Your writing of self-perception and the necessity of positive relationships is excellent in my opinion.

I, too, have MS and have found I must add no artificial foods of that nature to my diet . I do use a modicum of salt, rarely pepper of any sort, and lots of garlic, ginger, onions and many foods of a green nature, purple, yellow, etc., meat without additives, occasional peanut butter --nickel content is too high must seldomly eat it, vastly decreased foods with high loads of nickel--found the lists on the internet), only olive oil without additives (if I can help it), MCT oil, and no chocolate of any nature .

I have lost weight unintentionally but it has enhanced my awareness of what all foods contain and decreased my pain and marginally decreased my fatigue. I do admit I do occasionally, like rarely, have crsipy fried chicken wings with garlic sauce.

To maintain my calmness and tranquility, very importantly I do stay away from people who smoke (my asthma kicks in with a vengeance) or who raise religious or political questions about me...not only do they not share their views with me but they scorn mine. Those two aspects of my life are very private unless the people are very open minded.

I meditate a lot and my favorite time is at sundown and sunrise and in bed just prior to sleep. For most of the years I have lived, I have I found it very difficult to get more than 2 hours of sleep due to bone pain, intermittent leg spasms, fatigue....though I am rarely, rarely ill. with anything other than RA and SPMS.

I appreciated bing able to share my thoughts with you.