As I’ve spoken about previously, focusing our thoughts outwards is often beneficial in taking our minds away from the negative thoughts that often plague us when dealing with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS / ME).
Today I’m going to give you some suggestions on ways to focus your thoughts on things that lift you spirits, helping you to distract your thinking away from less helpful thinking – and also hopefully kick in a few endorphins as well!! 🙂
7 Ways To Focus Your Thoughts Onto Something Uplifting
1. Create An Uplifting Songs Playlist
Creating an “uplifting songs” playlist on your phone, mp3 player, computer or tablet has never been easier.
It’s not like the “olden days” (as my 10 year old calls it!) when we had to create a mixed tape that took ages to create (boy, I made some good ones in my time though ;-).
You can even create your own playlist of favourites on YouTube without buying a single song. Oh, to have had that option in my teens! 🙂
Find songs on iTunes, GooglePlay, YouTube or whatever you use to find music, and then create a playlist of all those songs that you find motivating, inspiring and uplifting.
This will differ for each person. Sometimes mellow songs uplift people, and sometimes up-beat songs uplift people.
For me, I find both types (and everything in between) can uplift me. It just depends on the song, and also, often, on my mood. My current favourite is by an Aussie band called Sheppard – “Geronimo”
(I also love “Brave” by Sara Bareilles. It’s got great positive lyrics and a catchy positive beat.)
I have all my CD’s copied on to the computer so I can make a mix of uplifting songs from that, and also from other digital albums that I’ve bought and downloaded.
So I create an uplifting songs playlist on my computer and then I transfer the whole folder onto my phone or mp3 player. I prefer to have them in my Music app rather than relying on an app that needs the internet to be available to play them (but that’s just me – and my often unreliable phone service provider!)
I also sometimes transfer them onto a CD to play them in the car (I have an older car that doesn’t synch the radio with my car).
NOTE: I wrote a blog sometime ago of 25 Songs That Lifts My Spirits While Living With CFS if you want to have look at it. A lot of those are songs that I’ve listened to over the years in times when I have really been at low points in my illness. As I warned in my previous blog, I’m an 80s chick, so the mix has rather a slant towards mainstream 80s artists or 80s-type music. (But you can’t deny it was a great decade for music! 😉
2. Print a favorite uplifting quote and pin it around your house
Find a favourite quote – or a few – and then print them and pin them up in 5 different places around the house. Maybe even laminate it if you have a laminator and enough energy to do that.
The 5 places I suggest are 5 places that you spend most of your time. So, for example:
- 1. Put the quote on your bedside table or tape it or stick it somehow to your bedside table or the wall near your bed.
- 2. Maybe stick it to the roof above your bed if you spend a lot of time in bed. Make sure it’s in big font, especially if you’re short sighted like me and don’t wear your glasses in bed 😉
- 3. In the bathroom. I’ve stuck it on the mirror at times, or you can also just prop it up in a prominent place or stick it on the wall. NOTE: I have a separate bathroom and toilet, so I have actually had a quote on the wall in the toilet for some time. So the toilet is also an option – the toilet door or just above the toilet roll.
- 4. Near your computer. If you spend a lot of time on your computer, put the quote near your computer or up in your office somewhere.
- 5. In your kitchen. I haven’t had one in my kitchen before. Oh yes I do! I have them on my fridge. I have quite a few on my fridge actually, but you could also put it just above the sink so when you’re doing the dishes you can look at it. We all need some inspiration while doing the dishes 😀
You can build up a whole collection of these uplifting quotes and alternate them to keep things interesting.
Or keep it simple with quotes such as: “Let go and trust” or, harking back to Day 1 of our 31 Days To A Better CFS Life – “It is as it is”.
Another favorite of mine is “This too shall pass”, and I also have a favorite Buddha quote that’s a little bit longer, but that I’ve always loved and try to live by –“The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows”.
