Dr. Martina Melzer, published: 05/22/2022, updated: 02/20/2023

As I describe in more detail in the "Knowledge" strategy, emotions have a great impact on our mental and physical well-being. Adverse childhood experiences, traumas and chronic stress make us sick. And this usually involves a lifetime of suppressing certain emotions, splitting off parts of ourselves, conforming, not being ourselves, being on autopilot, or living in permanent alarm mode. Influenced by our childhood, our parents, family, friends, school, society, life events.

Especially for people with mind-body syndromes, these factors often play a big role. Then, in addition to brain training, the right mindset and lifestyle adjustments, inner work becomes necessary. It is about finding access to the inner child, bringing parts that have been split off from us back to the table. It's about allowing feelings like anger and sadness to be expressed in healthy ways. It's about letting go of fear and hypervigilance, shame and guilt.

It's about finding the roots of your beliefs, your convictions, your fear, your overdriven nervous system and brain. It's about learning how to set boundaries, say no, become more authentic. It's about finding out who you really are, what you actually want, what your values are. It's about recognizing your desires, feelings and needs, expressing them and meeting them to the best of your ability. It's about knowing the past, feeling your feelings, and still arriving in the present. This is how you bring your mind, brain and body back into harmony and overcome your illnesses and traumas in the long term.

From my own experience, this requires a combination of cognitive, emotional and physical techniques. What those are is something very individual. There are many different approaches and you need to find what appeals to you the most. Cognitive techniques include expressive writing, psychotherapy, positive self-talk, talking to your inner child, getting to know your adult self. Actually, all brain training techniques.

Emotional techniques may include feeling through an unpleasant emotion, expressing repressed anger and sadness in a safe environment and in a non-harmful way. More physical methods include meditation, (trauma-informed) yoga, EMDR, breathing techniques, Somatic Experiencing, and Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE). But also therapeutic work with animals, dance and art therapy, even certain forms of theater.

It is very useful to do this inner work with an appropriate therapist and not just alone.

Other recovery strategies: Gaining knowledge, the right mindset, brain training, lifestyle changes.

Translated with the help of DeepL

PS: Of course, I research and check everything I write here as well as possible. Nevertheless, I am only human and make mistakes. In addition, I may draw completely different conclusions as someone else would. Simply because they fit my story. But every story is different.

Important: The content on this page is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for talking to your doctor or other therapist. The content reflects my personal experiences, research and findings that have helped me and that I therefore want to share. However, in your personal case, completely different things may play a role and other things may help. Please talk to your doctor or therapist before making any decisions that affect your physical or mental health. Also important: I don't want to convince anyone of anything here. Rather, I want to point out possible ways that hopefully can help some people to improve or overcome their ME/CFS or other syndromes.

 Bessel van der Kolk: The body keeps the score

Gabor Maté: Wenn der Körper Nein sagt

Russel Kennedy: The Anxiety Rx

Gregor Hasler: Die Darm-Hirn-Connection

John Sarno: The Mindbody Prescription

Stefanie Stahl: Das Kind in dir muss Heimat finden

Alex Howard: Decode your fatigue

Daniel Siegel: Mindsight

Howard Schubiner: Unlearn your Anxiety and Depression

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