Positive Thinking Matters
Maintaining positive thinking may be the absolute hardest aspect of living with arthritis. While you are dealing with the difficult issues related to arthritis, it's as big a challenge as any you face — to keep your mind wrapped around a positive attitude. How you think influences how you act. Accordingly, positive thinking leads to positive actions.
It's habitual, so getting on the right track with positive thinking is important. Positive thoughts get played over and over in your mind. Negative thoughts also can be played over and over in your mind, such as:
It doesn't matter what I do — nothing's working.
I see no results from the treatments I'm on.
I want to be left alone.
There's no point to my miserable life.
I feel hopeless.
Essential
Seek the help of medical professionals. Tell them if you are feeling pessimistic, hopeless, or unassertive. Together, develop goals and get excited about working toward a positive end. Feel victorious when you make positive changes.
Now comes the hard part: You have to consciously break the pattern of negative thinking by replacing each negative thought with a positive one. Take each of the above statements as an example. Change each statement to:
It does matter what I do. I'll keep trying until something works.
I must tell my doctor I'm not satisfied with the results of my treatments so he will help me figure out my next step.
I need to be around people who I can talk to about how I feel.
My life is good when I focus on things I can still do.
I don't feel hopeless. I will never stop trying to get better.
Once you truly learn how to break the habit of negative thinking, you can control the cycle of negative thinking-stress-increased pain.
Goal Setting
Remember, you are a self-manager. You control how you think, what you feel, and what you should be doing. Start by setting goals: Consciously turn around any thought you recognize as contrary to what you have decided is good for your better health.
If you bear in mind that you control your thinking, and if you stop feeling like a victim of your disease, you will habitually become a positive thinker. Try an experiment: Spend a week or weekend grumbling, annoyed, pessimistic, and overwhelmed. Spend another week as the opposite. Which made you feel better overall? Getting positive thinking down pat is a big deal. Reward yourself for staying on track with positive thinking. Celebrate the victories — even small ones.
