Lorrie Rivers had FM, ME/CFS and long COVID and recovered from them all.
Lorrie Rivers’ free Online Health Summits are a bit different. For one, she’s a three-time loser – she’s had fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, and long COVID – and a 3-time winner – she’s recovered from all three. For two, she’s been running a course for people with ME/CFS/FM for years as well – so she has lots of hands-on experience. For three – she actually brings ME/CFS experts in. Lastly, while she has plenty of nutrition and alternative health experts on board, her Summits tend also to have a strong emphasis on breathwork and meditation-like practices.
In his recent ME/CFS recovery story on Health Rising, Patrick stated that attending Lorrie’s Summit last year was one of three key factors in his recovery.
“I attended the 2022 Holistic Health Summit for Long Covid and ME/CFS by Lorrie Rivers and was truly inspired by recovery stories, particularly Raelan Agle’s own experience and the treasure trove of recovery interviews that she hosts on YouTube. I also discovered new tools that made a lot of sense to me in my own pursuit of wellness. Examples include: the concept of “beditation” by Lorrie Rivers, decoding fatigue by Alex Howard, Buteyko breathwork by Patrick McKeown, and transcutaneous stimulation of the vagus nerve by Andrea Parker, David Bastians, and Dawn Wiley.”
All the subjects Patrick cited in his recovery story – Raelan Agle on recovery, Alex Howard (Decoding Fatigue/RESET program), Butyeko Breathwork (Vikki Jones), vagus nerve stimulation (Dawn Wiley), and meditation (beditation) by Lorrie Rivers – are part of this year’s Holistic Summit Summit for Long COVID and ME/CFS as well.
With regards to ME/CFS specialists, Dr. Charles Lapp (overview, research), Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum (treatment), Todd Davenport (HR monitoring, PEM), and Dr. Leonard Jason (pacing) are speaking. (I am also speaking on the latest research). Dr. Teitelbaum has been around for a long time and some may take him for granted, but I recently looked at his rather unique sleep recommendation – up to 4 sleep drugs at a time for a period to get good sleep – and wondered if I’ve been missing something important.
The clotting pioneer, Resia Pretorius PhD, brings a hard science and medical background to her talk on clotting in ME/CFS and long COVID. Dr. Jordan Rubin’s talk on soil-based organisms and the microbiome and the Peatross/Rogers talk on parasites brought to mind Amber Walker’s recovery story which included soil-based probiotics, and the difference in her health that getting rid of parasites made for her.
It looks like the long haulers will get a double dose of histamine intolerance and MCAS as Dr. Tina Peers, an expert on MCAS and menopause, will be talking on how to best deal with the spike protein, while Dr. Tania Dempsey will be talking on MCAS and long COVID. Plus, Dr. Bruce Hoffman will also be speaking on MCAS. Dr. Rob Vanbergen PhD will both present on electric microcurrents and participate in a live Q&A on them. Other talks focus on dysautonomia, methylene blue, hyperbaric oxygen, hormones, and how to get disability.
Lorrie Rivers is presenting on using restorative yoga to feel safe.
If you’re into, or want to learn about, mind/body techniques that can calm your system down and get it into a healthier state, Lorrie’s Summit may be the place to be. She leads sessions on “Meditation for Anxiety”, “Meditation”, “Yoga Nidra Meditation (sleep) and “Non-Meditation Meditation”, “Restorative Yoga” and her “LIVE Trilogy” process that releases the underlying spiritual/emotional issues. And, of course, there’s always breathwork – three presentations will focus on better breathing for health.
Lorrie Rivers’ Holistic Summit for Long COVID and ME/CFS runs from July 10th-16th. As always with these Summits, you can access each presentation on the day they are given for free, or you can buy the entire package for $57 and download it and watch the presentations at your own pace.
Register for free or buy the package here
Health Rising is an affiliate member of this Summit and receives funding when the package is purchased.
When is it taking place? Is there a link available?
July 10th to 16th – and here’s the link – https://living-from-inspiration.mykajabi.com/schedule-2023-holistic-healing-summit-for-long-covid-and-me-cfs?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fliving-from-inspiration.mykajabi.com%2Fa%2F2147568295%2FUwjwHiv2
I am in it and the beauty of this summit is you can actually ask questions AND they are answered live!
