Yesterday I commented on an IG post that posed the question; What is the one thing you wish others knew about lupus? My comment; that I’m strong, capable, a fighter, a warrior and I own my day.
The rest of the comments were very negative based. This got me thinking….. are we living the positive lives that we should/could to better our outlook for ourselves?
Negativity – (as the dictionary states) is a tendency to be downbeat, disagreeable and skeptical. It’s a pessimistic attitude that always expects the worst. Negative Nancy’s.
A success blog, that I love, says; This type of thinking reflects a lack of confidence in yourself and a failure to trust in the process of life. As a result, your enjoyment and appreciation of all the good stuff that life has to offer gets distorted, leaving you in a victimized state and an ultimately unhappy existence.
I’m not going to say that I am always excited, positive thinking and smiling. I’m also not going to lie and say that through my whole diagnosis I have been completely positive. But like I have said since the beginning….
STRESS = FLARES
I am a lupus sufferer, my insides hate me, they revolt and fight with each other. It can (having the ability, power or skill to) be a rough life; can being the operative term. Why are we allowing the symptoms of an invisible illness to have the CAN over us?
This negative outlook is just feeding into the stress and helping us be more consumed with the symptoms and flares. Negativity = fear; fear = stress; and let’s all say it together stress = flares. This is not just a lupus thing, why are so many of us predisposed to think negatively before positively? Negativity = fear; fear = stress; and stress = unhealthy body…
Like J always says to me, if I worry about something going wrong before it even does, then I suffer twice. If I spend my whole day worrying about “how many spoons I have left”, then I will have accomplished nothing but worry and also be flared. This is also attributed to our relationship, I worry that someday I will be too sick, and he will have to take care of me – but as he points out – worrying about something that might not/has not happened will cause me to miss out on all good we can have in the now.
Let’s face it J is much smarter than I am in this aspect, like everyone he sometimes worries (we are human); but his ability to let it go and float is amazing to me. It is a quality I strive to sharpen and work on every day, I cannot control outside factors or my lupus growth potential – I can only control how I look at it.
Negative thoughts + self-fulfilling prophecy = bad outcomes, that I helped to breed.
Realizing I am just a people, with only control over how I handle the situation + positive thinking + turning my frown upside down = great day and great life.
Surround yourself with positive people, positive thoughts and positive things are bound to shine through. I’m not saying this will cure my lupus. I will still have symptoms, I will still have bad days; but I will handle them. Since I started talking out loud about my illness, I have been met with more love/understanding/support….. Whether lupus or not, we all have good days and bad days – don’t let the bad define you.
Lupus does NOT have power over me.
http://www.success.com/blog/how-negative-thinking-can-ruin-your-life