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CFS/ME, FMS, OI, & Gratitude
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EGG - Letters

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Elly's Gratitude Group Member Letters
for those experiencing
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, & Orthostatic Intolerance




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Member Letters


DB:

As part of my deliberate prosperity & gratitude work, I am sending out New Year's gratitude and Thank You cards! More fun than Christmas cards.

I would like to share with you my deep gratitude for supporting me. You were instrumental in adding to my prosperity and my prosperity advanced. You helped me in turning the tide of my thinking that it [a special trip] could be possible at all. Thank you, Elly!

2007 is my year to concentrate more fully on Abundance. I feel I am finally in a place where I worked on everything else first, so now is the time! Thanks, Elly, for all the work you do in the area of Gratitude - you are creating a space for it + letting it become more fully resident in the consciousness of us all!

Love and Light. - DB


BL:
I've decided that 100 days of gratitude despite physical challenges and setbacks are worth so much more than a day of whining and self-pity. The body knows the difference. METTA!!!!
Dr. Bernie Siegel's series on Beliefnet.com is GREAT. ...they are inspirational for dealing with our health challenges and our health victories!!! 

From "365 Prescriptions for the Soul." 
Prescription #1: Gratitude
A gentleman I was talking to on the phone related that his doctor and the EMR team had told him his heart stopped beating and he had died at least five times during surgery. He concluded our conversation by saying, “I used to have troubles, but now I have only blessings. His outlook clearly had been turned around by this experience.
....

CM:
Reading about EGG last time made my day! I was feeling a little bummed about not being
able to connect more with the group in person, but just reading about the group helps me feel
more connected. Actually, I have felt continually grateful for the NoVA support group since I moved here a couple of years ago and grateful that you have decided to use your energy and skills to help the group. I would love to participate in a conference call since I'm homebound for the most part. I also love films and put "What the Bleep.." on my Netflix queue.   

Nina:
In the spirit of gratefulness and keeping a positive outlook,
I've been experimenting with receiving some things online, and have found the following to be wonderfully helpful.

Happy News
I finally replaced my homepage from CNN to this.  Took about a week for me to quit wondering "what's going on?"  I also don't watch TV or get the paper.  Just my way to avoid the [negative] -- not everyone will need to do that.

Free e-News for the Soul
I tried several positive-quote-of-the-day things. The one I like best is from News for the SoulThere are many.  Several group members like the HeartMath quotes.

TM:
Spirituality and Health magazine:
From: A Mind-Altering Message: Time to listen before it’s too late, Nov/Dec 2004
by Thomas Moore


"One of the key words in the New Testament is metanoia, usually translated as "repentance" and giving rise to neurotic concerns about sin and self-reproach. But the Greek word meta means "change" and noia,"mind." "Changing your mind" is not a bad translation, but "mind-altering" is even better.

The word noia is related tonous, a heavy word in philosophy and religion that refers to the very meaning of the universe, its design and significance. Essentially, metanoia is a change in your relationship to that order."

"Change of mind is not about change of belief, but a shift in the deep emotional and intellectual imagination from which you live."

From "The Myth of Health", Spring 1999, by Thomas Moore

"When we feel empty, heavy, aimless, lonely, sad, and confused, the problem may not rest in our childhood experiences or in our genes or chemistries. The problem may be that we are out of touch with our very substance. The issue may not be psychological
at all, but spiritual or religious. We may need a more humanizing myth, a deeper vision of what it means to be a person. To get back on the spiritual journey and engaged with our deepest yearnings and struggles may lead more directly to the satisfaction we crave than turning to the palliatives offered by the therapeutic society."  

Spirituality & Health has fun
self tests about optimism, humor, forgiveness, archetypes, more...

Top


Dear Elly, Here is how my [World Gratitude Day, Sept 21, 2006] went:
 
I had planned to go to the later of the two EGG sessions at TGC and headed that way by MetroAccess about 4:30 pm.  We had a couple of detours to pick up another customer and the driver got a little lost.  I started to feel kind of nauseous.  Because of the detours, I realized I probably wouldn't make theTGC session, so I asked the driver to let me off at Friendship Heights so that I could head to White Flint on the Metro if I started to feel better.
 
Serendipitously (or not?) at Friendship Heights, I saw there was a branch of the Cheesecake Factory.   I walked over there to get some air and looked at their menu for a few minutes.     Grateful to be feeling a little better at that point, I headed on the Metro to White Flint but on the train started to feel nauseous again. I got out at White Flint and sat in the station for about 20 minutes to see if my upset stomach would improve.  I wasn't feeling any better after 20 minutes and the thought of food made it worse, so I decided to head home.  I was disappointed that I wasn't able to see you and the other EGGers but was grateful that I got out in the sunshine for awhile and felt that I did the right thing by coming home.
 