Thank you so much for presenting these recovery stories and announcing the ME/CFS health summig. They show me that I also might have a full recovery one day. I am a long term yoga and meditation practitioner myself. When I fell ill with ME/CFS I realised quickly that I was in a very good position to deal with the challenges and difficulties that this illness brings because of my advanced meditation skills. (the capability to relax even in overwhelming difficulties) And this article corroborates my impression that they help greatly in dealing with ME/CFS. On so many levels. It inspires me to practice even more. : )
By the way, for everyone interested: There is a beautiful talk “Dancing in the Dark Fields” by Florence Caplow, a Zen teacher, on the website of the San Francisco Zen center from last fall.
Florence suffered from something very similar to ME/CFS (or maybe ME) for ten years and had to give up working. Then had a full recovery and another couple of years fell ill with a severe form of arthritis. Again she had to give up everything. It’s drenched with experience of being chronically ill and therefore very insightful and as I found, helpful.
I found it very inspiring too. She talks about the different approaches we can take to suffering, pain and chronic illness.
What a wonderful title “Dancing in the Dark Fields” – that so speaks to our experience!:). I found it here.
https://www.sfzc.org/teachings/dharma-talks/dancing-dark-fields-0
Another famous Buddhist whose name escapes me came down with ME/CFS as well.
Ken Wilber, world renowned Integral philosopher and pioneer/teacher of East/West spiritual traditions and human consciousness upgrades, was part of the Incline Village, Nevada outbreak around 1984. He nearly died from this in 2006 at his home in Denver. He and his doctors refer to his situation as RNAse-L enzyme deficiency disease. (Hope the spelling is right.) His book and film Of Grace and Grit teach of how his and his wife’s illnesses shaped their life paths.
Pema Chodron is a Canadian-born Buddhist teacher and author on living with chronic ME/CFS using her own long term illness as a teaching example using Buddhist insights and practices to manage the condition.
Another Buddhist, Toby perhaps, wrote the book How to Be Sick. Jon Kabat-Zinn has written from a Mindfulness perspective; the spiritual perspectives East, West and Indigenous are all over the map. All help; some are better than others. However, beware the New Age and channeled ones that blame the experiencer for “creating 100% of their own reality.” That approach seems to feed only narcissism and the dreaded neotrogenic (New Age) guilt and disempowerment.
At this critical stage in human history when everyone seems to be ill with NEIDs, there now may be thousands of Christian and Eastern/Buddhist-oriented books, blogs, and podcasts to choose from. Making meaning from long term catastrophe is critical to survival and quality of life.
While privacy protection re: online data is critically important for most of us, getting a properly interpreted DNA analysis consult can give very good backup for and validation of expert Applied Kinesiology results. I know someone who is managing many desperate physical conditions with genetically-appropriate supplements and nutrition—with very fine results. It is inspiring to see toxic pharma approaches abandoned as the public quickly wakes to adopting affordable and safer natural approaches.
Thanks, Beca! Yes – it was Pema! 🙂 and it was Toni Bernhard who wrote the “How to be Sick”, etc. series. We are lucky to have so many resources.
Pema Chodron?
Yes!
I am so very very excited. I think I probably should splurge and do the $57 thing because I won’t be able to watch it all for six days. The question is is it first question on the app sign up form was coupon code is there one? I’m sure there’s no senior citizens discount or discount for disabled people on SSDI living on fixed incomes, but I’ve been suffering 40 years with this I probably would do about anything at this point between fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue, diabetes, lactose, intolerance, arthritis, riddled and I’m stopping smoking I’m 60 and I’ve been smoking since I was 12.
You have a lot on your plate and now you are quitting smoking.
I think that is fabulous. Good luck with all your health issues. I am only 23 years with ME
I think events like this should be publicised with large caveats: techniques like talking therapy , yoga, relaxation, mindfulness, breath Works, et cetera can certainly help people to live as best they can with our disorders. Diet can help too. But there is no evidence that they are curative. I’m glad to hear the lady who runs these ‘summits’ recovered, but then so does almost everybody who suffers post viral illness. Many more enjoy prolonged periods of remission(as I did) before the illness eventually returns. But for the few who do not recover, false claims of having a ‘cure’ Are cruel.
