Treating men and women who suffer from pelvic floor conditions that most people don’t even talk about gives you a glimpse into the human psyche and what it takes to heal in the face of an illness that is robbing you of your life. Researchers are now telling us that a positive attitude creates better healing and better healing outcomes.
As Zig Ziglair said “ Your attitude, not our aptitude, will determine our altitude”.
In my practice I see it ever day. Two individuals with the same painful condition one is healing faster and the one is taking twice as long. Why is one succeeding faster than the other? What is the difference between them? What gives? What I have discovered is that a positive attitude and mindset is a driving force in the healing process.
A positive attitude is also important when it comes to how we see our world, how we deal with pain and how we experience our day to day experiences. A positive attitude is the key to success of any kind but most importantly I find that those who heal faster have an internal positive outlook that shapes their outlook and their response to their treatments. While writing this blog I found that many people have different opinions on what it takes to be positive in the face illness or conflict. So what does it take to have this kind of attitude?
Criteria’s for a Positive Attitude and Positive healing
1. First and foremost you must be willing to change. Healing and overcoming pain cannot occur unless there’s change not only on the physiological, neurological or muscular level but also on the attitude level. What do I mean by this?
You must be willing to examine your strengths and weaknesses, and you must recognize when a certain belief is not producing the desired results and holding you back from moving towards your healing goals. For instance you might have to change and prioritize your schedule to accommodate the exercises that are required as part of your healing. If you tell yourself I have no time. I am too busy and too overwhelmed. If you tell yourself I cannot do all these exercises because I have to run this errand or do that chore or a specific project. Then you are not willing to make the necessary changes to heal. I am not saying this change will be easy.
What I am saying is that making changes is necessary to set yourself up for success and for the having a willing and positive attitude towards changes will help in achieving positive healing outcomes. Digging deep into ourselves, our beliefs and anything else that holds us back from our healing takes courage and the commitment to change. This necessary change has to be accepted in the most positive light with the most positive of attitudes.
2. The second most important thing in successful healing is to keep an open mind. Keeping an open mind is critical to having both a positive attitude and positive healing experience with a positive outcome. So many times I hear from my patients” the physical therapy is not going to work,” I have been to so many places, seen so many doctors and nothing has helped”, “I am beginning to think that this is my life”, “I am doomed”.
Read those statements again to yourself. Have you ever spoken to yourself in that manner. How does it make you feel to read those statements? I find may people quit their healing programs because they give it a chance to succeed. Many people give up because their first, second and third attempts at healing failed and didn’t produce their desired results. They think I still have pain so the therapy failed. People who succeed with their therapy and healing are those that keep an open mind and look as their improvements as stepping stones on the road to healing. They don’t just hand in the towel and close off their minds with talk about doom and gloom. Paulo Coelho said the “The secret to life is to fall seven times but to get up eight”.
Those who are successful self-healers and warriors of their own destinies succeed because they don’t give up after their first or second failed attempts. They don’t listen to their minds and let their brains control them. The more you change the way you think and the more you keep an open mind the more you open yourself to another reality, another possibility of what it means to be healthy. Those who I see succeed in their healing journeys are those that possess a positive attitude, learn from what did not work and try again.
Patients set themselves up for failure by continuing the same tactics, the same mindset and the same attitude while hoping for different results. How can anything ever get better if we don’t remain open to the possibility of a different life, a different possibility? Positive healing is about adaptation, empowerment and desire to change because you have decided that the alternative is no longer an option.
3. All day long I hear patients talk negative about themselves, their body parts or their lives. It is your thoughts that will create your reality. When the attitude changes then their mindset changes and the work improves. Keep your mind in check. Live in the power of the moment without projecting into a future that has not occurred and a past that has already happened. What’s the point of negative self-talk and cathpshoric thinking. One of my teachers once told me control your thoughts and then you will conquer all. At the moment he said that to me I became offended. Who does he think he is to tell me I cannot control my emotions/thoughts. Remember from a stimulus/trigger to a response there is a “pause“ ”a gap of sorts”. In this gap the area/space between action and reaction you have a choice.
A choice that can make or break your life. You can us this gap to take to think about your reaction and the words you chose to come out of your mouth or think to your-self. You can turn your thoughts around in this gap and do self- inquiry about what you are thinking or about to say before you say it. You can tell yourself “wait stop this does not make sense”, “I can do it differently”, “I can cancel my am meeting so I can go to physical therapy”. “I don’t have to think this way about my condition. Positive changes are already happening. I can see the trees while standing in the middle of the forrest.
This is the true essence of healing because when you control your thinking, reactions and attitude and remain open minded you open the possibility of becoming more connected to your truth and to your inner wisdom. Keep your thoughts on your healing and then take a leap of faith and do everything you can do to heal. Don’t waiver from positive healing thoughts. Keep your eye on the prize and become the hero/heroine of your won story. Who can ask for a better ending than that?
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