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5 Journaling Prompts & Affirmations for Chronic Pain
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Managing chronic pain takes a multi-pronged approach. Affirmations and journaling prompts for chronic pain can help.
Anyone who lives with chronic pain or other chronic conditions understands the disruption it can cause to daily life. While seeking medical treatments to address pain is crucial, finding alternative ways to manage it can also be extremely helpful. Journaling and voicing positive affirmations can help you cope with the emotional toll of being in pain.
Journaling Prompts for Chronic Pain
Research shows that writing about personal struggles can actually improve our physical health. Journaling regularly can help lower blood pressure, improve lung and liver function, and boost the immune system.
[Read: “Writing and Healing: A Journaling Guide.”]
In terms of chronic pain, regular journaling is not only cathartic—it can be very effective at helping you recognize patterns and triggers related to your pain as well as identify coping strategies for managing that pain.
4 Ways to Utilize Affirmations for Chronic Pain
Regularly articulating positive affirmations has been shown to decrease stress, increase positive health behaviors, and decrease focus on negative experiences. Using positive affirmations can also be an effective approach to confronting chronic pain.
Try embracing affirmations regularly in these ways:
- Write an affirmation repeatedly in your journal.
- Repeat affirmations to yourself in the mirror.
- Visualize them during meditation.
- Have a trusted partner or friend repeat affirmations back to you.
Confront Chronic Pain: 5 Affirmations & Prompts
Below are five positive affirmations paired with related journaling prompts that can be helpful for coping with chronic pain. Several of these prompts and affirmations are from my newly released book, The Healing Journal: Guided Prompts & Inspiration for Life with Illness.
1. For getting more in tune with your body:
- Affirmation: I listen to my body and respect the signs it sends me.
- Journaling prompt: Describe what signs your body shows you when you need to slow down and rest. What does it take for your body to feel energized again?
2. For utilizing meditation to fight chronic pain:
- Affirmation: I breathe light into my pain.
- Journaling prompt: Close your eyes and take five deep breaths. With each inhale, imagine sending a bright, warm, healing light to areas where you are experiencing pain or discomfort. Write about how you feel after this exercise.
3. For cultivating self-compassion:
- Affirmation: I treat my body with kindness and compassion.
- Journaling prompt: Describe the ways you treat your body with kindness and compassion. If your body were a beloved friend, what would you say to it?
4. For understanding your emotional reaction to pain:
- Affirmation: My pain does not result in suffering.
- Journaling prompt: Reflect on this statement: Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. Describe the ways you react to your pain.
[Read: “4 Mindset Shifts to Change Your Relationship With Chronic Pain.”]
5. For developing effective coping strategies:
- Affirmation: I actively use self-care to soothe me when I’m in pain.
- Journaling prompt: Describe the ways you cope on high pain days. Now describe some coping strategies that you would like to try on high pain days.
If these affirmations and prompts resonate with you, the 50 positive affirmations and over 100 writing prompts in The Healing Journal may help you cope with both the physical and the emotional impact of living with chronic pain and other chronic conditions. Each affirmation in the book is colorfully illustrated with botanical watercolor paintings, which are intended to be soothing and grounding to the reader. The prompts in the journal are designed to empower readers to develop self-compassion, self-care tools and strategies, and effective ways to advocate for their health.
As someone living with several conditions that cause chronic pain, including complex regional pain syndrome, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, and lupus, I know firsthand how effective these alternative therapies can be. Using journaling and positive affirmations has been hugely beneficial to helping me manage my own chronic pain. So, I encourage you to also try writing down your experience in a journal and experiment with crafting your own affirmations that are uniquely suited to you and your condition.
Seeking other benefits of journaling? Try four journaling prompts for combatting anxiety.
About the Author
Emily Suñez is a visual artist, writer, and patient advocate living in Pasadena, CA. She is the author and illustrator of The Healing Journal: Guided Prompts & Inspiration for Life With Illness and is the Co-director of LA...
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