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So they gave us a manual somewhere about this, right?

The what happened…

Remember when you were able to throw up an Away Message on AIM, saying I’m not here, or something abstract and emo that demonstrated your depth?

My Away Message for the past 20+ months might read: OUCH i’m in severe pain, or my head is throbbing, it won’t stop, Why? I have been suffering from chronic headaches and migraines starting from when I got the vaccine in May 2021. Furthermore this was on the back of having my first baby in the pandemic. After a brutal 10 months, I stared to feel better, the iron band was releasing my head. Then, a major setback in May 2022—a year almost to the date of getting the vaccine. I got COVID. It sent me all the way back to Square One, with even greater pain requiring medical interventions, depths of anxiety I never knew existed. I had to move back in with my parents for a while. I call that period, The Abyss. In The Abyss, even the most basic of life’s dignities are not promised.

and, the where we are now…

Progress is incremental. Sometimes barely visible, but I know its there. I’m getting better with time, tons of time. So to fill it, I inundate myself with information from the mind-body world, Buddhism, literature, arts, and emerging platforms that can support my recovery. Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Didion, Proust, Mandela, Thich Nhat Hanh are just a few of the authors and figures who have brought the healing salve on this journey. I also have a poster of the World and Marla Singer from Fight Club taped to my wall.

I believe I am experiencing Long Covid, or a post viral condition triggered by the Covid. There is a number of theories on Long Covid which I write about here. I have been going to a range of doctors, functional to neurological, and I have slowly amassed a soup to nuts treatment plan.

Simultaneously I study TMS (tension myoneural syndrome) or the Mind Body Approach pioneered by Dr. Sarno, which, in short, holds that chronic pain is the result of the brain working on misinformation. Fear, repressed anger, and a hyper vigilant autonomic nervous system, may all be contributing to my state of chronic pain. We must build an indifference toward pain. I can help myself get out of this loop by educating my brain that there is nothing to fear. I write more about TMS and how it works in this post.

and a quick side point…

Having co-founded a talent-based digital media company, I am also always looking at things from the perspective of the user and the entrepreneur. I like to think about what can be added to the HEALINGVRSE, the internet of people healing. Let’s come up with ideas together!

and of course, for whom…

I am writing for artists, writers, lovers, friends. For the crisis neophytes, people in a protracted isolation or who are soul searching, and those interested in the HEALINGVRSE. Community is a huge part of recovery, and I will never forget anyone who has joined in this journey with me.

At the end of the day, every journey toward healing requires transformation. As such, these Away Messages are reflective (and sometimes irreverent) thoughts of a person doing the Work. I hope they will be a record of recovery, and a source of inspiration.

As of now I send out a weekly post, with a a monthly recovery update, every Sunday morning!

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Away Messages are updates from the HEALINGVRSE. Designed to provide irreverent findings, inspiration, and emerging platforms for warriors, self-healers, and soul searchers.

People

Entrepreneur/writer/new mom. Irreverently following the yellow brick road in the HEALINGVRSE. Laugh even when it hurts. Boink.