On your note the other day, I loved the Cheesecake Factory menu link.  I wasn't familiar with the restaurant and am glad to know that this is a restaurant where I'd like to eat and would take guests.  The shepherd's pie and the burgers looked esp. good to me.  And I loved the links to the free greeting cards, especially the first link in the list, which I used to send a card to my sister.
Links: [Cheesecake Factory Menu and Gratefulness.org E-cards ]
 
Hope you and the other EGGers had a great day and dinner, and I hope we have another Maryland or DC meeting sometime.  Thanks for putting in all together - you did a great job, Elly.
 
best always,
Celia 
Washington, DC
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Hi Elly,

I wanted to follow up with you after attending the gratitude meeting at the clinic. This was my
first meeting ever. My spouse has CFS and it was good to have people to talk to about all this. It was a little different than expected and it was real good was that nobody was "pitching" anything or anybody (supplements, books, treatments). It was just a real relaxed atmosphere with enlightening conversation. Although it was a small group, everyone got a little something from coming.
Thanks,

Paul
Maryland
Sept 25, 2006
-----------------------------------------------------
Dear Elly,

 I'm so happy I met you guys!  I can only seem to "register" some of the emails (meaning, in my brain), but some of them are really helping, and I was really glad to be a part of your gratitude group's conference call.

I heard a great analogy from a pastor whose church, work, and home were all wiped out in hurricane Katrina:  he said that the cup-half-full was actually just "full," since it's half full of water and half full of air...that we tend to deny the part we can't see, but it's still part of what is nourishing us...I liked that, as I'm still trying to find that balance of fully acknowledging everything (not being in denial) re the illness, but with focusing on the progress, good things, etc. as you were discussing.

...(it's still also very taxing to type)...more later!!

- "I" in Hawaii, Sept 2006



Letters from right after July EGG Conference Call
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Really enjoyed the meeting tonight!  What a blessing!
Dan and Tammie 

Dan adds:
Hey! This is Dan from the meeting tonight.  I just wanted to say thank you again - it really is encouraging to know there are others out there who really do feel the way I do.  I also very much like the format of the group.  While there are definitely times when talk of doctors, lawyers, and health questions are needed it's nice to have a group more focused on the positive.  Honestly I've been a little apprehensive about support groups just because I'm not interested in sitting around talking about how crappy life can be.  This is my life and yes I have CFS - but it's still my life and my responsibility to make it the best one I can.  So thank you, I like where this is headed :)

Dan in Waynesboro, VA 

---------------------------------------------------------------
The gratitude conference call was great! It was nice to talk to people who live in my old stomping grounds back in Virginia. I have unlimited long distance, and I'd love to have the EGG calls happen more often. Thanks so much for all the work you do! I hope you weren't too worn out from the call today. I had been in bed moderating today, so it didn't affect me too much. Also I was conserving my energy by keeping my big mouth shut LOL


Bethany in Oregon
--------------------------------------------------------------------
"Just to give you some feedback - I found the EGG very helpful.  It is so amazing to hear people talking about my bizarre symptoms.  To know others experience the same weird things (like being relapsed by intense conversation) is so reassuring.  Also appreciate the helpful tips, like the minutes in the sun.  Since I have been doing things like the support group, the CFIDS membership, etc..., I find that I've come out of my denial more and take care of myself better, even if I also go through the tears and upset of 'facing up'.  For this I am grateful.  Thank you." -Hilary in Alexandria
hilarywalmsley@hotmail.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry I couldn't listen in on tonight's [7/29] call.  We have a really bad fire not far from us called the Black Crater Fire (in Central Oregon).  This morning the fire was over 4,700 acres and has since flared up this afternoon due to gusty winds.  Also this morning the fire was only 3.5 miles from Sisters and now Tollgate (a subdivision just 2 miles West of us) is being evacuated.  So, I'm packing in case we are forced to evacuate as well.
 
Angela in Oregon
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Elly,

Right after the phone call, I heard on my TV/radio that ad for a mobile phone where a mom and teen-age daughter are"fighting", but all the words are the opposite.  They shout, 
"You've always loved me!"  and
"Why don't you act more like a child!" and
"I'll love you forever".                                                Wow!    

And  the punch line of the ad was
"We're changing the way people communicate"!!!!!!! :-)

Then, the cheap, quickie job on supports for my mattress I didn't think would hold crashed to the floor in the middle of the night! I was able to laugh, not cry as I might have, thinking how the person who did this CAN'T be COUNTED ON TO SUPPORT ME anymore .... :-)

xxoo - Nina in Arlington
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How nice to be in on the conference call last night with everyone. Could you tell that I was excited and talked a bit too much? I'll be better next time and Elly did a great job in slowing me down. My adrenals get speeding and my cognitive abilities frustrate me.  Yes, listening and talking exhausted me also, but I am so happy to have been part of this.

So good to hear people's voices who experience same symptoms. Thank you everyone.
Thank you Elly and Toni for your loving, hard work you do for us all. I'm very gratefull for that and for you both.

Sue in New Mexico
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Great letters, everyone. Thank you.
It really helps us feel the "group" part of our set up and share
with those not on the calls, too. Talk to you soon.....
Elly
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Updated September 5, 2011