Tips for Keeping Your MS Glass Half Full
From writing bucket lists to nightly journaling, Willeke is sharing her tips for staying positive with MS.
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From writing bucket lists to nightly journaling, Willeke is sharing her tips for staying positive with MS.
Throughout our lives, there are usually a few times where we want to take a step back and try to assess both how far we‘ve come, and where we want to go next. For people like me living with a chronic illness, figuring out where you go next can often be a much more overwhelming task.
Unbeknownst to our conscious mind, we are in a constant state of change every day. As time goes on, we try to live smarter, faster, better and with more awareness of who and what we are. When you add a chronic illness to this, things can get even more confusing.
When I got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, I recognized early on that I could not be 100% prepared for any eventuality that I might face. Catching a superbug three years post-diagnosis and living to tell the tale was proof of this. It was the wake up call I needed to reassess what I wanted out of my life, with or without a chronic illness. After all, life is about inventing solutions as much as it is about letting go of negative behaviours.
Nobody wants to live with a constant mindset that whispers, “Oh, but MS will do this to me if I do or don’t do that!” I get it, life with MS isn’t ideal, but I’ve found that putting things into perspective will give you the ability to look at negative aspects of what’s happening to you and find the silver lining.
I realize that it can be challenging to try to be optimistic in the face of frustration, but it can be done. Although it doesn’t happen overnight, if you keep trying you can eventually turn it around. For me personally, it took a lot of negotiation and reflection to get there, but over the space of maybe a year I was able to realize that it could always be worse. Here are a few tips that helped me on my journey of accepting myself as I am – do you have any to add?
Although MS is a negotiation that will continue to reinvent your life, no matter how many life lessons you learn, you will always be you.
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