A Turning Point with Lupus

Have you ever thought about how to deal with lupus? Like, just really hitting that point in your fight when it’s not so stressful? Where you react a little differently toward lupus, yourself, and everything around you? Have you ever yearned for the moment you can say, "Lupus, you have NO POWER over me?" I will be the first to say I have asked myself these questions.

Doubt while battling lupus

Sometimes my doubt while battling lupus creeps in. I doubt if I can actually handle anything that it puts me through, even though I can see that I have overcome major issues. That doubt keeps me in a mode of stagnation in my mindset. I view my pain so horribly in my doubt, and it begins to create a habit that is hard to break.

Changing my mindset

When I look at my habits in my battle with lupus, I have to really see the whole picture. I look at what created the habit, what it focuses on, and how I am feeding the habit. When I begin to take inventory of my habits, I am able to address them properly.

What created the habit?

Pain, that’s what created the habit of seeing each ache, each twinge the same. For me, I know my brain remembers the very first time I felt a specific pain. So, whenever a pain came again, I became conditioned to see it the same way. My reactions to the pain became a habit.

What is the habit focusing on?

My reactions were focusing solely on what I thought I was feeling from the pain. I’ve heard it said that what you focus on grows. This is true for me in dealing with my lupus pain. I was so focused on the feeling that I neglected to realize the pain was not the same. I was too busy focusing on the problem as opposed to focusing on what I could do to lessen the pain.

How I fed the habit

I was feeding the pain and allowing it to fester and grow inside of me. I started to talk too much about the pain. Complaining at every moment that I could. Making myself feel guilty for the pain I didn’t cause. I became a "Debbie Downer" to myself. I had to stop myself and consciously make the decision to change my habit.

My turning point with lupus

Once I was able to see my mindset in dealing with pain within my habit, I was able to make a plan to change. The first thing I did was take note of how I viewed my pain. Secondly, I began to keep a pain journal so I could see where I was falling into my bad habit of seeing the pain the same all of the time. Finally, I started to mindfully see my pain and change my focus to lessen it in my life. So, I noticed I had the pain but used different coping skills like meditation, conscious breathing to change my focus, and create a different response to the pain.

Getting to this turning point has made a huge difference in how I battle lupus daily. It has created healthier coping mechanisms that assist me in getting through some difficult issues with lupus. I am at the point that I am able to say, "lupus, you have NO power over me," and mean it!