A Flare Does Not Mean You’ve Done Something “Wrong”

You Can’t Stop The Weather — But You Can Learn To Adjust Your Sails One of the most disheartening parts of dealing with a chronic illness is experiencing a terrible flare after all the “correct” measures to manage your symptoms. You may continue to blame yourself whenever your pain returns, even after engaging with health coaches and pain psychologists for extended periods, reading a plethora of books, and cultivating a robust mindfulness practice. Your mind may be wrecked by these continual thinking cycles. Like a game of chess, it might seem hopeless at times. Realizing this and letting go of the guilt and self-blame can help you recover from this mindset. Feeling “at blame” for your terrible suffering adds gasoline to the flames of frustration, shame, overthinking, and humiliation. Deceptively useful mental armament that is not what it seems. Feeling bad about yourself and wasting energy judging yourself for what you may or might not have done to trigger a flare is a vicious cycle after all the work you’ve put into reducing symptoms that are out of your control. RELATED: If I Have Psoriasis, Am I Going To Get Psoriatic Arthritis? Practicing Self-Compassion When I’m In Pain Nearly every...