Welcome to Living Well with MS, where we are pleased to welcome Sue Tibbles as our guest! Sue is an MS nurse and Overcoming MS facilitator who follows the Program. She is a qualified mindfulness teacher with a Master’s in Mindfulness from the University of Aberdeen. In this episode, she discusses tips for setting up a mindfulness practice, the role of stress and MS and shares some different mindfulness practices.

Watch this episode on YouTube here. Keep reading for the key episode takeaways.

01:19 Sue’s stress-related MS diagnosis.

05:59 Navigating the difficulties of starting a mindfulness practice.

09:24 Effective ways you can settle the mind.

10:54 Practical tips for setting up your own mindfulness practice.

13:05 The role of an MS Nurse.

16:23 How to talk to your healthcare provider about the Overcoming MS Program.

18:52 Tips for when you are newly diagnosed or new to the Program.

24:51 The impact of stress in MS flares.

30:21 Formal vs informal mindfulness practices.

Don't stress if your healthcare professional initially dismisses the Overcoming MS Program

17:03 “I think it's a really nice opportunity for you to be able to teach [your healthcare professional about the Program]. If you come across resistance from them, I don't think there's an awful lot of point in becoming resentful about that. That's not going to achieve anything at the end of the day. There is lots of support within [the] Overcoming MS [community], if you're not getting it from your MS nurse or your neurologist. Although I think a lot of healthcare professionals are becoming better at being open about these things.”

We can’t control what’s going on outside of us, but we can control our response to it

24:51 “I will regularly say to my patients, 'We can't change what's going on outside of us, we can't change that stressful situation at work, we can't change the builders coming in and messing up. We can't change any of that, but we can change our response to it.’ That's what we need to work on, and mindfulness helps with that.”

There are no downsides to following the Overcoming MS Program

34:30 “When I was first diagnosed and discovered the Program, I remember thinking to myself, ‘What have I got to lose? By eating a bit more healthily, doing a bit more exercise, [and] doing a bit of mindfulness, what have I got to lose? What is there to gain?’”

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