3 Mindset Changes That Help You Cope With Chronic Illness

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Welcome to. She's crafted to thrive. I'm your host, Nikita Williams, and this show is for all the ladies who are making and creating things that they love. You will hear conversations about the real everyday struggles. Oh, juggling life and business, Apple trying to maintain passion and harmony as women. We have the skill of getting things done, but sometimes we get in our own way. It's here, we'll , you'll see that you're now alone. You'll discover that success does not mean perfection. Fear and negative thoughts and challenges are all a part of the journey. You're on this podcast to find the inspiration and tools you need to have a life and business that thrives.

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Welcome to seize crafts . Deprive you guys. Thank you so much for joining me. I am your host, Peter Williams and owner of crafted to thrive and I'm so excited that you guys are here on to another solo cast this week. Um, I have several guests coming up over the next couple of weeks of your come and get a couple of them. Um, just a lot of the people that I'm interviewing over the next few weeks. And then you'll have some of me. So I'm trying to switch it up and see what you guys think. Your , what you guys like. So you guys let me know in the comments on, on the show notes or to reach out to me in my DMS on my Instagram or Facebook page or email me at info at crafts it applied and I'll be happy to hear from guys to hear how you like to hear the show. Um, just me every now and then or my guests every week . Anyway , I just wanted to come with you guys and um, share with you three ways that you can change and shift your mindset when it comes to dealing with chronic illness. So you guys know that I have [inaudible] in fibromyalgia. You cause also know I deal with a lot of other things associated with chronic pain and illness. Um, and I don't list them all out on the show because it's just depressing. Um, I deal with a lot. So, and I know a lot of you guys dealt with a lot, whether it's chronic pain, chronic illness, whether it's depression, whether it's just the stress and anxiety of the world today. And you know, my show, it's all about being positive and sharing tools and tips that encourage you in your life and your business to thrive, to do what you love despite the challenges that you may face on a day to day basis. And so I usually give you guys three tips what I'm talking about business marketing or um, the questions you might need to be asking, like in regards to starting a podcast. I like to keep things really simple. Um, just because I think as women we already have a lot on our list of to do's and why not just not, we don't need to add any more to our to do less. And so when I share these tips , I want them to be bite size and something that you guys can definitely, you know, dig into work on. So we got Shirley and three steps I think are good ways to make an improvement as Jasmine star with saying , you guys know how much I love this and Jasmine star . It's like the 1% rule. You know, you make 1% of a change every month. That's a 12% change over the year and this applies not only just to your business but this applies to your life. Um, I'm , I'm a firm believer in saying that you start small and then you grow big like you, you will see the big improvement over time. It's something that I am constantly reminding dear post once to me that, you know, sometimes you like to look at the big picture and like just jump in and buy it and just go. But it really helps me break things down in smaller pieces because we , you accomplish those small things. It is just has a win. You know, it's just as much of a win when you accomplish that small step to the next step because it creates, it just creates massive improvement over time. And so when go the chronic illness , I think this has been a really good thing for me because working at things in a very , um, like, what's happening now and what improvements can I make has help me not to feel as overwhelmed. Um, often I should say because I, it's not that I don't get overwhelmed. I do because it's a lot. I'm in my thirties, and sometimes I get overwhelmed with just that very back then in my thirties. And I have to, you know, watch my energy. Um, so I'm not going to say that this is 100% and nothing's 100% because we're all working on things. So these are three steps though, that I do think can really help you dealing with a chronic illness, your mindset, the shifts that you can start to make it simple enough that I think that I will make a massive change for you because they has to remain . It really has. So the first step and these three things that I think can help you and shifting your mindset when it comes to dealing with a chronic illness is to change your focus. Yes, I mean shift your focus. Um, it's kind of like in general if you think about the things that we are constantly at paying attention to are things that will most likely drive us up the wall. It's kinda like if we focus our attention on the negativity of a person , um, all the good things kind of go out the window, right? Like it just gone and there are some things you can compare this to having a chronic illness. It can seem at times that no matter what we do, no matter how hard we try, it's always that it's always negative. It's always like our bad day. And what I have found for myself in what I've seen, other people have a success and it's realizing that if you shift the focus to thinking about things in a different perspective allows you to have space to get out of your own self. Now there are different