December Mental Wellness Mantra: My Strength is Greater than My Struggle
We’re smack dab in the middle of the holiday season where family, fun, friends, and festivities (I ran out of words that begin with f) are prominent! However, many of us struggle during the holidays for one reason or another. My biggest struggles during the season include taking care of myself and being okay missing out. These two struggles actually go hand in hand as you’ll see later.
For any of you out there who have an invisible illness, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Due to health conditions, I have to choose which social events I can go to and which ones I can’t. Of course, sometimes I can’t plan it. For example, let’s say I have an event Saturday and Sunday and I know that I can only attend one. If I plan to go to the one on Sunday, I’ll need to miss Saturday’s. However, I may have a random flare-up that prevents me from going anywhere on Sunday, making me miss both events. It’s great fun.
Nevertheless, I have to be okay with missing out on certain social events and prioritizing others. We have events with family, friends, work, and everything in between. Every year, it’s an extremely tough decision for me to make and I don’t really like doing it. Unfortunately, my health requires that I make these decisions all the time.
This can make the holidays difficult and sometimes a little lonely. Because of this, I push myself to do more than I should. I’ll overbook myself and try to make it to as many social events as I can. Between this and balancing crazy holiday hours at work, I get flare-ups pretty frequently among one or more of my chronic illnesses. This is a rather frustrating situation because if I have an MdDS flare-up, I can be debilitated for a couple of weeks. I won’t be able to go out because driving makes me worse, I won’t be able to stay on the computer, I won’t be able to read very much. It’s really not worth causing this flare-up.
Also, I shame myself when I can’t do what I’ve deemed “normal not sick people” can do. I become extremely frustrated that I can’t go out or do certain things such as go to the movies like my friends and family can. On the other hand, if I push myself and cause a flare-up, I shame myself for not taking better care of myself. I put myself in a no-win situation and it’s not doing my mental health any favors.
While most of the time I can get out of this mindset, I feel stuck in it during the holiday season simply because there are so many events going on that I want to go to. So this year, I will be using this mantra to stay positive and remind myself that I am strong. I overcame many obstacles, pushed myself past my limits, and continue to remain positive. My strength is greater than my struggle. I firmly believe this, but I just think I need a few reminders or several hundred reminders during this month. Are there any positive affirmations that can help you during the holiday season? Which mantra would you choose?