You wouldn't think that being thankful and chronic migraine should go hand in hand, but I believe they are absolutely necessary.
Seeing as how it's November and everyone is counting their blessings and being grateful, it made me think about how and what we are thankful for as Chronic Migrainuers. I am not suggesting that we would be thankful for the pain, because that would be just plain ludicrous. However, we all have fantastic things in our lives to be thankful for outside of migraine.
One of the tasks that many a migraine patient takes on with part of their treatment is the task of keeping a migraine journal. UGH is how I feel when I think about marking my calendar with every day that I have a migraine. UGH is how I feel as I right down every possible thing that could trigger my migraines. UGH is how I feel when I look back at all the events that I missed or just pushed on through in horrible pain. I don't know about you all, but this is a lot of UGH's. At some point I just quit writing it all down and obsessing about it. Looking back at the calendar and seeing that 22 out of the last 30 days were spent in pain is just down right depressing. And I for one do not want to be depressed. Quite the opposite, I want to feel happy and blessed. Every day I count my blessings. I usually start my day thanking God for my exceptionally beautiful and supportive family members and friends. Frankly, without them I would not have survived the years I spent in pain. Then I just go down the list of all the wonderful things in my life. I literally count my blessings. And I never forget to be thankful for my health and how great I feel today.
I am so thankful that I get to spend everyday of my life with these people:
Seeing as how it's November and everyone is counting their blessings and being grateful, it made me think about how and what we are thankful for as Chronic Migrainuers. I am not suggesting that we would be thankful for the pain, because that would be just plain ludicrous. However, we all have fantastic things in our lives to be thankful for outside of migraine.
One of the tasks that many a migraine patient takes on with part of their treatment is the task of keeping a migraine journal. UGH is how I feel when I think about marking my calendar with every day that I have a migraine. UGH is how I feel as I right down every possible thing that could trigger my migraines. UGH is how I feel when I look back at all the events that I missed or just pushed on through in horrible pain. I don't know about you all, but this is a lot of UGH's. At some point I just quit writing it all down and obsessing about it. Looking back at the calendar and seeing that 22 out of the last 30 days were spent in pain is just down right depressing. And I for one do not want to be depressed. Quite the opposite, I want to feel happy and blessed. Every day I count my blessings. I usually start my day thanking God for my exceptionally beautiful and supportive family members and friends. Frankly, without them I would not have survived the years I spent in pain. Then I just go down the list of all the wonderful things in my life. I literally count my blessings. And I never forget to be thankful for my health and how great I feel today.
I am so thankful that I get to spend everyday of my life with these people:
Research on gratitude confirms that being thankful has a strong correlation with greater happiness. Gratitude elicits positive emotions, it can improve health, it can help people deal with adversity and it can enhance personal relationships. Most of the research on gratitude has been conducted by Dr. Robert A. Emmons and Dr. Michael E. McCullough. One of
the studies they conducted hit close to home for me. You will see why when you read their study design:
The participants were divided into groups and asked to write down some sentences each week. The groups were given a different topic on which to write. One group wrote down the things that they were grateful for during the week. A second group wrote down daily irritations or things they didn't like that occurred that week. The third group wrote down significant occurrences with no emphasis placed on whether the event was good or bad. The groups participated for ten weeks. At the end of ten weeks, the grateful group felt more optimistic about their lives, they exercised more and had less trips to the doctor than the other groups.
It doesn't seem like rocket science that if we think about happy things we will be more happy than if we think about
depressing things. I believe that how we choose to perceive the world around us determines our own reality. We as individuals have the opportunity to create our own beliefs about our lives and thus our own reality. I decided at some point to make sure that recognized the great things about my life more often than I was acknowledging the painful parts. Hopefully I am gaining some health benefits from it:)
the studies they conducted hit close to home for me. You will see why when you read their study design:
The participants were divided into groups and asked to write down some sentences each week. The groups were given a different topic on which to write. One group wrote down the things that they were grateful for during the week. A second group wrote down daily irritations or things they didn't like that occurred that week. The third group wrote down significant occurrences with no emphasis placed on whether the event was good or bad. The groups participated for ten weeks. At the end of ten weeks, the grateful group felt more optimistic about their lives, they exercised more and had less trips to the doctor than the other groups.
It doesn't seem like rocket science that if we think about happy things we will be more happy than if we think about
depressing things. I believe that how we choose to perceive the world around us determines our own reality. We as individuals have the opportunity to create our own beliefs about our lives and thus our own reality. I decided at some point to make sure that recognized the great things about my life more often than I was acknowledging the painful parts. Hopefully I am gaining some health benefits from it:)
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