Changing Focus: Approximately 290 million people in the U.S. are
coping with a chronic medical condition that results in impairments,
disabilities or alters their way of living. Often, this level of
disability is a result of three things; the medical condition itself,
the environment or support systems and thirdly, the individual's focus.
Anyone who is coping with a medical condition has an opportunity to
improve their level of function and ability. That should be their
focus, as this is something they can control. In success of any kind,
it is really all about focus. Often times, when an individual is coping
with a disabling injury, disease or chronic illness, they are focused
on the negative impact, the losses and the new disability or lack of
ability to do things that they were once able to do. Anyone learn to
focus on their abilities or "difabilities", as opposed to their
disabilities. This change of focus can bring about higher levels of
function, advance recovery and provide them with tools to help them
achieve things they did not think they could achieve.
Common Negative Thoughts: One of the most critical steps in recovery of
a chronic illness or injury is changing the chronic ways of thought. It
is these chronic, negative thoughts that often are what keeps people
ill. When one is preoccupied with health, when it is all one talks
about and focuses on, it remains. If one explores the most common
thoughts and emotions an individual has when coping with a chronic
illness, injury or disease, one will see that the majority of these
emotions are negative emotions. Negative emotions do not make us feel
good. These negative emotions can be detrimental to a patient's
recovery if they remained focused on them. Some of the negative
emotions that one can experience when coping with the loss of health or
function are described below.
Powerlessness:
Chronic illnesses and accidentally injuries can often times appear
uncontrollable and unpredictable. People may feel as if they have lost
control over their bodies and their future. Loss of control feels like
powerlessness. When people feel powerlessness, they may also feel
hopeless, anger and fear. However, if one learns how to change the
feelings of powerlessness and replace them with positive thoughts, such
as passion, optimism, hope and enthusiasm. They can see that they are
indeed capable of many wondrous things, and that they have control and
power over many aspects of their health and body. You can also take
control of your health by improving your finances and finding ways of
creating passive income so you have more time and flexibility to heal
yourself. I recommend studying the science behind success and work at
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free resources.
Fear:
Fear plays a big part in the emotional pain of chronic illness, injury
or disease. A person may become afraid of many things, including the
progression of a disease, the increasing loss of control or increasing
disability, the outcome, the relapses or re-injuries. A person may be
afraid of their how family members, friends and co-workers feel about
them, now that they have an injury or illness. They may have financial
fears, fear of losing the ability to work or not sustaining a current
income or position. Finding new ways to generate income or work at home
opportunities can allow the individual to have more time to heal and
recover and reduce any fear over finances. Free resources are available
on www.inspirednhopeful.theSGRprogram.com and www.acquiredhope.com.
Additionally, they may fear not being able to support their loved ones.
Fear can sneak up on them and fear can overwhelm them on a continual
basis. It is important to learn how to replace feelings of fear with
good emotions and to learn to focus on abilities and good health. Fear
is said to be the expectation that something bad will happen, learning
to replace this emotion with expectations of something great will
indeed bring about abundance.
Anger: Individuals with a disease or condition may experience anger.
There may be anger against their bodies for "failing" them. There may
be a sense of betrayal. There may be anger at the meaningless of their
disease, injury or condition. Or they may blame themselves or others
for their condition and current situation. They may express anger at
life, the medicine they take and their side effects, the doctors for
not curing them and their friends and family members for not
understanding them or responding to them the way they would like at
that exact moment. There may be anger when people make allowances for
them and then when they do not.
It is important to understand that anger is a very powerful negative
emotion. If a person does not harness this emotion, the negativity may
turn into self-destruction. However, if a person can learn to harness
and control it and turn it into positive energy, such as determination,
passion, optimism and hope, the rewards can be staggering. It is really
all about a change of focus.
Jealousy:
Envy, resentment and jealousy are emotional reactions that are hard to
separate from one another and are difficult to eliminate from our
thought patterns. To be envious, is to wish you had something that
someone else had. To be resentful, is to be angry and bitter because
you do not have something that someone else has. For those with a
chronic illness, injury or disease the thing that they want and do not
think that they have, is health and full function. Because our culture
is competitive in nature and there is such an emphasis on perfection
and images that reflect the "perfect" person in magazines and in
movies, when a patient is coping with an illness or condition, these
feelings and emotions can be a monumental influence on their lives. A
patient will need to learn to stop comparing themselves to what others
have and what they look like and take themselves out of the competitive
plane and focus on the abilities and strengths that they do have.
Grief:
When coping with the onset of a chronic illness, injury or disease,
grief can be one of the stages a patient may go through as they
progress towards acceptance. There are typically three phases of grief:
1) Denial, 2) Emotional pain, 3) Acceptance. Change can involve loss.
Grieving involves focusing and feeling sad for our losses. Grief
becomes a debilitating emotion when one cannot get through all the
phases to the acceptance phase, but rather adopts a chronically
negative way of thinking instead.
There is a blessing in the grieving process. As one goes through the
three phases, one feels pain and agony and then finally the peace of
acceptance. To go through the entire process, gives us a deeply rooted
faith that all bad things do pass, that there is some way to deal with
everything, no matter how hard or how bad it is, and that we will come
out in the light. We are left ready and fully prepared to start over
and rebuild.
The chronic injury or illness experience can be a good thing. In David
Letterman fashion, I have created my own top ten list of the positives
of the chronic injury or illness experience:
10) Your pharmacist knows you by name.
9)Otherwise complete strangers are your instant friends, as they now share a common bond of the injury or illness experience.
8) You find an inner strength and sense of empowerment that you never knew existed.
7) You grow closer to those who love and support you.
6) You find out who your true friends are.
5) You have an opportunity to re-invent your self.
4)You explore and create new work skills and talents, that otherwise may have been left undiscovered.
3) You simplify your life.
2) You slow down and start to focus on the things that are really important to you.
1) You have an opportunity to explore and expand your current balance
of the mind, body and spirit. You can become more resilient.
When seeking better health or self improvement, a change of focus is
often required in order to live fuller. Changing focus can be easy,
once you learn the process of acquiring hope. To learn how to change
your focus and attract good health, please visit www.acquiredhope.com
for free resources and read "Acquired Hope: A Journey of Advanced
Recovery and Empowerment".
Ref:
"Acquired Hope: A Journey of Advanced Recovery and Empowerment" book and www.acquiredhope.com
The Secret to Getting Rich:
http://www.inspirednhopeful.theSGRprogram.com
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