While reading 5 Things I Wish I Would Have Known When I Was First Diagnosed With Ankylosing Spondylitis keep in mind that this is my personal experience with Ankylosing Spondylitis. We are each unique and so is our experience with this disease. However, I think if I knew these five things 15 years ago my journey forward may have been a bit simpler.
Regardless of how hard it has been to get to exactly where I am now I would not change a thing. The struggles I have endured and continue to encounter from time to time have helped me to grow and become stronger. I am forever thankful for all of them!
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE FEARFUL
You do not have to be fearful of your future. You can still have a family, a career, achieve all your hopes and dreams. You will be able to do all the things that you loved pre-diagnosis. It’s ok to be scared. Being scared is a normal response to being diagnosed with a chronic illness but be careful to not let fear completely take over. Don’t let your medical team or what you read on the internet scare you. Your doctor means well and is only sharing his/her perspective based on the standard of care. He/she does not personally know what is possible for you when it comes to healing. You know yourself better than anyone else. You know that little voice you hear in your head, or the gut feeling that you have about something. Listen to it. It’s your intuition and is speaking to you for a reason. Don’t ignore it. Listen to it every step of the way.
YOU ARE NOT A STATISTIC
You are not a statistic or a textbook case. You are unique and your experience with Ankylosing Spondylitis is unique as well. Try to trust and let the fear go. It’s hard but it’s so important for your health. Being in a cycle of constant fear will create a chronic state of fight or flight which will only create more stress and hinder your health even more. I wish I would have understood that simply acknowledging my fear would lead to faster acceptance of what was ahead. Instead, I tried to ignore it which only made it fester more.
YOU HAVE MORE CONTROL THAN YOU MAY REALIZE
You have more control than you may realize. Focus on what you can control not what you can’t. This will help you take your power back. There are so many things that we can do that will improve autoimmune symptoms and help to rebalance and heal the body. Epigenetics proves that our environment has more impact on our health than our genetics. Things like diet, exposure to toxins, unresolved trauma, and stress are all things we can work on which will lead to improved symptoms and healing. Start small and with something achievable for you. When you start listing out all the things you have control over you will find it is way more than you may have led yourself to believe.
MINDSET IS EVERYTHING
Mindset is everything. This is an area I am super passionate about because once I addressed it everything changed for me. It took time but shifting my mindset from “This is this happening to me”, to This is happening for me” and “What can I learn from this”, helped to move me forward in a positive direction.
We chose our mindset. It’s something we have to work on and bring awareness to every day but the work is worth it.
UNDERSTANDING THE MIND-BODY CONNECTION
I also wish I would have understood the connection between the mind and the body much sooner. I focused on lifestyle changes like diet and nutrition but it was not until I worked with a coach who had healed from Ankylosing Spondylitis that I truly learned what the mind-body connection is and how our thoughts, beliefs, and words have power. I wish I would have realized that my thoughts were just thoughts. They were stories I was telling myself instead of truths.
One of the biggest a-ha’s was the understanding that the mind does not know the difference between reality and imagination. So, when we are thinking about something that happened yesterday or something that may happen in the future our body will have a physical reaction as if it is happening at that moment. You can read more about my biggest a-ha’s here.
Another game-changer for me was changing my beliefs about Ankylosing Spondylitis itself and what was possible for me in regards to healing. I was told by my doctor that I would battle Ankylosing Spondylitis my entire life. That it could not be cured. That I could end up in a wheelchair by the time I was 40. Had I believed him I don’t know where I would be. When I changed my belief system about life with Ankylosing Spondylitis everything changed. Thoughts and beliefs have massive power. The power they have can either hurt us or help us!
I hope these five things will help open your mind to what is possible!
In Love, Health + Gratitude,
Katie