Long COVID Care

10/07/2024

Long COVID Care is moving!
See us at
Yoga Therapy Whole Person Healing

24/06/2024

Mapping the Nervous System and the response to Trauma.
The Polyvagal model provides a really helpful way of understanding the involutary responses of the nervous system. The responses themselves are designed to be protective but sometimes result in a "stuck" response which of course is not helpful and may result in knock-on effects in health and life.

12/06/2024

Long COVID Care is a peer support group with yoga therapy support for those with long COVID.
The project was set up in 2023 and was assessed over 12 weeks of
meetings.
It provided and continues to provide peer and individual support for improved health and wellbeing for those with Long COVID, information on practical and positive health steps,
resources to use practices outside of the meetings and information on self-management skills.

Participants reported that the peer-support meetings reduced the stress of isolation they felt and gave them time to explore positive actions to support their health. The group used the resources from meetings and shared information on other resources for health, welfare, financial and employment support.
Participants felt better equipped to manage their health through attending the group and 1-to-1 sessions.

A big Thank You to our initial funders
Amersham Community Board
Leap

11/06/2024

There are mental challenges of having Long Covid.

Worries and anxieties can at times, dominate thoughts. Think of these as messing with your mind!
Thoughts often repeat over and over which is called ruminating - unfortunately, the brain is wired to focus more on negative thoughts than positive ones.

If we want to reduce ruminating thoughts, it doesn't work if we tell ourselves not to think about that thought.
But minds can be distracted by having a different thought to focus on.

This is where a short practice and preferably practised each day can really help settle or steady the mind. Thoughts are consciously placed onto one thing
The tapping practices are a example that we looked at last week. There is the physical or somatic part, with tapping onto the body or fingers, plus the cognitive or mind aspect through repetition of an affirmation. These two things together keep the mind engaged on the practice itself.

Any of the recorded yoga, breathing and relaxation practices are also another way of doing this. Meditation practices can also be used too.

Ideally find a manageable practice that you like and is effective for you and stick with that same practice for as long as it's helpful. This can help with the mental challenge of having Long Covid.

10/06/2024

Understanding what Long Covid is like...

Letters: Rose Brown, Phil Turner and Linda Mills respond to Sam Wollaston’s article on a woman living with the devastating condition

10/06/2024

Hello and welcome to this page about the group, Long COVID Care.

It's a peer support group for those with Long COVID, and uses weekly meetings and individual sessions to look at ways to improve and positively impact health and wellbeing whilst having Long COVID.

Long COVID is complex and each person experiences a unique and changeable set of symptoms.
Everyone has their own particular circumstances too which alters the experience each person has of living with this.

Yoga therapy practices are part of the support offered in this group because they provide practical, easy and effective tools for benefiting health and wellbeing.

03/06/2024

Tapping

This week, in the group meeting, Monday 11am, we're looking at tapping.
This involves tapping certain points on the body to stimulate or restore energy and work with the mind to reduce stress.

We'll have a practice session to try it and see how it feels.
We respond in individual ways to treatments whether complementary treatments or conventional treatments.
Start with as few preconceived ideas as you can and see how this is for you.

If you have Long Covid, get in touch to find out more about our support group in the Buckinghamshire area.

22/04/2024

The Long Covid Care group meets on Mondays online at 11am.
It's a support group with yoga therapy practices to support mind-body health.

The group started from a community project in Buckinghamshire and uses the local knowledge we have to share relevant information.

If you'd like to join the group, message
Or email barbaradancer@gmail.com

21/09/2023

Accepting that you have a health condition that has affected your life is hard.
It takes time to come to terms with that and what the new reality is.

Acceptance is not the same as giving up.
Acceptance is about seeing the situation for how it really is.
This is the right place to understand what options there are to support our life right now.

29/08/2023

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/aug/23/the-key-to-depression-obesity-alcoholism-and-more-why-the-vagus-nerve-is-so-exciting-to-scientists

Stimulating the vagus nerve is being hyped as the simplest way to reduce stress, dampen anxiety – and could even curb obesity. But what exactly is it? And how does tickling your ear help?

24/08/2023

It's important to understand your Long COVID symptoms, particularly if they are variable.
Using some kind of symptom tracker or diary sheets over a period of time, which could be a few days or up to a week, will give you a better idea of what symptoms are occurring and when.

Are there patterns? This can pick up patterns that you hadn't noticed.

It's also important to understand your own daily pattern of sleep, food, activity and rest. Matching these to the symptom tracking can provide a clearer picture of symptom variability.

The Long COVID Care group has symptom tracking sheets which prompt the information or make a diary or use an app.

21/08/2023

It was good to meet the Health and wellbeing coaches at Mid-Chilterns PCN.
They have been very positive about the Long COVID Care group which is a group with very specific health challenges.
These health challenges aren't well understood, especially fatigue and brain fog when the person concerned may look well but feel completely exhausted and overwhelmed.
This is where it's so helpful to get together with others who really understand the health challenges.
Positive social interaction is not a nice extra for our health, it's a fundamental part of feeling ok as a human being.