A free meditation exercise, a long COVID study, and a poem about chronic fatigue

Don't worry, it's the kind of poetry you might not hate

A guided meditation for chronic pain which costs £0.00

I found this free meditation yesterday. It’s about 20 minutes long. I personally found some of the background music in the first few minutes a little distracting, but this soon changes to some good quality nature sounds. Nice!

Free meditation for chronic pain: https://www.meditainment.com/pain-management-meditation

Groundbreaking discovery: telling exhausted people with long COVID to exercise more isn’t always helpful

I also found this article on New Scientist which is an interesting read for anyone with long COVID, and it also makes some references to CFS/ME. The general gist is that when you take into account the effect of post-exertional malaise, the fact that “people with long COVID” is a very diverse group for which it’s inappropriate to make generalised conclusions from studies which don’t look at individual subgroups, and a study which has investigated possible detrimental effects of exercise for some people, some forms of exercise may in fact be detrimental:

Exercise advice for long covid may be doing more harm than good - New Scientist

A non-pretentions poem for people who are too tired for poetry

I have no time for the kind of poetry written by people with degrees in english literature which can only be understood by other people with degrees in english literature.

When I came across Billy Collins for the first time, and realised that poetry can be both accessible and beautiful, it was like an explosion went off in my head 🤯

It inspired me to start writing my own. This is one I call Matchbox Train. I had the inspiration for it when coming home one day on the train.

Matchbox Train

by James Allen

a matchstick figure is seated on its train home
staring at an open notebook
of exhausted paper pages

fatigue and pain
no longer
distinguishable

the figure is dredging depths
looking for words to lay
between the parallel lines

the tracks lay empty
as the glue joining its matchstick legs
seeps slowly into the seat

the diesel engine roars to life
brutal mechanical force vibrate
through splintered, rough-hewn aches

and the gentle rocking of the empty carriage
carries through the figure
matching its drugged languor

the figure puts the notebook away
and sets its matchsticks length-ways

settling into a snug-fitting box
with eyes closed now

existing only as wood and glue and ache
and a swaying pendular motion

passenger and train merging
into a coalesced whole

Footnote

When I’m not writing poetry or learning about the science of chronic pain and fatigue, I’m working on my symptom diary app for Android and iOS. It’s 100% private, ad-free, customisable, and also allows you to draw your pain in 3D