Keeping A Positive Attitude

When you are chronically ill, it is so important to stay plugged into positive influences, be it people, music, books, etc.  When you are physically ill, it is very hard to keep up appearances and to feel good about yourself.  When you feel bad, nothing seems important and isn’t that an awful feeling? 

Attitude and having a positive outlook can actually improve your health!  There have been studies done to prove this!  What you think about, you bring about. 

Here are some tips that I have used that have helped me to maintain a positive attitude:

• Tell yourself every day, as soon as you wake up “I am strong, I am powerful, I am well”.
• Read books on motivation, self-help books.  Here are some great ones that I have enjoyed reading:

1. Self Matters – Dr. Phil McGraw
2. The Purpose Driven Life – Rick Warren
3. From Fatigued to Fantastic – Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D.
4. When You Can Walk On Water Why Take The Boat? – Lisa Diane
5. God Always Has A Plan B – Gift Books From Hallmark
6. Life’s Little Instruction Book – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
7. The Dream Giver – Bruce Wilkinson
8. Just Enough Light For The Step I’m On – Trusting God In The Tough Times – Stormie Omartian
9. Chicken Soup For the Woman’s Soul
   What else you can do:
   • Learn to love yourself the way you are.  Accept your illness and use it to help others, be a spokesperson, make something good come from your pain.
   • Have faith and keep believing that a cure will be found.
   • Pray to God everyday thanking him for what you CAN do, and not focusing on what you CAN’T do.