10 Ways To Be Happy Despite A Chronic Pain Condition

When you suffer from a chronic pain condition such as Fibromyalgia, you can find yourself in a never-ending cycle. This cycle involves feeling stressed because of the pain, the stress causing anxiety, the anxiety making the pain feel more intense and then pain in turn increasing the stress. Pain, anxiety and stress all make you feel unhappy. Although being happy will not take away your pain, it can make it more bearable.

It’s easy to give in to the stress you live with every day because of your chronic pain. However, there are many ways you can combat this stress and anxiety caused by pain. Taking a positive approach to life can help lessen the stress, anxiety and even the pain itself.

To help you deal with pain better, below you will find 10 ways you can be happy despite living with a chronic pain condition. These are things you should remember and implement in your life, even if you are not living with a chronic pain condition, but even more so if you are.

You Don’t Need To Be A People Pleaser

It is interesting to note that we often feel worse when we let other people down than when we let ourselves down. Even though the majority of people that really matter in your life will understand if you are unable to keep to appointments or do things. You need to remember that you do not have to please anyone and that no one is expecting anything from you. When you start adopting that attitude, you will feel happier and less burdened.

Not Everything In Life Is Always Easy

There is nothing worth having in life that doesn’t require work. Although it would be nice to just wish for something and for it to be so. To just go to sleep and wake up feeling free of pain and the stresses it causes. However, this is simply not the case. You have to actually work to change your mindset and attitude towards the positive. In addition, this may involve big and difficult changes in your thought process and a lot of effort. Just like anything – relationships, work, and even pain management – you are never going to be successful in life without hard work. Therefore, to be happy, you need to work on being happy. Positive affirmations can help, as well as being around positive people and actually learning the skill of seeing the silver lining behind every cloud and the positive side of even the worst situations.

Understand There Are No Guarantees In Life

Often the thing that stops people from really putting the effort required to achieve happiness is the lack of guarantees. When you are not sure what will happen, you don’t want to put the effort in. It is important though to understand though that there are no guarantees in life. Understanding there are no guarantees can help you to put forward the effort and take the risks that could make your life happier.

Avoid Comparing Yourself To Other People

It is only human to be envious or make comparisons to other people, but most of the time, it only makes you feel worse. You need to realize that it doesn’t matter what everyone else is doing and who they are – it only matters who you are. When you understand this, you can embrace your life and your experience and make the very best of what you have and you will feel happier.

Freeing Yourself Of The Need For Control

Although it is good to be in control of your life, when you have a chronic pain condition, you can often feel the need to have a control over everything. That need for control can make you feel anxious and stressed. When you let go of that need for control, not giving up but realizing that sometimes things simply aren’t going your way – you will be able to feel happy, no matter how much pain you are in, in one word this is called acceptance.

Celebrate The Small Things In Life

It’s good to celebrate the big events in life. However, putting too much focus on the big events can also mean that you avoid the smaller victories and happenings in your life. The small things that happen every day can be the greatest sources of joy.

When you start to take notice of those and enjoy them, you will feel happier on a day-to-day basis and not just on special occasions.

Make Your Own Happiness

We find it easier to rely on other people to make us happy, but in doing that we also give them the power to ruin our chances for happiness. For example, if your husband or wife comes home stressed from the day’s events at work, you can let his unhappiness darken your own great day. It is better to rely on yourself and take responsibility for your own attitude and feelings, which will not only prevent their unhappiness from rubbing off on you, but may in turn make them feel better.

Be Honest And Real

Often we try to invent and create a version of life that doesn’t exist, such as wishing that the condition that causes us pain did not exist. In an effort to avoid confronting things we don’t like about life, we avoid speaking truths. Usually we hold on to the truths until they explode.

This stress can have a monumental effect on someone with normal health, let alone on one who has a chronic pain condition like Fibromyalgia. Rather than pretending everything is okay, it is healthier to be honest – even if that means admitting, everything isn’t.

In this situation, if you are real and honest from the start, you can avoid the stress that has built up holding back these truths and sink into the calm and peace that goes with true acceptance of reality as it is.

No One Is Always Happy

Everyone has bad days. It is important to keep in mind that this is normal and okay. You are allowed to have a bad day and to feel happy. By thinking that you should always be happy, you can set yourself up with unreasonable expectations, which create more stress and more pain.

Live For The Moment

It is easy to be wrapped up in past errors and mistakes. Holding on to things that have happened though will not help you when you are suffering from a chronic pain condition. It is more beneficial to live in the now, to be glad of what you have and the good things that are happening now. Staying in the moment is one of the easiest ways to improve your level of happiness every single day.