Читать книгу Meditations for Pain Recovery - Tony Greco - Страница 75

MARCH 4

SELF-PITY

EMOTIONAL BALANCE

“Self-pity is defined as excessive, self-absorbed unhappiness over one’s own troubles. It is the emotional state of feeling sorry for myself, sometimes in exaggerated ways. Self-pity is often a characteristic of chronic pain and addiction—after all, these troubles are very real. But the fact that self-pity often results from significant problems does not make it any less destructive in terms of its impact on emotional balance. When I’m feeling self-pity, I’m almost exclusively focused on what is wrong and not working in my life.”

Adapted from Pain Recovery: How to Find Balance and Reduce Suffering from Chronic Pain

A solution-oriented way to regain emotional balance when I’m feeling sorry for myself is to make a gratitude list. This can help me regain perspective and disrupt excessive focus on the negative. I can identify things in my life that I’m grateful for. This does not need to discount the areas of my life that I want to improve or that I’m working on. This does not mean that it’s not okay to have problems or still wish for things to be better. After all, I continue on the path of recovery because I want continued improvement in my life. But ironically, that improvement comes through being grateful for what I do have today.

I am grateful for what I have today, even if that is just the willingness to improve the areas of my life that may still need some time and attention. I am grateful for where I’ve come from, where I am today, and where I’m going.