A Daily Gratitude Practice Can Help Calm MS Symptoms and Inspire You to be Your Best Self
When you’re experiencing MS symptoms, it can be difficult to feel gratitude about anything. Yet cultivating a gratitude practice for the little things that are going right or bring beauty or ease into your life can be a powerful part of your self-healing journey. Feeling thankful sets us up for possibility and gives us permission to dream about the future. Imagine your future where you listen to what your symptoms are telling you and what they need and then you actually do what they ask of you.
One of the practices that I urge the women I coach in The MS Stage program to do is write down 3-5 things they’re grateful for every morning.
My gratitude list this morning included:
I’m grateful for my family
I’m thankful for my comfy bed
I feel gratitude for my ability to move my body
I love being able to spend time at the beach with my dog, Hawk
I feel so grateful for my women’s MS support group, The MS Stage {CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE}
What’s on your gratitude list today?
A daily gratitude practice can reframe your mindset when your body or other circumstances are frustrating you or letting you down. It can really set you up in the present moment to focus on what you DO have and what you CAN do instead of what you don’t have or can't do.
When you’re feeling overwhelmed or disappointed, remember this one small action you can take to reset and reframe any given circumstance. Feeling thankful boosts neurotransmitter serotonin, which is related to feelings of satisfaction, happiness and optimism. Gratitude also activates the brain stem to produce the feel-good chemical dopamine.
To take your gratitude practice a step further, you can literally say thank you to your body every morning. Thank your body and all of your cells for working FOR you. Thank them for their hard work and set your cells up for a successful day by acknowledging all the work they do behind the scenes to keep your body functioning.
How an MS Exacerbation helped me get back to my roots and my core
Every year I celebrate my diagnosis date and look back on my journey of living well with MS. I am so grateful for how far I’ve come and how much I’ve learned about myself and all the facets of wellness. I celebrate rather than ruminating on how old I am or being constantly worried about how much time I have left before I am worse. It’s ALL about being PRESENT. Living in the moment. NOT “some daying” myself out of leading the life I want to live.
I heard this phrase on a tv show a few years ago: “Don’t someday yourself out of a life!” It literally stopped me in my tracks. Pause. Rewind. Play. I had to hear it again.
It resonated so strongly with me in that moment that I wrote it down, and I remember it regularly when I question if I “should” do this or that or wonder “what if I could do this?” It’s helpful when the “I wish I could do that but I couldn’t possibly” thoughts come in. Then I remind myself to replace those thoughts with: “Why NOT me? What if I actually could do this and I did it?”
That’s how I felt when I created The MS Stage online program! I had been craving getting back to my love of theater and dance for a long time but I kept pushing it aside. I kept saying to myself “it’s too late” and “I missed the boat on that.” I spent a lot of time wondering how I would even go about getting involved in the performing arts again.
When I had my worst MS exacerbation ever and was numb from the neck down, the cravings to return to dance and theater as healing arts for MS got louder and louder. I felt like they were screaming at me that I needed to go back to my roots and my core and do something about it. They told me that I was wasting time with the “someday I will do it” thoughts. Because what if someday never comes? Life is short!
I took a full year off for my MS relapse recovery 5 years ago. I felt a bit lost and a bit dead inside and quite honestly I was totally confused about my purpose and what I was going to do next.
But… I also felt CURIOUS which was my saving grace. Curiosity is the desire to know or learn and I wanted to know my purpose. This led me to being mindful or consciously aware of my likes and dislikes, what makes my heart sing and what turns me off. I was drawn to meditation and my meditations led me back to movement. Once I had opened myself up to creative possibilities, I began to develop my own tools and a practice around healing on a deeper emotional and physical level that I like call metaphysical
Want to add more mindfulness and meditation to your life? Take my free 3-day MS Stage Meditation Journey: Turn your fears to dust, and begin to feel calmer when your symptoms appear.
Those practices, including my daily gratitude practice, are what I share now and teach to other women in my virtual MS healing groups who are feeling lost and confused. I watch as they come back to the true essence of themselves on a metaphysical level that can be felt but not always measured.
Do YOU “someday” yourself out of your life? Do you say, “well someday I will try that.” Or “I wish I could (fill in the blank.)”
What if you flipped the script and asked yourself “Why couldn’t I do it? Why NOT me?”
We only have one life to live, so why not live it with gratitude, joy and pizzazz?
A student in my online MS support group recently said that she’s feeling thankful for her MS diagnosis. The best part of running The MS stage is hearing MS healing testimonials and stories of hope. She said, “MS feels like a gift right now. I feel like a calmer person, in touch with my mind and my body.”
And so I ask you why NOT you? It’s your time to be grateful and curious. Explore new things and discover where your passion lies.
MS brings up a lot of emotions, find a way to express them
Another practice I share in my online MS group, The MS Stage, is drawing a card from The Hero's Journey Dream Oracle. The MS Stage is partially inspired by Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey and these cards give “direction on how to be the courageous, inspiring and natural hero of your own story.”
What if you were to rewrite the script of your journey with MS? What if the MS stood for "My Story" and your symptoms are just characters in the play? What would happen in your new script? What is the plotline of that journey?
To help you write your new script, I decided to pull a card for you today. I asked for guidance for those that are feeling lost and confused but want to incorporate gratitude and curiosity into their journey with MS. I find that these cards show you what you need to see, and this perfect card, one of my favorites, showed up.
The Ocean of Emotion card states, “Find a Safe Place to Express Your True Feelings.” Sometimes our true feelings get buried underneath the stress and expectations that feel inevitable in modern life. Finding a safe place to dream big and take stock of everything you have in your life can totally change your trajectory. I know it did for me, which is why I created my MS wellness program The MS Stage.
Learn more about The MS Stage!
If you’re curious about adding more mindfulness to your life, The MS Stage is a 6-week guided experience to claim your “hero’s journey” with MS. Our signature program is a women’s MS support group that includes weekly Zoom calls, bonus content and additional resources, and access to our community of women who are also taking control of their MS journey alongside you. We can’t wait to have you join us inside The MS Stage - CLICK HERE to learn more!