Elly's Gratitude Groupfor those experiencingChronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, & Orthostatic Intolerance Encouraging, Supportive Body, Mind & Soul Discussion Cultivating Gratitude for Accelerated Healing Meets via Long Distance Teleconference Calls and in person in Northern Virginia (NOVA) and Near-by Areas and EGGdish This Page:
Gratitude is a heart healing energy and one can use it to reclaim space
from anxiety, fear, grief, anger. Many times it is easier and a necessary step to work with gratitude before one can heal the wounds surrounding love.
Next EGG MeetingsLong Distance Conference Calls 
Dedicated, end of the month EGG calls are currently suspended. Occasional calls are scheduled. Dial-in phone number** and code reminders delivered by EGGdish
emails See also Conference Call Details and Time Zone Converter Please check Events page if this section gets a bit out of date. General Conference Call InformationDial our current number and code followed by the # sign. The number and codes
delivered by EGGdish
email or you can ask
us directly for them.
Every time someone arrives or leaves the conference, we may hear an announcement. It can be awkward without visual clues to know when to jump in to talk. We know. Just hang in there and keep trying! Interrupting is part of the process, part of our conditions. There are blessings in interruptions .... and we're the group that looks for the value them. We use"Free Conference" but individuals pay own long distance phone charges. With unlimited long distance service, it really feels like a "free conference" for some of us. Others use inexpensive phone cards, or call with unlimited mobile phone minutes for weekend or late meetings. Since there is no gas money needed for driving to meetings, no donation required, others consider even a $5 phone call worth it for the community experience. Speaker phones -- If you need to use one, let's try it. But it often diminishes the sound quality for someone else on the phone and it could add some sound cutting in and out problems. Headsets -- It can be so helpful in taking care of yourself and symptoms not have to bend your elbow when hold the receiver. Ear buds and headsets can be a great help. You may want to have one or two handy to use for the call. Some add a buzz or make caller sound far away. We are willing to help you evaluate yours for our call.
Please call from a quiet place to avoid noises which many of us find
too distracting. And yes, it must be said: please go to the bathroom before the call, and press mute while you're in there during calls! Or hang up and call back. About EGGElly's Gratitude Group is a discussion group for people with CFS/FM/OI who want to talk about the influence of our attitudes upon health. Finding the positive in devastating illness is challenging, but can be so worthwhile. We help each other realize the power of what we notice in our daily lives, the kinds of thoughts for which we spend our attention and our precious energy. We encourage each other to be mindful of what works in addition to inevitable problems we encounter living with chronic illness. We do not diminish the severity or number or complexity of members' problems. Instead, we've found it useful to seek more information, creating a new, balanced, bigger picture view of our lives where possible. Our minds' focus is important, especially on rough/ relapse days. EGG may be helpful for people having a difficult illness experience /life to learn about and practice expressing gratitude when things are tough. Because we are among peers who accept and understand CFS, FM, and OI, we can skip explanations and definitions of our conditions, using the shorthand of our understandings of common themes, allowing more time for new topics of mind-body healing. EGG is a place where you can say "I can be grateful I had only 9 weird symptoms today, when my average is 15 symptoms a day" and people will know what that's like, finding you only as odd as the rest of us! Join your peers with chronic illness for an encouraging discussion of how to develop gratitude and appreciation in the face of adversity. Learn to spend less energy on the inevitable annoyances in our lives. Read more about EGG!
