The Power of Positive Thinking
It’s been a few weeks since I last posted on my blog due to a bunch of life changes - my wife and I bought a new house and have been busy moving in, I got assigned to some new projects at work which have been challenging but rewarding, and…. I injured my foot and have been busy doing physical therapy and rehab. So there’s been quite a few new changes in my life recently (mostly positive) but also a major negative change which has impacted my normal way of living.
All things considered, my foot injury isn’t too serious - thankfully there were no broken bones or long-term damage, and after about a month of healing, it’s almost back to 100%. But it happened at the worst possible moment - I was about to run my first marathon since COVID started a year ago, and I had been so excited and eager to finally get back into racing. Running is my biggest passion, and injuring my foot right before the race and having to pull out of the marathon which I’d trained so hard for felt like an absolute gut punch. Even worse than missing the race, the injury has kept me sidelined for the better part of a month, and I’ve been missing running more and more as the weeks go by.
I’m not going to lie - although I’ve had many positive changes in my life recently, the past month has still been quite difficult for me. I love running, and not being able to run for even a mile because of my foot injury is a tough pill to swallow. Missing my goal race which I’d spent nearly 4 months training for was devastating. And after the immediate initial disappointment of my injury came the nagging, negative self-doubts: how much fitness am I going to lose while I’m out? What if the injury becomes chronic and ends up affecting me for years afterwards?
What helped me during the last four weeks - and is still helping me even now that my foot injury is nearly fully recovered - is keeping a positive mindset. As difficult as it was to accept that I was going to have to take a short break from my biggest passion, I tried to keep things in perspective. It’s only a temporary break from running; a month away from the sport is nothing in the grand scheme of things. I might lose a little bit of fitness, but it will come back quickly once I start running again. More important than positive self-talk and affirmation was that I tried to view this not as a set-back, but as an opportunity and a challenge instead. Rather than being upset about not being able to run, I tried to change my attitude to focus on the positives: I could still ride my bike, and using the downtime from running to instead improve my cycling skills was a welcome opportunity. It was a chance for me to build my physical capacity in a new discipline and get stronger and better on the bike, even if I wasn’t able to participate in my sport of choice.
The point I’m trying to make is that life will always throw us challenges, and what matters is how we react to them. When I first injured my foot, my initial instinct was to react negatively - to dwell on the “bad” things like losing fitness or missing my race. But I tried to think positively instead and see the good in a bad situation - it was a chance for me to improve my cycling fitness and improve myself in another sport. By taking a negative situation and instead spinning it to be an opportunity to do something positive - I was able to maintain a much better and more positive mindset than if I had dwelled solely on the bad stuff.
Why does this matter when it comes to OCD recovery? Well, if you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know that I love to make comparisons between building mental health and building physical health - because they are very similar processes! When intrusive thoughts or negative feelings manifest themselves, sometimes it is easy to get down on yourself or beat yourself up. Why am I having these thoughts? I hate the anxiety they bring! I wish I was “normal.” I can’t stand the uncertainty about the situation!
Instead of getting upset about OCD thoughts and negative feelings, try to view them instead as opportunities to get stronger and fitter mentally. Having an OCD thought is an opportunity to resist performing compulsions. Having negative feelings is an opportunity to practice acceptance. Facing uncertainty is an opportunity to practice mindfulness. Instead of dwelling on the negatives that your intrusive thoughts bring you, be grateful that they give you the chance to practice mindfulness and acceptance - core principles of ERP and ACT. After all, the only way we can beat OCD and recover from this disorder is to actively cultivate an attitude of gratitude - being thankful for everything that we have, even when OCD tries to make us suffer, and to view OCD as an exciting challenge to overcome, not as a barrier to living your life.
I’m a firm believer that as terrible as OCD is, if you practice ERP and ACT consistently, you WILL recover from this disorder and come out stronger and more mentally fit than you ever were before. That is because ERP and ACT teaches us skills that help us through difficult times, and are broadly applicable to any tough situation - whether that is dealing with intrusive thoughts, losing your job, or handling any other challenging circumstance that life may throw at you. I have no doubt in my mind that being able to get through my running injury with a positive mindset was made possible through the skills I learned in my own OCD recovery journey and through practicing ERP and ACT. In that sense, I encourage everyone who is still going through their own OCD recovery journey to view it not as an insurmountable challenge, but instead as an exciting puzzle to try and figure out.
Having a positive attitude and mindset can make a world of difference in OCD recovery, and seeing the good in a bad situation is often just a matter of perspective. It’s like the old adage: you can view the glass as half-full or half-empty. If you’re struggling with positive thinking, sometimes changing the lens through which you’re viewing the problem makes all the difference.
If you’re interested in learning more about practicing gratitude and how much positive thinking can help, I’d encourage you to read this other blog post I wrote about practicing Daily Gratitude. I really am a firm believer that changing our mindset is a huge catalyst for OCD recovery, and someone with a positive outlook will find much more success than someone who can only dwell on the negatives.
As always, if you have any questions or just want to chat, please feel free to reach out to me directly or leave a comment on this post. Wherever you are reading this, I hope you are having a great day and I am wishing you success as you go through your own OCD recovery journey. Remember to stay positive!
Eric