which feels bang-on for how I've lived up to this point.

 

Wonderful news!

 

Isn't it amazing when something like this happens?!?