Five Chronic Illness Resolutions to Help You Move Forward into the New Year

How to sharpen your focus and find a brighter future

Setting resolutions for the new year poses a problem for people living with chronic illnesses. While we hope and strive for good health, we continue to struggle with our illnesses 365 days a year. We often miss out on the blessings of the future because we dwell on a past that involved good health. But, being chronically ill should not keep you from moving forward and making healthy resolutions.

Keep Your Focus in 2014

Setting New Year’s resolutions when you are chronically ill requires a willingness to move forward to reach sensible and realistic goals. Here are five attainable resolutions people with chronic illness can focus on in 2014.

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Three Ways to Develop Resilience to Chronic Illness Stressors

Find greater happiness despite the challenges of living with a chronic health condition.

People who live with chronic illness deal with a number of stressors. Illnesses such as arthritis, fibromyalgia and lupus, among others, require physical changes, lifestyle modifications, and new treatments. Emotional pain, sadness, anger and fear are common in people who live with chronic illness. Further, one of the most common responses to being diagnosed is the desire to return to a time when your body was healthy. Since there are no cures for most chronic illnesses, returning back to “normal” is unrealistic. However, developing resilience can make living with chronic illness easier.

Research has found that the stress associated with chronic illness has an effect on your immune system and can be detrimental to your overall health. The best way to manage chronic illness stress is to make choices that can help to improve your mood and overall health through resilience. You can and will bounce back by adjusting to your new situation and learning to grow despite setbacks.

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Related articles

• 5 Tips to Manage Chronic-Illness Grief (theadventuresofarthritisnfibromyalgia.wordpress.com)
• Six Common Misconceptions about the Chronically Ill (psychologytoday.com)
• How to Cope When You are Diagnosed with COPD (oxygenconcentratorstore.com)
• As Healthy As I Will Ever Be (jrobinjrob.wordpress.com)
• The Power of Social Networks for Health (theadventuresofarthritisnfibromyalgia.wordpress.com)

The Power of Social Networks for Health

If you’re not a member of Arthritis Connect, here’s why you should be. (And it’s free!)

Human connections are vital to our well-being, but often real-world associations are not the best resources for people living with chronic illnesses. It is often the people you email, chat with on Twitter and Facebook, and even those you connect with on specific social networks for health that offer the best advice and can be most advantageous to your health and well-being.

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