{"id":25,"date":"2010-05-12T11:08:00","date_gmt":"2010-05-12T11:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/Wordpress\/EverydaySpirituality\/wordpress\/?p=24"},"modified":"2010-05-12T11:08:00","modified_gmt":"2010-05-12T11:08:00","slug":"me-awareness-day-all-in-the-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/EverydaySpirituality\/?p=25","title":{"rendered":">ME Awareness Day: All in the mind?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>><a href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MxxtSe4hB3w\/S-qQ43wnQhI\/AAAAAAAABBE\/nostOnG9QE8\/s1600\/MindBOdysize1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5470344004109812242\" style=\"DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 286px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 272px; TEXT-ALIGN: center\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MxxtSe4hB3w\/S-qQ43wnQhI\/AAAAAAAABBE\/nostOnG9QE8\/s400\/MindBOdysize1.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Today is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.afme.org.uk\/\">ME Awareness Day <\/a>and people with ME everywhere (myself included!) are fighting to get wider recognition and understanding of this debilitating and often devastating condition.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>As a strange coincidence I am also writing a chapter on ME for a forthcoming book on longterm conditions. For this chapter I&#8217;m particularly interested in finding people who use &#8216;alternative&#8217; healing approaches for their ME, from the obvious homeopathy and accupuncture, to less conventional alternatives, such as crystal therapy or angel healing. <\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>But what is interesting is that there seems to be quite a lot of animosity amongst ME sufferers towards any suggestion that such healing approaches might be of any benefit to them. It seems that because ME is already often dismissed as &#8216;all in the mind&#8217; by some people, that many who are diagnosed with ME are then reluctant to subscribe to anything else which is seen as equally &#8216;non-provable&#8217;. <\/div>\n<div>Yet in my mind, does it matter if something has been scientifically validated if it exists or works in the lives of those it affects? By this I mean &#8211; <em>I know<\/em> I have ME and that it <em>affects my life<\/em>, regardless of how many scientists or medics might try and dismiss it as &#8216;all in the mind&#8217;. As a student of Reiki I also know that when I receive or give myself Reiki healing it energises me and can ease pain. Now I have no idea either what causes my ME, <em>or<\/em> what it is that is happening when the Reiki relieves me. But I <em>do<\/em> know that for me, both have very real effects in my life, ragardless of their lack of scientific credibility.<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div>Surely there must be more ME sufferers out there who would agree..?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>> Today is ME Awareness Day and people with ME everywhere (myself included!) are fighting to get wider recognition and understanding of this debilitating and often devastating condition. As a strange coincidence I am also writing a chapter on ME &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/EverydaySpirituality\/?p=25\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/EverydaySpirituality\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/EverydaySpirituality\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/EverydaySpirituality\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/EverydaySpirituality\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/EverydaySpirituality\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/EverydaySpirituality\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/EverydaySpirituality\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/EverydaySpirituality\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/EverydaySpirituality\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}