
If someone told you that a shift in your perspective could improve your lived experience with your hidden disability, would you want to know more?
Well my friend, then this is for you!
Your mind is so powerful. It’s where it all happens. But somewhere along the path of life, we pick up this faulty, unhelpful conditioning and sometimes it sticks. And we start to believe it. And you start to think that this ‘fake news’ is really true. And you start to bend your life to fit into this belief.
If like me, you’re living with a hidden disability, there’s an even stronger need to fortify your mind so that it better serves you and supports you to be your best version of You! There’s just no space for unhelpful belief systems. The risk is too great!
Though there are many mindset shifts worthy of the spotlight and further consideration, let’s dive into these 5 here, as they also resonate with me and can bring about big changes from such comparatively small shifts.
Are you with me? Let’s do this.
Mindset Shift #1. From Limitation To POSSIBILITY
With a hidden disability, the message in the world is often one of limitation. The culture can make you think and feel that you are somehow ‘less than’. What’s that all about? Then you start to believe it to be true, and suddenly your mindset is all about limitation.
Well I would encourage you to shift that to possibility! Infinite possibilities no less! You may have become used to a low ceiling over your life. Well, in fact, there is NO ceiling!!
How about you start to view your challenges as opportunities for growth instead? Expanding your idea of what could be possible, rather than a starting point of what you think you can’t do?
Your potential to achieve greatness is HUGE! It’s about creating the space to think about your potential and allowing it to take seed in your mind, and then you can start to really believe it.
Mindset Shift #2. From Self-doubt To SELF-BELIEF
Ooooh I love this one, and its been huge for me. Cultivating a strong belief in your own abilities and potential. This is so important. You’ve gotta believe in yourself. You’ve gotta be your own #1 cheerleader. Your biggest fan. It’s like a self-belief muscle that needs to be nurtured and flexed and built and exercised so that it gets stronger and stronger.
Perhaps there is scope for you to develop and practice techniques that will help you build more self-confidence and more resilience. Trusting yourself more and actually telling yourself that. Out loud if you need to. For me, self-confidence grows from a place of knowing yourself more and better, getting clear on what I am about and why, loving myself in my skin (lumps, bumps and all) and moving forward in quiet contentment. This leads on to building resilience, because you keep moving forward. Keep moving forward. Keep moving forward.
Mindset Shift #3. From Isolation To CONNECTION
Now for me, living with a hidden disability has made me pretty familiar with isolation. It comes in all forms and shapes and colours. You can sometimes be with someone in a relationship and still have a dominant feeling of isolation. However, isolation isn’t all bad, and depending on what we’re talking about, can be quite enjoyable. But in the context a mindset shift that could positively impact your enjoyment of life with your hidden disability, there is real value in building your own supportive connections and community.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be a community of thousands, or hundreds. This is about connecting with others who are on a similar journey to you. Those people you connect with who are on your wavelength. It might be that you’re a positive person, but your loved ones and immediate circle are negative by default. They may not be bad people, but they may have picked up a negative mindset that just isn’t healthy for you to be around. You can choose to connect with other people who have a similar outlook, a similar energy, to you.
Mindset Shift #4. From Fear To COURAGE
Fear is like this pool of quicksand that keeps your feet glued to the spot, without attempting to move or change anything in your life. Living with your hidden disability may bring up a whole other category of fears: the fear of starting a new recommended treatment, the fear of starting a family, the fear of dying too soon, the fear of sharing the ‘secret’ of your hidden disability with someone you’ve just started dating……….the list goes on. Living from a place of fear holds you back.
Often, on the other side of that fear is your path to achieving personal growth. After all, courage is not the absence of fear. It’s about feeling the fear, but moving forward anyway.
Being open to strategies to help you step out of your comfort zone could be a great tool here. Embracing new experiences is often a gentle way to get yourself more used to that feeling of being uncomfortable. I always love it when Tony Robbins does his teaching on ‘getting comfortable with being uncomfortable’. Have you listened to that one before? So powerful. Because it is so true. When you can get out of your own way, and gently push yourself out of that ‘comfort zone’, and you do the thing, and the world doesn’t end, then you think ‘okay, that wasn’t so bad. What’s next?’.
Each time gets easier. And you’re building that courageous muscle. 6, 12 months from now, you may not be able to recognise yourself!
Mindset Shift #5. From Reaction To INTENTION
Hmmmm this one is so good and so powerful! Giving yourself permission to move away from living in this place of reaction. Living your life constantly reacting to the circumstances around you. Constantly ‘fire-fighting’ the emergent dramas that keep coming up. Living from one medical appointment to another. Living from one media or news headline to another. Stacking these media headlines of doom into your daily rhythm. Living from one family drama to another. Getting pulled into other people’s ’emergencies’ and latest gossip.
You’re knocking out dramas like you’re knocking baseballs out of the park. Staying in your world on your path feels like an intense workout on your abs as you try to keep your balance and your body upright.
How about practising living from a place of purpose and intention? Rather than reacting to circumstances? When you have a strong mindful and present connection to what you’re about, what’s important to you, what you want to achieve, what you need to get done………. it starts to feel like a strong magnet that’s pulling you towards it. you simply have to head in that direction. Anything that takes you away from that direction, is just not worth your time.
How can you get clarity on your clear goals or clear intentions? It can be quite powerful when you align your actions with your personal values. It can really help to keep you more purposeful and intentional. Maybe one of your important values is having peace in your life. Perhaps you’ve learnt the hard way that a lack of peace in your life aggravates your hidden disability. You’ve promised yourself that you’ll do more and more to maintain peace in your life. Pretty soon, your internal satnav gets locked into that direction. Anything that comes up that ‘steals’ your peace, you’re just not interested in, and it has less and less power over you.
If any of these resonate with you, I encourage you to implement these mindset shifts and continue to embrace your journey to self-improvement and a fulfilling life.
I look forward to hearing how you get on.
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