It’s not surprising that living with a long-term health condition can lead to illness focused thought patterns. Repeated experiences of bad days, or even just daily pain and fatigue, can keep us focused on illness and in a state of symptom expectation. When we choose to do a little too much for the joy of it, it’s hard not to anticipate a crash or a flare. And after what seems like your 100th set back, it’s understandable to question whether you’ll ever improve.
But as a spiritual/ energetic being living a human existence, our thoughts are a crucial ingredient in the reality we co-create. Developing a wellness focused mindset is absolutely essential for turning our life around. It has made a huge difference to my day-to-day experience of wellbeing and I want that for you too.
Although it can be hard to change old patterns, with awareness and preparedness to replace each illness thought you notice with a more helpful, wellness-directed thought, it can be done. It doesn’t take long to create these new habits of thinking. Because wellness thoughts make such a difference to how good you feel, your subconscious soon catches onto the fact that they are more adaptive.
In my creating joyful wellness experience, on one of the days, we focus on finding replacements for illness focused thoughts. Here are some of the things we came up with in the last two 5-day experiences. In which ways do you find your thoughts focused on illness? Perhaps you could write out an alternative wellness thought on a postcard so you can repeat it whenever you catch the illness lthought.
Not all of the reframes below are all-singing-all-dancing wellness thoughts, some are just a step closer to more helpful thinking. These are particularly important when a stronger focus on wellness would be hard to believe in the moment. Thank you, to all the participants of my creating joyful wellness experiences, for contributing to this group wisdom:
I’m so tired > My body is asking for rest
I’m so uncomfortable > I am learning to allow things to be exactly as they are in this moment
I’m so bloated > My gut has a natural intelligence and is doing it’s best to restore balance
I’m so exhausted > With every breath I take, my energy is renewed and refreshed / my cells gain access to an unlimited supply of life-force energy
My energy is low today, I wont be able to do…. > I relax and open to the flow of wellness, I intend to do…. only when it feels right for my body
I feel so unwell today, how am I going to manage tomorrow > I surrender to what is and trust that however tomorrow unfolds, all with be well
Please let me sleep tonight > I intend to have a deep and restful sleep and wake up feeling refreshed
I can’t walk more than 500m > My energy improves when I walk less than 500m
I can’t concentrate for very long > Taking care with pacing expands my wellness
I get easily overstimulated > low stimulations environments bring me peace and wellbeing
When am I going to get this done? > I trust that when I listen to my body all the most important things will get done
If I do this, I won’t be able to manage, I’ll crash > When I listen to my body and open to the flow of wellness my body does it’s best for me
How will I manage? > When I relax and trust, I open to receive the support the universe wants to give me
What is this about? / What went wrong? > I don’t need to understand right now, I trust my body to tell me what it needs
Why could I partially recover before but can’t now? > I am learning more and more every day about how to co-create joyful wellness/ open to the flow of wellness
I’m never going to get better > My body knows how to create wellness and will get there in time
It’s my fault I’m ill and cant’ get better > I was living the best that I could with what I knew at the time. I have new tools now that will support my body to be well
I can’t be consistent so I will never recover > My body has got this, consistency may help, but allowing things to be as they are, is most helpful
I messed up again > I am enough, all will be well
I need to try harder > it is enough to do only what I can do with ease, respecting what my body has to give
I have been ill for too long, life has proven that I won’t get well again > I can find wellness in any given moment just be letting go, connection to my source/ higher self and trusting that with all the new knowledge and wisdom I have right now, I can make different choices that serve me better
It takes weeks to overcome a virus with immunosuppressive medication > My body knows how to get well and overcome infection
I don’t know how I will ever fully heal > My body is constantly moving towards wellness, I can focus on the wellness I find day by day
It’s been too long > I’m learning more everyday, the key to wellness may only be a small tweak / new wellness thoughts could make all the difference
I will never get rid of my migraines, they’re ruining my life > When I allow my experience to be exactly as it is, I optimize my body’s ability to move towards wellness
If you’d like support to create a wellness mindset, use my contact form to get in touch and arrange a 15-min chat about the ways that I could support you.
Here are a couple of other posts about developing a wellness mindset:
Embracing empowering beliefs for better wellbeing: Discoveries from my walks
Image by WOKANDAPIX from Pixabay
