What To Do After A Major Health Setback (When You Work Full Time)

Life can change in an instant. One minute, you’re running around, living to the full, the next, you find yourself seriously incapacitated in some way. It can be a distressing experience (and a rude awakening). You suddenly see the fragility of life and how everything is so temporary. Thus, dealing with a major health setback is hard. 

In this post, we take a look at what to do after an injury or diagnosis even if you work full time. Check out the following:

Reach Out To Others

When you’ve had a major health setback, your first instinct might be to recoil and spend all day in bed. However, this approach often leads to depression and isolation, making it even harder to recover. 

If you can, try to reach out to others. Having a strong social support network in place is one of the best ways to influence physical health outcomes. Gather your family and friends around and find ways to talk about the issues affecting you. 

Find Rituals That Soothe You

Health setbacks are rarely your fault. That’s why most people use a trustworthy personal injury law firm to find justice. But, even so, rituals can help a great deal. They are small things that you do each day as a dedication to your health. Often, they can assist your recovery substantially. 

Soothing rituals come in many different forms. Which you choose will largely depend on your personality. For some, meditating first thing in the morning is the best medicine. It helps to bring anxiety levels down and can assist your focus. For others, it is a long soak in the bath or even a cold shower.
Rituals add structure to your day and have profound physical and psychological benefits. A routine gives you structure and focus.

Write Down How You Feel

Major health setbacks can leave you feeling distressed and worried. But sometimes, just experiencing the emotions is confusing. They’re all over the place. 

Writing down how you feel can help you process what you are going through. If you can articulate your fears and concerns, it helps you adjust your approach.

You don’t have to tell anyone what you write. You can simply keep it in a private journal. Once you delve into the meanings embodied in your words, you can often get a better handle on your experience. Over time, you feel less overwhelmed. 

Use Mindfulness

When your health begins to suffer, it can be difficult to appreciate the good things in life. That’s where mindfulness can really help. Instead of allowing the mind to run wild with constant worries and agitations, you instead separate yourself from it. You observe your emotions and then allow them to pass naturally. 

Many people prone to ruminative thinking find mindfulness empowering. Research shows that it can help combat PTSD and even prevent the development of depression. 

Embrace Gratitude

Feeling grateful after a health setback is a challenge. Usually, you feel the complete opposite. After all, you’re sick: what do you have to be grateful for?

Intellectualizing the problem in this way, however, is a bad idea. Gratitude isn’t important for moral reasons. It’s valuable because it changes your brain chemistry, thereby improving your mood. 
Research shows that the mere act of being grateful for what you have in life improves your sense of wellbeing. You go from living in a state of scarcity to living in abundance. When you are grateful for the life you have, you don’t feel like you lack anything. Anything you have feels like a bonus. 
Practicing regular gratitude changes the way you relate to others too. When you are in a grateful state of mind, you are much more likely to display love and affection. The hormones those emotions produce can, in turn, make you feel even better (and may speed your recovery).

Get Your Body Moving

If you can, try to get your body moving. (This won’t always be possible with some injuries and diseases). Movement helps to build strength in the body and improve your state of mind. Simply being outside in sunlight instead of indoors all the time can make a tremendous difference. 

Do Activities That You Want To Do

Health setbacks can leave you wondering how you will continue to enjoy your life. So it is a good idea to focus on activities that you want to do. This way, you can discover new joys that you’d overlooked before. Focus less on what you “should” be doing. Taking unscheduled time for life’s pleasures is still your prerogative.