Take Charge of Your Health - Living Life With Hope When We Face Illness
When we are healthy, the hope we hold is linked to our future – our expectations, plans, wishes, and vision for the quality of our life. When diagnosed with a serious illness, we sometimes lose control of our future and can feel a sense of hopelessness.
Most of us can relate to this scenario: when we first recognize symptoms of an illness, we hope that it will turn out to be nothing. If we learn we have a serious condition, we hope that treatment will take care of it and we will return back to our normal, healthy life.
When faced with difficult news about our health, denial can flare up as a coping mechanism, which unfortunately can be very counterproductive. Denial can cause us to delay in talking to our doctor about our symptoms when they first arise. This can actually increase our medical complications. Alternatively, we may insist on continuing treatment, ignoring doctors who say the treatments are no longer effective. Denial can also take the form of insisting we feel better, even as our medical condition grows visibly worse.
A productive goal is to replace denial with hope. When we face healthcare challenges, it is important to focus on positive things – things which we can control to help improve our circumstances and opportunities. When it becomes clear we will never be as healthy as we once were, we need to shift our hopes to living the rest of our days as best as possible. Studies show that having hope ad an optimistic outlook is good for both our emotional and our physical health.
The good news is there is always hope; it just may take a different form than we expect. As examples, regardless of our condition, we always have the hope to love and be loved. We can also feel good about the life we have lived and the difference we can still make. Hope may be finding meaning and belief in life after our death.
Here are some things we can do to strengthen our hope:
Recognize the people who care deeply about us and our well-being.
Plan to do things that you enjoy with them (as best you can).
Set short-term, flexible, realistic goals to maintain a sense of control over your life and strengthen your self-awareness and self-esteem.
Speak with your physician specifically about pain management. It is easier to have hope when you have comfort.
Ask for a conference with loved ones and your medical team so you can all discuss questions and feelings, be informed, and “on the same” page in terms of your expectations, preferences, and wishes.
Connect with your personal spirituality or faith for courage, comfort, peace, and strength.
Spend time outside.
Consider exercise (as long as it is safe and doctor approved).
Reminisce. Go through photo albums. Tell people your life stories.
Focus on having fun, laughing and playfulness – watch comedies, exchange silly jokes, play games, spend time with children and/or your pets.
Listen to music. Look at beautiful art. Focus on your favorite hobby.
Consider meditation and relaxation exercises that enable you to focus on your blessings and the positive things in your life.
Hope is a valuable asset. It helps to build resilience, especially when there are bumps in the road. People who respond to illness, (or other life challenges), with hope adopt an attitude of acceptance and positivity, reduce their chances of suffering from anxiety and depression, create opportunities to focus on the joys of their life, do what matters most to them while they can, and put aside what is trivial to focus on the “big stuff”. Remember, hope is a practice. Thankfully, it can be a powerful force when it is cultivated and maintained.