I am awake and quite productive right now! I have spent the last three hours working on my website, www.lesliefunk.com, which will soon be up! The website is a way for me to put all of the things I do for work, pleasure and to cope with chronic pain in one spot. I am very excited for this site to finally come together! The last time I built and launched a website was way back in 2001, for my company, "Wellness by Design." I was opening the new location, which was so much larger I was able to offer many more classes, workshops and services than before. This meant creating a new web presence, so that my current clients and new clients could find out everything from hours of operation to the latest class offerings at Wellness by Design. I remember that it was relatively simple to set up my website, import pictures, information and a map to my new location. Did I mention the key term "simple"? Well that is no longer the case!
My hosting company is Go Daddy, and their Website Builder product is amazing, there are so many choices and options as I design pages and link up my existing information from Blogger, Facebook, and Etsy. I can even put in my Twitter info, when I have some to add...very soon! (I big thank you to my personal Twitter coach, Kami Funk). The problem for me is that I see the potential of just how fabulous my new website can be, which is very different than what it needs to be to launch it. I find myself happily planning for the future as I create pages and forgetting that I need to launch it! I started in April, now it is July 5th!!!! So I will set my goal and tell it to you and everyone out there in cyberspace; I will launch this site BEFORE the end of next week! My deadline is July 11th at midnight!
Why the hurry you ask? Because I am writing a non-fiction book and I want to reach as many people as I can. The book is "Relief From Chronic Pain: Learn new ways to decrease the pain and increase the joy in your life!" I realize that is a long title, however I have been told repeatedly that the title of the book is guaranteed to be changed by the publisher, so just pick something! I am submitting the book proposal to Hay House, Inc. and I believe they will select it to publish because so many people need help coping with chronic pain and chronic illness. My journey has been difficult and intense, yet I have learned so much about myself, pain and healing. Pain killers and drugs are not an option for me (they don't work on me, go figure). I have been blessed with doctors who found a pain management program for me and worked hard to get me enrolled. So last year, towards the end of February I began the program that would ultimately teach me multiple tools, skills and practices to relieve the pain I suffered with for so many years, as well as pain that had developed more recently. On a more technical level, the program helped me to develop new neural pathways to relieve pain, capitalizing on the plasticity of the brain. With a new paths to follow, my brain no longer had limited options, so it decreased the use of those old, worn pain loops. I hope that over time my brain has begun the process of pruning off the old neural pathways that I am no longer using on a regular basis and continuing to build new neural paths that allow me flexibility in how I approach the presence of chronic pain in my body.
Wow! It is 1:44am and it is silent outside! Goodnight now...more to come soon!
