One of the most difficult aspects of life is dealing with a sudden diagnosis of a serious illness or injury. Despite your setback, you may feel like you have to continue with everyday tasks – and it feels that if you slow down, the whole world would crumble. However, there’s a hard truth you need to hear: you can’t perform at your best if you’re health is at your worst. You need to get into recovery mindset.
Many of us are perfectionists with busy schedules and don’t accommodate for any setbacks, especially if we experience a debilitating injury or disease. But the sooner you start recovering, the quicker you’ll be back on your feet, ready to pick up where you left off.
The recovery mindset is all about accepting your condition. In order to get back on your feet, you need to accept that you’re weak and work up from there.
These three tips will get you in the recovery mindset.
Accept Help
Whether the form of help comes from counseling, friends helping you around the house, or admitting that you need some extra help, having that humility to accept help is the first step.
For example, someone who just had a knee or hip surgery may not want to admit that stairs can seem like a mountain. They may need to temporarily have a chair lift in their home to go up flights of stairs.
There is nothing more freeing than admitting that you could use some extra help when you’ve had a setback in recovery. Your loved ones want to help you – let them.
Surround Yourself with Positive People
Surround yourself with people who love you for who you are and always have. Find your motivators: this can be a friend that cries with you or even characters from books that take you on an adventure. Do not try to conquer your challenge alone.
Not everyone will leave a positive influence on you, so cling to those who do. Your boss, co-workers, or clients might not be as sympathetic as family and friends. Tell them they’re on hold – you can’t work while you’re injured or fighting a disease.
There are so many people in the world that are accepting of other conditions when they are forced to deal with illness and injury. There is no need to surround yourself with people who don’t understand your experience. They’ll only keep you feeling obligated to recover faster than you’re capable.
See the Setback as Character Building
Sit back and consider how this setback is shaping you. Think about the person you want to be when you overcome this challenge.
Being bitter is the easiest way to go because there is something darkly rewarding about feeling sorry for yourself. But you are better than that. You can thrive in your life’s trials, not just survive.
Instead, focus on the person you want to be remembered as. Did your injury or illness ruin your life or did you look it in the eye and face it head on?
Will you be remembered as a resilient warrior who clung to optimism and loved others through the experience? Or will you be remembered as the patient that tried to bring everyone around you down to your level of misery?
Overcoming a setback from illness or injury is an emotional and painful experience. But when you keep fighting, you will find you have more support and more grit than you realize.
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