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Making the most of it with chronic illness.

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Social media and mental health is always a hot topic, even when we’re on social media talking about it. And there is quite a bit of overlap with personal growth work, regardless of how your mental health is while you’re doing this work. I think one of the biggest reasons is the comparisons we naturally make while using social media. While we might use it for inspiration, it often does the opposite and demotivates us. Personally, I am very careful about my social media use because I’ve noticed in the past that it can negatively affect both my mental health and personal development. What are some of the benefits and pitfalls of social media for you?

Most of us have self-talk that isn’t exactly the way we speak to the other people in our lives we care about. It is much more beneficial for our mental health to think of ourselves as friends, to treat ourselves as a friend, and to talk to ourselves as we would a friend. Why do we struggle so much with this? It has a lot to do with the way our brains were wired to originally keep our species alive. Now that original intent is much less helpful. What’s one thing you told yourself today that you can change into something you’d tell a friend?

Self-compassion is something most of us struggle with. For many of us it is at least partially due to some of the beliefs we have about self-compassion. Which of these beliefs do you have? Are there any ways in which you think self-compassion might be helpful for you?

I’ve been on a personal growth journey since about a year after being diagnosed with UCTD and fibromyalgia (so almost 6 years of personal growth now). While I’ve shared a lot of my journey via different forms, it’s one that never ends for me. So I asked my friend @drgraceni.nd to host a podcast with me where we explore different personal growth topics that we’re both encountering in our lives from a holistic health perspective. I’m very excited that episode 1 on self-compassion is now available everywhere you get your podcasts! We’d really love to hear what you think and if there are any personal growth topics you’d also like to hear us explore!

We all hate pain, whether it’s physical or emotional. Mister Rogers is right though, it’s impossible to have a life free from pain. No one does. This quote makes me think of the Buddhist proverb, pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. So what are you going to do with pain? Luckily you don’t have to do anything alone. There are supports out there for all of us, sometimes we just have to figure out how to access them.

Here’s the thing, we can’t control our thoughts. Our minds are meant to generate them and so we constantly get streams of thoughts. Most of them don’t bother us - what to have for dinner, oh I have to pee, I wonder where she bought that shirt, and so on. The ones that hook us, that really take us in, are the ones that tend to impact our feelings (to some extent) and our behaviour. What if we didn’t have to buy in to every thought? Personally, I wrestled with some thoughts last night. I know where they came from, what was triggered and while I didn’t ignore the thoughts, I also made some room for them and associated feelings without letting it affect the rest of my evening (or my sleep for that matter). This isn’t easy and takes a lot of practice. What do you do with your unhelpful thoughts?

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Lots of “World Days” This Week

Not a full blog post but I want to wish everyone a happy belated World Mental Health Day (October 10).

Image from: https://ebpcooh.org.uk/world-mental-health-day-2016/

Happy World Sight Day (October 11) – especially to my fellow Glaucoma and other degenerative eye disease warriors!

Image from: https://www.iapb.org/advocacy/world-sight-day/

And a Happy World Arthritis Day (October 12) to everyone battling all the different types of arthritis.

Image from: https://www.awarenessdays.com/awareness-days-calendar/world-arthritis-day-2018/

Remember, stay positive and fight it out. No matter what you are battling, you are a warrior!

P.S. Also a Happy Belated Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians!

Image from: https://www.123greetings.com/events/canadian_thanksgiving/wishes/thanks12.html

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Posted on October 11, 2018Author truetalesoflifeandlupus

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