While I agree that most people who try these things do not recover (I am one) Health Rising has numerous recovery stories that primarily involved mind/body work – https://www.healthrising.org/forums/resources/categories/mind-body-pacing-exercise.125/ – and we have more coming. If you check out Raelan Aegle’s you’ll find many more.
Even if these practices are not curative for most they can be helpful for many – and for me that’s good enough. I certainly agree, though, nothing should be called “curative” – we’re nowhere near that. Still, if some people are recovering using these techniques – and they are (would that I was one of them!) – I think sending that message out is appropriate. The emphasis, though, should be on helping…
I wish that almost everyone who suffers from post-viral illness recovers – I’m in my 40th year, have never experienced a remission (that would have been nice) and am still waiting. Hopefully, it’s just taking longer for me 🙂
Hello Cort.
A heartfelt “Thank you” for sharing your story and for dedicating your time and effort to support us world wide despite your own struggles.
I wish you, like all of us, that you find healing in whatever form and shape!
As I have learned there is no one certain, single way to recover ; but one thing is certain: having hope is one of them and you are greatly contributing to that.
So: Thanks from my heart.
If I could help you get your van ready – I would!
Ps.
How come you live in a van – or do you just work in it? 😊
Would love to hear that story.
To me there seems to be an inherent conflict with mindfulness stuff.
Since my triggering event I have: worked with a Buddhist, had an MBSR coach, done ketamine, studied neuroplasticity, etc.
Eventually I found myself working with a Pain Reprocessing Therapist (PRT). (She relied heavily on The Curable app, which I had previously used, and which is pretty good, I think.)
My pretty severe pain (much of which came with PEM) was lessened somewhat by these tools.
But my PRT said a few months in,”Hey, your pain is down, time to increase your activity.”
But I resisted. I explained that with ME/CFS, increasing my activity was BAD for me. She said, “The point of PRT is to reduce pain so you can return to functionality.” I said my end goal was just to reduce pain, and she said our work together was done and that was that.
I enjoy the reduced pain, and my habit has been to be more active when the pain is down. But I think this could be a mistake, and that pain is our friend, and we depend on it so as to NOT be active (and thus not worsen our overall physiological health and lower our baseline).
This balance is challenging. And I think any discussion of mindfulness-related issues needs to be sure to address this contradiction.
I think my PRT sees my case as a failure, because my activity level is actually decreasing. I’ve worked hard…I shouldn’t be made to feel like a failure.
I am glad you found something that helps you with your pain. Your thoughts about the problem of reducing pain I find interesting. Yes, pain is a warning sign and prevents doing more harm.
What I don’t get is what this therapy that you did has to do with mindfulness. It is a technical term that is used to pin down a specific intentional, friendly and non-judgemental form of paying attention and refers to Buddhist meditation that is presented in a westernized and secularized form for stress reduction (See MBSR program and the book Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn.
Pain Reprocessing that you mention is nothing that is done within this school of meditation. It sounds like maybe a Western therapeutical approach that takes some inspiration from mindfulness meditation but then just misses the point. Mindfulness has nothing to do with therapy. It’s about finding freedom and peace amid whatever circumstances your in. Healing is a side effect.
Sorry, that you had this annoying experience with that therapist who clearly didn’t know about ME. The same has happened to me. And I found it very frustrating because I had carefully made sure in the beginning that they knew the most important things about it. It turned out they only believed they knew.
I was on the fence about signing up for anytime access to this summit, but I decided to go for it. Once you go through the days and see the topics, you will see that there is so much more than mind-body or breathwork (not that there is anything wrong with that). Many key issues with ME/CFS and long Covid are addressed by experts. Cort, if there is any possible way to show all the speakers and their topics, I think you will have a lot more participation.
What coincidance, i also recovered from Fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, and long COVID not to long ago. So happy for her. Dont underestimate what yoga and a good nights sleep can accomplish.