ways you can change your perspective. One of the biggest ways that I have found that has helped me is really staying in tune with other people. Like I try to connect with other people. I try to email or text or write letters or whatever the case may be and asking my friends and family and people in general what's going on with them and seeing if there's any way I can be of help and how that helps me change my focus is because when I realized that I'm the only one dealing with the stuff and then I also realized it could be a lot worse, like my situation to be a lot or as I get that, you know when you're dealing with it you're like, yeah, but my situation is bags . That is, you have bad situations. We all do, but it could be worse. Everything can always be worse. Let's just be honest. And so when I'm able to shut my focus to focus on someone else and trying to give them happiness and joy, I feel a lot better. All is as far as my mindset, I so clear. I if you're happier or more joyful and that's something champ , put money on camp by that kind of shift in perspective. Now , another way that I have found that you can change your focus is to do something else like so when you're in a lot of pain, you know , for years, and I don't know if I've talked about this in another podcast cause I can't remember if it was on my ID channel, but for years my husband has been encouraging me to find a hobby and I was just like, yeah, I've just not really, you know, hobbies for me always usually turn into businesses. I don't know of anybody else's listening. And like I'm a serial entrepreneur. I started things as a hobby and then it ends up being my business. So for me, most things kind of feel like they end up that way. But I have been really searching for a hobby because it helps me show my mindset. It helps me think about things that aren't really necessarily focus on my situation and it really does help. It really does help me be clearer or helps me be more creative. It helps me to see, you know, pass my pain and see more things that I can do. Um, then the things that I can't do. So definitely number one is to change your focus. Number two is acceptance. Now I know this one is hard. Acceptance is acknowledging that you have something and someone acknowledged that you have something and it gives you the clarity and the mental space to take positive steps that can help you now and later. Now when you're dealing with a chronic illness or chronic pain, you know, sometimes these diseases can be progressive, like they can get worse. And I understand that. So excepting what's going on right now will help you to make better decisions that may prolong that period of time. From that, from that condition getting worse because you are actually actively dealing with what's happening. You're actively making decisions versus just letting things happen to you. And so that's where the power comes into excepting what you're going through. And for a lot of different ways, you know, for a lot of different people, accepting can happen in different ways, right? So for me excepting mean met that I had to realize that this is currently where I am. I deal with pain on a constant, you know, day to day basis. I am, I'm usually in flux , you know, I don't really know what's going on, but that doesn't mean that I can't make plans. It just means that I have to be flexible. Now before I was able to accept that my acceptance was like I can never plan anything or do anything because I never know what's going to happen and I can't really make any decisions about anything because , um, I don't know what's going on. So I'm just going to say , put instinct code is never good, right? Like stay on one place is never a good thing to do. It's like, you know, there's no progress, there's no movement and then it becomes an invented stuff to feel hopeless. And so the beauty and accepting where you are when you look sad , where you are and what is happening to you, what's going on, and then your ankle to have, you know, go back to that changing your focus. You're able to see things a little bit differently. Cause now you can make decisions like, Oh, maybe I need to eat differently. Maybe I need to understand that, you know, I can't necessarily do this, but I can adjust to do something differently. So acceptance really allows you freedom. It gives you freedom. So being able to accept that you actually have, it allows you to have space to see the possibility of something more acceptance really helps you to have a better mental clarity. It gives you space to be able to make the right type of decisions so that maybe in the future you can have a better outcome of dealing with your current circumstance . Okay. And so number three, gratitude, self care and positivity. Now I wrap all those three things into number three. Well, gratitude is self care and being positive is self care. But in my opinion, the foundation of all of those things is having gratitude. Now it's really hard to have gratitude when you feel I'm grateful for your situation, right? Like let's be real. I'm not like sitting up every morning and every and being like, I am so thankful that I have enough material says , and I have this pain and I have a fibromyalgia. That was some times I do like those needles and like clicking me or someone's hitting me or these are not like grateful feelings, right? Like I'm not showing grateful when I'm in that kind of pain, but I am feeling grateful in my mind because they're all a lot of things to be grateful for. And this goes again back to number one of changing your focus. And I was listening recently to a podcast , um, called a woman's pelvic health podcast. It's very a , it's a very raw , um, podcasts for where we were dealing with pelvic health issues and she was interviewing a therapist or cycle, the cycle psychotherapist or se , um, psychologist. And he was sharing that there is a huge correspondence between how we think and how we feel. So the anxiety we have in the pain and things that we have going on, continue to magnify the pain that we're going to, our body reacts to anxiety and, and stress and negativity. Our body responds to that. So the pain that we probably naturally just have can be intensified by how we feel. So again, impress on me why this number three of the three steps of changing your mindset of gravity , why it's so important? Because we have something to be thankful for, right? One, it could be worse. I know I keep saying that, but I've really come to appreciate that. Like every situation it could be worse. I've heard some things from stories from women over the past two or three years and I'm, I'm at the end of the conversation, I'm very like, Oh my gosh, it could be worse. Right? And then secondly, I'm just grateful that I have friends and family. I have a support system that really loves me and cares about me. I'm thankful that I have breath today, but I can speak and share my story with other people that I can go and share, you know, hopeful things with others that they're not alone and that you know, you can get through this. I'm grateful for those things. I'm grateful for the fact that even though I don't enjoy dealing with this pain and the struggles, it has made me a stronger person for it is how it has allowed me to have greater compassion for people. It's allowed me to have a better understanding of what other people may be going through that I don't even know because I can't see it because they can't see it having to me, I'm grateful for that new perspective. I'm so grateful for a lot of things. And so when I start thinking about the things I'm grateful for, it changes the energy changes. How I feel about my situation, helps me have a different perspective. It helps me to really accept where I am. It helps me to take all those like the number one and number two in to complete understanding rate . And so that's why gratitude to me as a foundation of self care, it's the foundation of being in a positive state and a lot of ways is because you have to know what you're thankful and grateful for. You gotta know it and if you have a hard time figuring that out, write it down. Maybe it's small things. Maybe you're grateful for your puppy. Maybe you're grateful for your kitty cats that snuggle up with you with your ceiling pad . When you're in pain. Maybe you're grateful for that cup of coffee in the morning. Maybe you're grateful for the tea that you get to drink because it makes you feel, you know, nice and warm inside . Maybe you're grateful, but you are able to sleep for two hours today. Find something and build on it every day. Write it down if you can put it in a router to jar . Um, I think I'll put in the show notes a couple of journals that I personally like, but definitely do those things have really helped you to have a better mindset once you start doing these three things up . Incorporating this in the mind set when it comes to dealing with chronic illness. When you start to change your focus and accept what's happening to you, but then make positive decisions towards a better future or better decisions in the future. When you start to have more gratitude and see credit too , I think you'll sort of feel a little bit better even though you're so not so great every day . Just like me. Um, case in point today I'm into raining and Florida , it's summer time . I'm still not used to that . You guys in for the summer being like a rainy time I guess whenever we would come here for vacation, I always saw for us like the sunny place or the draining , um, which makes my body hurt worse. I feel like it makes everything hurt. I have a headache. I co-curricularly I feel like don't touch me. I felt like a lot of things, but I was able to spend some time with some friends today I was able to do my ministry. Today I'm , I'm able to record this podcast today. Some of those I was able to do and I'm grateful for doing them. So it just makes the day that even though I don't feel that great, I feel good. You know, I feel good and I feel like that gives me the energy and the hope and the power to keep going for another day. You know what I'm saying ? So out this podcast episode was helpful for you guys. Um , keep this brief. Like I said , um, I would love to know kind of tips or tools or um, things that you guys use to help shift your mindset. Um , whether it's a good book or whether it's lighting a candle or whether it's using essential oils or whether it's writing in your journal or whatever it is. I would love to hear what kind of things help you have a better mindset when it comes to dealing with chronic pain and your chronic illness. Because I know those things I mentioned to this show really have helped me. So like always , um , if you like what you're hearing, please share and subscribe to this APIs into this podcast and share with your friends. Please leave us a review on iTunes. It will , um, you know, likes my heart when I see positive reviews on there and I get to be like, yes, people are listening and this listenership is growing and I'm so excited about that. Thank you so much for listening and stay tuned for new episodes coming out with other amazing entrepreneurs and women doing the things that they love despite whatever challenges they're going through and all of that. As they say, check out the show notes at, she's crafted.com and just remember you guys, all of us, we are all crafted to fry .