Download MEMap from the Google play store.
Before setting up your App it is best to get a strong feel for the tech and the basic concepts of MEMap Lighter Load. 3 quick steps really aid this process: read the MEMap Lighter Load Home page, play around and get comfortable with the App, then read the Guide tab on the home or Wellness Map screen of the App. Once you have taken some time to do this, read 'The importance of a picture of wellness' below. Then take the browser tests below that to ensure that the computer you are going to use to configure MEMap is set up to save data you enter into it.
Once you have spent a little time doing this, choose the Configure App option on this website. These questions are designed to give you a racing start for building a Wellness Map. It is recommended that you complete all of them to get a good illustration of how this kind of map might work for you. You can, though, opt out of anything that does not feel right - and it is expected that once you get working with MEMap you will delete things you feel aren't quite the right fit for you. So long as you click Save before leaving the page, you can break and come back to the config questions at any point. Information is saved locally on your computer until you are done. So you must use the same computer and browser from start to end of the Configuration process - but you can close the browser and shut down the computer without losing saved data. Be sure not to go into your computer's Settings and change the browser settings (eg privacy settings, clearing cached data), or use a 'private window', between starting and completing the config process.
MEMap is designed to configure remotely. If there is someone you trust with your inner world who has a bit of energy and is a bit IT literate, allowing them to assimilate the configuration process and manage things for you is an option - wherever in the world they are. You may wish to read through the categories and tell them your thoughts, or simply have them talk you through it. This might be the foundation for them to support your path to recovery on an ongoing basis via MEMap.
Once you are happy with the answers you have entered during configuration, enter your App code in the box provided and click Configure. This will generate a pin - please note this and keep it safely. Note:- to find your App code, choose the Configure App option from the top right menu on the home screen of the MEMap App. To feed your configuration results into the App, choose the same Configure App menu option, add your pin where prompted and press OK. This configuration will over-write any Bubbles already in your Wellness Map, but will not affect Buddy or example Bubbles, or the Frames in your Reframe Map.
MEMap Lighter Load also works just fine if you wish to skip the configuration process. If you get the basic aims of a Wellness Map and wish to build your own from scratch... ... go for it.
Perhaps for any human, the person we can be is limited by what we can feel in our bones. Many people with ME we have spoken to describe having lost meaningful connection to what it is like to feel healthy or good. As one said, "for years I made purely intellectual or abstract decisions about my activities. Nothing in my body felt good so there was no way of having any feeling for what would help or what would over-exhaust me". And another, "I was lost in a cycle of faking who I was and everything I did because inside I felt permanently terrible and drained of energy". Some have talked movingly about finding shoots of wellbeing which reconnected them to what health would feel like. These shoots usually seem to shine wonderful light on where even more health can be found and on those things that might have been hindering recovery. MEMap, then, hopes to help users reconnect to a clear picture of the health (and life) they want. And where users do have moments of wellbeing, or have found some seeds or shoots of wellness, the aim is to provide a reminder and a feel for what those seeds and shoots are on the home screen of the MEMap App (aka the Wellness Map), so they can readily be nurtured further.
It is widely recognised that having clear focal points which 'draw you' towards them is a key part of any kind of change that anyone wishes to make. Configuring MEMap is designed to provide a number of these kinds of focal points. A definite time and place when your life and health was absolutely fine is the principal one. An imagined scene from a great day in the great future you wish for, and the look, sound and feel of people who, for you, exhibit great health, are other focal points.
As well as direct reference to good health, the Wellness Map is designed to include any peak wisdoms, core values, life strategies or inspiring reference points that put your life into a perspective that feels very right. Most people have occasional perceptions which wash away stress or negativity - or give the day a boost. Instead of the constant process of forgetting and re-remembering the knowledge your inner coach has about zoning out of stress, asserting yourself, feeling confident, centred and easy etc, MEMap helps bottle it for more continuous use.
On a purely practical level hopefully all this seems helpful. But also at a neuroscientific and psychoneuroimmunological level, making regular connections to these kinds of self-knowledge seems to offer many benefits. There is no right or wrong way to build the Wellness Map which will help keep these kinds of connections as live in your day as you wish them to be. Ultimately it is a very personal process of capturing the memories, associations, aspirations, values, imagery, strategies and wisdom, which really speaks to you and says... 'healthy, energised, content, optimistic, relaxed, free to live your life the way you want it...'
Please do not open your browser in a private window when completing this config. Click Browser Test to check if your browser has the appropriate settings to configure MEMap (do not proceed without a positive response):
Second check: type a word into this box and click 'Save Test'. Then totally close your browser and navigate back to this page. If your word is visible your browser is set for configuration!
If your browser is in good shape click Begin Config to begin config. Or choose Configure App from the menu above.
