STORIES: Zentangle helps get through rehab after major surgery and relieve restless leg syndrome (RLS)

In this occasional series on TanglePatterns, readers describe in their own words how Zentangle® has changed their lives. For more accounts in this series, click on the “STORIES” link in the pink alphabetic tangle index above.
Visit this post for the stories that inspired this series.

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“My story isn’t as dramatic as some of the ones I’ve seen, but even so, it shows how Zentangle has helped me get thru some of my own problem-times.

First of all, I had major surgery last April, and ended up in a rehab for close to three weeks, working with physical therapists (no, physical terrorists, lol!) for 90 minutes, twice a day. Other than that, my time was my own.

There is only just so much TV I can watch, and I even got tired of reading. What did I do? I tangled, of course, and for an hour or two at a time. I did the tangling in a blank-paper notebook instead of on tiles, and created some nice pages of ZIAs.

So that’s a situation where Zentangle kept me sane, and kept my brain working.

The other thing I’ve discovered about tangling is that it’s a great medicine for restless leg syndrome. Seriously. I mean it, it really is.

Fortunately the RLS doesn’t bother me often, but when it does, it’s horrid. Because I’m already on six other medications, I haven’t even discussed adding RLS meds with my doctor, I just don’t want to take any more meds.

So the last time it hit, driving me crazy, making me twitch and wiggle and just plain annoying me, I grabbed my notebook and my pens and sat down and tangled. After about 30 minutes I realized that my legs and feet had stopped the twitching and wiggling.

Fast forward to the very next evening, when the RLS hit again: I grabbed the notebook and pens again, and tangled. Again, after about 30 minutes or so, I realized my legs and feet, again, were quiet and relaxed.

The focus and intensity of tangling had simply caused my legs to relax to the point that the RLS went away. That was about two weeks ago, and I haven’t had any more RLS attacks since then. The next time it hits, tho, I know what to do!

Like I said, it’s not a dramatic story, but for anyone who has RLS, it might bring some peace to their legs and feet, so I thought I’d share my experience.”

~ Joyce B.

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If you would like to share your own experience for this series, please email me (linda [at] tanglepatterns [dot] com). You can make your story as long as or short as you like and if you wish your personal details to remain private, I will certainly honor that.

By publishing your “testimonials”, I’m hoping it will help spread the word about Zentangle to many others who can REALLY benefit from it. As the Zentangle founders say, “Anything is possible, one stroke at a time.”™

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