Negative thoughts can be toxic. They affect the connection between universal intelligence and us. These negative thoughts can be even more prevalent and pressing when you are suffering from a bodily injury. If you are not present and aware of your thoughts during this time, it’s easy to get depressed. But awareness can not only keep you mentally healthy, but help you better heal physically too.
It starts with the injury interfering with your day-to-day activities. The pain can be so distracting that you may even end up focusing on it more. When your attention is diverted so heavily to your injury, you start to dwell on it more than anything else. When that pain becomes the center of your world, you can get sad, which then leads to depression, eating more and/or comfort eating, and not taking care of your body, let alone your injury.
This process can turn into a downward spiral of unhealthiness. You dwell on the injury, you get sad, you eat, you exercise less, and your injury gets worse. Then you get up in the morning and start it all again.
I used a kind of self-medication when I recently had a serious injury that sidelined me. This self-medication helped me stay away from depression and further internal bodily harm.
Rather than sit around and baby myself or focus on the pain, I decided to do physical workouts and attend therapy religiously. A large part of this involves keeping a clear, positive mind to order to be able to heal correctly and rapidly.
I made sure to focus on the positive aspects of my life. It’s something I talk to people about anyway, but this time, I had to make sure I put more energy and effort into keeping “my eyes on the prize.” As a result, I avoided the depression and sadness many people experience, and I believe I healed faster than if I had just sat and waited to get better.
Also, I still do my own physical therapy in order to keep my body functioning properly. For me, it’s a combination of mental and physical work that keeps me going despite the injuries I sustained while in the military and working overseas. Even though my official physical therapy time ended, I continue to do that to ensure that I can keep everything working properly.
While dealing with an injury you have a choice about how you deal with it. It’s not what we have or what we’re going through, but how we chose to deal with it at the time. Intentionally focusing on your mind/body connection and keeping your mind on the positive aspects of your life can not only heal your emotional and mental wounds, but your physical ones too.