5. You Learn What Is Most Important In Life
Being chronically ill wakes you up to what is important in life. Is it having the perfect house and the newest, nicest car? Is it having outer beauty and popularity? No, those things fall pretty far down on the list.
What is important is constantly growing as a human being, constantly striving to be a better person than you were yesterday. What is important is helping others, even if all you can do to help is offer some words of encouragement.
As the Bible says at Acts 20:35, “There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving.” What is most important is having people around you that you care about and that care about you.
6. You Find The Keys to Happiness
When you suffer with pain on a daily basis, you learn a lot. You learn to find gratitude in all the good things that do happen, especially the little things. Most people would take for granted being able to go grocery shopping, but you view it as a blessing.
Being able to get out of the house, being able to pick your own food, being able to interact with other people, these are all things you are thankful for. Having that gracious attitude makes your life better and will lead to inner happiness.
You will learn to be patient. Partially, because you will have no choice but to wait, a lot. At first this is annoying, but eventually you realize things will happen when they happen. Being impatient does not get you anywhere any faster, so you might as well slow down and calmly wait. Learning the art of patience leads to a sense of serenity and happiness.
You will learn to find joy in all the little things as well. That gorgeous sunset that most people only give a cursory glance? You will stare at it with wonderment and awe partially because you will just be happy to be outside that day!
You will learn to be content with the things you need. Clutter brings unnecessary stress into your life, and you have enough of that already. So you will learn what you really need and you will be able to part with the rest. You will learn to live a simple life, and that, too, will make your life better and will lead to inner happiness.
Conclusion
A lovely young lady who suffers from multiple chronic illnesses once said: “Being ill has changed my life dramatically, but not all that change was bad.” Doesn’t that just sum it all up? I am sure that many other sufferers would agree with that sentiment, I certainly know that I do.
I have found that in order to successfully survive a chronic illness it is critical to have a positive outlook in life, no matter how dark and bleak things may look on the surface. I have found that there most certainly is always, always, always something to be thankful for!
