Positivity. It’s something we all strive for in our daily lives but staying positive in the face of adversity can be much more challenging. Suddenly everything that you thought you knew about your life has been turned upside down and you have to adapt to your new “normal.” Since my diagnosis, my illness has been a rollercoaster of emotions that have, at times, greatly affected my ability to stay positive- and that’s completely ok. No one is expected to face adversity with the upmost positivity 100% of the time. We’re humans, we have emotions, and that is a beautiful thing. Throughout my illness and the setbacks that have accompanied it, I have found small ways to help myself stay as positive as I can through it all. Here are a few of my favorite ways:
Keep a gratitude journal.
I cannot even begin to recommend a gratitude journal enough. A gratitude journal is a place where you write down the things that you are grateful for in your life every single day- even on the worst of days. In fact, I find that it is the worst of days that I truly find the most comfort in jotting down everything that I am grateful for. My family, my pets, my home- the act of pulling my mind away from the worries and doubts that are weighing on me for even a few moments and recognizing just how lucky I am never fails to bring me back to the present moment and help me find a glimmer of positivity. Whether you buy a dedicated gratitude journal or simply just write what you are grateful for on a piece of paper next to your bed at night, take the time to recognize the positive influences in your life. I promise it will be worth it.
Bring yourself back to the present.
Throughout my illness, I have found that the times when I am resentful and sad about the past or fearful and anxious are the times when I am feeling the least positive. Living in the past and the future robs us of the present moment by filling our minds with things that we have no control over. Bringing yourself back to the present moment isn’t always easy, but one of my favorite ways is to take several minutes and really focus on my surroundings. What do I hear? What do I smell? Am I cold? Hot? What do I feel? When I take just several moments to bring myself back to the current moment, I instantly feel the release of my worries and doubts. Suddenly, I am living in the moment, absorbing everything around me and I realize that the things I was worrying about are not part of my current moment. Stay present- that’s where we live, after all.
Give yourself a pep talk.
If a family member or one of your best friends came to you upset, what would you do? Support them, of course! But just as it is important to support your loved ones, it is equally as important to support yourself. We are often so much more critical of ourselves than we could ever imagine being to someone else and after a while, the negative self-talk can really hurt our ability to stay positive. So, when you start feeling defeated or negative, give yourself a pep talk. Say to yourself out loud: I am strong. I am worthy. I am beautiful. I can do this. This is only temporary. Repeating these phrases over and over not only makes you believe in them but retrains your mind to seek out the positive opposed to the negative. You’ve been through so much- you owe it to yourself.
Accept your emotions- the good AND the bad.
When I was first diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, I spent so much of my time feeling ashamed or embarrassed over the negative emotions that I was feeling. I was trying so hard to stay positive that I was dismissing and/or bottling up my emotions, ultimately making myself feel worse. It wasn’t until I began to acknowledge and accept that the emotions that I was feeling, even if they were negative, were all part of the healing process. When I learned to accept that, I found that my overall mindset was so much more positive because instead of trying to hide my emotions, I let myself feel them and then let them pass. It’s ok not to be ok!
Not every day is going to be easy, especially when battling adversity. But the beauty of our journeys is that while we may not have control over our illness, we have control over how we choose to live our lives despite it. What is going to happen is going to happen regardless of whether we face it with a negative outlook or a positive one, so why not make it easier on ourselves? Even on the most challenging of days, we have so much to be grateful for in this world.
What are 3 things that you are most grateful for today?