3. Find Uplifting YouTube Videos
Find some uplifting YouTube videos and favorite them so you have a “bank” of uplifting videos when you need it.
So, find maybe 10 videos to start with (or however many you think).
Some will be short, some will be long. You can use the short ones when you need a quick boost and the longer ones when you have more time (and maybe need a bigger boost!)
Just type in “uplifting”, “inspirational” or “motivation” into your YouTube search engine and it will come up with heaps of great videos.
Then when you find a good video, there will always be other suggestions in the side bar that will keep you going for hours!
If you find a certain channel you like, you can also subscribe to that Channel and be notified of any new videos they put up. I found these 2 channels recently that have great motivational videos – or I love them anyway. Try them and let me know what you think – Younes Marxieu and Mateusz M.
4. Read an uplifting blog
Sometimes you might get sick of reading blogs about illness. I know that sometimes I do.
So in those times, blogs such as The Positivity Blog is one that I’ve read over the years and subscribed to. It’s a great blog.
There are many positive and uplifting blogs out there, and it will depend on what you find uplifting as to which ones you like to read.
But when you find a good, positive, uplifting blog, make sure you favourite it or put in into ReadLater (an app I’m using a lot these days), so that then you have them there for the days when you need to be uplifted.
Also find blogs related to the CFS / ME or other spoonie/chronic illness blogs and have a list of those you find most uplifting and favorite them in your browser.
One of those that I find very uplifting is PajamaDaze.com. I wrote a blog recently on 5 Top ‘Living With CFS’ Blogs To Read (not including mine!).
5. Listen to a podcast.
I know I often bang on about how great podcasts are, but they really have been a gift to my life (along with Audiobooks), and I find them invaluable in helping me to manage life with CFS /ME.
I even wrote a blog called The Joy of Podcasts which has a list of a few of my favourites (though that list has grown lots since then!).
If you’ve never listened to podcasts, just do a search on iTunes or Stitcher and search for terms such as about “uplifting”, “positive” or whatever you think is an uplifting topic in your eyes.
Search those terms if you haven’t done so before, or you may already have favorite podcasts that lift you up. If so, then listen to those.
I usually go to the website of the podcast if there is one and, if possible, I will download the episode to my computer (right click and save as) and then put it into my computer in a folder for that podcast.
I can then put put the folder onto my phone or mp3 player and listen to it whenever I want. One of the bonuses of doing it this way is that I don’t need internet service to do that.
If I’m running it through Stitcher, I need internet service or I use up my phone internet data. I have an Android phone, so all this could be different with iPhones. Please let me know if it is and I’ll alter this part of the post.
6. Read my blog on The Power of Distraction
Shameless plug!
No, seriously, it’s a good list of ways to distract your mind on the not-so-good days. It covers a few things I’ve already covered, but also has a few more resources.
Also review back to Day 3 and Day 4 of this blog series, where I list a number of ways to distract yourself and your thoughts away from negativity.
Just as a reminder, Day 3 is about ways to control your thoughts when overwhelm and despair threaten to take over, and Day 4 is about Focussing on What You Can Do, As Opposed To What You Can’t Do while living with CFS.
7. Find some uplifting Pinterest pages
There’s some great Pinterest pages full of quotes that can make you laugh, inspire you or just make you feel good in some way. Find them and follow those pages.
At this point I haven’t used Pinterest a great deal (only due to lack of time, rather than lack of interest), but I know you can follow pages and I also believe you can search for topics.
You could also find pages on other sites, but Pinterest is one that’s very visual.
If you haven’t signed up for a Pinterest account yet, maybe this is your cue to do so. You could then start creating your own “uplifting quotes” pages. If you do, let me know and I’ll link to some of them in this post!
You could also find some Flickr accounts that have uplifting photos. Once again, I’m not hugely familiar with Flickr, but I know it has some breathtaking photos on it by some amazing photographers.
Really there are so many options on the internet in this vein, so just do a Google search for uplifting, inspiring quotes on Pinterest or Flickr. I’m sure you’ll get some great results!
