Positive sayings you tell yourself (or not!)

[Akire]

I was thinking how often I catch myself saying “you are not useless” if I’m struggling to do something. But not being useless is hardly an inspirational thing.

Wondered if anyone has any positive affirmation you tell yourself or quotes. I even settle for quotes on a tea towel! Just fancied things can use to raise my spirits or things I can print and have around to remind myself it’s hard battle we fight and we do well.

Off to look on Pinterest but please share anything you have found.

One I use a lot is
"If this is the worst thing that happens to me (time unit) then I'm pretty lucky."

Even if it's the worst thing that happens this week or month... often in that context, it's not so bad. Often it's only the worst thing that happens that hour, so really trivial if momentarily quite annoying.

I’ve not heard that before, I like it

This too will pass.

Important to remember that sometimes just just have to get through a flare up, there isn’t much you can do except wait for it to pass. It has passed every time before and it will pass this time too.

That’s good, Pinterest hasn’t found me anything yet which was disappointing. Maybe we need to make some up.

I say to myself quite often "I am more than my feet"

I have arthritis in my feet. But the rest of me is strong.

Some days I have to talk myself into getting off a chair and walking down to collect my son from school, the only thing I can think about is how my feet will hurt.

But I am more than my feet, I am a mum with a son who loves her and won't want picking up from school for much longer so I get up and do it anyway.

It doesn't always work, but often it does.

Sometimes I go to the gym and my feet hurt and I think well I won't be able to do xyz exercise today, but I can do other things. I can adapt exercises, I can work on having a strong upper body, I am more than my shitty old feet.

Sometimes I go on a 20 mile cycle with a pal, we stop off half way at a lovely cosy cafe, I get off my bike and limp like a 100 yr old to a table. In fact a 100 yr old could probably overtake me and steal the best table. Some days I feel totally shit about that, some days I think "I am more than my feet, I can cycle 20 miles". Just depends on my mood on the day.

That’s really good to hear, glad it works for you. maybe I need something more individual to me. Mmmmmm

"this too, shall pass". Works for negative and positive things. Negative - this will be over soon. Positive - enjoy this while you can (in a non morbid sense)

I've also been trying out the Curable app and it suggests you think of something else instead of pain. Loads of people seem to swap the word pain for bananas but that doesn't really work for me. I think of my pain as an angry wee man, like a Mr Men character, and when he pops up to annoy me I tell him to just jog on. There are definitely times when I can feel this technique working for me a bit, other times it does nothing. If I consistently tell him to jog on I do feel an actual improvement. Not pain free by any means but duller maybe, an ache rather than stab after stab after stab. Then I sort of forget to do it for a while and it's not so effective.

I am definitely coming round to the idea that our brain can influence how we feel our pain. I'm not 100% converted but I think there is something in it for sure. But I wonder if that is easier for me because my pain is concentrated in a particular identifiable area of my body, I don't know.

(Anyone who knows me in real life won't believe I'm giving this approach the time of day but I'm open to trying anything at this point)

There is something about having right frame of mind I agree. Took me years to stop feeling like pain was a personal assault if that makes sense on me. Helps not
To feel at war against yourself even though easily done when it’s all to much.

Not really sure if it counts as a positive saying but I repeatedly ask myself if I'm going to let pain dictate what I can and can't do or am I going to prove I can do anything despite the pain.

I'm irritatingly competitive and stubborn with myself, will tell myself I'll do whatever I need to despite the pain & fatigue and push myself to carry on, 9/10 times it bites me in the backside and I end up in agony and exhausted, but also smug because I got whatever needed doing done.