Positive Thoughts and Affirmations | Chronic Pain Support Group

happyPositive affirmations or thoughts can help you move away from negative, unproductive thoughts and help you make positive changes in your life. These changes can help you reach your goals and most likely feel better. It’s true that many of us tend to focus on the things we can’t do. We even focus on the things we don’t like about ourselves. This is a negative way of thinking which does affect our emotions.  When you are sick and don’t feel good and start focusing on what you can’t do and start comparing what you used to be able to do, it reinforces negative feelings and can create emotions of anger and fear.

Thoughts and emotions, whether positive or negative do affect our physical health. That is why they say that we have a mind body connection. Thoughts and emotions result in chemical reactions throughout the body. These chemical reactions can affect our heart rate, digestion, immune system, pain level, and healing time. I am sure you can guess that negative emotions have a negative impact and positive emotions have a positive impact on our health. So, wouldn’t you rather focus on love and happiness instead of fear and anger. Fear and anger only create havoc in the body leading to more health problems, creating more pain and inhibiting the time it takes us to heal.

What’s your Focus

So, a good exercise would be to begin creating positive affirmations or thoughts leading to positive emotions. When creating these thoughts, it is best to write them in the first person using “I” or “I am ” and that you write them in the present tense and of course they should be positive. Remember, positive thoughts are not to avoid or not accept the concerns in your life, they are to provide a brighter light when dealing with them.

Begin focusing on what you can do and what you are willing to do to improve your situation. Focus on the things you like about yourself and your strengths. Take time today and make a list of 5 things you CAN do, 5 things you LIKE about yourself. Also, focus on the things you love and the things that matter most to you. When you write these down, you can create your affirmations and can use them daily.

Please know that I am not minimizing the affect chronic pain has on our lives. I am trying to offer a different perspective and another way to deal with it. We are where we are and we all know we didn’t choose it. What I do know is that I would much rather focus on feeling calm and peaceful. To focus on what I can do.. To surround myself with the people and things that I love because time is precious.

We often have said in our group that no matter how bad we have it, there is always someone else facing challenges more demanding than our own. So remember to approach your life with positive thoughts because your own self-image is one of the most important factors you have in determining whether you fail or succeed.

So next time you say I can’t handle this, tell yourself you can!

I found a couple things you might want to look at.  Louise Hay, the author of “You Can Heal Your Life” has a website full of affirmations and meditations.  I also found a website with Positive Affirmations for Pain Relief you might find helpful. You might also want to check the app store on your phone for Positive Affirmation apps.

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