Meeting Facilitator: Elly Brosius, 703-968-9818, eggdish + owner @ groups. io Dates/times and locations vary. Monthly. Check the Events Page or the Next EGG Meetings section on this page. Most meetings are teleconference meetings via toll conference calls. Elly is also facilitator and webmaster of The NOVA Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / FMS / OI Support Group - the main subject of this CFSupport/CFSnova website.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Gratitude JournalsA gratitude journal is place where you can write 5 things a day for which you are grateful. It could be in a book, on the computer, on scrap paper. It isn't the specific thing or things that you write so much as the feeling you get while writing it. Committing to paper gives it strength. Why try one when you are already overwhelmed? People who do it faithfully swear that it makes life less overwhelming! Not up to it yet? That's fine! Toss the word gratitude around in your head a bit more if you want to. Share in reading what others post about it. Enjoy the EGG meeting summaries posted. It all helps. Like others, I have found writing "gratitudes" to be a very successful medicine. You know how people say that laughter is the best medicine, I couldn't really laugh all that sincerely or deeply until after I worked on a gratitude attitude. Now I feel that famous medicine from laughter. I am very motivated to make more space in the world for both gratitude and laughter, especially for those living with CFS and FM and related disorders. To read further about my experience, see EGGing each other on - Incitement to Insight, published in the Summer/Fall 2006 Pain Connection Newsletter.
Terry Lynn Taylor Journal with us online .... join The EGG Dish.EGGdish was created in March 2008 to provide a place to journal as a group, to inspire ourselves and other members with our creativity for noticing something fun, uplifting, surprising, or just new in the day, not as an exercise in only noticing the positive. It is for balancing what might be the opposite of that to our days which are likely filled with same old same old, dull, and/or down-ness. The goal is to notice all that is for us, not getting stuck in only seeing the same things over and over. This group dynamic helps broaden our vision and add more laughter, wonder, and awe, even in the presence of illness and difficulty. To receive an invitation to join EGGdish, send an email to EGGdish+owner with your name, telephone number, and email address and a brief note about how you'd like to experiment and practice with a more up attitude as a way to influence your health with other people who understand and speak fluent chronic fatigue syndrome, orthostatic intolerance, and similar syndromes (IBS, FMS, POTS, NMH, MVPS/D, Chronic Lyme, vulvodynia, ....). Participants are asked to post something at least once a month to declare their continuing interest. Tips for facing the blank paper journal pageWhat to do when you want to write something in a gratitude journal and nothing comes to mind? If words are failing me and it is a paper journal, sometimes I put pretty stickers or cut outs of nice words or pictures from junk mail ads. When I can't think of what to write, sometimes, I look at short emails from friends. I paste them in my journal with a scribble on top such as "thank you for this friend"or "it was nice to receive these kind words this week." At the Jan 06 EGG meeting, M, though very enthusiastic about keeping the journal and the gratitude group and emails, still has trouble writing in her journal. That's okay. Really. We came up with a few together, but it was such a struggle for her. And she is not alone. Its okay. That experience has value, too. It lets you know where you are and leads you to ask questions like "why is it hard?" Try to write one a day, or one a week. Try. Even if nothing comes to you, its okay. Sometimes, the feelings that come up just because we are trying are the things we need to recognize first. One of my techniques when I feel just plain stumped is to look around and ask, "how much harder would my life be if ______ didn't exist?" The phone for communication, the TV for company and information, the telephone directory to find others, blankets for warmth, walls to keep the wind out, ceilings to keep the rain and sun out, other people even with their flaws, etc. Give this technique a whirl if you feel stuck. How about writing 'easy access to water" so you don't have to carry it from the river and boil it every day. If the words still do not come, doodle a flower or smiley face. The bottom line is you are putting something in the journal that implies, "I like this. This pleases me." Gratitude is then implied. Here's a website with free Art Posters 5x7 for your journal, or perhaps, the bathroom wall. We shared these among gratitude group members…
The following sayings used to be at the site, but aren't anymore.
Top
TopSomething Was OK Todayby Elly Brosius, 08/28/2008
That very long list of When overwhelmed Balancing the list The Joy of Thanksby Robert A. Emmons
Shifting into Gratitude Not Only Feels Great, From Spirituality and Heath Magazine, Winter 2002 Excerpts:
&
Quotes( Quotes have been moved to their own page: EGGquotes.) Top
EGG:Gratitude Group Resources
Books
Gratitude Journaling ‐ Books, Ideas
Gratitude Journals ‐ Online
Music/Songs
Other Products
Websites
Articles
Daily/Weekly Inspirational Email Sign Ups
Movies, Video
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