30 Uplifting Things You Need To Remember If You Suffer From a Chronic Illness

I don’t know if more people are suffering from chronic illnesses these days, or if we are only now starting to recognize them and openly discuss them.

Either way, millions of people from all over the world are battling some form of a chronic illness. Whether you suffer from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Lupus, Fibromyalgia, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Chron’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Endometriosis, or any other seemingly invisible illness, you know just how difficult it is to live a normal life.

Everything changes. You lose your ability to perform everyday tasks. You might start isolating yourself, because your body can’t handle the pressures of leaving your home.

You become depressed, anxious, angry, bitter, and lonesome. Your performance at work may suffer. Your family and friends don’t fully understand what you’re going through and don’t know how to help you. You start to feel less and less like a person and more and more like a walking disease.

Three years ago, my health took a deep nosedive and I have been fighting every single day to find some answers as to why my body has fallen apart.

I’ve changed my diet, I’ve changed my daily routine, I’ve spent hours researching health articles, I’ve sought help from eight different doctors and health specialists — many of them who have undermined my pain and made me feel insignificant.

I’ve spent thousands of dollars on alternative treatments and health supplements. I’ve gone through a number of examinations and tests only to feel even more confused when they came back normal. I have never before felt so frustrated and hopeless. This life isn’t easy.

The scariest part of it all is the unknown. Not knowing if you’ll ever get better. Constantly fearful that you will spend the rest of your days in pain. That your dreams are no longer realistic or attainable. This is something that I struggle with every single day.

So some days I need someone else to reassure me that healing is possible. I need someone to tell me that everything is going to be okay. I need someone to reawaken my faith and encourage me to have hope.

Sometimes it is difficult, but deep down I truly believe that the human body is capable of more than we know. I believe that our bodies want to live in a constant state of wellness. That all we need to do is buckle down, stay strong, and give our bodies the time it needs to recover.

1. “In the midst of difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein

2. “The secret of learning to be sick is this: Illness doesn’t make you less of what you were. You are still you.” – Tony Snow

3. “There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophies.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

4. “You spend a lot of time thinking about how awful the prison is rather than envisioning your future.” – Piper Kernan

5. “The strongest people are not those who show strength in front of us but those who win battles we know nothing about.” – Unknown

6. “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas A. Edison

7. “Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength.” – Theodore Roosevelt

8. “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” – Babe Ruth

9. “Healing takes courage, and we all have courage, even if we have to dig a little to find it.” – Tori Amos

10. “Never lose hope. Storms make people stronger and never last forever.” – Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

11. “Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.” – Hippocrates

12. “If you are going through hell, keep going.” – Winston S. Churchill

13. “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius

14. “Hardships make or break people.” – Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind

15. “Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.” – Julie Andrews Edwards

16. “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” – Margaret Thatcher

17. “You never know what’s around the corner. It could be everything. Or it could be nothing. You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and you’ve climbed a mountain.” – Tom Hiddleston

18. “When the body gets working appropriately, the force of gravity can flow through, then spontaneously, the body heals itself” – Ida Rolf

19. “Your body can heal itself. It can do so because it has a healing system. If you are in good health, you will want to know about this system, because it is what keeps you in good health and because you can enhance that condition. If you or people you love are sick, you will want to know about this system, because it is the best hope for recovery.” – Andrew Weil

20. “Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’” – Mary Anne Radmacher

21. “Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion.” – Buddha

22. “Healing requires from us to stop struggling, but to enjoy life more and endure it less.” – Darina Stoyanova

23. “When I stand before thee at the day’s end, thou shalt see my scars and know that I had my wounds and also my healing.” – Rabindranath Tagore

24. “You have been assigned this mountain to show others it can be moved.” – Unknown

25. “We can feel isolated and powerless when living with chronic illness, but what if your story begins to bridge the barrier or open a way for someone to connect? What if your story offers a glimmer of hope to someone standing at the edge of desolation? What if your story starts the conversation?” – Cindee Snider

26. “When you exhaust all possibilities remember this: You haven’t.” – Thomas Edison

27. “I did as much research as I could and I took ownership of this illness, because if you don’t take care of your body, where are you going to live?” – Karen Duffy

28. “Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” – Helen Keller

29. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela

30. “Everything heals. Your heart heals. The mind heals. Wounds heal. Your happiness is always going to come back. Bad times don’t last”- Unknown