Confidence-building quotes to remind you that you are still the strong person you were before chronic illness took over your body! Believe it or not, inside you resides the strongest warrior you will ever know!
Chronic illnesses like fibromyalgia, psoriatic arthritis, and endometriosis do more than pummel our bodies with horrific physical pain. They chip away at our self-confidence by no longer allowing us to do things the way we used to or like everybody else. Some have lost careers that they worked hard to achieve. Chronic illness weakens us both physically and emotionally. Or so it seems because the truth is, deep down hidden under all that pain is the strongest warrior you will ever know! And here are some quotes and my thoughts on them as to why!
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“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
My favorite part of this quote is, “I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.” This is something that I have thought often, especially when slammed with a new pain or set of symptoms. When I look back on the past 20 years, I am amazed at the horror that I have lived through. And it is the fact that I made it through is why I know I can take on the next challenge.
I know you feel like you have been to hell and back! And I know that your current and next challenge will be tougher than the last. But you got this!
“You have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.”
Louise L. Hay
My chronic illnesses made me more critical of myself. They made me feel like I could do nothing right. It wasn’t until I actively began acknowledging the accomplishments I made that allowed me to see my worth. I may not be able to do what I used to, but I found that I am good at many other things that I would have never tried had it not been for my chronic illness.
Think about what you can do and then approve of them! For example, instead of saying, “I was only able to walk to the mailbox today”, try “I walked to the mailbox today!”
“Confidence is not, ‘They will like me.’ Confidence instead is, ‘I’ll be fine if they don’t.’”
A strange thing happened after chronic illness invaded my body, I began placing value on what I did by whether my able-bodied friends and family approved of how I did it! Whether I did a good job or not didn’t matter, I just desperately wanted others to approve. The problem with this was that I wasn’t doing things the way my body needed me to which resulted in many unnecessary flares. It was accepting that I had to do things differently that helped me rebuild my confidence. Recognizing that what others thought didn’t matter if modifying what I did allows me to do more.
Don’t let the opinions of others keep you from doing what is best for your chronic body. Whether it is someone doubting your need for a mobility aid criticizing you for resting when your body needed a break, let it go, and do what you need to do to make your chronic life the best it can be. The more you practice this, the more confident you will become in all that you do.
“I may not be perfect but parts of me are awesome.”
– Unknown
You don’t have to be perfect to be awesome. Everyone has flaws. So why do so many people with chronic illness feel that the only way to be awesome is to be cured? Take a moment to reflect on your awesomeness instead of your flaws.
“Always remember you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
– Christopher Robin
Whenever pain and frustration fill my head with doubt, I think of this quote. We may not feel like it at the moment, but we really are braver than we believe we are. Not everyone is able to survive the challenges that we have. We are stronger than we seem. It takes strength to keep on going knowing that we will never be cured. And it takes a lot of creative thinking to figure out how to live a life we can enjoy despite our chronic illnesses.
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