So they’re just 7 suggestions for you on how to focus your thoughts on something uplifting. I’m sure you can think of lots more – and I’d love to hear about them in the comments section or over on Twitter or Facebook.
I know I focus a lot on altering the focus of our thoughts to more uplifting, positive things, but there IS a lot of science these days to suggest our thoughts directly affect our physiology. That’ll be another blog on another day (although if I happen to find some good links I’ll put them in here later).
One Audible presentation I’m getting great value out of is Mario Martinez’s – The Mind-Body Code: How The Mind Wounds and Heals the Body.
It’s really interesting to hear of a lot of current research being done in the areas of biocognitive psychology and psychoimmunology. Plus, Mario Martinez is a biocognitive psychologist himself, so he give great examples of his own experiences.
Today’s Action Step
Do one of these things today, even if you just search for the term “uplifting” in YouTube and favorite one video or find one Pinterest page that uplifts you, and follow it.
Thanks and I hope you find that blog useful.
À plus tard! (See you tomorrow in French)
Keep Smiling
Louise
Related Posts
Day 1: 31 Days To A Better CFS Life – 3 Myths of Acceptance That Hold Us Back
Day 2: 31 Days To A Better CFS Life – It Is As It Is. Choose It!
Day 3: 31 Days To A Better CFS Life – 5 Ways To Control Our Thoughts When In Overwhelm & Despair
Day 4: 31 Days To A Better CFS Life – 6 Things You Can ALWAYS Do Despite CFS / ME
Day 6: 31 Day To A Better CFS Life – Being Present – 7 Simple Mindfulness Techniques To Help Manage CFS
Day 7: 31 Days To A Better CFS Life – Learning To Ask For Help – 5 Simple Tasks You Can ‘Outsource’ To Help Manage CFS
Day 8: 31 Days To A Better CFS Life – Discover Podcasts – 5 Steps To Finding & Listening To Good Podcasts
Day 9: 31 Days To A Better CFS Life – Listen To Your Body. I Am Today!
Day 10: 31 Days To A Better CFS Life – 10 Ways To Nurture Yourself & Fill Your Bucket
Day 11: 31 Day To A Better CFS Life – 5 Ways To Combat Spoonie Mother Guilt on Mother’s Day!
Day 12: 31 Days To A Better CFS Life – My 5 Fave Ways To Connect With The Online CFS / ME Community
Day 13: 31 Days To A Better CFS Life – How & Why Audiobooks Are A Great Illness-Management Tool
Day 14: 31 Days To A Better CFS Life -10 Top Audiobooks I Recommend
Day 15: 31 Days To A Better CFS Life: 5 Tips For Getting Tasks Done When You Have CFS / ME
Day 16: 31 Days To A Better CFS Life – What Are You Struggling With Most Right Now?
Day 17: 31 Days To A Better CFS Life: What Are You Doing WELL In Managing CFS / ME / Fibro? What Are You NOT Struggling With?
Day 18: 31 Days To A Better CFS Life – 3 Things I Struggle With At The Moment & How I Manage Them
Day 19: 31 Days To A Better CFS Life – 101 Ways I Manage CFS / ME & Electrosensitivity Pain
Day 20: 31 Days To A Better CFS Life – 5 Benefits Of Writing To Help Manage CFS / ME
Day 21: 31 Days To A Better CFS Life – Gratitude is Healing – 5 Ways To Practise Gratitude
Day 22: 31 Days To A Better CFS Life – A Letter To Partners Of People With CFS / ME
Day 23: 31 Days To A Better CFS Life – 7 Healthy, Safe Ways To Release Emotions
Day 24: 31 Days To A Better CFS Life – Letter To The General Public From Those With CFS / ME / FM – Part 1
Day 25: 31 Days To A Better CFS Life – Letter To The General Public Pt 2 – How You Can Support Someone Who Has CFS / ME / FM