constantly at our side, we should stick to our guns.
We understand how difficult it can be for family members to comply with our wishes to be left alone. If possible, we can explain the way we feel and try to help them respect our needs and wishes.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY
Right now, in spite of emotional pressures from loved ones, I need to do what’s right for me.
February 21
“The future is purchased by the present.”
SAMUEL JOHNSON
“We’re going to get this thing under control,” the doctor assures you. For the first time in months you’re able to smile through the pain. She then outlines a rigorous program designed to relieve your crippling joint inflammation and stiffness.
For two weeks after that you follow the program religiously. You set your watch alarm in order to take each of the four medications on time, and you carefully weigh out the diet supplements. You take frequent rest periods, stretch and exercise as prescribed, and do your utmost to eliminate stress from your life. Then, one exhausting day, with no real improvement evident or in sight, you are suddenly overwhelmed with the prospect of continuing this demanding routine for the rest of your life.
Join the club. Many of us experience disillusionment when we optimistically plunge ahead with a new treatment regimen and then discover how difficult and time-consuming it is.
But there are many ways to reverse such self-doubt and waning motivation. Perhaps the very best way is to take a hard look at the consequences of giving up the treatment program, or doing it haphazardly, and allowing the disease to resume its debilitating course.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY
Haven’t you felt bad enough, long enough?
February 22
“Let the soul be joyful in the present, disdaining anxiety for the future, and tempering bitter things with a serene smile.”
HORACE
It takes more than fear of getting sicker to remain committed to a rigorous treatment program. It also takes more than guts and willpower to get us through. However, assuming that recovery is our overriding priority, there are a number of other approaches and actions that can help us achieve our goal of commitment.
First, and foremost, let’s put aside the panic-producing idea that we have to follow the program “for the rest of our lives.” We need only concern ourselves with today, remembering that we can remain committed to almost anything one day at a time.
It helps a lot to establish a daily routine. At the same time, we should allow ourselves a certain amount of flexibility, considering not only the fact that we are human, but also that illness sometimes takes unexpected turns. Another way to ease the pressure of a time-consuming regimen is to combine certain activities: exercise and meditation, for example, or stretching and TV-watching.
If we follow these and other confidence-building approaches, before long we will find that we look forward to our daily routine and to the rewards of certain activities in particular.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY
My treatment program isn’t a punishment, but a promise.
February 23
“Lord, grant that I might not so much seek to be loved as to love.”
ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI
Through our struggles against illness we’ve learned more about love than in all the previous years of our lives. In the past, many of us took love for granted. We gave and received love but rarely thought about its effects on others and ourselves. As an action and emotion, love was pleasurable and desirable, and that was pretty much the extent of it.
Recently we have discovered the incredible healing power of love. We have become convinced, in fact, that nothing in a person’s wellness program is more important than love. We have found that the more love we have in our lives, the more quickly we tend to heal, the more likely we are to remain well, and the better we feel.
Love is not just a potent force for physical healing but for emotional and spiritual healing as well. When illness brings on feelings of unworthiness, for example, or distances us from God, the love we receive and accept from others—and the love we give to them—helps us overcome those feelings as if by magic.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY
My new prescription, with unlimited refills, will be boundless love.
February 24
“Even now I am full of hope, but the end lies in God.”
PINDAR
Not long ago, when my illnesses seemed to be feeding on each other and I was in constant pain, I became quite depressed. Fearful thoughts began to take root: My cancer is in remission right now, but will it stay that way? My lupus has been getting progressively worse, so what’s it going to be like next year or five years from now? And what about the bypass grafts in my coronary arteries? Will they remain clear?
Those uncertainties plagued me for days. It soon occurred to me that my loved ones could well be tormented by the same unanswerable questions.
And that was exactly the point, I realized one bright morning; those kinds of questions are unanswerable. In order to rise above my depression, I would have to rekindle the hope that had sustained me in the past. I began by contacting friends who had survived the same illnesses. They reminded me that technology moves steadily forward, ever closer to new treatments and cures.
But ultimately it became a very personal matter between God and me. It became, and remains, a reaffirmation of my faith that He will care for me and watch over me always.
THOUGHT FOR TODAY
In all the uncertainty, there is one Great Certainty.
February 25
“Loneliness breaks the spirit.”
JEWISH PROVERB
Many a sad song has been sung about loneliness. Indeed, probably as many poems, plays, paintings, and novels have been inspired by loneliness as by love; there is nothing as heart-wrenching as feeling all alone, even in a crowd.
While loneliness may inspire creativity, those of us with chronic illness
